https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/7/18/outsiders/

New fiction from Spooky-Denton!

So the Phoenix Clan now consists of the Isawa-, Shiba-, Asako- and Kaito families.

Kosori is moving on up in the world!

Shame about the handsome Unicorn...

I wonder if Iuchi Takeya is based on Iuchi Takaai.

I hope that this encounter ends up being the beginning of a series that ends with a happy ending.

I wonder how often this has been happening and the Isawa just didn't know how to interpret it.

I like that the Kaito got a promotion to full great clan family. Also I like that the Kaito have a clear and separate purpose in the Phoenix. That Kosori completely lost her voice is sad, but it's also interesting that we now have a prominent protagonist that can only communicate through sign language in a culture that does not look directly at the people being address in an effort to be polite (as Kosori points out).

Seems the Unicorn and Phoenix are destine to not be friends any time soon unfortunately.

18 minutes ago, Ultimatecalibur said:

I wonder if Iuchi Takeya is based on Iuchi Takaai.

I hope that this encounter ends up being the beginning of a series that ends with a happy ending.

Me too, if only to get more Kosori stories. This was so awesome. Spooky going to make the Phoenix my favorite clan at this rate.

He is certainly bringing me around to liking the Phoenix, which his not a clan I usually favored.

This was an entertaining piece that both adressed the post-novella state of the Kaito and gave us some insight on the meishodo (glad to hear that there is more to it than just emslaving spirits).

i love the idea of spirits fighting over territory and ,as @phillos pointed out, having a mute character makes for an interesting yet challenging decision by the author (looking forward to see how to approach her dialogue when she isn't the protagonist)

The only part i feel a tad dissatisfied about is the ending, while it makes sense given the political situation and offers Kosori a valuable lesson, it still does come out a bit...contrived (?)

Honestly you can't really blame them for being suspicious about a stray Djinn randomly starting a turf war with a water kami no less!

EDIT: on the flip side, it looks like the Tsukume X Kosori route is still viable!

I really do hope to see more of that Iuchi now. So sad he didn't get to go to Ki-rin's shrine. That was an interesting little detail that I really enjoyed. Plus his horse is awesome. Okay... I loved this story. I'm easy to please but this one was great.

So Mr Denton does it again.

This story was fantastic.

Also congratulations Denton for making Tsukume and Kosori some of my favorite characters in the lore.

Also that letter from Tsukume to Kosori was a very nice touch.

So the Kaito now join the great families of the Phoenix. I kind of figured that would happen, but so quickly is mildly surprising.

it took them hundreds of years of obscurity!

It's nice that the Phoenix have gained a fourth family again, and this time without stealing it from anyone else.

I really hope that Kosori and Takeya get to meet again under happier circumstances, but then again so much of Samurai drama is tragedy...

6 hours ago, phillos said:

He is certainly bringing me around to liking the Phoenix, which his not a clan I usually favored.

He's simply showing the side of the clan those of us who love them have always appreciated...

I recall one of my many, many rants in the dying days of AEG's hold on the IP- namely that there was always more to the Phoenix than Isawa hubris, and that we almost never got to see it.

While it's quite presumptuous of me to say so, I get the impression that Spooky felt- and feels- much the same.

5 hours ago, Vulcan646 said:

Also congratulations Denton for making Tsukume and Kosori some of my favorite characters in the lore.

I got good vibes the second Tsukune turned out to be the Phoenix's core champion. Her story in the old lore was pretty good, but this time around, she's rapidly showcasing why the Shiba family name is the one I rolled with when creating my online presence all those years ago.

And Kosori rocks.

6 hours ago, phillos said:

I wonder how often this has been happening and the Isawa just didn't know how to interpret it.

Oh, probably a good long while- it seems that we have an answer- probably not the answer- to the elemental imbalance- Djinn throwing down with kami. The mere presence of djinn within Rokugan is, no doubt, a Big Deal.

So it seems that while the Phoenix are likely wrong about Meishodo as such being responsible (witness the Iuchi's description in this story, which I dearly wish an open-minded Isawa shugenja had been around to hear), it's quite possible that various talismans from their time in the Burning Sands may very well be at fault- but one wonders why the djinn are active in Phoenix lands...

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I like that the Kaito got a promotion to full great clan family.

Amen. Moreover- in the span of one novella and this story, they already feel more integrated into the Phoenix than the Agasha ever did in the old lore- in part because they aren't just another shugenja family- they fit the vibe of the Phoenix and are also distinct from the Asako Henshin.

And, you know, I love me some Yobanjin, so having their descendants as a major Family in a Great Clan pleases me mightily.

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Seems the Unicorn and Phoenix are destine to not be friends any time soon unfortunately.

