The Great Clans

[Cearnach]

I. Crab Clan
A. The Crab Clan, Briefly
B. The Crab Clan of Late
C. Hida Gendo, Crab Champion, Defender of the South, the Strategist
D. Hiruma Ichika, The Bitter Maiden
E. Kaiu Masahiko, The Quartermaster and Politico
F. Kuni Mirabu, The Monstrous Tyrant
G. Yasuki Amiko, the Investment Banker

II. Crane Clan
A. The Crane Clan, Briefly
B. The Crane Clan of Late
C. Doji Minehime, Crane Champion, The Left Hand of the Empress, the Swordmaster
D. Kakita Sorashi, the Dark Lady of the Kakita
E. Daidoji Irumi, the Mother of the Daidoji
F. Asahina Junpei, the Cock-eyed Optimist

III. Dragon Clan
A. The Dragon Clan, Briefly
B. The Dragon Clan of Late
C. Togashi Mizohachi, Dragon Champion, Lord of the High House of Light, the Former Interventionist
D. Agasha Akari, the Fire Hazard
E. Mirumoto Tsukahara, the Obsessive Swordmaster

IV. Lion Clan
A. The Lion Clan, Briefly
B. The Lion Clan of Late
C. Akodo Sanae, Lion Champion, the Right Hand of the Empress, the Author
D. Matsu Tsuruyo, Paragon of Strength
E. Ikoma Ryota, the Man Holding the Match
F. Kitsu Shintaro, the Artist of Memory

V. Phoenix Clan
A. The Phoenix Clan, Briefly
B. The Phoenix Clan of Late
C. Shiba Higashime, Phoenix Champion, Master of All the Phoenix, the Justiciar
D. Asako Ainojo, the Drama Llama
E. Isawa Akihiro, Master of Air, the Curmudgeon
F. Isawa Orimitsu, Master of Earth, the Servant Leader
G. Isawa Takao, Master of Fire, the Genius
H. Isawa Sorami, Master of Water, the Serene
I. Isawa Enju, Master of Void, Master of the Middle Path

VI. Scorpion Clan
A. The Scorpion Clan, Briefly
B. The Scorpion Clan of Late
C. Bayushi Kaguya, Scorpion Champion, the Underhand of the Empress, the Operative
D. Shosuro Ryusei, the Inveterate Schemer
E. Soshi Michiko, Battlehungry Grandma
F. Yogo Tenka, the Serial Betrayalist

[Cearnach]

The Crab clan of 486 is quite different from that of latter days. They are a people possessed of sweeping, fertile territory supporting (just) an exceedingly large population. Their armies still tend toward heavy armaments, but focus on rapid deployment. Nearly all of the Hida fight as mounted infantry, riding horses to the location of a battle before deploying in their familiar formations. Hiruma scouts provide constant reconnaissance in order to facilitate concentration of enough force at a particular point to deny the goblins, ogres, and worse the ability to penetrate the Empire.

That is not to say that they are always successful. No matter how sophisticated the net, there are things that can slip through. As a result, the Crab clan is also a more paranoid clan than it will become after the Wall is a reality. Infiltration by agents of Jigoku is a real possibility, particularly in the lands of the Hiruma and Kuni. As a consequence, the Crab are forthright and security-conscious at all times. Nearly every Crab village has its own, often quite complex, means of detecting shapeshifters. The taboos against falsehood with other Crab are also very strong. It is unthinkable for a Crab to tell a lie or even exaggerate to his comrades or his officers. Misinformation leads at best to a waste of resources, and at worst to a death sentence for good Crab samurai. There is no matching taboo protecting outsiders against Crab mendacity, however, a circumstance that the Yasuki appreciate.

