Sixth Continent
Basics: a secluded part of the world, the Sixth Continent was discovered 300 years ago and has endured the attempts of other continents to colonize them. The Sixth Continent is filled with ninja clans, all compacted together. Due to the previous attempts of the outside world to colonize them (and the War of the Gifted), the Sixth Continent has kept to itself. Nothing goes out and all interworking in the continent is solved through the alliances, battles, and even complete extermination between clans.
As of right now, the Ikari clan is the most dominant clan on the continent, with their rivals, the Miramoto clan, as a close second. Even though things are for the most part stable, the Ikari has started to get hostile with the installation of its heir, Yasamitsu. Yasamitsu, only 18 years of age, has been attacking smaller clans to increase the Ikari clan’s territory under the guise of ending conflict by creating a large economic and militaristic powerhouse.
Important Cities/Landmarks: The whole continent is actually split up into territories and is mostly marked with unnamed mountains across the whole continent.
Government: The Sixth Continent mostly runs on a Feudalism-like system, embedded with family connections. Each clan has a plot of land to call their own, which they usually use to broadcast a larger campaign to gain more land when the time calls for it by taking out other clans. Within the system, it is mostly ‘Survival of the Fittest.’ No one is really safe from getting their land taken away from them, unless they have a strong clan themselves. Within the clans themselves, they have social hierarchies, which can differ from clan-to-clan. However, usually there is a group (or at least a person) in power who makes the decisions for the clan. It’s most likely, unless extenuating circumstances, that the clan’s leader is also the strongest fighter in the village. Then, there are the ‘lords’ of the system. The lords are the ones who control the land directly and who control the people who live on them. As a payment to the leader, the lord must devote a predetermined amount of men (and in some cases, women and children) to military service. In a sense, the clan’s leader is also known as a lord, as the leader is just simply a lord who controls the other lords.
Then there are the vassals, who are then separated into what they are most specialized in. A different profession could also mean that someone could live in a different place or be under a different lord. The vassals’ jobs are mostly to fight for their lord, who in return, gives them land and amnesty. Vassals can be people from the clan itself or be prisoners from other clan-warfare. In that case, there is the hierarchal ‘birthright’ tree that could exist in some clans. In this case, those who are captured by the clan can only ascend to a certain point in controlling the land and can never become lords. Then, the descendent of said person could possibly ascend to lord status if enough of the clan’s blood is in the person but can never become the clan’s leader. This is how the clans hope to maintain something similar to monarchy in their own societies.
