The Minor Clans and Imperial Families

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Imperial Offices
Empress Hantei Retsuhime
Emerald Champion: Kakita Hajime
Imperial Chancellor: Shiba Rumiko
Imperial Adviser: Otomo Keihime
Imperial Herald: Miya Hachi

Imperial Daimyo
Otomo Daimyo: Otomo Tooru
Miya Daimyo: Miya Hachi
Seppun Daimyo: Seppun Sadako

Minor Clans
Badger Clan: Ichiro Aoi
Boar Clan: Heichi Batsuda
Centipede Clan: Moshi Akane
Fox Clan: Kitsune Fumihito
Mantis Clan: Gusai Rioshida
Sparrow Clan: Suzume Hanae
Tortoise Clan: Kasuga Genjiko

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The Emerald Office

The Emerald Office of the late 5th century has undergone the Saibankan reforms, so it is comprised of a network of Emerald Magistrates, each supported by a team of yoriki, reporting up to the Emerald Champion. In theory, all Emerald Magistrates are equal. In practice, certain assignments carry more responsibility than others, and Magistrates with greater experience--or greater connections--tend to be deferred to or consulted. The Magistrate of West Hub Village, Kitagawa Atsushi of the Kakita Family, for instance, has responsibility for collecting and accounting the Imperial Taxes. Likewise, Mirumoto Ayano, the Emerald Magistrate for Kyuden Ikoma, is largely thought of as a leader among the Emerald Magistrates of the former territories of the Ki-rin.

The Emerald Champion is supported by the Emerald Office, a surprisingly small bureaucratic system. Once it was larger, but since the Gozoku era the budget has been slashed quite severely. Many records of the Office are decentralized, with each Emerald Magistrate Station maintaining records on their premises, with reports (often highly curated) being delivered to the central Office and stored by a small team of archivists.

The Imperial Legions are the other responsibility of the Emerald Office. The private army of the Empress, the Imperial Legions are staffed by samurai drawn from the clans and placed under the command of the Emerald Champion in times of danger for the Empire. In practice, they have only been used once, when Hantei Fujiwa broke the siege of Shiro Hiruma in 375, and even then their command was given to Hida Ichido rather than the Emerald Champion. The rest of the time, the Officer positions of the Legions are maintained, but they are thought of as sinecures--ways of honoring service of outstanding service at the cost of a meeting twice a year. After all, the real force of the Legions is hardly their military strength, but rather the fact that they march under the chrysanthemum banner, because what army would dare raise a sword against the Empress?

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The Imperial Bureaucracy

The primary organ of the Government of the Empire is the Imperial Bureaucracy, at the head of which is the Imperial Chancellor. In theory, it regulates and governs the Empire. In practice, the Bureaucracy does not intervene in many matters pertaining to the Great Clans. Indeed, much of the Imperial Bureaucracy is taken up by departments that focus on the government of Otosan Uchi and its immediate environs, which as a consequence is comprehensively regulated, and in maintaining the dignity and prerogatives of the Empress.

There are, however, certain prerogatives that they husband very closely. Among these are the budget, which determines how the Imperial Taxes are used, and the enforcement of the Empress' control over large-scale internecine violence in the Empire.

The Imperial Bureaucracy in 486 is largely staffed by members of the Imperial Families, but here and there members of the Lion, Phoenix, and Tortoise clans are present within the system, as are a few gray-haired old Crane and Scorpion samurai from before Retsuhime's reign.

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The Imperial Advisor

A sort of minister without portfolio, the Office of the Imperial Advisor was invented for Otomo Keihime, who has served as a sort of second pair of hands for the Empress for a significant portion of her reign. Officially, the Imperial Advisor has no responsibilities save what the Empress commands in an ad hoc fashion. In practice, her access to the Empress is unparalleled and provides her an endless trove of favors by which she has exercised influence over the Bureaucracy, and especially over her own Otomo family.