[Cearnach]

The past 30 years have not been kind to the Crab’s rivals, but neither have they been entirely kind to the Crab clan. The precious solidarity shown by Hantei Fujiwa in the early part of his reign, which saw him personally break the siege of Shiro Hiruma and facilitate the transition of the Yasuki from the Crane to the Crab, was not repeated in the reigns of the Emperor and Empresses that followed him, and even Otomo Keihime’s efforts to wrest the Imperial Bureaucracy out of the hands of the Crane and Scorpion clans has not led to a serious uptick in Crab representation at court. Apparently, even her taste for revenge does not extend to wishing to have more of Hida’s people reminding everyone about the Empire’s unfinished business to the south.

That does not mean, however, that Hida’s people have forgotten what it meant to have an Emperor that understood what the Empire’s true priorities ought to be. They are eager to see a person of Hantei Fujiwa’s caliber and convictions sitting on the Emerald Throne again. The Crab do maintain some engagement with the Empire at large, however, in two forms: the growing commercial efforts of the Yasuki clan and a healthy contingent of Emerald Magistrates. These two valences serve to entangle the Crab in a complicated, often (but not always) messy relationship with the Crane and Mantis clans in particular.

[Cearnach]

Hida Gendo is a young man, about 19 years of age. His father, Hida Daisuke, recently died in combat with the latest army of Jigoku to test the defenses of the Empire. Tall and blessed with a rumbling bass voice, Gendo cuts a striking figure, but a quirk of birth--a noticeably withered right leg--has kept him out of the combat role traditional to a son of Lord Hida. While his younger brothers train to be his lieutenants and avatars on the field of battle, Gendo has devoted himself entirely to strategy. He knows it well, and has the ability, in spite of his age, of welding the resources of his mighty clan into a cohesive machine able to make his will manifest. Were it not for the massive commitment of troops required to protect the Crab's territories, the Scorpion and Crane would be in frightful trouble. As it is, the Crab have moved aggressively against clans that have damaged their economic or political position in the past, such as during the Dragon-Crab war, and Gendo is actively preparing for the time when they will be required to do so again.

Personally, Gendo is stoic, but not harsh. His demeanor with family and subordinates is indulgent, but each degree of separation removed finds Gendo just a touch colder, as though he already has the requisite number of people that he needs to care about, and could not possibly manage another. He takes personal honor very seriously and strives to inculcate respect for all of Bushido's virtues among the Hida family. This transition has had mixed results, but there has been much less public scoffing at the softer virtues of Bushido, provided that courtesy and sincerity need not be shown to the Shadowlands. The expected corresponding uptick in the Crab's political fortunes in the Imperial City has yet to materialize, but Gendo understands that stereotypes are not unmade in a day. He is determined to bear the fortunes of the Crab clan directly upon his shoulders and not to falter.

With regard to the succession question, like many daimyo, Hida Gendo has kept his opinion private. To speak before the Empress would be an error, and Lord Hida is far too cagey to put his foot in that mess. However, observers in the court have noticed that Gendo's representatives have had several meetings with Otomo Gorobei of late. It is not clear what business they might have had with the Vice-Minister of Public Gardens other than the succession.

[Cearnach]

Hiruma Ichika has been the Daimyo of the Hiruma family for 4 years. She is Hida Gendo’s first cousin, and takes her obligations to lord and people extremely seriously. For ten years she led her people in the field, conducting raids into the Shadowlands, scouting for the enemy, engaging in desperate skirmishes never recorded save by the tombstones of her people. For a time, it seemed that her commitment to her family’s work would continue to take her out of Shiro Hiruma even after ascending to the Daimyoship. Unfortunately, a terrible curse has cut her career short. She has been forced to take a support role, counter to her nature. The strain has been terrible, and she has been prone to developing bitter jealousies toward her more successful lieutenants.

[Cearnach]

Kaiu Masahiko is a bear of a man, closer in dimensions to a mighty tree than to most men. He runs the Kaiu family with an assiduousness that is matched only by his love of machines. And Kaiu Masahiko is famously devoted to his machines, using his spare time to tinker especially with devices that can prolong their motion or seem to move on their own with just a bit of winding or the application of a little push to get started. His free time is spent on this or on correspondence with his many friends across the Empire, none closer than Isawa Akihiro, Master of Air, whom he met as a young man in Otosan Uchi.

