Kannagara - The Way of the Gods - A Multifandom RPG

Tsuchisato is located in the extremely large country of Earth Country, bordered to the south by Himorogi, Kusagakure, and Amegakure, and by Lightning Country in the northwest. Water Country is located just off its east coast.

Like the terrain, the climate in Tsuchisato is very varied. On the oceanward-side of the mountains, on the outskirts of the country, there is copious rainfall, and the slopes and valleys here are lush and fertile, excellent for agriculture and sporting plenty of plant life. The weather is more moderate and mild here, and considerably calmer. On the other side of the mountains, things change drastically, giving way to a more continental climate, with winters cold enough to snow, and surprisingly hot summers, with considerably less rain. The weather is much more unpredictable here, and dangerous--rain comes mostly in the summer, in the form of sudden, violent thunderstorms, and there is a tendency for very strong winds a surprising amount of the time, which can lead to some nasty environmental dangers from large rocks being jarred loose from their perches. When the weather isn't acting up though, the land and sky tend to be incredibly clear and calm.  

Earth Country is an extremely mixed bag, as befitting its size, a country of polar opposites; expansive mountain ranges run along its east borders, and partially down its southern borders in an incredible, nearly unbroken spine. The rest of the country is a patchy combination of seemingly endless dry grasslands, fertile valleys, canyons that can plunge miles deep into the earth, and soaring plateaus and rock formations. It's a country of wild extremes and vicious weathering, and the terrain is subject to change drastically in little time, if the weather is severe enough. There are very few lakes in this country, but quite a few rivers, broad and swift ones with terrible currents strong enough to carve out valleys and canyons of their own; most of these are have dangerous rapids and shifting, rocky beds, making them all but impossible to cross by any but those intimately familiar with the sport, and the rivers themselves.  

Tsuchisato is a tough, hardy village built for superb defense and for protection against the elements, digging in and taking advantage of all their home has to offer. The village is built straight into the side of a particularly large, rocky mountain, high above ground level, on a slope that's extremely sheer and perilous to scale. A fortified wall with a colorful, guarded entrance gate wraps around the front of the village's base, curving a fair way around the mountain. Most of the buildings are surprisingly well-camouflaged against the mountain, being hewn straight into the stone itself, and often left natural-looking--the vast majority of the buildings' space, in fact, is mostly sunk into the mountain itself, with only the faces of the structures being visible from the outside. Thus, the village is a great deal more vertical than spread out, and makes extensive use of stairs, ladders, and steep trails to get around.

However, there is much more to this village than meets the eye. While the surface of the mountain is studded with buildings, the village also extends into the heart of the mountain itself, and deep into the ground, a bewildering labyrinth of tunnels that holds even more space than the visible part of the village itself. While the most well-off citizens and more prominent ninjas get to live closest to the surface, the inner part of the village is more suited for the poorer and less able residents, between which there can be a surprisingly sharp divide, and for use as storage, work spaces, and defensive bunkers. There is very little in the way of landmarks in these tunnels, save for signs only fully comprehensible to the natives; if someone isn't extremely familiar with the place, or given a guide, it would be all too easy to get lost within the passages, and die of dehydration or starvation before anyone could help you. Even so, it's an extremely useful place to those who are familiar with it, and provide a variety of exit points at many altitudes, on both sides of the mountain.  

These exits are especially useful for the farmers of the village, who need to go to the other side of the mountain to tend their crops; the mountain the village is situated on has a broad, extremely fertile valley on its coastal side, full of little but boundless agricultural and pastural land that can easily provide enough crops and sustain enough livestock to take care of the entire village.

Housing in this village differs significantly depending on whether you're lucky enough to be on the outside of the mountain, or relegated to the interior tunnels. Most of the exterior buildings are considerably larger, more spacious, and contain better architecture both inside and out, not to mention far better lighting and ventilation--suffice to say, they're far and away more pleasant on the whole. The nicer the building, the fancier the architecture, including towers, spires, and other sorts of more complex structures; more basic homes are considerably boxier, with broad, flat walls with a penchant for multiple windows to let in as much light and air as possible. Most exterior homes have one or more rain collection troughs as well. Homes inside the tunnels, on the other hand, have far simpler constructions, being hewn straight into the rock itself, and far less of an opportunity to get natural light and ventilation; these homes rely completely on artificial light from things like lanterns, torches, candles, and hearths.  

In all of the homes in Tsuchisato, the construction is primarily stone, supplemented with wood and clay; the buildings are carved out of the rock itself, with stout wooden beams used as support. Architecture tends towards the functional here, with beauty and decoration being secondary concerns; Tsuchisato has some fantastically skilled carvers and painters who provide impressive decorations for both the wood and stone in a home, with impressively large carved scenes--or more commonly, colorful murals--being popular. Other common decorations tend to be paintings on either wood or cloth, or woven tapestries and rugs to spread on the floor or hang on the walls to soften the bare stone. Furniture is also used in Tsuchisato, including proper beds and chairs, and it also tends to be nicely decorated, and have cushions. Some homes also have alcoves carved into the walls for special ornaments or shrines.

A small room is set aside for the bathroom, holding a basin and large tub, plus a toilet; the latter is the only thing in the house with running water and working plumbing, and is fortunately fully functional. Aside from the toilets, any water needed will have to come from rivers or lakes on the more fertile side of the mountain, one of several wells on the surface level of the village, or a large underground river that has been tapped in the tunnel system. Those who don't wish to bring in the water by hand can bathe in the natural underground onsen, found not far from the river in the tunnel systems, or in the large communal bathing house on the village's surface.  

The bedroom--or rooms, if you're lucky enough to get a large house--in Tsuchisato is a bit unique, generally having a single, quite deep closet to store a character's personal belongings, and several changes of the clothes they came into Kannagara with. Tsuchisato's houses also have real furniture; the bedroom has a normal bed and bedding on it, and often curtains around the bed or in the doorway of the bedroom, to provide some sense of privacy and to help absorb the echoes from the hard stone construction. Small tables and chests are also often found here, both decorative and functional. Many houses have a main room that serve as a sitting area and dining room, (though the nicer houses have separate rooms for eating in) with real tables and chairs, and either a fire pit or hearth built into the stone, or portable braziers made of clay, ceramic, or metal; these are the main way of heating the house, and also provide a fair amount of its light, plus a means for simple cooking. Those whose homes are on the outside of the mountain tend to have holes cut in the stone, or sometimes pipe-chimneys made out of clay, to direct the smoke outside; for those in the tunnel system, this ventilation directs the smoke out into the tunnels themselves to disperse.

The kitchen is dominated in large part by a waist-high stove carved from the rock itself, with holes on top to place grilling surfaces or pots into, and holes along the front to control the fire that is built inside; as the stove is typically built into the wall itself, so too is its ventilation. A large basin and preparation surface take up the remainder of the space, and the walls are lined with shelves to store cooking and eating implements. A separate but connected room generally serves as a pantry and takes care of all food storage, a room generally built high and wide with rows upon rows of shelves and vases, provided with a ladder for most efficient use of space. There is no refrigeration, although food tends to last longer in an environment that is typically so dry, and especially in the tunnel system, where the insulation of so much rock means that it seldom gets too hot.