Hi guys,

I am working on a homebrew shugenja school . The clan is assigned the protection of Nazo Mori and its secrets, after defeating Tsunagari the Voice of Stars.

Because of this I want to give them Void affinity, however I'm not sure what deficiency shall I assign them.

Can you help me?

Are you also giving them the ability to learn Void spells?

Yes, I'm planning to. Still working on the Tech.

I'm wondering if there should have only 1 deficiency. I'm thinking this if Ishiken-do is a free advantage, it's still an 8 points advantage, which should come with a cost. Unless, of course, it's a pre-requisite to buy that advantage, maybe with a small discount.

Another thing that may help is what is the Clan usually do? It may help for a deficiency. And by protection, what kind of protection? Killing? Misleading unwanted travelers? Wards?

These info may help for a good deficiency.

I'm against having non-Isawa Void shugenja, but let's try this anyway.

Even reading the L5R Wikia entries for the Nazo Mori and Tsunagari, I'm not certain what secrets are being guarded. I'm going to go ahead and suggest Earth, since physical resilience doesn't seem to be the name of the game.

I'm wondering if there should have only 1 deficiency. I'm thinking this if Ishiken-do is a free advantage, it's still an 8 points advantage, which should come with a cost. Unless, of course, it's a pre-requisite to buy that advantage, maybe with a small discount.

Another thing that may help is what is the Clan usually do? It may help for a deficiency. And by protection, what kind of protection? Killing? Misleading unwanted travelers? Wards?

These info may help for a good deficiency.

For a moment I even thought of the entity Hoshi no Musaboru putting a curse on the Shugenja (and her descendants) who helped bringing down Tsunagari, Isawa Azumi a Void Shugenja. Thinking about Cursed by the Realms: Yume-Do to go with the paranoia theme of the story. This could be a balancing factor, you get Ishiken-Do but you get Cursed too.

About protection, I haven't decided yet, however the idea of misleading and using wards sounds appealing, a pity the the Scorpion use them...

I'm against having non-Isawa Void shugenja, but let's try this anyway.

Even reading the L5R Wikia entries for the Nazo Mori and Tsunagari, I'm not certain what secrets are being guarded. I'm going to go ahead and suggest Earth, since physical resilience doesn't seem to be the name of the game.

For secrets I'm thinking about the existence of Hoshi no Musaboru. You do not want crazy cults venerating that evil entity and spreading it's influence over Rokugan. You could tied it to the paranoia feel, the Great Beast, the Glade even the Lost Village if you want to. I mean this could give a kind of Cthulhu touch to the game...

Well, for deficiency, I'd say none. The balance is taken care of with the cost of Ishikin advantage. Also, a deficiency is supposed to be the element that "couters" the shugenja's affinity. But void is strange. I can see all elements being useful to a clan protecting Nazo Mori, and protecting the Empire from Nazo Mori; but maybe the least useful would be water. Divination and healing is nice, but Nazo Mori is too mysterious to, in my opinion as a GM, be effected much by simple divination, especially if you are going for a Call of Cthulu feel.

However, I don't think the deficiency is the major issue here though. Why void? Having played an Isawa Ishikin, void spells are cool, but not the best for dealing with supernatural beings until you get to a high rank (when you can happen things out of existence). Also, there is the question about what the Isawa would think/do about a minor clan school focused on the void because it would be stepping on the Isawa's toes. This could lead to a number of interesting political scenarios for your game; where the Isawa want to do what they usually do and swoop in and take potential Ishikin from their families, but if you are going for a more Call of Cthulu feel, I'd make their element Air. It would be the best pick for simulating the hopelessness of CoC. But if you wanted it to make more sense lore wise, I would say either fire or earth. Fire because it is the most offensive element, and burninate is really good for dealing with cultists. Earth because of its natural resistance to Shadowlands, and the high will so fear effects would be less effective; which is necessary for living in close proximity to Nazo Mori.

Also, why a minor clan and not a monastic order? I think that protectors of a mysterious supernatural forest in the middle of anywhere would be better suited to an order of monks than a minor clan. Perhaps a subset of the Brotherhood of Shinsei. I may be biased because in my group's playthrough of Nazo Mori our party consisted of three Monks: a Dragon, a Brotherhood, and a Spider. All three of whom had Kharmic ties with each other. I was playing the Spider Monk and had a blast! Of course, my Spider Monk was untainted, never wanted to be tainted, and hated most things to do with the taint.

Just some thoughts!

All elements, after all, the void have no kami, so, learning void spells will distance the shugenja with the rest of the elemental kamis.