Masahiko got his start as a third son, and so it was not expected that he would inherit the daimyoship. He was trained in the Engineering school, where he prospered, and was appointed a junior scribe to the Imperial Court just after gempukku. In time, he became the senior scribe, in charge of converting the numerous treaties, agreements, and pronouncements made there into written text that could be copied and distributed across the Empire. His time in the courts made him politically savvy, but also somewhat defensive about his territory. Too many courtiers would swing by the scribe’s office to ask to revise or extend their remarks, and Masahiko got very comfortable with telling people, sometimes rather powerful people, no.

He was forced to leave his Imperial position when his brothers succumbed to injuries incurred in battle. He considers himself an important political advisor to Hida Gendo, and for all that the young Lord Hida has a mind and will of his own, perhaps he is. But of greater importance to Hida Gendo is Masahiko’s careful fiscal administration of what could easily be the most expensive part of the Crab military machine: production of materiel. Kaiu Masahiko believes in efficiency, and has worked tirelessly to streamline production and delivery of armor and weaponry to the famous castles that dot Hiruma and Kuni territory. There are fewer of the great custom-made suits of Kaiu armor as a result, but the Crab armies have never had such an abundance of materiel and such reserves of cash.

[Cearnach]

Kuni Mirabu has been Kuni Daimyo for 30 years, ever since the assassination of her father by persons or demons unknown. Indeed, she cannot remember a time in which she was not the Kuni Daimyo, and governs with the set of assumptions one might expect of a person accustomed to the loftiest of worldviews. Her powerful relations kept her in power during her juvenile years, but now a challenging set of data presents itself to any would-be challengers to her leadership. First, she has survived four attempted assassinations. Indeed, it is widely thought that the kami of Kuni lands simply refuse to permit her to come to harm. Second, she is monstrously vindictive to those who question her authority. Dark whispers of her fearsome judgment of Kuni Fumiko of House Tsumura have rather chilled both the prospects of those seeking to supplant the mad Daimyo as well as her prospects for working relationships with her fellow daimyo. The Kuni are, consequently, without a stable leader during this period, and many Kuni pursue individual projects, avoiding business that would take them to Shiro Kuni or entangle them in their lady’s plots if they can.

[Cearnach]

Yasuki Amiko is perhaps the foremost innovator of the age. There are certainly other inventors, other thinkers who are making progress in the Empire, but no one else is inventing a new commercial system. Amiko has placed the wealth of the central branch of the Yasuki family squarely behind their vassal merchant patrons, investing capital in projects with the expectation of returns. Behind the Yasuki merchants, therefore, sits the first Rokugani bank. There is no title for it yet, and as Amiko does not engage in politics herself (her investments are, in effect, a way to avoid having o venture out and hunt for deals), it does not seem likely that there will be one in the short term. For now, however, the Yasuki are operating with considerably more powerful financial instruments than their rivals in other clans.

[Cearnach]

The Crane of this era are marked by two generations of steady erosion of their political influence. Unable to rely on the Imperial Favor to protect them, and with their economic hegemony undermined by competent competitors in the Yasuki family, the Crane have had to rely on their military, their art, and their long-serving Emerald Champion to survive. Therefore, the Crane are associated in the minds of others with these things:

• Cautionary tales of the price of ambition and arrogance. [This is especially true among those who were raised to be suspicious of the clans that supported the Gozoku—members of the Imperial Families especially]
• A large and elite military, the recent victors of a surprise decisive victory over the Matsu.
• The law. The Crane provide much of the staff of the Emerald Office, including a large number of full magistrates.
• Artistic excellence. Some things never change.

