ISLES OF SHIMA

"Sixteen summers carrying this blade across Shima's broken isles. I've served three daimyos, each more cruel than the last. But nothing—not the blood-soaked rice paddies nor the radiated bamboo groves—compares to the haunted forests where we send our young to prove themselves. I still hear their screams in my dreams. The mutants move like shadows between ancient trees, hunting those who hunt them. For every warrior who returns with trophy skulls, three are never seen again. The daimyos call it tradition. I call it sacrifice. At least in battle, when we die for our masters, we die with someone to witness our glorious deaths." 

• TYO-724 "Tomoe," Masterless Ronin, 124 AP

The Isles of Shima are a group of islands that lie north-east of the Jade Domain. While their biome was altered by the devastating wars of the Great Collapse, the change was not as dramatic as in the mud lands.

With most large cities destroyed in the wars, life shifted back to rural towns and villages. This shift also revived the old feudal system of the islands, and today proud Daimyos and Samurai once again fight bloody battles for the control of these lands - albeit with more modern weaponry!

Located in the western central part of Shima, Neon City is the largest city in the known world to have survived the great Collapse. While the city itself still stands, society has had to adapt to the violent new world of the Desolation.

The Reaping and the Purge affected the Isles of Shima like the rest of the world, and today's population reflects this by being made up out of a majority of female clones, but many natural male and female humans can also be found.

The great Houses and warlords of Shima jealously guard their lands, especially the regions that produce food!

Some modern harvesting equipment has survived from the utopian age before the great Collapse, but these machines are rare and prone to breakdowns.

Young warriors eager to prove themselves roam the forests and wilderness of Shima, which is teaming with mutated subspecies of humans and other creatures that defy description. These hunting grounds are fertile and dangerous, and many of those that set out on their quest to become respected warriors, never return.

Those warriors that make a name for themselves will often follow either the Path of Steel or the Path of Stone. Either way, they are likely to end up fighting for one of the great Houses or a mighty warlord.

Life is harsh on these islands. Most who dwell here will live and die as peasants working the fields, or serve as warrior for a great House only to fight and die in the exact same fields...