So we know from Rokugan that Akodo's is a Lion, Bayushi's is a Scorpion, Doji's is a Crane, Hida's is a Crab, Shiba's is a Phoenix, Shinjo's is a Kirin/Unicorn, and Togashi's is a Dragon.

Although it took many years of the Shadowlands being identified as the dark Dragon, ultimately it feels like Fu Leng (or whatever his proper name ought to be) settled on being the Spider.

And though it took many more years under AEG and even an alternate reality book being released, we finally got to settle on Hantei's totem animal being an Owl.

So out of the 10 Kami, there is only a single one left that hasn't claimed his own animal-- and pretty much everything meaningful has been claimed, if not by a Great Clan, than at least by a minor one.

Of course, within the empire-- the last of AEG's fictions being considered canon, the Badger Clan is the one that protects Ryoshun's grave and thus can be considered to be closest to him. But does that make his spirit animal the Badger?

Perhaps something else-- maybe the Bear or the Eel would be most appropriate. Granted, it is hard to get past the fact that he is primarily known for being trapped in the spirit realm-- that makes it a little hard to imagine what sort of characteristics he possibly might have had in a reality where he had properly survived the fall.

I for one feel it would be a proper moment for FFG change the Lion to the Tiger Clan, considering that the Tiger is at least native to China/Korea and there’s the whole mythology of the Tiger and Dragon being closest to Heaven.

3 hours ago, Diogo Salazar said:

I for one feel it would be a proper moment for FFG change the Lion to the Tiger Clan, considering that the Tiger is at least native to China/Korea and there’s the whole mythology of the Tiger and Dragon being closest to Heaven.

I agree. Hence, when I crib elements of Rokugan into other campaign settings, the Lion typically gets retconned into the Tiger Clan.

Tora! Tora! Tora!

9 hours ago, Diogo Salazar said:

I for one feel it would be a proper moment for FFG change the Lion to the Tiger Clan, considering that the Tiger is at least native to China/Korea and there’s the whole mythology of the Tiger and Dragon being closest to Heaven.

Having the Lion and the Unicorn be two of the clans definitely makes it feel like someone of British heritage was involved in the creation of the setting.

I suppose the influence for a Lion clan might come from the fact that there are lion statues outside most temples in China, Korea, Japan and (I assume) Taiwan. They are basically the national symbol of Okinawa. Sure, they are sort of deformed lions that look more like dogs kind of hinting at the fact that the artists were carving them from third-hand accounts until it basically became tradition to carve them in that way... but the Shishi/Shisa are still meant to be lions.

But the closest Lions have ever lived to China was in India.

It is also a bit ironic that the clan whose animal's sole justification for existing in the setting is that statues of them are used as temple guards is also the clan that cares the least about religion and temples and is instead the one that wrote the bushido code and feels that is the one set of rules worth living by.

The Lion clan card pack tells us that a Bear clan existed until the 7th century until it was wiped up by the Lion for being Shadowlands tained berserkers. I would consider rooster for Ryoshun.

58 minutes ago, okuma said:

The Lion clan card pack tells us that a Bear clan existed until the 7th century until it was wiped up by the Lion for being Shadowlands tained berserkers. I would consider rooster for Ryoshun.

Well, that's yet another animal I have to strike off my list of 100 semi-randomly generated minor clans. I already have the Roster/Cock clan on there too. I will have to think of another animal to slot in there.

considering he's a guardian of boundaries in the underworld, and the koumori (bat shapeshifters) take it upon themselves to guide/protect the dead in the previous eds' lore, shouldn't the bat be considered for his spirit animal?

If Dragon, Unicorn, and Phoenix are fair game, maybe you could also explore mythological animals?

How about a dog? Ryoshun is a guardian (of the border between parts of the underworld) and has great loyalty.

As far as I know, none of the Kami really had a totem animal, they simply named their clans after an animal that best represented the clan. Shinjo even changed the animal for her clan at one point because she felt like it was a good idea. Shiba had the Phoenix due to a vision, Bayushi had the Scorpion due to a story Shinsei told him, and the Dragon was Togashi meta-referencing his secret ability of shapeshifting into an actual dragon. The Spider was Daigotsu's idea and referenced his patience, it had nothing to do with Fu Leng other than the clan mon secretly incorporating the Shadowlands symbol.

So I guess Ryoshun's animal depends entirely on his clan and story.

after a (quick) search into the subject, I could find no animal associated with death in japanese mythology, and the supernatural beings associated with it (izanami, enma and the shinigami) don't have any animal associated with them

the closest to the subject I could find was... the butterfly. it is associated with the soul (of the dead and living) in japanese culture