#IF-A — When the Sword Covets the Realm
Contents
This document belongs to the front. There are no new rules and no new numbers — what is treated here is only one branch (IF-A) in which Kagura Domain (神樂藩) chose hegemony. The canonical facts of factions, figures, and events are always governed first by
co-02-03,co-02-06, and the Edo-sideex3-03-01; this document lays fiction only atop them. The true history and IF-A are separate, diverged worldlines, and which one to run is the GM's choice (fc10 drift principles).
#Brief — The Branch Point: Setting Aside Loyalty, Taking Up the Sword
In the true history, Kagura Nobutsuna (神樂信綱) declared that "subjugating the yoma is itself the legitimacy of unifying the realm," yet in the end he offered that legitimacy not to himself but to the ruler of the realm. Once the sealing was complete, Kagura Domain withdrew to sit as the shield against the great yoma. That is loyalty.
IF-A diverges at that single instant. On the night the success or failure of the sealing lay revealed before his eyes, Nobutsuna for the first time harbored a different question. Does not one who can master the yoma already possess the right to rule the realm? And a second question followed. Once the yoma vanish entirely, does not the stage on which to prove that right vanish along with them?
From here, Kagura Domain walks the road not of loyalty (忠) but of hegemony (覇). The unfolding proceeds in three layers.
- First, the absorption and monopoly of sealing knowledge. In the true history, closing the gate of Konryu (混流) required the seal of the Hiei League (比叡連), the knowledge of Enryokan (遠慮館), and the craft of the Kunitomo Guild (國友座) all together. These three sealing capacities, once hostile to one another, Kagura Domain gathers one by one into its own hand through conquest and conciliation. Only the one who holds the key to close the gate also holds the right to leave it open.
- Second, a Konryu "held down by a hair's breadth." Nobutsuna does not fully seal the Konryu Avatar. He leaves the crack in the gate open by no more than the thickness of a sheet of paper. The terror of the yoma does not vanish; it becomes, ever within reach, the lever of politics. The reason the daimyo kneel to Kagura Domain is not that it is strong, but that it alone manages this terror.
- Third, the price of hegemony. Yet the deeper the hegemony grows, the more Nobutsuna himself tilts toward the demonic (魔). The hand that masters the yoma is soaked in the yoma's water. The seal he holds down by a hair's breadth weakens in step as the very hand holding it down grows clouded. The lock that confines Enma-doji (閻魔童子) begins to creak — this worldline is a realm upon a sword's edge, one that can slip into IF-B at any moment.
Canon labels. The Three Sacred Treasures (三種神器), Amaterasu (天照), Kagura Domain, Konryu, Enma-doji, the Hiei League, Enryokan, and the Kunitomo Guild are real canon (original names used). By contrast, the hegemonic order in which Kagura Domain monopolizes the sealing of three factions, the art of rule that constantly manages Konryu as a lever, and the unfolding in which Nobutsuna tilts toward the demonic are all IF-A-only (new) narrative — they do not exist in the true history.
#Commentary — The One-Line Thesis
"Only the one who can master the yoma holds the realm — so long as he never erases that yoma entirely."
The Kagura Domain of the true history ended its charge by closing the gate. The Kagura Domain of IF-A makes the ability to close the gate its weapon, yet never closes it entirely. For the moment it closes entirely, the terror that upheld its power vanishes. This is the fundamental contradiction of when the sword covets the realm. The sword grows stronger the more it cuts, but once there is nothing left to cut, the sword loses its cause. And so the ruler of IF-A is not one who erases the yoma but one who leaves them behind. And what is left behind will one day swallow him.
This branch does not deny the true history. As with fc10's drift principles, the true history too is merely the most likely one among many branches. IF-A is a complete, separate worldline that diverged from the true history through a single question — "what if Nobutsuna had set aside loyalty."
#Scent — A Short Narrative: The One Sheet Left Behind
When the last incantation of the sealing had risen to his throat, Nobutsuna stayed his brush.
The gate was nearly closed. Konryu's breath leaked thinly from the crack in the gate, and the last talisman that would seal it entirely was held at his fingertips. The old monk of Hiei chanted the incantation with eyes closed, the scholar of Enryokan recorded this moment with a scroll spread open, and the smith of Kunitomo held the sealing nail against its final place. Three hands were turned toward him. To close the gate.
He did not affix the talisman to the gate.
Instead he slipped it into his sleeve. The three looked up at him. The old monk's incantation ceased. Nobutsuna said quietly, "A gate that is not closed is the very thing that needs a hand able to close it."
