Mm. Konoha's one big fuzzily green place. Gai's just good at getting into the spirit of these things. And regardless whether we take the manga or the anime version (though the manga is far neater, I think - well, more detailed at any rate), that had to be one freakin' impressive Jutsu the First used, no? The amount of chakra used to do that alone would have to be damn near staggering. *nudges the possible plot point into the 'for consideration' bin*
Kirigakure ... I'm basing my impression of it on the image on this page: www.naruto-kun.com/naruto...+mist.html
Big forest, though not like the one that sprouted Konoha - really damn tall trees, comperatively less undebrush, oodles and oodles of mist, with the village structures basically either hanging suspended between the trees or, in case of the bigger ones, built around them like some sort of parasitic fungus. Maybe because the ground's too soggy to support any bigger structures.
The Seven Swordsmen ... I've been letting my mind wander around the topic ever since Nathan mentioned Jade Empire. While I haven't played the game, the idea of a territorial and expansionist entity like that existing off to the East, maybe NE of the Water Country is pretty nifty. Let's give them Chinese influences instead of Japanese ones, use bits and pieces of cheesy hong-kong martial arts movies ... my thinking about the Swordsmen resulted in considering that the bigass swords came from a time a century, maybe a century and a half, in the past when the last 'scouting expedition' of the Empire tried to take the islands that Water Country is made up from. They tried this in numbers - cavalry to ride opponents down, spear wielding infantry to overwhelm through sheer volume, etc.
Originally, there were seventy swordsmen chosen from the Hidden Mist's ranks _and_ hired on nukenins and/or rurouni, who were given an equal number of swords and were meant to act as the spearhead of the counterattack. Most of those swords were little more than hastily forged and sharpened slabs of metal (I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of a Zanbatou), but they did work against enemy horsemen and shattered whatever spears came into their paths easily enough.
The Water rallied their forces, and proceeded to drive the Empire back to their ships over a gruelling, four months long campaign of island hopping, slaughter, and combat of shinobi against the embodied spirits the Empire's chi/chakra sorcerers called up against them.
In the end, out of the seventy, only seven swordsmen were left standing. One of them was a rurouni. Another an escapee from the Empire who'd been warped by their sages and wasn't really human anymore. Their names were Momoichi Sanosuke, and Li-Quing, though the latter took on the surname of Hoshigaki to better fit into his new home. Their seven swords themselves were reforged from the sharpened lumps of steel into more workable, less cumbersome (though still huge) blades, and henceforth called the Tenken.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Kirigakure ... I'm basing my impression of it on the image on this page: www.naruto-kun.com/naruto...+mist.html
Big forest, though not like the one that sprouted Konoha - really damn tall trees, comperatively less undebrush, oodles and oodles of mist, with the village structures basically either hanging suspended between the trees or, in case of the bigger ones, built around them like some sort of parasitic fungus. Maybe because the ground's too soggy to support any bigger structures.
The Seven Swordsmen ... I've been letting my mind wander around the topic ever since Nathan mentioned Jade Empire. While I haven't played the game, the idea of a territorial and expansionist entity like that existing off to the East, maybe NE of the Water Country is pretty nifty. Let's give them Chinese influences instead of Japanese ones, use bits and pieces of cheesy hong-kong martial arts movies ... my thinking about the Swordsmen resulted in considering that the bigass swords came from a time a century, maybe a century and a half, in the past when the last 'scouting expedition' of the Empire tried to take the islands that Water Country is made up from. They tried this in numbers - cavalry to ride opponents down, spear wielding infantry to overwhelm through sheer volume, etc.
Originally, there were seventy swordsmen chosen from the Hidden Mist's ranks _and_ hired on nukenins and/or rurouni, who were given an equal number of swords and were meant to act as the spearhead of the counterattack. Most of those swords were little more than hastily forged and sharpened slabs of metal (I'm thinking somewhere along the lines of a Zanbatou), but they did work against enemy horsemen and shattered whatever spears came into their paths easily enough.
The Water rallied their forces, and proceeded to drive the Empire back to their ships over a gruelling, four months long campaign of island hopping, slaughter, and combat of shinobi against the embodied spirits the Empire's chi/chakra sorcerers called up against them.
In the end, out of the seventy, only seven swordsmen were left standing. One of them was a rurouni. Another an escapee from the Empire who'd been warped by their sages and wasn't really human anymore. Their names were Momoichi Sanosuke, and Li-Quing, though the latter took on the surname of Hoshigaki to better fit into his new home. Their seven swords themselves were reforged from the sharpened lumps of steel into more workable, less cumbersome (though still huge) blades, and henceforth called the Tenken.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm