Minamoto mina-san: 最終回

Part 1 

Part 2 

Ok, it's the end. By the time you read this, it's probably 3rd May. Or hopefully a day or two after. It's been a very long time since I blogged about history. I still remember leaving the Zhang Liang series half-done, so perhaps I'll redo what I left hanging dry.

In this 最終回, I'm going to deal with one of, if not the most sensitive aspects of the Yamato-Ainu relationship. It's a very tricky terrain to navigate, so let's hope I don't blow things up. In the worst-case scenario, the likes of William the Pastor and Pastor Lee are going to grill me next Sunday.

Tragic parallels between two geniuses

When it comes to comparisons between geniuses, there is more than one thing in common between Yoshitsune and Han Xin. Not only were they proven geniuses, but the manner of their demise was also eerily similar, if not identical.

For Han Xin, his problem was a low EQ. While it's true many highly intelligent people do have higher EQ, we need to accept the fact that... well, it's not 100% applicable. How do you know it's not? Just look at how Han Xin dealt with his boss Liu Bang. If there's one thing you shouldn't do, it'd be telling him how capable you are compared to him. In fact, Han Xin actually boasted he could command a far larger army than his boss. If that's not low EQ, I don't know what else is. Does that mean Han Xin was an idiot? We all know he's a genius. Of course, the counter-argument would be that he didn't have the relevant background. It's like comparing a genius without a degree with a PhD student. Which one do you think would have a higher EQ? Regardless of intelligence, surely it's the PhD student. If the said genius was a victim of the educational system instead of being the beneficiary due to bullying and teachers not doing anything resulting in parents not knowing anything, I don't think one can fault him/her for having a low EQ. There's a difference between one g-word and the other G-word. No genius can ever be called God and only God can control circumstances beyond anyone's control.

As for Yoshitsune, his background didn't fare much better. Unlike his half-brother Yoritomo, he was raised in a religious institute instead of a political clan like the Hojo (i.e. that's actually how Yoritomo got married). The monks at Kurama Temple back then were probably far more isolated than actual evangelicals of today. As for Sōjōbō, he probably didn't fare any better if he was a human being. As a tengu? Well, we all can guess the average tengu's EQ level.

Why did I mention two geniuses cursed with a low EQ? The reason was that a low EQ happened to be the cause of their own downfall. One challenge for people with low EQ would be dealing with inter-human relationships. For Yoshitsune and his Han dynasty counterpart, trouble ensued in the form of dealing with their superiors. Liu Bang for Han Xin's case and Yoritomo for Yoshitsune's case.

Let's talk about Han Xin first to get a better idea afterwards. After Liu Bang unified a chaotic China by defeating Xiang Yu at Gaixia and forcing him to suicide at the bank of Wu River, he proceeded to weaken Han Xin's military authority. At the first glance, that's because the boss had a problem with his subordinate. In reality, it's likelier due to paranoia and it showed via Liu Bang's treatment of Xiao He despite having NO reason to suspect his loyalty. Xiao He didn't die but he was jailed due to Liu Bang's paranoia. There's a very good Chinese saying, "Accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger". Every member of the famed Three Heroes of Early Han had to deal with this. Xiao He was wrongfully jailed like Parti Liyani. Thankfully, Liu Bang released him soon after because he was smart enough to know this was a dumb thing to do. Zhang Liang being the person who understood Liu Bang best decided to say "I quit" like a French. Because of Liu Bang's respect and deference to him, Zhang Liang managed to escape from the political intrigue of the royal court like Fan Li minus a beautiful Xi Shi twelve years younger. As for Han Xin, he retaliated. That's the cause of his own downfall and eventual death along with the likes of Ying Bu and Peng Yue.

Han Xin's response was identical to Yoshitsune's reaction when Yoritomo decided to strip his half-brother of the honours and titles bestowed upon him by Emperor Go-Shirakawa. Just a bit of introduction of the Emperor here to give you an idea of the situation: Unlike the current Emperor Naruhito and his father Emperor Emeritus Akihito, Emperor Go-Shirakawa was a politically shrewd person known for playing a game of politics with his vassals. Simply put, he's a very political Emperor. The rise of the Taira clan before the Kamakura shogunate was already a threat to the Emperor. At the same time, Yoritomo was also very suspicious of Go-Shirakawa. This was proven by his famously damning verdict of Go-Shirakawa's character: The biggest goblin of Japan. In short, Yoshitsune was likely a mere political pawn in the hands of Go-Shirakawa. In a certain sense, Yoritomo might have been had by this Imperial goblin. What if Go-Shirakawa's intent was to sow division among the brothers? If Tokugawa Ieyasu was a tanuki-oyaji, Go-Shirakawa would have qualified as a kitsune-oyaji. Go-Shirakawa wasn't senile, he knew Yoritomo was a political animal while Yoshitsune was a military beast. If brother and brother joined hands like Sun Ce and Sun Quan after their father Sun Jian died a horrible death, would he be the next Taira no Munemori? Regicide wouldn't be an option, but exile was 100% plausible. Better to deal with Yoritomo than to deal with Yoritomo and Yoshitsune (although that's probably because there's no chance in Inzanami's home Go-Shirakawa could deal with Yoshitsune instead). By exploiting Yoritomo's animosity towards him, Go-Shirakawa would have succeeded in sowing discord. As for Yoshitsune, he retaliated. Why? There were two possibilities:

1. This was an act of intentional rebellion. Hence, justifying Yoritomo declaring his half-brother an enemy of the state.

2. Yoshitsune was only trying to make his half-brother give back what was rightfully his.

Before we make a conclusion, let me point out an important factor of no return. Namely, Yoshitsune's decision was legitimised by imperial decree. If this was Go-Shirakawa's plan, he clearly executed it flawlessly. Subjectively, it's only natural for us to assume the latter. Objectively, we realised we can't make the correct call. That's how cunning Go-Shirakawa was if he's really hell-bent on playing his game. Ever tried wondering how a dead person could trick future generations of the living to this very day? Interestingly, actual events might have been darker than we'd like to believe.

Let's fast forward this to Yoshitsune running away. He's now a fugitive on the run together with his retainers and family. Now let me point out two prominent names: Sato Gozen who was his wife and Shizuka Gozen who was the woman Yoshitsune loved most. This will be important later on.

He soon made his way to the Ōshū region which was the modern-day Tōhoku region. This was also the focus of Koizumi "more maverick than his grandfather" Junichiro's activism and the reason why the MFA will be very busy next year. The previous patriarch of the Northern Fujiwara clan (i.e. the clan ruling over the entire Tōhoku region) Fujiwara no Hidehira was an appreciator of Yoshitsune's capability. It was Hidehira who housed Yoshitsune before Imperial Prince Mochihito issued a call to arms to the remnants of the Minamoto clan. And it was Hidehira who sheltered Yoshitsune when he became a wanted man. All that changed when Hidehira passed away in 1187 AD. To put things in perspective, the Battle of Dan-no-ura was fought and concluded in 1184 AD with Yoshitsune's death in 1189 AD. That's how fast things unravelled.

When Fujiwara no Yasuhira assumed the clan leadership, he was initially determined to honour the wish of his deceased father till the very bitter end (i.e. the promise to protect Yoshitsune no matter the cost). But there's a problem: Yoritomo was clearly a master of politics. By applying pressure on Yasuhira, it'd imply he already secured the loyalty of the Imperial court. This effectively meant Go-Shirakawa's political scheme went up in smoke and fire. Incidentally, Yoritomo and Go-Shirakawa managed to mend the fences after Yoshitsune's death. This paved the way for the first shogunate in the history of Japan: Kamakura. Also known as part of the Koizumi family's home prefecture.

Back to Yoshitsune. Now not everyone in the Northern Fujiwara family agreed with Yasuhira when he said, "We got no choice". Yasuhira had a younger brother Tadahira. He was the only one disagreeing with the betrayal. In case you assume Tadahira was being emotional, allow me to point out one danger behind Yasuhira's stance: Will Yoritomo turn against the Northern Fujiwara clan afterwards?

There's no way to assume one thing or the other. If the Northern Fujiwara chose not to obey Yoritomo, they'd be in danger of annihilation. If they chose to, what's there to guarantee the safety of the clan? As it turned out, democracy won and Tadahira was clearly left seething at the winning majority.

In 1189 AD, Yoshitsune was prepared to die. The final battle of his life was nigh: The Battle of Koromogawa. One by one, his retainers fell. His most famous follower Benkei died. When they first met, it was on a bridge. Benkei was on a revenge quest against the samurai whom he saw as arrogant as a tengu. By defeating them and taking their swords, Benkei desired to prove one thing: They're just nobodies. His goal was 1000 victories resulting in 1000 swords. At his 999th, he saw Yoshitsune bearing a gilded blade. Instead of duelling at a shrine, they fought on a bridge. Benkei lost but he wasn't about to concede. The second time they fought, Yoshitsune won again. Something might have been said, for hereafter Benkei loyally followed Yoshitsune. From Ichi-no-tani to Koromogawa, from victory to defeat, and from life to death. It was ironic to see where he died for Yoshitsune was where he fought Yoshitsune. On a bridge, Oniwaka fought Ushiwaka. On a bridge, Oniwaka fought for Ushiwaka.

