>“Did you know? The Zenin weren’t always disgraced and far away from the capital. They used to stand right beside the throne. Then they chose the wrong emperor.”
— Satoru Gojo, casually dropping yet another historical nuke.

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Oops… I did it again. So, apparently, I am physically incapable of looking at a messy historical period and not asking: “Okay, but where were the Zenin, Gojo, and Kamo during all this?”

So, another JJK past-era, this time set in the final years of the Nanboku-chō period, since I mentioned it at the very start of my Keichō period fanfiction and was dying to expand that little bit of worldbuilding.

Here's a very quick, rough first outline and character introduction, nothing too deep yet, unlike my other worldbuildings. I wrote it down because it was living rent-free in my head, and my ADHD brain can't move on until I write things down to free up space.

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Historical Setup

This time, the setting is 1390–1392, right at the end of the Nanboku-chō period. Historically, the imperial line has been split for decades. The Southern Court, based in Yoshino and descended from Emperor Go-Daigo, claims legitimacy through possession of the Three Imperial Regalia: the Mirror, the Jewel, and the Sword. The Northern Court, based in Kyoto, is backed by the Ashikaga shogunate; it has military strength, an administrative structure, and Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Which is to say, if you know the real story, the North has the future.

The South has imperial legitimacy, but imperial legitimacy does not always win wars.

By 1390, the Southern Court was already weakening, while the Northern Court is increasingly organized around the shogun. Yoshimitsu is young but terrifyingly competent, and already thinking in terms of history books rather than present battles.

Inside this, the jujutsu clans are also split.

The Big Three Clans in This Era

The Zenin are at their absolute peak. They are not yet the disgraced, and distant-from-the-capital clan we see centuries later in my other Keicho period worldbuilding; here, they are the Southern Court’s main military force, imperial-adjacent, and politically influential. Their head, Zenin Mikage, is the cousin of the Southern emperor through his late mother, an imperial princess who married into the Zenin to bind the clan directly to Yoshino.

That marriage raised the Zenin to a very, very high level. The Southern Court may be losing politically, but in the world of sorcerers, the Zenin are winning and terrifying, serving as the shadow behind Yoshino’s throne and the clan everyone fears. But the North has spent years turning Mikage into propaganda against his own side, and every burned village, failed evacuation, or civilian massacre by a curse, gets twisted into “proof” that the Southern Court is protected by a demon.

The Gojo clan, meanwhile, is aligned with the Northern Court, dangerous, and ancient, but not yet the dominant jujutsu clan they will eventually become in the following Sengoku era. They are ambitious and know the Southern Court is weakening, so they see the coming reunification as their chance. They want to rise above the Zenin and Kamo and position themselves as the indispensable jujutsu clan of the new order Yoshimitsu is building, and they are willing to spend one of their own daughters to get there.

The Kamo clan begins the story as “neutral mediators,” which is not unusual for them, except that this time it's actually true, since their Clan Head is a gentle but powerful idealist. They are tied to the Northern Court by proximity, but still present themselves as negotiators between both sides.

The Three Imperial Regalia Problem

The historical incipit is the same: the question of imperial legitimacy and the claim of the Three Imperial Regalia.

Historically, they should be in Yoshino, but no one knows where the Three Imperial Regalia are. They vanished during a transport, in an ambush that got Mikage's parents, the former Zenin clan's head and his wife, killed.

The Zenin claim to still possess them because they're the only remaining thing legitimizing the Emperor they serve. They suspect Gojo of being behind the ambush and of having stolen the Three Imperial Regalia, so they want to get close to the main family to get them back.

Meanwhile, the Gojo believe the Zenin are still hiding the Three Imperial Regalia inside Yoshino and that the Southern Court’s remaining legitimacy depends on them, so they want to get close to the Zenin main family to steal them.

Both are wrong.

In reality, the Three Imperial Regalia were secretly taken years earlier by Shiba Yoshimasa and Ōuchi Yoshihiro, acting under Ashikaga bakufu’s orders, during the ambush that killed Mikage’s parents. The Shogun knew that three sacred objects alone would not make a court legitimate if the other court was still alive, armed, and beloved by loyalists willing to die for it.

So he lets the myth continue, he lets the Gojo believe the Zenin have them, and lets the Zenin believe the Gojo have them. He waits and lets the Gojo destroy the Zenin and defeat the South enough that the Three Imperial Regalia will look like the natural conclusion of history.

The Marriage

At the center of all this is an arranged marriage, born from this mutual paranoia. The Gojo send Gojo Momohime, daughter of the Gojo clan head, to marry Zenin Mikage, head of the Zenin clan.

Officially, it is a peace offering; unofficially, she is a spy.

The Gojo plan: Momohime’s cursed technique, Sakimi / False Six Eyes, lets her perceive cursed energy flows, probability branches, and fragments of the near future. They want her to use it to locate the Three Imperial Regalia inside the Southern Court, steal them, and eventually help destroy Mikage if possible.

The Zenin plan: Mikage accepts the marriage because he suspects Momohime may lead him to wherever the Gojo are hiding the Three Imperial Regalia. He thinks she is possibly a spy. Unfortunately for the Gojos, he's not the monster they told Momohime he was, and she eventually switches sides.

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SOUTHERN COURT / YOSHINO FACTION

✦Zenin Mikage / “The Black Demon of Yoshino”

Age (1390): 19
Clan: Zenin
CT: Ten Shadows Technique
Role: Zenin clan head, Southern court's Emperor cousin through his late mother.
Vibe: Cold young warlord, tactical monster with zero social skill, secretly exhausted wife-guy.
Notes: Mikage is the young head of the Zenin clan and cousin to the Southern emperor through his late mother, an imperial princess. He became clan head as a child after both his parents were killed, and survived only because his uncle protected his claim. Feared as the “Black demon of Yoshino” and was publicly known as brutal and heartless. Northern propaganda twists his rescue operations and curse outbreak suppressions into atrocities. He carries the Southern Court’s military hopes almost alone. He has a Totality: Mizuchi, a lightning-spewin, massive dragon born from Nue, Toad, Great Serpent, and Max Elephant. Fights with a Hoko yari and is an expert at sōjutsu. Fight until the very end against the allied forces of the Northern court, right before the Southern court's surrender.

