Japanese MMORPG
---------------
There is no shortage of Chinese military simulations (either turn-based or
real time), but upon investigating the large number of muds and online rpg's
out there, I was unable to discover a single one based on historical
mythological Asia. While there are plenty of games that have a hint of
Japanese flavour in the form of a handfull of areas or items - most games are
either sci-fi or western style fantasy... or (shudder) derived from anime.

My two attempts in the past to come up with a game design to fill this gap
have failed miserably. I gave up.

Peter approached me a day or two ago, having realized himself that something
must needs be done about this heinous oversight on the part of the gaming
industry. I moaned and complained at him for bringing the doomed project
back up. And then, I started researching for it and figure I'll give it
another go.

Basic Game Concept
------------------
The general idea is that we set the game in a mythological world
reminiscient of Sengoku Japan (Warring States Period, mid 15th to early 17th
centuries).

Because this time period is so restrictive as to professional options
available to people (warrior, priest, peasant), I am leaning away from the
notion of set character 'classes'. With this in mind, and in an effort to
make all of the millions of warrior types more interesting, I am thinking of
taking an idea from CoH and defining all characters by a number of ability
sets chosen from within larger archetypes.

Ideally, there would be 50 levels of character advancement in the initial
release of the game. Expansion could happily expand the limit at a future
point by releasing more high-level power sets.

Each player character would choose a nationality of origin from one of four
major factions in the game. This nationality would limit the ability sets
available to them at early points in the game - each nationality perhaps
having access to half of them.

After choosing a nationality, the player might then be allowed to choose a
race. Still kind of iffy on this one, but if we do allow it, then each race
would supply some initial stat modifiers and a small number of additional
abilities over the course of a character's career.

After choosing a race, the player would then choose three ability sets that
will determine which spells and powers they receive for the next several
levels.

Each power set contains a total of 10 abilities, which are given on every
even level of advancement. First level players will begin with 3 abilities,
one from each of their sets (earned at level zero) and will have a total of
6 abilities at level 2, etc...

At levels 10, 20, and 30, the player is able to choose an additional ability
set from which they will begin to receive new powers at the normal rate.
This gives players a total of 6 ability sets and 60 abilities earned from
those sets by the time they hit 50. In order to gain one of these new sets,
one must seek out a friendly trainer and convince them to teach you.

It is undetermined if crafting type abilities will be included in these
power sets. I am leaning against that idea, and am in favor of making most
non-combat abilities rewards for quests or something.

At the time of character creation, players will not have access to the full
list of skill sets to choose from. Some sets will have other sets listed as
pre-reqs, and some sets must be acquired from other nations.

In addition to the customization options, there are (of course) a few
abilities that are common to all characters of any given specialization.
These will be given at first level and every 10th level.

Skills improve with use. A simple cap of 5x the character's level should
make tracking skill levels fairly easy. Some abilities acquired from
different skill sets might increase the cap beyond this point - allowing for
advancement beyond those of other classes who share the skill.

Death
-----
Exp debt for dying. Debt cannot ever exceed the amount of xp that the
previous level cost. Thus, players who die at level one will not incur any
debt. The amount of debt from any given death will be equal to 5% of the
cost of the next level. While a player has debt, all xp earned will go
toward paying it off first.

When a player dies, they will have the option of sticking around and waiting
for a rez or of simply respawning. Either way, there is some sort of
resurrection sickness to be endured. Players who opt to respawn will be
given a choice of several locations - including the last shrine visited and
any housing where they are registered as occupants.

Other than debt and the general inconvenience of it all, there is no other
penalty for death - well, except the incidental fact that the character's
equipment will have suffered durability loss when they took enough damage to
die.

Respec
------
It should also be possible to re-select one's skill sets. I believe players
should be given two free opportunities to do so, once at level 20 and once
at 40. Otherwise, there should be a quest to allow them to earn other
respecs.