Death or cheated death?

Meanwhile, Yoshitsune was prepared to die. Entering the Jibutsu-do hall, he slew his wife and daughter. Sato Gozen who faithfully followed him and the child she bore with him. The woman he loved was abandoned to the mercy of his foes, Shizuka Gozen with their unborn child. Then the Hero of the Genpei War ended his own life. With that, his head was taken and sent to Yoritomo encased in a lacquered box filled with sake. Alas, Yoritomo wasn't satisfied. The next day, he declared the Northern Fujiwara as rebels who daringly sheltered a traitor despite treason. Gathering his forces, he destroyed the Northern Fujiwara clan. Yoritomo secured his grip on power. With no one to challenge him, not even the cloistered Emperor Go-Shirakawa, the Kamakura shogunate was formed. As history would tell us, power soon changed hands from the Minamoto to the Hojo. The latter thrived but the former was destroyed without descendants.

Yet it wasn't the Hojo who made sure of that. The Minamoto clan had a history of turning against each other. During the Hogen Rebellion, son turned against father, Yoshitomo against Tameyoshi. During the Genpei War, Yoshinaka broke ranks with Yoritomo and paid with his life. Yoritomo's decision to persecute Yoshitsune was dissented by his birth brother Noriyori. As for Noriyori, he brazenly consoled his brother's wife when a false rumour of Yoritomo's death made its way through. Yoritomo was thrice-blessed to escape death. With that, Noriyori's fate was sealed and eventually he was executed on suspicion of treason.

When Yoritomo died, he left behind two sons. The Hojo patriarch Tokimasa schemed against the firstborn, Minamoto no Yoriie. Siding with the younger son Sanetomo, word had it that Tokimasa ordered the assassination of Yoriie. When it was likely Sanetomo would share his brother's fate, Yoritomo's widowed wife and her brother acted. Together Masako and Yoshitoki forced their father to abdicate. To take the tonsure and swear never again to play the game of kings.

When peace seemed to have returned, death came for the Minamoto clan. A seemingly harmless priest, Kugyo turned out to be Zensai, the son of Yoriie who was brutally murdered. Like Yoshitomo against Tameyoshi and Yoritomo against Yoshitsune, so it was with Zensai against Sanetomo. Zensai's anger raged at his uncle, his wrath directed at the Hojo. In one single blow, he slew Sanetomo. With a stroke, he declared himself the Shogun. Alas, betrayal arrived. When justice demanded its due, Zensai was betrayed by his ally. Miura Yoshimura turned against him with false words and Nagao Sadakage took his head.

And with that, the Minamoto clan perished. A wise man once said those who live by the sword shall die by it. Such was the truth of the Minamoto clan. By the sword, it thrived. By the sword, it perished. By the sword, one turned against the other. By the sword, no one was left.

Then rumour swirled from the north, a realm beyond Oshu where men and women of the bear resided. The Ainu claimed a Yamato as their own, a man of their enemy as Okikurmi. They called him Yoshitsune and his companion Benkei. But how could it be? For how could the dead be revived? Unless someone died in his stead, one who looked like him. True or false, brazen lie or daring truth, who could tell? Yet the Ainu said Yoshitsune was Okikurmi and Okikurmi was Yoshitsune.

DISCLAIMER!

The following part is a conjecture of conjectures. I don't claim to be a PhD student in psychology. Therefore, please proceed at your own risk of racial sentiments. At the same time, I doubt my words will sound pretty. This is due to my manner of expression able to function only within either extreme instead of finding a middle ground. I've lived long enough to know this is a flaw beyond repair. Just don't ask me whether I'm mildly bipolar.

Remember what I said about Shizuka Gozen? Going by the events leading to her capture, it's interesting to see that while she was abandoned to the mercy of Yoritomo's soldiers, the opposite went for Sato Gozen. Given how the various tales went, the time gap shouldn't be that large. More specifically, it would seem that:

1. Yoshitsune intended to end the life of Sato Gozen and their daughter.

2. Yoshitsune's wish for Shizuka Gozen and their unborn child was for them to live on.

If Yoshitsune's desire was to orchestrate a family death, why was Shizuka Gozen spared? But since Yoshitsune was hell-bent on killing Sato Gozen and their daughter, why did he let Shizuka Gozen and their unborn child live? Even if Yoshitsune's undying love for Shizuka Gozen was a factor, you can't assume his relationship with Sato Gozen to be that of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Lady Tsukiyama. Because there's no proof.

On the other hand, how should we see the Ainu claiming Yoshitsune living among them? Finding the relevant evidence can be hard since everyone knows the Maori but not the Ainu. In fact, the Samurai Shodown series was the reason why I knew about the Ainu. If not for my exceptional memory, I wouldn't be typing this. Thankfully, my persistence paid off. Now, this is the only Ainu work I discovered telling us the Ainu narrative of Yoshitsune after a massive Hassou-tobi from Aomori to Hokkaido. One thing about the Ainu tales is that like the Celtic people, legends and folktales were passed down through oral means. As a result, not even Bronisław Piłsudski could tell us the Tales of Yoshitsune. The reason was that the Japanese government enforced a policy of assimilation on anyone not of Yamato blood. As a result, the Ainu got clobbered by a senseless policy. All in the name of racial harmony. Or something like that.

The history between the Ainu and the Yamato is nothing to scoff about. While I disagree with CRT, that doesn't mean the Ainu weren't suffering for many years. For how long? Longer than the Japanese occupation of Korea and Singapore combined by my guess. At best, they're never on talking terms. At worst, they'd be on fighting terms. Three notable events came to mind for the latter: Koshamain's War, Shakushain's revolt, and the Menashi-Kunashir rebellion. Out of the three, Koshamain's War might have been the most significant as Koshamain was a man of legend who sacked twelve forts manned by a superior Yamato army.

From the perspective of racial relationships, it'd make no sense for the Ainu to claim Yoshitsune as one of their own. Let alone Okikurmi. But if there's one thing I've learnt about life, it'd be the difference between the absurd and seemingly absurd. There's only this much we can dismiss until reality says so otherwise. If the Yamato claimed the Ainu account makes no sense, they're correct. But because they're actually right, it resulted in the need to make sense of what the Ainu said. One thing I've learnt in dealing with people is this: You don't speak as if the other person should listen to you. When someone speaks, listen. If you want to shoot down the person's words, then don't expect that person to trust you. And without trust, actual discourse can never take place. Trust, that's what separates civilised society from a kingdom of intelligent neanderthals.

But if Yoshitsune did escape, how did he pull it off? I stumbled upon an article suggesting the usage of political decoys may be more ancient than one might think. Granted this applies only to celebrities and historical figures, but do you know what's that one thing they have in common? The fact they're human beings.

This comes to Samai. Why would Benkei be there? I'd say that's the wrong question to ask. Instead, we need to ask how did the Ainu know he was Benkei? The only reason was the same reason why they claimed Yoshitsune was among them: Because he said so.

This comes to mind a person of interest: Hitachibō Kaison. Out of Yoshitsune's retainers, he's the only one to survive. But how considering the circumstances? Notably, he's a monk like Benkei. If Benkei truly died (and I believe this to be so), this would mean Samai was never the real Benkei. This was an imposter carrying on the dying wish of Benkei.

As for why Yoshitsune would be called Okikurmi, I need to point out the original Okikurmi was a demi-god figure teaching the Ainu the ways of civilisation as they knew it. In other words, this was a prehistorical mythical figure no different from Gilgamesh from the Epic of Gilgamesh. Therefore, it'd make perfect sense to assume Yoshitsune was never the original version. Instead, Okikurmi could be either a title of reverence or how the Ainu saw him: The reincarnation of an Ainu god.

This comes to the moral of the Ainu poem. Namely, do not take this story lightly. We all know certain kids nowadays. Always creating trouble because they're bored. Assuming Ainu kids are better behaved than Singaporean ones, it'd mean the moral of the story wasn't directed at them. Instead, it could be directed at any Yamato scoffing at such a tale. After all, Yoshitsune died.

Of course, that'd come to the question of why Yoshitsune would kill Sato Gozen and their daughter. I have to admit this is a question to which I don't have an answer. Assuming Shizuka Gozen didn't know what Yoshitsune was going to do, it'd only make sense for Sato Gozen to be fooled as well. This is why the issue of whether Yoshitsune died should be seen as a matter of public discourse. We're not talking about denial of the Holocaust where an agenda is clearly present. For the Ainu to challenge the Yamato narrative, one must ask whether there's an agenda? If so, then where?

Credit to Type-Moon for giving me that music coffee I needed.

And this unforgettable scene as well.

Minamoto mina-san (Gonna try finishing this by 3rd May)

Before I start, allow me to state why I'm going to try finishing this by tomorrow. If you need proof that there's something surreal about Singaporean holidays, look no further than the 9th of August. That day is famous for two things and less known for the third:

1. It's the day Singapore declared independence through non-violent means due to violent riots.

2. It's the day the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew cried on public TV.

3. It's the same day Singapore would be liberated from Japanese rule twenty years ago. Don't believe me?

 They bombed Nagasaki 20 years before Singapore became independent. Literally.

