4 hours ago, Kinzen said:

holy &#$@ that's the actual cover of the actual book

Yes, Clan War Miniatures scenario expansion that came out I want to say around 2000.

Can someone link or point out the piece of story featuring the destruction of the Kakita castle? I feel like I missed it

Going faction by faction-

The Crab - Currently feeling on the outs with much of the Empire. The Shadowlands are seriously revved up. Screwed up a contact with the Naga.
The Kuni daimyo is Tainted, but that's less of a shock in the new timeline, apparently. He's also traveling with the Entirely Trustworthy Phoenix Master of Earth in the Shadowlands, so...
Have not been shown having meaningful political dealings with any of the other Great Clans that went terribly well.
Providing some legitimacy to the Mantis- while those worthies raid the Crane for jade on their behalf- and also, of course, take some pickings for themselves.
Not so much a wild card as a ticking time bomb.

The Crane (boooo! Kyuden Doji delenda est!)- Currently riding high in the Imperial Court, but not aware of how little that might come to mean in a hurry.
Essentially allied with the Unicorn
About to have a civil war (FFG's words, not mine)
Essentially at war with the Lion, and Yoshi can say whatever he likes, but I seriously doubt that's going away.
Basically good relations with the Phoenix (although if they ever find out the Phoenix caused- or think they caused- the tsunami, that could go up in smoke)
Basically sour relations with the Crab.
Suffering raids at the hands of the Mantis on behalf of the Crab.
Still punked by the tsunami, no matter what that jagaloon Yoshi tries to say.

The Dragon - Doing their cryptic jerkwad routine, albeit with some direction this time.
Serious Pure Land Sect presence in their lands which one Prince has just wandered into.
A population-bolstering alliance with the Unicorn, apparently (although there's not much textual support for it) on decent enough terms with the Phoenix.
Currently have the main Clan armed force in the Capital, and are playing nice with Kakita Yoshi- just as they played nice with Shoju.
Wait and See.

The Lion - Absolute warmongering slimebuckets as far as literally everyone else is concerned.
Just offered an alliance of sorts to the Scorpion.
At war with the Crane, and messily so. At war with the Unicorn, and messily so.
Marriage alliance to the Phoenix (which the Phoenix saw as a way to stave off Lion aggression) is presumably off, since Toturi, the Lion contribution to that match, is a disgraced ronin.
Leadership of the clan is incredibly unstable- Arasou is dead, Toturi is a ronin, Tsuko is presumed dead, meaning they're currently operating without a de jure or de facto Champion. Just had their highest-ranking courtier ejected from the Imperial Court, not that he was exactly in a position to do anything but listen to Yoshi blather.
Large armies placed in positions where they have to raid their neighbors, now shorn of meaningful command oversight in many respects.

The Phoenix - "Not the face!"
Master of Void M.I.A.. Master of Earth wandering around the Shadowlands with a Tainted Kuni.
Elemental imbalance which weakens them more than anyone else spreading. Council not even letting their own Clan known the full extent of the problem.
Marriage truce with the Lion apparently off.
Relations with the Unicorn strained, at best.
Basically cordial with the Crane, unless the word gets out. Hm.
No meaningful interactions with the Scorpion spring to mind.
Word of god basically cordial with the Dragon. Little direct evidence of this.
Currently not much good to anyone, least of all themselves

The Scorpion - "All according to... uh... plan?"
Kachiko/Shoju ideological split already in place, probably not helped by current circumstances.
Clan in disgrace for their "coup"
Kachiko's with Hotaru, her cover blown.
Shoju just had a charming meeting the unstable warmongers du jour.
The Yogo just got overrun by Shaowlands nasties, their daimyo and presumably a lot of their other heavy hitter shugenja killed, with their bodies accessible to the forces of the Shadowlands.
The Nothing corruption is also very much in evidence in places.
Embrace the suck.

The Unicorn - Headquarters where their hindquarters should be.
Politically played by the Ikoma, who.... haven't seemed to be terribly smooth operators thus far.
Basically at war with the Lion, and basically allied with the Crane.
Population-bolstering alliance with the Dragon.
Sour relations with the Phoenix over meishodo, stopped short of open hostility for... honestly, it seemed to be, "whoops, we're not ready for that plot yet."
Iuchi Shahai implicated in disappearance of Prince Daisetsu.
Firmed up some relationships with their kin and allies outside of the Empire.
Surely this will end well!

