In 375 T-K, the future Emperor Josuke Sorano was born. Six years later, after the death of his father in a hunting accident, he was crowned. Still a child was easily influenced, an easy target for the machinations of the power hungry. Josuke’s court was a battleground, one where loyalists to the Sorano name clashed with power hungry manipulators who saw the Emperor as their way to get everything they wanted.
Despite being the centre of intrigue and politics, despite the teachings of the wisest mentors and advisors in all of Ikaiguchi, Josuke’s interests were elsewhere. Exhausted by the constant struggle, he grew to be a hedonistic ruler, little interested in matters of state. Beauty held a fascination for Josuke, the finery of both nature and architecture occupying the boy’s mind.
Indeed, it was this that would begin the end of his reign. In 401 T-K, with drought afflicting much of the land, the young emperor chose to divert much of the city’s water supply to the palace, where he had recently commissioned the creation of several wondrous new fountains. This was the poison that ultimately festered enough for the people of Ikaiguchi to accept the coup that would follow.