Speculation on the consequences?

I doubt the Scorpion do it to give the Crane a break of any kind, especially if they actually are manipulating this war. Tsuko is going to be furious. Could be a lot of craziness tbh, hadn't really considered the whys so much as the hows.

Consequences?

More Scorpion meddling in the Lion/Crane conflict, and possibly some spoiling to limit Crane/Unicorn cooperation...

The Lion will probably declare war on them. Just like they usually do when they don't get their way.

Doesn't this basically end hostilities between the Lion/Crane?

- lion can do nothing about an imperial decree so now can focus all its forces on the unicorn front

- Crane likely lacks the resources and personnel to pursue any further military action (i think the best they can afford is to offer political aid to unicorn) and they'll likely have to deal with those pesky pirates

- we still have the unresolved murder investigation, and a dragon unit near the city with some hidden agenda. Looking forward to their development

- Scorpion is going to...scheme? They got a new city, i expect them to reform it by opening seedy taverns/gambling halls and renovating the pleasure district just so they can collect compromising evidence about high rank officials and imfluential visitors

19 minutes ago, mirrorcat said:

- Scorpion is going to...scheme? They got a new city, i expect them to reform it by opening seedy taverns/gambling halls and renovating the pleasure district just so they can collect compromising evidence about high rank officials and imfluential visitors

So if Ryoko Owari is Las Vegas, will Toshi Ranbo become Atlantic City?

Before the Emerald Tournament, Unicorn attempted to propose a new law declaring Toshi Ranbo an Imperial holding. This would prevent any clan from attacking Toshi Ranbo without Imperial permission. Ide Tadaji hoped for a deal with Crane: Unicorn would secure Crane possession of Toshi Rando with this proposal while Crane exerted political influence to stymie Lion from obtaining Imperial sanction against Unicorn, in light of Shinjo Altansarnai reneging on the Lion-Unicorn treaty.

Bayushi Shoju supported the Unicorn proposal but the Emperor decreed a moratorium on all new laws pending the tournament. The moratorium was almost certainly engineered by Bayushi Kachiko. Her aim was (at least) twofold: First, Lion and Scorpion enjoy a "tenuous alliance" and her maneuver clearly pleased Ikoma Ujiaki. From her point of view, however, the main issue was preventing a Crane-Unicorn alliance. Second, Kachiko was scheming to ensure a Scorpion became the next Emerald champion. That plan failed so having Scorpion appointed administrator of Toshi Ranbo may have been her Plan B.

11 hours ago, Manchu said:

Speculation on the consequences?

Lion is humiliated but have to focus on war with Unicorn. Crane is humiliated but have no resources to do anything about that. Kachiko is laughing, Shoju is laughing, Scorpion is getting even more prestige, money and all the good stuff and nobody really in a position to do anything about it, even if wanted to. Honestly, it seems that story-wise we are again headed for Arthropoda-clans wankfest. No, i am not salty at all. Honestly. No really. NOT AT - F R E A K I N G - ALL

10 minutes ago, Araenon said:

Lion is humiliated but have to focus on war with Unicorn. Crane is humiliated but have no resources to do anything about that. Kachiko is laughing, Shoju is laughing, Scorpion is getting even more prestige, money and all the good stuff and nobody really in a position to do anything about it, even if wanted to. Honestly, it seems that story-wise we are again headed for Arthropoda-clans wankfest. No, i am not salty at all. Honestly. No really. NOT AT - F R E A K I N G - ALL

If it makes you feel better I'm sure the Scorpion overreach play is coming any day now.

As much as I wanted Crab to steal the win from the Scorpion I feel like this makes much more sense from a story perspective. Consequences is the organized crime rate and opium addiction numbers just went way up in Toshi Ranbo.

31 minutes ago, Araenon said:

Kachiko is laughing, Shoju is laughing, Scorpion is getting even more prestige, money and all the good stuff and nobody really in a position to do anything about it, even if wanted to.

Yes, the other clans are in position to do something about it... if they all ally against Scorpion, which is something that will happen if they keep amassing so much power. I don’t think Shoju is laughing, because this possibility already crossed his mind , and he’s really worried about it.

So worried, in fact, that maybe he’s not happy at all about Kachiko’s schemings to get Toshi Ranbo. And Kachiko maybe is not happy about Shoju wanting for the Scorpion to relinquish a big amount of that power. And there’s nothing more dangerous for a Scorpion than another Scorpion.