✦Momohime

Age (1390): 17
Clan: Gojo, married into Zenin
CT: Sakimi (False Six Eyes)
Role: Daughter of the Gojo Clan Head, Gojo spy.
Vibe: Noblewoman with a frail constitution and little selfhood.
Notes: Momohime is the Gojo clan head’s daughter and Sōsei’s younger sister. Because of her fragile constitution, her father and brother considered her difficult to marry off and not especially useful. Her False Six Eyes grant a flawed form of premonition sight that allows Momohime to perceive cursed energy flows, probability, and short-range future branches. Unlike true Six Eyes, it does not grant perfect CE efficiency, and it overwhelms her body. Submissive to her father and brother, she is sent to Mikage as a spy to locate the Three Imperial Regalia thanks to her ability, but she will later choose the Zenin over the Gojo.

✦Ran’ei

Age (1390): 16
Clan: Zenin
CT: Construction
Role: Mikage’s younger sister, healer, and the Southern court's Emperor's cousin through her late mother
Vibe: Doctor and apothecary with a short temper and aristocratic entitlement.
Notes: Ran’ei uses Construction for medical purposes: rudimentary surgical tools, needles, bone pins, and emergency bandages. She is also an extremely skilled apothecary. Constantly furious because everyone around her is stupid. She also has an unrequited crush on Mikage’s best friend.

✦Zenin Tadahiro

Age (1390): 37
Clan: Zenin
CT: None. Heavenly Restriction.
Role: Mikage’s uncle, second father, and officially next in line as clan head.
Vibe: Human siege engine, romantic advice that is worse than a brick wall.
Notes: Loyal to Mikage. When Mikage’s parents died, Tadahiro prevented the elders from stealing power and raised Mikage himself, supporting him as Clan Head. Tadahiro has no cursed technique and almost no cursed energy, but possesses monstrous physical strength, speed, senses, weapon mastery, and hand-to-hand ability. He dies fighting against the Gojo clan heir.

✦Zenin Tarōhiro

Age (1390): 15
Clan: Zenin
CT: Shadow Stitching
Role: Tadahiro’s son and Mikage and Ran’ei’s younger cousin.
Vibe: A scholar and battlefield duckling desperately trying to look cool.
Notes: He idolizes Mikage, fears Ran’ei, and has a high IQ that will eventually make him extremely useful. He is also friends with Kamo Naoki, despite being on opposite sides. He'll succeed Kusunogi Masanori as the clan strategist advisor after his death. His CT, a minor Zenin shadow technique, allows him to pin the edge of a target’s shadow to surfaces with cursed-energy-turned nails, disrupting movement. Dies killed by Kamo Naoki, his former friend.

✦Date Ujimune

Age (1390): 20
Clan: Date
CT: Blazing Courage
Role: Heir of Date jujutsu clan; Mikage’s best friend and frontline partner.
Vibe: Battlefield hype-man, emotionally intelligent, noble peacock with a paper fan.
Notes: He gives everyone nicknames. Calls Mikage Mika-bō and Momohime Momo-suzu. He's the only person alive who treats the terrifying Black demon of Yoshino like a nineteen-year-old boy. He looks and acts like a court noble and is still a terrifying duo with Mikage on the field. He is also the mouth of truth; he has already figured out Mikage loves his wife and is enjoying the show.

✦Date Masamune

Age (1390): 37
Clan: Date
CT: Heat manipulation
Role: Date Clan Head and Ujimune’s father.
Vibe: Not the famous Sengoku one-eyed dragon, obviously, but the next generations will always mistake him for his descendant.
Notes: A stern cavalry commander whose technique lets him control ambient heat inside a radius. By touch, he can make a target feverish and slowly cook it from the inside. His reversal drops the heat until the area or target begins to freeze. He is one of the Southern Court’s most important jujutsu allies.

✦Nitta Benkei

Age (1390): 24
Clan: Nitta
Role: Last survivor of the Nitta clan.
CT: Iron Hoof
Vibe: Noble and a little too eager to die beautifully for the Southern cause.
Notes: Benkei wants to become a legendary loyalist and avenge his dying lineage. Last of his clan and rival-ally to Mikage. Wants to become a legendary loyalist and avenge his dying lineage, but he won't survive long enough. Frontline-style warrior, his CT allows him to store kinetic energy from movement and release it through kicks, spear thrusts, or mounted charges. The more he moves around the battlefield, the more kinetic force he stacks. He accidentally causes the Kamo clan head's death, triggering the escalation.

✦Kusunogi Masanori

Age (1390): 52
Clan: Kusunogi clan
CT: Paper Army
Role: Mikage and Tarōhiro’s tactical mentor and the conscience of the Southern faction.
Vibe: Tired battlefield genius and fatherly presence.
Notes: Teaches Mikage ethics, siege strategy, warfare, and the cost of “necessary” sacrifice. His CT allows him to fold talismans into animal messengers, birds, horses, and small scouts that travel along roads, rooftops, walls, and tree lines, carrying messages. After his death at the hands of the Kamo, both Tarōhiro and Mikage will be devastated, leading to the Inumaki massacre by Mikage's hand and Tarōhiro becoming the Zenin strategist.

NORTHERN COURT / KYOTO FACTION

✦Ashikaga Yoshimitsu

Age (1390): 32
Faction: Ashikaga bakufu
Cursed Technique: Wake of the Golden Pavilion
Role: Shogun and final political winner and architect of reunification.
Vibe: Beautiful, young, cultured, and imperial-level menace.
Notes: Despite being a ruler, Yoshimitsu can fight on the front line when necessary. His CT allows him to leave golden, frozen trails of cursed energy behind his weapon and his movements. After a delay, those trails snap forward as cutting lines, damaging everything he has passed through or around. He is the one who already has the Three Imperial Regalia and is the one letting everyone else kill each other over them.

