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This is a call for players (around 5-9) who would be interested in joining the Mantis Clan, which is an experiment in social variation, and a twist on the rising demand for monarchies:

A clan house of Kozakura immigrants, banished from greater Kara-Tur during their province war with other houses and ogres around Kozakura (The lesser islands of Wa). Mantis Clan though hold the honor and training of the shogunate's samurai class, did not swear themselves to the emperor of Wa, like many of the houses of Kozakura chose not to, but instead to a shogun, (a militant leader). Their banishment was not a matter of exile, but of circumstance. A great tsunami swallowed their tower that the house members believed to be a magic divined by an enemy house's witch, and the living members of Mantis Clan, isolated in their ways and with their honor intact, traveled the Shou Lung Golden Road, past the worlds of Thay, and past the Sword Coast. Everywhere they went, a storm seemed to follow in their step. They traveled as far west as they might to ensure their isolation would fulfill and please the Eight-Hundred Gods. When they found a fishing town called Uhm, the storm had stopped.

The main culture of the Mantis Clan is that of feudal Japan, more accurately, the much observed Muromachi period, age of the samurai. What I would like to see is a non-Hollywood muddle of the strict caste system that was the way of the people. Let me give you a skinny on some characteristics of how the Mantis Clan do, for example:

-They can either be held as LE, or LN, while some more dishonorable members who may try to seize an advantage in the new lands, may be NE, or TN. But no Chaotic or Good characters.
-There is one Shogun, the first son of the dead leader of the Mantis Clan who acts as the leader of the house, and his house members swear allegiance to him.
(Melee based, katana: basically, a samurai with some divine, or perhaps, PK capabilities to lead his house.)
-two or three samurai, who are the knight and warriors of the chapter. They make up the bulk and symbol of the Mantis Clan. Honor means everything to these fiercely trained men, and they have sworn themselves to protecting their house and its people.
(Melee based, samurais can be masters of katana, lance, long bow, or double-sword.)
-There may be assassin/s, (we don't call them ninjas) who uses her cunning and art of shadows for intelligence, murder, and protection.
(Possibly a rogue-SD, or even assassin class: She may use throwing stars, dagger, poisons, short sword.)
-There is a wu jen, a court wizard, who acts as a diviner and master of dragons and sea.
(He or she would likely be a sorcerer, maybe taking the rdd choice if someone wants to go that route. I imagine him being blood of the mist dragon)
-Lastly, a princess. She is the diplomatic tie to the outside world, and sister of the Shogun.
(Druid. Being a house that believes in the Eight-Hundred Gods, the Mantis Clan believe in spirit animals, and those in tune with nature and its creatures, are greatly revered as wise beings. She is also more likely to speak with outsiders.)

-Culture clash and you!
Just because we're lawful, doesn't make us understanding of their laws:
For example, Kozakura look down upon the Korubakuru (The dwarves) and Ogres of all blood (Orc) and often times will not hesitate to kill them.
However, they do believe that Elves are more sacred than most humans. (most humans except for Kara-Turans, who are the world people in their eyes.) It is of course, not unheard of that they would fraternize with foreigners, especially in foreign lands, but in terms of friendships, Wa-Kozakurans do not make them openly with anyone. Women (who are not the princess or trained assassins) are not treated with the same respect as men are, and are typically expected to behave as the men see fit. Marriages are the more traditional way of having un-Kara-Turan folk enter their clan, but they might on occasion take-in outside warriors who show merit of honor, faith, and take upon themselves the code of their people.
Wa-Kozakurans also have a fond distrust of Chaunteans, for their rising interest in Kara-Tur.

So imagine this as a dedicated, and quite strict order of people to join the Western world Amia is, for now, just a concept that I'm ready to make good on. Anyway. Let me know if any of you are interested. I'll put some more links here for information if you want to read up more on Kara-Tur or samurais in general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara-Tur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muromachi_period < Kozakura
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_Period < Wa

Last edited by blaq valor on Sun, Jul 01 2012, 0:32 AM, edited 1 time in total.

I'm usually up for this sort of thing, but I suppose it all depends on how many others are interested. If this is something I think can last a while, I'll make a character for this group. I always wanted to make a kama-wielding monk with a mantis theme.

I would be interested if there are people in the faction in the Euro/UK timezones. I play quite a lot of Legend of the Five Rings RPG, and so am used to playing samurai. In fact... this made me think of the Mantis Clan, and dual kama came to mind.

