Tortoise Lands - Taimana Choryū: Slow Tide Harbor,

[Vutall]

Taimana Choryū, Slow Tide Harbor, is a thriving port town that is nonetheless one of the most obscure settlements in Rokugan. Although it is located only a short day’s ride north of the Imperial City of Otosan Uchi, its existence is unknown to the vast majority of Rokugan’s samurai. The Tortoise prefer to keep things this way, since Slow Tide is their major holding and the primary nexus for their smuggling activities. Those of other clans who visit or dwell in Slow Tide have sought it out deliberately, usually because they desire the illicit goods and services it offers

Slow Tide is built on a peninsula in a swampy, irregular lagoon that is itself an offshoot of the Bay of the Golden Sun. The town boasts about three thousand residents, making it by far the largest single Tortoise settlement (although quite small compared to the near-by metropolis of Otosan Uchi). The majority of those living here are peasants and Tortoise samurai, and the difference between the two can sometimes be hard for outsiders to notice. There are also gaijin here, whose presence the Tortoise authorities accept for the sake of improving their trade and smuggling networks

Many aspects of the Empire’s laws are largely ignored within Slow Tide Harbor. Gaijin goods are freely avail-able (and gaijin themselves are a not uncommon sight), and so are illicit domestic products such as opium. Even gaijin pepper can be acquired, though as this substance is so powerful and dangerous, even the Tortoise crack down on anyone involved in its trade—unless, of course, they themselves are behind it.

Unsurprisingly, Slow Tide Harbor is home to a powerful criminal class, which operates in a sort of mutual truce with the Tortoise (whose own activities are, after all, almost equally illegal). So long as certain lines are not crossed and suitable bribes are paid, the Tortoise look the other way. Any direct challenge to their authority, however, draws a sharp response