I have been out of the loop since right before the release of Children of the Empire. However, I just checked various databases for which sets I need to buy to have a complete collection of the imperials and well...

There seems to have been all of one unaligned imperial card printed since the Children of the Empire set. There have been more Mantis Clan cards printed than Imperial Family cards since then.

WTF did I miss? It seemed like the story was going into a fight between Satoru and Daigatsu, but there has been two cycles and "Children of the Empire" seems to have been a send-off for the entire Imperial Families. We never even got a proper Otomo family character card outside of the borderline unplayable and unnamed one in the core set. That's my favorite family and... not even just one?

I can only suppose they have been deposed by the Scorpion Clan. If so-- and since apparently there is no "Toturi's Army" made up of former Imperials and ronin, is there a chance the various former Imperials scattered across the empire can coalesce into a minor clan some day?

21 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

If so-- and since apparently there is no "Toturi's Army" made up of former Imperials and ronin

Not yet - but Sumiko and Toturi have basically just quit and declared themselves ronin, so the Black Lion (and Black Dragon) may be coming soon. That may well bring about a ronin army, though I don't think there's any particular reason for 'former imperials' - there's no sign Ishikawa, for example, has followed their lead.

21 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

WTF did I miss? It seemed like the story was going into a fight between Satoru and Daigatsu, but there has been two cycles and "Children of the Empire" seems to have been a send-off for the entire Imperial Families.

Sotorii is stuck out in the wilds in the hands of a bunch of ne'er-do-wells. Daisetsu....We haven't seen since he, Shahai and Togashi Mitsu ran off. His absence from the story is as yet unexplained.

21 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

I can only suppose they have been deposed by the Scorpion Clan.

No, the Imperials still hold exactly the same position they did under the previous emperor- we've seen Seppun Ishikawa exercise authority as captain of the Miharu palace guard, for example, in How the World Ought To Work .

The current emperor is, legally, Hantei Daisetsu, and all the bureacracies are acting as such - Bayushi Shoju is regent, not emperor (okay, currently what he is is under arrest...). The fact that no-one knows where the heck he is is a trivial detail.

I see-- given that most of the "imperial" cards that were printed were Scorpion, I was thinking maybe they had just seized power entirely and oust anyone who wasn't part of their clan.

I realize now that I have actually been out of the loop for almost two years. So much to catch up on, its a bit daunting.

Still, it looks like in those 2 years, the only things I need are Children of the Empire and Justice for Satsume. It is just quite a shock since there was a neutral imperial card at least every other set in the first two years of the game.

3 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

It is just quite a shock since there was a neutral imperial card at least every other set in the first two years of the game

Whilst I don't play the card game rather than the RPG, it is surprising that some things aren't covered. The fact that we still don't know who the Seppun family daimyo is (If it was Ishikawa I'd assume it'd have been mentioned more clearly) feels kind of wierd.

With the Clan War spooling up, narratively I think the Imperial families are hunkering down and hoping it doesn't affect them, which is why - Seppun Friendzone-sama aside - there's not been much of them in the fictions and hence the card packs. Based on Togashi Yokuni's vision of the 'Rising Wave', I'm pretty sure that's the wrong choice.