I read Rule from Horseback, and I really enjoyed it. I'd love to run a game in Khanbulak. It seems like it's replacing Bugaisha from earlier editions. I just had a few questions about the lore that might make it easier.

In the story, it says, "The city straddled the border of Rokugan, a border marked by li after li of cairns."

Is any part of the city not within Rokugan? This makes it sound like that's the case (which makes one wonder what the implications of that are).

Does this mean the Khol Wall doesn't exist in this edition? Or is it just not at the border? Or just not this part of the border?

It seems like there's a wall surrounding the city and part of that wall goes outside the border, but even then, gaijin found inside the city (doesn't matter which side of the border) after sunset can be executed. Granted, there's probably some kind of village or arrangement of caravans just outside the wall on the outer border where the gaijin spend the night.

Unless shown in later cards or fiction, I don't think the Khol Wall exists anymore.

Edit: just checked, the Khol Wall was built during Toturi's reign, so it wasn't something already there since the start of story telling.

25 minutes ago, Diogo Salazar said:

It seems like there's a wall surrounding the city and part of that wall goes outside the border, but even then, gaijin found inside the city (doesn't matter which side of the border) after sunset can be executed. Granted, there's probably some kind of village or arrangement of caravans just outside the wall on the outer border where the gaijin spend the night.

Unless shown in later cards or fiction, I don't think the Khol Wall exists anymore.

Edit: just checked, the Khol Wall was built during Toturi's reign, so it wasn't something already there since the start of story telling.

Ah, right on! Thanks for this. Just what I needed.

There's also mention of Khanbulak in Across the Burning Sands. There is a Qamarist temple outside its walls.

Oh, right on! Have you read Across the Burning Sands? Is it any good? Does any of it take place in Khanbulak?

5 hours ago, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

Oh, right on! Have you read Across the Burning Sands? Is it any good? Does any of it take place in Khanbulak?

No. It starts at the waystation on the Sand Road when Chagatai catches up with Shono. From there most of it takes place in the Qamarist capital, with a couple of stops along the way. Apparently you can get a PDF of it for $3 from Drivethru RPG. This lacks the back pages of lore, but has the whole novella.

2 hours ago, Tonbo Karasu said:

No. It starts at the waystation on the Sand Road when Chagatai catches up with Shono. From there most of it takes place in the Qamarist capital, with a couple of stops along the way. Apparently you can get a PDF of it for $3 from Drivethru RPG. This lacks the back pages of lore, but has the whole novella.

I definitely want to read this. Thank you. Do you know any legal way to get the lore pages from the end?

8 hours ago, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

I definitely want to read this. Thank you. Do you know any legal way to get the lore pages from the end?

I am not aware of one, I am sorry. I am willing to summarise some topics, but it's 15 pages, so typing it all up is a bit too much. Here's the various headings

• SHINJO's JOURNEY
• The Ujik and the Moto
• Shinjo's Captivity
• A Journey out of Knowledge
• The Ride through Shadow
• THE CRADLE OF THE WORLD
• Old Rempet
• The Nameless Prophet
• The Prophet's End
• The Saborim (sidebar)
• THE SPREAD OF THE WORD
• By Sword and by Book
• The Lands and Tribes of the Caliphate
• THE SAND ROAD
• The Way Stations
• Geography
• DJINN AND SORCERY
• Name Magic
• Manticores
• Courts of Djinn
• THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE UNICORN
• Shinjo and the Unicorn
• Shino and the World-devourer

Does anything in particular take your fancy?

Oh wow! Thank you. I think my top picks would be: The Ujik and the Moto, A Journey Out of Nowhere, and By Sword and By Book. I'm also happy to defer to what you think the most interesting tidbits in there are. I just bought the pdf, so I'll be reading the story soon.

The Ujik and the Moto

Almost right after leaving Rokugan, the Ki-rin got in trouble in the Plain of Wind and Stone. They were being attacked by mobile horse nomads called the Ujik, as well as being short on water and suffering under temperature extremes. Things were going bad until Shinjo captured some horses and copied the tactics.