This well may be the event that lead to a Scorpion civil war, or maybe even the Coup.

depending on how exactly things all tie in together, the Wedding at Kyotei Castle scenario (if details players received in character are canon) revealed that Scorpion has already had a direct role in influencing the sentiment in this region. specifically, the band of ronin our characters encountered on the road were extorting taxes from peasants in the name of the Crane; however, our Scorpion character learned that they had actually been hired by a Scorpion to make the Crane look bad. If this all ties together, Scorpion may be planning to use public opinion to hold the city, by looking better than the previous lords.

I think this leads to a war between the Unicorn and the Lion, one which the Unicorn were not prepared to fight. They were anticipating a 2 front war in which the Lion would be distracted with the Crane and the Crane could potentially leverage their surge in political clout to aid the Unicorn. Now that Scorpion have essentially snuffed out that war, for now, Lion can turn their full attention towards the Unicorn and I don't think that's what the Unicorn wanted.

I think this might also be the opportunity the leaders within the Lion were looking for to undermine Toturi, and potentially the catalyst for him to go ronin. I'm sure the other Lion leaders were expecting Toturi to be able to use his status as Emerald Champion to sway the emperor to side with the Lion, or at least they will point to his failure to do so as a reason to potentially replace Toturi with Tsuko.

This all plays into the Scorpion's hands as they don't want a thinking general at the head of the Lion leadership. They want someone that wants to attack first and ask questions later........ Its a lot easier to pin stuff in other clans when all you have to do is pay ronin to dress is like your intended patsy and then poke the Lion into action "oh look this dead samurai is wearing Crab colors, that means they did it. WAR WITH CRABBBB"

5 minutes ago, Ishi Tonu said:

for now, Lion can turn their full attention towards the Lion

This might be a self-fulfilling slip.

I just think that the Scorpion getting control of Toshi Ranbo is hilarious.

I imagine the emperor's thought process as such: "So, the Lion and Crane each think they should control the city.... They both don't deserve it. Give it to the Scorpion instead. "

I do think though that this is the most interesting possible development for what could have happened to the city.

Now we have a Scorpion city isolated between the Crane and the Lion factions.

We should get some good story out of this resolution to Toshi Ranbo.

39 minutes ago, Vulcan646 said:

Now we have a Scorpion city isolated between the Crane and the Lion factions.

Nah, they’ll just build a tunnel connecting it to Scorpion lands.

Why do you think Scorpion got the Zokujin in the last cycle?

1 hour ago, AtoMaki said:

This might be a self-fulfilling slip.

Ha!

Fixed it, but yeah maybe Lion neda to pay attention to what's going on in their own house before they start telling others to get off their lawn.

Crab-Scorpion relations has come up in the context of the Hantei's plan to abdicate and appoint Bayushi Shoju as regent and guardian of the new crown prince, Daisetsu. Given this parallels the political ascendancy of Scorpion as hosts of the upcoming Winter Court and as the new administrators of Toshi Ranbo, it definitely seems worthwhile to bring it up here. Toshi Ranbo controls surrounding territories including a jade mine. If the former crown prince were to make things uncomfortable, Crab and Scorpion could probably come to some arrangement regarding that jade.

On ‎8‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 4:51 PM, Kaito Kikaze said:

depending on how exactly things all tie in together, the Wedding at Kyotei Castle scenario (if details players received in character are canon) revealed that Scorpion has already had a direct role in influencing the sentiment in this region. specifically, the band of ronin our characters encountered on the road were extorting taxes from peasants in the name of the Crane; however, our Scorpion character learned that they had actually been hired by a Scorpion to make the Crane look bad. If this all ties together, Scorpion may be planning to use public opinion to hold the city, by looking better than the previous lords.

With an imperial decree on their side, they don't really need public opinion...

...It's also worth wondering if the Ronin in Between The Lines were actually crane hirelings or more scorpion patsies.

In theory, it's a very scorpion move. As in - a true, good-of-the-empire move; remove the source of friction between crane and lion, stop the fighting, and leave the crane and lion both angry with the scorpion instead of one another but unable to attack an imperial-decree granted holding openly, courteously seething slightly.

But as noted, what it's actually going to do is turn the lion around on the unicorn, and the crane....either on the mantis or quite possibly on one another given the issue of Satsume's death murder death.

" The Crane will be forced to turn their sights inward " is the Dragon prophecy. If the In The Palace Of The Emerald Champion background comes to light - especially given Hotaru's subsequent (in)action and the troubles she's been having anyway, the clan could practically implode.

Though, if Kuwanan turns up something he really doesn’t want to learn about his father, then Hotaru was right all along about leaving things well enough alone, and he might have a come-to-Doji moment of reconciliation.

