Honour and Steel (Legend of the Five Rings)

[Maugan Ra]

Your blood is that of the gods.

Not directly, of course; though you idolised your parents when you were young, and thought them beyond all flaw or failing, it has been millennia since the children of the Sun and Moon trod the world as mortals do. Even so, it is they who you call 'family', and their names that you invoke when you claim dominion over the land that they built together.

Rokugan, the Emerald Empire; a land of high mountains and rolling plains, of shadowed forests and roaring seas. A land where spirits dwell in every rock, and gods wander the road in the guise of pilgrims to test the hospitality of mortals. A land of heroes, and of villains, where duty weighs as heavy as a mountain, and death as light as a feather. It is here that the Eight Kami fell from Heaven, here that they wrought their Empire - one to rule, seven to serve - and here that they pitted themselves in battle against their fallen brother and the demonic legions that followed him. Their deeds, and the deeds of those who followed them, are remembered in legend even to this day.

Your life has been filled with such stories; tales of honour and glory, of feats of valour and works of cunning, spoken to you with reverent tongues by proud parents since long before you were old enough to understand them. The kindness of Shinjo, the ferocity of Matsu, the genius of Isawa… it is by their example that you will live your life, and it is by the standard they set that you will be judged when you die. A mighty burden, to walk in the shadow of such legends, but your ancestors have done it time and again for uncounted generations, and as they did so too shall you.

There are Seven Great Clans in the Empire, and each contains within its ranks a number of Families. You hail from one of these lines, as do thousands of other samurai, but unlike them your relation to the founding heroes of your line is not some dim and distant thing; no, you are a direct blood descendent, a member of the ruling caste of the Empire, and though you are at present little more than a child on the cusp of maturity you will one day assume your rightful place among the lords and ladies who hold dominion over this land.

The Crab Clan

The southern border of Rokugan is marked, not by river or mountain, but by the vast and imposing bulk of the Kaiu Wall. Beyond this point lie the Shadowlands; a wretched, tainted wilderness infested by demons, goblins and all manner of other foul creations of the dark lords of Jigoku. Men who die here must be burned, lest they rise again hungry for blood and flesh, and those who venture forth for any length of time must trust in the purity of jade to ward away the corruption of their very soul.

Guarding this wall, standing in defiance of the darkness and in defense of all mankind, are the samurai of the Crab Clan. They are a grim and merciless people, made taciturn and crude by the strains of their ceaseless vigil, and their relations with the rest of Rokugan often suffer for it. They are split into five lines, each with their own unique duties to uphold in the defence of mankind:

The Hida are the ruling line of the Crab, the strong rock that serve as the Clan's foundation. They tend to be large of build and possessed of a near-inhuman strength, attributes that they hone among some of the finest heavy infantry in the Empire, but beneath their gruff exterior lies a growing vein of bitter contempt for those who would profit from their guardianship and mock them for their sacrifice.

The Hiruma are scouts and messengers, lean of form and keen of eye, with a hunter's understanding of all manner of monsters and unclean beasts. Their ancestral lands were lost to the darkness centuries ago, and they live each day as an act of protracted vengeance against the monsters that took such things from them.

The Kaiu are smiths and architects, the steady hands that built the great Wall which bears their name. Theirs is the pursuit of logistics and engineering, and they tend towards a kind of relentless completionism in all they do. Anything less would allow weakness to creep into the works they forge, and that is a greater sin than any other.

The Kuni are students of the darkness, reading its secrets in their libraries and dissecting its servants in their hidden lairs, all in hopes of finding some weakness or vulnerability that might allow their peers to persist in their duty for one day more. Such unrelenting study breeds a wariness that verges on paranoia, but none of their cousins would dare say a word in criticism, for their warnings have been proven accurate far too many times for doubt.

The Yasuki defy all stereotypes concerning their fellow Crab, for they were once a family of the Crane, and their defection centuries before is still a source of blood and hate between the two Clans to this day. They are merchants and industrialists, striking pacts and making trades to keep the Crab's immense war machine rumbling on, and if their oily charm makes others think less of them, why, it is a small price to pay.

The Crane Clan

When the Kami first descended onto the mortal realm, they found it a bleak and savage place, where men lived in squalor and few dared dream of anything greater than surviving to see another dawn. The gods saw fit to change this. They brought art and music, health and beauty, all the skills to make life worth living and the ideals that would drive a man to defend them.

The samurai of the Crane are descended from those first poets, and they carry the ideals of their founders in their hearts. To a Crane, survival is not enough. One must strive at all times to improve, to better the world and oneself, to be an exemplar of all that a man could ever hope to be. Each of their familial lines embody this drive in a different way, and each has left its mark upon the land of Rokugan.

The Asahina are pacifists to the core, dedicated to their dream of a world without strife. That their dream is impossible does not deter them, and in the meantime their compassion drives them to serve as healers and diplomats, even as their piety leads them to take up service in the name of the Fortunes.

The Daidoji are the stoic warriors of the Clan, the armour that protects that which they hold precious, the sword that strikes against threats both near and far. They are selfless guardians, willing to die so that others might live, and their martial skills have earned respect from all corners of the Empire… and more than a little fear.

The Doji pursue the ideal of universal excellence, striving to embody the ideal of the warrior-poet in every facet of their lives. They are warm and friendly, with a network of friends and acquaintances that stretches across the Empire, and their presence in every court of note is the political bedrock of the Clan's influence and strength.

The Kakita are perfectionists, typically choosing for themselves a single skill that they can dedicate their lives to pursuing in its entirety. The study of the blade is one form of art among many, according to their philosophy, and the iaijutsu style that their founder designed can be found on the battlefield and the court floor alike.

The Dragon Clan

The mountains of Rokugan are a harsh and unforgiving place, prone to great danger and offering little in the way of succour, yet so too are they home to all manner of wonders both mortal and divine; closer to heaven in a very real sense. It is no surprise, then, that those who call these lands their home would be marked by the experience.

