Prelude

Thanks again to Rose and Tito for this image!

They were called "sohei," the greatest warriors of feudal Japan. Originally, they were monks of the great temple Enryaku, built in the year 788 among the cypress groves of Mt. Hiei to protect the emperor's new capital of Kyoto from evil spirits...But the pressure of constant attacks by marauding samurai intent upon the treasures of their temple forced them to take up arms, and eventually the sohei abandoned the teachings of the Buddha to follow the path of war.

And it was a bloody path. Masters of war, the sohei priests were mercenaries who fought constantly, leading the armies of conflicting samurai lords in furious combat. But the greatest rivals of the sohei were the warrior monks of Nara, and their terrible feud lasted centuries.

In this great age of the Japanese civil wars, the sohei became corrupted by bloodshed and ambition. The power and prestige of the sohei led them down paths of gluttony, dabauchery, sin and death. Unlike the samurai lords who were careful not to bring their wars to the capital, the sohei sought to control the nation with the dual levers of their religious influence and their military might. By the 1400s the monks of Mt. Hiei were raiding precincts of Kyoto belonging to the very samurai clans that had once preyed upon them.

It was then that the Shogun Nobunaga ordered the destruction of the Kyoto temple and its inhabitants. An unholy alliance of their bitter enemies, the Nara monks and the armies of the Shogun, finally defeated the sohei, leaving the warriors dispersed, powerless and in hiding.

These survivors assumed the guise of Komoso (wandering monks). Dressed in kimono robes and large, braided hats that hid their faces, they relied upon their commitment to a sacred code of honor to see them through these dark days -- for they had nothing else. Facing road bandits, rogue samurai (ronin) and the relentless wrath of the shogunate, the monks built a reputation as teachers, warriors and heroes that was immortalized in story and song, but the sohei found more than adventure. Many discovered peace, humility and enlightenment.

At last a new temple was built in Kyoto upon the ruins of the old, and the monks came home. Forbidden to practice their warrior arts openly, the monks returned to an outwardly tranquil way of life. But secretly they preserved the martial tradition and created a hidden order of shadow warriors. Today the sohei uphold a white banner in a tri-color war wagged across oceans, across time. Locked in a struggle with the black warriors of Nara and the red of Yakuza, the sohei have sworn a crusade of righteousness in a world grown hostile to such nobility.