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The Imperial Heralds

The Imperial Heralds are the organ by which the center of government communicates with the clans. Staffed almost entirely by the Miya Family since the founding of the Empire, the Heralds maintain post stations with fresh horses so that messages can be passed quickly, without need to rest a horse. Of course, the Empire is a big place, and even under this lightning-fast system, it can take a prohibitively long time for messages to reach the extreme periphery. The Badger and Boar clans, in particular, can often feel rather isolated from the central government.

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The Otomo Family

The Otomo have been a family galvanized by their experience of powerlessness during the Gozoku years. Stung by their failure to prevent the collusion of the Scorpion, Crane, and Phoenix, their program has been one of using Imperial power to prevent the success of those clans. Sometimes they have acted cleverly, with great subtlety. More often, their efforts and programs have been about overt exercise of authority and petty revenge. Recently, driven in part by Otomo Keihime's careful redirection of Imperial policy to lessen their dependence on the Lion clan, the Otomo have been steadily rehabilitating the Scorpion and especially the Phoenix clans, while doing their utmost to isolate the Crane clan. This has led to some friction within the family, but not terribly much. The Otomo are not as enthralled with tradition or doctrine as they claim. They are a people who know which way the wind is blowing. This is what got their grandparents into trouble in the Gozoku era, but given that the new power seems to be emanating from the person most likely to succeed the Empress, the parallels do not trouble them overmuch.

Because so much of their authority is bound up with the Empress' unquestioned power, and because Otomo Keihime's policies are seen as synonymous with the Empress' will, the Otomo family is, unlike almost any other faction in the Empire, fairly solidly united behind Keihime alone as an heir to the Empress. The fact that Otomo Gorobei is also from their family is generally felt to be more of an embarrassment than an opportunity to take a new approach.

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The Miya Family

The traditional role of the Miya is to be the face of the Imperial system, delivering directives and making proclamations. This year has been a hardship for them. With the Imperial Succession being characterized by indecision, the Miya have been unable to deliver the news for which the Empire hungers. For the past generation, the Miya have been led by a well-meaning but not terribly assertive Daimyo in the form of Miya Hachi. Interested in peace and Imperial cohesion, his lack of ability to galvanize a political counterweight to Otomo Keihime's policies has meant that the family has tended to split into factions around one or another powerful personalities in the Imperial Bureaucracy. This has led to an occasional scandal as members of opposing factions jockey for power, but nothing too devastating has developed as of yet. The wise understand that if the Empress does not make her choice fairly rapidly, the factions within the Miya will begin anchoring themselves to opposing Winds, leading perhaps, to an irrevocable split.

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The Seppun Family

The descendants of the first mortal followers of the kami, the Seppun comprise the Empress' bodyguards (called the Miharu; the shugenja component of this guard is known as the Hidden Guard) as well as supplying members of the Imperial Bureaucracy. The Seppun have, by and large, been part of and contributors to the Empress' political program for the past few decades. The Seppun and the Otomo differ in two significant ways. First, they are governed by a much younger Daimyo who, lacking the memory of the Gozoku era that plagues the older members of the Imperial Families, does not necessarily share the same priorities as those governing the Otomo. Secondly, the Seppun have had an entirely different relationship with the succession crisis. For one thing, the Wind from their family is a relatively harmless old man who is reasonably well liked by his colleagues, which can count for an awful lot in a relatively small Family like the Seppun. For another, he does not have a rival within the same family. As a consequence, although Seppun Sadako has not publicly put her name behind Seppun Tomaru's candidacy out of deference to the Empress, the Seppun leadership does not seem terribly eager to throw in for anybody else, either.

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The Badger Clan

The Badger Clan of 486 is a clan that understands itself to be enjoined to protect the northwestern frontier of Rokugan. They have had a little more than 300 years to develop and understand their territory, and they remain a fiercely independent Minor Clan. That said, they have, since the departure of the Ki-rin, found it very difficult to exercise an independent economic policy, as nearly all of their goods, services, and communications have to pass through Lion territory in order to reach other clans in the Empire. Consequently, it is a matter of survival as well as good sense to remain close to the Lion clan.

