The Five Clans of Canecia

Under two full moons, the continent of Canecia is carved into five clan territories, each with its own colors, its own crest, and its own claim to honor.

Duša flies royal blue and silver under a jagged-wing emblem, an academic clan known for its wood industry and its wool. Verg is harder: ivory and iron, a mountain clan of miners and armorers who trust almost no one outside their own peaks. Carov looks to the sea, purple-flagged shipbuilders who venerate a water deity said to have parted the ocean itself. Dych rides the high air, a mountain tribe famous for textiles, horses, and the rare vegetables only their soil can grow.

And then there is the fifth seat: empty. Kriv dissolved generations ago into lawless, contested territory, and the clan gathering keeps a wall for it still, waiting.

Each clan answers to a shogun, elected by its daimyo, the heads of its great houses. Above politics sits a neutral order, the Devout, who keep the old ancestor rites and the Treaty that binds all five clans together, and who bow to no living thing.

Every shinobi in Canecia draws on the same core discipline: taiji, the living energy balanced between yin and yang, shaped into elemental power through kuji-kiri, the nine hand-seals known as the Nine Cuts. A rare few carry something more: vin, a bloodline gift passed down through certain great houses, rarer and far more costly to wield.

Five clans. One balance of hot and cold running under all of it. And a great many reasons for shinobi to draw a blade.