musoumods | Setting Information

Setting Information
The Look and Feel of Orochi's realm

A minor cataclysm shook the world after the demise of the Hydra and the eight Orochi clones. Some of the Three Kingdoms and Sengoku territories that were available during the storyline became blocked or cut off, and others have been overrun by the scattered remnants of Orochi's demon army. Now, only a handful of territories are still in the control of the kingdoms and factions that have existed in this dimension up until then. A miasma of dark sorcery covers the rest. Additionally, the warlords and their generals have gone missing, their whereabouts unknown. There will be gamewide plots involving the reclaiming or reopening of some of those territories, as time goes on, though this can be sped up if someone applies for a faction leader from the WO storyline. To start with, the available locations of Orochi's realm include:

Central Main Camp
Chengdu
Hefei territory
Hasedo mingled with a 21st century beach (the DOA beach)
The Wuzhang Plains
The Wuhang Mountains
Koshi Castle

The overall world is around half the size of modern China, give or take, with finite boundaries on four sides. At the start of the game only a small part of this land will be open to characters, due to the cataclysm and the demon armies. As time goes on, the rest of it will be opened back up, plus new territories will be continually added thanks to the way Orochi's power drags chunks of worlds along every time it reaches out to grab a new warrior to fight. Information on those new zones will be expanded on the New Canons page, and the worldbuild team will add them to the map. Canon locations will be added to the first comment on this post when they become open. Here we've included general information on what is considered the "base" world, the lands of the original Warriors Orochi setup.

Style One: The Three Kingdoms Era

The lands of the Three Kingdoms come from a time period of roughly 180-260 C.E., post-Han Dynasty of China. There are some well-built castles of stone with inner and outer courtyards, and more primitive outposts or garrisons made with wooden palisades and mud-brick buildings. The peasant towns are also made up of less elegant buildings, some stone and some wooden, and here and there one might find a temple built more in the style of the stone palaces with pagoda towers and tiled roofs. In between are grasslands, forests, and far in the south, jungles. There are some mountainous areas, a few wide rivers, and the ocean can be accessed along the coast near Xin Di, a territory of Wu.

Many of the open country areas have plenty of game for hunting, and there are tigers in the jungle. Yes, there are pandas in the bamboo forests, too. Transportation is mostly done on horseback, with some wheeled carts pulled by oxen, dogs, or people. In terms of battle technology, only the siege weapons and curious inventions of Zhuge Liang and Yueying exist – fire-breathing juggernauts, catapults, arbalests, and battering rams. Weapons are mostly along the lines of swords, spears, and bows, but in keeping with the fantasy stylings of Dynasty Warriors, one may find some bizarre weaponry like giant mallets or chain whips.

There are plenty of fine things to be found in the palaces, but don't go all Indiana Jones on them unless you want Cao Cao to take your head and mount it on a spear before his gates. The silk hangings and garments, the jade and pearl jewelry, the fine porcelain pottery, and all the gold implements belong to living warlords and their courtiers and generals. They do some monetary transactions with gold and copper coins, but also use precious metal ingots and sacks of grain as currency, and will also do trades.

Style Two: The Warring States (Sengoku) Era

The territories of Sengoku-era Japan have come in from a time period spanning the late 1500s into the early 1600s, particularly 1560-1615. This Warring States period featured the heyday of the samurai and involved many of Japan's most famous historical figures. Technology is more advanced than that of the post-Han Chinese, but still primitive by some standards. Firearms have been introduced, though they're mainly in the form of flintlock rifles and pistols. Cannons are standard fare on the battlefield, pulled by horses. Many armies maintain strong cavalry, and the samurai specialize in fighting on horseback, especially archery. That said, the fantasy aspect of Samurai Warriors means there are also wrist-mounted crossbows...

The castles are large and expansive, with multiple courtyards or wards separating sections and tall keeps made up of many floors. Inside, one might find paneled walls, shoji screen doors, and silk-painted tapestries. The homes and shops of commoners inside the towns protected by castles are well-built of stone or wood, but those out in rural areas are more primitive. There are fewer mountain areas, mainly forested lands and some plains, and several territories include rivers or sea coasts. The castles of the warlords have many fine things, and their treasuries are full, but commoners are more likely to have very simple belongings and residences. Inns and taverns are more frequently found. As the daimyo often paid their retainers and samurai in bales of rice, there might be more bartering done than outright monetary transactions.

Style Three: Warriors Orochi uniqueness

The most noticeable and important difference between the original territories of China and Japan versus how they appear in Orochi's realm is the lava – Orochi created this world by pulling up lands and smashing them together, so where they meet and wherever the land itself is weakest, veins of lava have bubbled up. Spars of half-melted rock have thrust up into jagged formations, whole buildings have been uprooted, and small patches of burned, smoldering ground lay scattered across the countryside. Wherever you look you may see a beautiful landscape marred by some glowing red rocks or a pathway blocked by a crevasse of lava. Buildings may be teetering on the edge of a melting outcrop, and small eruptive geysers may appear in some far-flung fields. It separates some territories more than others, and chances are good that when new zones are thrown into the world, they, too, will be disrupted by earthquakes, glowing rock formations, and lava pits. There are few roads connecting the territories to one another, as they were all pulled up and set down at random, but the dirt roads running through the towns and across provinces are well-maintained, plus some new pathways have been hastily created so that the armies can travel from one territory to another. The mountain passes are a little more treacherous, and one must always be on the lookout for enemy ambushes.

