Shadows in the West is an ongoing 4th edition Legend of the Five Rings campaign that has been running since February of 2017. Despite our names, we are not affiliated with Shadow of the Cabal or Shadows of the Iron Dragon! Shadows in the West was named before our GM became aware of the Shadow of the Cabal podcast.
Our sessions are hosted online through Roll20 and are entirely text-based (with the exception of OOC communication, which is handled over voice chat). Our GM is Arielle, or Evalli, who can be found on Twitter or Tumblr.
The purpose of this site is to share our episodes, which are posted every other Thursday on Pinecast, iTunes, and Google Play. These episodes are scripted from heavily edited session logs, while still matching the progression of in-game play, that have been optimized for an audio drama/audio book-like experience for your listening pleasure. We’ll also share short stories here and announcements related to the Shadows in the West podcast.
Shadows in the West takes place in an alternate universe, or AU, version of Rokugan, the Togashi Empire, where Togashi became the first emperor instead of Hantei. Because of this, there are a number of key differences in the world, namely the overall “feel of the empire” and the veil between spirits, non-humans, and humans being much thinner. For more details about the Togashi Empire, you can read Evalli’s synopsis here (which she advises is always a WIP). Some liberties and expansions are taken with the lore as well, especially where the kitsune are concerned.
It also bears mentioning that ours is a very LGBT+ friendly Rokugan. Many of our players, GM included, fall under this umbrella in real life, and we all enjoy exploring it in fictional settings. For the most part, it is a non-issue in our Rokugan, and being gay, bi, trans, etc. is simply accepted as a part of life, or in some cases is considered the blessing of a particular kami or Fortune. We do take into consideration Rokugan’s emphasis on family, duty, childbearing, etc., so not to worry – there is still plenty of that to go around!
You can also follow us on Twitter and Tumblr. Have any questions, comments, etc.? Drop us a line! We would love to hear from you.