The Empire of the Rising Sun (3.5e Campaign Setting)/History

The Time Before
Legends speak of a time when all races flourished, and when the Goblinoids were simply minor force in the world. The dwarves lived in their cave cities, the elves had magnificent tree cities, the humans built empires wherever they could, the gnomes made intricate spells, and halflings wandered from place to place trying to stay out of conflict.

It was a time of great war and interspecies hatred. Dwarves and goblinoids fought many, many wars. The elves and orcs fought innumerable battles, and the orcs were driven to the worst spots of the earth. The humans warred against anyone that would oppose them. The gnomes and kobolds had epic wars of traps and illusion. And the halflings...well, they just tried to stay out of the mess.

The legends also say that every few generations, great bands of adventurers would rise and change the world. Oftentimes they would destroy great evil, and some even travelled to other planes and conquered great fiends. Some even went on to destroy gods. Truly, it must have been a glorious time.

The Great War
The old tales also speak of a great war that changed the world and resulted in the present state of things. After years of the dwarves randomly attacking goblins every couple of generations(which technically is only one dwarf generation), they struck back against their aggressors and triumphed. The great hobgoblin samurai Katzu united all of the goblinoid species and, in a series of difficult seiges, managed to conquer the great dwarven city-states.

Such a feat angered and frightened many of the other races, who set aside their differences to keep the goblins from taking over the world. But Katzu was a clever leader, and successfully gained support from the kobolds, gnolls, and orcs, and even managed to gain several dragon allies.

The allied races launched a premptive strike, seizing several decisive victories. But from their new mountain strongholds, the monstrous races struck back, razing the elf forests to the ground. And the war continued like this for years, with one side taking key objectives, only to lose them in the next battle.

Eventually, and elderly Katzu made bargains with not only the drow, but also with several liches and powerful necromancers. Soon the battles took a dark turn, for every warrior slain rose to fight for the goblin empire. Faced with utter annihilation, the allied races surrendered. The goblins had won dominion over the other races, and in doing so, had gotten the world, too.

The Time of Great Lords
Generations of peace went by, and soon the other races were integrated into the hobgoblin clans, and some made clans of their own. Heading these clans were the daimyo, lords of huge influence. Above them was the emperor, a direct descendant of Katzu himself. But the Emperor knew that, in order to maintain peace, small conflicts needed to occur. So he encouraged the lords to fight amongst themselves and take each others land. That way the hobgoblins' martial code would never become obsolete, and the daimyo would never band together and take usurp the Emperor.

Of course, all was not meant to be. The 11th Emperor died and had no heir, and with no ruler to keep the clans together, they began to act like small nations. The rest of this period is of little consequence, as the clans squabbled over land, but generally stayed the same size.

The First Unification
The period of constant warfare for much of the Time of Great Lords was essentially pointless. And after reading several historical scrolls, a minor lord by the name of Naga Nobu realized this, too. He made it his new mission to find the long lost heir of the Empire and unify the land.

Nobu was a tacticul genius and soon defeated a large army due to weather conditions. And while he was ruthless to those who opposed him, it looked like he was going to be the one to unite the empire. Unfortunately, Nobu was assassinated at the Naga palace by one of his most trusted samurai, who was killed several days later.

Nobu's protoge, Toyomishi Hideyori, took over his master's land and tried to realize Nobu's dream himself. After allying with the other most powerful lord, Gawatoku Ieasu, it seemed like peace would be given to the land.

But then Ieasu betrayed Hideyori and defeated him and his forces in a decisive battle. Ieasu put a puppet emperor on the throne, assumed the role of Shogun, and set up a caste system designed to allow the daimyo to keep their holdings, but not be able to go to war over them(usually). Despite the peacefulness, warriors were still able to carry their weapons and were allowed to slaughter villagers with little to no legal repercussions. This Shogunate lasted for hundreds of years, and tied together the races more tightly then ever.

The Fall to Chaos
A few decades ago, a substancial amount of samurai and daimyo rebelled against the Shogun, seeking to have the Emperor as the true source of power once again. But in the process, both the Shogun and the Emperor were killed, resulting in power struggles as each daimyo once again sought to subjugate the others. The wars have been going steadily now, with brief calms before the inevitable storm.