The samurai of the Dragon are strange, by the judgement of their peers, with a reputation for mysticism and an almost blatant disregard for tradition. They approach problems from strange angles, practice arts unknown amid the lowlands, and stand apart from the wider Empire in more ways that can be easily counted. Uniquely, their founder left no actual direct lineage, instead granting his name to an order of monks that follow his esoteric teachings.

The Agasha blend mysticism with a pragmatic approach to the natural world in a way that no other family can truly match, making them masterful alchemists, chirurgeons and priests. They walk the paths of the elements, and are renowned for their adaptability and the flexible approaches that permit them to overcome the most intractable obstacles.

The Kitsuki are devoted to the path of Enlightenment-as-Truth, and have an eye for detail that others often assume must surely be supernatural in scope. They are courtiers and magistrates, piercing the layers of formality and deception that make up the social fabric of Rokugan with nothing more than wits and softly spoken words, and for this they are feared and respected in equal measure.

The Mirumoto are surprisingly practical and down-to-earth for a samurai family, especially among the Dragon, and are consequently charged with the vast majority of practical duties that a Clan finds itself dealing with at any one time. Their two-sword style is famous, and their habit of always having an expert on hand for any given field is detested by those who seek to overcome them in battle or the court.

The Togashi are not a family at all, but rather an order of monks that pursue enlightenment through mystical study and meditation. Their elaborate tattoos are well known throughout the realm, as are their supernatural abilities and grasp of unarmed combat.

The Lion Clan

It has been said that Rokugan is a land of warriors, marked as it was by conflict the very day of its tumultuous birth. Certainly there are few among the samurai who will disagree, for even the softest, most peaceful courtier in the land regards herself as a warrior in her lord's service, ready to fight and die at his command. The samurai of Rokugan number in the millions, and every one of them judges their skill, valour and honour in comparison to a single standard.

The Lion Clan are that standard. They are the Right Hand of the Emperor, the sword in his hand, the army at his back. Warriors and tacticians without peer, the samurai of the Lion are also their own harshest critics, for it is said that none may judge a man's honour but he. To a Lion, honour is everything.

The Akodo are stern and perceptive, bringing a scholar's meticulous mindset to the study of warfare. Their watchword is discipline, their virtue efficiency, and their greatest indulgence the art of methodically destroying a foe on every conceivable level. It has been said that no army led by an Akodo has ever known defeat; a boast, but one closer to the truth than many would like to admit.

The Ikoma are the heart and soul of the Lion, the finest historians and storytellers in the Empire. They are bold and outspoken, charismatic and emotional, able to stoke the flames of passion in even the coldest of hearts. They are also the heirs to a man with ninety children who once threatened to punch a god in the face until he cried for his mother.

The Kitsu are perhaps the most traditional and conservative line in the Empire, for with their magic they are capable of communing directly with their ancestors, and it is their duty to ensure that nothing a Lion does brings shame upon his line. The mightiest among their number can part the veil between the worlds and walk among the dead as a peer, and for this they are respected by their kin to a degree that borders on reverence.

The Matsu are the roar of the Lion given flesh, the ferocious valour and unquenchable courage that has won their Clan a list of victories longer than any other. They are bold, headstrong, possessed of a fiery temperament and held back from berserker rage solely by the iron bonds of their unquestionable honour.

The Phoenix Clan

Rokugan is a mystical land, a nation with ten thousand gods and twice as many spirits. Each has their role to play in the Celestial Order, just as each man and woman has their own place in society. When the gods are happy, their shrines well tended and their teachings observed, Rokugan is a place of peace and prosperity. When they are displeased, catastrophe follows. To serve the gods and minister the faith, then, is the highest of callings.

The samurai of the Phoenix Clan are entrusted with the faith and spiritual wellbeing of the Empire, and they take their duties with a seriousness that borders on fanaticism. They are scholars and priests, and even their most militant warriors can name the rites and duties of a hundred minor spirits, roles that lend them great power and authority when dealing with their cousins from other Clans… as well as a certain arrogance.

The Asako are quiet, scholarly and withdrawn, concerned more with the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom than the affairs of the world around them. They are courtiers and tutors, and it is a generally accepted fact among the elite of Rokugan that if you truly want to know something, there is doubtless an Asako somewhere who can give you the answer.

The Isawa are the oldest shugenja family in the empire, priests pledged in service to the gods and masters of the elements. Mountains fall at their command and dried rivers flow clear and swift at their request, lending them an authority in spiritual matters that they are not shy in exerting… much to the chagrin of their more humble peers.

The Shiba are descendents of a god who knelt before a mortal man, and this tradition of humble service characterises the line to this day. They serve and protect the Phoenix from all that would assail it, wielding words and blades with equal deftness, and they prize intellectual pursuits every bit as highly as they do martial valour.

The Scorpion Clan

Only the foolish man believes that the forces of evil restrict themselves to open war against mankind. No, darkness lurks in every heart, and can be found just as easily in the opium den of a crime syndicate as in the shambling horrors of a necromancer's army. But what kind of honourable soul could go looking for such wickedness, and having found it, cut it out with staining their own hands with evil?

The Scorpion are Rokugan's answer to this problem; a clan of loyalty, not honour, who traffic in lies and wield whispers as easily as steel. Theirs is a treacherous credo, one that has led men and women to damnation almost as often as it has proven to be their salvation - "By any means necessary." Others think their words trite, their justifications mere excuses for wicked deeds committed by those who want to think themselves holy, and this too serves the Scorpion well. The appearance of weakness, after all, is a strength all of its own.

The Bayushi are the very image of the villains that their founder swore to be, and their charming, manipulative splendour is a common sight in courts the length and breadth of Rokugan. They are without peer in the darker forms of leadership and control, wielding blackmail and deception to shape the battlefield long before they set foot upon its surface.

