Yoroda 26: Zansha Rank, Income, and Authority (expanded from Book 5)

Although Zansha rank is traditionally described in terms of the lands and warriors under a lord's authority, in practice the most useful measure is koku: the assessed productive value of the lands, offices, stipends, and revenue rights supporting a warrior household. One koku represents approximately the amount of rice required to support one person for a year, but a holding's assessment is an accounting measure rather than a literal quantity of rice collected. Mines, fisheries, forests, tolls, workshops, and commercial rights may therefore contribute income beyond, or be converted into equivalents within, the formal assessment. Koku does not automatically determine rank. An ancient but impoverished family may retain greater status than its revenues suggest, while a wealthy newly elevated house may lack comparable prestige. Court office, lineage, marriage, military reputation, and direct service to a Great Lord or the Daizanate can all alter a warrior's standing. Nevertheless, assessed income indicates what a Zansha's household can maintain, the military service expected of him, and the privileges he can reasonably exercise.

Yoroda 26: 登場人物 (PC's)

 Yoroda 26 Campaign characters; info added as available.

Yoroda 26: Zansha Clans in 830 IY

The Zansha, a class of warriors in feudal Yoroda, play a pivotal role in the country’s social, political, and cultural landscape. These aristocratic warriors are not only skilled in combat but also deeply influence the fabric of Yorodan society. They are the most feared warrior class in the Taohuan Realms, with a reputation that extends across Kethos. At the heart of their role, Zansha protect their lords’ lands and people, defending against external threats and maintaining law and order within their domains. With unwavering loyalty and a code of honor known as Zanshinjo, the Zansha uphold the stability of the modern feudal system. The following list includes the most significant Zansha clans in modern Yoroda. 

Yoroda 26: General Intro to Yoroda

WELCOME TO YORODA

What You Need to Know Before We Play: Yoroda lies in the Taohuan Realms, the broad eastern cultural sphere of Kethos, occupying the Yoldo Islands on the region's southeastern edge, along with several associated territories, including Seibu, Nanto Rusak, and Betasho. Its position places it between the older civilizations of the Taohuan mainland and the wider maritime world of the Six Seas, making it both culturally connected and politically exposed. Mountainous, storm-prone, and geologically active, Yoroda’s islands have historically encouraged strong regional identities and difficult overland travel, while their coasts tie the empire into trade, piracy, diplomacy, and war with neighboring Taohuan states. 

Yoroda is a fantasy empire inspired by medieval Japan. It is a land of warrior clans, castle towns, temples, pirates, assassins, ghosts, monsters, political intrigue, and frequent war. It is not historical Japan; Japanese history and culture inspire it, but do not restrict it.  The empire is old, proud, heavily militarized—and currently coming apart at the seams.

Cyberpunk Story Arc: Go Clubbing, Get Clubbed

Azriel is invited out for drinks by Darnell Kaczmarek, a local bar bouncer and sideline entrepreneur (think Goon/Fixer) with connections inside one of the lesser families of the local American Club. Azriel considers him a friendly contact, and likely had a fling with him at some point. He mentions casually that she came up for discussion at the monthly meeting between the Club Families, which went down somewhere near Freland. Darnell was there as security and to ask Benny Nayer for some business favors unrelated to Azriel.

Cyberpunk 2026: A Trip Around The Bay pt 2

Continuing Adventures of the Gang in San Francisco, 2145!

Cyberpunk 2026: A Trip Around The Bay (Updated with SF Bay Info and Map)

The job begins with a very puzzling message. Azrael receives a direct inquiry from a woman she does not know: 

Dr. Simone Yao, a young physics professor with Eddings University. 

Ashen Reach: The Gravesend System (by C. Hill)

Common Spacer Saying

“Aster Vale owns the system.
Gravesend builds it.
Caliban fuels it.
Eirene feeds the Belt.
And the Belt steals whatever’s left.”

Ashen Reach: Languages of the Gravesend System

Humanity spread across the Gravesend System centuries ago, and distance, isolation, class division, and planetary culture gradually transformed a single ancestral language into dozens of regional dialects and specialized tongues. Some evolved in corporate arcologies and universities, others in prison mines, salvage docks, drifting pilgrim fleets, or the vacuum-worn stations of the Belt. While GalTrade remains the common language of commerce and travel, the system’s many local languages reflect the environments and societies that shaped them, carrying with them distinct identities, histories, and ways of viewing the stars.

Cyberpunk 2026: The Klamath Job

“Got a Glory Lane job, small clinic in Zone Klamath, off-books, the kind that stays invisible by design. It looks like it caters mainly to vampires. They’re running something a little ahead of the curve, and we want a piece of it: live subject with a strain-management implant, plus whatever data made it work. Layout’s standard on the surface, but our source says there’s more tucked behind cold storage, some kind of back section they don’t advertise. Security should be light, a couple of in-house types, nothing you haven’t handled. I don’t care about noise or bodies, but you’ve got a reputation for keeping things contained, so I’m assuming this doesn’t turn into a spectacle. Get in, secure the asset and the data, and get out. Good money for a clean pull.”

