Folk of Historica, the Crownlands and the Guilds, allow me to introduce you to an ancient and haunted new land, the Ghost Islands of Yureishima.

Yureishima is a cluster of four major islands surrounded by smaller (mostly) uninhabited isles. It is a land dominated by humans, but also filled with creatures, spirits, demons, and inhuman races almost beyond description. It is an ancient land where every rock and tree is alive, both with meaning and with the local spirits and gods that the folk of Yureishima recognize. Because the empire that has long ruled the islands has had a policy of hostility to foreign visitation, no trade or diplomacy has ever been established between Historica and Yureishima. However, times are changing and the Empire is in disarray. The Imperial Family has fallen and the cohesion of the realm has drifted into civil wars, clan feuds, and power struggles between their feudal lords, which they call "daimyo". It is possible that soon, commerce and diplomacy will be possible with the Ghost Islands, leading to a great potential for adventure, fortunes, and knowledge.

Though dominated by humans, the Empire is also home to nonhuman peoples broadly referred to as "yokai". Depending on context, yokai can refer to evil demons or benevolent demigods. The yokai are not collectively organized into a political body, kingdom or otherwise, and instead live within or at the edges of human civilization. The more numerous and humanlike yokai can be exceptions, such as the oni who are orc-like in appearance and dwarf-like in industry. Other yokai are difficult to categorize, especially since many of them are said to be shapechangers and tricksters, possessing supernatural powers and mercurial, alien personalities and motivations. Whether this is true or whether these "yokai" are mortal creatures we might find familiar remains to be seen.

Here is some information gathered by the few Historicans who have manages to reach Yureishima and return alive:

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Builder's Note: These pictures are MUCH bigger and clearer on Flickr. Please check them out there if you want to get a little more detail. I was worried about posting overly large photos here...

Group Shot:

groupmastershot2 by mccoyed, on Flickr

 

Edited November 19, 20177 yr by mccoyed

Fun figs!  A great expansion of the Guilds. 

Oh my... oh my... What a great first entry for this challenge !

Excellent theme and you totally nailed it ! Congrats ! It will be hard to do better than you !

Hi McCoyed,

These are absolutely stunning, creative and fun, lov 'm!

Question: can I incorporate your story into my builds? I also started an oriental based land... and I figured out an angle for my storyline.

Regards,

Narb

Great Japanese style figs mccoyed  

I realy liked Kitsune and Snake Woman is out of the box thinking

On 7/8/2017 at 8:41 PM, mrcp6d said:

Fun figs!  A great expansion of the Guilds. 

Thanks mrcp6d! I guess I don't quite have the Japanese flavour of Kawashita out of my system.

19 hours ago, Faladrin said:

Oh my... oh my... What a great first entry for this challenge !

Excellent theme and you totally nailed it ! Congrats ! It will be hard to do better than you !

Thanks, that's very flattering.

19 minutes ago, narbilu said:

Hi McCoyed,

These are absolutely stunning, creative and fun, lov 'm!

Question: can I incorporate your story into my builds? I also started an oriental based land... and I figured out an angle for my storyline.

Regards,

Narb

Thanks Narb! Of course you can! I was really hoping someone would want to play in the sandbox with me. Send me a PM if you have any questions or want to has out some world-building or whatever. My overarching idea for Yureishima is that it's basically like GoH or AG in structure. There are three main factions (Red Lotus, Blue River and Green Dragon) fighting for control of the Empire. The "fourth" Nocturns/Outlaw/Alien faction is the Yokai. I actually have some story build ideas and I plan to bring a character back all the way from when I first joined GoH... That said, it can also function as its own faction, like Varlyrio. Depends how popular it is.

1 minute ago, Gunman said:

Great Japanese style figs mccoyed  

I realy liked Kitsune and Snake Woman is out of the box thinking

Thanks Gun. I drew a lot of inspiration from the very colorful Japanese mythology and the wide variety of visual resources available. I hope that Snake Woman is not disqualified because I definitely think she's stretching the minifig box a bit haha.

Edited July 10, 20177 yr by mccoyed

You kicked off the challenge very well! Though they are all neat, my favoured must be the peasant, with the bars on his back, and the daimyo (really like that hat there!). Oh, and the oni are all really cool

Edited July 11, 20177 yr by TitusV

18 minutes ago, TitusV said:

You kicked off the challenge very well! Though they are all neat, my favoured must be the peasant, with the bars on his back, and the daimyo (really like that hat there!). Oh, and the one are all really cool  

Thanks Titus. I always like knowing what the favorites are. :P

Some very nice figs, Mccoyed, I really like the fisher and the first three figs, but the Akuma is probably my favorite overall - very nice combo there!   The daimyo's hat and monk's staff are quite neat parts usage as well!   Seems like Japanese/far Eastern is going to be a popular genre for this challenge too! 