When you respec, all skill training in the deleted skill trees is lost.
Thus, if I am lvl 22 and decide that I don't like 2 of my 5 skill sets, I
can swap them out for two new ones. The new ones I get will have no points
earned in them, but the sets I kept should remain where they were.

Respeccing is a function of temples. At least, the forgetting of the old
skills is. Learning new ones should be handled in the normal way - by
seeking out an appropriate trainer.

Interface
---------
3D is highly overrated. The game needs to look like Zelda 3. Arrow keys and
the space bar work for movement and jumping. Tab to select the closest
visible hostile target and the enter key to start talking.

Abilities and macros can be assigned to a toolbar that will appear just
under the main game window. A number of bars may be set up and rotated
through as per standard issue on this sort of feature.

+-------------+---+  Below the toolbars should be displayed a history of the
|             |   |  most recent combat messages to affect the player's
|             |   |  party - including low hp warnings and such.
|             |   |
|             |   |  The lower right area will contain normal messages and
+-------------+---+  also has a tab to switch over to the inventory window.
|_________|       |
|         |       |  The right area will display health status on the
+-----------------+  player's party, a mini map, any buffs in place, and a
                     quest log.
  (not to scale)

Left clicking on something on the map will select it. Right clicking will
bring up a circular context-specific menu of actions to perform on the
object, including any appropriate actions that may or may not have been
placed on a toolbar - ie, a cleric who has enough chi to cast a heal spell
will always get that option when right clicking on an injured player.

Mob and player names will be displayed above their heads. Health bars will
be displayed under their names. If the player has any actions queued, they
will appear underneath the player's avatar.

Of course, the player should have the option to move these elements around a
great deal. All windows should be movable and all other interface components
should have options for setting transparency as well as changing their
anchor points - ie, put names below people or whatever.

PvE or PvP?
-----------
PK should be an opt-in sort of deal. This applies to both players and NPC's,
some will have their PK flag turned on, and some will not. In general, I
think the decision to go PK should not be taken lightly. Thus, if you sign
up for player-killing, you will be permenantly switched into PK mode.

The only way to turn PK off is with some heavy donations to a local shrine,
I think. Each time you decide to back out of PK should be more and more
expensive.

The only NPC's that will be PK should be city guard types and bosses. Note,
I am making a distinction between general mobs designed for killing
(henceforth known simply as mobs) and mobs who serve some purpose other than
combat (npc's).

Races
-----
I am tempted to make the game raceless - make everyone human. But, there are
too many cool things that can be done with races that I wouldn't want to
miss out on. So, in stead, we will plan for a limited set of races from
which to choose (more than 3, less than 8).

Races will likely just be the varieties of people indigenous to different
regions of the game world. Animal-based clans for half of the races are
probably also in the works.

Nationalities
-------------
The four nations to which a player may belong are chosen from the Shijin
guardian beasts of the four compass points. This notion is borrowed from
Chinese mythology, but is too rich to pass up. The four guardians are:

Seiryu - Green (Blue) Dragon of the East. Wood (Chn). Spring. Yang. Water
    (Jpn), clouds. Propriety. Strong economy. Married to Suzaku.

Suzaku - Red Phoenix of the South. Fire. Summer. Knowledge. Causes seeds to
    grow. Good luck, surrounded by music. Married to Seiryu.

Byakko - White Tiger of the West. Metal (Chn). Autumn. War. Fights demons.
    Associated with funerals. Lord of animals and mountains. Wind (Jpn).

Genbu - Black Turtle of the North. Water (Chn). Winter. Earth (Jpn). Faith.
    Cold. Always listening. Well versed in Buddhism. Long life. Able to
    foretell the future. Wisdom.

There is a fifth guardian, Ouyru the Golden Dragon of the Center, who
governs the change of seasons and the chinese element of earth. We will
follow Japanese tradition and ignore the center dragon.

