To anyone who is interested in a minor(or possibly major) connection, my kingdom has a marriage based alliance with a neighbor, but I left it blank who that neighbor was. If you take the spot, your character and mine will be legally cousins of some degree(though genetically not related at all).
Character concept: a kingdom of a traditionally barbaric race(orcs, maybe goblins) has recently gained independence, and have joined the more "civilized" kingdoms. The royal family misunderstood the concept of the school, and thought it was simply where royal cubs were sent.
So royal youngster who is genuinely an earnest and well-behaved prince/princess ends up in a school for delinquents.
Transient street samurai, somewhat inspired by the Nomads in Cyberpunk 2077. They disdain both corporations and the rule of law, both of which they view as irredeemably corrupt. This obviously is not an uncommon attitude even amongst ordinary citizens. The Ronin set themselves apart with exactly how far they're willing to take their refusal to participate.
It is exceptionally rare for a Ronin to own land or property. More commonly they will squat in old buildings, or take up residence in out of the way places. They do not make use of banks for any reason whatsoever, to do so would be grounds for ostracization by any and all Ronin who still keep to their code. They sometimes carry cash out of necessity, but are known for being strangely careless with it; either they will lose it, or even just give it away when their need has ended.
They will only purchase anything from what they dub "Individuals," an ill defined term with nearly as many interpretations as there are Ronin. As a result, any corporate owned establishment(and many privately owned ones) will bar them from entry, under the assumption that they intend to steal. This is not an unfounded expectation.
Their survival depends on two abilities that corporations have discouraged in the general populace. The first is the knowledge of how to grow(and very occasionally hunt for) food. Ronin maintain secret gardens all over the world, and guard them jealously. Very few people outside of this group are even aware of the practice. And to this day not a single person has entered a Ronin garden and lived to tell about it.
The second ability is the repair and creation of their own equipment. Ronin can be spotted easily by their garb and gear. Everything they own is out of date, off-brand, or just plain homemade. They can be distinguished from your garden variety pauper by the cleanliness and good repair that they keep everything in. Gear is expertly repaired, their vehicles(though absurdly old in most cases) run like new, or even better sometimes. Their clothes are patched or darned artfully, often improving the look rather than detracting from it. They also remove all brand logos or iconography from anything they own. It is not enough to cover or hide it, it must be cut away.
The Ronin have one of the few ongoing blade making traditions. Inspired of course by Japanese sword making, it is updated and improved with modern metallurgy. A Ronin sword looks much like a traditional katana(or wakazashi, tanto etc), though occasionally with some odd quirks in the color of the metal, or the construction of the hilt, owing to their penchant for using scavenged and recycled materials. Though their swords are unmarked(per the Ronin Code) most Ronin can spot one of their own swords by style, and may even recognize the smith who made it.
As far as more modern weapons are concerned, there are some gunsmiths among them, but it is more common for Ronin to carry antique fire arms(with logos and serial numbers filed off).
No single group, no matter how well organized(and the truth is that the Ronin are barely organized at all) can produce everything that they need. As mentioned,Β they will use money when necessary, but greatly prefer to barter in goods and services.
Any given Ronin only knows so much, and won't be able to offer everything, but if one is polite(and not already known to be an enemy) they will usually try to find someone who can offer what you need.
Rice wine, typically made from rice they cultivate in their hidden gardens. It is generally considered to be quite good.
Good, real vegetables. It is actually quite rare that they will offer this, as they rely heavily on it for survival(they generally refuse to eat food produced by corporations), but if a crop produces a particularly good surplus, or if the need is great enough, it does happen sometimes.
Repair of just about anything.
Medical services(either home remedies or stolen medications).
If you are a true friend to the Ronin, they might offer a sword, but this is a great honor and quite rare. Generally speaking they try very hard to keep their swords out of outsider hands.
There are many clans within the larger Ronin community, and some(including the FBI) liken them to an alliance of gangs. The truth is that a clan is much more akin to an extended family, and while most Ronin are at least technically a criminal of some sort, few of them do more than petty civil disobedience, or just being a general nuisance.