The Shosuro are quiet, humble, unassuming servants of their ostentatious lords, with a theatrical tradition that stretches back centuries. They are also the finest practitioners of the shinobi arts and the origin of the mythical 'ninja' that keep samurai of the other Clans up at night, skills that they ply with a merciless efficiency wherever they might be needed.

The Soshi are the priests and magistrates of the Scorpion, often overlooked as part of a deliberate artifice by their leaders. They are the finest liars and illusionists one could imagine, and they alone have truly internalised the idea that since the kami are not human, they can be prevailed upon to do things that no human would ever conceive of doing.

The Yogo are grim and humourless, for it is hard to find joy in this world when every member of your family is cursed to betray that which they most love. Their manner intimidates other samurai just as their superstitions confuse them, but there are no finer masters of the art of warding in existence, nor more dedicated foes of darkness in its most subtle and destructive forms.

The Unicorn Clan

Outsiders are not trusted within the Emerald Empire; restricted to a few ports and treaty-villages, watched carefully at all times, assumed to be a moral or physical threat by the vast majority of those samurai unlucky enough to cross their path. There is, however, one grand exception, one singular Clan given the distasteful honour by their peers of handling virtually all interactions with the world beyond their nation's border.

The Unicorn Clan spent eight hundred years voyaging beyond Rokugan's mountainous walls, and even today its scions often spend months or years at a time visiting foreign nations and exploring strange lands in search of threats and opportunity. They wear furs, speak foreign tongues, and wield strange weapons… but they are still samurai, and their nomadic past has given them a cavalry tradition second to none.

The Ide are the hand of peace, the diplomats and heralds of their far-ranging Clan. They possess a mastery of not only Rokugani etiquette, but also the tongues and habits of dozens of foreign lands, which they use to make friends and strike deals wherever their travels might take them.

The Iuchi are priests and shamans, blending the spiritual practices of a hundred lands together into a single syncretised whole. They use talismans to help facilitate the art of working miracles while on the move, and on the whole take a surprisingly militaristic approach to potential threats or rivals, supporting their warrior kin directly on the battlefield.

The Moto are considered the least civilised family in Rokugan, with a famously low tolerance for the 'soft' arts of civilisation and settled life. They are nomadic warriors to their core, and more than a few among their number were born outside the borders of the Empire altogether.

The Shinjo are wanderers at their heart, with a genuine love of exploration and an endless curiosity for whatever might lie beyond the next horizon. Master equestrians and scouts, the Shinjo also make capable administrators and leaders, as required of anyone who tries to enforce unity among a highly nomadic people.

The Utaku have embraced the code of Bushido on a spiritual level, and live every moment of every day in adherence to its teachings. They do not boast or swagger, but simply act, conducting themselves with virtue at all times. This trait extends to the battlefield, where their famed Battle Maidens fight in total, terrifying silence.

Article:

Choose which Clan and Family you come from, under the following format:

[ ] Clan

• [ ] Family
  

Because of the wide variety of options available to you, you may vote for a total of three options. I will compare the vote for the Clan overall, and once the winning Clan has been determined, proceed to judge the winning family within it.

Your character hails from the ruling line of their family, and as such will be trained in their traditional school: if you are a Matsu, you will be one of the Berserkers, while an Isawa character will be a shugenja. The quest will begin with you attending the Topaz Championship, by which your character will officially graduate and become a samurai - this will also serve as a 'tutorial' arc. Following that, you will be plunged into the setting of Rokugan as one of the very few people in it with the power to really make a large-scale difference… and the appropriate responsibilities as well.

The mechanics for this quest will be taken from the 5th edition of the Legend of the Five Rings rpg, with appropriate modifications to make it work more smoothly in a quest-like format.

As an example, your vote should look something like this:


[x] Lion
- [x] Akodo

[x] Lion
- [x] Matsu

[x] Dragon
- [x] Mirumoto

 

[Maugan Ra]

​

You are Moto, born of the Burning Sands that lie beyond Rokugan's western border. The blood of the Ujik-Hai flows in your veins, making your skin darker and your eyes brighter than the lineages of your more sedentary cousins would allow. Your build is stocky, your arms and shoulders well muscled, and you disdain the traditional katana for the scimitar. There are those who would call you barbarian for these facts, name you outsider and foreigner, but you know these are fools. You carry the sword of your ancestors and honour the oaths they made to one of the Eight Kami; what does that make you, if not a samurai?

Of course, you are not just any Moto. Your family numbers in hosts beyond counting, akin to the grain of the desert sands from whence you hail, and you ride at their fore. Your mother is Rurame of the Red Banners, your uncle Ogodei Khan, and with such blood in your veins you stand perhaps three paces from leadership of the entire family. It was no surprise when you were sent to study at the traditional school of your family, to be trained as one of the famed Moto Conquerors. Yours is the style of the lightning war, striking like the thunderbolt and retreating like the swirling desert wind, and it is one that the staid, traditional forms of Rokugan's samurai have little answer to.

Article:

What is your gender?

[ ] Male
[ ] Female

Among the Moto, both sexes are considered equal, and any discrimination happens along familial or cultural lines. In the wider Empire, it varies significantly, with each Clan and Family having its own attitude towards the proper place and role of men and women.

What is your personal name?

[ ] Write in

The naming traditions of the Moto are eclectic, and not entirely in line with the traditions of wider Rokugan. For real world inspirations, you can look at Hindi, Korean and Arabic names.

You attended the dojo anonymously, at the insistence of your parents; a common enough decision among the ranks of the kuge, for it establishes common ground with the samurai that you will one day command and, more critically, prevents the sensei from favoring or demeaning you by virtue of your blood alone. You have yet to officially graduate, of course, but your teachers have spoken well of your skills and you have passed all of the preliminary examinations with flying colours.

