New fiction:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/4/8/how-the-world-ought-to-work/
So... Ishikawa is a pragmatist - which, given his approach to Meishodo (I don't really care as long as we can protect the Emperor) makes sense.
I'm obviously suspicious that 'Onion' is Kolat, but regardless, it's interesting -especially as an RPG GM - to see essentially the head of the Otosan Uchi underworld...
Edited by Magnus Grendel
1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:New fiction:
https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2020/4/8/how-the-world-ought-to-work/
So... Ishikawa is a pragmatist - which, given his approach to Meishodo (I don't really care as long as we can protect the Emperor) makes sense.
I'm obviously suspicious that 'Onion' is Kolat, but regardless, it's interesting -especially as an RPG GM - to see essentially the head of the Otosan Uchi underworld...
Yeah. His name's Onion, there's always another layer. What layer's below crime? Sedition.
Interesting to see ronin Toturi struggle with understanding life outside his privilege. His usual problem is the perfect being the enemy of the good, it's funny to see him struggling not to impulsively go full lawman while undercover in the seedy part of town.
Highly satisfying yarn, and good to see the story payoff ("Toturi will investigate the attempt on his life") not being blown off in a single entry.
Fine character work, some good actual advancement of a subplot...
And the wheels on the wagon are still wobbling.
I would like to say how great I think this line is:
"It would have been a biting retort in court. Spoken here, in a grubby alley, Toturi’s sarcasm just flopped into the muck, and lay there like something dead."
Agreed. Ishikawa is quite right that what is essentially the Empire's secret service detail can't afford to look at the world through rose-tinted glasses.
Ironically, it's exactly the mindset of his immediate subordinate, the Ruby Champion Agasha Sumiko, who oversaw a thorough, show-all-the-dirty-laundry investigation into the Emerald Champion's death to ensure she knew the truth, reviewed the results, and then dropped the report into the bin, burned it to ash, dropped it down a well and publically declared " yup, totally natural causes " because she's aware that any other verdict was a political time bomb the Empire couldn't afford....
The first lesson a good Emerald Champion has to learn is to put Empire before Clan (which is why it's good Aramoro lost). But the second is that sometimes you need to put Empire before Honour.....and Lions, historically, aren't good at that.
2 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:The first lesson a good Emerald Champion has to learn is to put Empire before Clan (which is why it's good Aramoro lost). But the second is that sometimes you need to put Empire before Honour.....and Lions, historically, aren't good at that.
I'd be fascinating if Toturi goes all-in the opposite way though. Decides that going full paladin & being more righteous than Ishikawa is the best way to connect with Kaede given their last conversation. Takes his current revelations about the gap between ought & is, churns it over in his too-analytical way, and comes to the understanding that the difference is between the Empire and the people of the Empire, and honor is only truly found in service to the latter. Enter The Black Lion.
2 hours ago, Doji Hyōkin said:I'd be fascinating if Toturi goes all-in the opposite way though. Decides that going full paladin & being more righteous than Ishikawa is the best way to connect with Kaede given their last conversation. Takes his current revelations about the gap between ought & is, churns it over in his too-analytical way, and comes to the understanding that the difference is between the Empire and the people of the Empire, and honor is only truly found in service to the latter. Enter The Black Lion.
At the risk of crossing fictional universes, there's more than a little cross-over between this (really, really good!*) short story by @DGLaderoute and some scenes from the Horus Heresy books Nemesis and Outcast Dead . In those, you have Constantin Valdor (head of the Custodian Guard and a devotee of the whatever-it-takes school) and Rogal Dorn (supposed head of the military forces on Terra and not naturally given to nefarious doings) butting heads, because the former sees his duty as being to the Imperium's Emperor and the latter to the Imperium itself, and the closer it gets to everything hitting the fan, the more those two become obviously differing concepts...
* Thanks again. It also doesn't hurt at all that it's been published literally the morning of our weekly game night and we're doing the Stolen Honour RPG adventure seed, where Ishikawa is a main player. Not only is this another very nice study of his character, but the namedrop of Fortune's Rest and Tamanegi is perfectly suited for the criminal underworld contact the PCs will need to find (or be discretely pointed at by Ishikawa-sama himself) to 'solve' the half of the mystery which occurs outside the palace.
