Meishodo is one that keeps getting changed from edition to edition, and I'm getting really confused as to how it "works". When it first showed up, the magic used the power of names as a replacement for calling on the kami, and the talismans were a way to bind a spirit of that name to make your spells more powerful. Later editions made it so that you could ONLY use a spell with a talisman tied to it, but still, you bound a spirit into the talisman. This always made me think that the Names were more... categories. Since obviously, there were multiple spirits that could answer to the name, if different shugenja could call on the same name.
In the newest edition / lore of the card game, they can again cast invocations normally, without a talisman, by calling on Names. (and without the loss of calling on the Kami directly and communing with spirits that happened previously) The talismans just make it easier. But again, it states in multiple places that it binds the spirits called by name. This led me to wonder about using Names other than the book of Names, for example, what would happen if you DID try to bind a kami? or worse, what if you tried to bind an ancestor spirit? And then... I read Outsiders. https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/34/2b/342bf898-9071-4066-82d2-637c009636eb/elemental_cycle_phoenix_webcompressed.pdf
In it, the Iuchi states that his school has cataloged the true name of every Kami along the pilgrimage path. Suggesting that even the Kami have secret, hidden names that can be used to call on them. And THEN, states that he has a trinket for the kami of this particular shrine. Yet... what spirit is bound to it? Is there a piece of that kami in his trinket?
Am I the only one confused?