The Imperial Families - Failing upward since the Kami fell on Seppun Hill!
Seem to be governed by inertia.
Riven by various forms of slimebaggery.
Currently, neither prince is anywhere safe, the Miya daimyo is a traitor, and the Seppun are basically neck-deep in perceived failure. The Otomo have been distinguished mostly for corruption, incompetence, or both.
They Are Not Helping

The Minor Clans - Mostly keeping their heads down. Mostly.
The Fox have buddied with the Crane somewhat.
The Mantis are raiding the Crane on behalf of the Crab, and also doing various scuzzy things on their own recognizance. The Mantis might also have had something to do with the tsunami that hit the Crane, although the main source for that claim is pretty unreliable.
The Centipede are apparently about to plunge into the elemental imbalance mess.
These guys tend to operate under the radar, which means their actions will feel like sucker punches when they go down.

1 hour ago, Shiba Gunichi said:

Going faction by faction

The Minor Clans - Mostly keeping their heads down. Mostly.
The Fox have buddied with the Crane somewhat.
The Mantis are raiding the Crane on behalf of the Crab, and also doing various scuzzy things on their own recognizance. The Mantis might also have had something to do with the tsunami that hit the Crane, although the main source for that claim is pretty unreliable.
The Centipede are apparently about to plunge into the elemental imbalance mess.
These guys tend to operate under the radar, which means their actions will feel like sucker punches when they go down.

The Hare have just stolen some land from the Crab, and the Daimyo used the support of a maho-tsukai to overcome a career-ending injury.

Also, don't forget that Tsuki (and a nezumi) are currently with Yori and Tadaka. And before you say she's not that much, remember she escaped from the Crab and then travelled through the Shadowlands to meet them, without dying or apparently getting tainted - there's a pretty hard core to that peaceful-looking Courtier/Shugenja.

@Shiba Gunichi it’s Kyuden Kakita, not Kyuden Doji.

7 hours ago, DSalazar said:

@Shiba Gunichi it’s Kyuden Kakita, not Kyuden Doji.

Not in a just world it isn't.

Kyuden Doji Delenda Est.

Did a Doji Courtier hurt your feelings?

2 hours ago, DSalazar said:

Did a Doji Courtier hurt your feelings?

The Crane clan's existence has been a bloated tick upon the plotline for decades now!

Friggin' plothogs need to get butchered!

Fair point. I agree, it has always been Scorpion-Lion-Crane taking the spotlight.

Identity issues, is my gut thought. Crab-Dragon-Phoenix spotlights almost require interacting with the supernatural elements of Rokugan, and Unicorn spotlights tend to be on their status as outsiders.

Crane-Lion-Scorpion have their identities centered around the mundane Empire and the basic elements of samurai drama.

It’s understandable but it’s quite possible to have stories with these 3 clans around human centric stories. Just take for instance the Yasuki story of hiring the Mantis, or Dragon stories centred around dealing with the Perfect Land Sect, or Phoenix stories centered around the Elemental Council intra fighting and the Shiba trying to appease everyone OR the Shiba playing the Elemental Council against each other while they actually take care of things.

The Unicorn, I agree their outsider-but-not-quite will always be hung onto them, though.

The Yasuki-Mantis develops into investigating a Shadowlands breach of the Wall.

Perfect Land Sect v Dragon is a great example! The political conflict is leavened with philosophical implications that the Dragon are well suited to explore.

Unfortunately for the Phoenix, their two big tee-ups are the elemental imbalance and worrying about meishodo.

On 12/19/2020 at 8:32 PM, Doji Hyōkin said:

Unfortunately for the Phoenix, their two big tee-ups are the elemental imbalance and worrying about meishodo.

Thing is, it's already better than it was in the old lore, since the Phoenix at least showed up to help Hotaru, and did it with bushi instead of swanning in on fiery wings to napalm all before them.

But in the old lore, it seemed like there was always a desperate effort to NOT USE the Phoenix unless there was magic involved. You could go whole arcs without realizing they had courtiers! (And also, **** but the Crane hogged the doomed yojimbo-charge romance plotlines, even though it would have been painfulyl easy to hand that to the Phoenix without blinking).

Frankly, the Scorpion/Lion/Crane presence as the overwhelming default has always felt more like it's about laziness than any real reason to use those clans so much more heavily than the others.

