Since the Broken Wave Castle is renamed Castle of the Cat... does this mean we have a new Minor Clan???

I’m sorry, I admit I’m behind the fiction, but when I saw the map that Coyote Walks posted in his post Wasp and Fox Confirmed I was puzzled...

Nothing official, but it does seem likely.

From a quote in that thread by @DGLaderoute :

Quote

Kaigen's Island doesn't exist. Remember, it was created by the joint actions of the Phoenix and Mantis during the War of Fire and Thunder, to destroy their suddenly-mutual enemy, the corrupted Mantis fleet known as the Dark Wave. That said, there DOES appear to be an island there, with the "Castle of the Cat" upon it. But it's not Kaigen's Island; rather, it's an island that's already there (and might give a strong hint about the likelihood of reprising the whole War of Fire and Thunder/Dark Wave thing. I'm not saying that for sure--I honestly don't know--but I have my doubts that the story will ever head back in that direction). 

So it could be that we're getting a new minor clan. I'm hoping we get a whole list of minor clan names in the Core Rulebook next week.

Thanks llamaman88. And the only reference to the Clan I assume is the map, right?

Could the Cat take place of the old Firefly? Now that the Crane Champion uses the name Hotaru...

1 minute ago, ElSuave said:

From a quote in that thread by @DGLaderoute :

So it could be that we're getting a new minor clan. I'm hoping we get a whole list of minor clan names in the Core Rulebook next week.

And Families and Schools stats...! Will love to see a Hare Bushi School.

The only thing we know about the Castle of the Cat is that when Katrina Ostrander was asked about it on Twitter, she responded with an animated GIF of a road filled with running cats.

Take that as you may.

26 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

The only thing we know about the Castle of the Cat is that when Katrina Ostrander was asked about it on Twitter, she responded with an animated GIF of a road filled with running cats.

Take that as you may.

Hey I’m all for a new Minor Clan. Hopefully will see more info when Core is out.

The cats in the GIF are probably a Shugenja illusion to deter unwanted guests... Cats can be very sneaky. ?

2 minutes ago, Nheko said:

Hey I’m all for a new Minor Clan. Hopefully will see more info when Core is out.

The cats in the GIF are probably a Shugenja illusion to deter unwanted guests... Cats can be very sneaky. ?

Honestly? I would not expect it in Core Rules. I would expect the Core Rules to focus around the Great Clans primarily. We will likely see the Minor Clans mentioned in the Core Rules (but not in detail or all of them being named), with rules possibly for the Mantis Clan. I expect to see the first details on all the Minor Clans in Emerald Empire, and then a full write up on each Minor Clan in a splat book somewhere down the line.

Oh well...if you’re right there goes my plan to play a Hare character. ?

That’s ok if’s that’s the case there’s plenty of concepts that I will like to play.

1 hour ago, sndwurks said:

Honestly? I would not expect it in Core Rules. I would expect the Core Rules to focus around the Great Clans primarily. We will likely see the Minor Clans mentioned in the Core Rules (but not in detail or all of them being named), with rules possibly for the Mantis Clan. I expect to see the first details on all the Minor Clans in Emerald Empire, and then a full write up on each Minor Clan in a splat book somewhere down the line.

This is my thinking. I hope they get their usual 1 school per clan in EE, but that's probably a little hopeful.
Something that did interest me is when it mentioned minor clans, the article talked about how numerous they were. I'm wondering if that's some sort of foreshadowing of how MC work, or if that's just them making it sound like a bigger deal.

As for Hare clan, I'm confident there'll be a homebrew school for them pretty fast to get you by, assuming you can convince a GM to let you. Or possibly just a ronin school and use the Mantis preview and the 4e family/school bonuses as the 20 question bonuses.

Hmmm which article mention the amount of minor clans llamaman88?

I already did a homebrew Usagi family just for kicks (no pun intended ? ) and had a suggestion from sndwurks for a School technique which my GM liked. For the moment I thought about creating either a Usagi Kitsuki Investigator or a Kuni Purifier...

1 hour ago, Nheko said:

Oh well...if you’re right there goes my plan to play a Hare character. ?

That’s ok if’s that’s the case there’s plenty of concepts that I will like to play.

There's always Homebrew!

2 minutes ago, llamaman88 said:

Something that did interest me is when it mentioned minor clans, the article talked about how numerous they were. I'm wondering if that's some sort of foreshadowing of how MC work, or if that's just them making it sound like a bigger deal.

So, either Confirmed or with castles on the map, from off the top of my head.

