First of all, a big thank you to all the tournament organizers, participants and readers who made this project possible.

For those unfamiliar with us, Tomorrow's Prophets is a fan-made alternate storyline. True that to L5R customs, we provide story picks to any unofficial tournaments request it and produce fictions in our own alternate Rokugan.

With the publication of our latest story: The Second Battle of Tomorrow, we have now reached a very important milestone. We are half-way there.

If you are reading our fictions for the first time, I advise you to start from the beginning here: https://tomorrowsprophets.wordpress.com/2016/01/ and continue the trail of stories.

If you want to jump in the train right now, here's a little summary of the main events so far (I also included a little preview from our new upcoming story):

Far Future: Tomorrow is created and eats reality backward through time.

1169: Tomorrow is stopped by the Nezumis. He is imprisoned and experiences time forward.

12XX: In an attempt to recover the souls of their lost heroes, The Nezumis free Tomorrow and he starts his rampage through time once more

Dream Year 0: Yogen-Sha Toshi, the City of Prophets is created in the Realm of Dreams. Its creator is unknown. It calls for heroes and brings them to it, saving them from Tomorrow's desctruction.

Dream Year 1: The first survivors unites under different factions (see below), each with a very different goal.

Dream Year 2: Iweko Seiken, against the better judgement of the Keepers and the Rangers (who rightly believe they are not ready yet), prepare the armies of Yogen-Sha Toshi for a fight against Tomorrow. He is driven by anger and a desire to save his mother before she is unmade.

Dream Year 3: Iweko Seiken is defeated, but a reasonable amount of Prophets survive. He shaves his head in shame and join the Order of Remembrance, a monk sect devoted to keeping the memories of those unmade by Tomorrow alive.

Dream Year 4: The Ranges use Matsu's Ashes, a powerful symbol, and manage to not only bring individuals, but locations as well. Yogen-Sha Toshi, severely diminished after Seiken's defeat, is slowly rebuilding and expanding again. With any luck, it should be able to defeat Tomorrow before all history is erased.

And as always, we need your help. This is a community-driven project and we want to give as much creative leeway to the community as possible (and still have a coherent storyline as a result). RIght now, we have more than a few ''saved'' personalities that haven't officially joined factions. While we do have our own ideas, feedback from the community is always welcome. You will find below a list of the different factions in the City of Prophets and a list of still unaffiliated samurais. Please tell us who you think should go where.

The Rangers

Led by Asako Kaitoko, the Rangers are responsible for charting the Realm of Dreams around Yogen-Sha Toshi and discovering new trails to reach inside Tomorrow and save as many people as possible from being unmade in the process. This is an everchanging challenge, given the shifting nature of Dreams, and most of the Rangers are experienced scouts or shugenjas, especially those few with a connection to the Void.

The Keepers

Self-appointed leaders of Yogen-Sha Toshi, the Keepers are responsible for running the city while the other factions are busy saving reality itself.

Kokujin's Army

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Under normal circumstances, the mad monk would be treated as a villain, but given the power he manages to unlock with the tattoos he give to his followers, many are willing to turn a blind eye to his methods. This is of course a mistake, because his madness knows no bounds, but the Prophets have so few ressources they are unable to understand how far he already went.

The Order or Remembrance

After his defeat, Seiken cut his hair and joined the Brotherhood. The Order is dedicated to safeguard as many memories from the future destroyed by Tomorrow as possible.

The Agents

The agent's leadership is still unclear, but as the city of Prophets grow, their importance is growing accordingly. Tasked to maintain order and to execute the Keepers' will, the magistrates usually are veteran magistrates and courtiers.

The Outcasts

Not everyone is able to find its place in Yogen-Sha Toshi. Many people, well before being saved from Tomorrow, had already took measures to remove themselves from civilization, and some simply don't accept the rule of the Keepers. They wandered the Realm of Dreams until Michio united them into a force to be reckoned with. There are few rules among the Outcasts except survival.

Paneki's Disgraced

Heroes weren't the only ones saved from Tomorrow. Paneki's Disgrace was spared from the horrible fate of the unmaking and is slowly building his army of plague zombies. He is now perfectly in control of his mind, completly free from Jigoku's influence (but still warped by its evil). He realizes the city of Prophets is key to his survival and hasn't attacked it yet, waiting for them to defeat the Time-Eater in his stead. He is looking for apt samurais to raise as its trusted lieutenant.

And please give us any other ideas you might have.

Edited March 15, 2017 by Tetsuhiko

Added a faction and a preview from the upcoming story.

15 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

Though, really, the factions you wrote for your personal AU here are all... very random. And none seem like they would be particularly big, they really seem like small bands that happened to rally around one particular influential leader or another. I would think there would be dozens, if not hundreds, of these sorts of groups in a totally shattered empire. Like every city and temple and castle would spawn the sorts of small factions like the ones you describe.

I decided to answer this question here because I didn't want to hijack a thread not about TP.

That's the point, actually. It is probably my fault for not explaining the setting in this post (it is in plenty of others, altough they are buried deep in the forum).

Tomorrow's Prophets is happening in the Realm of Dreams. Heroes from different periods of time are brought there (inside a special location called the city of Prophets aka Yogen-Sha Toshi) to fight the abomination called Tomorrow. It is able to travel backwards through time and eat the world as it goes, threatening to destroy reality itself in the process.

So basically, yes, the factions are only composed of a few dozens individuals , maybe a few hundreds. The whole action is centered around a single city in a Spirit Realm. The endgame, however, is having the city, Yogen-Sha Toshi, finally defeat Tomorrow just before the Scorpion Clan Coup and ''returning'' from the future at that time period, the prophets then using their knowledge of future events to prevent the Coup and the subsequent Clan War that led to the Second Day of Thunder. In a way, it's a reboot, but one acknowledging everything that happened during the AEG era.

How the prophets and Yogen-Sha Toshi (which magically appears near Beiden Pass in the mountains) ends up interacting with the rest of Rokugan is probably something I will want to resolve through players choice, but they will probably end up as minor political players, similar to a minor Clan, but with a greater imperial support and some sort of mystical symbolism (coming from a broken future and all.