Ryokō Owari Toshi

Ryokō Owari Toshi, also known as the City of Lies, In the Garden of Lies (Part 1), by Marie Brennan the City of Green Walls, for the color of the quarried limestone used to build the city's defenses, the City of Stories, for the cosmopolitan population, Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 74 and Journey's End City, was a city of the Scorpion Clan in the Ryokō Province, Whispers of Shadow and Steel, by Mari Murdock the greatest and most prosperous in Rokugan. The trade of opium enriched it largely. The Great Clans (Learn to Play Rulebook)
== Details ==
Ryokō Owari Toshi had a well-earned reputation as a den of vice: it was the center of the Empire's necessary poppy trade, was home to many criminal organizations, had a corrupt city government, and was all but run by gangs of firefighters who battled for territory throughout the city's six districts. Influence there was divided among wealthy merchants, Scorpion Clan nobles, and the more noteworthy commoners, resulting in an uneasy equality that many samurai regarded as chaotic. Yet this chaos was deemed a necessary evil by the city's Scorpion lords, as Journey's End City was not only the Empire's primary source of opium—one of the few effective painkillers available and an important medication when used responsibly—but also an important cover for more clandestine operations. The city's lack of virtue had become a necessary part of its very existence, so the Scorpion sought not to clean up its streets but merely to contain the vice. The City of Lies (FFG Web)
=== Fireman Gangs ===
As a city accustomed to fires, Ryokō Owari had several fireman gangs, renowned by their ruthlessness. Many of these gangs were in the governor's pay, holding so much of the city in their grip. 
=== Festivals ===
The city celebrated the famous festival known as the Days of Generosity. Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 113
=== Borders with Gaki-dō ===
In Ryokō Owari Toshi some residents claimed that a parade of hungry ghosts appeared every summer during the twilight Hour of the Rooster—and that a person in the street during this time might accidentally become caught in Gaki-dō. Celestial Realms, p. 10
== History ==
=== Founding ===
The city was built in the in the gap between the Spine of the World Mountains and the Shinomen Forest, close to the Seikitsu Pass through the mountains and at the northernmost extent of the River of Gold's navigable waters. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 66
=== Crab Invasion ===
The city gained its name Journey's End, for its ambition to check an expansionist Crab presence in the fifth century. 
=== Lion Invasions ===
It was known that the Lion Clan attempted to seize the city several times, without success. 
=== Second Rise of Iuchiban ===
In the year 750 an army of Bloodspeakers led by the evil sorcerer Iuchiban swept across the lands of the Scorpion Clan, culminating in the fall of Ryokō Owari Toshi. Fields of Victory, p. 33
=== The Flower of Sleep and Dreams ===
In the 9th century the Unicorn Clan returned to the Empire, bringing the opium poopy with them, a herb they had used for centuries for relieving pain. Yogo herbalists discovered that the opium poppy grew very well in the lands surrounding Ryokō Owari Toshi, and they made the growth and use of the poppy subject to Imperial regulation, given to the Scorpion the sole right to grow and manufacture opium. Over the next decade, the City of Lies quadrupled in size, and it continued growing. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 19
== Known Governors ==
The city's Governor resided at the Shosuro Palace, and the Thunder Guard were his personal enforcers. 
* Shosuro Hyobu
== City Layout ==
=== Quarters ===
Ryokō Owari was divided into six quarters: 
* Fisher's Quarter
* Merchant Quarter
* Temple Quarter
* Licensed Quarter
* Noble Quarter
* Leatherworkers' Quarter
=== Other Locations ===
* Bay of Drowned Honor
* Blossom Dock
* Iron Wharf
* Moment's Edge Bridge
* Pious Gate
* Theater of Summer Flowers
== External Links ==
* City of Lies (Core Set)
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