I'm coming up with another character concept, and I was wondering how best to make the story align with Rokugan's culture and laws. Here's the basics:
The character was born to a family of peasants, the third of six kids, but suffering from a few severe physical handicaps: hunchbacked, one-legged, cataracts blinding one eyes, and a freakishly large left-arm that's only gotten stronger through working the farm. Despite this, his parents raised him anyway rather than leaving him exposed as a baby to die. He's managed to become an efficient and tough part of the community, despite his handicaps.
One day, while out in the rice paddies, he happened upon the son of his village's lord trying to force themselves on one of his cousins. Not knowing who the man was at the time, he thrashed him senseless before his cousin revealed just who her attacker was.
The basics of the original concept is that he left home with his peg leg and his family's second-best axe to become a wandering hero (in this case, he'd probably become a ronin). The problem is that I'm not sure how well this story would mesh into Rokugan's legal system. The original concept was written with more traditional European-based medieval fantasy in mind, where an individual peasant who did this would most likely just be hung for this if they didn't run off and become an outlaw, but heimin in Rokugan have a lot more to worry about in terms of collective punishment. Clearly this guy would be executed, probably painfully, for assaulting the son of his lord, if only on principle alone, but running away doesn't solve the problem for his family, as they would probably be executed as well, whether or not he was found among them, with even the entire village potentially suffering if the local lord was feeling mean (especially considering the guy turns a blind eye to his son sexually assaulting the village women). So would this misshapen but noble-hearted ronin even be a viable concept in Rokugan, or would this story only end in tears with him, and possibly his entire family, being brutally killed for his act of heroism?
Edited by Archpaladin Zousha