Ronin will accept those who shun the corporate lifestyle, and as a result there are some Ronin from all walks of life. However, most are born into their clan. A born Ronin and a convert can often be easily distinguished as those born to their clan will only receive cybernetics from a Ronin ripperdoc.
Ronin cybernetics are simple and sturdy. They don't interface with any other computers as they use a wholly unique operating system not seen outside of the clans.
[notes made in brackets are observations and interpretations by Ronin elder Jin Corso]
First, we must never engage in the buying and selling of money. Neither borrowing nor lending. Second, we exchange currency for nothing, except from Individuals.[there are some who ignore the second clause and never utilize money, but this isn't feasible for most, and the exception exists for a reason] Third, we must not wear or hold the marks of those who created the things we use. Nor should we mark those things that we make with our own hands. [no one should hold ownership over a thing except the one who keeps and maintains it] Fourth, we must not take from the Individual. [an "Individual" is one who acts only for themselves(excepting to help family, friends, or community), and so the property of a corporation is free to take and use as one pleases, provided they follow The Third when doing so] Fifth, we must endeavor to cause as little harm to Individuals as we can.
Slang terms for the Ronin include "sword bum" and "rino." The latter being a portmanteau of rice and wino, a reference to the rice wine they commonly sell.
There are some Ronin who are militant even to the point of terrorist action, but the vast majority are more akin to strange, orthodox monks.
Let me know if anything is unclear, causes a problem, or if you want any additional information.
I hope you're okay with it, but I was actually also working on a gang to add. They're fairly similar to the Nomads in Cyberpunk 2077. They're an odd group because they're actually quite peaceful. You'll see, I'm nearly ready to post it.
Gosh, I hope I didn't just make everything more confusing. I think Sniblet has a point, we don't really need to concern ourselves with a little goof or confusion, as long as we all know what we're on about going forward.
Slight concern: I thought Maggie and her crew were breaking into a Biotechnica lab, not Yamagata? But everyone else keeps mentioning it as the latter.
I'm mainly concerned because I was operating under that assumption when I gave you guys some outlines of what was going on with E13 and I'm worried it doesn't make sense this way.
Since we're going with this idea, lemme give you guys some notes on what exactly would be found
1) Yamagata is not aware of what the data they're after contains. They know that Doctor Cadmus communicated with another corp between being informed that she would be let go and her murder. They assume corporate espionage, but unless the data is turned over they do not have any knowledge of additional androids beyond the Zeta series that Cadmus turned over.
2) Cadmus sent location data on Epsilon Thirteen's hiding place, but it was encrypted and she died before sending the encryption key. At present no one has fully cracked it, but I think we can assume Maggie's crew will manage. The location was sent as a show of good faith, basically like "look what I can bring to the table" but what technical data she provided is shallow and incomplete, because she didn't want to give them too much until she had a good contract. It does show enough to indicate that the android in question is quite strong, and very expensive. Possibly worth more than what Yamagata is offering for the data, just saying...
3) E13 is hidden in the Venus district. There's a defuct established that once offered pleasure bots(little more than realdolls that can move and speak a little, they were actually quite unconvincing, hence the place being shut down). E13 is hidden in the basement, where there's a series of charging and repair pods for the pleasure bots. One of them has been modified and is still active, but now it is charging the new android instead.
It's not an ideal hiding place, but it was supposed to be temporary, unfortunately Cadmus was killed and the deal fell through. Some techs have been working half-assedly to decrypt the location data, but with Cadmus dead it hasn't been considered a priority, so they simply kept the data locked up.
It has been about 16 months since Cadmus's murder, and by a stroke of luck, nobody else has stumbled on the hiding place(yet). The sex-bot establishment has been closed down for years, and nobody expects there to be anything worth finding left in there, so it isn't explored often.
Any other character is still free to stumble upon this first, but I'm just watching to see how this plays out.
RPM
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