Edited by Magnus GrendelThanks for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the story. I'm hoping we end up making more use of Tamanegi down the road. I've always been kinda fascinated by the idea of the criminal underworld in Rokugan, probably because one of my first RPG experiences involved the old City of Lies boxed set, which was a lot of fun to play.
I can't help but wonder how the Dragon Clan are going to fit in to Toturi's mission here. There are already Kitsuki trying to work out the truth of the Emperor's death. They might be convinced to help find the truth of Toturi's attackers. That, though, might set them against the Scorpion, whom Agasha Sumiko is supporting - and she knows the truth of the regency edict. Seems like we're gonna get ourselves in trouble here - hypothetically Dragon Civil War-level trouble.
Tinfoil hat on, this could be part of Fu Leng's plan. Every Great Clan divided. Tsuko vs Toturi. Kuwanan vs Hotaru. Kisada vs Yori. Shoju vs Kachiko. Potentially Altansarnai vs Chagatai and Sumiko vs Yaruma, which leaves the Phoenix. Tadaka vs Tsukune? We're already down one Elemental Master, and likely to be down at least one more in the near future.
Edited by MirumotoKatsuro16 hours ago, MirumotoKatsuro said:Tadaka vs Tsukune?
Tanaka feels like one side as he increasingly goes off the deep end but the other isn't clear. Tsukune doesn't actually have much authority on the shujenga side, despite being clan champion. She and Kosori are butting heads with the council, though.
Similarly, as yet whilst Uiri's up to no good, he doesn't seem to be in too much trouble for it. I think the big question will be what happens at this mysterious lost tower the Yasuki and Mantis are investigating...
Edited by Magnus Grendel3 hours ago, Magnus Grendel said:Tanaka feels like one side as he increasingly goes off the deep end but the other isn't clear. Tsukune doesn't actually have much authority on the shujenga side, despite being clan champion. She and Kosori are butting heads with the council, though.
I can see a Tsukune/Kosori vs Council split happening.
On 4/10/2020 at 6:45 PM, MirumotoKatsuro said:Tadaka vs Tsukune? We're already down one Elemental Master, and likely to be down at least one more in the near future.
Tsukune and Kosori are the main Phoenix "heroes" at present and Tadaka's walking a dark road (with good intentions), but that's not where I see the conflict popping up...
I think the Phoenix are going to splinter differently- I think we haven't got a POV for one of the "sides" that will be taken yet, because it's the old Council- the "tell no one about the elemental imbalance, don't let on how bad things are getting, hush up inundating the coastline of our nominally closest ally.
Our three main Phoenix characters are all bucking the council's "business as usual" sense of presentation in various ways- Kosori by being daimyo of a family that was an afterthought, Tsukune by actively making changes and (granted, it's been a while since the novella) asserting herself more, Tadaka by dueling his way onto the Council to get his way.
The Phoenix might not end up with two broad factions- they might end up with a sort of generalized disunity.
3 hours ago, Shiba Gunichi said:Our three main Phoenix characters are all bucking the council's "business as usual" sense of presentation in various ways- Kosori by being daimyo of a family that was an afterthought, Tsukune by actively making changes and (granted, it's been a while since the novella) asserting herself more, Tadaka by dueling his way onto the Council to get his way.
The Phoenix might not end up with two broad factions- they might end up with a sort of generalized disunity.
That's kind of appropriate, isn't it - unlike the other Clans who all have a single, central authority figure in their Champion, the Phoenix are ruled by a group of peers; of course they'd be the Clan without a single, central issue to split over.
Edited by MangodAfter this story, I'm kinda having this feeling that this shiny new resurrected Toturi is not the Toturi from before that certain incident. I mean, isn't he supposed to be a pragmatist himself? And more of a quiet, humble, observing type? But now he is self-righteous, confrontational, and jealous? Hmmmm... I sense a great plot twist here...
Well, this is a Toturi that tried to slowly think his way through being Emerald Champion to do the best he could for the Empire as a whole, and all it got him was ignored by his own clan, overtaken by the scope of events in the capital, and then straight up knifed to death. The world as it ought to be failed him
His first thoughts upon surviving all circle around how fundamentally he failed at his duty to the Emperor. The world as it is has already judged him wanting and killed him once. He’s gotta find a new approach before it happens again. Does not help that his only ally is crushing on his wife.