While there's nothing surreal about Zouk continuing its closed borders policy until 10th May, 3rd May in Singapore is a public holiday just like 3rd May is a public holiday in Japan. One is called Hari Raya Puasa, and the other is called Constitution Memorial Day.

Since I'll only resume work on Wednesday, I decided to try and see whether I can finish this by my country's 3rd May instead of Japan's 3rd May. Hopefully, Evan "he truly answered NHK's call" Call can push me all the way.

In the last two final parts, I'll be dealing with two things: Minamoto no Yoshitsune's rise as a military genius and his tragic fall from grace. Depending on whether you're pro-Yamato or pro-Ainu, either he died or he... well, didn't. Hopefully, the second part won't come out wrong due to Japan's racial history.

The image of Samurai Charming and sheer genius

In the previous post, I did mention Minamoto no Yoshitsune's legendary status as a lady's man. Not only did he probably "resemble" the Korean Suga, he's known to be a fast mover as Saitō Musashibō Benkei would find out on a bridge. At the age of 15, boys would be busy talking about girls and girls would be busy talking about boys. At the age of 15, Yoshitsune demonstrated his skill as a swordsman against a bandit chief called Kumasaka Chohan. Needless to say, a 15 year old boy bested a mafia boss.

While plenty of details about Yoshitsune were embellished, one thing which I believe wasn't would be his status as a military genius. In fact, I'd compare him to Han Xin, the undisputed military genius of his time. In this part, I will go over three notable battles he fought: Battle of Ichi-no-tani, Battle of Yashima, and Battle of Dan-no-ura.

What defines a military genius?

If there's one weird thing about military geniuses, it'd be why they tend to be short. Napoleon Bonaparte was only 1.68m. That's short by a white person's standard. Alexander the Great was only 5ft+ together with his fellow Greeks. Cao Cao was said to be 1.55m. Tokugawa Ieyasu was 1.56m-160m while Date Masamune was shorter at 1.59m. As for Yoshitsune, he's actually not as tall as Suda "his real name is Taishō" Masaki at 1.76m or even Takizawa "unrelated to Karen" Hideaki at 1.66m. He's only as tall as me at 1.60m. Of course, not every military genius was short. Oda Nobunaga was said to be 1.70m although he's probably as thin as me according to his Roman Catholic friend Luís Fróis.

Ultimately, the proof of genius lies in what the person is capable of instead of the things he/she can't do. One stupid thing I noticed about the idea of a genius was the assumption that one is defined by romanticisation. I've got no problem in recognising Max "Imperial Maximus" Zeng as a true genius. But what about Vincent van Gogh? Did having mental disorders mean he's an idiot? We all know Vincent van Gogh was a genius, but how many of us had the guts to acknowledge his mental problems?

Another dumb thing about misunderstanding a genius is the instinctive assumption of genius=prodigy instead of prodigy=genius. Just because a seven-year-old displayed exceptional intellect doesn't mean every genius functions the same way. Thomas Edison was believed to be mentally addled by his educational system. Oda Nobunaga was called the Fool of Owari while Liu Bang was seen as a useless bum of little to no education. As for Han Xin, he clearly had no university degree and a victim of schoolyard bullying.

For Yoshitsune, he ended up in the "worst" place to nurture a genius. Namely, a religious institute. As a child, Yoshitsune didn't have the best deal. His father Minamoto no Yoshitomo died as a result of the Heiji Rebellion. The winner, Taira no Kiyomori, was attracted to his enemy's concubine. In the classic moment of "my enemy's wife is my wife", Kiyomori took Tokiwa Gozen as his wife due to her exceptional beauty. One of her sons with Yoshitomo was none other than Yoshitsune who was exiled to the Kurama Temple due to his identity as Yoshitomo's child. Nicknamed Ushiwakamaru, young Yoshitsune was clearly uninterested in religion.

Location wise, Kurama Temple was situated at the foot of its namesake mountain in Kyoto. Interestingly, Kyoto was still the capital of Japan back then, a reality which remained consistent before the bakufu era consisting of Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo respectively. However, it could also be said that it's far better to send a dangerous kid to a religious institute rather than somewhere else more dangerous.

Mount Kurama is know for two things: Its temple and its tengu. The former is self-explanatory. As for the tengu, they'd be what the West called goblins. Mythical beings of chaotic neutral morality, the tengu were portrayed as troublemakers. From possessing innocent maidens to seduce equally innocent monks to abducting religious figures, they're a mythical force of nature to reckon with. In fact, the Japanese has a phrase "tengu ni naru". While that's a polite way of calling a person an arrogant bastard, it literally means "becoming a tengu".

Interestingly, the mythical king of tengu wasn't interested in committing child abuse. Instead of emotionally torturing Yoshitsune, the grand Sōjōbō taught him all that he needed to be great one day. This was interestingly reminiscent of how an unknown old man seemingly trolled Zhang Liang when he was as impetuous as yours truly ten years ago. His respect for the elderly paid off when he was given the Strategems of Taigong manual. Zhang Liang would eventually went on to become Liu Bang's number one strategist and was known as the Saint of Strategies. Remember what Daily Mail said? If the Book of Eight Styles of Kurama was real, that'd make it the Japanese version of Strategems of Taigong.

So what did Yoshitsune learn under Sōjōbō? Skills like military tactics, swordsmanship, and... magic. Seriously, what would you expect otherwise from a magical being? Because the legend of Yoshitsune was clearly way more embellished than the Legend of Koizumi manga, a question about where Yoshitsune learnt his craft would be this: What if Sōjōbō was a human being just like me and you?

While that'd dismiss Yoshitsune's jumping ability as some sort of grand sorcery, it wouldn't dismiss the fact that swordsmanship and military tactics could be taught without magic tricks. While I used to dismiss Yoshitsune's major feat at the Battle of Dan-no-ura (no pun intended), a part of myself wondered what if it's real? Would that be an implied moment of ninjutsu usage? For a samurai to attempt something like this was preposterous. But that's due to a matter of training (i.e. no samurai would be trained to do this).

Then you have the issue of military tactics. As a child exiled to a religious institute, what were the chances of him learning such things? The monks of Kurama Temple were esoteric, but that didn't mean they're a bunch of violent people. I do have a strong reason to believe:

1. Sōjōbō did exist and he taught Yoshitsune the arts of fighting, jumping, and military tactics.

2. Sōjōbō didn't need to be a tengu to pull that off.

Moment of genius: Battle of Ichi-no-tani

Now the information I gleaned was very little, so I have to try making the most of what I have.

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Ichi-no-Tani

Ichi-no-tani was a Taira fortress easily defensible. Hence, it's imagineable how confident the Taira was in holding fort. In fact, the kanji Ichi indicated the manner of the fortress location wedged between two mountains. Because that'd effectively be a defensive point within a valley, hence the kanji Tani. Literally translated, Ichi-no-tani means Valley of One as in how the number would look in kanji form.

Due to how narrow the Taira bulwark was, mobility itself would be a massive problem. But because a highly defensible position would offset this (only in theory as Yoshitsune would very soon proved just that), the assumption would be nothing was going to happen so long the infantry could hold ranks and the archers firing away. The difficulty in mobility, at the same time, would also present a case of mutual handicap. The reason behind the Taira faction's confidence, in this case, would be a case of subtraction math.

In a daring moment of military deployment, however, the Minamoto army split itself into two forces. One led by Minamoto no Noriyori and the other his most famous half-brother Yoshitsune. Noriyori's mobilisation route was clearly the direct one heading straight for the jugular. Interestingly, the map labeled 7th February indicated Noriyori was engaging the Taira a distance away from Ichi-no-tani. At the same time, the map labelled 4th February to 7th February implied that Yoshitsune managed to route the opponent forces en route to Ichi-no-tani. This indicated Yoshitsune possibly had the majority half of the army as it'd make splitting his force into three much easier.

By attacking the west along the coast, Yoshitsune effectively cut off the enemy lines linking to Ichi-no-tani. That's the first detachment under his command. The second detachment would attack the other flank. This resulted in the enemy fortress being isolated (refer to the green arrows on the map labeled 7th February). Then you have the third group in charge of overlooking Ichi-no-tani from the north. Interestingly, it was implied that all three groups converged to set fire on the namesake fortress. This comes to the question of how if Yoshitsune and Noriyori's forces were still in the state of engagement. Because the plan was to set fire on the fortress, eliminating the enemy troops beforehand was both unnecessary and impossible. By burning the fortress while the Minamotos kept hammering away, that'd imply a group splitting off from two detachments each. More specifically from both of Yoshitsune's forces with the third group being those near Ichi-no-tani. Because mobility was a massive handicap for the Taira, setting Ichi-no-tani on fire effectively rendered the subtraction math moot. In other words, the Minamoto forces in charge of the fighting were never intended to target the enemy base. They're intended to distract the defensive forces while at the same time crippling their response via three fronts (i.e. you have three green arrows from Yoshitsune and one blue arrow from Noriyori). While Ichi-no-tani was indeed notoriously hard to maneuver, the same couldn't be about the surrounding region.

