The windswept, mountainous world known as Daybreak contains some of the most impressive vistas in the galaxy – but few know of it, and fewer still have ever seen it. It is here that the mysterious Rooster Clan makes its home, guarding whatever secret they’ve held closely for a millennia. This anonymity serves the Rooster just fine, as they’re comfortable with most of the rest of the Empire forgetting they even exist.
There are parts of the galaxy, spaces within the Empire of Emerald Stars, where no clan holds sway. Many of these regions aren’t considered valuable enough for any clan to lay claim to them (at least more than nominally), and it is here that pirates and bandits eke out a life on the margins. One of these groups, though, sees itself not as a band of outlaws, but as a clan unjustly exiled from Rokugani society. In sealed habitats on various rocks in the asteroid belt known as Mako’s Reach – surprisingly close to Kaimetsu-Uo Sekai – the remnants of the deliberately-forgotten Shark Clan make their home, patiently waiting for the day they might strike back at the Empire which deliberately expunged them from the historical record.
Once first contact is made and diplomatic relations/negotiations must be established, all aliens find their envoys sent to the same place: Burning Stars Six. The most advanced space station in the Empire of the Emerald Stars, BS-6 is located near the heart of spacefaring Rokugani civilization, roughly between the territories of most of the Great Clans (and a few of the minor ones). The station is watched over by the only Minor Clan with no planet to call its own: the Silkworm. A shimmering, man-made metropolis, BS-6 has become one of the most important cities in the empire, and the largest that doesn’t exist on a planet’s surface. With the help of the Tiger (and to a lesser extent, the Raven) to maintain order – as well as the empire-wide mandate that no one is to breach the peace at the central location for Rokugani-Alien relations – the Silkworm have made their station one of the central locations of the entire Empire.
Popular conception of desert worlds is that they’re inhospitable, but the Pangolin Clan would argue otherwise. Though their home world of Scaled Sands exists along a hotter axis than most Rokugani would consider comfortable, it suits them just fine. In part, this is due to the presence of significant temporal and stellar phenomena both within the system and on the planet itself, which keep the ever-curious Azai family occupied with stretching the bounds of their understanding of the mysteries of the galaxy. Their expertise in this area has paid surprising dividends, as they have even learned how to weaponize some of these phenomena in defense of their home world against pirates (and in case the Phoenix or Lion ever have cause to reconsider their acceptance of the Pangolin’s independence).
Only a few light years from Burning Stars Six sits another space station belonging to a Minor Clan, much smaller than its cousin, but nearly as important in cultural stature. Though the tiny Bee Clan’s single world – New Hachi, an immaculately-maintained garden planet renowned for its stunning vistas – sits below, the center of their clan is the Hive. Located directly at the junction point of the territories controlled by the Crane, Lion, Scorpion, and Mantis, it is here that the galaxy’s finest art shows are held. Everyone trusts the Bee, because the Bee treat everyone else’s art with equal amounts of disdain. For the same reason, the Hive has also become a mandatory stop for concerts, film festivals, major independent sporting events – any art event that wishes itself to be taken seriously on intergalactic tour must first pass muster with the Bee.