Miskatonic
Auror
I haven't worked on this story idea nearly as much as my other one but I'll use this as a placeholder and post the basic synopsis as soon as I can.
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Gaijin Saga
- Thread starter Miskatonic
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #2
Miskatonic
Auror
Alright I was going to present a really much more detailed synopsis of the story with the historical backdrop, but I can do that later.
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Anatoliy Polzin is a young boy born at the turn of the 17th century in Moscow, Russia. The upheaval and war of the time cause his father to send his wife and children to live with his wife’s brother, a merchant/tradesman named Grigori who lives outside of Novgorod. His uncle plans to set off across the Caspian Sea to the Safavid dynasty in Iran and then continue east along the trade routes, selling his wares and bringing back goods to sell in Russia. After begging his uncle to take him along, and with the reluctant permission of his mother, Anatoliy sets off to sees the world and experience exotic cultures as he and his uncle head east.
Eventually reaching Beijing (currently the capital of the Ming Dynasty), he stays at the Jesuit mission founded by Michele Ruggieri, now under the supervision of Nicolas Trigault (Chinese name Jine Nige) and befriends the local children of the area and becomes immersed in Chinese culture. After spending some time in Beijing, Anatoliy’s uncle decides it’s time to return but his nephew does not want to depart. Feeling he is in good hands at the mission, his Uncle allows him to stay as long as he returns on his next trip over. The priests at the temple provide him with an education and teach him the local dialect as well as some Japanese.
In Japan from 1549 until the tail end of the 16th century Christianity was allowed to grow until 1597 when the 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified in a symbolic gesture by the Shogunate. After this event the Beijing mission had begun to discuss sending emissaries to Japan to ask for mercy and understanding from Tokugawa Ieyasu. Anatoliy (who had very little interest in religion and was now consumed by wanderlust due to his travels) joins the emissaries in order to see Japan for himself. The ship set sail to the Ryukyu Islands, as the Ryukyu Kingdom had agreed to pay tribute to China many years ago and the emissaries felt they would face no hostility as they set up their base camp.
During their journey to Ryukyu the ship prepares to enter the port at Hirado to restock provisions before setting sail further south but is attacked by pirates and the ship is sunk, Anatoliy is washed onto the shores of Hirado, barely alive.
A stranger in a strange land, Anatoliy travels across the coastline, eventually coming upon a Rinzai Zen temple that takes him in. He spends time there learning about their beliefs and helping out around the temple, continuing to work on his language skills. When it is time to continue on, he travels with a group from the temple to Hiroshima. From there he bids the monks farewell and looks for employment in order to survive, no longer able to enjoy the temple’s charity. He spends several years working as a farmer and trying to attract as little attention as possible. As a hard worker that is able to speak the language he is left alone. After saving up enough money he is able to travel once again. He bids a fond farewell to the other workers who had eventually embraced him as a good friend and heads to Kyoto, home of the Imperial Court.
Arriving in Kyoto he once again looks for employment. Hearing of the neighboring city of Sakai, home of the Sakai bladesmithing industry, a currently booming business, he travels there to look for employment. Though apprehensive about hiring a foreigner, one of the lesser known bladesmiths hires him for manual labor, but refuses to permit Anatoliy from learning any sword making skills and demands he not reveal his true identity as a foreigner as it might bring disgrace upon the bladesmith who is trying to develop his reputation for quality.
One day, during the time of a seasonal festival where all work stopped, he decides to explore Mount Kurama, near Kyoto, after hearing the local superstition and ghost stories that were told to keep curious children from wandering and getting lost on the mountain.
His adventure up the mountain will change his life forever.
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More to come.
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Anatoliy Polzin is a young boy born at the turn of the 17th century in Moscow, Russia. The upheaval and war of the time cause his father to send his wife and children to live with his wife’s brother, a merchant/tradesman named Grigori who lives outside of Novgorod. His uncle plans to set off across the Caspian Sea to the Safavid dynasty in Iran and then continue east along the trade routes, selling his wares and bringing back goods to sell in Russia. After begging his uncle to take him along, and with the reluctant permission of his mother, Anatoliy sets off to sees the world and experience exotic cultures as he and his uncle head east.