✦Gojo Sōsei

Age (1390): 25
Clan: Gojo
CT: One-way road (wink-wink to Accelerator)
Role: Momohime’s older brother and Gojo clan heir.
Vibe: Affectionate when useful, manipulative when needed, and convinced that the world owes the Gojo clan supremacy.
Notes: His technique creates a field around him that lets him control the trajectories of sorcerers, curses, or cursed weapons entering it. It does not apply to non-sorcerers or Heavenly Restriction humans, which makes Tadahiro a very inconvenient matchup. In lapse, movement trajectories are redirected toward the center of the radius: Sōsei himself. In reversal, trajectories are redirected away from the center. By rapidly alternating between them, he can create a stasis-like condition, though it strains him heavily. He sees Momohime not as his sister but as his instrument for the Northern Court's victory. He's the one behind the arranged marriage and sending secret orders to Momohime. He is a combat equal to Mikage.

✦Gojo Akimitsu

Age (1390): 48
Clan: Gojo
CT: Snake's gaze
Role: Gojo clan head, father of Momohime and Sōsei.
Vibe: Cold utilitarian patriarch.
Notes: Wants the Gojo to rise above both Kamo and Zenin after the Southern Court falls. His CT works through line of sight, petrifying cursed energy flows and muscle responses. Direct eye contact causes partial paralysis; reflected eye contact causes slower petrification. He also has a snake shikigami that carries and redirects the technique. He approves Sōsei’s plan and sends Momohime into marriage, knowing she may die.

✦Kamo Isamu

Age: 35
Role: Kamo clan head
CT: Blood Manipulation
Vibe: Controlled, diplomatic, and gentle, respected at court but mocked for his ideals.
Notes: He kept the Kamo neutral in the conflict and acted as a mediator between the two sides until his death. Killed in an accident by Nitta Benkei, allegedly at Zenin's order, his death triggers everything, turning the Kamo heir from a gentle mediator into a cynical strategist who pushes the Kamo fully into the Northern faction.

✦Kamo Naoki

Age: 15
Role: Kamo heir
CT: Hair Manipulation
Vibe: Future Kamo chessmaster.
Notes: Soft smile, nervous, fast-talking, “please don’t fight,” initially naive mediator who wants everyone to get along. He starts as an ingenuous boy and a friend of Zenin Tarōhiro. After his father dies, he becomes frighteningly pragmatic and seeks revenge, aligning the Kamo with the Northern court. His CT allows him to control his own hair as threads. He can extend it, harden it, braid it into traps, or use cut strands as surveillance anchors. His schemes cause the death of Kusunogi Masanori, but the blame falls on the Inumaki clan.

✦Inumaki Kosuke

Age: 25
Clan: Inumaki
Role: Clan head of the Inumaki shinobi clan.
CT: Cursed Speech
Vibe: Shinobi prince and menace.
Notes: The Inumaki are at their prestige peak here: small numbers, elite missions, feared by both courts. Kosuke uses a wooden board with carved ideograms to avoid speaking unnecessarily. He is usually cheerful and prankish, and he loves annoying the Gojo heir. Blamed by the Zenin and Kusunogi clans for the death of Kusunogi Masanori, Mikage will decimate the Inumaki badly enough that the clan never fully recovers its numbers or confidence. Kosuke dies in the massacre.

✦Kotoha

Age: 18
Clan: Inumaki
Role: Kosuke’s assistant.
CT: Cursed Speech
Vibe: Little deadpan ghost with a blade.
Notes: Kunoichi and Caln Head's assistant. She can't stand his attitude and his pranks. She'll eventually survive the massacre.

✦Ōuchi Yoshihiro

Age: 34
Clan: Ōuchi
Role: Ōuchi Clan Head, Shugo of Suō and Nagato.
CT: Surface Repulsion
Vibe: Flamboyant warrior, hot-head, disastrous but effective general.
Notes: After taking part in concealing the Three Imperial Regalia, he leads campaigns against Southern forces and becomes one of the people who pressure the Southern Court toward surrender between 1390 and 1392, after the Nitta, Kusunogi, and Zenin clans' defeat. Helps the North win, but he eventually rebels against Yoshimitsu. His CT allows him to manipulate the buoyancy of himself and his surroundings, enabling him to lift extremely heavy objects, walk on water without breaking its surface tension, and leap several feet into the air.

✦Shiba Yoshimasa

Age: 40
Role: Kanrei and strategist for Yoshimitsu.
Cursed Technique: Bird's-eye
Vibe: Bureaucratic executioner.
Notes: Closest friend of Ōuchi Yoshihiro and loyal servant of the Ashikaga bakufu. His CT lets him search for a target across great distances. It manifests as numerous eye shapes in the sky; once the target is found, the eyes drift toward that direction. He is one of the people who actually knows the truth about the Three Imperial Regalia.

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The Endgame

The conflict lasts two years, and by the end, the Southern Court collapses. The Nitta and Kusunogi clans are destroyed. The Inumaki are nearly wiped out by Mikage. The Zenin are defeated, while the Kamo and Gojo settle into the victorious Northern/Kyoto order, with the Gojo rising above both Kamo and Zenin in prestige.

The Zenin survivors, led by Ran’ei and Momohime, are persecuted in Yoshino and forced to flee north, where they rebuild their house in a settlement that will later be known as Nagoya-gō. Mikage, surviving in a nearly vegetative state, dies a few years later.

So yes.

That is why, centuries later in my other fic, the Zenin are far from the capital and considered the least prestigious of the three great clans. They chose the losing emperor.

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Anyway.

Political marriage, imperial relic conspiracy, Gojo's ambition, Kamo's “neutrality,” Inumaki's shinobi tragedy, Zenin's found family doomed by history, a shogun who had already won before anyone realized they were playing his game, oops, etc., etc., etc.

Here is my brainrot. Thank you for reading. Who knows, one day I'll probably split it into separate worldbuilding summaries and character sheets as I did for my other works.

(No fanfiction for now; I already have three different JJK fanfictions at hand and no time for this one, too. Not that anyone cared, but yeah.)

Hello hello!

Sharing again an amazing work a reader of my series made for me, for the other main characters of my Keicho period fanfiction.

He's Gojo Seijiro, the former Gojo Clan heir and later Gojo clan head during the Keicho period. He's a big simp, a drama queen, an "overpowered courtesan," if you ask his enemies. He's the one Gojo clan head with Six Eyes + Limitless who fought against the Zenin clan head with the Ten Shadows.