There are Kara-Tur specific dragons as well if someone wants to try for RDD with it

Got to say, despite already spreading myself too thin between my two main characters, I'm tempted to have a go at this.

Maybe a couple of questions, before I decide whether to commit?

-- I browsed around a bit on the Eight Hundred Gods (though I've seen them referenced everywhere else as the Eight Million Gods). All of the information I found was kind of vague and cursory. Do you (or anyone else) have any deeper info on them? (I'm kind of drawn to one of the frustratingly unsatisfying references I came across: something about a Sun goddess being among the more prominent of the 8x Gods. But all the info I was able to find was that she does in fact exist. Not even a name.)

-- Why is the Mantis clan evil? I know that's kind of a thorny question, but it's kind of been the major sticking point for me whenever I've tried to play a dark-sider. I just haven't really found a compelling motivation for being cruel. Most of the evil on Amia seems to fall into either the category of "I'm evil because my society is evil" (i.e., most of the Underdark), or "I'm evil because my god is evil" (i.e., our various Banites, Sharrans, what have you), but both of those kind of fail to really trip my trigger, and in any case, niether seem applicable to the setting and backstory you've cited. What in the Mantis clan's background shaped their mindset into one that is, if not actively malicious, then at least indifferent to the suffering of others?

The eight million gods, is nothing less than the creators' laziness to match a real religion to a deity. What I mean by that is that from what I gathered of the vague mentions of 8MG's is that it is symbiotic with the Japanese religion of Shinto.
Sort of a pairing of worship to both land and spirit; myths used to create and add reason to the land; everything contains a spirit, a kami.
Shinto believers favor an idea of purity versus impurity. Trying to pure their own spirit before the afterlife. I don't know much else myself, but here is a wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinto

In terms of evilness goes. Let's be sure about something: when we say "I'm evil because my god is evil, or I'm evil because my society is evil" we're looking again at the western evils. We have to give the western mindset the benefit of the doubt because the eastern methods are of such a different world, that they would not see let's say, cutting the throat of a dwarf because his presence and words dishonor us, as good. Imagine the LE as more of an intensity of law rather than an intensity of evil. TN and NE characters won't have the easiest time within their own sphere of people, and that's a matter to consider if someone chose to go that route. The Kara-Tur are not by nature "dark" nor "malicious" but rather stubborn, fixed in their ways, and they lay their bricks with a mortar of blood. War and control is honorable, but war and control is evil, to them.

Hopefully this answers your questions.

That's a lot of nobility requests.

Two at the most. The shogun and the princess.
The other members I like to think can retain their honor without the flashy badge of nobility,
and anyway, that sort of respect is only demanded by the people involved in the clan, not all of Amia.
nor do I think Amia would treat a Kara-Turan house with much respect at all to begin with.
They would probably be seen as immigrants and nothing more, one leaves all their titles behind at customs.

While I admittedly don't know much about "Kara-tur", there's no such thing as a non-noble samurai. They are the -definitive- nobility of the culture it's based on. Samurai without the "flashy nobility" are just ronin mercenaries. Granted I'm just being pedantic and they likely fall under the same system as Mulhorandi clerics without requiring a request. You're entirely correct that Amia itself wouldn't give a crap, but their former nobility would very, very much play a role in the developing personality of any character trying to be a displaced samurai.

Also, I think the term you're looking for is Daimyo. Those are lesser warlords that rule a province and have an army of samurai, whereas the Shogun is sort of the commander-in chief of the whole nation.

I think this idea is super neat. If I wasn't already engaged far over my head, I'd probably pitch in too. That said, I'm sure I'll have a few folks that could interact with the group.

I wish you good luck in your endeavors!

Lizzie wrote:

What in the Mantis clan's background shaped their mindset into one that is, if not actively malicious, then at least indifferent to the suffering of others?

Sorry to barge into this discussion, but I believe 99,9% of all feudal societies were like this. We speak about society where (non-ronin) samurai could kill peasant for any perceived insult, and local officials could do nothing then apologize for the inconvenience this caused to said samurai.
Also, we all know how peasants were treated at those times, so yeah, LN to LE sounds pretty much right to me.

No, we're not talking about that. We're talking about a make-believe fantasy world that's loosely based on that, which is populated by fantasy heroes and fantasy villains and fantasy monsters, all of whom are still governed by the D&D alignment system. This fantasy world has an array of PC races and planar influences, all of which have their own alignment tendencies, and none of which have anything approaching an equivalent in actual RL historical Japan.

Questions about alignment still apply.

