Ok so now that we have both types of cards to compare them too and we've gotten a some tidbits from the developers about it, I think it's time we take a look at these two different magics and what the implications for each are.
As I understand it, Meishodo is use of the Kami, or other magical entities, without their permission, generally binding them to an object. As this is not a normal practice in Rogukan it is viewed with apprehension to say the least and that is why I think we are seeing honor losses tied to the newer Meishodo spells.......because they are foreign practices, not because they are necessarily bad in nature.
Maho on the other hand is straight up evil stuff, imploring the kami to do terrible things at a terrible cost, thus the loss of honor.
The designers said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that had the story choice gone differently and Meishodo was outlawed, it would have been more on the evil side of things. What that means exactly, I don't know. Maybe more spells along the lines of Unleash the Djinn and fewer along the lines of Talisman of the Sun.
So what does this mean for the story. Here are my speculations.
Meishodo is contributing to the imbalance of the elements. It's not the sole cause or even the biggest cause, but, it's certainly a factor. You have foreign magics that have now been in Rogukan for a couple hundred years. Unknown magical entities doing stuff that the kami may not necessarily like, or simply that some of the rokugani are no longer looking to the kami for aid. Although we have no proof of it yet, I suspect that at least one Unicorn shugenja has tried to bind a kami to an object since their return to Rokugan, and the kami were none to happy about that.
Maho use may or may not be on the rise. We don't really know for sure, but, we do see Tadaka doing something which is well beyond what would normally be expected of a shugenja when making an offering to a kami. We know it's not meishodo that he does, and while it's not blatantly told to us "it's Maho"........it's certainly within the realm of what we would expect for that. We also have him speaking about reading and considering Akuma's theories and tests. If Akuma turns out to have gone down the same path as he did in the CCG, we know where that ended up and we have to assume that if Tadaka is dabbling in what Akuma did, he's at least doing something that would be considered "gateway to maho" magic at the very least. We also see Kuni Yori with a printed ability to get a very Earth Ring-like effect without actually having the RoE and it costing an honor. I would have to assume that this is also very close to Maho, if not straight up maho. It's not meishodo, and it appears to be directly tied to the Earth element, which I feel is intentionally being done to illustrate how maho, or at least sudo-maho, looks in card form and how a strong shugenja might be able to mask it's true nature from others. Like the Crab are fighting and they say "Ok Yori do your thing......whatever that is" and because the Crab are more concerned with the outcome than losing their own honor, they are ok with the cost, because the outcome keeps them alive.
We also have clans at each other's throat and war seeming imminent, so I would also suspect with the kami being torn between pleas from many shugenja in order to do have rokugani die at the hands of their countrymen could also be contributing to the elements out of balance.
Thoughts?
Edited by Ishi Tonu