Crane Lands - Shiro Kandai and Jukami Mura: the Port That Never Sleeps

[Vutall]

Shiro Kandai
Shiro Kandai rests high on the slopes over Jukami Bay, on the sharp northern promontory above Jukami Mura, the Port That Never Sleeps. There, it overlooks the water as though admiring its reflection. Designed to evoke the eagerness of youth, it once stood proud and handsome; yet, while it is still quite young for a Rokugani castle, its towers have begun to show their age; the lacquer is decaying in the sun, and sparrows have nested in the gables

Still, as its outer brilliance has faded, its inner brilliance continued to reveal itself. Shiro Kandai’s form and function are one; each decorative element is a functional one. The towers may grant moon gazers unrivaled height and grandness, but they also afford Crane naval strategists a panoramic view of the bay and the sea. Ships approaching can be spotted hours in advance, giving the castle ample time to prepare for its guests’ arrival. The red-orange lacquer on Shiro Kandai’s timbers hardens and fireproofs the wood, and the color helps mariners to see the outer towers from afar; many of the towers serve double duty as light-houses. The castle’s proximity to the shore puts its archers within an arrow’s reach of the harbor and offers naval expeditions a rallying point within castle grounds

Some Crane Clan design ideals persist within the castle complex. While the tenshukaku appears to contain five stories, it is in fact built with a six-story frame, and the complex spaces between floors add up to eight or nine separate levels, knitted together with intricate networks of staircases. Many corridors in the tenshukaku and other buildings feature nightingale floors, which chirp and creak as they are stepped on. The paper windows of Shiro Kandai are coated with oil, which protects against rain and allows a wealth of sunlight indoors. The castle grounds feature an impressive garden in an interior courtyard, with carefully tended flowers, bushes, and trees imported from across Crane lands

Strengths and Weaknesses
Shiro Kandai is a modest castle complex in both construction and reputation. The Crane builders retained a number of preexisting structures on the castle grounds, most notably Jukami Mura’s fortified lighthouses and defensive walls, enabling a quick construction time of only a few years. The castle incorporates the red color of the lighthouses into its design, yet still is identifiably a Crane Clan building even from afar: it is tall and thin, perched on curved ishigaki, and topped with an ornate hipped roof of gray-blue tile.

Shiro Kandai has not been substantially renovated since its completion twenty-five years ago. The provincial daimyō, Asahina Susumu, remains outwardly unbothered by his castle’s fading luster, insisting that the young castle needs time to figure out who it wants to be. Susumu spent much of his quiet life learning falconry and raising a family before his appointment to Shiro Kandai, though he has taken well to the position in his age. Susumu openly seeks diplomatic access to Yoritomo, the leader of the piratical Mantis Clan

The castle grounds are sprawling and extensive, extending from the northern edge of the port town up and out across the inner edge of the promontory. The tenshukaku, the castle’s highest tower, is flanked by auxiliary buildings in the wall. A tangle of supporting galleries and low gatehouses interweave the towers at ground level, granting structure and symmetry to the complex. The castle grounds sprawl out below the tenshukaku, with a few modest gardens, shrines, storehouses, and stables protected by the outer wall

The truth of Shiro Kandai’s design lies somewhere between straightforwardness and density. It is much easier to feel lost than to be lost within the castle. The castle’s layout at ground level engenders simultaneous feelings of unease and certainty, to encourage a visitor to feel confident about where they’re going within the castle grounds but also to cause them to question that confidence. The puzzle of Shiro Kandai also helps conceal the castle’s secret rooms and passages, including private baths, armories, and conference halls

Jukami Mura
Deep on the southern coast in the Crane lands sits Jukami Mura, the Port That Never Sleeps, an eclectic old port town pulled up from the silt and the driftwood. The harbor squats at the bottom of an old crater basin on the coast, tucked between two high, arching promontories. This “spilled cup” forms an easily defended natural harbor. The town spreads across the basin and up either side. Jukami Mura tells its uncertain and desperate history in its winding alleys, its switchbacks, its dead ends, hovels, crooked streets and old, moldering houses

Jukami Mura once seemed to be a town without a future. Piracy and invasion racked the port generation after generation. Each summer, they say, saw one enemy routed and another ascendant, threatening the old merchants of salt and wine. Thus the old walls were built, and the first red towers high over the water. With peace and time came stability and opportunity. Jukami Mura’s districts coalesced, among them the infamous Merchants’ Quarter down by the port. A mercantile hub for the Crane Clan, the quarter is rich with caravans and storehouses, sailors and pirates, and rōnin and mercenaries.

Paths cross and uncross at Jukami Mura, where unexpected alignments and rivalries form, and for some, the ranks of the Celestial Order are just a bit closer together. Crane courtiers charter sleazy mercenary boats to convene with pirates upriver. Children sell courtiers oysters by the sack and scramble before the buyers notice they’re mostly just wet rocks. Castle guards sneak out to the fighting rings just in time to place bets on their captain. Undercover magistrates investigate corrupt magistrates smuggling illegal goods. Veteran naval officers and mangy opportunist rōnin crews set sail from the harbor at midnight, racing for the same prize.

Day and night, the red lighthouses at the castle keep shining lights over the bay, keep ships docking safely, and keep the port awake. Travelers here may get lost or scammed, but before long, they’re back on their feet, moving through the same streets as everyone else, not even noticing the fish scales and waste paper littering the street or the smells of the bog and gutters. Jukami Mura and Shiro Kandai are muddled but not chaotic.

The Port Under The Crane
In order to protect the stability of their hub, the Crane have fortified the port further. They have built watchtowers, established a guard patrol, and installed an unusual defense mechanism at the entrances to the bay: massive chains attached to either side of the harbor entrances that rest at the bottom of the sea until pulled taut. While taut, they’re obscured just below the water and badly damages any ships that try to enter the harbor. In addition, the soldiers of Shiro Kandai’s garrison are trained in sailing and naval warfare, and the daimyō’s guard ships patrol the harbor and the docks day and night.

Several powerful merchants openly oppose Crane rule, and friction turned to resistance. With each act of rebellion, the Crane reinforced their rule, attempting again and again to strong-arm the town into submission with new laws and enforcement, leading finally to the construction of Shiro Kandai, the castle that centralizes and solidifies Crane authority there

The Crane Clan and the castle daimyō, Asahina Susumu, would delight to see the rebellious will of the old town turn to submission under Crane law, and many magistrates are working to see this effort complete. Unofficially, however, many magistrates aren’t trying terribly hard. A rowdy port can be a very valuable one. There’s much to gain from dishonest trade, smuggled goods, and stolen trade secrets. The Crane Clan could certainly use the financial help.

What Attracts Visitors
The Port that Never Sleeps is the place to go if one is looking for a particular item, or wants to find passage on a ship up the coast or out to the Islands of Spice and Silk. The town magistrate has also offered some legal protections to rōnin and mercenary groups looking for work in Jukami Mura, which means that plenty of swords for hire now call the city home

Recently, Magistrate Shinako has begun to issue writs for vessels willing to hunt the pirates that prey on Crane shipping. More than a few pirate hunters in fast, well-armed ships have taken to the seas in response