Nice work dude! A fun but difficult challenge, yet you created a very unique set of characters unlike anything we've seen in GoH. Too many to pick a favorite, but the snake woman is totally and delightfully creepy!

On 7/10/2017 at 3:53 PM, Garmadon said:

Some very nice figs, Mccoyed, I really like the fisher and the first three figs, but the Akuma is probably my favorite overall - very nice combo there!   The daimyo's hat and monk's staff are quite neat parts usage as well!   Seems like Japanese/far Eastern is going to be a popular genre for this challenge too! 

Thanks Garm. I think the Akuma is probably a favorite of mine too.

8 minutes ago, MassEditor said:

Nice work dude! A fun but difficult challenge, yet you created a very unique set of characters unlike anything we've seen in GoH. Too many to pick a favorite, but the snake woman is totally and delightfully creepy!

Thanks Patrick! You should see the artwork that inspired her...

Great figs and details! You have really created an intresting world with the figs! Luck y for me it wont be released cause I would buy them all!:)

14 minutes ago, de Gothia said:

Great figs and details! You have really created an intresting world with the figs! Luck y for me it wont be released cause I would buy them all!:)

Thanks! That's quite a compliment.

Great work on these figs, mccoyed! They do a nice job of filling in a gap that currently exists in GoH, and each conveys a delightful sense of character and individuality. I particularly like the Kappa pirate with the upside-down beard as a giant unibrow on his forehead. The descriptions really sell them, though. 

Really good craftsmen, human and oni. It is really good to see more civilians out there making their way in the world despite the creepy creatures.

On 7/14/2017 at 9:51 AM, Henjin_Quilones said:

Great work on these figs, mccoyed! They do a nice job of filling in a gap that currently exists in GoH, and each conveys a delightful sense of character and individuality. I particularly like the Kappa pirate with the upside-down beard as a giant unibrow on his forehead. The descriptions really sell them, though. 

Thanks Henjin. I really hope to see more from Yureishima in freebuilds and perhaps other entries to the challenge.

On 7/14/2017 at 11:09 AM, Muakhah said:

Really good craftsmen, human and oni. It is really good to see more civilians out there making their way in the world despite the creepy creatures.

Thanks Muakhah. I had a rule on my last CMF where I did 4 members of each guild, all from different walks of life: noble, artisan, commoner, and warrior. For this one, I tried to stay pretty close to that but with the extra two minifigures I was able to follow a similar pattern and still have room for extras. The Daimyo and the Foreign Retainer were my last two figs and I was glad to be able to do six Yureishimese humans since their realm is so human-dominated. I could do a whole other series with my ideas for the oni and Yokai, though.

Very well thought out, both in descriptions and minifig designs!

On 7/18/2017 at 11:05 AM, Blufiji said:

Very well thought out, both in descriptions and minifig designs!

Thanks Blu!

Loads of unique figs on display here! The Samurai, Swordsmith, and Akuma are all especially impressive

Snake Woman is genuinely scary... 

Great figures, I like the use of the beard on the Kappa pirate.

Excellent way to kick off the challenge Mccoyed!  I love the theme on these (And the guy who say "Bub")!

On 7/25/2017 at 6:04 AM, soccerkid6 said:

Loads of unique figs on display here! The Samurai, Swordsmith, and Akuma are all especially impressive

Thanks SK. Figured the warriors would be popular.  A great opportunity to use some pieces that don't often get used in GoH.

On 7/25/2017 at 5:44 PM, KevinyWu said:

Snake Woman is genuinely scary... 

Great figures, I like the use of the beard on the Kappa pirate.

Yeah! That beard use is maybe my favorite single idea in the whole set. In some ways, figuring that out was what this whole series was based on.

On 7/28/2017 at 5:04 PM, Umbra-Manis said:

Excellent way to kick off the challenge Mccoyed!  I love the theme on these (And the guy who say "Bub")!

Thanks UM. You get who Kuzuri is supposed to be, yeah?

Somehow i missed this earlier!  I like it very much! Great figs! Nice work, congrats! 

On 10/31/2017 at 10:04 AM, Lazer said:

Somehow i missed this earlier!  I like it very much! Great figs! Nice work, congrats! 

Thanks Lazer!

I also missed this at the time it was posted, great entry!
I think a more medieval fantasy Japanese setting available in the world of Historica would attract some new builders