This comes to mind the nature of Yoshitsune's genius. The Taira's belief in their invincibility was based on an assumption: The Minamoto army would try to storm the fort. Why? Because they assumed this was the only way. But what if Yoshitsune already knew what the Taira were thinking? If you can't beat them at their own game, defeat them through yours. The Taira's game was absolute defence. Yoshitsune's game was burning down their defence. It didn't matter how the battle went along the enemy lines. Ichi-no-tani was behind the enemy lines. Once the base went up in fire and panic, how many remaining troops the enemy had was moot.

Note: Interestingly, this was also the battle where Benkei famously fought alongside Yoshitsune. This actually reminded me of a Kumamon meme.

Moment of genius: Battle of Yashima

https://www.yashima-navi.jp/en/history/entry-154.html

If there's a battle proving the CIA wasn't lying when it said Yoshitsune was a master of shock tactics, the Battle of Yashima would be it. This battle took place after the Battle of Ichi-no-tani. By then, the Taira were already pinned against the ropes. The strength of the Taira was based on one person: Kiyomori. If you need proof that no titan can ever sustain a kingdom, you don't have to ask Singaporeans whether they feel this way. Look no further than two names: Imagawa and Taira. For the Imagawa, Yoshimoto's disastrous defeat (and subsequent death) at the hands of Oda Nobunaga was that one block creating a domino effect. For the Taira, it'd be Kiyomori's death. Depending on whether you believe the narrative from Heike Monogatari, the elder statesman might or might not had a peaceful death.

At the same time, Kiyomori was both the reason why the Taira became great and the architect of its downfall. The Heiji Rebellion propelled him to the highest point of political power where being a no-man could result in suspicions that you're a *gasp!* Minamoto sympathiser. Kiyomori being the cause of his own clan's downfall was down to two reasons:

1. Autocracy. If you need proof that autocracy is bad for your country, look no further than Kiyomori. By appointing his clan members to important positions, Kiyomori clearly hoped to cement his position and that of the Taira. But because there are only this many names one can cram into any political cabinet, this resulted in unwanted isolation. There were indeed those who admired Kiyomori at first but later believed he had changed. Way too much.

2. Mercy. What if Kiyomori decided to execute Yoritomo and Yoshitsune? While killing children would constitute to a crime against humanity, it remained true that mercy played a major role. One would eventually be the hand bringing down the Taira and the other the blade held by that very hand. In retrospect, however, mercy would have been a moot factor if Kiyomori chose not to be an autocrat. Or at least not autocratic to the point where even the Imperial family couldn't take it.

The starting point was at modern day Osaka, the very same place the guy who played Yoshitsune in The 13 Lords of the Shogun was born. But there's a problem: In the same manner William the Conqueror had to stare at the storm blowing against him during the Battle of Hastings, Yoshitsune had to do the same.

Interestingly, the Minamoto decided to set sail during the middle of the night. However, Yoshitsune only set off with 50 boats. In total, only 50 horses and 150 soldiers crossed the sea. That'd amount to 50 mounted troops and 100 infantry troops. Not the best way to start a fight.

The storm apparently didn't die down. Yet the time took to reach Katsuura was surprisingly short. This meant the wind was clearly blowing hard along that direction. But there's a problem: Yashima was at modern-day Kagawa prefecture while Yoshitsune landed at the modern-day Tokushima prefecture. This was where usage of shock tactics came into place. In short, it's blindsiding the opposition. Tokushima is situated just behind Kagawa. This was like the Allied forces landing at Normandy with German backs facing then. A large part of this was down to the help of the Watanabe family who had extensive knowledge of the sea area. Just don't ask me whether he charmed a Watanabe ojou-san to pull this off.

Yoshitsune was a charismatic leader who knew how to galvanise his troops. The typical commander has to stayed in the rear in order to direct the process. But not Yoshitsune. Unlike how Russian commanders got themselves killed, morale wasn't the reason why Yoshitsune decided to be that 死に急ぎ野郎. No one forced his hand. But because no one forced his hand, his men were all the more willing to...

1. Fight alongside him.

2. Die for him.

He ain't our boss. He's our leader.

Once landed on Katsuura, Yoshitsune made haste to attack the Taira. One person of note was Kondo Chikaie, a local of the region. Like how the Watanabe family aided the Minamoto in dealing with the sea, Kondo helped them in navigating the land. Once they reached Yashima, Yoshitsune did NOT attack. Instead he did something... well, very controversial. More specifically, he told his men to set fire on the surrounding commoners' homes. Note that this wasn't Ichi-no-tani where a fire was set upon military infrastructure. This was Yashima where fire was set upon civilian infrastructure. I don't know how the Minamoto soldiers saw it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Yoritomo wasn't amused by his half-brother's act of arson.

Unlike your typical bored delinquent, Yoshitsune wasn't doing this for fun. Instead, it was to bluff the enemy in thinking:

1. The enemy had attacked.

2. The enemy had an army of 25000 instead of just 150.

The first point was logical, the second a case of jumping the gun. The enemy's assumption was that without an army, the Minamoto wouldn't come knocking at their doorstep with a sledgehammer. One vital ingredient in making shock tactics work isn't about getting things done fast. Proper usage of shock tactics involve a mind going against the fast-food mentality culture we're all living in. If you want to make things work, you don't have to do it fast. Yoshitsune's intention was never to attack. Rather, it's making the enemy think he'd attack. A force of 150 would be one associated with reconnaissance, not combat. Just like Ichi-no-tani, Yoshitsune exploited the weakness of subjective assumption. At the same time, the Taira expected the Minamoto to attack from the north while Yoshitsune actually landed at the south. Hence, the panic factor made it even harder for the Taira clan to make the correct call. Coupled with the fact that the child Emperor Antoku was with them, the reaction was only to be expected.

After setting fire on the surrounding civilian housing, the Minamoto proceeded to set fire on the Taira palace (I believe you all have seen a consistent theme of arson here). By doing so, the Taira had no turning back. Remember what I said about Yoshitsune's men being willing to die for him? Well, that literally happened when Taira no Noritsune took aim and fired an arrow. Had not Satō Tsugunobu taken the arrow willingly, Yoshitsune would have died. Sadly, Satō wasn't as lucky as Fa Zheng when a similar thing happened. He died like Pang Tong.

Needless to say, the Taira tried seizing back Yashima with no success. With that being said, at least part of the remaining Minamoto troops might have managed to land and reach Yashima as it'd make retaking Yashima much more difficult for the Taira.

Moment of genius: Battle of Dan-no-ura

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Battle_of_Dan-no-ura

It's now 12.38 am and my brain is swimming. So this part most probably wouldn't be that good. Because I wanted to finish this Minamoto mina-san series by 3rd May, I decided to soldier on.

The Battle of Dan-no-ura was clearly the final battle of the Genpei War with the defeat of the Taira and Taira no Munemori (played by none other than the firstborn son of Japan's most popular politician). Unlike the previous two battles, arson wasn't part of the fight. If the climax battle was the Battle of Yashima, then Dan-no-ura would be the Battle of Hakodate to Yashima's Battle of Toba–Fushimi.

The battle was one where shock tactics were... well, useless. This was a battle of attrition where victory and defeat would be decided by the turning of the tide. Literally. And therein Yoshitsune had a problem. A very massive and decisive one: The tide was in favour of the Taira. Munemori knew this as well. If there's a chance for the Taira to recoup its losses, the Battle of Dan-no-ura would be it. Defeat for the Minamoto would be a massive setback, but defeat for the Taira would be the end. Munemori clearly had so much more to lose than Yoritomo.

Because the Battle of Dan-no-ura mostly involved artillery and soldiers fighting on their sampans, there's nothing much for me to say. There are three things of note:

1. The nature of the tide proves Yoshitsune's genius in another way.

2. The defection of Taguchi Shigeyoshi

3. Dan-no-ura Hassou-tobi

The nature of the tide flowed in two interesting directions. The first would be to the Taira faction's advantage. The tide ended up pushing the Minamoto side all the way to the north. Interestingly, the Minamoto fleet had plenty of space around it. On one hand, it allowed the Taira to surround them. On the other, however, it still gave the Minamoto enough space to manoeuvre. For the Taira to win, they had to make sure the tide wouldn't turn against them. For the Minamoto to win, they had to weather the storm. Not because they're forced to but because they had to. This battle would be one where the longer it took, the likelier a Minamoto victory.

Then it happened. The tide turned. And the Taira... well, they're screwed. When the tide turned in favour of the Minamoto, the Taira got themselves into a geographical pinch. If you look at the third tactical map, you could see clearly the tide took the Taira fleet straight into a literal bottleneck. Wedged between two coasts, the Minamoto could seize the initiative and do two things:

1. Surround them.

2. Force them into the corner. Literally.

This comes to Yoshitsune's understanding of the tide. Considering the Battle of Yashima resulted in other powerful families defecting from the Taira, it's only natural someone would inform the Minamoto how the tide functioned. This was a case of simple calculation, high risk attrition. What Yoshitsune knew, the Taira should understand as well. But once both sides entered the fight, that's it. Both had to accept the tide would never be with them forever. Psychologically, it could be advantageous to the Minamoto instead of the Taira. The reason was that for the Taira, they're racing against time. For the Minamoto, it's all about holding firm and keeping faith in the tide. Terrain wise, the Taira had the upper hand. Psychologically, Yoshitsune clearly had the advantage.