In addition to territory controlled by these four nations, we will have
large expanses of ungoverned lands which need a suitably ominous name.
Lo5R's Rokugan is devided up into territory for each of the animal clans and
then has a Shadowlands territory. We need a name like that ;) But in our
geography, the dark places will not merely be shifted off to the side, they
will stretch around and fill all gaps in between the different nations.

As far as general 'flavours' of each nation's territory, Seiryu should be
heavily forested and rainy. Suzaku should be dominated by farmland and
perhaps be very coastal. Byakko will be mountainous and covered in ruins -
theirs will be the land hardest hit by the encroaching badness. Genbu will
be frozen northland.

Seiryu and Suzaku are allied. Seiryu and Byakko are enemies. Suzaku and
Genbu are enemies. The rest of the other combinations (Suzaku and Byakko,
Seiryu and Genbu, Genbu and Byakko) are all neutral to each other.

Elements
--------
Magic and skills will both be based on the Godai, five elements of Japanese
philosophy. These are an evolution of the five Chinese Feng Sui elements
when combined with Buddhism and stuff. These elements are earth, water,
fire, wind, and void.

Miyamoto Musashi wrote a book (Book of Five Rings) that applies each of
these elements to battle and swordsmanship. The different skill sets will
thus all (both magical and physical) be associated with one of the five
elements.

The skill sets that each nationality grants access to are all of their own
element and half of those (the low level ones) from their neighbors. Void
skill sets will become available as a result of questing into the uncivilised
lands, and the earliest level at which a player might choose a void set
would be at 20 (thus limiting them to a max of 2 void skill sets).

Skill Sets
----------
There should initially be 10 skill sets for each element. Of these sets,
five will be low level and will not have pre-reqs. Of these low and high
divisions within the elements, 2 of each will be magical and 3 will be
physical/artistic in nature.

Also important to note is that even if different elements contain similar
skill sets, none of the sets are identical. Also, it should be fairly
obvious that these names listed are not the ones that will eventually make
their way into the final design and that some of these sets are liable to be
shuffled around a bit.

Stared skills are the higher level sets. Void skills are all higher level.

Earth: - Spear, *Spear II
       - 2H Sword, *2H Sword II
       - Bow, *Gun
       - Healing Magic, *Healing Magic II
       - Divination Magic
       - *Exorcism Magic
Water: - Dual Wielding, *Dual Wielding II
       - *Calligraphy
       - Katana, *Katana II
       - Unarmed
       - Debuffing Magic, *Debuffing II
       - Water Damage, *Illusion
Fire:  - Armour, *Armour II
       - Direct Damage Magic, *Direct Damage II
       - Buffing Magic, *Buffing II
       - Kabuki
       - Poison
       - Tactics, *Tactics II
Wind:  - Unarmed, *Unarmed II
       - Dagger, *Dagger II
       - *Iaijutsu
       - Music
       - *Travel Magic
       - Protection Magic
       - *Lightning Magic, *Lightning II
Void:  - Necromancy, *Necromancy II
       - Unarmed
       - Katana
       - Stealth, *Stealth II
       - Demonoligy, *Demonoligy II
       - Poetry
       - Bow

Currency
--------
We will follow the traditional RPG mechanism of assuming that all nations
use the same sorts of money. We are actually going to use a Tokugawa era
currency system (since money didn't happen very nicely in RPG-style numbers
back in the Sengoku period).

1 Ryo = 4 Bu = 16 Shu = 50 - 60 Mom'me = 4,000 - 10,000 Sen

Yeah, it's confusing, ne? It's actually even worse than that. I've cropped
bunches of numbers down. So, to simplify...

1 Gold Ryo = 50 Silver Mom'me = 10,000 Copper Sen
              1 Silver Mom'me =    200 Copper Sen

This gives us _almost_ a decimal system.

Another element to consider is that around 1600, paper money started to
happen in Japanese culture. These notes were used in place of silver coins
and were issued by merchants and priests. They actually did very well in
certain parts of the country.

We could also just do away with silver coins entirely and have 1 gold equal
to a lot of coppers...