If one were to travel to the furthest western edge of the dimension, they would come across an area where there is no longer any green space or living trees at all, nothing but miles and miles of blackened rock, cooled basalt plains, and still-burning cracks in the ground where lava flows. This is the area surrounding Orochi's castle, Koshi. The castle is enormous and protected by a moat of lava, and below the cliffs lies the lake of fire, Hinokawa, which serves as a front-line garrison for the castle. It's not a very nice place at all. Orochi's minions are still in control here, the land is guarded by legions of snake-demon troops, and Taira Kiyomori sits in front of the altar in the depths of the keep, working on his plans to resurrect Orochi yet again. Visiting here is probably not a good idea, but it's on the map and most characters from the WO canon will have been here at least once before.

Because these lands were uprooted and transplanted into a mystical realm, there is magic in the air and sorcery in its very veins. This means that gods may occasionally walk among mortals disguised as fellow warriors, and when they fight, they display additional powers and abilities – yet, somehow, not the ability to return everyone home. Dark sorcery of the kind Kiyomori, Da Ji, and their minions can perform is also present – they have been known to hypnotize and mind-control people, as well as teleport themselves, create barriers and seals, and perform other feats with their magic. The miasma which blocks off large portions of land from accessibility has its roots in sorcery, anyone who spends too much time inside it is weakened and loses both life force and their powers. Perhaps the mystical energy is why everyone can automatically understand one another no matter what language they should be speaking, and serves as the source for the magical mirrors which can be used for long-distance communication.

Worldbuilding Aspect: Adding New Canon Zones

There are two ways the world of The Unrivaled will be expanded: through events and plots involving the overall premise, and through new characters apping into the game from new canons.

Event-based: from time to time, an event or minor plot will involve a territory that has existed all along as part of Orochi's world, but has been closed off or inaccessible due to a brief moment of upheaval following the death of Orochi X. These locations are most likely to be other well-known cities or battlefields either from the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China or the Sengoku era of historical Japan, as seen through the eyes of the Koei canon. Once these new territories are open, they are available to be used as battle locations, claimed by the Resistance warlords, claimed by Orochi's forces, or explored. If a friendly faction or warlord is able to claim territory, they can move their base or some of their forces there, including affiliated PCs. Additionally, any Koei Warriors character entering the game will automatically be given knowledge of their own home territories. Characters choosing to explore the land and search for castles or lands will be given information as if it were an event. These locations will be added to the list in the first comment below when they are open.

New canon: in this game, whenever a character is apped from a canon not previously represented in-game, a small piece of their home world comes with them! This piece can be as small as a single building or a ship, but no larger than five square miles. The demon Orochi created this world, and its magic is unstable now that he's gone. It still continually reaches across time to grab a small chunk of world in the hopes it will bring along some powerful warriors to fight. Sometimes this chunk of world - referred to as a "zone" - gets planted down at the fringe edges of the mystical realm already existing. Sometimes it bubbles up between previously-established lands. Sometimes, it even erupts spontaneously inside another territory, creating a bizarre mashup of two worlds.

If you are bringing a brand new canon into this realm, you will need to fill out a special form to help the worldbuild team incorporate your character's piece of home into the greater realm. At minimum we need links to location wikis and images, but the more information provided, the more fleshed-out and incorporated this new territory will be. The first person apping from that canon will have a special ability to influence what this territory will contain - the size, appearance, special locations contained within, technology, magic, special items, weather, flora and fauna, etc. The more specific information given to the mods, the more likely they will be able to approve what the territory contains so that future castmates will be able to easy find the place familiar and accommodating.

What is or isn't included in a zone is ultimately up to the worldbuild team to decide, based on what would be best for the good of the canon character and all future castmates, good for the overall game, be a good fit and not interfere with the Warriors Orochi premise and setting. Anything prohibited generally under other rules will not be able to be obtained during new-canon additions. Some vehicles, technology, magic, and large/mythical/supernatural beasts will require mod approval. If players want additional changes made to their canon territory, they have to be requested and approved by the worldbuild team, to make sure it isn't being done to give certain characters unfair advantages, extra special items or powers, or obtain special favor over other casts or characters. This form is linked to you when you first join the game.

NOTE: the mod team decides where new-canon additions end up on the map, and when they will be accessible. Opening these zones to the game may come through PC exploration, through an event, as a reward, or by other means. New characters will not know that some of their own homeworld has come with them, at least not at first.

Log Comm ♦ Network Comm ♦ OOC Comm
Premise ♦ Rules ♦ Setting Info ♦ Game Info ♦ Arrival Info
Taken ♦ Applications ♦ Hiatus/Drop ♦ Death/Canon Update ♦ New Canons Form
Mod Contact ♦ Player Contact ♦ Navigation

Setting Information

CANON LOCATIONS