The Scorpions think they got what they wanted, but don't realize that they played themselves.

So the Crane and the Lion are killing each other, the Scorpion are safely out of the mix-- and every dead Lion or dead Crane is an increase in the Scorpion's power.

So the Scorpion goes to the Imperials and say "Hey, we are the one's trying to keep things peaceful and functioning here! You ought to assign the city to us?"

And the Imperials agree.

Why?

Well, now a major thing the Lion and Crane were fighting for is no longer at stake... and both have a reason to turn all that hate for one another onto the Scorpion.

You ever seen two children fighting over a toy? Do you know what happens when you take that toy away from both of them and give them to a third child?

Yeah... the Scorpion were gaining in power so long as the Crane and Lion were at each others' throats. They could have remained out of it for good and benefited the most. Instead, they asked to be thrown in the middle of the crossfire and smugly think they won when they were given that.

Scorpions always think they have everyone else on Marionette strings... but, at the end of the day, again and again it remains true-- the only people Scorpion are ever successful at playing is themselves.

52 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

The Scorpions think they got what they wanted, but don't realize that they played themselves.

So the Crane and the Lion are killing each other, the Scorpion are safely out of the mix-- and every dead Lion or dead Crane is an increase in the Scorpion's power.

So the Scorpion goes to the Imperials and say "Hey, we are the one's trying to keep things peaceful and functioning here! You ought to assign the city to us?"

And the Imperials agree.

Why?

Well, now a major thing the Lion and Crane were fighting for is no longer at stake... and both have a reason to turn all that hate for one another onto the Scorpion.

You ever seen two children fighting over a toy? Do you know what happens when you take that toy away from both of them and give them to a third child?

Yeah... the Scorpion were gaining in power so long as the Crane and Lion were at each others' throats. They could have remained out of it for good and benefited the most. Instead, they asked to be thrown in the middle of the crossfire and smugly think they won when they were given that.

Scorpions always think they have everyone else on Marionette strings... but, at the end of the day, again and again it remains true-- the only people Scorpion are ever successful at playing is themselves.

1) The Crane is still recovering from the tsunami and in desperate need of supplies.

2) The Lion have a near open war with the Unicorn that needs to be dealt with, and are in a state of leadership flux.

3) This is by Imperial Decree. To argue against the decree or to retaliate against it would be a gross insult to the Emperor and beyond dishonorable.

and finally, 4) The Scorpion take the words of their Kami very seriously.


Side Note: We still don't know the full ramifications or results of "A Tiger Stalks His Prey" yet, and considering how that story went, this might as well be a slap fest.

That might all be true, momentarily.

But do remember that it is the Imperials agenda to keep a balance between the clans. If you think the Imperials are granting a clan unattested favor without any attached consequences, you haven't examined the situation quite closely enough.

Although the Lion and Crane surely won't openly retaliate immediately or openly, and maybe their ability to is temporarily hampered, make no mistake that the idea is to reduce the hostility between the two without either of them begrudging the Imperials so much and instead turning all that bitterness towards the Scorpion.

In the very least, neither the Lion nor the Crane will feel particularly cooperative towards the Scorpion after this and will likely look for ways to undermine them far more than they did before in the future. Whatever benefit regency over Toshi Ranbo brings, it almost certainly won't be worth the social capital cost in the long-run.

14 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

That might all be true, momentarily.

But do remember that it is the Imperials agenda to keep a balance between the clans. If you think the Imperials are granting a clan unattested favor without any attached consequences, you haven't examined the situation quite closely enough.

Although the Lion and Crane surely won't openly retaliate immediately or openly, and maybe their ability to is temporarily hampered, make no mistake that the idea is to reduce the hostility between the two without either of them begrudging the Imperials so much and instead turning all that bitterness towards the Scorpion.

In the very least, neither the Lion nor the Crane will feel particularly cooperative towards the Scorpion after this and will likely look for ways to undermine them far more than they did before in the future. Whatever benefit regency over Toshi Ranbo brings, it almost certainly won't be worth the social capital cost in the long-run.

The flaw with this argument is that based on when it will happen in the story (after the events of "Tiger Stalks") it may not be seen as the Emperor making a decree, it will be the new Regent Shoju, and so as a power play for the benefit of his clan against the other two.

Enmity between the Crane and the Lion is not going to end with the Toshi Ranbo Decree.

Remember, the Crane killed the Lion Champion, Arasou, and the Lion killed the ex-Crane Champion, Satsume. (Well, not really, but the Scorpion planted the evidence so they believe it).