Equipment
---------
I would prefer standard CRPG style equipment, possibly giving characters
Diablo-style inventory containers where some items occupy multiple slots of
space and some stack. It should be possible for players to increase their
carrying capacity somehow - either by purchase or quest to get better
bag(s).

Active armour should fill the following slots: Head, Back, Chest, Arms,
Hands, Waist, Legs, Feet. We could then have two weapon slots and four
jewellery/charm slots. For ranged weapons - or spell components, there
should also be an ammo pouch slot that would be separate from main
inventory.

I like the idea of giving players a centralized storage vault where they can
dump their crud. Depending on the nature of the vault, we would then make
the decision as to whether or not money counts against inventory capacity.

Housing and Storage
-------------------
Players need homes and a place to dump their spare loot. This is doubly
important for artisans - who will probably be dealing in much more long-term
storage of gear than the typical adventurer who just sells off things for
cash.

There should be numerous taverns and inns throughout the world where players
are able to rent rooms. Newbies should be given access to low-cost housing
as part of their tutorial quests. If they choose to acquire a room in the
inn that they are introduced to, they will receive the first pay period for
free - one day of play time.

In order to store equipment in a house (or apartment) the player must have
some sort of container to put it in - dropping things on the floor just
won't cut it. Furniture may be placed on the floor, and the particularly
ambitious could easily turn a cheap apartment room into a low security vault
by cramming the place full of chests.

Apartments will come equipped with a bed and some sort of storage container.
Any additional furnishings must be purchased by the player. 

Failure to pay on time will result in the landlord hocking the most valuable
item stored in your house toward rent. Payment in advance should be allowed.
Since you only have to pay rent to NPC landlords when you are actively
playing, there is no need to worry about losing everything because you lost
internet access for a week.

Landlords are fairly reluctant to sell off furniture in the case of an
unpaying tenant, as that could be used to increase the price of the room
after they wind up kicking the bum out... so only stored items are up for
being pawned. If the player misses the payment after having something of
theirs pawned, then they will be evicted. Their furniture will be
confiscated and any contents of containers will be mailed to them, COD.

In addition to the cheap rental property, there should be numerous houses
made available in the cities for outright purchase. Likewise, Samurai and
high level priests should be able to acquire ownership of fortresses and
temples, which would count as housing for those players allowed to live
there.

Parties and Experience
----------------------
Players should receive ideal experience per kill for fighting mobs of their
own level, receiving reduced exp for killing things much smaller or much
larger than themselves. The notion of penalizing kills of overly huge mobs
is to reduce the effectiveness of power-levelling. The math might be like
this:

10 exp per level of the mob. -5 exp for each level different than
yourself if there is more than a 5 level difference, down to a minimum of 1
point for super tiny or overly large mobs.

Thus, if a level 30 player were to solo a level 30 mob, they would receive
300 exp for the kill. But, if a level 20 player were to somehow be assisted
into 'soloing' the mob, they would receive only 250 exp for it.

Partied players should divide experience from kills. Groups should also get
a bonus for being in a group. The total amount of exp each player earns from
a kill should be the amount they would have received for soloing the mob,
divided by the size of their group, plus a bonus for the size of the group.

Parties of up to eight players should be allowed. The bonus exp earned based
on group size should be as follows:
    2 members = 0 xp
    3 members = 5 xp
    4 members = 10 xp
    5-6 members = 15 xp
    7-8 members = 20 xp

Thus, if a group of two level 30's and one level 20 were to kill a level 30
mob, the 30's would each receive 105 xp and the 20 would receive 255.

I don't want to come up with any sort of provision for multiple parties
grouping together in alliances/raids/whatever to tackle especially large
mobs/dungeons. Groups of eight are pretty hefty as it is, and the game
should be balanced such that end-game content should be possible in a full
group of eight.

Numbers
-------
Players will have lots of numbers to chase.

