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The City of Lightning is located on Shima no Koshinryo, the Island of Spice, in Inazuma Province. The city has always been specially dedicated to Osano-Wo, the Fortune of Fire and Thunder, ever since it was founded by a group of Mantis samurai early in the second century. They spent the night on the island and dreamed of a future world in which the Mantis were prosperous and powerful, then were awoken by a bolt of lightning striking among them. Believing the dream and the lightning were both sent by Osano-Wo, they established a temple to the then-new Fortune at the place where the lightning had struck.

In the ensuing years, a small city grew up around the temple to Osano-Wo (the temple itself is one of the largest and most extravagant in Rokugan, exceeded only by the sacred Shinden Osano-Wo on the Plains of Thunder). Because the area is subject to frequent storms, lightning strikes are common, particularly in the summer. The monks of the Temple are able to anticipate the night when lightning will be at its peak and perform a ritual, the Thunder’s Kiss Kata, timing great shouts with the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. More practically, the monks have learned that metal rods in high places will attract the lightning, presumably because of some cryptic relationship between the kami involved; in any case, this has prevented damage to the Temple, and even reduced the fires which used to threaten the nearby city.

In keeping with the religious character of the Mantis, there are also important temples here to Daikoku, the Fortune of Wealth, Suitengu, the Fortune of the Sea, Isora, the Fortune of the Seashore, and Natsu-Togumara, the Fortune of Travel and Experience.

One particularly notable aspect of Toshi no Inazuma is the extent to which it is an “open” city. Few are turned away, and this includes gaijin.