Lizzie wrote:

No, we're not talking about that. We're talking about a make-believe fantasy world that's loosely based on that, which is populated by fantasy heroes and fantasy villains and fantasy monsters, all of whom are still governed by the D&D alignment system. This fantasy world has an array of PC races and planar influences, all of which have their own alignment tendencies, and none of which have anything approaching an equivalent in actual RL historical Japan.

Questions about alignment still apply.

I understand that, I just wanted to say that idea is for this clan to be as close to original society it was based on?
As OP commented:

Quote:

The main culture of the Mantis Clan is that of feudal Japan, more accurately, the much observed Muromachi period, age of the samurai. What I would like to see is a non-Hollywood muddle of the strict caste system that was the way of the people.

Gotcha, but I think my question still bears discussion; or at least, some further discussion might be useful to me personally. You're right that RL Japan was probably something like LE/LN, and I'm not saying that the fantasy version of Japan *shouldn't* be LE/LN, but I do kind of feel like in a world in which there's such a broad array of alignment influences, "that's just the way we do things here" seems like kind of weak tea, to me. People in RL Japan were LE/LN because they didn't know how to be anything else, but that rationale feels to me like it carries less weight in a fantasy world with all sorts of alignment exemplars. I don't know if that will make any sense to anyone else but me, but I'm really only just speaking for myself, here. I'm hoping for more of a reason that I can sink my teeth into, you know?

NinjaClarinet wrote:

While I admittedly don't know much about "Kara-tur", there's no such thing as a non-noble samurai. They are the -definitive- nobility of the culture it's based on. Samurai without the "flashy nobility" are just ronin mercenaries.

True, but the scope for samurai is so much larger than European nobility. The Samurai filled many roles which in europe would be filled by educated non-nobles. Many Buerocrats were samurai, many magistrates were samurai, in short they filled many roles which would have been taken care of by the educated middle class in a more conventional feudal system. However, with technically being nobility they would probably need requests.

I quite like the LE/LN feel, as Japanese society was quite harsh. a Samurai could lawfully sit at a crossroads with his new sword, and wait for the next peasant (Preferably Merchant or Eta) to come along so that he could test it upon them. Other swords were tested on Criminals. While compared to what is the current norm of "Good" on amia, I think this sort of behavior is definately on the evil side of things.

Thank you everyone for your responses, I'm glad you're showing interest.

This is on alignment,

Assume that the base of this clan /is/ LE, LN. The majority would likely follow suit.
That doesn't mean that characters aren't free to shift dynamically with time and through roleplay.
We've seen villains become Kohlingen clerics on this server. (Though I still think that is much drastic.)
Imagine the character of the princess. There is unyielding opportunity for her here that would seem ghastly and unheard of in their homeland.
That might pique her curiosity and excitement, she might be more inclined to shifting toward NG than any of her countrymen, or even adopting customs of the 'foreigners'. But, does that sort of unruliness and yearning for a free-spirit have cost? I would predict so. I would predict that particular character would become much more dynamic than the others, but at some amount of compromise. That goes for any character who bursts out from the placenta of tradition or law. That doesn't mean she would outright neglect her companions either.

Anyway. That's not a lead. What's important is that everyone is entitled to their own personal flare, their own character freedom.
That's the first law of roleplay. But for the most part, it is important to have that steady spine of rules for the posterity of the group as a body. Puns not included. A strong totem to tie our shared character values and history onto, suspends the imagination that we would in fact come into the land as "other" and that sort of clash is a necessary component that enhances a sensory catalyst, product: great roleplay.

I want to suggest that anyone who takes on one of these characters is daring to challenge themselves mentally and would certainly be outside of many people's comfort zone who inherently, like most of you are, good-natured people. But a canon to find is that Good is still alive in this clan, but in completely different ways, and they are likely to take care of each other with great sincerity, but to cut the throat of vagrant pigs, to them, isn't evil, it's just the way things are handled.

So I don't have a shift in the moral spectrum for any one of you, it is what it is. I think it needs to be, to a certain extent, serious. But again, your characters are your own afterall. Make them what you will, but be careful what choices you make!

I hope this helps to answer more questions, and that I'm not just talking in circles.

EDIT: I said "a canon to find is that good is alive in this clan, but in completely different ways" that's not a truth. Not completely different ways. They're human, they're subject to human kindness, compassion. Love, friendship, protection, joy, happiness, these things are for all characters on all sides of the moral board.

Sunkin Sheep wrote:

EDIT: I said "a canon to find is that good is alive in this clan, but in completely different ways" that's not a truth. Not completely different ways. They're human, they're subject to human kindness, compassion. Love, friendship, protection, joy, happiness, these things are for all characters on all sides of the moral board.

