Akanegumo — the Cloud Province — is a land of fog-wrapped valleys, river gorges, and deep forest in west-central Shenyun, rising from the temple-strewn highlands of Kibo No Taiga in its northwest down to the great inland Sea of Ghosts in its east. Here, ghosts and monsters are not bedtime stories; the customs its people keep — lit lanterns at every gate, the Eight Practices in the ghost season, offerings no one explains to outsiders — arise from necessity, not superstition. Every village marks the year by its lanterns: by provincial custom, a town without a lit lantern at its entrance is an abandoned town, and abandoned towns invite things.

Two years ago, in 3,013 AC, the Severing cut the province loose: the daimyo's house fell amid the chaos sweeping the whole empire, the court closed the mountain roads, and the garrisons marched home. The abandoned officials turned petty tyrant — briefly. In 3,014, the ghosts and monsters of Akanegumo's long memory swept down from the highlands and out of the Yūreimori, and the tyrants were their first harvest. Folk say spider-women now hold the province's high seats, though few claim to have seen one. Since then, life has carried on as it always has in the deep province: self-sufficient, superstitious, heads down — and, if you keep the customs, mostly quiet.

The province's settlements are few: Tsuchi no Ichi, the grey market city in the southwest; Shiosaki, the fortified market on the Sea of Ghosts; and scattered river towns like Yanagihama, self-reliant and far from anywhere.