[Cearnach]

Hantei Retsuhime’s reign was not a prosperous one for the Crane clan. Her marriage to Matsu Eiji was widely seen as decision not to put her faith in a clan who slid so easily into the Gozoku conspiracy. Unlike her sainted mother Yugozohime, Retsuhime was not a person who forgave easily. Not even Doji Kakumei’s heroics against the gaijin in the Battle of the Raging Seas have earned them a shred of credibility in her eyes. She confirmed her position by refusing the Left Hand many of the positions in court that many had begun to assume were theirs by right. For their part, the Crane could do little but use their wealth and talent for mediation to preserve the Empress’ peace as the Empire recovered from White Stag, husbanding their power and their control of the Office of the Emerald Champion until an opportunity should arise.
The saving grace for the Crane was a heavenly curse on Retsuhime’s marriage. Amaterasu denied a child to the woman who broke faith with the Left Hand. While the Crane recognize that what is coming for the Empire is a ghastly mess, there are few in the Empire who do not recognize that it was Retsuhime’s folly that caused it, and a Doji husband that might have prevented it. As a result, the Crane are beginning to dig themselves out of the political mess they have been in as high-ranking Imperials and the kuge of other clans seek Crane marriages again. What Retsuhime thinks of this is unclear, but the Crane are pleased to be moving in the right direction.

Circumstances being as they are, the Crane have spent a generation bringing their military to the peak of efficiency. While it is still not nearly the size of that of the Lion or the Crab, its ability to defend the territory and people of the Crane clan has likely never been better. Frequent skirmishes with Crab and Lion—and every so often Scorpion—units have proven this. Proven Crane strategies—eliminating officers, phalanx, and careful preparation of terrain—have been enhanced by Lady Doji’s careful cultivation of coordination between the Crane armies during her time as Rikugunshokan of the 1st Army and her elder sister’s investment in infrastructure to improve rapid redeployments during her reign as Champion.

These efforts allowed the Crane to surprise the 2nd Matsu army with a sudden concentration of Crane military assets during their march on Kosaten Shiro just last year. The arrival of the Daidoji Northern Army on flat-bottom boats springing from the river and taking the army in the flank was simply too much for an army whose officer staff was already suffering the culling that the Kakita and Doji can inflict, forcing a withdrawal and reassessment. The Crane have no illusions about their ability to thwart a total commitment of the Lion clan to their destruction, but they have every confidence that they can make the attempt so costly as to be difficult for even so populous a clan as the Lion to absorb. The fact that no such sustained campaign was launched in these past years may have much to do with the Lion privately sharing the Crane’s assessment. Still, the Crane do their best not to provoke the Right Hand.

The other Crane asset is the law. With Retsuhime and Otomo Keihime replacing Crane bureaucrats with Imperials and, when no competent Imperial could be found, Phoenix, Lions or even Crabs, Kakita Hajime, who replaced Matsu Mochiko as Emerald Champion, believed it to be entirely appropriate to vastly increase the proportion of Crane samurai serving as Emerald Magistrates. And when suitable Crane candidates were unavailable, well, Phoenix and Minor Clan samurai serve almost as well. As a result, Crab and Lion samurai serving as Emerald Magistrates tend to be in late middle age or older, with only a handful of young appointees. With so little political cover, most Crane magistrates are expected to do their utmost to preserve the law honorably and with respect to its spirit—such as it is. However, their numbers and the power both hard and soft of the Emerald Magistrates has served to at least keep the Crane’s hand in the political game, making allies and doing favors in their traditional manner.

[Cearnach]

The second daughter of Doji Kakumei has been Champion for two years, and recently gave birth to her son and heir. She made a name for herself at White Stag, seizing a Thrane frigate with a small team of Daidoji marines before using it to fire on its sister ships, and has since become renowned as a master of the sword. Stories have spread—not just among the Crane—of her feats during musha-shugyo and years as a right hand to her sister smiting bandits, challenging entire dojo, saving the helpless, and being a general bad-ass. Indeed, it is widely believed that, should Kakita Hajime elect to retire, Doji-ue would be the natural successor, though there are a fair few swordsmen and women in the empire who lie awake dreaming of out-drawing Lady Doji, and train all the harder to realize those dreams.

