Year 4: End of the Beginning
Fourth Year of your Reign
Fifteenth day of the Month of the Dragon
The House of the Inoe family was a distant one to Yoritomo. Being his second cousins through his father. But this century that had seen the Mantis rise to its greatest heights, had not been kind to that family. Thus as Naizen knelt in open court and preformed the Three Cuts without uttering a sound, that you found yourself receiving vassalage from Yoritomo Okimoto
You were unsure of the man. He was by most accounts a moderately successful courtier who spent much of his time managing relations between the disparate holdings of the Mantis Clan. Yet something in his gaze had reminded you of a hunger, of a need for power that dwarfed even the ever ambitious Shosuro Jimen. For now though he was loyal, and all too glad that you had effectively severed his one real rival for the seat of Daimyo, by making Minato the head of a Minor Clan in his own right.
Taking the name Kobayakawa Minato, the somewhat bewildered boy had ascended as champion of the Catfish Clan now sovereign rulers of the city of Zayko Toshi. At your request, each of your council had arranged for a trusted associate to join the clan and help him rule well.
The Mantis as a whole had taken things...as about as well you could expect. They were not happy, but their anger was directed at the Shadowlands at the people who did this to them. You had only given justice, and the Tsuruchi and Moshi could not hate you for that, nor could most of the Yoritomo. But a burning hate now lay within the Mantis hearts for the enemy of the south one that only the Crab could exceed you think.
At least the Otomo were happy with their new island, and at long last they had stopped pestering you to give them a new castle.
These thoughts are banished from your mind as your council comes in and sits. Yoritomo Hiroko for her part, looking more sombre and reserved than you would like. You cannot blame her though, her clan...her clan had just been hurt by you severely.
You look around.
"Thank you all for coming to the cabinet meeting."
Noritoshi shakes his head.
"Of course my Emperor, even though we all know that this year must belong to the Shogun, we are ever your loyal servants."
Kaneka gives a snort.
"Kakita-san, you sound jealous."
Noritoshi replies smoothly.
"Never Kaneka-sama, merely cutting to the chase here."
"Be that as it may, the Emperor will decide not us." Akane says firmly bringing things in line.
You nod.
"Unless there are objections, I do think that the bulk of our focus must be on the military this year. Kaneka-san do we have enough time?"
"Possibly, it's going to be tight, and it won't be as good as I want it, but you'll have your army Mikado, promise."
"Very well, is there other business?"
Shem-zhe and Akane look at each other for a moment. With some unspoken word shared. Shem-zhe begins first.
"I have discreetly sent some Jade Magistrates to investigate Medinaat al-Salaam, their reports are to say...not heartening exactly, in that they confirm that there is indeed a large army building up there, mostly made of inhuman servants. They are currently looking to make contact with some of the nomadic tribes at my discretion. It is unlikely that they will help in anyway...but we will not be caught flat footed."
"And?" you press.
"The servants of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang have at my order moved their main temple inside the Unicorn lands proper, but it is causing some....backlash with more conservative members of the Clergy. It is nothing that I cannot handle. It is something for you to be aware of."
"Very well" You say.
Akane waits for you to nod before beginning to speak.
"Unfortunately, we are extremely limited in our knowledge of the outside right now due to the interference both west and east. However in the North, we have finally managed to get some reports on what Isawa-dono has accomplished. The Shaman whoever he was or is, is dead. Most of the Tribes have seemingly scattered, but there are rumours of someone, or something pulling them back together, not with magic, but sheer charisma...I have pressed for more information but we have none" She finishes.
You frown...Sezaru...you hadn't been able to hear anything from him since he left. But you had hoped, that maybe he was somewhere in the north. But there had been so much to do that you hadn't been able to focus on it.
Nothing for it, you suppose.
"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind." You say.
"Other than that, there is to my knowledge nothing to discuss, merely getting to work as it were." She says.
You look around the table.
"Agreed. Thank you all for your time."
The brief meeting over, you're left with time for yourself. Well not really, you have another meeting to attend to. Kisada, has requested marching orders having spent the last year building and gathering monks to his order, he's ready to work.
[] You will have him search the Spine of the World for the weapon that Yakamo left you
[] You will have him head north to find out what's really happening
[] You will have him join the Jade Magistrates Shem-zhe sent.
[] Write in
Alright that decided, you have a little while before the enormous monk comes in.
Your mind flickers to the earlier meeting, usually you listened to your councillors and then decided. But today you had unilaterally gone with Kaneka's favoured plan, was that the right choice you wondered?
[] Yes
[] No
Right, you'd have to check in on that, and spend time with the wife tonight. She'd been...affectionate since that night, something about 'people keep trying to kill you, I'm going to have all time time I can with you'
AN: Sorry for the delays guys, this one fought me and the week hasn't been great.
