Those who represented peace, prosperity, love, desire, ambition, dreams... they're all dead. You've lost your symbols, your foundations, your morality, balance, and sense of worth. All of the idols you praised have left "life". You may even start to wonder what just happened to the ones sent to Heaven for an afterlife. Did they cease to exist? Is there anything left of them?
Unfortunately, you don't have the time to answer these questions, because the world itself is moving closer to the sun now. Yes; contrary to the last arc, you're going to be facing great heat and longer days than nights. Because of the burning heat, life is miserable. Famine again meets the world with a familiarly unkind attitude, and sleep is hard to come by. Not only because of the fact that it's almost always daylight, but because of the fact that you're partially unable to accept that you're about to be plunged into the sun. Even though it's many years from now, you know that life will only get worse as you get closer, not better.
Well, desperation speaks for itself. Old practices known as "blasphemy" have ignited on the earth. Rituals, and even slaughter and sacrifice to the sun. And at night, the darkest figures make their appearance. Left behind from the death of the many gods and goddesses are black, masked beings known as "tengu". Unknown as they are, it's rumored that if you stroll alone at night, you'll never be seen by a waking mortal again. So people travel at night together.
This formed something known as a "traveling band" -- and eventually transformed into a "traveling circus" where people dress as the tengu and scare people into giving them all of their money. It's not exactly "entertaining", and it's definitely not honorable. But it quickly became a terror for civilians as the "circus" quickly grew into an army. It began to pillage and slaughter, led by one of the strongest people to ever live. His name was 'the Magician', and he quickly became the figure people claimed as the "god of the sun".
This false God quickly threw a tournament in his coronation and honor. This tournament was thus known as the Shelter of Stars and began to pit the strongest shinobi in the world against each other in one on one combat.
While at the same time, the threat of the Tengu may be the most dire. They are eating away at night and dreams and drawing us closer to the light; to the sun, where we will never see the moon again.
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Tournament Notes
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Practically this entire arc is a tournament. I will note the specifics of the tournament that make it different from other fights, and then you must sign up for it.
1 > All participants can be of any rank and while participating in the tournament will be Kage ranked with the ability to autolearn 50 jutsu and up to 6 styles depending on their capacity
2 > While not in the tournament your rank is normal. This includes while fighting Tengu.
3 > You cannot die in the tournament. If you "die", you'll be revived at the entrance, effectively disqualified from the tournament and unable to enter. Even if you're decapitated, it'll just be repaired instantly when you're revived.
4 > There will be a maximum of 40 entrees. Each will obtain a "fragment". These 40 fragments will become one for whoever wins the tournament, and that winner will obtain the special one-time only "Magician" class! That is the ultimate reward of this tournament. There will be a different amount of fragments depending on how many people enter.
5 > Once you lose a match, you're out of the tournament. Done and done.
6 > If you do not post in your match within 2 days, you're disqualified. This has no exception, even if something dire happened.
7 > While participating in the tournament you may post anywhere you want; the person fighting in the tournament is your "avatar" and thus you may resume village activity regardless of tournament status.
8 EVERYONE'S BLOODLINE AND CLAN WHILE IN THE TOURNAMENT WILL BE AT ITS FIRST STAGE -- Kukan and Nai are exceptions, they can go up to stage 3.
9 Custom weapons are banned from the tourney unless you're a samurai/weapon specialist
10 Any non-canon method of breaking genjutsu will not be allowed. Angels and demons will not be allowed to break genjutsu in this tournament. Know your limits if you plan on using Kai.
11 Angels/demons/cursemarks cannot be used.
12 No summons allowed; only weapons can be summoned.
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Tengu Notes
The opposite of the tournament section is the Tengu section. This is for hardened elites who are willing to accept that they may die in this section. Everything is as normal including abilities, styles, et cetera. Five people will enter in the same team to fight the Tengu. The Tengu are all effectively demigods with extreme strength. There will be 12 Tengu fought in order of weakest to strongest, all "bosses" until you find the Tengu treasure at the end. The Tengu treasure will allow all five participants to become a member of the Tengu class.
You may only be in one section at any time. You cannot be in the tengu slaying group and the tournament.
REMINDER: Any person of any rank can join the tournament and will temporarily be a Kage-ranked shinobi WHILE participating in the tournament
THERE WILL BE NO RANK-UPS IN THIS ARC; ALL is temporary
ALL FIVE TENGU SLOTS ARE TAKEN
[b]I sign up as a participant for the shelter of the stars tournament![/b]