Not that mere sufficiency is cause for celebration, of course. One cannot simply be satisfied with mediocrity, with meeting the expectations of others and reaching no further. No, they must strive to excel, to go beyond, to stand out from the crowd in some critical and unmistakable fashion. Such are the lessons of your youth and the examples set down by the heroes who came before, and in this matter at least you can hold your head up proud, for the reports that your sensei have made speak well of you as both a student and a person.

Article:

How did you stand out at the dojo?

[ ] Passion. Your energy and enthusiasm were second to none, and your relentless drive to succeed inspired the minds and bodies of your classmates to push on to greater heights than any of you could have reached alone.

[ ] Grace. It is the way of the Moto to be as the wind that sweeps across the desert, and you exemplified this trait above all others. You were eloquent and poised, ever reading the truth of the situation and turning it effortlessly to your advantage.

[ ] Adaptability. The sensei were fond of throwing strange problems at you, presenting unique challenges that demanded unconventional solutions, and you made your name by overcoming each in turn. You can roll with the punches in a way that others can only dream of.

[ ] Tenacity. Above all else, you were reliable, a voice of calm and a pillar of strength that your fellow studies came to count on in times of great stress or pressure. Your sensei appointed you as an assistant instructor more than once, knowing they could rely on your judgement.

[ ] Insight. The study of the blade is the study of the world, and vice versa. You demonstrated an understanding of such truths far beyond that of most students, and your sensei took note of your almost-mystical insights into a wide variety of skills and studies.

Of course, there are always risks of sending one's child to study in anonymity. Fear of parental disapproval and the spectre of judgement by one's broader family is one of the key ways that the sensei and senior samurai of all stripes strive to keep their juniors in line. Without specific knowledge of your heritage, your teachers were restricted to speaking in more general terms, citing old legends of the Moto and fragments of history to guide you back onto the beaten track whenever you happened to stray away from it, and such methods are not quite so reliable as some would otherwise prefer.

It was not freedom, not precisely, for the regimented life of the dojo was still quite sufficient to curtail all but the most reckless opportunities for 'acting out'. Still, the experience brought you closer to such things that you had ever been before, opened up new possibilities that you had never previously even thought to consider.

Article:

Not every samurai lives their Clan's creed, and many diverge significantly on matters of politics, philosophy or more personal matters. Here, at the end of your training, answer me this; how close do you cleave to the orthodoxy of the Unicorn Clan? How traditional are you?

[ ] Firm Believer. You are a Unicorn to the bone, and a Moto as well. You have not strayed from the path of your ancestors, no matter the temptations set down before you, and your family has made its approval of your diligence well known.

[ ] Unorthodox. You have split from the traditional philosophy of the Unicorn and the Moto in some notable way, and have a reputation as a result of doing so. Your divergence does not threaten your standing, at least not yet, but it does create some distance between you and your more traditional peers.

Note: This choice will have a knock-on impact on later votes as well as an immediate stat-based effect.

And then, of course, there is Bushido. If the teachings of your school are the guidelines that all Moto should strive to follow, then the precepts of Bushido are the rules by which all samurai must abide. Such is the theory, anyway, but there are as many ways of interpreting and following the guidance of the kami Akodo as there are samurai in the Empire. Most do their best to adhere as closely as their duty and personal conscience allow to each of the seven tenets, with the notable exception of the Scorpion… but what of you?

Well, you were certainly taught the rules. Even those who have no intention of ever following such principles make a point of learning what they are, and some of the most black-hearted villains in history have hidden their villainy unchallenged behind a shield of false virtue. By this point you could recite them in your sleep, and have on occasion caught yourself doing just that…

There are seven tenets that make up the Way of the Warrior, and it is in how closely they adhere to these tenets that your character will be most readily judged by their peers and superiors. Perfection is not expected, and indeed may be impossible to truly achieve, but a good-faith effort to adhere to as many of the principles at any one time as you can is expected.

The Unicorn Clan traditionally places more of an emphasis on the principle of Compassion, their nomadic past giving them strong inclinations towards the basic ideas of equal worth among all people. They tend not to emphasise Courtesy to the same degree, believing that the truth of a man's heart is a better guide to righteous action than the stifling constraints of formal etiquette.

Compassion - Through intense training, the samurai becomes quick and strong. They are not as other people. They develop a power that must be used for the good of all. They have compassion. They help their fellows at every opportunity. If an opportunity does not arise, they go out of their way to find one.

Courage - Rise up above the masses of people who are afraid to act. A samurai must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky. It is dangerous. Only in acceptance of one's death may a samurai live their life completely, fully, wonderfully. Courage is not blind; it is intelligent and strong. Replace fear with respect and caution.

Courtesy - Samurai have no reason to be cruel. They do not need to prove their strength. A samurai is courteous even to their enemies. Without this outward show of respect, we are nothing more than animals. A samurai is not only respected for their strength in battle, but also for their dealings with others. The true inner strength of a samurai becomes apparent during difficult times.

Duty/Loyalty - For a samurai, having done something or said something, they know that they now own that thing. They are responsible for it and all the consequences that follow. A samurai is intensely loyal to those in their care. To those they are responsible for, they are fiercely true.

Honour - A true samurai has only one judge of their honour, and that is themself. Decisions you make and how those decisions are carried out are a reflection of who you truly are. You cannot hide from yourself.

Righteousness - Be acutely honest throughout your dealings with all people. Believe in justice, not from other people, but from yourself. A true samurai knows in their heart that there are no shades of grey in the question of honesty and justice. There is only right and wrong.

Sincerity - When a samurai has said they will perform an action, it is as good as done. Nothing will stop them from completing their deed. They do not have to 'give their word', nor do they have to 'promise'. The action of speaking alone has set the act in motion. Speaking and doing are the same thing.

Click to shrink...

Article:

How honourable are you?

[ ] True of Heart. Your belief, your drive to act at all times in an honorable way, is a source of personal strength and often garners you the respect and admiration of others.

[ ] Free of Spirit. Though you still think of yourself as honorable and true, it is fair to say that you disagree significantly with one of the seven precepts of Bushido, or at least with how it is commonly practiced.

