Well my concept for a story at least is solid… I wrote out a 100 page story (well that’s how long it is so far) around one of a set of possible events, a little tweaking and I can think of 4 possible ladies for the main character to hook up with, instead of just the one in the story as I wrote it… In fact it tempts me to create a set of possible stories around that point…
Anyways, in case you want to use this as the basis for a game… Since I can’t do the artowrk and don’t have an engine to use for it, I’m not likely to do it myself, but with this you’ll have a good base to start with and you can always ask me if you want something filled out more…
Anyways…
The setting is fuedal japan during the age between the court samurai and the older samurai period were they were more like vikings. One specific ‘village’/‘town’/etc is the main location headed by one of the progressive Samurai warlords of that age and everything would basically take place there in his domain.
The main character can have any name you’d like to give him as even in my text he is often known by more than one name (In fact if the engine lets you having it allow selection of name is always a good thing). He is a wandering warrior, though since he spent several centuries learning ancient martial arts (in fact the story before this has him learning under the creator of Kung Fu at the original Shaolin temple). He doesn’t normally use weapons, but his whoel reason for coming to japan was to learn their just then forming Zanji Shinjenkin Ryo style swordsmanship (in fact Zanji Shinjenkin Ryo is today basically a lost art as it was the traditional samurai art of the sword, only it’s descendant Kendo lives on after the samurai ‘purge’ when Japan industrialized). I should also mention he already knows alot of the customs of japan (both modern and ancient) and while it would freak out most of the superstious people of that era he can’t really ‘die’, no matter how bad the injury eventually his body regenerates itself and he lives on (though it may take weeks or months to heal depending on how badly injuried). That is also how he has lived centuries as I mentioned above…
Now for the ladies…
The first is the daughter of what we would call the ‘master of arms’ (he’s the instructor for his lord). She is also one of the ‘princesses’ handmaidens/guardians and an accomplished female samurai warrior. Contrary to modern views on the subject today many upper class women at that point could become samurai just as men did, the difference was the use of a naginata instead of katana as the weapon and the fact that their duty was defensive as they didn’t attack like the men would. This is who my story calls for the hero to fall in love with. Unfortunately in my series such relationships don’t last and in this case years later a rival clan attacks them and the hero is forced to watch them kill her… Oh and before I forget not only is she bound to her fathers permission to marry, but as a handmaiden she must also have the lords permission to marry… So their are to men to win over for her hand, though unlike most upper class women she will be far more available than most others as her house is with his teacher…
The next possible lady is one of the lords nieces (which makes her upper class), though in this case not a servant and also not a warrior. She’s basically just wife material for her lords samurai. This is both good and bad for the hero, as he will have to get the lords permission to do just about anything officially with her. But since his goal has him become a samurai in time he will be expected to take a wife, so depending on what happens inbetween those points will decide how favorable the lord would think this is. Also it would be fairly easy to make this into a contest between rivals by having a jealous samurai try to have the lord give her to him inste3ad of the hero.
The third is a servant, as one of the samurai (or at least over time he is) he is expected to have servants for his needs. It would not be hard for him to have a servant that he falls for… Whether they can marry is a seperate matter, not so much in that they couldn’t marry (they could and it would not be looked down upon), but it was quite acceptable for a pretty servant to act as bedmate without requiring marriage.
The fourth possible lady is a minor peasant within the village proper. Now to be realistic she’d be the youngest candidate as most village women married young (14-16 max realistic age). Though being a story their is no reason to suggest she is that young and instead can just be the youngest looking of the girls suggestign any age desired… It wasn’t uncommon for samurai not of the actual clan stock (upper class) to marry peasants and in fact peasants dreamed of wedding their daughters into a samurai family… After all it never hurt to marry up a level within society, it was normally considered the last choice for a samurai though as even a servant was slightly higher on the social ladder than a peasant… On the plus side for the hero though the father would be most pleased to help get the two together and would hardly be able to fault the lust of a samurai for ‘deflowering’ his daughter (doing so would be suicide at that point in time unless he happened to have some much higher conenctiosn than he should)…
Well that’s been quite enough for now I think… Use of it as you will…