The second part would be the defection of Taguchi Shigeyoshi. The one problem the Taira had with him was his loyalty. Or rather the lack thereof. Apparently, he was captured by the Minamoto only for him to be either released or rescued. There was a capable commander called Taira no Tomomori. Apparently, he had no problem with everyone on board except for Shigeyoshi. Although Tomomori's stance was of suspicion instead of suspicion proven, Taira no Munemori committed a fatal mistake. By reinstating Shigeyoshi, he proved Tomomori to be correct. So how did Shigeyoshi betray his liege? One important part of political legitimacy in the history of Japan would be the Emperor. In the present, Emperor Naruhito is a constitutional monarch just like Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and King Willem Alexander of the Netherlands. Before Japan's defeat in World War II, however, it was a different ball game. To have the Emperor at your side means having the mandate to govern the nation. In this sense, there's no difference between the Meiji era and the Tokugawa shogunate. Therefore, the presence of the Emperor was an important part of legitimising the Taira rule. At the same time, the child Emperor Antoku was the grandchild of Kiyomori when he arranged a marriage between the previous Emperor and his daughter.

The struggle between the Minamoto and Taira boiled down to two heirs apparent: Antoku backed by the Taira and Go-Toba backed by the Minamoto. For the Minamoto to win, they had to do something about Antoku. It clearly didn't matter to them we're talking about a six-year-old. Long story short, Shigeyoshi told Yoshitsune that...

1. Antoku wasn't in the boat he should be in.

2. The kid was at another boat. Simply put, the Taira tried to game Yoshitsune at his... well, own game.

With this knowledge, the Minamoto artillery was directed at the correct boat. Chaos reigned and tragedy ensued. Kiyomori's widow, Taira no Tokiko committed suicide by drowning herself. And with her, poor little Antoku was dragged into a watery grave.

Then we have the third part: Dan-no-ura Hassou-tobi. More specifically, was it physically possible? Initially, I believed it's physically impossible due to a samurai's armour weight. To leap from one boat to the eighth would be more insane than trying to finish a PhD within 2 years. 3 years, possible. But 2 years? If it's jumping from one boat to the next to reach the eighth, that's equally implausible in face of the laws of physics. On the other hand, Yoshitsune's jumping ability shouldn't be dismissed as nonsense. Even the most outlandish myths would have a grain of truth justifying either the lie or embellished.

Notably, Yoshitsune's childhood name was Ushiwakamaru. Maru is a nickname for a boy instead of a cat while Ushiwaka means young bull. If this was an indication of anything factual, chances were that Yoshitsune's insane athleticism would have something to do with the relevant level of strength. This comes to mind the Ainu folksong involving him escaping to Ainu-Mosir (i.e. the modern day Hokkaido).

Next: The final part.

To be continued...

ESOtivity: ToT

It's been only a short while since I last posted something. While I won't call it surreal, it's still surprising. In the past, I was more focused on blogging even though the only thing of actual value would be (and still is) A Requiem From Winter Past. With video gaming, the focus went (and still goes) the other way. Is gaming dangerous? I have to say the answer is yes. Thankfully, I have:

1. The determination of Guts against addiction.

2. The genius of Minamoto no Yoshitsune against using the money for the gacha.

Granted above statements are hyperbolic in nature, but it's true I can live instead of just surviving without gaming for at least 14 working days. At the same time, it's equally true I never spent money on gacha and still could make things work.

So what will this post be about since the last part of the title looks like a crying emoji?

ToT=Tales of Tribute

Recently, I had a hand in testing out things on the PTS for High Isle. There's only one reason why I did that. And that's to have a hand in playing Tales of Tribute. Otherwise known as ToT.

Before entering the PTS, I did have a bit of knowledge about how this mini-game works. But it's one thing to know the rough outline of things and quite another to know the vital details. That's where I decided to go to ESO Hub and see whether there's any information beyond what the likes of Kotaku and Massively OP had offered.

Long story short, I was floored by what I saw. The reason wasn't that I was dealing with a Gwent styled artwork featuring a random dryad's bosom (i.e. how Gwent could get a T rating from ESRB is beyond me if I want to be objective here). In fact, the closest thing in Tales of Tribute to something rated M was probably a bowl of dead mice. Rather, it's the massive amount of details I had to process from Treasury and Saint Pelin to the Duke of Crows. If there's anything I can't do, it'd be processing an info dump. Unlike Max "Imperial Maximus" Zeng, my brain doesn't function like Aozaki Touko. Instead, it functions like Aozaki Aoko.

 

Or maybe more specifically Aldo.

 

Needless to say, the apparent info dump didn't deter me from trying out the new mini-game. The Antiquities mini-game is a decent time-passer so long you know how to use the scrying tool, but not engaging enough. Tales of Tribute? That's where I'm currently having fun on PTS right now.

The ToT process

When I first dropped feet at Gonfalon Bay, my only intention was to find a way to play Tales of Tribute. The city was a Mediterranean beauty to behold. At the risk of sounding culturally ignorant, it felt very Italian. More specifically, it's a combination of French and Italian.

 

Thankfully, there were only two side-quest markers. I did some subtraction math and ended up at the correct place. The tutorial was easy. After that, the same went for the practice match. It was only after the practice match that things got interesting. You have two cats giving two different dailies. The smart one gives you the easier daily where you duel NPCs across three places in Tamriel. The not-so-smart one? PvP aka the hard one.

At the first glance, taking the smart one's offer would be the easy way out. After all, one must learn before playing. For me, I decided to do both as a form of testing. I first tried PvP and the outcome was... quite frankly terrible. My fellow human being deserved to win. As for me, I was left floundering and wondering which card to take. The learning curve was rough, but it taught me one important lesson about myself: Any attempt to process excessive info would result in my brain registering a blank.

This was similar to a scene in Ya Boy Kongming! where Eiko's online followers count skyrocketed to 1000+. Unlike tricking others into processing nothing, I forced myself to process everything. The cards were still decoys.

It was then that I moved on to the not-so-smart daily given by the smart one. That's where the interesting part came from. Before that, allow me to point out that for whatever reason, PTS seemed to be overloaded. This resulted in me being forced to abort a match every now and then despite leading the AI by a score of 30+ to less than 10 (Note: I'm utterly convinced anyone could have done that, so it's not as if I'm the Second Kongming or Yoshitsune Incarnate).

Initially, I was still fumbling around with the cards on the table. In this sense, nothing changed. Then I realised I should have focused on two decks. It's actually quite easy for now. There are only four to choose from at the moment: Duke of Crows, Saint Pelin, Loremaster Celarus, and Grandmaster Delmene Hlaalu. Out of the four, I settled on Duke of Crows and Saint Pelin. The reason was that both boasted a direct approach. It's like playing Gwent where the logical path for a new player is to first choose the Northern Realms faction instead of Nilfgaard. If you choose the latter, you're either crazy like me or a genius like Yoshitsune.

You know something is going to happen when a Nilfgaard player gives you this kind of face.

 

Right now, I can't tell you how the four other decks work because I've yet to progress that far. However, it's interesting to see the Hlaalu and Psijic Order decks functioning somewhat like Nilfgaard where dictating the momentum is the name of their game.

Going back to Crystal Fragments?

If there's anything I've learnt about myself, it'd be that no one should ever trust me due to having the whimsical mind of a chaotic neutral Aeravor. Why did I say that? Because I decided to switch to Crystal Fragments despite what I said previously.

To put things in proper context, using Crystal Weapon did serve me well more often than not. During my most recent veteran Elden Hollow I run, however, my DPS was abysmally low since my aim has always been to reach post-40% despite not having to move much (i.e. not Volenfell last boss). This prompted me to try changing certain things. Yes, I'm a fickle scoundrel either at times or most of the time.

So what I did was a setup I used to do until I changed it. Again, I'm a fickle scoundrel either at times or most of the time. Unlike above, I actually forgot why I changed it. In fact, I didn't even remember whether it was pre-Update 29 or afterwards. Apart from a minor change due to how Update 33 endorsed a hybrid approach to a certain Fighters Guild passive, nothing changed.

Note: This is only for the front bar!

Crystal Fragments; Crushing Shock; Degeneration; Bound Aegis; Camouflaged Hunter

Ultimate: Greater Storm Atronach

Gear: Mother's Sorrow, Gryphon's Ferocity, Ilambris

Note that if I had not used Ilambris, there's no reason for me to use the Raijin Daioh himself.

Replacing Gryphon's Ferocity or complimenting it?

In that same previous post dealing with Crystal Fragments, I mentioned prioritising my Khajiit alt in gearing with Order's Wrath. However, Hack "he doesn't hack your HTML because it's illegal" the Minotaur made me think more than twice.

 

 

The reason why he changed my mind was because of the reduction of critical chance being only 2.7%. Believe it or not, that means I should really switch down Mother's Sorrow instead of Gryphon's Ferocity. At the same time, running on Ilambris means I have to prioritise damage over critical chance. After doing the math instead of meth (not that I'd do the latter), my Dunmer Sorcerer's critical chance only went down to 54.6%. Going by Alcast's math, it means I still hit the passing mark of 47%. Just don't ask me whether 54.6% is a 2:1 pass or a 2:2 pass. I prefer to see it the British way.

