Hello everyone!
Alright, this is starting to get weird. Another week were I try to continue my series on the Dark Dragons and another thing happens to make me delay the post. Fortunately this event is a good one. It all began at around 3:30 in the morning last Saturday. Kakita Senka sent me a text message as I was about to go to sleep. Normally I would have just ignored it until the morning but when someone tells you that they love you and to read the fiction that just came out curiosity definitely wins out. The third of the fictions in this latest Scenes from the Empire was titled “Bittersweet” and it was set in Miryoku no Shima. Our home and my entry for our Name a Holding event last November. For those of you not in the know, “Miryoku no Shima” is a rough Japanese translation of “Island of Enchantment” which is Puerto Rico’s nickname. Yep, Miryoku no Shima is Puerto Rico. We officially got our little island into the world of Legend of the Five Rings! How this happened is a story that deserves to be told and now that we have this official indication that it has been accepted I can do so.
The true credit for the origins of the name go to our own Yokubo Tensei who came up with the name. He came up with a bounty for this name for the tournament. Strangely enough the finals were Senka and myself and we went outside the store to see if we would play the final or see if we could find some storyline common ground that we could go for. Senka had a definate name in mind for the Holding. I won’t share what it is here in case another little thing we did get accepted. I went into the tournament without any real hopes of winning. So true was this that when the end came I knew I wanted to name the holding after Hitomi but I did not have a name in mind. Kitsuki Phelios came out to help us out with this. We were all excited not just because a card was about to be named in Puerto Rico but because we could sense an interesting storyline was about to be developed.
After some negotiations it became clear that neither one of us would get out Plan A but then we began to consider a Plan B. We remembered Miryoku no Shima and realized that we both liked the idea of it. We talked for a very long time and none of the conversation had to do with prizes or anything of substance. It was all about our goals and dreams when it came to the story and the game. Fortunately, we found we had one in common when it came to Miryoku no Shima. In the end Senka was gracious enough to have me be the winner since I have never had an opportunity to win a big tournament before and we all agreed that this new land should come into being by the acts of the Dragon and Crane. We ironed out some remaining minor details and sealed everything with a shot of jack Daniels. I don’t drink alcohol but I could not resist the request. We were all so happy that for the first time of the island we had a story driven ending to a tournament.
The next day I gave myself the task to write a letter to Shawn Carman detailing what happened and making my formal request. I let the others read the letter first to make sure that I had accurately demonstrated everything and, when everyone told me they were happy with it, I sent it out. I heard nothing back from Shawn and we were getting a little worried about Miryoku no Shima since it took some time for the “Name A” tournament thread to be updated. The fiction came as a total surprise to us. We would have been happy with just a mentioned but to be made the battleground of the rivalry from the South American and Asian Championships was an honor we did not expect. It is a little ironic that an island which represent what can be accomplished when Dragon and Crane work together is also the scene for what will be a great rivalry between the two clans.
With all due respect to the winners of those two tournaments, we of the Legion of the Coqui consider this to be our fiction. Just a few years ago the idea of having anything like a Kotei or the like in our island was an impossibility, something we joked about but never truly thought it could happen. Now our island is immortalized in L5R. How things have changed. Everyone in our group should be very proud of this. As I write this it dawns on me that one day Miryoku no Shima will be officially be out in an expansion and my name will be printed on its side meaning that I will be immortalized as well, forever liked to our island. As a lover of history I find that a very humbling fact. Thanks to Senka for allowing me this honor, thanks to Tensei and Isawa Kitsune for working hard on having these tournaments, thanks to our entire local playgroup for being great friends and challenging players, and thanks to Shawn and the story team for allowing us a story cookie along with our holding. Now, there is only one thing left to be said…
SAMURAI OF THE LEGION OF THE COQUI!
FOR THE GLORY OF MIRYOKU NO SHIMA!
UTZ!
BANZAI!