The lands of the Dragon jut up towards Heaven, Earth's fingers straining to reach out and touch the sky. Here, the Dragon Clan and their subjects rule in a maze of towering peaks, mountain passes, pine forests, and narrow valleys and gorges that rebuff intruders into their cold, tranquil realm. There is little in the way of flat, arable land here, with only the very southernmost and westernmost regions playing host to large valleys or open fields. The people dwell in tiered villages on the slopes or clustered huts set near the ten thousand streams that pour down from the snowpack, forming terraced farms where possible and often resorting to hunting and gathering to survive. The wealth of the Dragon is found in two places. Members of the Clan itself would say that their wealth is found in the mountainside temples and monasteries, with their adorned statues, pious monks, and great storehouses of scripture and scholasticism. For the purposes of the Imperial Census, however, the wealth of the Dragon lies deep in their mountains- for here, in these forbidding peaks, the veins of the Earth run close to the surface, and the gods mercifully offer the bounty of the deep earth's treasure to the people. In deep mines, the Dragon unearth great deposits of steel for Rokugan's armies, gold and silver for coinage and adornment, jade for protection, and rarest cinnabar for dyes and alchemy. The wealth attained from selling this bounty is then used to buy surplus food from their neighbors to withstand the long mountain winters, when nothing grows and snowdrifts isolate their remote territories from the rest of the Empire. East of this land, the ill-omened and impure Dragon Heart Plains sprawl out, wild and untouched by all by ancient tradition. To the south, the Dragonfly Clan dwell in the footholds, divining omens by stars and water and serving as a bulwark against intrusion by unwanted outsiders. A single highway runs around its edge into the mountains of the Phoenix. Beyond them, across the Drowned Merchant River, lies the martial Lion Clan. To the west, the mountain holdings of the Utaku matriarchs act as a gateway between the Dragon and the greater Unicorn's trade network. North, past the Great Wall Mountains, lies the land of the Northern Barbarians- violent demon-worshiping blasphemers who stand opposed to Heaven.