Eventually reaching Beijing (currently the capital of the Ming Dynasty), he stays at the Jesuit mission founded by Michele Ruggieri, now under the supervision of Nicolas Trigault (Chinese name Jine Nige) and befriends the local children of the area and becomes immersed in Chinese culture. After spending some time in Beijing, Anatoliy’s uncle decides it’s time to return but his nephew does not want to depart. Feeling he is in good hands at the mission, his Uncle allows him to stay as long as he returns on his next trip over. The priests at the temple provide him with an education and teach him the local dialect as well as some Japanese.
In Japan from 1549 until the tail end of the 16th century Christianity was allowed to grow until 1597 when the 26 martyrs of Japan were crucified in a symbolic gesture by the Shogunate. After this event the Beijing mission had begun to discuss sending emissaries to Japan to ask for mercy and understanding from Tokugawa Ieyasu. Anatoliy (who had very little interest in religion and was now consumed by wanderlust due to his travels) joins the emissaries in order to see Japan for himself. The ship set sail to the Ryukyu Islands, as the Ryukyu Kingdom had agreed to pay tribute to China many years ago and the emissaries felt they would face no hostility as they set up their base camp.
During their journey to Ryukyu the ship prepares to enter the port at Hirado to restock provisions before setting sail further south but is attacked by pirates and the ship is sunk, Anatoliy is washed onto the shores of Hirado, barely alive.
A stranger in a strange land, Anatoliy travels across the coastline, eventually coming upon a Rinzai Zen temple that takes him in. He spends time there learning about their beliefs and helping out around the temple, continuing to work on his language skills. When it is time to continue on, he travels with a group from the temple to Hiroshima. From there he bids the monks farewell and looks for employment in order to survive, no longer able to enjoy the temple’s charity. He spends several years working as a farmer and trying to attract as little attention as possible. As a hard worker that is able to speak the language he is left alone. After saving up enough money he is able to travel once again. He bids a fond farewell to the other workers who had eventually embraced him as a good friend and heads to Kyoto, home of the Imperial Court.
Arriving in Kyoto he once again looks for employment. Hearing of the neighboring city of Sakai, home of the Sakai bladesmithing industry, a currently booming business, he travels there to look for employment. Though apprehensive about hiring a foreigner, one of the lesser known bladesmiths hires him for manual labor, but refuses to permit Anatoliy from learning any sword making skills and demands he not reveal his true identity as a foreigner as it might bring disgrace upon the bladesmith who is trying to develop his reputation for quality.
One day, during the time of a seasonal festival where all work stopped, he decides to explore Mount Kurama, near Kyoto, after hearing the local superstition and ghost stories that were told to keep curious children from wandering and getting lost on the mountain.
His adventure up the mountain will change his life forever.
_________________________________________
More to come.
- Thread starter
- #3
Miskatonic
Auror
Feel free to reply if you want, not trying to keep this solely for my world building posts.
Nimue
Auror
I'm gonna be that person and ask, is there a reason he has to be European instead of Japanese? You've clearly done your historical research, and you're stepping outside of the collective Medieval Europe comfort zone, so why not extend that to the main character? Does his background interact with the plot in a meaningful way, or is it just there to explain how a gaijin got there in the first place? Because it sounds a little like, and then he got to Japan and here's the real plot!
If you wanted the "outsider who needs local customs explained to him" vibe he could always be a city man or an aristocrat.
That question having been asked, I'd be interested in seeing where this goes. So would the first part of the plot be part of the story as it happens, or would it be related in flashback/exposition?
If you wanted the "outsider who needs local customs explained to him" vibe he could always be a city man or an aristocrat.
