Rōnin: Kage no Shima [ EDIT ]

The Edo period, an unceasing regime of feudal conflict between regional daimyos under the overarching dominion of the Tokugawa shogunate, came to its end in the Boshin civil war, where imperial loyalists sought to return the throne to the rightful emperor. Had history run its true course, the revolution would have henceforth been known as the Meiji Restoration.

On the day of the emperor's ascension to the throne, a total eclipse took hold, blanketing the entire island. The people gazed upwards in awe, revering its rare beauty, as the heavens donned a cloak of dusk. Temples filled with prayers, the streets with festivals, believing this to be a sign of divine spectacle affirming the mandate of the Tenno, the son of heaven. But as days turned to weeks, and weeks into endless cycles, the novel waned into despair. The celestial event, once celebrated, now hung over them - a spectre refusing to depart, its dark veil an unending curse.

Now the name of the island, Nihon, the Land of the Rising Sun, has likewise been forgotten. It is pronounced in muttered breath, Kage no Shima, the Island of Shadows, whose air is thick with the stench of blood and the promise of violence.