He's part of a novel-long series of fanfiction that, along with other themes, explores past eras of the JJK universe. If you are wondering what this is all about, you can find here the major worldbuilding post for the Keicho period: Keicho Period masterpost

Anyway, I just mostly wanted to share the amazing art I received, it's an incredible feeling receiving fanarts for a fanfiction and now I have these amazing pieces for both the Gojo and Zenin's clan head, let me just be happy for a sec

Hello hello!

Thought I'd share this amazing work a reader of my series made for me, for one of the main characters.

She's Zenin Kaoru, the Zenin Clan Head in late Sengoku, during the Keicho period. She's the one clan head and 10 shadow user that fought against a Six Eyes + Limitless user.

She's part of a novel-long series of fanfiction that, along with other themes, explores past eras of the JJK universe.
If you are wondering what this is all about, you can find here the major worldbuilding post for the Keicho period: Keicho Period masterpost

Anyway, I just mostly wanted to share the amazing art I received, it's an incredible feeling receiving fanarts for a fanfiction (I know it's crazy, let me just be happy for a sec)


Hey everyone! Back with the worldbuilding masterpost for Nara.

***Related post and links:***

*Radiant guard:*

[\-The Shield & The Spear of the Radiant Guard](https://www.reddit.com/r/CTsandbox/comments/1nvbx1h/naraheian\_era\_jjk\_lore\_the\_spear\_the\_shield\_of/)

\-[The Saint & The Rogue of the Radiant Guard](https://www.reddit.com/r/CTsandbox/comments/1nf12ii/naraheian\_era\_jjk\_lore\_the\_saint\_the\_rogue\_of\_the/)

\-[The Twin Lotus of the Radiant Guard](https://www.reddit.com/r/CTsandbox/comments/1ngojog/naraheian\_era\_jjk\_lore\_the\_twin\_lotus\_of\_the/)

\-[The Monkey & The Giant of the Radiant Guard ](https://www.reddit.com/r/CTsandbox/s/hQorEZsafu)

*Saika (Cursed Calamities):*

\-[Yamata no Orochi and the Kusanagi no Tsurugi](https://www.reddit.com/r/CTsandbox/comments/1nd989f/naraheian\_era\_jjk\_lore\_yamata\_no\_orochi\_and/)

I was mapping out the fic to write, and since Gege seems more interested in dropping aliens than giving us a full Heian era lore, I thought, *okay I'll do it by myself.* Problem is, to get there we have to get through the Nara Era first.

The story explore the origins of Tengen and Kenjaku and the political setting of the Fujiwara clan. In my version of the story, Tengen and Kenjaku start out as orphans, just kids, 10 years old, swept into a ritual sacrifice in Izumo.

# PREMISE, SETTING, YEAR, LOCATION, POLITICAL SCENARIO

***Before diving into full Heian era, our story starts back in Nara Period, Japan, Izumo Province.***

The year is **Ten'ō 2 (year 782** CE\*\*, under the Emperor Kanmu)\*\*, during the late Nara period. The year Ten'ō 2's also the Year of the Serpent *(mi-doshi)* in chinese zodiac (*eto*).

Every twelve years, the ***cursed calamity Yamata no Orochi*** manifests from the rivers of Izumo, the eight-headed flood-serpent and most feared cursed calamity (災禍 *Saika,* we'll come back on this later) of the age.

# Clan Fujiwara, Southern House (Nanke)

The Nara court is a four-house Fujiwara Clan chessboard. During the 8th century, the **Fujiwara Nanke (Southern House)**, founded by *Fujiwara no Muchimaro*, briefly led the clan backed by their unusual asset: the Radiant Guard, the only organized jujutsu sorcerers corps of the country. Under Fujiwara Nanke's patronage, the Tōshōdai-ji Buddhist temple rose with monk Jianzhen in Heijō-kyō, a choice that deepened friction with the **Fujiwara Hokke (Northern House)**, who until that moment anchored themselves in Shintō orthodoxy.

The tide turned after **Fujiwara no Nakamaro’s** failed rebellion against Empress Kōken (764 CE). After Nakamaro was betrayed by his own brother (ancestor of the heir by the year 782 CE), the court’s compromise was clear: erase the Nanke’s main bloodline to save the branch. The entire rebel family was killed, or so everyone believed. Secretly, the former heir and eldest son of Fujiwara no Nakamaro survived, buried his name, and entered the Radiant Guard under new identity: **Fujiwara no Takamitsu**.

After those events, power shifted away from the Fujiwara Nanke to collateral lines and ultimately into Fujiwara Hokke hands at court. The Fujiwara Nanke kept what the Fujiwara Hokke could still not replace: shrines and shorelines in Izumo/San’in, trade routes and agriculture in Yamato, and their elite sorcerers, the **Radiant Guard.** The court plays the Fujiwara Nanke and Fujiwara Hokke against each other while depending on the Radiant Guard as their “*crisis managers*” overseeing balance between humans and cursed calamities.

Like every other Fujiwara clan's branch they are located in Heijō-kyō (current days Nara), that was by the year Ten'ō 2 the capital.

There is no recognized Head of the Nanke in 782. The Nanke’s only visible “*future*” is **Fujiwara no Rikuya**, son of a Nanke lord despised for his mixed *Ryūkyūan* blood. That vacuum means the house’s clout runs through its elite corps and its visible heirs more than through court titles.

To keep Izumo alive they decided to treat Yamata no Orochi pragmatically: appease it with three chosen sacrifices (three virgin maidens gifted with sight of the unseen), ensuring another cycle of twelve years of peace. Better than provoking annihilation. To falter in the offering means unleashing disaster.

In Ten'ō 2, the duty of overseeing this century-old ritual falls upon two sorcerer-generals of the Southern Fujiwara’s elite squad. Unofficially, they intend to break the cycle.

# The Radiant Guard (Kōmyō-ei 光明衛)

*“Better one sacrifice than a province in ashes.”*

* **Affiliation:** Fujiwara Clan, Southern House (*Nanke*)

* **Founded:** Early 8th century, after Fujiwara no Muchimaro’s rise

* **Role:** Elite jujutsu corps, crisis managers for cursed calamities.