 

[Maugan Ra]

A/N - This is the last part of character generation. The narrative portions of the quest will begin afterwards.


You are Moto Sarnai, daughter of Moto Rurame, she who has lead the Red Banner host to victory time and again. Oh, the looks on your classmate's faces when your mother showed up to attend your informal graduation from the dojo… you will savour the mingled looks of awe and horror for as long as you live, if only because they indicate that you managed to avoid letting anyone in on the secret for four solid years.

Of course, just because they were unaware of your lineage, that does not mean that your comrades did not have their own thoughts and opinions of you as a person. Such indifference would be all but impossible in the face of your forceful personality, and while some would perhaps caution you against showing such passion and drive when you go to serve in a land that values stoicism to such a degree, well… you cannot be anything more or less than what you are. You are pretty sure that Shinsei said that, right? You're not exactly a studious adherent of the Tao, but that sounds like the sort of profound thing that the Little Teacher probably mentioned at some point in his life.

Still, even if you had somehow restrained yourself for the full length of your schooling, it wouldn't have mattered all that much. You've never been all that great at staying over the horizon, and before you'd even completely half of your assigned courses you'd managed to make a name for yourself anyway, through deeds that even the exalted lineage of your ancestors would have approved of. They go ahead of you now, carried in whispered words and carefully scribed letters, and thus far you have yet to encounter a member of the Unicorn who disapproves.

After all, what is there to disapprove of in the story of a young girl who managed to display such remarkable qualities?

Article:

What deed or quality are you most famous for? This will be reflected on your character sheet by a distinction - in addition to some general narrative benefits, you will be able to reroll any two unsuccessful dice in a test where your distinction seems like it should reasonably provide some kind of an advantage.

[ ] Famously Reliable. On a training expedition into the Burning Sands, your group was waylaid by a party of slavers. Your sensei believed your oath to recover the kidnapped students a foolish boast. When you returned three weeks later with a dozen children and three severed heads, they were proven incorrect. Your peers assume that you will always keep your word, no matter how impossible such a thing might seem.

[ ] Jurojin's Blessing. Plague is a terrible foe of all who live in Rokugan. When sickness took the village of Red Leaf, you voluntarily stayed within the quarantined area, ministering to the sick as best you could. For some reason, the disease never touched you, and your steadfast example kept the morale of the villagers high even as they tended to their ailing relatives. Your health remains robust to this day, and others know of your compassion.

[ ] Large Stature. Your bloodline is not entirely that of Rokugan, and in you this has manifested in a frankly ridiculous growth rate. You tower head and shoulders over even the tallest of your peers, and when your horse tripped and broke a leg, you carried the poor thing two and a half miles to the nearest healer.

It's not all sunshine and wildflowers, though. Just as your deeds and reputation open many doors and serve you well in advancing the causes that you care to pursue, so too are there other facets of your personality and history that have proven something of a hindrance.

The sensei at the dojo did their best to provide you with guidance and advice in overcoming and otherwise living with such adversities, but to tell the truth you found most of their wisdom distinctly lacking. It was always 'accept your karma and move on, Sarnai-chan' this and 'we each have our burdens to bear' that, and by the end of your schooling you were thoroughly and completely sick of it. Perhaps such an inability to let the world be the world is a flaw in its own right, but if so it is one that you have no interest in trying to correct. How can you make the world a better place if you refuse to get worked up about its inadequacies in the first place?

Still, just because your unrelenting drive is an asset rather than a curse, that does not mean that you would turn down the opportunity to wipe the slate clean of certain other disadvantages…

Article:

Which of the following qualities holds you back in life, or otherwise poses some kind of frequently-occurring obstacle with which you must contend? This is reflected on your sheet by an adversity, which operates in opposition to a distinction; namely, it forces you to reroll two successful dice whenever it comes up in the course of the quest.

[ ] Bluntness - For some reason that doubtless makes sense to everyone else, the samurai of Rokugan are obsessed with never actually speaking their minds. Everything must be veiled in allegory and misdirection, every comment and commitment accompanied by a ready-made excuse to ignore it if desired. You are, quite simply, terrible at such things. No, really, your friends generally have to explain that the fancy looking courtier just insulted you, and then everyone gets upset when you say they smell like horse manure.

[ ] Discomforting Countenance - OK, so you have foreign blood in your veins, and anyone who looks at you can generally deduce as much within a few moments. You can live with that. What you find somewhat harder to tolerate is how everyone immediately starts eyeing you with suspicion or backing away in fear or fingering the nearest piece of jade…

[ ] Whispers of Cruelty. Your mother, Rurame of the Red Banners is… well you love her dearly, but one does not earn a name like that by being nice, and ever since she collected you from your dojo anyone who meets you generally assumes that you are less her daughter and more a slightly smaller copy. Put simply, everyone expects you to have a fetish for dunking people in boiling oil, and they respond appropriately.

Still, if you can't get by simply by tolerating that which you cannot change and so forth, at the very least you can find some measure of peace in other activities. Enough to counteract your little foibles, your stresses and anxieties, the things which make you just want to scream and hit something…

Well. Suffice to say that such an overreaction would not be taken well by the samurai with whom you must now treat as a peer. Samurai are meant to be stoic and unflappable, after all, never once letting anyone but the closest members of their family see past the mask that is their 'face'. To show genuine, open emotion in anything resembling a public setting is the very height of rudeness, especially if said reaction expresses anything but absolute approval of your lord's commands and the dictates of society as a whole.