While personally quite formidable, to some even heroic, it should be noted that Lady Doji’s reign has not been without challenges. Gone are the days of her father’s close relationship with Hantei Muhaki. Retsuhime’s long bitterness at the Gozoku and refusal to forgive hamstrung the Crane clan throughout her long reign. A generation of Kuge followed the Empress’ leave in snubbing Crane marriages, and with each death or retirement the Imperial Bureaucracy slipped further out of Crane hands. In the end, it has been Crane skill with the sword that has kept their hand in politics and seen to their security in the face of the increased power of the Lion and Crab clans these past thirty years, and so it is fitting that it is as a swordswoman that Lady Doji has made her mark.

On a more personal level, Minehime is known to be an involved Champion, taking a close personal interest in the minutiae of the management of her lands and in the samurai who serve her.

[Cearnach]

Kakita Sorashi inherited the position of Daimyo at age 12 after her father’s unfortunate drowning during a boating trip on the Bay of the Golden Sun. Her 18-year tenure has been steady, but by no means spectacular. A tall, slender woman with piercing blue eyes and jet-black hair, Sorashi tends to stand out in a crowd. She is skilled with the sword, as is befitting a direct descendant of Kakita, but she has none of the strutting, preening quality that seems to suffuse the Academy. Indeed, she seems entirely content to allow stories of Doji Minehime’s swordsmanship erase hers from public memory. Her on is the stuff of legends. Not only is she unflappable, she sometimes seems to have no inner life at all. She has little patience for small talk, even about subjects like art and literature that traditionally would be the province of the Kakita family, and does not suffer fools with any sort of kindness. As a result, more than one young artist has had their flame snuffed out by the Lady of the Kakita.

While all of this might have created an untenable situation in the Kakita family and doomed Sorashi to a lengthy retirement, Sorashi does contribute something to the higher echelons of Crane leadership that has been lacking for some time: ruthlessness. Where Doji Usan’s careful, positive work during the reign of Hantei Yugozohime was reversed by a single marriage, Sorashi provides Doji Minehime with an entirely unsentimental take on the world. To Sorashi, there are no ties between people, no sacred traditions, no proper modes of behavior. To Sorashi, there are only causes and effects. She decides at every moment whether the expected social graces are likely to produce the required results, and it is entirely fortunate for those she encounters that they often do. Her advice has helped to steer the Crane into investing in their military, and has had much to do with the quiet cultivation of Doji Noriko’s claim to the throne. Sorashi may not be a beloved, or even a well understood, leader of the Kakita family, but she finds such distinctions immaterial. It is only being effective that matters, and she is certainly that.

[Cearnach]

Daidoji Irumi was never meant to be the Daimyo of the Daidoji family. She was the third daughter, and a priestess attuned with the Void. Fostered to the Phoenix from the time she could speak, it was her fate to marry another Ishi and join Isawa’s people. Unfortunately, her elder sisters were taken by illness long shortly before she finished her training, and poor Irumi felt the world lurch under her feet.

At first, her inexperience and deferential temperament meant that the Daidoji family was being run rather more by a committee of influential officers, including Irumi’s uncle Tsumeru. Over time and with great effort, she has managed to assert her authority over her vassals, but that has only facilitated the transfer of supreme leadership of the Daidoji armies into Doji Minehime’s capable hands. She has yet to appear on the battlefield, and as the Daidoji are not entirely experienced with magical combat support, Irumi is very much content to advise and look after the administrative tasks that, she is assured, truly win wars. The end result of this working relationship is that Crane logistics have been honed to near-perfection, and the generalship is in the hands of those able to handle the role. Irumi’s crippling lack of guile has rather limited her influence over the courts as well, though she maintains extensive contacts from her school days among the Isawa family. All of this is to say that she operates much more as the mother of the Daidoji family than the commander they are used to, but it seems to be working out.