The Ujik respected this and started treating the Ki-Rin as allies instead of enemies. Over time a portion of the Ujik formally joined the Clan, and became known as the Moto family. Even those who didn't thought of the rokugani as friends. This let them expand their territory against traditional enemies.

The Ki-rin stayed with the Ujik for "a generation", perhaps as long as a century. When they decided to move on, the entire Clan was mounted on sturdy desert horses, with proper saddles and stirrups.

I'll do the next one tomorrow.

The Ride through Shadow

The Unicorn decided to go home, but wanted to avoid the Burning Sands. Went south of the Pillar of the Sky into Ivory Kingdoms. Going was slow since the terrain and people turned them back. Eventually they reached the east of the Ivory Kingdoms but encountered the Western Shadowlands [[called the Ghostlands by the locals, according to Path of Waves]].

Ide records say it took 40 years from Conqueror's sea to Rokugan. The Sand Road these days takes a few months only. But the Sand Road avoids the Shadowlands. In this cursed place everything, including time, is warped. Who can say who long it took? The Unicorn proceeded their normal way - from safe point to safe point, sending scouts ahead to find a path. The Ide Chronicles and Imperial Histories are hard to reconcile for this period.

In 815, they escaped. The Crab thought they were an invasion, so they had to break through the Wall with foreign magic, near Razor of the Dawn Castle. The rode through the Shinomen, up the River of Gold and across the Spine of the World, to their homelands - where a great Lion army awaited these barbarian invaders

Fortunately, the Ide took Doji's sandalwood fan to the Crane court, proving their ancestry. The Emperor, at the Crane's request, granted the lands to the Unicorn and ended the war. Home after nearly 800 years.

(I got Nowhere and Shadow confused in your comment, but I think you got Nowhere and Knowledge confused. Whatever, you get both paragraphs)

A Journey out of Knowledge

After destroying the Empire of Rempet, Shinjo split her Ki-Rin into 5 hordes to go in each direction: Shinjo took Blue west, Iuchi took Green south, Moto Chabi took White north, Utaku Shiko took Purple east and Ide remained on the Conqueror's sea coast with Golden.

Iuchi never came back, but the other three hordes brought almost unbelievable accounts back to Rokugan when they came as the Unicorn Clan. Empires of snake-like beings, raiders with a human torso and horse body, one-eyed giants, blessed valleys and cursed pits. Finally was the Unicorn itself, a horselike spirit of water and fire that may have fathered Shinjo's children.

Thank you so much for posting all of this. This is great! I knew the general idea of the Unicorn leaving, of course, but it's nice to have all of these details filled in.

Some of the details are changed compared to the old continuity, like the Empire of Rempet.

By Sword and By Book [[All entirely new lore]]

Qamari Caliphate started between two rivers, in the Nehiri homeland, but spread over the Cradle of the Word. First they conquered the remnants of Old Rempet - the undying Twilight Kings - with the help of their faith and the living slaves there, uniting the Nehiri tribes. Then they aided the warlike Suhili, to their North, against the monsters of the god Zeth, drowned in the Cursed Sea after doing battle with Shem - the Suhili joined the faith and the Caliphate.

To the West, the Sogdan city-states were kept at constant war by a scheming Manticore. The Caliphate's bested it in a riddle game and brought peace to the region. Eventually, even the Bandar leaders became Emirs of the Caliph, after resisting the imperial ambitions of both Mwenta to the South and the Qamarists for some time.

There's a couple of other extracts I'll put in after you've finished the book, to avoid spoilers.

I just finished. Thank you for the recommendation. There's sooooo much inspiration for the next L5R game I run.

6 hours ago, MonCalamariAgainstDrunkDriving said:

I just finished. Thank you for the recommendation. There's sooooo much inspiration for the next L5R game I run.

I will now recommend this thread, over in the LCG area -