Pushing Phoenix as a clan politically working towards peace or at least stymying war is a good point.

Also means that as their allies get more belligerent, they can pivot to supporting another faction that’s trying to dial things back.

It's been a while since my sympathies changed both for and against a character over and over than in this story about Ikoma Ujiaki. Even by the the end I am not sure if I am meant to like or hate him. Rather, he very much is a force to understand in the story and one that has made an impression.

I do wonder why Bayushi Shoju is under guard by the Dragon Clan, even if he was arrested by a Dragon-- it was still a Dragon holding an Imperial position. Why would it not be Imperial guards that were put in charge of the former regent's care? Then again-- given that they were portrayed as a bit foolish and arrogant, perhaps it is nice that the Imperials escaped the humiliation for once. Someone other than them can look incompetent for a change.

Although isn't it a bit odd that Shoju is still allowed to constantly wear a mask even while a prisoner? Not unimaginable, but it is an odd detail that should be noted as part of Rokugani society.

The Dragon Army of the Cresting Wave is in military control of the capital. I’d suspect the remaining under Dragon guard is part of an agreement t with Yoshi to keep them in his alliance.

From the Imperials’ perspective, if Shoju comes back out on top as legitimate Regent, better to let the Dragon take the burden of any dissatisfaction he might have at his captivity. If another Clan wants to put hands on Shoju, better they kill Mirumoto rather than Seppun.

2 minutes ago, Doji Hyōkin said:

The Dragon Army of the Cresting Wave is in military control of the capital. I’d suspect the remaining under Dragon guard is part of an agreement t with Yoshi to keep them in his alliance.

From the Imperials’ perspective, if Shoju comes back out on top as legitimate Regent, better to let the Dragon take the burden of any dissatisfaction he might have at his captivity. If another Clan wants to put hands on Shoju, better they kill Mirumoto rather than Seppun.

I still think it is at least a little odd.

There is only one city in all of Rokugan that the Imperials directly control and govern, leaving governorship of all others to some other clan and, at best, running their own magistrate department there...

But even in the very heart of their city, within their main family's palace, when dealing with matters of succession with the position that is, in effect, their champion.... they leave it to others.

It's just... very odd. But, then again, having to deal with the idea that first the Scorpion and now the Crane are made regent because apparently that task couldn't have been entrusted to some Seppun or Otomo sibling, cousin, niece or nephew or even the current wife of the Emperor is already quite odd.

I guess I just kind of want the Hantei clan to at least occasionally pop up and remind that they are still a thing rather than just utterly capitulating to the whims of these rather short-sighted, self-centered Great Clans and disappearing entirely from the story-- unless this is meant to have a pay-off as some sort of long-term plan or there is a reason why all this bickering over control of the throne is actually below their concern because, at the end of the day, it doesn't actually matter much who sits in the big chair as the people actually running the empire don't change. Much like, in many countries, it really doesn't entirely matter who becomes president or prime minister or who those people assign as the "heads" of various agencies, because ultimately there are people there whose whole careers are working within those agencies and will still ultimately have more influence as to how the agency runs than someone who was politically appointed the "head" just a couple years ago at most.

The Imperial families have one job: make sure a Hantei stays Emperor. Beyond that, it’s do whatever can’t be delegated out to a Clan. The Seppun make sure no one kills the Hantei, the Miya make sure everyone knows what the Hantei wants, and the Otomo are the extended Hantei relatives who get the maximum benefits out of nepotism.

There being more imperial family members than imperial holdings means that the bulk of their pressures are going to be internal for plum imperial postings.

8 hours ago, TheHobgoblyn said:

It's just... very odd. But, then again, having to deal with the idea that first the Scorpion and now the Crane are made regent because apparently that task couldn't have been entrusted to some Seppun or Otomo sibling, cousin, niece or nephew or even the current wife of the Emperor is already quite odd

Shoju being regent isn't that odd at all. An emperor's choices are - for all their power - so constrained by tradition, ceremony, protocol and the sheer gulf of power between them and everyone else that their opportunities to have a 'trusted friend' are pretty few and far between.

Bayushi Shoju was the emperor's closest personal friend, champion of one of the most politically powerful factions in the capital, and about as close to the positive scorpion stereotype (do what must be done for the empire) as his wife is to the negative stereotype. He doesn't feel that odd a choice, despite not being Imperial per se.

