Once, it is said, there was a land known as the Jade Empire, which rested by the shores of a deep blue ocean. A powerful emperor ruled this land, known to those who lived there as 'Rokugan', and kept it in peace for many years. A samurai ambassador, Miya Mashigai, was sent from the Emperor's court to gather news. As he set out, however, he met with a terrible tragedy: his ship, battered by storms and thrown far out into the deep ocean, wrecked upon the shoals of a foreign land. There, peasants found the samurai and carried him to their barbarian lord. "Once, there was a land of legends...