The living world

• Villages act on their own. Warring villages lay sieges to each other's settlements (you see them in the panel and the news). After a few days a siege ends: the settlement is captured, razed to ruins, or held. Villages sign ceasefires and fall out again, and now and then found new settlements near their others. A village never loses its last settlement this way, and after the leaders' peace the villages never war each other again.
• Named ninja. Every hidden village, the Black Ink Syndicate and the Order of the Venator keep a roster of named ninja: genin, chūnin, jōnin and their leader. Over the years they gain levels and rank up, marry (sometimes across villages), have children who carry the clan name, retire, and die. Famous ones (Known and up) become real people: they get a page in your Bingo Book before you ever meet them.
• World news. Wars, sieges, fallen and new settlements, leaders, exams, festivals, beasts, prices and the lives and deaths of people you know. The panel shows the latest lines; All news opens the whole log with a filter. A setting can also send the important ones as letters.

Send a squad (Ninja world panel): pick a mission rank from D to S, who it's for (your sworn village, a friendly village or the Venator), and 1 to 4 ninja from a home map. They leave the map and come back days later (D 2 days, C 3, B 5, A 7, S 10) with a report.

The chance depends on the squad's best and average level against the rank (about level 3 for D up to 16 for S). Someone always has to stay home, and up to three squads can be away at once. On the way they may meet a named ninja of the village, or make a rival.

• Village leaders have an attitude: hawk (more wars), diplomat (ceasefires, warmer relations with you), merchant (trade) or isolationist. Leaders can be assassinated, overthrown or die of age; the strongest jōnin takes over, and the new attitude shifts goodwill with you. When you behead a village yourself, its successor also comes from the roster. Hover over a faction in the panel to see its leader.
• Genin teams (Teams button): a sensei (chūnin or higher) and up to three genin. Teammates like each other, spar 15% faster together, and in a fight near each other they are in sync (aim, melee and dodge +4%; a foe they attack together breaks 10% faster). A squad made of one whole team has +10% success and earns more fame.
• Rotating chūnin exams. The host changes every year through the hidden villages (a hostile host doesn't invite you). Your genin face named genin of other villages: one who beats yours in the final may be promoted, and one yours defeat may swear revenge. The exam happens every year even without you; the news lists who was promoted.
• Diplomacy (Diplomacy button and envoys):
  • Envoys arrive with proposals: a non-aggression pact (no raids for 30 days), a trade pact (better prices for 60 days), a request for help (a mission), a tribute demand from a hostile hawk (pay, or they raid within two days), a ceasefire for silver, or a marriage alliance: one of their named ninja marries your single colonist and joins you (goodwill +20, no raids for 60 days).
  • Hostages: one of your colonists stays with a village for 20 days and one of theirs stays with you as a guest. No raids from them meanwhile; both come home with goodwill +10. Let theirs die and they never forget.
  • Tribute: pay a hostile village to leave you alone for 30 days, or, once your village is Feared, demand tribute from them.
  • The village leaders also hold their own summit every year.
• Clan politics at home. Colonists who share a clan (or a family name) form a clan with a head (highest rank, then oldest). When the head dies the seat passes on (the heir is pleased, older relatives sulk). Clans sometimes feud (they think less of each other for a season) and make requests (a feast, an heirloom weapon, recognition, a grievance): grant them for a good mood, refuse and they resent it.
• Villages remember. Each village keeps a ledger of what you did to it: raids and kills, its leader killed, prisoners released, wounded tended, missions done for it, gifts, hostages, marriages, ambushes. Old deeds fade (by half in about half a year; big ones last much longer). What they remember nudges goodwill every season; villages that remember kindness send gifts, those that remember blood send grudge raids. Hover over a faction to read its memory.

• Travellers walk the world map between settlements: merchant caravans, ninja squads, pilgrims and missing-nin. When your caravan shares their tile you can buy supplies from merchants, escort them (silver and goodwill if your caravan is near when they arrive), recruit a missing-nin (Social decides), or ambush them (loot, but goodwill −40, remembered, and an infamous deed). Travellers passing near your village may stop by.
• Landmarks appear on the world map for a month or two: a sealed temple, an old battlefield guarded by the dead, a scroll cache, an abandoned clan laboratory with its constructs, and a beast territory with a summoning token at its heart. Visit with a caravan for scrolls, seals, silver and more.
• Legendary beasts: the Ashmaw (a giant ember boar), the Tidewyrm (a sea serpent) and the Thunderhorn (a storm bull) roam the world map and ravage settlements they pass (the news tells). One may come to your village in a rage. Kill it for spirit gems, gold and great fame, hunt it with a caravan on its tile, or down it and let a colonist with Animals 10+ and a summoning technique try to befriend it.
• Visitors: pilgrims rest a day and leave an offering; a wandering monk blesses everyone or teaches one colonist a meditation (learning +10%, mental breaks less likely, 10 days); a student asks to train with your most famous ninja for 15 days (fame and XP for the teacher; they may ask to join); war refugees ask for shelter: take them in, shelter them as guests, or turn them away.
• The market: prices with NFRP traders follow the world. Wars raise weapons, armour and medicine; sieges and ravaged settlements raise food, and so does winter. Peace slowly brings prices back. Changes are capped at 35% and shown in the panel.

• Festivals abroad: each hidden village has its own festival (the Night of Ash Lanterns, the Tide-Turning Festival, the Dance of the Sandstorm, the Maple Moon Viewing, the Festival of Echoing Bells, the Day of the Anvil). Villages that like you invite you three days ahead: send up to three colonists for two days for a big mood boost, goodwill, and maybe a new friend, a recruit or a marriage offer. The panel shows the next one.
• Letters: named ninja you have met write now and then: thanks with a small gift, news of their lives, requests for help, taunts from enemies, and threats from your rivals.
• Deaths of people you know: when a named ninja you met dies off-screen, a letter tells how, and their Bingo Book page is marked dead.

The whole off-screen world runs once a day and costs a few milliseconds; only leaders, the famous and people you met ever become real pawns (at most 24).