HP - Self explanatory, players die when it hits zero, it regens slowly while
    out of combat. Medical treatment, food, rest, and magic can speed healing.
Chi - Power used to fuel abilities. It regenerates faster than HP and will
    continue to regenerate during combat.
Saturation - (possibly need a better name for this?) When players perform
    certain powerful abilities/spells, they will become saturated in spent
    energy. This effectively reduces their maximum usable chi. The only way
    to reduce saturation is through some sort of purification/rest outside of
    combat.

Strength  - Fire. Melee damage potential. Minor affect on health.
Agility   - Water. Ranged damage potential, physical attack evasion.
Endurance - Earth. Physical damage resistance, maximum health. Minor affect
            on maximum chi.
Intuition - Wind. Accuracy and evasion (magic, melee, ranged). Also affects
            strength of spells.
Resolve   - Void. Greatly affects maximum chi. Affects resistance to spells.

Normal statistics will be roughly equal to the character's level.
Without equipment and spells to modify them, particularly high stats might
reach twice the character's level and particularly low stats will rarely
drop below half their level.

A newbie character will generally have about 50 hp and 10 chi, as well as
between 1 and 5 points in each stat - totalling to 10 points at 1st level.

Just as players gain abilities every even level, they receive stat increases
on every odd level. The stats they gain are dependant on which skill sets
they have, but every time stats are increased, a total of about 10 points
should be distributed.

Combat
------
I am very torn as to how combat should happen. Something similar to FFXI and
EQ2 where mobs become locked once a party engages them has some appeal, but
I dislike how difficult those systems make it for potential rescuers when
newbies get in over their heads (having to yell for help, disengage the mob,
and then run to allow other people to start whacking it).

Something similar to Matrix where combattants are locked into one-on-one
duels that exist somewhat outside of normal game time would be kind of cool,
especially if we do a lot of stuff with fencing in the game. However, that
also kind of ruins any sort of party dynamic we might be shooting for.

The two remaining options are either real time action combat like WoW and
CoH or dropping the parties in their entirety into some sort of tactical
system, similar to what I was proposing for Simud 2. Tactical system is
nasty annoying if you're getting aggroed and just want to run through a
zone, and real-time is annoying if you want to allow for more options during
combat (and if you want to make the game 'spouse friendly').

I am proposing a system that attempts to preserve the integrity of an
individual party's battles without crippling tactical options and without
making it impossible to cross dangerous zones without killing everything
along the way.

When a party taps a mob - fires an offensive ability at them, the party will
drop into something like battlefield slowdown. Some sort of aura will
suround their battle and attempt to repell non-participants. Non-participant
players and mobs will become blurry on the screens of players in fights so
as not to distract them from the action at hand.

During combat, you will walk at 3/4 normal speed, and will generally be
unable to target blurry non-participants in the battle. For the most part,
mobs will not be able to attack players who are already engaged in combat.
Mobs will associate themselves into groups, ie if you attack one member of
the monster party, they will all enter the combat.

A player outside of combat may take action on participants in the fight but,
in so doing, will be pulled into the battle as well. Mobs outside of combat
that have nothing better to do and want to join in on an existing fight will
have to make saving throws against the size of the battle. If the group of
mobs in the fight is at or near full strength, adds will be turned away. If
the mobs drop below half population, they might be allowed to call for help
and invite other npc's to join the fun.

If an npc aggroes on a player, a battle will not start immediately. The mob
must either hit the player with something more than simple damage, like a
rooting/slowing debuff or the player must turn and fight back.

To escape from a battle, players should just run away from the mobs in
question. Upon reaching sufficient distance from the fight, most npc's will
give up pursuit and let the players go. Likewise, if mobs try to run from
players, they should have an option to disengage and let them flee.

Immediately after players leave battle (either by running away or by
winning), they should remain in a protected state for a few seconds before
they can be attacked again. Should they attempt to start another fight, the
protection will dissipate and let them fight - but the new fight will end
with a much shorter safety period following it. Did that make sense?