* **Current Captain (*****Taishō*****):** Fujiwara no Morokuni (age \~52)

* **Headquarters:** *Hall of Radiance,* a fortified shrine-complex inside **Heijō-kyō** (Nara) that also serves as the Nanke’s main estate

* **Status (782):** Operational but stretched thin by the Fujiwara Nanke’s political decline

* **Overview:** The Radiant Guard are the Southern House’s hand-picked elite sorcerers, created to uphold the clan’s prestige when the Nanke began losing ground to the Hokke in court politics. Where the Hokke flaunted scholarly influence, the Nanke needed something more brute: a corps to *manage cursed calamity*. When provinces were threatened by disaster, it was the Radiant Guard who marched. Their mandate: to protect the Fujiwara’s prestige by keeping order and stand at the threshold between humans order and curses. The Hokke see them as outdated thugs and mock their sacrifice rituals, though privately rely on them when things spiral. The Radiant Guard’s doctrine is pragmatic: identify the root of a calamity; seal, placate, or contain; avoid direct exorcism when it risks province-level devastation. Villages call them saviors and butchers in the same breath.

* **Vacancy Issue:** The absence of a recognized Head of the Nanke House means the Radiant Guard operate in a vacuum of power; they answer directly to the captain, but without a clear leader in court they are often treated as pawns by rival Fujiwara houses. 

**Structure & Hierarchy:**

* **Captain (*****Taishō*****): Fujiwara no Morokuni:** A scarred disciplinarian and the Guard’s institutional memory. Once a frontline *shōshō*, he is the man who secretly saved the last heir of Fujiwara no Nakamano and trained him into a weapon, personally, beating loyalty into him one hit at time. Morokuni lost an arm at Orochi (770 but he never lost authority, even as after that event rumors say Takamitsu could crush him in a duel now, though Takamitsu insists otherwise (loudly). Their “training sessions” are notorious for ending in cracked ribs, broken weapons, and shouted insults.

* **Generals (*****Shōshō*****): Eight total**, paired deliberately for complementary techniques and temperaments. Generals act autonomously in the field but report to Morokuni. Each pair can deploy a 10–20 sorcerer detachment, but against calamities the shōshō themselves are the asset; troops secure perimeters, evacuate, and hold lines. Every single Shōshō is handpicked by the Taishō himself.

* **Officers & Cadets:** ***Taii*** (lieutenants; often vassal heirs promoted and serving just for their names, sometime not even sorcerers) and ***Shōi*** (ranked but weak sorcerers) rotate shrine-guard duty and calamity patrols.

**Cursed Calamities (災禍 Saika)**

The Radiant Guard distinguishes between ordinary curses and what they term cursed calamities (災禍, saika).*Cursed calamities* are vast, near-mythic manifestations born from ancient myths; Yamata no Orochi, Shuten Doji, Ootakemaru, Kagutsuchi and such. Even if exorcised, they re-manifest in a too short span of time, shorter than regular curses,  as long as the myth persists. Manifest once per generation or cyclically (e.g., Yamata no Orochi every twelve years).The Radiant Guard does not aim to destroy them, but to seal, pacify, or appease. (Think of them as very powerful very disaster-scale special-grade curses, but since we are in Nara period and not in modern time.... yep, *cursed calamities*.)

**The Chosen Maidens:**

Every twelve years, when Yamata no Orochi manifests in Kisuki Valley, the Fujiwara Nanke enforce a ritual of appeasement. The offering is always the same: three pure maidens, chosen for their ability to perceive the unseen (cursed energy and curses invisible to ordinary eyes), considered tainted yet useful to society’s arithmetic.

They are almost always drawn from the most vulnerable: orphans, whose absence leaves no one to protest and daughters of the poor, sold by desperate parents in exchange for rice and survival.

Once chosen, the girls are purified through weeks of ritual preparation and named:

* **Miko of the Stars (Hoshi no Miko)**

* **Miko of the Moon (Tsuki no Miko)**

* **Miko of the Sun (Hi no Miko)**

They are robed in white, veiled, and treated with reverence as sacred vessels whose lives are already forfeit. Their title of *miko* marks them as sacrifice. The stars, the moon, and the sun are sent to drown so the rivers do not.

# THE BEGINNING OF OUR STORY

In **Ten’ō 2** Takamitsu and Kaneko, two elite jujutsu sorcerers of the Fujiwara Nanke’s special guard, the **Radiant Guard (Kōmyō-ei)**, are dispatched to Izumo to supervise the ritual. They are not really cruel or bad people, they do *not* enjoy sacrificing children, but they after a failed ritual twelve years before, they are under binding vow to not interfer in the ritual unless the land was endangered.

Izumo has lived like this for centuries… *but what happens when two of the “sacrifices” decide they aren’t ready to die?*

Izumo’s villagers prepare the three *miko* for the twelve-year ritual to placate Yamata no Orochi.

The ***Miko of the Stars,*** a pale, silent girl with white tangled hair and a tattered yukata. Apathetic and resigned to death, believing starvation on the streets is worse than being a sacrifice.

The ***Miko of the Moon***, a tongued, restless girl, with unkempt black hair hiding a small slit on the center of her forehead. Refuses to accept a fate chosen by others.

The ***Miko of the Sun,*** a third girl sold by her poor parents (who, spoiler, does not survive, she’s there as the reminder of what’s “supposed” to happen).

Takamitsu grows attached to the girls, calling them “Kuroe” and “Shirae” to give them some identity and dignity in death. Kaneko scolds him for getting too close

As the procession marches toward lake Sakura Orochi, the ritual site where eight rivers meet, said to be Yamata no Orochi’s lair, Kuroe immediately clashes with the generals, mocking their duty, but bonds with Shirae out of sheer refusal to die quietly. She pushes Shirae to resist, arguing life, even in hunger, is better than a death someone else chooses. Shirae insists death is easier, sees only futility. Their clashing ideologies ignite their bond.

At the ritual, as the third girl get devoured by Yamata No Orochi, Kuroe’s defiance rouses Shirae’s first spark of will to live. Against her own indifference, she forms a fragile shields of cursed energy to defend herself and Kuroe. Together they use instinctive cursed energy abilities, enraging Yamata no Orochi and forcing the hand of the two Fujiwara generals; they had no choice but to intervene breaking protocol, barely containing disaster, saving Shirae and Kuroe to avoid repercussion on the valley.

