The Hikari Royal Castle

Ancestral seat

The Hikari Royal Castle stands at the heart of Goguma and is the ancestral fortress of the House Hikari line. Once a symbol of the kingdom's strength and prosperity, it is described under the usurper's rule as a monument to cruelty, its darkened windows overlooking the emptied streets below like a silent judgement on the city.

The war room

Deep inside the fortress lies a secluded war room in which Arata Hikari plans his campaign against his sister. A candlelit table holds a sprawling map of the realm dotted with small carved figurines, and a body of noble strategists confers over the board.

It is in this chamber that Arata receives word of the loyalist crossing of the river and treats the news as the confirmation of an existing plan, calls his banners to meet Satomi Hikari in the open field, orders that the Black Hand be engaged once more, and dismisses the Raijin family as a problem to be settled only after the war is concluded. The same conversation establishes that his knowledge of Satomi's position comes from an informant he calls a mutual friend.

Character of the place

The castle's role during the civil war is administrative and conspiratorial rather than ceremonial. It houses the strategists who direct the usurper's war, shelters the planning of an assassination intended to end the conflict without a general engagement, and stands as the physical expression of a court that governs Goguma through public execution.