That question having been asked, I'd be interested in seeing where this goes. So would the first part of the plot be part of the story as it happens, or would it be related in flashback/exposition?
- Thread starter
- #5
Miskatonic
Auror
If he were Japanese my interpretation of his character would be purely based on academics and it would probably be pretty inauthentic. The choice to make him Russian was because of the history going on at that time that is pretty fascinating. Plus geographically it allows the travels to go along the old silk trade route which is also pretty interesting. Certain things had to fall into place in order for the timeline to fit as close as possible. That and I don't think there are that many books out there of an eastern European traveling across Asian and ending up a peasant farmer in Japan. It's not going to be like James Clavell's Shogun, that's for certain.
The main character is like 13-14 (maybe younger depending on if it will work with the timeline, initially I wanted to have him at 10 years old) when he sets off, so he's basically becoming a man as he travels through different parts of the world. It allows me to delve into different cultures, customs and beliefs in a way that is entertaining and perhaps maybe even educational. It's not going to be the type of story where a European goes through different parts of the world and gives his/her impression through the lens of what his upbringing has taught him. I'm more interested in what the people that were part of those cultures wrote and how they described their world.
The traveling part is an adventure in and of itself, so there will most likely be subplots that take place as the travels go on, it's really just a matter of how to pace the story. I mean the adventure across Persia and Asia could be the first book in a series where the second book begins when he washes up on shore.
I would ideally like it to be the plot of the story as it happens. It's a trade off of course. Flashbacks allow the main story to develop faster but don't seem to lend themselves to taking a long time to recount things without the reader wanting to be brought back to the present.
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I did initially have an alternate version of how he got to Japan. The character's father was a feudal lord and land owner who had serfs working on his land. He refused to take part in a criminal conspiracy to assassinate a powerful political leader and ended up being betrayed by the others as they placed the blame on him as being the leader of the conspiracy. He was publicly executed in front of his family and the main character, his mother and his sister are stripped of their land and become serfs. Day in and day out for several years they toil on the farm, the main character only thinking about taking revenge. Long story short he ends up killing the son of the most powerful of the nobles and barely escapes with his life, managing to keep his identity a secret. He knows he can't return so he heads south into Asia and crosses paths with a tribe of Mongols who take him in. He still makes his way over to Japan eventually but the circumstances are different.
The main character is like 13-14 (maybe younger depending on if it will work with the timeline, initially I wanted to have him at 10 years old) when he sets off, so he's basically becoming a man as he travels through different parts of the world. It allows me to delve into different cultures, customs and beliefs in a way that is entertaining and perhaps maybe even educational. It's not going to be the type of story where a European goes through different parts of the world and gives his/her impression through the lens of what his upbringing has taught him. I'm more interested in what the people that were part of those cultures wrote and how they described their world.
The traveling part is an adventure in and of itself, so there will most likely be subplots that take place as the travels go on, it's really just a matter of how to pace the story. I mean the adventure across Persia and Asia could be the first book in a series where the second book begins when he washes up on shore.
I would ideally like it to be the plot of the story as it happens. It's a trade off of course. Flashbacks allow the main story to develop faster but don't seem to lend themselves to taking a long time to recount things without the reader wanting to be brought back to the present.
___________________________________________
I did initially have an alternate version of how he got to Japan. The character's father was a feudal lord and land owner who had serfs working on his land. He refused to take part in a criminal conspiracy to assassinate a powerful political leader and ended up being betrayed by the others as they placed the blame on him as being the leader of the conspiracy. He was publicly executed in front of his family and the main character, his mother and his sister are stripped of their land and become serfs. Day in and day out for several years they toil on the farm, the main character only thinking about taking revenge. Long story short he ends up killing the son of the most powerful of the nobles and barely escapes with his life, managing to keep his identity a secret. He knows he can't return so he heads south into Asia and crosses paths with a tribe of Mongols who take him in. He still makes his way over to Japan eventually but the circumstances are different.
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