As before, collapse came to the dynasty of Rosuto-Shima as prosperity waned. The Imperial line produced weaker heirs, many of whom gave the control of their reign to unworthy advisors and eunuchs, who betrayed the Empire by squandering its wealth, wasting resources on lavish displays of grandeur, summer palaces, and banquets for the wealthiest of the island's lords.
As the central power weakened, the lords became greedier, developing their own armies, collecting ever growing taxes from the people who lived on their lands. When Dou Zhou, a distant cousin to the Son of Heaven was appointed heir, the court rebelled. At the Son of Heaven's death, the plot against Dou Zhou grew, culminating in the young heir's death. With no Emperor to control them, the lords each began to vie for power, beginning a war that lasted a hundred years and more. Lady Liu, the sister of the last Son of Heaven, urged her husband to claim the throne, if only to give the land some stability and to end the chaos that had already begun to break out across the Empire. Though assassins exterminated nearly all of the Liu clan, the line of Imperial Blood continued on through one of Lady Liu's sons, Liu Ce, spared the massacre of his family through the intervention of Song Wei, also called the Phoenix Keeper, whose wisdom was unparalleled in his age, and whose crafty plots kept safe the heirs of the Imperial Line for more than a generation.
Liu Ce married Lady Fei, a woman as wise as she was beautiful. Her loyalty to both Liu Ce and the Empire knew no bounds, and from their small home, they began to rebuild a claim to the Imperial Line. Sadly, their efforts were also extinguished as the identity of Liu Ce was revealed. Again, the Phoenix Keeper's advice meant that the Imperial Family was not entirely condemned to the fate of extinction; the youngest daughter of Liu Ce and Lady Fei had been spared. A great tactician and swordswoman herself, she would marry none who could not best her in games of strategy and combat. Her childhood friend, the son of Governor Cho of Linan, wooed and won her hand, and their son, Cho Bei, inherited the mind and skill of his parents, and under the tutelage of the Phoenix Keeper, became the greatest warrior since his ancestor, Dou Lü, the greatest strategist since the beginning of the Dou Dynasty. To compare him to Zhuge Ma, the tutor of Han Tse, would be comparing his bonfire to a mere candle, so great were his thoughts. All those in his lands declared him to be the rightful Son of Heaven, and had it not been for a drought, denying him the provisions of his realm, it would be likely that Rosuto-Shima would now be ruled by the Cho Dynasty, once again united under one ruler.
No amount of strength and valor can deny the Mandate of Heaven, and so the Dou Dynasty came crashing to an end; the war raged on long after Cho Bei died of old age, and to protect his children and grand children, many were taken off in hiding, that the Imperial Line might continue, though its reign might never again come to the island.