With only one sacrifice, Yamata no Orochi will not rest long, meaning catastrophe looms in the span of only three to five years or so.

The generals take them to the southern Fujiwara residence in **Heijō-kyō**, uncertain if they’ve preserved hope or doomed their clan., where they are reprimanded by the *Kōmyō-ei Taishō*.

Takamitsu nevertheless convince the Fujiwara Nanke to spare the girls and takes time until the next cycle: officially, Shirae and Kuroe are to be raised as *“future sacrifices”* under Takamitsu supervision. Unofficially, he just wants to buy them time and a chance at survival and ending Yamata no Orochi's cycle for good.

Kuroe emerges exhilarated by discovery: cursed energy can do more, cursed tools can be shaped, what more can she learn? Shirae, once resigned, now wants to live with Kuroe by her side, the first person to show her the world’s small joys.

For each other, they have become indispensable.

*(In the long term, of course, this spirals into the Kenjaku/Tengen dynamic we know from canon.)*

That’s the beginning in a nutshell.

# THE TWO ORPHANS

***The Miko of the Stars, Shirae, proto-Tengen***

*Age*: \~10

*Appearance:* Girl, gaunt, pale skin from malnutrition, shock of white tangled hair, patched yukata tied loosely with frayed cord. Golden eyes dull, as if already half-asleep to the world.

*Personality*: Withdrawn, fatalistic, emotionally flat. Finds comfort in stillness. Quiet to the point of unsettling. Believes death might be release from hunger and cold and finds little reason to live... until she meets Kuroe. She now want to see the sea with Kuroe.

*Abilities:* unnatural reserve, she can absorbs and stabilizes ambient CE unconsciously. Others feel strangely soothed near her. Instinctive barrier sense, she “feels” the texture of cursed energy and boundaries, though she cannot yet shape them. She's a natural talent in leaning, able to learn the art of talismans and ect after seeing them once or twice. However, her mindset prevents her for actually improve unless Kuroe is in danger.

CT: Unknown to her at this point of her story.

***The Miko of the Moon, Kuroe, proto-Kenjaku***

*Age:* \~10

*Appearance*: Girl, black eyes messy long black hair with too long bangs concealing a slit/crease on the forehead. Yukata in tatters. Wears her poverty openly but refuses shame.

*Personality*: Peppy, defiant, inquisitive, refuses to bow to fate. Quick to provoke, quicker to adapt, loves testing limits and has an infectious energy that drags others with her. Loud where Shirae is quiet, restless where Shirae is still.

*Abilities*: unnatural reserve and great control in output. She instinctively hardens cursed energy into improvised weapons (stones, wood shards) and can channel CE through physical objects with unusual affinity. Dangerous curiosity: views CE as something to experiment with, questions everything, refuses to fear the unknown. She get poisoned by Yamata No Orochi CE and kinda lose her mind everytime she channels her CE after that, becoming violent and unatable.

CT: Unknown to her at this point of her story.

I’d love feedback on the idea before I get lost in writing 20k words about Nara rice cultivation and snake gods.

Hello hello, new here, always nice to see spaces for JJK original fan contents!

I've made up quite a lot of original content (characters, cursed technique and such) for a series of Fan Fictions I'm writing that aim to expand the past eras and general worldbuilding.

Anyway, since it's a lot of content, I thought I'd put order in all the various posts I made about the past eras, starting with the Keicho period.

So I started with this full worldbuilding/basics about the state of the Jujutsu Society and their involvements in Japan's political scenario as of 1598, when our story takes off.

I'm working on the earlier posts as well, such as Hattori, Gojo and Zenin that still present an unfinished version of their lore. They'll get the full one, hopefully soon, I'm working on it.

I'd love to hear what you think.

✧ ✦ ✧

“Did you know? The reason why the Gojos and the Zenins are on bad terms? It was during the Keichō era. Their respective clan heads killed each other in a fight.”
— Satoru Gojo (canon manga panel) casually dropping lore like bombs.

This one line haunted me. What happened back then? Who were those clan heads? What could’ve driven them to mutual destruction? So… I cooked. Or, tried to anyway, but it was too fun not to try.

And I wrote a whole novel-long fanfic based on that because I'm insane.

If you're reading the fic and want to avoid spoilers, maybe skip this one. If you're not and you're just here for the lore then welcome, I have no self-control, I've been working on this story for almost a year now and have too many google docs with outline, charachters' sheets and headcanons.

✦ALL THE RELATED POST:
-Focus on the ZENIN clan: The Zenin Clan
-Focus on the GOJO clan: The Gojo Clan
-Focus on the HATTORI clan: The Hattori Clan
-Focus on the KASHIMO cadet branch & EDO JUJUTSU TRAINING GROUND: The Kashimo & Edo training ground
-Focus on the GOJO FACTION & KYOTO JUJUTSU TRAINING GROUND: Kyoto Jujutsu Training Ground
-Focus on KEIJI MAEDA: KEIJI MAEDA
-Focus on DATE MASAMUNE: DATE MASAMUNE 
-Focus on the KAMO clan: Kamo Clan
-Focus on Shuten Doji and the Oni Gang of Mt. Oe: Shuten Dōji and the Oni of mt. Oe
-Focus on Hoshikuma Doji: Hoshikuma doji

✦Worldbuilding Basics

The Keichō period (1596–1615) was a pivotal moment in Japanese history, a chaotic transition between the Sengoku (Warring States) and Edo periods, marked by the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as shogun.

Into this mess, we throw Jujutsu Society.

To make it work, I took a few liberties, sacrificing some historical and canon accuracy for the sake of drama, plot, and cursed techniques.

✦The Jujutsu Society

• The Three Great Clans: Zenin, Gojo, and Kamo are at the peak of Jujutsu Society power. Each fears losing political and supernatural influence in the changing world.
• Gojo Clan: Spiritual guardians of the capital (then Kyoto), aligned with the Toyotomi. Highly feared due to the Six Eyes and Limitless inheritance.
• Zenin Clan: Based in the north of the capital (ancient Nagoya), now rising in influence as allies of the Tokugawa faction, struggling with internal pressure to produce a male heir.
• Kamo Clan: Positioned near Kyoto. Claiming neutrality, but secretly scheming. Their elderly clan head acts frail and wise but is secretly manipulates Gojo and Zenin to make them destroy each other and claim dominance.

