2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

• Hida Kisada - not known. We know he has a son, Hida Sukune, but surprisingly even the Crab RPG sourcebook Shadowlands doesn't mention his spouse's name. We haven't had the Crab novella yet, though.

Hida Kisada has three children, actually--Hida Yakamo, his eldest; Hida O-Ushi, his daughter and second-oldest; and Hida Sukune, his youngest. In the old lore, his wife died while giving birth to Sukune and he hasn't remarried. That hasn't yet been contradicted so you can probably assume it's true this time around, too (well, unless it's specified it isn't).

22 minutes ago, DGLaderoute said:

Hida O-Ushi, his daughter

I knew O-Ushi was closely related to the clan champion (given the old Good Little Wife story) but for some reason I didn't think they were father and daughter. Just goes to show what you can misread/misremember.

3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:

There's been no indication of Shiba Tsukune and Yoritomo being married - though in her case she really is young and was NOT expecting to be clan champion. We know Yoritomo has a niece but that's the extent of our knowledge of the Mantis' ruling family other than the fact that somewhere it contained a female shapely enough to catch Kakita Toshimoko's eye and susceptible to the rascal's charms.

On this point, Tsukune was not actually an extremely prominent member of the clan prior to her ascension to Champion (which for the Phoenix is a very different line of succession and not hereditary so much as the Clan Sword decides yup, your the next in line) and when we were first introduced to her she was a Yojimbo assigned to Tadaka so marrying her off may not have been a clan priority.

As to Yoritomo we have specific mention of his spouse in his character write up from the Winter's Embrace Adventure module.

She is a a new character Linmei of the Komori people, which may be a suggestion to a relation to the Bat clan which are mentioned in the RPG core book as one of the existing minor clans (bringing their founding up to an earlier part of the timeline and a nod to the original Bat Clan founder in O5R Yoritomo Komori).

27 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:

She is a a new character Linmei of the Komori people, which may be a suggestion to a relation to the Bat clan which are mentioned in the RPG core book as one of the existing minor clans (bringing their founding up to an earlier part of the timeline and a nod to the original Bat Clan founder in O5R Yoritomo Komori).

Ah....missed that!

"Lord Yoritomo is the fearless leader of the Mantis Clan and a feared sea captain in his own right. Married to Linmei of the kōmori people, he honors the roots of his people while forever looking forward to the horizon."

So yes, aside from the unexpected champion Shiba Tsukune and the unnecessarily enigmatic Togashi Yokuni, every currently named clan champion is either married or was supposed to be,

And yes, there is something there, because that's not the only mention of the Komori - in Emerald Empire they pop up too:

" PCs with an affinity for the spirit world may notice something about him: this old man is a kōmori, a shapeshifting bat spirit, native to the Islands of Spice and Silk ."

1 minute ago, Magnus Grendel said:

Ah....missed that!

"Lord Yoritomo is the fearless leader of the Mantis Clan and a feared sea captain in his own right. Married to Linmei of the kōmori people, he honors the roots of his people while forever looking forward to the horizon."

So yes, aside from the unexpected champion Shiba Tsukune and the unnecessarily enigmatic Togashi Yokuni, every currently named clan champion is either married or was supposed to be,

And yes, there is something there, because that's not the only mention of the Komori - in Emerald Empire they pop up too:

" PCs with an affinity for the spirit world may notice something about him: this old man is a kōmori, a shapeshifting bat spirit, native to the Islands of Spice and Silk ."

Possibly although that again ties back to Yoritomo Komori's origin as his father was a kōmori that had taken physical form and seduced his mother. he chose his name and later the clan name that he was permitted to found specifically to honor his father and the strong connection that he held to the spirit realm thanks to that bloodline.

I guess komori people =/= komori spirits in much the same way that the kitsune clan =/= kitsune spirits - they are for the most part a normal minor clan of normal people, but some of them (in particular now-Doji Kunuzobu) are rather more than that.

54 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I guess komori people =/= komori spirits in much the same way that the kitsune clan =/= kitsune spirits - they are for the most part a normal minor clan of normal people, but some of them (in particular now-Doji Kunuzobu) are rather more than that.

That is my expectation.

I believe there was a Komori shugenja in the story The Spectres of War but that story came with a first wave expansion pack and so was linked here via the now-defunct Kolat Informant site.

8 minutes ago, Manchu said:

I believe there was a Komori shugenja in the story The Spectres of War but that story came with a first wave expansion pack and so was linked here via the now-defunct Kolat Informant site.

No Komori Shugenja or spirits in Specters. there is mention of komainu statues in Toshi Ranbo.

I'll just point out that marriage isn't really necessary for procreation. If a Clan finds itself in need of more sword arms they could just have the men start recognizing the children they sire though peasant women as legitimate.

So, jokes aside,same gender marriage and political hostage are basically the same except the part of cutting ones head.

On 10/10/2019 at 12:25 PM, Magnus Grendel said:

We don't, sadly, know anything about the origin of Mikoto's late wife - or indeed anything about her other than that she was killed in a duel by a Crane samurai (which, if you ever play the RPG, is a big issue if your character is a Crane).

Now that's a great joke, "celebrate"a duel with a kasuga.

16 hours ago, shineyorkboy said:

I'll just point out that marriage isn't really necessary for procreation. If a Clan finds itself in need of more sword arms they could just have the men start recognizing the children they sire though peasant women as legitimate.

Like adoption, legitimizing bastards is generally Plan B when Plan A (procreation in the context of marriage) fails.

32 minutes ago, Daigotsu Arashi said:

So, jokes aside, same gender marriage and political hostage are basically the same except the part of cutting ones head.

Same-sex arranged marriage is a worse solution because it is less flexible than hostage placing. Neither placing nor releasing hostages ever directly implies dishonor. Divorce can. But the real reason same-sex marriage is a terrible political solution is that natural issue cannot result.

20 hours ago, shineyorkboy said:

I'll just point out that marriage isn't really necessary for procreation. If a Clan finds itself in need of more sword arms they could just have the men start recognizing the children they sire though peasant women as legitimate.

Your not going to send children to the battlefield or wait years.

If they need sword arms, the solution it's to hire Ronin or ashigaru and tell your samurai to Fu** as rabbits.