Characters
Ohira Eiko, aka, Eiko Red Koi
Eiko Red Koi, daughter of the Ohira samurai clan, is bearer of one of the fabled swords of the sea dragon Ryujin and a once loyal vassal to the Shogun Lord Kitagawa. After a demon reveals a bloody secret of the Ohira clan, Eiko’s world is shattered. Cutting herself off from her clan and lord, she seeks purification on the lonely path of the ronin. Left to journey across a divided land, she seeks peace, but finds it only at the length of a sword. Eiko can be terse while on mission but is balanced by a deep love for her family and culture. A love that she is trying to reconcile as an exile and a renegade.
Ohira Naga, aka, The Dragon
Father to Eiko Red Koi and Warlord of the Eastern Provinces Naga is both doting father and brutal daimyo. As head of the clan Ohira, Naga bears one of the sacred swords sired from the claws of the sea dragon Ryujin and given to her chosen samurai clans. Naga led his clan in the Long War against the rebellion led by the Great and Terrible Tiger Lord Shoki Kaigu. After the Tiger and the Dragon fell, and the Shogunate was established in the Golden Citadel, Naga went to the eastern provinces to put down the last sparks of rebellion and establish a minor kingdom for his own clan. Naga brought his brutality to the east and planted a seed of darkness in that already haunted moor.
Ohira Ainu
Matriarch of the Ohira clan, Ainu is descended from a proud samurai lineage. As wife to Naga and mother to Eiko, Ainu has mastered both diplomacy as well as the warrior arts necessitated by the samurai class. She has a lifetime of training in the yari (long spear), and bears the responsibility of a samurai matriarch with undying loyalty, knowing that it may come down to her as the last Ohira left to defend the clan, even after death.
Kaeru
Kaeru became servant to Ohira Naga after the samurais’ slaughter and enslavement of his people. Kaeru’s people were a small frog-like species who had been maintaining a small civilization in the largely untouched eastern swamps. When the Naga and his samurai came, they were like no enemy the frogmen had seen before and while some resistance was mustered the result was futile. While ultimately Kaeru fell under Naga’s yoke, his desire for vengeance burns hot within him and he bides his time until it can be unleashed.
Lord Kitagawa
After the fall of the dragon Ryujin, Lord Kitagawa clawed his way to the top of the samurai empire, taking command of the samurai clans and making himself Shogun of their capital, the Golden Citadel. Never seen without his chitinous armor, his lust for power combined with dark magic, turned Lord Kitagawa into a hulking, mechanized behemouth that most doubt to still be human under his mask. When Eiko Red Koi abandoned her clan and loyalty to Lord Kitagawa, his plan to bring Ryujin’s chosen clans and their sacred swords under his control was thwarted. His plans go far deeper than military victory and anyone who undermines his mission to transcend earthly power and make himself a god will incur his wrath.