Normal situation, my party kills a Tengu and is given 5 seconds of
protection. We may either use that time to run, regen, loot, etc... or, we
can pull another mob. If we do so, our next protection period will only be 2
seconds long. If we pull within those 2 seconds, the next protection period
will be only 1 second. If we pull within that one second, the ensuing battle
will not end with any protection time at all.

In stead of having a generic melee attack action fire every combat round
only to be augmented by special abilities, players will be able to select an
action to automatically perform on their selected target during combat. It
will fire every time its cooldown timer expires.

Other actions may also be performed as desired, and may even be queued up to
4 actions in advance. If the automatic action's timer expires and there are
already actions enqueued, it will wait until the queue is empty. Thus, if
you flood the queue, your automatic action won't ever fire.

Every combat action costs chi, including the level 1 basic attack actions
that everyone gets. And, while chi does continue to regenerate during
combat, it shouldn't be difficult to exhaust it by performing large actions
in rapid succession. If you don't have the energy, you won't be able to
perform the ability - and this includes the level 1 attacks.

Death
-----
Exp debt for dying. Debt cannot ever exceed the amount of xp that the
previous level cost. Thus, players who die at level one will not incur any
debt. The amount of debt from any given death will be equal to 5% of the
cost of the next level. While a player has debt, all xp earned will go
toward paying it off first.

When a player dies, they will have the option of sticking around and waiting
for a rez or of simply respawning. Either way, there is some sort of
resurrection sickness to be endured. Players who opt to respawn will be
given a choice of several locations - including the last shrine visited and
any housing where they are registered as occupants.

Other than debt and the general inconvenience of it all, there is no other
penalty for death - well, except the incidental fact that the character's
equipment will have suffered durability loss when they took enough damage to
die.

Faction
-------
Within each of the four nations and the big bad place, there are numerous
different NPC factions. Every NPC (except for wild animals and such) should
belong to one of these factions. Killing mobs decreases your standing with
the group in question and potentially raises it with their enemies.

Completion of quests and killing certain mobs should also be able to affect
one's standing in an entire nation's set of factions.

Example, The Dog and Serpent clans might be two factions within Genbu.
Supposing that I am from Suzaku, I will begin the game with Dog and Serpent
NPC's disliking me because Suzaku and Genbu are enemies. If I kill Dogs, I
will gain slightly in faction with my own people but will drop sharply in
faction with Dogs and drop slightly with Serpents.

Earning sufficient standing within a particular group will probably be
required to gain access to their quest givers and skill sets as well as
special shops, etc... Likewise, if you become sufficiently infamous with any
group, they will begin to refuse doing business with you and eventually
become aggressive to the point of attacking you on sight.

Samurai
-------
Samurai are the ruling military class. The only way to become one is either
by birth or by feats of arms. For players who are so inclined, there should
be long quest arcs that allow them to become low-ranking samurai and
eventually climb the ladder in power.

High ranking samurai players should be allowed bases and lands under their
control. Players should be able to flock under the banner of powerful
samurai leaders and (if desired) declare war against other families.

Priests
-------
There are two basic types of priests in ancient Japanese culture. Buddhists
and Shinto priests. There is also, however, a large degree of overlapping
between the religions in the culture. As such, I feel quite happy in the
idea of allowing players to select the different skill sets to create
combination characters (some magical skill sets are more Buddhist in nature,
some are more Shinto, and some are just magic in general).

It should be possible for high ranking priest-type players to also gain
control of temples and lands in a manner similar to that employed by
samurai.

Kami
----
Kami are divine spirits that live everywhere. There are kami of lakes and
mountains and forests and everything else. I would like to have a system
where individual kami radiate an aura of their influence out of their place
of residence. For example, a certain forest might be influenced by the god
who lives there, and everyone who enters would experience some sort of
effect as a result.

Shinto (ancient Japanese religion) teaches that the Kami are able to divide
their presence in such a way that they can come to inhabit many different
objects. These objects, called Shintai, are holy relics that (once inhabited
by a god) are sealed up in temples (Jinja) to protect them from profane eyes and
such.