Cyberpunk 2026: The Hatch Bounty

A new contract hits the board: a corporate finance executive embezzled from the wrong accounts, got flagged, and ran. The issuing firm lacks the reach for a covert recovery, so they’ve posted a straight bounty: locate, apprehend, and return the target alive. A job like this, crossing into the Nevada Free Zone to recover a fugitive under armed protection, pays in the $18,000–$30,000 range, contingent on delivering the target alive and intact, consistent with upper-mid-tier bounty contracts. Clean execution with minimal collateral may earn a modest bonus. Split across a four-person crew and factoring expenses, it’s solid but not transformative money; enough to justify the risk, with the real value coming from reputation and future access to higher-tier work.

Southowilson 2026: What Is A "Yo-Sha"?

Yo-sha are independent operators who take risks the average citizen won’t, and that makes them dangerous, useful, and very often short-lived. 

Cyberpunk 2026 Campaign: Dramatis Personae

The PC's are a gang of Fringers loosely affiliated with one another, connected through Azrael, a local information broker who also puts together teams for heists and gray operations in and around Southowilson. 

Cyberpunk 2026: Heist #1 - Kestrel Rio Vista Campus General Information

The PC’s are hired by unknown parties (probably a Devaraja operative) to steal a set of seeds from Kestrel Agsys for some new food crop, some high-yield, disease-resistant grain strain. They are stored in a guarded facility in the Rio Vista Corridor 5D(a). The job pays $5,000 up front and $5000 on delivery for one night’s work and requires the goods to be dropped off at an arranged location. The patron offers little assistance besides “the lab is on the 5th floor of Building 8", remains anonymous, and provides a burner number to call when the job is done. That, and a chiller backpack (with a 6-hour duration), a 4kg demolition charge, and a timer/remote. 

Second SIOD Case: Nano

Synopsis: Dr. Elias Gray, a rogue American researcher, was attacked by a three-man hit team from the AFR somewhere along the Ikebara Megaroad. In the exchange of fire, the researcher was wounded, and a large amount of an unknown nanotoxin was released, killing the hit team, the researcher's own bodyguards, and several uninvolved civilians. This incident occurred at 16:30 on the first day of the investigation. Forensics and traffic analysis led the detectives to the Baltimora Bar and Grill. They were able to establish that Dr. Gray was in Southowilson looking for Nick Ransom, a local fixer affiliated with SDI and possibly Tex the Tech, a semi-legendary figure. It was also determined that the nanotoxin was a combination of a nonlethal paralytic agent and a "nerveburn"-type nano agent. 

Cybercops SIOD: First Case, H. Raines Homicide.

Glory Lane Fatal Stabbings

Patrol units responding to a disturbance call early this morning discovered two deceased individuals in a service alley off Glory Lane near The Mirage Circuit VR lounge. The victims, identified as Hector Raines, 46, an Australian national in town on corporate business, and Raisa Myaschev, 23, a local resident, both sustained fatal knife wounds. Investigators describe the incident as consistent with street robbery and gang violence common in the district. No arrests have been made. Authorities advise citizens to avoid the area during late hours and to exercise caution when traveling in entertainment zones.

Aerial Recon Drone (SWPD Model)

The Southowilson Police Department fields compact VTOL recon drones, about the size of a kitchen trash can, used for surveillance, suspect tracking, and high-risk entry support. Fitted with advanced optics suites, they can scout alleys, rooftops, or interiors in conditions that would blind human officers. Their mounted autoshotgun is less about precision and more about flexibility: a wide spread offsets the drone’s stability limits, while interchangeable ammo loads (breaching rounds, gas, beanbags, buckshot) allow it to serve both utility and suppression roles. Although armored and surprisingly resilient, these drones are still vulnerable to EMPs and electrical fires, making them expendable yet highly valued tools for SIOD and Maxtac operations. 

Cybercops: SIOD 4th Squad Characters

The 4th Squad of the Southowilson Investigations Division is the newest of the SIOD squads. They are a lean, soon-to-be overworked crew of detectives and operators tasked with the city’s dirtiest cases—political assassinations, syndicate wars, and corporate black projects that no precinct cop dares touch. With barely two dozen investigators in the entire division, every squad is expected to conduct surveillance, solve cases, and break down doors without backup.

Cyberpunk: Southowilson Campaign Setting

Southowilson Google Site

Cybercops: Southowilson SIOD (Campaign and Character Creation)

The Special Investigations and Operations Division (SIOD) is an elite unit within the Southowilson Police Department, composed of the department’s most skilled detectives and MaxTac officers. Candidates are selected for their experience, intelligence, and initiative. Unlike other divisions, SIOD is centrally administered from SWPD Headquarters in Turner Plaza, though its officers are deployed citywide as needed. They answer solely to the division captain.

SIOD is tasked with cases deemed too dangerous, sensitive, complex, or unusual for other divisions to handle. These range from gangs, organized crime, and drug rings to serial killings, corporate malfeasance, and incidents too obscure for routine investigation. If a case is too high-profile or, conversely, too low-profile to be handled through regular channels, SIOD takes it. Such assignments occur more often than most civilians realize.

The division is organized around a central command element and three to four teams, each comprising three to five officers. Every team is led by a detective sergeant, usually the most experienced officer on the team, and is assigned a distinct case. Squads maintain separate office spaces clustered around a shared briefing area near the captain’s office. Although the division’s base is officially located in the Judicial Center (Building 11, Turner Plaza), SIOD officers typically operate in the field or out of local precinct offices while conducting investigations.