As with any noble clan of the time, power must be inherited, by any means necessary and both the Gojo and Zenin clans go to terrifying lengths to ensure their legacy survives. The future lies in heirs. Or so they think.

The Gojo Tragedy:

• The Gojo clan celebrates the birth of a blessed child: Six Eyes and Limitless.
• One month later, the child is murdered (Kenjaku’s doing).
• The Zenins are unofficially blamed, since they're struggling to produce a single male heir at the time.
• The Gojo patriarch, crushed by grief, becomes consumed by vengeance.
• He hides the second son, Seijiro Gojo (once again, born with Six Eyes and Limitless) right after his birth, raising him as a secret weapon.
• He tells his wife the child died at birth; she breaks completely, unable to recognize reality anymore, falling into madness.
• Seijiro is revealed to the world five years later, once the Gojo believe they are safe from Zenin retaliation as the Zenin now have their own male heir.

The Zenin Secret:

• The Zenin heir is actually… not a son.
• Twins are born: a stillborn boy and a girl.
• The clan head's wife does her maths: male heirs are prioritized, twin births are seen as ominous.
• The clan head’s wife hides the truth to protect both her and her daughter from being discarded and raises the girl, Kaoru Zenin, as a boy.
• Only a few know the truth, even her father doesn't know. The clan believes she is their male heir, gifted with Ten Shadows.
• Her identity is a closely guarded secret, even from her father, who demands perfection from his “son.”

The Political Powder Keg:

As both heirs rise in strength and fame, their fathers’ mutual hatred poisons their upbringing. They grow up as enemies without ever having met, manipulated by those above them.

By 1598, both heirs are powerful young sorcerers.

✦FLASHFORWARD: 1598

• With the Gojo clan absent (off assisting Tengen's ritual), a cursed object vanishes from beneath Fushimi Castle (Kyoto): The Mitsuboshi no Yari, or Three Star Spear, a legendary cursed artifact forged in the Heian era, able to break high-level barriers and purify curses via powerful kekkai. (Later revealed to be Hiten, once wielded by Sukuna himself, with a third ability to nullify cursed technique.)
• Its disappearance triggers a massive outbreak of curses in the capital, culminating in the death of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and with him, national stability.
• His heir, Hideyori, is too young to lead. Power is up for grabs. Tokugawa makes his move.
• The Gojo Clan is blamed, they were entrusted with its protection.
• The Zenin Clan is also blamed, because the situation suspiciously favors their Tokugawa alliance.

A high-level council is called in Kyoto. Both heirs, Kaoru and Seijiro, are sent to prove their clan’s innocence, each under secret orders to recover the artifact for their clan, and prevent the other from gaining it.

When clues point to the Iga region (under Hattori clan's control), the two rivals are forced into an uneasy alliance and sent on a joint mission

Together, they must decide whether to ignite or prevent a war.

✦THE TOKUGAWA FACTION

• Region: Edo and Central Honshu
• Faction Alignment: Anti-Toyotomi (1598–1600). Will become Japan’s ruling shogunate in 1603
• Head: Tokugawa Ieyasu
• Spiritual Affiliation: Tokugawa is a non-sorcerer. That doesn’t mean he isn’t terrifying. The Zenins are their spiritual guarddogs.
• Training Ground: The proto-Edo Jujutsu Tech, established around 1599 with Kaoru’s backing.

The Tokugawa faction represents the shifting balance of power in the final years of the Sengoku period. When Hideyoshi Toyotomi dies in 1598, his son Hideyori is too young to rule. Ieyasu begins quietly gathering strength, aiming to unseat Toyotomi power and consolidate his hold. He isn’t a jujutsu sorcerer, but he doesn’t have to be. He counts on the Zenin to balance out the Gojo.

Ieyasu first strengthens ties with the Zenin clan under Takahiro Zenin, but it's Kaoru Zenin who earns his real favor. Her performance during the Iga Incident and the Second Kyoto Council (where she secure the spear fot the Tokugawa faction) earns his trust. So when Kaoru commits patricide (wink), Tokugawa… lets it slide. He rewards loyalty and let her enstabilish the Edo Jujutsu Training Ground in his territories.

In 1599, Ieyasu orders Kaoru to violate the peace accords and secretly move the Mitsuboshi no Yari from Edo to Nagoya, effectively declaring covert war.
The faction takes a heavy hit when Kaoru leaves Nagoya and the spear unguarded, leading to a siege by the hands of Akiteru Gojo, the Gojo clan head, who commits a real genocide of the Zenin's side. Nagoya burns, and the spear is taken to Kyoto by the hand of the Gojo.
When this happens, Tokugawa is marching the Tōkaidō road, passing nearby. A Zenin messenger begs for help. He doesn’t stop. "If they cannot defend the spear, they'll answer for this crime later." he says. War, after all, is about the bigger picture.

After Nagoya falls, Tokugawa loses faith in the Zenin, blaming Kaoru for the loss of the Mitsuboshi no Yari and the avampost of Nagoya, accusing her of treason as she should have stayed in Nagoya following his orders. He still allows her and the Zenin to fight besides his forces at Sekigahara with the promise of pardoning the entire Zenin clan is she does follow him at war.

This revealed the real winners of the war between the three big families…

The Kamo Clan.
And in 1600, the Kamo join the Tokugawa faction, having orchestrated the chaos from behind the curtain. After the battle of Sekigahara, they secure Tokugawa’s full favor and receive permission to establish and lead a new governing body for the jujutsu world: the Jujutsu Order, tasked with overseeing the clans and managing all relations with the non-sorcerer government. (The same “higher-ups” who will one day be despised by Satoru Gojo.)

Tokugawa accept. Doesn’t care who lives. He just wants to be shogun, and he desperately need all the three sorcerers clans to ensure stability.