Life within Badger territory could be considered almost idyllic, leaving aside the occasional yobanjin attack, were it not for the ambitions of Ichiro Aoi. Having come to power on her majority about 20 years ago, Aoi was determined to reverse the ignorance she felt was all around her. She has founded a dozen libraries in the towns of Badger Lands. This initially ruffled some feathers, particularly as Aoi has never been gentle with her criticism of the simple way of life most Badger had pursued for generations. However, over the past 20 years, people have begun to accept the intellectual bent of Aoi's court and have begun to adapt to it. As a result, there is an appetite for learning in Badger lands, particularly among the young.

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, however, and Aoi's recent discovery in a manuscript lent her by the Asako of the possible existence of a 10th kami has rather inflamed her imagination. There are texts in the original Ichiro's personal library, long ignored by the haughty Aoi as hopelessly outdated, that would tend to confirm her discovery, and could just possibly lead her to Ryoshun's Tomb. What she would do with that knowledge, however, is difficult to predict. Certainly Badger Lands would become that much more attractive to the Rokugani imagination. And who knows what secrets are kept within the tomb?

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The Boar clan

Even more remote than the Badger, the Boar clan came into existence 39 years ago because of their adventures in the jade-rich Twilight Mountains. The Boar rely on their isolation and the shear distance between them and their nearest neighbors to ensure their independence and the continued success of their relationship with the Shakoki Dogu.

That said, distances are meant to be traversed, and the clan is not so unwise as to imagine that it can remain isolated forever, particularly when so many clans are interested in their mineral wealth. In order to address this problem, Heichi Batsuda, now the Daimyo of the Boar but then a youthful and vigorous heir, and a small entourage were sent to tour the Empire. There are many scandalous stories detailing just how closely Batsuda studied the manners and dispositions of the courts of the Empire. Still, his rakish reputation did not do the Boar much harm, and in fact won Batsuda several friends and admirers in spite of the efforts of the pearl-clutching set.

Being such a young clan, the Boar's priority is to establish a secure foundation for their clan to grow. Just how that is to be done is a matter of some debate. Batsuda seems to feel that the world is an ocean of opportunity and that the Boar need only be friendly enough to get what they need from the Empire and be left in peace, while some of his father's former circle are concerned that the Boar might find itself as much a de facto client of the Crab as the Badger are of the Lion, and desperately wish for Batsuda to find a counterweight. Which strategy wins out in the end may well have to do with which faction provides the diplomats, and as Batsuda is leading the delegation to this year's winter court, it seems likely that his policy may be the path forward.

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The Centipede Clan

The Centipede were founded just under 150 years ago. Over 7 generations, the Moshi have grown from the immediate family of Isawa Moshi to a thriving religious community. Their watchword has been slow, risk-averse development. Well, it was their watch-word. In recent years, Moshi Akane, their Daimyo, has taken it upon herself to drag the Moshi forward with a lightning program of investment from other clans. How precisely she is able to sell the products of the Valley of the Golden Sun so dearly is not a comfortable question to ask in Centipede lands. Instead, clan leadership have been happy to let Akane do what she needs to do to keep the koku flowing in.

There are rumors, of course, that Akane is securing these investments through some kind of corruption. Many Moshi are simply unwilling to accept that one who hears Amaterasu's voice could possibly be a criminal. There are some Moshi, mostly young, who are less happy about the situation. Taking their oaths to Lady Sun quite seriously, these young people are increasingly distressed by the implications of Moshi Akane's style of politics, as well as the complacency of their elders. Whether this distress will translate to action is anyone's guess.

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The Fox Clan

397 years have past since the Lion clan appropriated the lands of the Ki-rin and displaced the samurai that would become the Fox. In that time, the particulars of the transfer of power have largely been forgotten in favor of a simmering resentment. Particularly around the big anniversaries, the young among the Fox start asking questions about the exact nature of the bandits that the Lion were sent in to quell. Were there any? Was it all a land grab? The fact that the Ikoma Histories contain detailed records of the operations the Lion undertook has not done much to convince the Fox that their actions were just.

