The Byakuyakoku Chronicles

A historical volume by the famed Bakufu scholar and "Three Brushes of the Kujou" courtier, Kujou Michizane. It briefly recounts the history of Watatsumi Island.

Coral Palace, at first, was an abyssal deep. Later a great serpent crossed the sea, coiled and rose in a swirling current, and shaped coral into an island. Thus the people of Coral Palace named it "Watatsumi Island," for they took the great serpent as their god.

The people of Watatsumi call themselves sea folk, and revere the great serpent as Orobashi no Mikoto. Watatsumi Island takes the shrine as its high court and has no ranks of general and magistrate as the Bakufu does. All affairs large and small rely on the shrine maidens; the chief among them is called the "Divine Priestess," who oversees governance and rites.

In years past, when the Archon War raged, Her Excellency the Raiden Shogun of the Great Narukami Shrine unified all Inazuma under one rule. All trembled and bowed; each kept their place—or else were destroyed outright and could no longer harbor undue ambitions. Orobashi no Mikoto had long held the western border with Narukami in peace; yet at that time a sudden malice rose, and the serpent struck east with full force.

The war was cruel, and the people's lives were bitter. Both sides clashed on what is now Yashiori Island, and both suffered heavy losses. Even the Shogun's beloved general, the tengu Sasayuri, fell there. In the end the great serpent was slain by Her Excellency and died on Yashiori Island.

Thereafter Coral Palace sent envoys to submit, and honored the Inazuma Bakufu as its suzerain.