The breath of Konryu leaking from the crack in the gate grazed the back of his hand. It was not cold. It was, rather, familiar — and that was what he feared.
That night, the envoys of the daimyo lined up beneath Kagura Domain's banner. To offer the realm to the one hand that could close the gate. No one knew. That the hand was already, little by little, being stained by the temperature within the gate.
#Table — Branch / Unfolding / Outcome
This is a narrative summary. There are no numbers and no rolls. The canonical facts of factions and figures are governed first by
co-02-03andex3-03-03.
| Axis | True history (for contrast) | IF-A: When the Sword Covets the Realm |
|---|---|---|
| Branch point | After the sealing, Nobutsuna withdraws in loyalty and becomes the shield against the great yoma | He deliberately withholds the final sheet of the sealing and chooses the road of hegemony |
| Sealing knowledge | The three factions each hold it dispersed; the gate closes only through cooperation | Absorbed and monopolized into Kagura alone — the key to the gate held for itself |
| The gate of Konryu | Fully sealed, the threat removed | Managed by a hair's breadth — the terror left as a constant political lever |
| Source of legitimacy | The one who cuts the yoma offers legitimacy to the ruler of the realm | The one who masters the yoma makes himself the ruler of the realm |
| The giant of the Three Sacred Treasures | A shared shield moved by three stations of one mind (→IF-C·zn13-08) | Fixed as Kagura's weapon alone — draping divine authority over a warrior ruler of the realm |
| Hidden price | None (the completion of a charge) | Nobutsuna tilts toward the demonic → the seal weakens → risk of slipping into IF-B |
| Outcome | Stability leading into the shogunate's system for managing the great yoma (ex3) | The Kagura shogunate — powerful yet a theocratic military state trembling upon a sword's edge |
#Note — The PC's Three Lenses
Scale is gauged only by the words novice / seasoned / master / campaign. There are no numbers. If stats are needed, refer by link to
co-02-03,co-07-03, andco-04-07-16.
#To steer toward this history
- (novice) In a phase where unification has stalled, lead Kagura's elite spearmen and cavalry into the wars of annexation. Secure a border castle and add that victory to the cause that "the one who cuts the yoma holds the legitimacy of the realm."
- (seasoned) Draw the sealing knowledge of three mutually hostile factions into Kagura alone. Seize and turn Enryokan's knowledge, subjugate Hiei's sealers, and bind Kunitomo's sealing weapons by monopoly contract.
- (master) Do not fully seal the Konryu Avatar; manage the crack in the gate by a hair's breadth. Leave the yoma's threat as a political lever ever in hand, so that the daimyo cannot sleep without Kagura Domain.
- (campaign) Bear and conceal Nobutsuna's tilt toward the demonic, and see him through to the founding of the Kagura shogunate. Fix the giant of the Three Sacred Treasures as Kagura's weapon alone, draping divine authority over the shoulders of a warrior ruler of the realm.
#To prevent this history
- (novice·→true history) Turn Nobutsuna back to loyalty. Press upon him the truth that while he delays the sealing, innocents were sacrificed in a border village, or remonstrate through a loyal superior he still respects.
- (seasoned·→true history/IF-C) Before the sealing knowledge is monopolized into Kagura alone, break off and make independent each of the three factions. Scatter the key into three so that no single hand can seize the sealing for itself — preserve the very structure by which three hands together must close the gate.
- (master·→true history/IF-B) Expose to the daimyo coalition and the court that the hair's-breadth seal is in truth a gamble that holds the world hostage. Gather the scattered three factions once more and have the gate properly closed.
- (master·internal) The giant of the Three Sacred Treasures moves only when three people are of one mind and halts the moment even one lets go — aim for that vital point. Or topple the very legitimacy of the theocratic military state by breaking faith with a false oracle or a god-slaying (神殺) (see co-02-08 for the structure of faith).
#After this history has come to pass (in the Kagura shogunate)
- (novice) As a member of Kagura's guard and inspectorate, root out the smuggling of sealing arts carried on by provincial daimyo. Unlike the true history, this time Kagura is the watcher — will you suppress it, or understand the danger and seek another road?
- (seasoned) Become a daimyo or shinobi resisting Kagura's hegemony — a masterless warrior carrying on the line of the Fuma Band (風魔衆) — and play the underdog who infiltrates and disrupts through irregular warfare that no regular army could win.
- (campaign) Become the sealing military scholar of the generation just before the hair's-breadth seal left by the first Nobutsuna collapses into a yoma-ruled realm. Complete the sealing and the dynasty's cause vanishes; fail and the yoma's realm arrives — upon a scale where neither side is wholly right, decide for yourself what to defend.