This is Rimworld. Here, the Pacific Ocean covers most of the planet. And the world is the Pacific Rim.
Ah, Edo Japan. The red sun that shines over this samurai-protected country just never stops shining...
Throughout the woods, armor-clad samurai ride their patrols, via horseback. The woods are just as rugged as the summits of the peaks they cover. Every island in Japan is a volcano. And yet, somehow, green grass, rice, and forests still thrive...
Farther away, a crowd congregates at a Shinto shrine. Here, a great shogun expects to marry another bride; a very cheap, yet very sweet chick of the Yamashiro family.
Outside the shrine, samurai stand guard. Ninjas guard the interiors, but stay concealed. This is a bit of a religious violation, having armed men inside a shrine. But with luck, the knights won't need them.
The bride proceeds to the altar. She's dressed in white, and lovely. She's got a lotus blossom in her hair. She's as scared as ever.
This chick may look like the average Japanese bimbo to you. But somewhere inside that simple husk, there's a dark-hearted avenger, just waiting to unsheathe a pair of katanas, and go on an epic offensive worthy of recall...
Today, though, she must marry a shogun. Her husband-to-be, Tokugawa Iemitsu, is nowhere to be seen...
He makes an entrance, of course. He hides atop the shrine, and falls into place, as his bride takes her place at the altar. She screams, as he falls too close to her. The wedding guests laugh.
He nearly gave her a heart attack. With luck, her time spent in wedlock won't give her nearly as many heart attacks as his enemies will, if they ever come to his pagoda to assassinate him...
Masako sure wishes they would. In many ways, she admires him. In others, she fears him. And if she had her way, most women she knew would fear him even more than she does.
Alas, this is Edo Japan. Japan's still got several centuries to go, before a female shogun rises to power. One might not. Japan might very well replace its samurai orders with a modern military, before that happens...
Then again, Tom Cruise may come over from North America, and get captured by samurai and trained to be one... As little as that's got to do with feminism. (Koyuki's not too bad, though...)
The Shinto reverend preaches in Japanese. Around all, the cherry trees shed their flower petals. They litter the shrine. Nobody minds. The cherry flower is a benevolent omen, after all...
All this wedding needs now is a black horse and K.T. Tunstall. Ah, but if only she was born 350 years earlier, and was Japanese...
For this wedding by this culture and this time, now vows are said. And the documents have been signed by both families. Masako's father signed on her behalf. Needless to say, Masako's signature is worthless in this day and age...as is her voice.
There sure are a lot of armed men at this wedding. Something bad is going to happen during Masako's life as a wife; she just knows it...
From a lake nearby, every swan gradually flaps its wings, and takes off, leaving the shrine behind. That's a bad omen.
At the wedding dinner, the main course is roasted swan. That's an even worse omen...
Shogun Tokugawa forces his wedding guests to watch, as his fastest samurai knight raises his katana, and chops off the swan's head in front of a live audience. At this, many of the children either cry, barf, or both. THAT bad omen just about tops them all off...
After the wedding, Masako stays and helps clean, in silence. One day, she's going to have to do something about all of this. And she will. But first, she must answer, for herself, one question: how does one protect Japan when she's just a shogun's wife?
Somewhere out in the woods, a crowd of people shouts in agony, as some of the Shogun's ninjas slaughter them like sheep. Masako shudders, but keeps cleaning...