Yoroni

Bakufu

Many are the names of the First, known as Shuten Doji. While the only moniker he accepts beyond his name is the Twice-Masked Prince, such is his legend and the awe he has inspired that his tales are filled with epithets. But just as he dismisses such names, perhaps we should do, for entities like him inspire more than titles. They inspire the masses.

All Yoroni, one way or the other, seek enlightenment as laid forth by the Twice-Masked Prince, treading in their leader’s prophetic steps and laboring to reach Paradise by traversing the Five-Fold Path. Among these, the most faithful, and successful, disciples of his teachings are known as the Bakufu. Like him, they have ascended the Path and have labored through the layers of the Eternal Pagoda. The path may have been experienced differently by each individual, but throughout their existence there, the basis of their power, influence and prestige was always Enlightenment. The reality of physical existence on the material world, however, has… confused this. For the first time, their very survival ceases to be a constant struggle and, unlike during their long traverse of the Path, the world around them does not seek to pull them down to the prison of the Cores. Thus, once the Paradise of the Prime Domain was witnessed, the Bakufu were clearly divided into two: the Bushi and the Ayakashi.

For the Bushi, the danger of corruption never came from the Core or the Elements, for those threatened annihilation, not corruption It is from within oneself that corruption stems and thus, even in Paradise, one must remain loyal to the values and principles that led to enlightenment. Discipline, honor, devotion to one’s self-temperance and the code of conduct laid by the virtues of the Path; these are considered the highest values one could adhere to and the source of enlightenment. Only through the structured society of those principles and values can the Yoroni, as a whole, hope to ascend. In contrast, the Ayakashi have understood the crossing differently and their experience of Paradise is almost diametrically opposite. With the challenge and struggle of the Cores and the Path behind them, the material world is theirs to experience and savor, the just conquest of their enlightenment. The philosophical debates over this are endless, but the practical realities of the material world seem to drive the newly formed Yoroni communities in a different direction.

While a thick veil of etiquette still maintains the mask of Enlightenment as the source of virtue, true power in the material world comes from how many of the formless Yoroni from the Path they can entice to seek to join them. The Daimyo lords and the Bushi warriors fully embrace this practice, their courts filled with origami commoners. They are witnessing Paradise despite their lack of enlightenment, existing near the bright examples of the enlightened Bushi, while they focus on all practical matters of the material world, from maintaining a lord’s house to the harvest of crops. In contrast, the societies around the Ayakashi Oyabun are inverted. Where the Bushi maintain multiple origami commoners for each warrior, there are many Ayakashi for very few origami. Their communities depend instead on banditry and raiding to secure resources. That is easily feasible because those resources aren’t strictly needed; they are simply wanted. An Ayakashi could sustain themselves entirely on Enlightenment within the bounteous Prime Domain, becoming ascetics – and many have done so. But for most, to fully experience Paradise, is to indulge in comfort and excitement; along, of course, with some enlightenment.

Perhaps their respect towards the Shuten Doji alone could stop the two groups from openly clashing. But instead, their hand is stayed by practical matters and self-interest. The rigid structure of society, as embraced by the Bushi, filled with codes of conduct and layers of courtesy, seldom promotes advancement for those Yoroni still upon the Path. Moreover, behind its veil of decency and endless rules, can lie great capacity for cruelty, well-hidden and little suspected. When these are witnessed by the Origami commoners, the alternative path of the Ayakashi seems more inviting, promising more freedom and claiming that the rules of the Bushi will end up turning Paradise into another floor of the Eternal Pagoda for all but themselves. On the other hand, the Ayakashi tendency towards indulgence and lack of inhibitions, may lead to acts of great kindness but also disgrace and terrible, illogical violence. Few things could serve as better reminders of what it is that the Bushi code promises to smother, that latent capacity of all Yoroni to return to their unenlightened selves.

True to his name, the Twice-Masked Prince neither condemns nor rewards either path more than the other, both being viewed as true, honest and viable paths to enlightenment. After all, he has traversed them both, walking the Path from beginning to end twice. To him, one Path cannot exist without the other and, in fact, they complement each other. But the Prince rarely engages directly in the affairs of his Bakufu or needs to settle their disputes, spiritual or otherwise. Such is the authority of the respect (and fear) he inspires, that he does not have to. Instead, the Shuten Doji has mastered how to utilize each of his two groups of followers in the most effective manner. He often allows horizontal mobility among his Bakufu, with Bushi turning Ayakashi and vice versa. This allows for the Ayakashi and Bushi alike to forge the solid core of the Yoroni military machine, a warrior-oriented caste that can be as versatile as it is terrifyingly efficient.

Whether through iron discipline and order, or versatility and goal-driven adaptability, the Bakufu war machine is bound to teach its virtues to any who dares oppose them.

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