Mantis Lands - Shiro "Kyūden" Gotei: Kyūden Mantis

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Kyūden Gotei
“Kyūden” Gotei in many ways epitomizes the Mantis Clan: grandiose, even garish, daring others to take offense at its display of vast wealth and foreign influence. It is built primarily from stone quarried on Gotei Island, on which it stands. Much of this stone exhibits strange dark-green and rusty-red colors; the wooden sections likewise are made from the island’s exotic tropical trees rather than mainland oak, pine, or maple. The castle roofs are sheathed in copper instead of the traditional clay tiles.

Inside, the castle is even more spectacular (or, from the traditional Rokugani viewpoint, grotesque). Instead of the traditional narrow corridors, low doors, and shuttered windows, it has wide, tall, and open ones to encourage airflow and weaken the damp tropical heat of the islands. Throughout, it is decorated with semi-precious and precious stones, gold and silver plating, displays of flowering tropical plants, and cages with strange birds and brightly colored lizards.

The Lair of the Great Wind
Caves and tunnels riddle the ground beneath the castle. Caused by ancient volcanic activity, they have been expanded and developed by the Mantis Clan. Access to these passages and knowledge of the safe routes through them is restricted to Mantis Clan leadership and the elite unit known as the Storm Legion. In addtion to providing multiple covert routes into and out of the castle and access to hidden ports where Mantis smuggling ships operate, these tunnels also provide access to Heaven’s Bank Hold, a massive vault deep underground where the Mantis keep their greatest and most notorious treasures. Rumor claims that much of the wealth in the hold is gaijin in its origin and nature, but no one knows for sure

Humble Beginnings
Kyūden Gotei and its associated city were founded in the late first century. At the time, they comprised no more than a village and a simple defensive keep that the fledgling Mantis Clan, true to its nature, proclaimed to be “Kyūden Mantis.” (It may be noted that this “Kyūden” appellation has never been recognized by the Imperial cartographers, who still refer to the castle as “Shiro Gotei.”) The name was changed to “Gotei” at some point in the fifth or sixth century, by which time the modest keep had already grown into a grand, sprawling palace