In fact... I would think Compassion is encouraged. In Historical Bushido - Benevolence is one of the tenants. Anyway, I agree with the LN/LE basis.

I would also include some peasantry in the mix. To deal with things which the nobility of the house would find distasteful (Merchantile dealings, esspiecially with Gaijin, dealing with flesh, looting bodies). Personal servants could be attained by Bottled companions, but a few peasant players would be good too. If playing a Samurai, I will probably not be buying anything more than essentials and Sake, after all... My character would have a lord and everything he would need would be provided by said lord.

Aurora wrote:

I would also include some peasantry in the mix. To deal with things which the nobility of the house would find distasteful (Merchantile dealings, esspiecially with Gaijin, dealing with flesh, looting bodies). Personal servants could be attained by Bottled companions, but a few peasant players would be good too. If playing a Samurai, I will probably not be buying anything more than essentials and Sake, after all... My character would have a lord and everything he would need would be provided by said lord.

It would be cute to see a few opium-smoking curmudgeons, or geisha women giggling behind fans. But I wouldn't want to subject anyone to that sort of drudgery.
That's what our fabulous DM staff is for. Oho!

I WANT TO PLAY A PEASANT! Or the princess... Flicks hair!

Aiseth wrote:

It would be cute to see a few opium-smoking curmudgeons, or geisha women giggling behind fans.

Wouldn't that just be Cordor Square RP?

Here are some nice little samurai options that Aurora came up with. I'm in full support of these, seal of awesome stamp.

Aurora wrote:

Hello,

Just to let you know I was contemplating making a Samurai if the Mantis clan goes ahead. I had two thoughts in mind for him and thought I would chat with you about them to see which you felt would be more appropriate.

1.) The Iaijutsu Master.
The art of the Draw or Iaijutsu is often seen as one of the signiture japanese martial arts. This one would be something like (at a rough Guess) Fighter 7, WM 13, Rogue 10. The reason for so much rogue is for a large chunk of extra damage on that first hit, so that the first attack from the draw is a whopper. The extra skill points are also good when dealing with Samurai. He would be strength based, and get Devastating Critical as well, for the way I see it, is if you hit someone right with a Katana, it will be fairly devastating.

2.) The Xen Archer
This one would be a student of Kyrujutsu (The Art of the Bow) which from what I've read is as close to xen archerery as one gets in the real world with the target being a reflection of yourself and the arrow knowing the way. I was thinking this one would be mostly monk with a side of fighter and specialise in the Longbow (Probably the Yumi in Kara-turan terms, perhaps the Daikyu) So something like Monk 26/Fighter 4.

Aurora wrote:

Aiseth wrote:

It would be cute to see a few opium-smoking curmudgeons, or geisha women giggling behind fans.

Wouldn't that just be Cordor Square RP?

Please stop making this reference. The more it gets made, the more it just reinforces a negative stereotype that isn't always true. Sometimes it is. But not nearly as much as constantly making the tired reference makes it seem.

If you need any DM assistance with getting your East on, I'm sure the DM team can try to find something to help you guys out.

Yossarin wrote:

Aurora wrote:

Aiseth wrote:

It would be cute to see a few opium-smoking curmudgeons, or geisha women giggling behind fans.

Wouldn't that just be Cordor Square RP?

Please stop making this reference. The more it gets made, the more it just reinforces a negative stereotype that isn't always true. Sometimes it is. But not nearly as much as constantly making the tired reference makes it seem.

My apologies then, I had meant it only in Jest as I have had some great RP in Cordor square myself recently with my dwarf and other characters in the less recent past.

Looking forward to getting this up and running

Okay. Now that we're officially a "hot topic" thread. I'm prepared to make good on this.

Everyone who's interested in having a character in the Mantis clan, please send me a PM
with your character bio, NWN sn, and other relevant information.
If anyone needs to make a specialty request, do the right thing, send it through the request line.
If you're not sure if you need a request, ask a DM. So let's get organized so we can materialize this.
I'll repost the characters publicly in a PC story thread so you know your whos and whats and wheres.
And hopefully we'll get this ball rolling.

Also, if any DMs have any ideas or thoughts they'd like to express, I'm all ears.

Arigato!

Okay, fine. You've harangued me into it, I'm in. (kidding.)

Dibs on the Princess, btw!

Character sketch forthcoming probably tomorrow.

Hm. Is the role of assassin open?

