My name is Youngest Daughter Lavender and I live with my eldest son and his family on she shores of the Great Grass Sea in the village of Bloom. For as long as anyone can remember, my family has sailed the sea in our boats and fished the red poppies from the swells of grass with our nets. It is my family and all the families of my village who bundle up the poppies, the hyacinth, the lavender and all the flowers of the sea for those further inland to make medicine and perfumes with. And for generations, we have been proud to do so. But now we find ourselves and our way of life in danger.
For as long as my people have harvested the flowers from the sea, the Far-Sailors of Yi have come to Bloom. Sometimes they come in peace, sometimes in war but always they come to us in their red-sailed junks. They sometimes bring exotic plants from the Spice Groves far to the south or scented woods from Ashivat away in the utter east to trade with us for our poppies. Sometimes they simply take what they want and leave us to rebuild our shattered homes. For the last ten years, though, the Far-Sailors have taken to smuggling rare woods and spices into the Inland Empire through our village. Their newest leader, a handsome rake of a man named Shen Lo, hates the Inland Empire with a passion. So he raids their ports, loots and burns their ships and makes off with the treasures they hold. Were he not so kind to the smaller towns and villages on the outskirts of the Empire, like our beloved Bloom, we would long ago have hunted him down!
Of late, though, the Duke of Jung who is nominally our overlord, has taken to calling the Far-Sailors pirates and thieves. He has sent many soldiers to our home to “defend” us from the Far-Sailors and many of his servants to try to root out those who would help the same. His men are petty dictators and they are slowly killing our village with their demands. While we have little love for the Far-Sailors, we have even less for the Imperials. And I have a notion that the Duke has less desire to catch lawbreakers than he does to line his own pockets with the money from these valuable goods.
Two days ago, my granddaughter Mei overheard several of the soldiers talking. They plan on using Bloom as bait for Shen Lo and their plan is to burn our village to the ground in an effort to draw him and his men into a trap! Even if Shen Lo were not a friend to my home, I would not allow them to simply burn it as a means to furthering some distant lord’s ambition. But I am an old woman and so I cannot fight them as I might once have done. So now I call to you, the monks of the flying temple, in hopes that you can forestall this horrible event. When I am done writing this, I shall do as my mother taught me and tie it to the top of the mast on the first boat to leave our harbor in the morning with three poppies for luck and fortune. We have but three days left to us before Bloom burns. I pray that you come in time.
Really cool setting here. I can see this being a good introductory letter for folks coming in from games like Legend of the Five Rings or Qin: the Warring States.
Of course, my first question was: "What lives at the bottom of the sea of grass?"
Probably someone who could write another letter saying "Dear Monks, there are these people who keep coming by and stealing our beautiful flowers. It's getting right annoying! Help!"