Editing Kara-Tur (section)

===Japanese-centric Narrative===
The term "Oriental", when boiled down to its strictest definition, literally means "any country East of Europe and the Mediterranean". At best, it means "All of Asia", which, in case you haven't looked at a global map recently, is a pretty big place made up of a lot of countries who actually don't have all that much in common. Yes, China, Japan and Korea have cross-pollinated a lot, but they're not the entirety of Asia.

Kara-tur runs into the issue that not only does it use "The Orient" to mean "China, Japan and Korea", but it actually reduces its Chinese and Korean elements to little more than very crude reskins taped over its Japanese stuff. For example, even in the distinctly Chinese/Korea-based locales, you have NPCs whose classes use distinctly ''Japanese'' naming terminology, such as [[Samurai]], Bushi or [[Shugenja]]. In fact, taking a step back, the simple fact that the new classes/[[kits]] introduced in the original 1e all use Japanese names kind of makes it obvious that this was meant to be a Fantasy Japan and the Chinese and Korean elements were tacked on as a distinct afterthought. For example, anyone familiar with Korean history know just how INCREDIBLY unimaginative Koryo's name is [[FAIL|considering that it's name is quite literally just stolen]] from the IRL Korean Goryeo Dynasty. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goryeo] Yeah, real creative guys. Though I do have to admit naming a Japanese country "Wa" is pretty darn unimaginative too. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wa_(Japan)]

Whilst the subsequent [[splatbook]]s ''Kara-Tur: Eastern Realms'' and ''Challenge of the Ronins'' did at least try to reduce the bizarreness by introducing Chinese-equivalent terminology (such as Shou Lung's Bushi, Samurai, Shugenja, Sohei, and Yakuza becoming Chanshi/Warrior, Knight/Noble, Dang-Ki, No-Sheng/Temple Guardian, and Tong Shu for Chinese equivalent), it was basically a bandaid over a gaping wound, especially since anybody looking closer would realize that the ostensibly Chinese and Korean regions of the setting were sort of a chop suey for themselves plus Japan. Thus you have things like the Korea analogue having actual [[ninja]]s or Shou Lung's sectarian conflict mirroring Heian Japan's Buddhist Sects.