The four small districts that make up the shantytown are remnants of the first settlement build on Asakaze, the buildings almost ninety years old. As the houses were never meant to be used for decades, both the plumbing and the power lines are in disrepair. This means that many of the eta and heimin families living in the slums have to survive without proper air conditioning and running water, communal wells constructed by the Phoenix providing potable water for everyone. Large field kitchens ran by the government provide food for the poor and the forlorn while the large communal schools staffed by monks and retired samurai offer a hope for a better tomorrow.
In recent years a small eccentric Shin-Shintaoist sect native to Asakaze has taken root in the shantytown, the followers of Kouren believing that the world is fluid and in effect a fabric of human consciousness. Because of this, the devout believe that self-visualization as the transcended is no less real than than every day experiences. They see meditation as a process of transforming reality itself, including the practitioner's identity as enlightened. The local members of the Brotherhood have sent inquiries to the Four Temples regarding this potential heresy, but with the wheels of bureaucracy grinding ever so slowly, no action has been taken. The matter is further complicated by the fact that many of the local monks tend to believe that the teachings of Kouren can be reconciled with the canonical Shintao.