For the record, if you go back to the last cabinet meeting, Kaneka's plan is virtually unchanged but -5 to the TN. If you vote no I'll give the other four elemental options but the thread consensus as I understood it, was pretty strong on doing the military thing this year, so it didn't see worth it to have a vote on that.
Also I need a pregnancy roll.
Fifteenth day of the Month of the Dragon
The House of the Inoe family was a distant one to Yoritomo. Being his second cousins through his father. But this century that had seen the Mantis rise to its greatest heights, had not been kind to that family. Thus as Naizen knelt in open court and preformed the Three Cuts without uttering a sound, that you found yourself receiving vassalage from Yoritomo Okimoto
Taking the name Kobayakawa Minato, the somewhat bewildered boy had ascended as champion of the Catfish Clan now sovereign rulers of the city of Zayko Toshi. At your request, each of your council had arranged for a trusted associate to join the clan and help him rule well.
The Mantis as a whole had taken things...as about as well you could expect. They were not happy, but their anger was directed at the Shadowlands at the people who did this to them. You had only given justice, and the Tsuruchi and Moshi could not hate you for that, nor could most of the Yoritomo. But a burning hate now lay within the Mantis hearts for the enemy of the south one that only the Crab could exceed you think.
At least the Otomo were happy with their new island, and at long last they had stopped pestering you to give them a new castle.
These thoughts are banished from your mind as your council comes in and sits. Yoritomo Hiroko for her part, looking more sombre and reserved than you would like. You cannot blame her though, her clan...her clan had just been hurt by you severely.
You look around.
"Thank you all for coming to the cabinet meeting."
Noritoshi shakes his head.
"Of course my Emperor, even though we all know that this year must belong to the Shogun, we are ever your loyal servants."
Kaneka gives a snort.
"Kakita-san, you sound jealous."
Noritoshi replies smoothly.
"Never Kaneka-sama, merely cutting to the chase here."
"Be that as it may, the Emperor will decide not us." Akane says firmly bringing things in line.
You nod.
"Unless there are objections, I do think that the bulk of our focus must be on the military this year. Kaneka-san do we have enough time?"
"Possibly, it's going to be tight, and it won't be as good as I want it, but you'll have your army Mikado, promise."
"Very well, is there other business?"
Shem-zhe and Akane look at each other for a moment. With some unspoken word shared. Shem-zhe begins first.
"I have discreetly sent some Jade Magistrates to investigate Medinaat al-Salaam, their reports are to say...not heartening exactly, in that they confirm that there is indeed a large army building up there, mostly made of inhuman servants. They are currently looking to make contact with some of the nomadic tribes at my discretion. It is unlikely that they will help in anyway...but we will not be caught flat footed."
"And?" you press.
"The servants of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang have at my order moved their main temple inside the Unicorn lands proper, but it is causing some....backlash with more conservative members of the Clergy. It is nothing that I cannot handle. It is something for you to be aware of."
"Very well" You say.
Akane waits for you to nod before beginning to speak.
"Unfortunately, we are extremely limited in our knowledge of the outside right now due to the interference both west and east. However in the North, we have finally managed to get some reports on what Isawa-dono has accomplished. The Shaman whoever he was or is, is dead. Most of the Tribes have seemingly scattered, but there are rumours of someone, or something pulling them back together, not with magic, but sheer charisma...I have pressed for more information but we have none" She finishes.
You frown...Sezaru...you hadn't been able to hear anything from him since he left. But you had hoped, that maybe he was somewhere in the north. But there had been so much to do that you hadn't been able to focus on it.
Nothing for it, you suppose.
"Thank you, I'll keep it in mind." You say.
"Other than that, there is to my knowledge nothing to discuss, merely getting to work as it were." She says.
You look around the table.
"Agreed. Thank you all for your time."
The brief meeting over, you're left with time for yourself. Well not really, you have another meeting to attend to. Kisada, has requested marching orders having spent the last year building and gathering monks to his order, he's ready to work.
[] You will have him search the Spine of the World for the weapon that Yakamo left you
[] You will have him head north to find out what's really happening
[] You will have him join the Jade Magistrates Shem-zhe sent.
[] Write in
Alright that decided, you have a little while before the enormous monk comes in.
Your mind flickers to the earlier meeting, usually you listened to your councillors and then decided. But today you had unilaterally gone with Kaneka's favoured plan, was that the right choice you wondered?
[] Yes
[] No
Right, you'd have to check in on that, and spend time with the wife tonight. She'd been...affectionate since that night, something about 'people keep trying to kill you, I'm going to have all time time I can with you'
AN: Sorry for the delays guys, this one fought me and the week hasn't been great.
For the record, if you go back to the last cabinet meeting, Kaneka's plan is virtually unchanged but -5 to the TN. If you vote no I'll give the other four elemental options but the thread consensus as I understood it, was pretty strong on doing the military thing this year, so it didn't see worth it to have a vote on that.
Also I need a pregnancy roll.
