Killing with Silence (L5R/Exalted)
- Thread starter Maugan Ra
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Southern Virginia
[X] The Geisha
All of the options have fairly strong archetypes and aesthetics that can be leaned on. Of them geisha is the most interesting to me. She's dealing with the beating heart of Rokugani's ruling elites, and most immediately plugged into the system as it exists and acutely aware of just how much the system is the problem rather than individual bad actors. There's lots of scope for manipulation via charm and assassination via stealth to pull strings behind the scenes to set things up to bring it crashing down; in many ways a classic Lunar experience, coupled with an uncommon but still fundamentally Rokugani experience. It's colorful and dynamic and lively in a way I find really appealing.
By contrast I'm just not hugely interested in the Speaker. It has strong aesthetics, but they're Japanese horror aesthetics and those leave me cold. The setup lends itself to a smaller scale sort of story; the unquiet dead punishing individual wicked lords who abuse their role in society, which obscures the degree to which Rokugan's ills aren't a failing of individual bad men but of a rotten social order.
Ronin can do anything, but honestly most likely it'd be fighting uphill to not just blow off a lot of the social experience for becoming better at swording and having local adventures along the way. That's why I liked Bandit Chief a lot more since it already had significant hooks in for conflict with Rokugan as a society.
All of the options have fairly strong archetypes and aesthetics that can be leaned on. Of them geisha is the most interesting to me. She's dealing with the beating heart of Rokugani's ruling elites, and most immediately plugged into the system as it exists and acutely aware of just how much the system is the problem rather than individual bad actors. There's lots of scope for manipulation via charm and assassination via stealth to pull strings behind the scenes to set things up to bring it crashing down; in many ways a classic Lunar experience, coupled with an uncommon but still fundamentally Rokugani experience. It's colorful and dynamic and lively in a way I find really appealing.
By contrast I'm just not hugely interested in the Speaker. It has strong aesthetics, but they're Japanese horror aesthetics and those leave me cold. The setup lends itself to a smaller scale sort of story; the unquiet dead punishing individual wicked lords who abuse their role in society, which obscures the degree to which Rokugan's ills aren't a failing of individual bad men but of a rotten social order.
Ronin can do anything, but honestly most likely it'd be fighting uphill to not just blow off a lot of the social experience for becoming better at swording and having local adventures along the way. That's why I liked Bandit Chief a lot more since it already had significant hooks in for conflict with Rokugan as a society.
[X] The Speaker
- Location
- Austria
Ngl if I were voting in first round I'd go for either bandit chief or merchant; ronin just feels like bandit chief but for cowards, so speaker it is.
Undead-Spaceman
Skeleton Supreme
- Location
- Somewhere in Orbit
I, for one, have not forgotten Bunraku.
I'm not sold on Ronin, being a fight monster is cool and all but Bandit Chief would have given that and more.
- Location
- Vermont
Bandit chief is off in the woods surrounded by an army! Ronin walks into a court on his own and dares the army, lord, and all the generals to take offense and do something about it. No cowardice here man.
- Location
- Sweden
[X] The Geisha
[x] The Geisha
Rokugan has a lot of very interesting social dynamics and I think a story that focuses on explory them through the perspective of a Geisha would be really great. This also seems like something that would be unique as I have read a lot of stories that focused on the Samurai or the Mystics but nothing on the Geisha.
Rokugan has a lot of very interesting social dynamics and I think a story that focuses on explory them through the perspective of a Geisha would be really great. This also seems like something that would be unique as I have read a lot of stories that focused on the Samurai or the Mystics but nothing on the Geisha.
Manic Dogma
This, I can't deny.
- Location
- The far side of tired
- Pronouns
- Whatever
[X] The Ronin
Iaijutsu, Iaijutsu gimme
Iaijutsu, Iaijutsu gimme
[X] The Speaker
While I'd not unfollow the quest if any of the options win, I would be disappointed if Ronin won, because both of the others are far more interesting to me. Therefore, I'm voting for the non-Ronin option currently in the lead according to the vote tally, and if Geisha ever overtakes Speaker, their supporters have my permission to tag me and ask me to change to Geisha.
While I'd not unfollow the quest if any of the options win, I would be disappointed if Ronin won, because both of the others are far more interesting to me. Therefore, I'm voting for the non-Ronin option currently in the lead according to the vote tally, and if Geisha ever overtakes Speaker, their supporters have my permission to tag me and ask me to change to Geisha.
- Location
- Germany
So all this talk about Iaijutsu, in Exalted the most fitting style would likely be the Single Point Shining into the Void?
Looks interesting for sure.
Dex for life.
Looks interesting for sure.
Dex for life.
- Location
- London, England
In Exalted yes, but as this is a crossover I can feel free to mix and match as required for the intended result.
Rokugan has two primary schools of duelling. One is the Kakita "Single Perfect Strike" method, which is classical iaijutsu. The other is the Mirumoto "Twin Swords Falling From Heaven" style, which is a dual wielding art. There are a bunch of others but those are the two biggest ones, with appropriate arguments and deadly inter-tradition rivalries.
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
If we do go Ronin, can we have four arms and use both at the same time?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] The Geisha
It's sort of the inverse of the Ronin in a lot of ways. Ronin are samurai, geisha are hinin. Ronin are masterless, wandering threats to the people and nobility alike, the geisha exist within a gilded cage under a harsh hierarchy, carving an odd and idiosyncratic sort of freedom out of that space. They are objects, owned by other women, traded to men, working to buy a liberty still strongly proscribed by the rules of this rigid society. There is the potential for such incandescently feminine rage there. It's the over the top Shogun Total War assassination cutscenes realized as Lord Moon spits in the eye of the Celestial order, and a woman whose death would be counted among a loss of assets is given the power to strangle Rokugan with her own golden chains.
I've wanted good geisha portrayals in L5R soooo much. 😅
It's sort of the inverse of the Ronin in a lot of ways. Ronin are samurai, geisha are hinin. Ronin are masterless, wandering threats to the people and nobility alike, the geisha exist within a gilded cage under a harsh hierarchy, carving an odd and idiosyncratic sort of freedom out of that space. They are objects, owned by other women, traded to men, working to buy a liberty still strongly proscribed by the rules of this rigid society. There is the potential for such incandescently feminine rage there. It's the over the top Shogun Total War assassination cutscenes realized as Lord Moon spits in the eye of the Celestial order, and a woman whose death would be counted among a loss of assets is given the power to strangle Rokugan with her own golden chains.
I've wanted good geisha portrayals in L5R soooo much. 😅
[X] The Ronin
Thanatos757
Captain of the Four Knights
[X] The Ronin
Sword good
Sword good
ThatGazzer
Minds Eye Bind
- Location
- PNW
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] The Geisha
If I recall, there are ways to make the Hunt more metaphorical; such that the seduction and the the intimacy that comes with it count as completing a Hunt. There are ways for us to rule the known world from behind a silk curtain with the power a Geisha holds, and that's normally. With the backing of the Moon Lord? We can be so much more.
If I recall, there are ways to make the Hunt more metaphorical; such that the seduction and the the intimacy that comes with it count as completing a Hunt. There are ways for us to rule the known world from behind a silk curtain with the power a Geisha holds, and that's normally. With the backing of the Moon Lord? We can be so much more.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] The Speaker