On 4/12/2020 at 12:29 AM, Mangod said:That's kind of appropriate, isn't it - unlike the other Clans who all have a single, central authority figure in their Champion, the Phoenix are ruled by a group of peers; of course they'd be the Clan without a single, central issue to split over.
It's also a nice reflection of the Phoenix playerbase's historical lack of unity on any single thing. 😛
17 hours ago, Doji Hyōkin said:His first thoughts upon surviving all circle around how fundamentally he failed at his duty to the Emperor.
Yeah, and I don't think that this is consistent with how he acted before the resurrection. Toturi showed that he was pretty good with handling tough situations and bounce back from being thwarted instead of becoming extra-salty about it. This happens during Arasou's death, during his first meeting with Kaede, during the Emerald Championship, and during his short Emerald Champion career too. In many cases he admittedly acted against how "the world ought to work" and him thinking outside of the box was what built up to his current situation.
But then he takes a 180° right at his resurrection scene , where he acts like a major a-hole towards Kaede, and he keeps on rolling like that for the fourth fic by now. Previously I wondered whether this was the "cost" Kaede had to pay for Toturi's life: he came back, but without his "goodness" that made him Toturi in the first place. But with this story I can't help but sense a similarity between Toturi and a certain major player who also came back from "death" completely changed and became so salty about it he started an eternal war against Rokugan. Heck, his tipping point was even an argument with his brother about how the world ought to work...
1 hour ago, Shiba Gunichi said:It's also a nice reflection of the Phoenix playerbase's historical lack of unity on any single thing. 😛
I disagree on that portrayal of the Phoenix playerbase.
5 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:I disagree on that portrayal of the Phoenix playerbase.
My experience with the old forums would argue otherwise
1 minute ago, Shiba Gunichi said:My experience with the old forums would argue otherwise
Apparently, I'm too subtle
😄
4 hours ago, Shiba Gunichi said:It's also a nice reflection of the Phoenix playerbase's historical lack of unity on any single thing. 😛
Except for maho, the majority always seem to fall in line with "this time we can make it work" every time they are given even a hint of maho.
3 hours ago, AtoMaki said:Yeah, and I don't think that this is consistent with how he acted before the resurrection. Toturi showed that he was pretty good with handling tough situations and bounce back from being thwarted instead of becoming extra-salty about it. This happens during Arasou's death, during his first meeting with Kaede, during the Emerald Championship, and during his short Emerald Champion career too. In many cases he admittedly acted against how "the world ought to work" and him thinking outside of the box was what built up to his current situation.
But then he takes a 180° right at his resurrection scene , where he acts like a major a-hole towards Kaede, and he keeps on rolling like that for the fourth fic by now. Previously I wondered whether this was the "cost" Kaede had to pay for Toturi's life: he came back, but without his "goodness" that made him Toturi in the first place. But with this story I can't help but sense a similarity between Toturi and a certain major player who also came back from "death" completely changed and became so salty about it he started an eternal war against Rokugan. Heck, his tipping point was even an argument with his brother about how the world ought to work...
It could also be argued that Toturi is just dealing (or more realistically not actually dealing with) the trauma of his having died and come back.
15 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:Except for maho, the majority always seem to fall in line with "this time we can make it work" every time they are given even a hint of maho.
Apparently the posters here are in a minority then...
12 minutes ago, Tonbo Karasu said:Apparently the posters here are in a minority then...
Apparently, because if the old game has shown me anything its that competitive Phoenix players would jump on the Maho as soon as they got it, and story players would always try and justify it with the old we can purify it ("Pure" Isawa Maho) arguments.
16 minutes ago, Schmoozies said:It could also be argued that Toturi is just dealing (or more realistically not actually dealing with) the trauma of his having died and come back.
This was my first idea too when reading The Cornered Lion, but it doesn't explain why Salty!Toturi was already a thing during the resurrection scene proper.
Also, Toturi being the vessel of Fu Leng would be a twist of absolutely EPIC proportions. Like, there is no way anyone could beat this change. I kinda hope that this is a thing now.