1. Mantis Clan
2. Wasp Clan
3. Falcon Clan
4. Centipede Clan
5. Badger Clan
6. Dragonfly Clan
7. Sparrow Clan
8. Fox Clan
9. Hare Clan

I cannot recall if the Tortoise Clan have a map item. City of the Rich Frog might get the Minor Clan treatment, though I hope it stays as a Ronin family controlled city. No word on the Castle of the Cat yet. So, with the Tortoise Clan, that would bring the number of Minor Clans up to 10, which is 2 higher than the Great Clans. I also would like if they included mention of the fallen, dead, and vanished Minor Clans of the Snake, Boar, Tanuki, and any of the others they want to mention in passing. I would also love to see a supplement on the Minor Clans themselves, along with a system on building your own Minor Clan. That is one of my favorite campaigns to run, after all.

A better idea for castle of the cat....

You see, the Phoenix built a fortress on the island to try to boost their defenses if the Mantis ever went rogue. But, well, in doing so they accidentally brought some rats over along with their supplies. Soon enough, the rats were eating all their food, chewing up their books (which you know Phoenix really hate) and just pooping everywhere.

So, to solve their problem, they brought over cats. And slowly but surely the cats dealt with the rodent problem, at least getting it down to a managable level. The cats were considered heroes of the island and treated with utmost respect, no one was allowed to do harm to them because they protected the island...

But then the problem was that the population of the cats just exploded in no time. They bred like... rabbits. Between the rats and the various birds and the fish that swam near the island, with no predators of their own the island was a paradise for cats.

And the people there... they weren't going to run around culling all the cats, even if they did they would just be left with their rodent problem again. Plus, you just know that some of those cats have mystical powers. That's always the way things go in Rokugan. And the people who lived on the island were getting sick from having so many cats around. So ultimately they felt they had no choice but to abandon the island.

So now it is called the castle of cats because it is literally a castle on an island entirely ruled by cats. Just a few residents who provide lodging for visitors and sell cat-themed goods for tourists... sorry... "pilgrims" to their island.

There are three such islands in Japan in real life.
https://www.hisgo.com/us/destination-japan/blog/top_3_cat_islands_in_japan.html

Now isn't that much more fun and interesting than just having a random extra minor clan with a cat avatar?

41 minutes ago, sndwurks said:

There's always Homebrew!

So, either Confirmed or with castles on the map, from off the top of my head.

1. Mantis Clan
2. Wasp Clan
3. Falcon Clan
4. Centipede Clan
5. Badger Clan
6. Dragonfly Clan
7. Sparrow Clan
8. Fox Clan
9. Hare Clan

I cannot recall if the Tortoise Clan have a map item. City of the Rich Frog might get the Minor Clan treatment, though I hope it stays as a Ronin family controlled city. No word on the Castle of the Cat yet. So, with the Tortoise Clan, that would bring the number of Minor Clans up to 10, which is 2 higher than the Great Clans. I also would like if they included mention of the fallen, dead, and vanished Minor Clans of the Snake, Boar, Tanuki, and any of the others they want to mention in passing. I would also love to see a supplement on the Minor Clans themselves, along with a system on building your own Minor Clan. That is one of my favorite campaigns to run, after all.

I will love to have a supplement that will be dedicated to the Minor Clans, especially if it will tell you how to create your own one. Will love to bring my Lynx into the game, and this is the perfect timeline to do it.

I will disagree with you in that the City of the Rich Frog will be best with a Minor Clan, because under the rule of a Minor Clan no Great Clan cannot attack it, so the military battle to claim it between the Lion and Unicorn will cease... Now enter the political battle for the economical alliances...

15 minutes ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

A better idea for castle of the cat....

You see, the Phoenix built a fortress on the island to try to boost their defenses if the Mantis ever went rogue. But, well, in doing so they accidentally brought some rats over along with their supplies. Soon enough, the rats were eating all their food, chewing up their books (which you know Phoenix really hate) and just pooping everywhere.

So, to solve their problem, they brought over cats. And slowly but surely the cats dealt with the rodent problem, at least getting it down to a managable level. The cats were considered heroes of the island and treated with utmost respect, no one was allowed to do harm to them because they protected the island...

But then the problem was that the population of the cats just exploded in no time. They bred like... rabbits. Between the rats and the various birds and the fish that swam near the island, with no predators of their own the island was a paradise for cats.

And the people there... they weren't going to run around culling all the cats, even if they did they would just be left with their rodent problem again. Plus, you just know that some of those cats have mystical powers. That's always the way things go in Rokugan. And the people who lived on the island were getting sick from having so many cats around. So ultimately they felt they had no choice but to abandon the island.