May your ancestors take pity upon you, but you hate all the pretense. The very institution of geishi, as an example, offends you on a basic level. Not the women themselves, who are often quite lovely and highly skilled, but the notion that one must classify some of the premier artisans in the realm as 'not people' so as to avoid the stigma against showing open emotion around others… truly, Lady Shinjo made the right choice when she led her Clan out of the nascent Empire and kept them there for eight hundred years. It at least gives you an alternative set of traditions to adhere to when you encounter something so utterly ridiculous…

Spoiler: Basic Mechanics

One of the core mechanics of Legend of the Five Rings is strife, which is acquired in moments of emotional weight and by the results of certain dice rolls. If you have too much strife, your character is 'compromised' - at the limits of their self control and cannot choose to keep any dice result that includes an additional point of strife.

Since most dice rolls will be handled behind the scenes, it is sufficient to note that the basic dice mechanic is as follows: You assemble a number of dice equal to your (Ring+Skill), roll them, and choose a number to keep equal to your ring. Each kept dice can provide a success, an opportunity (contextual bonus of some kind) and/or a point of strife. You need a certain number of successes to accomplish a given task. Being 'compromised' roughly reduces the chance of any given dice generating a success by half.

Removing strife happens in four major ways

• Firstly, you lose a certain amount of it at the end of each scene, though this cannot reduce you to less than half your maximum.
  
• Secondly, you can go and meditate or have a nice cup of tea or something.
  
• Thirdly, you can 'unmask', venting all of your strife in order to be highly emotional for a brief moment. Maybe you punch the irritating courtier, maybe you kiss your crush in public, whatever.
  
• Finally, you lose three strife by pursuing one of your passions.

Article:

Choose one of the following 'Passions'.

[ ] Daredevil. You love the thrill, the rush, of risking life and limb in increasingly dramatic ways. Your fondest memories are of moments when your heart thundered louder than any drum and you pushed yourself to the edge, either to show off to your peers or simply for the love of it.

[ ] Generosity. One thing you will say about traditional Rokugani etiquette, they were onto something when they formalised the whole 'gift-giving' thing. You have a real knack for picking out exactly what someone might love to receive, and it gives you a genuine sense of pleasure to see their eyes light up in response.

[ ] Travel. The wanderlust of your ancestors still burns in your veins, and you find nothing quite so enjoyable as seeing new places, meeting new people and trying new things. Sometimes that means venturing to see foreign lands, sometimes it means asking that cute courtier what the deal is with all these carefully arranged flowers.

Secondly, choose one of the following 'adversities', conditions which immediately afflict you with three points of strife when they come up.

[ ] Claustrophobia. You are a child of the wind, at home on the open steppe, and enclosed environments leave you feeling unsettled and tense by comparison. You can manage it, more or less, but given the choice you will not be happy until you can see the sky.

[ ] Loneliness. There is nothing quite so pleasing to you as a fun night spent in the company of friends and comrades. By extension, you are never more miserable than when duty demands you spend any significant amount of time alone, without something to take your mind off your solitude.

[ ] Superstition. Rokugan is a land of ten thousand spirits, and that which you do not know can most assuredly harm you. Moto Tsume thought he was the equal of the supernatural, and look what happened; he led half your family line into damnation. You maintain a fanatic's adherence to all the rites and rituals necessary to placate the spirits as a result.

 

[Maugan Ra]

It is early evening when your journey at last comes to an end. The sun dips towards the horizon, the world paints itself in shades of russet and crimson, and in the shadows of the valley ahead the lights of Tsuma glitter like diamonds. All across the convoy, heads lift and spines straighten, pride and dignity warring against all the fatigue of a long day's ride in hopes of forging some kind of respectable appearance from your kin. Here, in foreign lands, beneath the judgemental eyes of foreign lords, such things are more important than ever.

Ripple lets out a soft whinny of disapproval, as though reading the direction of your thoughts in the grip of your thighs, and with a rueful laugh you pat her on the side of the neck. Your horse has always been uncannily perceptive, able to read your moods better than the finest courtier, and you suppose the chastising sentiment expressed in her snort is one that you well deserve. The samurai of the Crane are not foreign, after all. Just because they live in distant lands and follow strange codes and speak a variant dialect of the language does not make them a different people. Just… one clan among many, united by shared culture and the divine governance of the Son of Heaven.

"You're drifting again," Mother says, and you snap your gaze away from the horizon in instinctive reflex before you can properly read the light-hearted nature of her tone, "I trust you'll be more focused when the tournament begins?"

You duck your head, fighting to control your flush. You're a blooded warrior, now, a graduate of the Moto school, mere days away from your formal oaths to Clan and Emperor. You should be past the point of being so embarrassed at an errant comment.

"Of course, Mother," you say awkwardly, keeping your eyes on the road, "I won't let you down."

Mother sighs, and for a moment you think she will let the matter rest. The steady, rhythmic thump of hooves lulls you into complacency, set in counterpoint to the creaking of leather and the murmured conversations of two dozen riders. Three weeks it has taken you to get this far, setting out from your own lands as soon as the last of the winter snows melted enough to permit passage, and already the warmth of spring is beginning to blanket the land. The buzz of insects fills the air, replacing the distant work-songs of the peasants toiling in their fields.

"Sarnai," Mother says, her voice stern, "Look at me."

A direct order from your parent is not one that you have ever been able to disobey, and like iron to the lodestone your gaze lifts to rest upon the woman riding at your side. Moto Rurame, Lady of Red Banners, makes for a deceptively thin looking figure. Flowing purple robes of silk and cotton hide the broad shoulders and whipcord muscles you know she possesses, hide the network of scars from soft-hearted eyes, make her look almost courtly atop her coal-black mare. Eyes as pale as ice study you from the sunken depths of a weather-worn face, and if the light of the setting sun hints at hot blood across her cheeks, you know better than to let your own gaze linger. This is one of the greatest heroes of your people, the rider who has led the Moto to a string of bloody victories longer than your arm, and if she reads even the slightest hint of imagined disrespect in your eyes no amount of blood shared or shed will save you from the consequences.

"Sarnai, you don't have to reassure me of such things," Mother says quietly, seeking something you cannot name in your eyes, "you are my daughter. You will do well. On this, everyone agrees. What matters is that you prove the quality we both know you suggest in the eyes of the others. In his eyes."

