Video || Census Call

[detectiveforhierophant]

Type: Video
Sender ID: detectiveforhierophant (Ryotaro Dojima)
To: General Public
Subject: Census Call
Warnings: None!


[ The screen would flick on, and man of Japanese origin would pop on screen, sitting at a desk that may look familiar to some. ]

Hey, this is Ryotaro Dojima, part of the Raiders of the Lost Arts.

[Ignore that Strabby with a pink bow walking around in the background behind him... ]

I've been here for a few months now, and I've noticed a few patterns talking to folks about where and when they're all from. Call me curious, but I'm interested in actually getting info of this, making a record-- a census, I guess.

So-- If you guys wouldn't mind telling me; where are you from-- town, country, planet even if you can, and what year?

If you don't feel comfortable posting your information publicly, feel free to private message me.

[ A pause as he thought, before continuing. ]

--To be fair, I can provide my own. I'm from a small rural town in Japan, Inaba, on the planet Earth. It was 2012 when I arrived here.

--Ah, one last thing. If you remember where someone who was here before but vanished is from, I'll take that info too.

[ Reaching to turn off the phone as he spoke-- ]

Dojima out.

Comments

[book2thehead]

[His head tilts to one side, curious about how he can see the way some thoughts seem to flicker through the older man's head for a moment. What's that all about, he wonders. Clearly nothing related to his census, since he doesn't delve into it.

And there are other things being said that are catching Heizou's interest anyway.]

Televisions...? I've never heard of any of those things before! What are they?

[But then Dojima has to go and ask that. Immediately Heizou seems to perk up in surprise, blinking wide eyes at the screen. Huh.]

...As a matter of fact, yes. The shogun only reopened our borders very recently, and the tri-commission is still slowly re-establishing good contact with the other nations... [And working on a hunch of his own--] Is this something that happened to your Japan, too?

[detectiveforhierophant]

--I'll explain the different technology in a second, promise, but I feel like we might be stumbling into something bigger than that. I'll give you what I remember from history class.

[ Even a Shogun-- ]

...In my world, the Tokugawa Shogunate managed to unify the island of Japan, after the Sengoku or 'Warrings States' period. But when the Shogun took control, he declared that all of Japan with the exception of a few ports would be closed to the world outside. No Japanese person could leave-- and if they did escape and try to return, or were caught trying to escape, they'd be executed. They would only trade with one European country, Denmark, and a few closer countries, China and Korea in particular. Anyone who followed Christianity, a European religion that had been brought over by missionaries and merchants, were more or less hunted down and killed.

[ Trying to remember his history lessons... ]

...This lasted for over 200 years, until the United States of America came over with boats far, far more advanced technologically wise and more or less strong armed their way into making the Shogunate open the country up again. Japan was forced to modernize extremely rapidly to catch up for those centuries of lost time. There was a lot of political turmoil [ understatement of the century but he was not getting into the Bakumatsu period-- ]-- but eventually it settled into what we call the Meiji Restoration, with the Shogunate stepping down and allowing the Emperor to return to political control.

[ Okay, that... should cover it? ]

Does any of that sound familiar?

[book2thehead]

[He listens to all of this with great interest, even though the country names and the religions are completely lost on him. Still, quite a bit of this does resonate with Inazuma's recent history, and he can't argue with Dojima's assessment about "stumbling onto something bigger" here.]

...Interesting. There are definitely a few similarities to what we've recently been through- and how things have been unfolding in our country so far.

[Heizou pauses, seemingly to sort his memory for a second, and then kind of nods to himself before continuing. The playfulness he'd been sporting earlier seems to melt away, and he starts to speak in a calmer, more serious tone.]

The Shogun instated the Sakoku Decree and the Vision Hunt Decree some time ago because she'd been convinced by the commissions that doing so would help her reach her ideals for Inazuma's future, among other things. A brutal storm was set up surrounding all of the islands to dissuade ships from even attempting the journey, and even for those who made it there were extremely strict guidelines set that essentially prevented foreigners from getting past the port. The Vision Hunt was particularly cruel on our people, many people who tried to flee because of it were executed, and it led to rebellion and civil war.

Like your Denmark, there was also one nation that was an exception -- for diplomatic reasons, I believe. It was eventually revealed that they'd been pulling the strings on both of those decrees from the beginning, likely as a means to isolate and weaken our nation for their benefit. But - long story short - with a little help from some noble outlanders, the decrees were recently both abolished, the storm barrier was released, and foreign trade has resumed as before!

[And with the story done, Heizou smiles again. Especially as he reaches the "happy ending."]

This all happened over the last few years, though. A much shorter period than two centuries! So we are certainly still in the middle of catching up to the likes of Sumeru and Fontaine in terms of technology. Many parts of Inazuma are still recovering from the effects of the war, so that's taken priority. And Raiden Ei is still our leader and Archon... I doubt she has any plans or intentions to step down from that role any time soon.