Hello, I'm not to invested into Legend of the 5 Rings, but I do have a few of the RPG rule books and I enjoyed it. The last one I read was the Great Clans book and I noticed something. In the discussion of the Great Clan families I saw that the Kitsu and the Kitsune have a similar history. Both were small groups persecuted by the Lion Clan. They have similar names. Both are family of Shugenja who, iirc, have some specialization in the spirit realms. Different focuses on who they deal with yes, but there is a parallel.

Their histories are different. But, I like to take the view that the early history of the Empire is vastly distorted (I came up with my own history, but you wouldn't care for that). What I think is possible is that the Kitsu and the Kitsune were both surviving groups of a bloody slaughter at the hands of the Lion. They ended up surviving, but it was not guaranteed. Possibly not only the early Kitsu were driven out, but the entirety of the Unicorn clan may have been driven from Rokugan.

I recognize that this contradicts the lore, but it is an idea which I found interesting. And from a certain point of view I think this is quite possible.

You are technically not too far away from the truth. Both the Kitsu and the Kitsune are descendants of shapeshifters, and the exact relationship was never truly cleared up regarding the kitsu (the lion-creatures with void affinity) and the kitsune (the fox-creature spirits). Considering hot the kitsu already has a "spinoff" (the tsuno), iti sn't too far fetched to say that the kitsune might be another branch of the kitsu race.

Wait. Are you suggesting that in Rokugan's past cats and dogs were living together? (Well lions and foxes.)

If we are going to go that route, can I get a Kitsune sub-family that are Coyote-changers?

Hey, the similarities are there, if it interests you and it's what you want to roll with, go for it.

I'm HEAVILY invested in the lore, but there are still things I either tweak pretty heavily or quietly sweep under the rug.

Yeah, its at least an interesting idea. If I ever run a game I'm not certain how much I will stick to cannon and how much I will replace with my own ideas. Although the one I will definitely use is having the Gozoku era come right after the Steel Chrysanthemum. Maybe borrowing events from Caligula's history as part of his depravities.