You nod, fractionally, knowing of what she speaks. The Topaz Championship is, in theory, nothing more than a particularly elaborate graduation ceremony for the best and brightest of the latest generation of samurai. You will compete with your peers from other Clans, demonstrate your honour and your quality, and prove once again that the ways of the Moto are equal or superior to those of any other family. This, in and of itself, is not a source of concern. You have already passed the trials that your own family requires of its samurai; the formal ceremony at the end of the Championship is just that, a formality.

No, what truly matters here is not your own performance, but how it comes across in the eyes of others. Outside Tsume sits the academy of the Kakita family, and through long tradition and the benefits of an Imperial bride the Topaz Championship frequently draws observers from the very highest strata of society. Family daimyos, Jewelled Champions… even the Emperor himself, more years than not. To succeed in front of such an audience is to make your name and open up paths for the future that might otherwise be forever out of reach. To fail…

You will not fail.

"Camp sighted!" The call comes down the line, passed from one smiling face to another, and at the sound you cannot help but feel cheered in turn. Three weeks on the road is nothing, in comparison to the great odysseys of your ancestors, but three weeks without being able to set up a proper tent or otherwise make recourse to the traditions of your own people has worn on you more than you might otherwise like to admit. Tents would imply that the hospitality of your neighbours was lacking, travel-songs would be taken amiss by those who do not know the words, some decent meat would be half a step shy of cannibalism…

Your mother has spoken before of a vague wish to just leave everything behind and ride off across the horizon. Some days, you are less opposed to such dereliction than you otherwise might be.

"Perfection," Mother says in satisfaction, guiding her horse off the road alongside the rest of the column. The array of tents and cooking pits spread out in front of you threaten to drive a spike of homesickness into your heart, but it is the sight of smiling kin emerging from within that reminds you of a more fundamental truth; home is in the blood and the breath, not the land. "Sarnai, let me take care of Ripple. Why don't you go and explore the town?"

You glance over at mother in surprise, then turn your attention towards the town just half a mile down the track. The collection of red and white buildings looks inviting enough, you have to admit, and you do want to see what a town of the Crane actually looks like up close, but is it truly acceptable to wander off without your kin so soon after arriving?

"Sarnai…" Mother says, and you realise in a start that the suggestion was not, in fact, a suggestion. With a startled yelp that you will deny making until your dying day you dismount, pat your horse in fond farewell, and stride away down the road. You are a dozen paces into your departure before you realise that maybe you should have gotten some more detailed instructions or double-checked that your reading of her intent was correct, but… well, too late now. Onwards, to new horizons!

Tsume is built without walls, and so the first thing you notice are the farmers, coming home from a long day of work in the rice paddies and fields surrounding the town. Their backs are bent and their brows are beaded with sweat, but they are smiling, and exchanging banter with their peers, so you suppose the lords here must not be too harsh. Perhaps subjecting the lower classes to untold misery would make them look bad in the eyes of the frequent visitors of higher status, or perhaps they genuinely remember that compassion is one of the tenets of your shared code… either way, you are glad for it. The sight of the peasants using smaller, less well maintained paths to enter the town in order to avoid interrupting your journey on the main thoroughfare is less welcome, but on the grand scale of things you suppose it is a minor sin.

The second thing that catches your attention, coming to mind as soon as you enter the town itself, is the smell. Every settlement of any size has its own distinctive smell, even the ones with the good sense to site the tanneries and cess-pits downwind from the residential districts, but in Tsume that natural melange of smells has been overridden by deliberate, concentrated effort. You can smell flowers and fresh cut grass, incense and cooking oil… but nothing more, the less savory parts of the town hidden from sight and scent alike. You cannot even begin to imagine how the Crane managed to accomplish such a thing, but there it is.

And then you are into the town proper, and it is the people that catch your eyes. The samurai, specifically, for while the blue and white clothing of the Crane dominates the scene, even the most casual glance brings more clans and organisations to your attention than you have ever seen in a single place before. A pair of Lions, resplendent in gold and yellow, march down the street with arms resting near the hilt of their swords. A priest of the Phoenix prays before the diminutive form of a roadside shrine, his red robes mirroring the skies above. And further down the road… yes, the rich emerald green of men and women sworn into the service of the Emperor himself, doubtless sent to prepare the way for your shared master before he arrives sometime in the next few days.

...you should find something to occupy yourself, for while walking around with wide eyes and an innocent heart would be deeply satisfying, it also invites mockery and unwelcome attention. Several options immediately occur to you, any of which would seem like a plausible route forwards.

Article:

You have arrived in Tsuma. Somewhere around here are likely to be your rivals in the upcoming tournament, who you will likely encounter in various capacities before the contests begin, but first you must decide what to do next. Choose one of the options below.

[ ] Find a temple. It is said that somewhere near here is the hill where the Eight Kami first held their contest of arms, through which they determined who would rule over all of Rokugan. There is doubtless a temple in the area, which you should visit. Perhaps some of your rivals from the more spiritual clans can be found doing likewise…

[ ] Find a bathhouse. You have had a long, hard journey to get here, and you could most assuredly do with a chance to wash and relax. A hot spring or a sauna sound absolutely divine right about now, and you may well encounter some of your rivals from the more distant clans within, for much the same reason.

[ ] Find the school. Somewhere near Tsuma is supposed to lie the main academy for students training in the Kakita style, and while you are not a Crane nor even half as obsessed as they with dueling, it is always good to see your opponents in action before facing them across a field. Likely your more martial rivals will feel similarly.

 

[Maugan Ra]

You hesitate for what feels like an age, mulling over your options. There's just so many possibilities on offer before you - the tea house, the famed Kakita Duelling Academy, a long walk to stretch the legs and enjoy the natural beauty of the Crane lands… in the end, though, it is the simple act of sniffing yourself that determines the appropriate course of action. You, not to put too fine a point on it, stink. Not unreasonably so, given the length of your journey and the natural aromas associated with a horseback ride through the countryside, but enough that you can already picture the wrinkled noses of your contemporaries.