Part of this faction:

• Clan Zenin (ZENIN CLAN FULL POST)
• Clan Hattori, (HATTORI CLAN FULL POST)
• Clan Kamo (post-1600) KAMO CLAN FULL POST
• Kashimo family & Edo Jujutsu training ground (KASHIMO CADET BRANCH FULL POST)
• Date Masamune: DATE MASAMUNE

✦THE TOYOTOMI FACTION

• Region: Kyoto and Western Honshu
• Faction Alignment: Ruling power (until 1598) — anti-Tokugawa (1598–1600)
• Head: Hideyoshi Toyotomi (until 1598), Hideyori Toyotomi (nominally, starting 1598) / Mitsunari Ishida (functionally)
• Spiritual Affiliation: The Toyotomi are a weak lineage of sorcerers. The Gojo Clan's official historical guardians of the capital and Toyotomi line.
• Training Ground: Kyoto Jujutsu Training Ground (1600, Seijiro Gojo’s personal act of stubbornness).

The Toyotomi faction is the house built on sand.

For decades, Hideyoshi Toyotomi held Japan in a grip of power and politics. But power built on a single man dies with him. And in 1598, it does. With his son, Hideyori Toyotomi, still a child, real power falls to the Council of Regents, a fractious alliance meant to protect Toyotomi interests.
It fails spectacularly.
One man in particular, Mitsunari Ishida, assumes de facto leadership. A bureaucrat, not a warrior. Ambitious. Desperate. He knows time is against him. To counterbalance Tokugawa’s rising influence, Mitsunari leans heavily on the Gojo Clan, traditional spiritual guardians of Kyoto and loyal Toyotomi retainers. Physically close to the capital, politically indispensable.
In 1598, Mitsunari tasks the Gojo, specifically Seijiro Gojo, with recovering the Mitsuboshi no Yari, the sacred Three-Star Spear that once maintained a purification barrier over Kyoto.
Seijiro Gojo fails and the spear falls into Tokugawa's and Zenin's hands.

Seijiro grows genuinely fond of Hideyori. The boy returns his affection like a little brother, with wide eyes and no understanding of the blood price that loyalty will demand.
But behind closed doors, Mitsunari plots of using Hideyori’s "weakness" as a pretext for war, letting the child die would rally factions against Tokugawa. Seijiro overhears and does not take it well. A confrontation in the Second Kyoto Council ensues. Seijiro, unbothered by courtly niceties, threatens Mitsunari. Mitsunari backs down. For now.

Resentment festers. By 1599, Mitsunari orders Akiteru Gojo to send Seijiro to the Iga front. “Don’t win. Don’t lose. Just stall the war.” Translation: rot in the mountains.
Meanwhile, Tokugawa consolidates power. His forces sweep through Honshu. The failed assassination attempt on Tokugawa Ieyasu, orchestrated by Mitsunari, marks the beginning of the end. Daimyo defect, influence wanes. Mitsunari retreats west, gathering loyalists.

1600: Seijiro Gojo, seeing the inevitable, refuses to abandon Hideyori, too young for blame for the state of the country. Seijiro forms the Kyoto Jujutsu Training Ground for the Toyotomi faction. The Gojo Clan and its cadet branches march under Toyotomi banners to Sekigahara. The battle is a disaster and the Toyotomi faction is shattered.

Post-battle, the Gojo are accused of war crimes (notably the Siege of Nagoya), and ultimately bend the knee to Tokugawa and the newly enetsbilished Jujutsu Order leader by the Kamo.

Hideyori Toyotomi, the boy Seijiro once swore to protect, lives a few more years, then mysteriously vanish in 1603.... After a criminal sorcerer with lightning based cursed energy breaks into Osaka Castle.

Part of this faction:

• Clan Gojo (THE GOJO CLAN)
• Clan Koga
• Gojo faction & Kyoto Jujutsu training ground (Kyoto Jujutsu Training Ground)
• Keiji Maeda: KEIJI MAEDA

✦What about the Mitsuboshi no Yari / Hiten after the war?

[Extract from the fic as I'm too lazy to rewrite this]

In the months that followed the summit at Ōgaki, the jujutsu world began to reshape. The neutral Council was formed first by the hand of the Kamo, under Tokugawa Ieyasu's rule. The other clans accepted it, if only because the alternative was worse.

It wasn’t until the early spring of 1601 that the spear was divided. Before witnesses from every major clan, a binding vow was enacted, severing the Mitsuboshi no Yari into three distinct weapons.

Thus were born the Three Heirlooms.

The Inverted Spear of Heaven, entrusted to the Zenin clan, was reforged from the central blade and outer prongs, and retained the spear’s dreaded ability to nullify cursed techniques. The Void Severing Shaft, given to the Gojo clan, was carved from the crimson core of the original shaft, and could tear through powerful barriers and kekkai. The Calamity Binding Halberd, claimed by the Kamo clan, born of the remaining outer blades, held the power to create and stabilize barriers and kekkai.

Each clan took one. Each swore never to raise it against another. They would protect the balance, if not always as allies, then at least as custodians of the same fragile peace.

✦The story basically involves:

• More OCs: Like Hattori Masanari (son of the legendary Hattori Hanzo), grumpy realist leader of the Hattori clan who’s the only one that remembers they’re at war and not in a kabuki drama.
• The founding of the two Jujutsu schools
• A feral lightning boy (👋 Hajime)
• Bad dads.
• Tokugawa doing his thing and not caring who dies
• The Kamo pulling strings behind the curtain
• Gay panic, tragic bonds, sword-to-throat tension, morally grey choices
• Of course the cursed spear no one should be able to control
• All set in a feudal Japan on the brink of a supernatural total war.

That's it, that's most of the premise. It’s honestly not as light as this post makes it sound, this project started from a joke panel but it’s grown into a whole world and I’m having an incredible fun time playing in this historical version of the JJK universe and trying to survive my own outline.

I’d love to talk more about any character, plotline, or cursed technique if you're curious! I’m happy to ramble.

If someone's interested, here's the link to the actual story. Keep in mind that it's 40% worldbuilding/history/politics, 40% doomed romance, 20% action, so just know if it's not your piece of cake. Also, please keep in mind that I'm no professional writer sooooo yeah, I'm doing my best here (and having fun, that's my ultimate goal). Also, note that to merge Keicho period events AND JJK lore togheter, I had to sacrifice some accurancy on both sides.

Part 1: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61772050/chapters/158028937

Part 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63446671/chapters/162565498

Hajime Kashimo's side story, starting right after the end of part 2: https://archiveofourown.org/works/68447851/chapters/177166281

Thank you for reading! 💙