...I threw a PM in. I caved, alright! Saw an opportunity and took it!

Ok, got a character sketch for the princess PM'd to a couple of folks for feedback. I think she might need a bit of work yet... but, the ball is rolling! And we've collected a Hackums, and maybe a Derk! Woot! Mantis Clan will happen!

Yay, maybe collected a me too. Maybe!

If I can get this concept fleshed out, at any rate! >.>

Yes! Yes! Keep them coming folks.
I'll say, please hold off on more assassin characters for now.
We need more samurai than anything else.

I'd be interested as well, though it remains to be seen if I can come up with a character concept other than Kumadori from One Piece. Trying real hard to resist the urge, but... YOYOI!

I could draft up a Samurai, if it's better suited.

Hey Hackums... do you mind offering some DMly advice? (Or any other DM is obviously welcome to comment, too.) I'm not completely sure whether my character should go through formal special-character-request channels. The setup as we're pondering it seems to peg the princess character as closer to 'former' nobility than any actual current legitimate title, but I don't want to cut any corners.

Mr. Hackums wrote:

I could draft up a Samurai, if it's better suited.

I'm hesitant to tell you yes and please, because Rin is really awesome. >.>
It would be a shame to scrap her. Other people might want to play samurai anyway,
but I won't stop you if you want to go that route.

Ah. Also Lizzie's question also applies for my character.

If you or anyone else wants to treat your character as a noble, even if from a foreign culture (Which a Daimyo or Princess both are), it'd require a request. Don't look at it as a task, rather, a way to better define your own character before it starts.

Gotcha... that "will your character expect anybody else to defer to her title" seems a perfectly reasonable standard to me.

Though, I'm not sure that I'm a big admirer of the idea of making details of this particular character's history and mindset available to the general server population. Do you mind if I PM it to you, for fwd'ing privately to whatever other DMs would like a voice in the approval process?

Are there any other openings? Please don't say Wu jen.

We could use a wise old, toothless wu jen, with fingernails as long as a loaf of bread!

But, also samurai class via variations: i.e. yumi lord (zen archer) or Bushi (spearsman)

Ya dig?

And yeah, you can PM requests if you'd prefer it done privately.

I'm tinkering with a Samurai. I wouldn't like to use a shield, so I looked into some of the Greatsword models. With the right crafting, they could pass as a large katana or something closer to a No-Dachi. And some really sweet Halberd models that would fit a Bushi well.

Can I play a kensai? >.>

Mr. Hackums wrote:

And yeah, you can PM requests if you'd prefer it done privately.

I'm tinkering with a Samurai. I wouldn't like to use a shield, so I looked into some of the Greatsword models. With the right crafting, they could pass as a large katana or something closer to a No-Dachi. And some really sweet Halberd models that would fit a Bushi well.

Another option is taking the katana, but only using one katana, no shield. Or two katanas, or three katanas! D:

I'll be using a halberd... whcih, when I find a good one, I will reskin into a no dachiii

Woo! We can be Samurai friends, Silent! Oh, and does the Mantis Clan have any particular House colors? Also just remembered there was a sweet ACP style that should fit perfectly for a no-shield Katana user.

And do we have a family name? Or will we all just be "So-'n-So of Mantis Clan"?

Green and blue.

And yes, the last name for the bloodline is Kamakiri.

Here's a little note about naming when you go to make your characters. Traditional Japanese names put the surname forward the person's name.

So for example, my concept character Ujimoto will be: Kamakiri Ujimoto.

When our characters who need be, make it through the request line, I'll make a more detail PC Story post including our collective prologue, house tenants, and other information relevant for the players. Then any IC story stuff you'd like to add on, is your free range.
EDIT: Mind you only two of us are Kamakiri bloodline, so don't make it your character's last (first) name.

Sunkin Sheep wrote:

EDIT: Mind you only two of us are Kamakiri bloodline, so don't make it your character's last (first) name.

Really? There aren't any cousins, or children of a lesser branch, or anything?

Lizzie wrote:

Sunkin Sheep wrote:

EDIT: Mind you only two of us are Kamakiri bloodline, so don't make it your character's last (first) name.

Really? There aren't any cousins, or children of a lesser branch, or anything?

Well, there are, there should be. I was just unsure whether or not they'd have to fill out a whole character request to do so. I guess not?

... I wouldn't think so? They wouldn't actually be nobles, they'd just be related to nobles. It would only be the shogun and his sister who would be able to make any legitimate claim to being the head of the clan, right?

Gaging Interest: Amia Goes East.

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