Will they even need that excuse, to make comments and remarks they think intelligent about the barbarian princess from the west? You doubt it, if your mother's words are to be believed, but there is no sense in handing your enemy a blade even if they are yet armed with their own. Your Clan already has too many traditions that others see fit to mock, from your fur and leather to the traditions of your priests, and you would be poorly served to make yourself vulnerable in other ways as well.

Satisfied with your reasoning, you nod firmly to yourself and head off into the streets of Tsume, and within a matter of two dozen heartbeats are completely and utterly lost. It takes you longer than that to notice, of course, and longer still to actually accept the idea, but apparently the ability to lead an entire army group a hundred miles by the light of the stars doesn't entirely translate to picking your way through the overly-clean streets of some tiny village on the far side of the Empire. Already, you think you hate the Crane, for surely this is their fault in some undeniable if obscure fashion.

"You there," you growl, drawing to a halt and pointing to the nearest passer by, "I smell terrible. Direct me to a bathhouse."

"I… you mean me, samurai-sama?" The man is some kind of farmer by the look of him, and for reasons entirely beyond your understanding is currently as pale and trembling as a criminal before the spike, "I, uh, yes… there is… oh! Yes, of course, you are here for the Championship! The Laughing Carp is a teahouse and bath all in one, and has facilities for all you could desire!"

"Good!" You say, remembering at the last moment not to show your satisfaction too openly, "Direct me there!"

It takes a good minute or so to get workable instructions out of the man, and eventually you give up on the finer details and resolve to make your way to the general area of town and ask someone else. It is by the river, apparently, so you resolve to follow the nearest one until you find an informant of more directly applicable knowledge. Ideally someone less inexplicably terrified of your very presence, for unless the Crane are vastly more terrifying than anything you've ever heard about them there has to be at least a handful of souls in this village with the courage not to shit themselves over a simple question.

So preoccupied with the strange demeanour of the man are you that it takes a cry of genuine alarm to shake you from your stupor. You glance up, blink, then throw yourself backwards just in time to avoid the grinding wheels of a runaway cart as it crashes its way wildly down the street. A stone catches in the wheel with a great crunch, someone cries out in ever mounting horror, and on a wake of fluttering paper sheathes the whole contraption crashes through the wooden railing on the nearest pier and submerges itself violently in one of Tsume's many rivers.

"A thousand pardons, noble samurai!" The scuttling, frantic form of an old man bent double under the weight of a large sack appears from further down the road, studying you with a kind of horrified awe even as his wrinkled arms dart back and forth to try retrieving the various shreds of paper dislodged by his runaway carriage, "No, ten thousand, a hundred! I was but distracted for a second, and oh… you are not injured, this lowly one hopes?"

"I am fine," you say, still more bemused than anything else. You have been in this village for less than an hour and already you have been confused by the locals and nearly killed by a piece of infrastructure. Fortunes only know what the samurai will be like when at last you cross paths with one, but… for now, you turn your attention to placating the peasant's obvious panic and grabbing the nearest piece of paper fluttering in the breeze. You think it is a letter, and a brief glance at the first handful of lines confirms it.

...you have often told me that you are a better father to my children than I am. I can only hope the Fortunes bless you - or curse you - with children of your own one day, that you could see the true challenges of fatherhood…

Wow that is absolutely not something you should be prying into, so you clear your throat and hand the letter back to the peasant. He seems torn between profusely thanking you and grovelling on the ground by your feet, which… to be fair, if he actually had hurt you in any serious fashion your mother probably would have had him executed in some incredibly painful fashion. You love her dearly, but she's always been a bit prone to over-reaction.

"You are a courier?" You say, if only to give the poor man something to latch onto that isn't the endless destructive spiral of panic and self-recrimination.

"Ah, no, that is… no, samurai-sama, I am not, I am but a humble scribe and assistant," the peasant babbles rapidly, gathering the last of the drifting papers in his boney arms and casting increasingly concerned looks at the slowly submerging cart a dozen paces away, "Ryu is my name, servant to his highness Doji Satsume-dono, the Emerald… that is to say, the former Emerald Champion…"

...oh wow that is even worse. You don't know all that much about politics in the wider empire, but even you know of the Grinning Crane and his mysterious death but a handful of weeks past. When the chief law enforcement officer of the entire Empire keels over dead for no discernable reason people tend to get antsy, and if that wasn't bad enough he seems to have spent the time before his death writing really personal letters to… who?

Bah. It doesn't matter. Well, ok, it does, but it matters to someone else, someone whose job and ordained role in the perfected hierarchy it is to give themselves stomach ulcers worrying about this sort of thing. Probably one of the Ide, they tend to get all the terrible political assignments that come your family's way. Your job, by contrast, is to kill people and lead others to glory and maybe, just maybe, help a frantic old peasant man rescue his cart from the river before something unfortunate happens to it.

Article:

Ryu the peasant has almost lost his cart to the fast-flowing rivers of Tsume, and with it his old master's possessions. You could help him retrieve it, but this would entail hard physical labour and quite possibly getting rather mucky; such acts are considered beneath samurai, and word will get around quickly.

[ ] Assist Ryu. Compassion is a virtue, and it demands that you help those less fortunate whenever you can. If you get dirty, so what, you're going to a bathhouse anyway. (+2 honour, -1 glory)

[ ] Move on. The peasant appears halfway to a heart attack just at the thought of having inconvenienced you; better to leave him to it, instead of making a public scene of this whole mess. (No effect)

[ ] Organise aid. There are enough able-bodied folks nearby to make retrieving the cart a simple deed, and you are of the kuge. That said, for a guest to start ordering around their host's vassals is arguably a violation of courtesy… (+2 glory, -1 honour)