[Cearnach]

The great-grandson of Isawa Asahina, Asahina Junpei has been leading the family since 472. No house mouse or shrinking violet, Junpei spreads the message of peace and compassion with a boisterous spirit and a lust for life. Some of the more monastic greybeards in the family have long despaired of his finding true tranquility or achieving Enlightenment, but Junpei feels that ignorance of life itself is ignorance all the same. Always ready with a friendly ear or a helping hand, Junpei has, from time to time, been burned by schemers, but he lets the naughtiness of others pass. It's all a matter of perspective, and regret would just mean he hadn't found the right one yet.

[Cearnach]

The Dragon Clan is traditionally a reclusive, religious, and individualistic clan in a communitarian Empire. The Dragon of this era, however, is the most active they have been since the Dawn of the Empire and the most active that they will be until the Clan War. Still fundamentally a religious and contemplative clan, the Dragon have nevertheless been instrumental in seeing the Empire through a succession of crises, being the invisible hand that frustrated the plans of the Gozoku, and the mysterious plotters that rescued the last of the goodly gaijin and spawned the Tortoise clan. Engagement with the world has bred its fair share of troubles, however. The Dragon clan was entangled in an absurd war with the Crab clan over a point of honor, and did not show itself to advantage in the saga of Matsu Hitomi.

The Dragon of today are known for the following things:
*Mysticism
*Individuality
*Flexible morals (a view held especially among the Lion clan)
*Obsessions (especially in the Mirumoto and Agasha families)
*Shinseism
*Niten

[Cearnach]

The previous two generations have seen a Dragon clan more active and involved in the Empire than at any time since Togashi’s confrontation with Fu Leng. The Dragon Clan conspired with the Lion clan to save the Empire from the Gozoku, Dragon armies have done battle with the Crab and Scorpion alongside their Lion allies, and a Dragon shugenja facilitated a resolution to the gaijin presence in the Empire that ensured a gaijin-free future for the Empire and was rewarded with a Minor clan.

This period is coming to a close. The Crab-Dragon war and the issues surrounding Matsu Hitomi in particular have left a bad taste in the mouths of the current generation of Dragon samurai. There is a feeling among the Mirumoto and Agasha that their parents’ and grandparents’ interventions in the Empire have not substantially affected the outcome of the events in the Empire to date. The Lion might well have been able to put Yugozohime on the throne without Dragon assistance. Would the gaijin being wiped out have not served as an effective deterrent to their countrymen? And what of the Crab-Dragon war? Was that anything but a tremendous waste of lives and resources?

This increasingly isolationist turn among the junior families is matched by an uneasiness in the High House of Light. Togashi Mizohachi has remained uncharacteristically quiet about the looming succession crisis, and reports of Ise Zumi sightings in the low-lands have decreased, except for along the River of Gold and in the Hub Villages. Mizohachi has spent long hours secluded with an ancient Fortunist monk. There are concerns that these signs indicate that the Togashi intend to drag the clan into another entanglement, perhaps to (yet again) rescue the Empire from itself. It is an open question whether the second- and third-tier families will have the stomach for it.

[Cearnach]

Having recently reached his 50th year, Togashi Mizohachi is a familiar face in courtly circles. His predecessor was perhaps more traditional, preferring to operate behind the scenes with clandestine meetings in surprising places, but Mizohachi plays the game, speaking openly as often as in private. A fixture of Winter Courts renowned for his no-frills, no-nonsense style of entertaining (and politicking), the Dragon Champion is well-liked by many of the mighty of the Empire, but has been astute about avoiding dangerous conflicts. The result has been a slow deterioration of the alliance with the Lion (thanks mainly to the Mirumoto and the Lion themselves, apologists would point out) and an increasingly tense political situation in the Empire in general.

