Dokan's+Tale+Prologue


 * __Prologue:__**

This story begins with a death, but this death was only the beginning of a certain warrior’s tale. This warrior’s name is Terunobu Dokan, he is the second son of Terunobu Kenshin. The death is that of Nobuhiro Takashi, a daimyo and Dokan’s lord. You see Dokan was happy with the death of his lord because he wasn’t too fond of him. Dokan was sent to serve under lord Nobuhiro as a hostage of sorts because his father wanted to secure a truce with the Nobuhiro clan. By sending his son, he thought he was guaranteed a long lasting peace. Dokan went to live with the Nobuhiro at the age of 18, and served as a lesser general in his lord’s army. He had been present in several battles, but was never allowed to enter combat. Lord Nobuhiro claimed that this was because he didn’t want one of his most capable generals to fall in combat when his skills are needed elsewhere. This was obviously a lie because lord Nobuhiro wasn’t too fond of Dokan, but had to keep him alive or else his alliance with the Terunobu would crumble. But when Lord Nobuhiro died, things changed. Initially Dokan thought that he would be able to leave the Nobuhiro clan and return home to serve under his father. But you see, Dokan never really cared for the strategies and the politics of war, he was always eager to get into the fray. It is because of this that Dokan didn’t know the reason for Lord Nobuhiro’s death. Lord Nobuhiro was killed in battle when his small force of soldiers went to invade a nearby province. But the Province that he was attacking was a province under the control of the powerful Shimazu clan, they had their own plans for an invasion on the Nobuhiro clan’s province. Thus the two armies ran into each other unexpectedly and a bloody battle ensued. Lord Nobuhiro who was in retreat from the battle, was struck by an arrow in the back that pierced his lungs. He was not wearing any armor because he had not planned on entering battle that day, and just wore a light kimono. After this fight, the whole Nobuhiro force was routed and the Shimazu army moved towards the capital of the province. A messenger was sent before the battle took place to ask for assistance from the Terunobu clan. Dokan’s father received the message only a few days later, and assembled his entire attack force of 50,000 men to assist his allies. Meanwhile the Shimazu clan had met a small resistance at Magirawashii, a small wooded mountain village with a crude fort. The Shimazu took the village and from the mountain they could see the approaching Terunobu army. Unfortunately for the Terunobu army, they did not think that the village was captured and set out to take shelter for the night in the village. The Shimazu had lowered their banners and sent forces into the village dressed as peasants and hid a large portion of their army in the village houses and in the crude fort. When the Terunobu army reached the village, they asked the disguised soldiers for shelter in their village and the soldiers told the lord Terunobu to go to the fort and ask the garrisoned soldiers if they could stay. Dokan’s father unknowingly walked into a trap, and upon entering the fort was slain in a hail of matchlock fire. The hidden army ambushed the shocked Terunobu army and almost all of the soldiers in the Terunobu army were killed. Dokan was upset when he heard of his fathers death, however when he thought about it, his father gave him away as a hostage and favored his brother Terunobu Masatsura over him, often calling him a foolish boy with idealistic dreams of combat. It didn’t take long for young Dokan, now 22, to leave and avoid death at the hands of the Shimazu. Dokan packed up his possessions and took his horse, Baka, and left the provincial capital. It didn’t take long for the massive Shimazu army to reach the capital and crush all resistance. The few samurai that were still living in the lord’s castle committed seppuku as the enemy invaders burst into the castle. It is at this point that the true story begins, with Dokan 15 years after the defeat of the Terunobu and Nobuhiro clans. In the bustling city of Kitai.