Shinto magic calls on the kami to do their thing. Unless he is in charge of
a particular shrine or another, the priests tend not to be dedicated to one
kami or another.

I would like to see two types of kami implemented in the game. For lack of a
better term at the moment, I will refer to them as 'tame' and 'wild'. Wild
kami are those spirits who have not yet been convinced to inhabit shintai
and become helpful to people. Tame kami would be those who are generally
more beneficent to their worshippers and have shrines dedicated to them.

It should be possible for high level players who come into positions of
power over Jinja to relocate their shintai for some reason or another. This
whole aspect of stuff is still quite up in the air.

Mail
----
It should be possible to ship items between players fairly easily. Every
city should have a post office. We will perform the magic space-time tweaks
that allow mail to be sent from any PO and received at any PO.

Letters will be almost free to send, and can be turned into physical items
upon receipt if one desires. Packages will charge a higher rate based on the
size of the item. It should be possible to ship packages COD - if the player
wishes to collect the package, they will need to pay the office (who will
then turn around and deliver the money back to the original sender).

A basic feature of the mail interface should be a 'postage due' option that
sends a package COD for exactly the cost of shipping.

There is no limit to the amount of mail a player can have waiting for them
at any given time. Mail that goes un-collected for more than one day of play
time will be returned to the sender. If the original sender does not collect
the mail after one day of their play time, letters will be discarded and
packages will be pawned off.

Communication
-------------
Standard chat line stuff.

IC communication will happen in languages. All players will speak Japanese,
but plenty of NPC's will speak other languages, and in order to understand
and communicate with them, the languages must be learned (through quests).

Travel
------
There will be four primary means available for non-magical travel. Walking
is pretty traditional. At level 20, players will receive the ability to ride
horses if they feel so inclined (and if they can manage to acquire one).
Mounted combat should be an option at higher levels of martial ability.

There should also be regular coaches that drive between certain major
destinations. Players should be able to hitch a ride for cheap. Likewise,
there should be ships available in the game that travel between different
ports that players could ride for a nominal sum.

Magical travel should also be a definate option. Wind mages should be able
to fly and eventually just teleport.

Youkai
------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youkai

Terrain
-------
Japan is 2/3 mountains and forests. While we probably shouldn't use the
exact same world map, we should probably consider keeping the terrain
believably similar.

Plants: cherry, plum, momiji, pine, bamboo

Animals: crane, otter, monkey, sea turtle, golden eagle, brown bear, carp,
    fox, wolf, squirrel, deer, rabbit, goat, horse, pig, sheep, rat, tiger?
    shorttail cats, dog, crab, duck

I would like the game world to be composed of one primary continent
and two or three smaller continents to the south - in keeping with a
vaguely Japan-shaped map, but not really.

The thought does arise of putting an impassable mountain range to the
northwestern end of things, just to limit sea travel to the south and east,
but I'm iffy on that one. Perhaps we should just make the bulk of the
northwestern coast high cliffs that are generally inhospitable.

Zodiac
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We definately need to use the 13 zodiac critters for something. Perhaps
factions within each of the four nations could be named after the zodiac
signs, with Cat (Neko) being nonaligned and located in the big evil.

Suzaku - Tiger (Tora), Rabbit (Usagi), Sheep (Hitsuji)
Seiryu - Dragon (Tatsu), Monkey (Saru), Boar (Inoshishi)
Byakko - Ox (Ushi), Horse (Uma), Chicken (Tori)
Genbu  - Snake (Hebi), Rat (Nezumi), Dog (Inu)

General thematic and cultural elements of these factions should be based
on the zodiac stereotypes. We should also consider using the Japanese
names for the groups - since those generally sound cooler. Each zodiac
clan should have exactly one stronghold area and might possibly have a
handfull of smaller outposts, docks, etc...

http://ammonlauritzen.com/images/japanese-mmorpg-map.jpg