Internally, matters are much more complex. Togashi Mizohachi was able to act so openly because the Empire was so stable. Amaterasu’s curse—if that is what it is—on Hantei Retsuhime’s marriage has rather poisoned things. He has found his vision growing increasingly clouded as events progress. Togashi Mizohachi is sensitive to the isolationist leanings among several prominent families in the clan, but is also aware that had his predecessor not acted, then it was entirely likely that the Hantei dynasty might have collapsed under the weight of the Gozoku. Now it seems much more likely to collapse under its own weight, and he is unsure how to guarantee a smooth succession. Consequently, he has been trying to keep clans that are at a disadvantage from collapsing in the hope that relative parity will prevent stronger clans from wiping them out and thereby complicating the reincarnation of the Thunders. He is also sensitive to the fact that his immediate underlings are perhaps ill-suited to this moment in history, and he may seek to marginalize them, if only he can see the proper path forward.

[Cearnach]

Agasha Akari finds herself the Daimyo of the Agasha family during a trying period. The family is unused to public scrutiny or engagement in Imperial affairs, having been content for generations to keep records and conduct experiments magical and mundane in their mountaintop castles. Unfortunately, the events of the gaijin crisis and the Battle of White Stag saw the Agasha lurch into the spotlight. After all, it was Agasha Kasuga’s efforts that provided the resolution to the gaijin crisis and led to the foundation of the Tortoise clan. The unique relationship the Tortoise have with the Hantei has ensured that the Agasha have remained of interest to historians, conspiracy theorists, and other snoops, even as the gaijin crisis slips out of the common memory.

The increased scrutiny has come at a dangerous time; misfortune has been stalking the main line of the Agasha family. Akari herself was the fourth child of the previous Agasha daimyo, and each of her older siblings passed away from terrible accidents shortly after taking the seat. Akari herself was caught by a tumbling boulder several months ago, and is now quite lame. She has begun to suspect foul play is at work, but is keen to prevent rumors about bad luck and poor security to reflect badly upon her people, so she has held her investigations close and grown suspicious of her most prominent vassals. Her only true friends remain the fire kami that live in the paper lanterns that fill her study, and with whom she spends hours conversing, trying to get to the bottom of the matter.

[Cearnach]

The current Mirumoto Daimyo is a difficult man. Plagued by crippling anxieties, he has carefully constructed his sense of self-worth on victories in duels and other demonstrations of swordsmanship. He is famously unable to bear the thought of an equal, a situation that indirectly led to the death of the previous Master of Niten in a skirmish with ogres. He can feel slighted easily, but tends to internalize his grievances, throwing himself into training—sometimes to dangerous degrees—to surpass his imagined rivals. Until recently his fixation was on Doji Minehime, but the rumors that have been spreading about Otomo Gorobei’s exploits on Musha Shugyo have found a hostile audience in Tsukahara, and his eyebrows have been seen to twitch at the mention of his name.

Tsukahara has long resented Togashi Mizohachi’s activity on the imperial stage, as he feels it constrains the traditional prerogatives of the Mirumoto family. On the other hand, he does recognize, even if he would never admit, that his father and grandfather unnecessarily complicated the relationships with the Lion and Crab that the Dragon clan relied on to break the Gozoku. He likewise has large differences of opinion with the heads of several of his vassal families, who resent the loss of Mirumoto Takeda and would like to see the family take a less confrontational approach to the remainder of the Empire. These vassals are, of course, unlikely to make their opinions known to the general public, but institutional resistance to Tsukahara’s policies is beginning to wax stronger.

[Cearnach]

The Lion Clan is a clan in transition. For two generations, since the reign of Hantei Yugozohime, they have been the political and military hegemon of the Empire. That is no longer the case. Shocked by a major military setback and rapidly losing the political initiative to the Phoenix clan, the Lion are poised on the moment of choice. What kind of clan will they be outside of the Empress' favor? The current Champion, Akodo Sanae, has begun to steer the clan toward the arts and especially industry. The Matsu Daimyo, however, refuses to concede the Lion's traditional position as the strongest of the clans. The paths diverge, and ultimately it will be the houses of the Lion clan who will choose which prevails.