P.S: Really need to thank Wagakki Band for this song giving me that adrenaline rush to finish this post. Now if only I can start doing Part 2 of Minamoto mina-san and finish it by next Tuesday.

ESOtivity: Holy Order's Wrath! (Refer to the first video you see)

Now I'm sure some of you may be wondering whether I've gone full Joseph Joestar where the post title is concerned. After all, I do have some sort of a criminal record in terms of doing and saying things either dumb or outright wrong. There are moments where I asked myself whether I could have done better had my childhood been normal instead of someone constantly bullied just because I might have resembled half Japanese, one-quarter Ainu, and one-quarter Slav instead of a Singaporean. Then again, the hypothesis may not be true given the fact university students are capable of breaking the law in Singapore.

What will this post be about

My personal thoughts on what many ESO players would call the 3-trait craftable BiS set. Currently, the game got three craftable BiS sets for DPS: Hunding's Rage (6 traits), Law of Julianos (6 traits), and Diamond's Victory (5 traits). At the first glance, Order's Wrath looks like a ridiculously cheap BiS craftable, something like Armor of the Seducer plus the roids. But are things really that straightforward?

DISCLAIMER!

What you read here are my views. Depending on the way you build things and how you see things, chances are that you'd disagree with me. I don't profess to have the knowledge of streamers, let alone one like Asmongold. You've been warned.

 

Order's Wrath... now this set's bonuses look terribly crazy. It's going to supplant Gryphon's Ferocity and Gryphon's Reprisal due to similar stats bonuses and being a critical DPS set. That's until ZOS set us up a CP bomb.

TLDR: Fighting Finesse will give you only 6% additional critical damage while Backstabber should give only 10% additional critical damage from the flank. So what does the math mean?

Under the current patch, you should have 10% critical damage assuming you're running a non-medium armour setup without being either a Templar or Nightblade with 25% critical damage when factoring in Backstabber. Once the next patch arrives, the math should look like this:

Base critical damage: 6%

Critical damage with Backstabber: 16%

In solo running, a 4% critical damage drop is something. Translated into running as a group and this would mean a whopping 9% drop. If you're to run with either Medusa, Tzogvin's Warband or Gryphon's Ferocity where Minor Force is available, the numbers should look like this:

Base critical damage: 16%

Critical damage with Backstabber: 26%

 

Otherwise, it should look like this with Order's Wrath:

 

Base critical damage: 14%

Critical damage with Backstabber: 24%

Because the changes affect every critical build, it's going to be a matter of which abilities you're going to use. Either that or pairing it with Medusa. For Magicka DPS builds, it may be harder if you're running a ranged build. The reason is that you only have two abilities giving Minor Force: Either morph of Accelerate or Lightweight Beast Trap.

Personally, I'm quite wary of the delayed casting time for Channeled Acceleration despite its 36-second duration while Race Against Time only lasts 12 seconds. As for Lightweight Beast Trap, I'm not confident about the Stamina sustain unless you're running with a full Well-Fitted trait gear. Yes, you have a reduced cost. But with only a 10-second duration plus the need to sustain the Minor Force as much as possible, Stamina sustain is probably going to be an issue. Interestingly, that may actually make the Well-Fitted trait useful in conjunction with the Tumbling and Expert Evasion CP boons.

If you're running a melee Magicka DPS, that's where the fun part comes if you're doing a Nightblade. The reason is that Nightblades are meant to be tactically versatile where you can experiment with plenty of theoretical stuff. Not easy but that's what makes running a Nightblade interesting. Order's Wrath with Kinra's Wrath and a full Kjalnar's Nightmare plus the Thief Mundus stone effect? That'd be a very fun build. If you're worried about another DPS group member having a full Kjalnar (i.e. an awkward situation involving a Kjalnar arms race), you can opt for the Stormfist set. An alternative to Kinra would be Arms of Relequen, but I'm not sure how it'd pan out since Relequen can't critically hit (rightfully so since that'd break the game). Merciless Resolve? That's another matter altogether.

Off-the-cuff build (front bar only!)

Lotus Fan, Merciless Resolve, Barbed Trap, Twisting Path, Inner Light

Ultimate: Flawless Dawnbreaker

Gear: Order's Wrath (Light), Stormfist x2 (Light), Relequen (Jewelry and Dagger x2)

 

Mundus stone: Thief

 

Slotted CP: Thaumaturge, Deadly Aim, Fighting Finesse, Backstabber

Some (second) thoughts

Initially, I intended to try and see whether Order's Wrath is better than Gryphon's Ferocity. So I'm going to list down how I now view the relevance of Holy Order's Wrath for each of my characters. Note that all my characters are DPS because I'm not confident enough to roll a tank and/or healer. Maybe in the future. After all, my sticker book is 100% complete for the Knightmare set, Engine Guardian, and Earthgore. Maybe Knightmare+Torug's Pact+Mighty Chudan x2 for tanking and Armour of Seducer+Magnus' Gift (have to check whether I can afford to use Olorime instead)+Earthgore for a healer.

 

[Note: Right now, the worry is ZOS nerfing the set somewhere down the road. They did that for Diamond's Victory and if they could do it for a 5-trait set, what are the chances of that happening to a 3-trait Order's Wrath? Your guess is as good as mine. Ultimately, it's probably either the critical chance or the critical damage. Of course, there's still a chance Order's Wrath wouldn't be nerfed since the critical damage CP boons are already nerfed.]

Dark Elf Magicka Sorcerer:

This is my main and I may replace Gryphon's Fury with Order's Wrath. The reason isn't that I intend to use Lightweight Beast Trap. Rather, it's because I'd only end up with 2% less critical damage with a critical chance of 943 in exchange. A good trade-off if you're to ask me since I don't mind missing out on the Minor Expedition and Minor Force. At the same time, I decided to ditch Ring of the Wild Hunt and replaced it with a full Slimcraw. After that, I traded Slimcraw for a full Ilambris. The best thing about Ilambris is that it makes either morph of Force Shock go nuclear with a Flame Staff. Either 33% to proc or effectively 66% to proc? Tell me that's not nuclear. At the same time, Elemental Weapon still feels clunky. Great damage if I'm not running Ilambris, but I'm still more of a katana wielder than a claymore user.

As for why I won't use Lightweight Beast Trap, it's because I intend to stick with Crystal Weapon. Sure, it's going to get roided with the only question being the fine-tuning. But even without the roiding, I still intend to stick with it since I can freely use it as and when instead of a more restrictive Crystal Fragments proc game. On one hand, it's due to the risk of high latency knackering my DPS momentum (i.e. my brain feeds off adrenaline and ESO isn't exactly an Asian game if you get what I mean). On the other, I tend to thrive unfettered instead of needlessly chained. In all honesty, Crystal Fragments would amount to better DPS while Crystal Weapon would be more tactical but deal less damage.

High Elf Magicka Templar:

I don't think I'll consider Order's Wrath. The reason is that I'm currently running with a full Slimcraw, Mother's Sorrow, and Dreugh King Slayer. The third set is the reason why I say this. I'm not comfortable trading a free Major Sorcery for a higher critical chance and critical damage. I guess it's down to that personal feel, but so far this combination is functioning well for me. As a DoT-centric build relying on the Aedric Spear tree, I decided to focus on the penetration more than the critical damage. As a result, the base critical damage stands at 20% (16% come the next patch). So how did I pull it off? Just go for Lover instead of Thief. The result went much better than I expected due to a combination of 9K+ penetration, Major Sorcery, and Minor Berserk.

 

At this point, the only complication would be the what-if scenario where either the group healer has Combat Prayer or a fellow DPS running with a Kinra's Wrath.

Orc Stamina Nightblade:

It's a bit of an odd journey trying to spec this guy. Conventional logic dictates I should do something about upping the critical damage and running a dual-wield build with two knives. But Oblivion no, I decided to throw conventional logic out of the window. I ran with a two-handed sword with a normal Maelstrom Bow for the back bar. I ran full Kra'gh, Leviathan, and Dreugh King Slayer. And I ended up with a whopping 5K+ weapon damage. Or is that 4K+? Either way, the number is insanely unreal.

Unlike my High Elf Templar, I may switch Dreugh King Slayer for Order's Wrath due to already having insanely high base damage. Even if Order's Wrath is going to be nerfed, it doesn't take anything away from the fact I'd be changing the DPS focus from high base damage to striking a balance between base damage and critical damage. The fact I'm running the angry Orsimer with a Barbed Trap means I can up the critical damage by 10% on a prolonged basis. The only pity is that I can't replace Thief with Shadow without breaking things up. If it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Breton Magicka Warden:

This guy is low-critical DPS. Since I've got nothing relevant to say, I might as well point out I did a terribly dumb thing. Namely, gearing him with a 4-piece Stygian via the trader instead of crafting a 4-piece Stuhn's Favour. Yes, it's that dumb. There's a reason why and I'm not going to say it out. Because people are just going to call me an experimental moron.

