Crouching Heroes & Hidden Demons
One must remember that most of the planet is a hostile wilderness with only pockets of human or even non-human civilizations. Some of these pockets are nice, peaceful happy places, but others are frightening and terrible. Since we focus on adventure, we also tend to focus on the most dangerous places where conflict is brewing. Japan, paradoxically, is both peaceful, and safe. Yet at the same time, a hotbed of conflict and turmoil. While China is a land under siege by trans-dimensional forces and the supernatural. Its forests, lakes and land transformed by the occupying demon hordes and the Yama Kings.
Most of Russia, Mongolia, China India, and Asia are vast wildernesses dominated by monsters. The level of technology is archaic, in some cases only a notch above stone age. Most population centers are the domain of D-bees, oni or other supernatural creatures hostile toward humans. The few independent human civilizations that have managed to survive are suspicious of strangers and technology (which some may regard as magic), or are aggressive warriors, conquerors or freebooters who prey upon their fellow humans. Such is the situation for Japan. The handful of free humans around them, mainly Chinese and Koreans, are ancient rivals, new rivals, mercenaries, bandits and pirates who plunder the Japanese islands (and others) for their resources, slaves, and booty.
When the ley lines seethed with energy and the Rifts came, Japan was irrevocably changed in other ways. Honshu was split in half and southern Hokkaido was splintered. Tokyo and much of the coastline was devoured by the rising ocean. New islands appeared, old islands disappeared, and the courses of rivers and mountain ranges were altered. The entire world was reformed and transformed, into something different, something alien. Old holy places and locations like the Dragon's Triangle (Japan's version of the Bermuda Triangle) rippled with mystic energy, creating dimensional anomalies, terrible storms, and opened portals to other worlds. Rifts in space and time led to alien dimensions and the domains of the gods and supernatural monstrosities. Creatures from ancient Japanese myth and legend, like the dragon, tengu and oni, once again
walked the Earth and made Japan their home!
These lines of energy, the Dragon's Triangle, the storms they caused and the creatures they unleashed, have served to isolate Japan from the rest of the world, all the more. Thus, the western world knows little, if anything, about Japan. Most tend to associate it with demon infested China — a distant and foreboding land, best avoided and often forgotten. As a result, even twenty five years after the pre-Rifts cities of Hiroshima, Kure, Iwakuni, and Ichto reappeared in all their technological splendor, the world is none the wiser.
Whereas the people of China struggle to survive under the yoke of the Yama Kings, the people of Japan should consider themselves "lucky". Although the oni are a constant menace they unorganized and rarely work in unison on a large scale or seemingly on a common goal.
That is up until now, recently there has been an increase in oni activity. At first it was just simply dismissed as typical oni incursions out of the Zone, just another war chief raising hell on earth. But this time it was different, the seemingly random raids were not so random and before long the people of Japan realized the oni taking and keeping territory. The New Empire has already lost almost fifteen percent of it's land to the denizens of the Zone they show no signs of slowing down. These oni called themselves Legion and rumors of a mysterious war chief have begun to surface. This being has polarized much of the Zone under his yoke and his gaze is focused on the New Empire. The Otomo Shogunate can't be far behind and the rest of Japan for that matter.
An equally mysterious and enigmatic being known simply as Ono has gathered together a band of heroes to deal with this new threat to the people of Japan. The heroes he has chosen have a common hatred for oni and demons in general.
Can these heroes stem the tide of Legion before it is too late?