So now it is called the castle of cats because it is literally a castle on an island entirely ruled by cats. Just a few residents who provide lodging for visitors and sell cat-themed goods for tourists... sorry... "pilgrims" to their island.

There are three such islands in Japan in real life.
https://www.hisgo.com/us/destination-japan/blog/top_3_cat_islands_in_japan.html

Now isn't that much more fun and interesting than just having a random extra minor clan with a cat avatar?

The moment I started reading your post I remember seeing this in a documentary lol...

If that’s the case, I think I can use it as a portal to the animal spirit realm, connecting the Fox Clan territory with the island.

3 hours ago, Nheko said:

Oh well...if you’re right there goes my plan to play a Hare character. ?

That’s ok if’s that’s the case there’s plenty of concepts that I will like to play.

I wouldn’t worry, Friend. 25 minutes after the core book releases I expect the forums will have homebrews for Hare and a few others.

That being said, I know there is zero guarantee they will follow prior lines, but both 3rd and 4th editions included stats for several minor clans in their core book, and 4th had 1 school for each minor clan mentioned in it.

Until it’s out or otherwise stated all bets are still on the table.

Quote

...if the Mantis ever went rogue.

:snerk:

1 hour ago, Nheko said:

The moment I started reading your post I remember seeing this in a documentary lol...

If that’s the case, I think I can use it as a portal to the animal spirit realm, connecting the Fox Clan territory with the island.

I fully support the Kitsune having First Strike capabilities against the Phoenix (or anyone, really).

Although I don’t know where this new canon is got to take us, it will be cool, that the Mantis have a discreet way to get into their mainland allies territories in fast way.

3 hours ago, Nheko said:

I will disagree with you in that the City of the Rich Frog will be best with a Minor Clan, because under the rule of a Minor Clan no Great Clan cannot attack it, so the military battle to claim it between the Lion and Unicorn will cease... Now enter the political battle for the economical alliances...

Do you mean you want to be a Minor Clan to prevent a war? I would like it to remain a Ronin-family controlled city because that makes it a neutral border city with questionable ruling status, and thus the PERFECT impetus for war.

I see your point. It makes sense for the story.

I was thinking more of a campaign like concept. I thought that since no Great Clan can initiate an attack to a Minor Clan without getting sanctioned or a proper authorization of the Emperor, and knowing how the Lion feels about Ronin, the Lion will restrain more their attack against Minor Clan (especially if is funded by a Unicorn and a Lion) than Ronin.

Don’t know maybe I got the idea from the Shadows of the Cabal podcast. Spoilers below:

I think it will be a good idea for a Campaign I will like to run: to start similar to the one of the Shadows of the Cabal, and after uncovering that the Kaeru are infiltrated by the Kolat, tracking hunting some of the key Kolat members and maybe prevent a Unicorn and Lion conflict you’re rewarded with funding your own Minor Clan. And Your mission is to maintain the city as a major economic hub while maintaining its neutrality among the Major Clans. You can even recruit members of the Unicorn and Lion to start establishing a relationship between the tensions between the Clans.

So, page 18 of the beginner box rule book says "In addition to the seven great clans and the imperial families, there are innumerable minor clans of samurai throughout Rokugan..." Not sure how much to believe this, but it's in official material so /shrug

5 minutes ago, llamaman88 said:

So, page 18 of the beginner box rule book says "In addition to the seven great clans and the imperial families, there are innumerable minor clans of samurai throughout Rokugan..." Not sure how much to believe this, but it's in official material so /shrug

I think "inumerable" is a...questionable choice of word there. There are some Minor Clans, but they are a long way short of being "inumerable".

“Innumerable”from a Great Clan perspective. They may be organized and slightly better than ronin rabble, but they aren’t worth much concern.

That’s a fairly common belief among the great clans during AEG years anyway. Most of the Greats didn’t respect or concern themselves with the minor clans. So, from a certain point of view, it may be “ Innumerable”.

Well, I'm not sure I would use innumerable for the like 20 old minor clans, many of which don't even exist yet.

You saying this is just a poor choice of words DG? Or is it possible FFG has changed how minor clans work?

12 hours ago, DGLaderoute said:

I think "inumerable" is a...questionable choice of word there. There are some Minor Clans, but they are a long way short of being "inumerable".

If I recall correctly, the Rokugani say there are 10,000 Fortunes because that's roughly equivalent to saying "innumerable."

10,000 Minor Clans *CONFIRMED*!