One thing about Wardens is that they don't have good base sustain even for Bretons. Nightblades don't have good sustain as well, but at least they have great damage. Templars? Well, you got either morph of Restoring Aura. Without Atronach, my Warden's Magicka recovery would be locked at a 3-figure sum. With a combination of Atronach, full Stormfist, 2 Divines traits, 5 Invigorating traits, and Blue Betty? Effectively infinite Magicka plus casting Subterranean Assault with relative impunity. Don't ask me how I got this because it's due to an accidental discovery caused by my dumb mistake of buying two Stygian armour and two pieces of Stygian jewellery. More specifically the former since the Invigorating trait is a major reason why you'd sell an armour cheap. So no, accidental discovery shouldn't be an excuse for my stupidity since I had to burn 100 Transmute Crystals to change the jewellery trait to Bloodthirsty.

Note that Stormfist does work well for Magicka DPS Wardens depending on how you stack with Winter's Revenge. For me, the Update 34 changes to Arctic Blast may have less impact on me due to using area DoT stacking to maximise the Stormfist proc frequency. For group running, however, I go with Winter's Revenge and Subterranean Assault since I don't have to worry about the range. And one more thing: Wardens can be surprisingly good at nuking things depending on how you set one up.

 

Khajiit Magicka Nightblade:

Again, this is a probable candidate for Order's Wrath. The reason lies in the racial passive and the fact I'm now running the cat on Shadow. In other words, I don't mind a reduction of 2% critical damage in exchange for 943 critical chance (i.e. I'm now gearing him with Gryphon's Ferocity with Mother's Sorrow and full Slimcraw). In fact, I have two options: Switch Gryphon's Ferocity for Order's Wrath or do the same with Mother's Sorrow.

 

The reason is the change made to Ambush for the next patch. With Minor Berserk given upon execution, it means I won't have to rely on full Slimcraw. More specifically, full Slimcraw would be redundant when the 6th day of Oda Nobunaga's birth and death anniversary month says hi. Even for a Magicka Nightblade, I wouldn't mind going with Slimcraw x1 and Iceheart x1. In this way, I don't have to break things by switching Shadow for Thief (i.e. that'd be a massive critical ouch if I'm to replace Mother's Sorrow instead of Gryphon's Ferocity). In the worst-case scenario where Order's Wrath would be nerfed via the critical chance, I'll just switch Siphoning Attacks for Mirage due to the front bar weapon trait being Sharpened. If I'm to prioritise between which toon to gear Order's Wrath first, it'd be this cat.

Minamoto mina-san (i.e. some massive ramblings on Minamoto no Yoshitsune)

Okay, it's been a long time since I've blogged something. One thing I realised about doing stupid things throughout the last 10 years and beyond is the fact that I shouldn't be doing them at all. Another thing I noticed? If there's anything worse than doing stupid things, it'd be the refusal to learn from your stupidity.

Recently, part of my curiosity was aroused in understanding myself better. Namely, what are the scars left behind by schoolyard democracy? If I want to stay true to my conscience, I cannot say my bullies did something stupid. Bullying is wrong, not stupid. Doing stupid things may land you in the hospital, but doing wrong things can lead to others getting hurt or worse. I can be "kind" to them, but I have to be the same type of person to justify that. You know, the Roy Mustang logic.

This comes to some self-testing. Now before I go on, let me point out that self-testing does not amount to a professional diagnosis. However, I did have bad experiences dealing with professionals. There was this one time when a counsellor adopted brute-force positivity where in fact I was seeking answers. I gave up. Then I visited a psychiatrist. The intern counsellor did a very good job. Sadly, she's only an intern. In short, no calls for a follow-up. I didn't know whether it was an honest slip from the radar or something worse. I chose not to pursue it because I didn't want actual confrontation.

Here were my own self-testing results.

And now onto the topic

There's something truly personal behind the term hogan-biki. Literally translated as Judge's Favour, this term was inspired by the post of Kuro Hogan conferred upon Minamoto no Yoshitsune by the Imperial Court. Due to the tragic nature of Yoshitsune's recorded death, hogan-biki refers to sympathy for the underdog. And that's who I was and still am: An underdog.

Depending on how much fuel I have, this post may or may not extend beyond Part 1.

Will the real Yoshitsune please stand up? (not literally FYI)

The legend of Minamoto no Yoshitsune has always been universal knowledge among the Japanese. When it comes to the sources of his legendary feats (no Dan-no-Ura pun intended), three titles come to mind: Azuma Kagami, Heike Monogatari, and Gikeiki.

Azuma Kagami was the official historical record of the Kamakura shogunate from Minamoto no Yoritomo's war against the Taira clan until the middle of the 13th century of Imperial Prince Munetaka's arrival at Kyoto on July 20, 1266, who was a retired shogun expelled from Kamakura. (Source: NOT Wikipedia).

As for Heike Monogatari, it's an epic account of the Genpei War. Split into three parts, each part has its own protagonist. Taira no Kiyomori in Part 1, Minamoto no Yoshinaka in Part 2, and Minamoto no Yoshitsune in Part 3.

Lastly, Gikeiki was where we got much of the romanticised Yoshistune from. This also means we can easily guess from where most embellishment and positive PR hailed from.

Before I continue, let me point out that much of Yoshitsune's life was unable to be verified. But there seemed to be two versions of him:

 

1. The heroic version we're all familiar with.

 

2. The anti-heroic version that was further roided by Hirano "Jigoku no Kouta" Kouta and more realistically portrayed by Suda "he's really Taisho"  Masaki in Kamakura-dono no Jūsan-nin (don't ask me why it's written as 鎌倉殿の13人 instead of 鎌倉殿の十三人).

 

For point 2, at least that's how I interpreted his rage scene since I watched it off Youtube with no subtitles and zero understanding of spoken Japanese. Speaking of that show, it's quite surprising to see Evan "he answered NHK's call" Call being the second non-Japanese to compose the music for a Taiga drama due to his age of 33. The first person who did that was John "he's a composer, not a preacher" Graham for Kirin ga Kuru and the dude was already 89 back then. Credit to Saitama no Randy for telling me there's a seniority culture in Japan. I hope he and his waifu are currently fine in Saitama.

One interesting snippet of information that may (or may not) tell us whether the real Yoshitsune was more of an anti-hero came from this site. Further confirming this was Daily Mail. If you click the CIA link, however, you'll enter the Realm of 404. Nevertheless, I never expected a British tabloid to pull this off. Yes, the British tabloid culture is good at stuff like whether Prince William has truly fallen out with Prince Harry. But to tell the entire world that Minamoto no Yoshitsune was the OG of shinobi culture and said, "because the CIA said so"? That's baffling. I wonder what the likes of Lloyd "not from Texas" Austin and Ben "he decided not to bend for Trump" Sasse would say about this.

If (and that's a very big IF) the British tabloid wasn't bluffing us, Yoshitsune's identity as a proto-ninja would point towards the possibility of the anti-heroic image instead of the idealised Samurai Prince Charming we're used to seeing. The reason is that the code of bushido clearly forbade the usage of black ops. Any samurai who did so would have dishonoured his clan. Believe it or not, the idea of honour is still very real in Japan today where you don't have to be the PAP to sue another person for libel. In the olden days, there could only be one ending for those who dishonoured their clan: Seppuku.

But not so for commoners. After all, they didn't belong to the nobility. This meant two things:

1. They didn't have the privilege of the elite.

2. They could do things the elite can't. Like performing black ops.

If (again, that's a very big IF) Yoshitsune was a ninja, that'd mean he had to resort to some questionable tactics to get things done. At the same time, it's natural to assume a ninja would be more pragmatic than a samurai due to the no-rules logic. Interestingly, official records of ninja activities were only present starting from the Sengoku era. However, the wording made it very clear that the concept of shinobi had already evolved into organisations instead of the common rabble many members of the aristocracy would look down on. To have an idea of the situation, the Sengoku era was officially dated 1467-1615 while the history of black ops in Japan happened as early as the 6th century AD. To put things in (speculative) perspective, the Genpei War happened during the 12th century AD. Theoretically speaking, Yoshitsune might have a certain knowledge of the shinobi arts as we know them now. Whether that qualified him as the OG of shinobi culture remains another issue altogether.

 

 

To be continued...

ESOtivity (but first some major rambling)

It's been... well, quite depressing. We all know what's going on and I'm not going to repeat what the whole world knows right now.

Thankfully, I managed to adapt. It's not because I'm a Singaporean instead of a Ukrainian. Rather, it's more like a natural self-defensive system within my brain. I find it far better to be positive by acknowledging the world to be imperfect and the actual definition thereof. Believe it or not, my church is responsible for preserving my sanity instead of my country. In a very real sense, I see quite a bit of myself in Emiya Shirou of the Unlimited Blade Works route of Fate/stay night. This also means I also see my hypothetical self in Archer.

The weird thing the Russo-Ukrainian war had provoked in me was to search what Slavs looked like. Note that if you can call a Russian a Slav, it means you cannot call a Slav a Russian. Because Ukrainians are also Slavs.

The interesting part about Slavs is that they don't seem to have that sharp look present in your typical white person. So if you see a white foreign talent with a smoother jawline, that person may possibly be a Slav.

Eye shape-wise, it's interesting that rounded eyes are not a given among Caucasians. While rounded eyes do exist among East Asians, the shape resembles the capital letter D flipped to left. For Caucasians, rounded eyes mean a shape like a rugby ball. Interestingly, this shape may more prominent among the Slavs. There's a term called the Pontid or North Pontid look. The latter has a sharper look while the former had a softer look. Both have an oval jawline and rounded eyes.