Still, the Kitsune have endeavored to make the most of their forest home, building a thriving community that does its utmost to cultivate a sustainable way of life in harmony with the spirits. A long line of Fox daimyo have made it a priority to emphasize the spiritual element of their way of life, and there is, as a result, a mystical element to nearly all actions related to the forest.

That long line has been disrupted recently by the current Daimyo, Kitsune Fumihito. Fumihito is no less committed to the forest than the other Fox. Indeed, one could say that it is his obsession. He wanders into the Mori for weeks at a time, leaving the administration of the clan (which he has never really been able to understand) to his sister. Unlike his predecessors, Fumihito has no ability to explain or to reinforce the teachings that have kept the clan in good standing. He was never really able to internalize those, either. Instead, he seems to become more a part of the forest each year. There are some in the clan who claim that he leads by example, and revere that choice. But the grumblings of those who think he should just retire and give his sister the job are growing louder all the time.

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The Mantis Clan

The Mantis Clan is an old clan, but one that has burst onto the main stage of the Empire in the last two generations. Their long history as freight haulers, shippers, and mercenaries came exploding into the limelight during the gaijin crisis. Their deep entanglement with the Thrane, who turned out to be malicious, might have led to steep consequences for the Mantis had it not been for their collaboration with the Crane and Crab clans in the naval portions of the Battle of White Stag. The actions of the samurai that became the Tortoise clan in that battle and their economic involvement in markets that the Mantis at one time had cornered has created a bit of a rivalry between the two clans.

Another consequence of White Stag was the influx of gaijin influence in the Islands of Silk and Spice. While the gaijin themselves are all gone (the Mantis swear!), hints of their culture, their equipment, and in some cases their genetics, have been left behind. As these things are deeply taboo in the Empire at the moment, the Mantis have been careful not to expose the degree to which this entanglement had gone, but there are elements in the clan that are nervous about the Tortoise outflanking the Mantis in contact with the gaijin. These houses are advocating for quietly seeking out new gaijin with which to trade. It is an open question what avenues the Mantis will pursue. In the meantime, the Mantis remain focused on facilitating trade, a business in which they are very skilled.

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The Sparrow Clan

Founded at the order of Hantei Kusada in the year 400 because of an attack of idealism on the part of an inexperienced Crane courtier, the Sparrow have had a difficult 86 years adjusting to a life of "Honorable Poverty." There are certainly some Suzume who have gamely tried to make the best of it, but there are also quite a few, particularly in the diplomatic corps, who deeply resent their lot in life. These Sparrow tend to do their best to avoid having to return to the Suzume Hills.

The current Lady of the Suzume is fundamentally not one of these irredentists, but neither is Suzume Hanae a country bumpkin. Instead, she has tackled the problems of the Sparrow's adaptation to their environment and to cooperation with the heimin living there. Positive overtures to village headmen have made Suzume Hanae something of a hero to the peasants of southern Rokugan, something that has only served to further alienate her long-suffering diplomats. Still, she is not one to take disputes from her subordinates, and seems to take pleasure in reminding these "perfect samurai" what Loyalty really means.

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The Tortoise Clan

The youngest of the Minor Clans are the Tortoise, who are in their 44th year. Still a very small organization with deep ties to the Agasha family, the Tortoise are the Empress' spies among the gaijin and, because of one of Retsuhime's decisive squashings of a Crane initiative, the caretakers of Otosan Uchi. The problem with spies, however, is that it can be difficult to maintain one's objectivity. It ought to come as no surprise to those who knew of Agasha Kasuga's actions on behalf of the Cornejos during the mess of White Stag, but the Tortoise have had a difficult time maintaining their distance from the gaijin they are meant to observe and disrupt.

Headed by Kasuga Genjiko, a pragmatic woman, but a known gossip, the Tortoise remain a tiny organization, but one with excellent connections. Genjiko has been more open than her father in flexing the clan's economic muscles, and in so doing has courted some enmity from the Mantis clan. The Tortoise have been able to meet the Mantis on a far larger number of fronts, both legal and illegal, than their size would suggest. Genjiko is determined to see them continue to expand.