The Empire is not unused to high offices being given out to the great clans - I can't recall any cases of an Imperial Family Emerald Champion, for example, despite the post being the second most powerful after the Emperor themselves.

The Regent could, I guess, have been an Imperial but they'd need some sort of power base of their own - if it was an Imperial I'd suggest nothing short of one of the three daimyo (Sorai, Satoshi or whoever Ishikawa answers to) would have been acceptable, because they are direct vassals of the Emperor. Otherwise the regent would have a legal superior, which is unacceptable given their role. It actually makes Yoshi a wierd choice- all right, he wasn't chosen, he seized it in a coup - if the Crane Champion were present, Yoshi would be obligated to follow their orders even if they ran contrary to the Emperor's interests.

I mean, (1) the Crane championate is currently in dispute, (2) Hotaru lacked authority at the best of times and (3) Yoshi is, as ever, acting as a Crane handed the big boy stick, not an Imperial official, but speaking general it's a bad choice.

The Empress might have been a viable choice in another generation and time but it's heavily implied in some of Satoshi and Daisetsu's backstories that for an as-yet-unarticulated reason, Hantei Hochiahime is not okay .

She's never appeared 'on stage' even just in passing as a non-speaking part, supposedly doesn't make public appearances and lives basically in isolation. This is not normal for the imperial spouse, Sotorii claiming this is connected to the younger Prince.

A different empress might well be picked as regent since with the previous emperor dead they are kinda by definition the senior person to hold the Hantei name (even if not the bloodline) but the current one is, due to some trauma, not a feasible choice.

8 hours ago, Doji Hyōkin said:

The Dragon Army of the Cresting Wave is in military control of the capital. I’d suspect the remaining under Dragon guard is part of an agreement t with Yoshi to keep them in his alliance.

The Army of the Rising Wave's presence was okayed by the then acting Emerald Champion. With both Toturi and Sumiko quitting, it's kind of questionable by what authority they're currently there (beyond "I am in military control").

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

The Army of the Rising Wave's presence was okayed by the then acting Emerald Champion. With both Toturi and Sumiko quitting, it's kind of questionable by what authority they're currently there (beyond "I am in military control").

On the other hand, with the chain of command broken, who has the authority to tell them to stop?

Well, the Emperor - which means the regent. But he seems fine with them.

I'm not sure what would happen if the Seppun Miharu refused to keep cooperating, though.

31 minutes ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I'm not sure what would happen if the Seppun Miharu refused to keep cooperating, though.

Not sure they are either. Which might be why they just keep bopping along. After all, the general chaos in terms of command structure is getting pretty widespread, so disturbing what equilibrium exists is probably not something they're keen on.

The Empire is on its second regent in like, a week, no sign of either prince so far as the organs of government are concerned.
The Lion, Crane, and Scorpion are all in a situation where the Champion's status is unclear, for varying reasons.
The Dragon sent two leaders with their army to meet the Ruby Champion- who is now a disgraced ronin. And the leader closest to the Clan Champion simply Dragoned off, leaving Hitomi, that island of serene reason, in command.
The Phoenix are down an Elemental Master, another Master is off doing his own thing rather than actively helping lead the Clan, and the new Clan Champion, while she has done a fair bit to assert herself, is still finding her way. Four out of six ain't bad, I guess, but nor is it the leadership as planned. Especially is Tsukune's role is evolving relative tot what this older Masters are used to.

The Unicorn (who we haven't heard much from lately) and Crab are the only Clans I can think of where their uppermost leadership isn't either absent, dangerously compromised, or both- and even that only goes as far as the running of their clans, since in terms of the bigger picture, they're definitely dangerously compromised in other ways.

1 hour ago, Magnus Grendel said:

I'm not sure what would happen if the Seppun Miharu refused to keep cooperating, though.

And this might be where Ishikawa’s influence is felt. Was the Seppun ‘on the scene’ just after Toturi got jumped and knows it was shinobi. Might have enough pull to convince Miharu to let things play out.

1 hour ago, Doji Hyōkin said:

And this might be where Ishikawa’s influence is felt. Was the Seppun ‘on the scene’ just after Toturi got jumped and knows it was shinobi. Might have enough pull to convince Miharu to let things play out.

He also specifically knows it was clan Shinobi due to hpw the world ought to work - which heavily points the finger at the scorpion.