This was when I came to my very own WTH moment. For years, I acknowledged I don't look Chinese. The reason is that my jawline is a smooth oval shape while my eyes are symmetrically rounded and slightly slanted. This actually gives me a weird Japanese look with an equally weird Ainu touch. At the same time, my nasal bone is a weird combination of low (note I never say flat) and narrow. This is why my nose looks nicer with glasses on instead of just after waking up. The former boasts a sharp look while the other presents a flatter look. As a result, I started having questions about my DNA. Singaporean Chinese are descended from southern China. As a result, they can look quite different from those of northern China. This was due to different ethnic minorities in both ends of China respectively. But even then, I'm not sure how northern I look because my eyes and jawline are unable to give me a clue. Then the next thing I realised, I weirdly resembled half-Slavic. Or more possibly one-quarter Slav. It's weird. I tried observing other fellow Chinese and even Google search for the relevant images. The outcome only further reinforced the possibility that something wasn't right. And it didn't help that an accident involving my feline curiosity (i.e. not this type) resulted in discovering a half-Ukrainian Japanese model named Karen "not that kind of Karen" Takizawa. Some of her photos left me scratching my head. We both have similar jawlines. You know the moment Joseph Joestar broke the third commandment once again? Yeah, something like that.

With that being said, I'm not about to assume whether I'm adopted or not. One thing life has taught me is that you play the hand you're dealt with. And with that, how you play the cards accordingly. If I sound like a philosophical Remy, that's because I identify myself with Gambit's past as well.

Shipwright's Regret and Coral Aerie: First impressions

One thing I learnt about enjoying the storytelling process in ESO is this: Do the DLC dungeons asap once they got released. The reason why is that players would want to have a go at the mechanics while at the same time enjoying the dialogue. One issue I have with doing dungeons is that I don't have time to go through the dialogue because everyone else would be running forward. Random normal dungeons have been known for all sorts of people speedrunning from point A to point Z. The reason why is that since Update 29, changes in the CP system means everyone is out to grab fast loot and faster XP. Everything about normal dungeons is farming without knowing. If you really want to learn, you have to do random veteran dungeons. As a DPS, I find that random normal dungeons don't serve as a good honing session. It's now like dolmen farming in Alik'r.

If the dungeons are new, however, it's a different issue. Players would be out testing how the mechanics work. In veteran difficulty, one strategic error can cost a wipe and quite possibly a mutual party quit. That's what happened in one of my random veteran dungeons raids where my group (including myself) decided to quit at the last boss. Never mind the fact Bloodroot Forge can be insanely hard on veteran mode. It's a miracle we got to Earthgore Almanac, never mind the fact someone accidentally triggered hard mode during our final try. Now to think of it, maybe the healer should be in charge of triggering Quenching Blood with the tank holding ground at the Blistering Fire fount. Maybe I should have suggested that to the group. But I didn't due to confidence issues caused by schoolyard democracy in the past. With that being said, Bloodroot Forge is an interesting raid due to a high strategic focus.

For the two newest dungeons, I call them the advanced versions of Red Petal Bastion. In Red Petal Bastion, the most difficult bosses would be the first and last ones. For the first, it's all about eating sweetrolls and busting portals. For the final boss, it's about precise positioning and tactical reaction to the AoE attacks which would happen like half of the fight or more. Both DLC dungeons functioned similarly. However, my first impression was that they're harder. Of course, this may be due to the high group level since everyone's CP was way above 1200. More likely post-1400. This actually made the run sweeter since it's not every day you run a normal dungeon with nobody running ahead and possibly leaving the rest for dead. While I don't mind an ad-hoc speedrun in random normal dungeons, there were indeed rare occasions of one inconsiderate group member running ahead without paying attention to whether any other members had the need to do the quest. As a result, one person's want for fast loot and faster XP left a lingering bad taste in other players' mouths. I don't think you can ever say get over it because that's a terribly irresponsible way of implying we live in a broken world. Truth to be told, I'd rather have 3 other group members not knowing what to do instead of someone running ahead. That's actually the good thing about queuing for random veteran dungeons: You don't have to deal with unnecessary toxic behaviour because no one could have the free pass to do so.

Enough about the complaining, let's go back to the two new dungeons. As I said, we had a fun time running it. One guildmate and two other strangers. While my inner world is an isolated fortress, I know an honourable person when I see one. In this case, three.

I'll be honest here: Coral Aerie seemed to be more challenging than Shipwright's Regret. For the latter, the difficult fight was restricted to the last boss where the Code's Combat Alert addon only told me trouble was coming. How to deal with it, that's your business. The movements of the slow travelling whirlpools functioned like Prior Thierric's travelling wall attack. For the latter, you needed to block and break free from the knockdown. Otherwise, you're going to take a ton of damage. For Shipwright's Regret's last boss, blocking didn't result in a massively reduced damage done. The amount of damage taken if blocked? The same as Thierric's travelling wall damage if you never blocked. That's how tricky it is. In other words, you have to be familiar with the whirlpool movements. Something you need to practice often to get the hang of it.

For Coral Aerie, the overall more difficult part lies in the mobs. It's a bit like navigating Bloodroot Forge and Scalecaller's Peak where the AoE just kept coming. The last boss wasn't that bad compared to that of Shipwright's Regret, but the second last boss required a higher level of mobility and positioning since her AoE attacks kept coming out like a modified machine gun. Interestingly, bosses in Coral Aerie seemed to take more damage than that of Shipwright's Regret. This probably meant Coral Aerie boss fights were more a DPS check than Shipwright's Regret.

Some thoughts about ESO storytelling

I'll be brutally honest here: Gates of Oblivion wasn't the best ESO storytelling. The gameplay is good, especially with the Rockgrove trial, but I just felt ZOS was trying too hard to give female NPCs the chance to shine. The gender balance seemed terribly lopsided. This resulted in me wishing Sombren wasn't the traitor despite the foreshadowing. It shouldn't be happening. If I was a feminist, it might be a different story. The fact though is that I'm not. Do I believe in righteousness and justice? Yes. But that doesn't make me a liberal any more than you can call a dictatorship democracy.

With ZOS stating it's going back to its storytelling roots, this means I should have certain expectations. One thing I'll be paying attention to is whether Jakarn is going to be nothing more than a drama tool. Truth to be spoken, I found Za'Ji's interaction with Caska in Shipwright's Regret much better than that of Khaleen with Jakarn (although it could be counter-argued that Khaleen and Jakarn don't share the same camaraderie). I wouldn't want to see another Arox the Mutilator where his role was more of a running gag. As for Rynkyus, I recognised the fact there's only this much focus available. For the latter, it's understandable. For the former, that made him stand out from the likes of The Anchorite, Lyranth, and Everil. In fact, I have no qualms in saying Sister Celdina was the standout character in Gates of Oblivion despite any actual understanding restricted to her lore entry. For Lyranth, her standout moment was restricted to your final interactions with her.

This is not to say ZOS can't tell a great story. Murkmire, despite being largely forgettable, had the best storyline fit for Yoshida "not Hanzawa" Naoki. Season of the Dragons was awesome in terms of plot atmosphere and the righteousness of Abnur Tharn's selfishness. Summerset had great plot twists and finely crafted darkness that could make the likes of Sakaguchi "not Ango" Hironobu and Miyazaki "not Hayao" Hidetaka take notice. And let's not forget Barbas' sense of humour. As for Dark Heart of Skyrim, the storytelling went two to three gears up in Markarth due to Verandis Ravenwatch being the gamechanger.

My point is storytelling is a craft above all things. While socio-political concerns can be an effective source of ideas, they should NOT be used as an excuse to shackle inspiration. I'm NOT saying Gates of Oblivion was a plot of grand wokery-woke. However, the lack of gender balance has to be looked at. As I've implied, the past storytelling in the game wasn't like that. And we all can see for ourselves ESO storytelling at its very best in the past episodes/DLCs.

Some thoughts about account-wide achievements

It's quite interesting to see the decision to make achievements account-wide being some kind of controversy among players. Now I have to say for now that the decision is justified. The reason is that ZOS was making this call based on technical concerns. As for the players, they saw it in terms of experience. Casual gamers welcomed it because they don't have to grind. Hardcore gamers didn't welcome it because that'd reduce the value of titles like Stormproof where fellow players would know how awesome you are by earning merit at a CP of 200+. Believe it or not, a guildmate with a fondness for Khajiit characters actually proved it possible.

The justification of the decision, therefore, has to be made based on the company's stance. In this case, I'd say it's a good call. My game is now running more smoothly. That's saying something given ESO has a notorious reputation when it comes to optimisation and performance. Coupled with its popularity and you get a massive issue in performance.

Ultimately, I can only say whatever controversy is due to the company and players speaking in two different languages. One is technical, the other is gameplay experience. What about an opt-out option, you may ask? As I said, it's due to technical concerns that ZOS is doing this. If the company felt an opt-out option would compromise efforts to optimise game performance, we'd be going back to the same issue. Namely, two different languages from both sides of the debate.