Sad but true. I particularly like that thus far, it's a conflict without outright villains- you just feel bad for everybody caught up in it. I do think, if matters are ever resolved, that the groundwork for mutual understanding is vastly more prevalent here than it could have been in the old continuity.

Needless to say, I loved this yarn, especially getting to see the Unicorn be a friendly, helpful guy and the mention of the special arrangement for the Shrine of the Ki-Rin- and Kosori is a friggin' gem.

Yeah, the Unicorn/Phoenix dispute feels very natural. While all the Clans will have their own secret knowledge or practices when it comes to shugenja, whether it be Kuni witch-hunters or Kitsu Sodan-senzo, only the aunicorn will have trafficked in lore from beyond the Empire. That’s gotta chaff the Phoenix something fierce. Hard enough to communicate with the kami to maintain spiritual balance. Dealing with Isawa-only-knows what kind of foreign spirits and unknown magics? That’s enough to freak them out.

Coming into the reboot, I did not expect to care about the Unicorn and Phoenix fighting over weird magic. 2 of my least favorite clans, and my least favorite part of the setting. But this is quickly becoming my favorite story to read about.

The story team is really knocking them out of the park lately. Kosori is rapidly becoming one of my favorite characters, and I'm hoping we get to see more of her.

Liked the story overall, I do find it interesting. It seems there's a spectrum of talking to the kami.... low end is your mundane people, who do things that should be good and hoping for some very mundane signs.

Regular shugenja is a different level, but even then they don't always get straight answers or signs... I think they can tune in on kami, but not necessarily to the same extent, and they also need to intepret signs, even if they are more direct.

Meishodo for a given kami/spirit though allows direct discussion apparently, which is interesting. It allows enslavement, but I think what it mostly allows is to perhaps make the kami a bit more human-like, so humans can identify with them?

Though my favorite bits are actually a bit mundane: Both the horse licenses AND the free travel route for Unicorn on a pilgrimage is interesting. Revoking that is going to be a Big Deal.

Currently Unicorn are going to be on the backfoot with both Lion and Phoenix, and possibly the Empire in general if Meishodo rumors spread more. Ally-wise they kinda have the Dragon, who are awild card... I wonder what's the current relation with the Crab.

Kaito Kosori for Phoenix Thunder.

And I’m making flags, posters, banners, pins, mugs, and even those posters on a spike that you can stick on your front lawn.

Now that we have the Kaito family as a great family, I'm wondering what their mon is. It was mentioned in passing in the novel, but I don't recall it being described.

What confuses me is that Kosori's card does have the Shugenja trait.

1 hour ago, Swordbreaker said:

Now that we have the Kaito family as a great family, I'm wondering what their mon is. It was mentioned in passing in the novel, but I don't recall it being described.

Is described at the end of the book:

As the Kaito family is a vassal of the Isawa, its mon is derived from the Isawa crest. It depicts a five-pointed Star, symbolizing the interconnections among the five elements and the cycles of change and transformation of earthly life. Within the center of this star is a circle, symbolizing the well in which Kaito trapped the demon, as well as the moon, for which the ancestral bow of the Kaito, Mikazuki, is named.

3 hours ago, Horvagab said:

Currently Unicorn are going to be on the backfoot with both Lion and Phoenix, and possibly the Empire in general if Meishodo rumors spread more. Ally-wise they kinda have the Dragon, who are awild card... I wonder what's the current relation with the Crab.

At this point I expect it to shape up as on one side Lion/Phoenix on the other Unicorn/Crane (especially if they find out the real reason for the Tsunami). Dragon just from the orphan angle would likely be more sympathetic to the Unicorn but you never can tell how the Dragon are going to fall. Scorpion on the other hand with their rivalry with the Crane may fall more in line with the Lion/Phoenix, but then they are also prone to playing their own agenda so may just end up at the center trying to move the pieces to meet the end goal they want (and woe to them if the other clans catch wind of that. Crab are the wildcard that could potentially end up dropping anywhere, although Yoshi did make the prospects of an alliance with the Crane far less likely, #yoshiisafool.

What might be more amusing is if the Scorpion and Crab come together as a third alliance, not that unlikely based on Kotei results, with the two of them managing Toshi Ranbo together and being directed by the Emperor to act as a buffer between the Lion/Crane. Scorpion handle day to day management and head off Crane scheming, Crab offer the military backing to discourage Lion advances and as payment the Crab get the newly discovered Jade mine in the area.

1 hour ago, HamHamJ2 said:

What confuses me is that Kosori's card does have the Shugenja trait.

Probably because fiction and mechanics do not always translate 1:1. She has a deep connection to the kami and they wanted her card to be able to facilitate spells that require the Shugenja trait. They could have given her a passive ability that reads: "This character counts as having the Shugenja trait for all purposes", but that seems unnecessarily roundabout (and would have also introduced the possibility of it getting Clouded off her, which may or may not have been welcomed).