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The Dragon Clan
Current Population: 2,620,000 people, 12% of whom are samurai.
The Recent Past
The normally reclusive Dragon Clan has been uncommonly active over the past fifty years. After generations of non-involvement with the affairs of the Empire, the Dragon surprised everyone when, in 704, they marched a full army south to join the armies of the Phoenix, who had gathered to fight the forces of Akodo Yokutsu. Yokutsu had gathered an army of five thousand Lion samurai in an attempt to avenge his honor by slaying Isawa Maroko, his former betrothed, and the man she had eloped with, Mirumoto Asijin. Together, the Phoenix and the Dragon were able to defeat the Lion and force Yokutsu to swear that he would not seek vengeance against the couple in the future. The defeated Yokutsu returned home with a deep grudge against the Dragon, for it was only through their intervention that his revenge had been prevented.
That spring, the Emperor gave his blessing to Moroko and Asijin's marriage, granting them the Tonbo name and permission for form the Dragonfly Clan. Many Dragon samurai left their Clan with their Champion's blessing to join the newly formed Minor Clan, bulking out its membership to respectable numbers. The Lion were openly critical of so many Dragonfly being pulled from the Dragon, and more than one Ikoma courtier accused the Dragon of using the Dragonfly as a "puppet clan" to give it more influence in the Imperial Courts. Though their claims were dismissed as foolish by most of the other Clans, few can deny that the courtiers of the Dragonfly seemed to take a distinctly pro-Dragon approach whenever their opinion was asked in court.
Seven years after the initial conflict, Akodo Yokutsu managed to twist the words of an Agasha courtier into an insult against his entire Clan, setting the stage for a conflict that spring. Though he was forbidden by his oath to attack the Dragonfly directly, Yokutsu had given no such oath preventing him from launching an assault upon the mountains of the Dragon. As his armies reached the steps of Kyuden Agasha, the Dragon Champion, Togashi Ayoko, appeared before Yokutsu and offered to settle the war with a duel. Yokutsu agreed, but demanded that his opponent be Tonbo Asijin, the Dragonfly Champion. Ayoko agreed to the terms, but Tonbo Asijin refused to draw his weapon during the duel and was cut down.
Yokutsu was not finished, however, and promptly declared that since his former betrothed was once again single, his previous arrangement was once again valid, which made him the new Dragonfly Champion. Togashi Ayoko agreed to honor Yokutsu's claim, but only if he would face off against Asijin's seven year old son in a duel to ensure that there were not two claimants to the title. Yokutsu laughingly agreed, and as he celebrated with his men, Togashi Ayoko gave the boy a quick gempukku and a few whispered words of advice. When they faced off, something about the boy's demeanor caught Yokutsu off-guard, and a moment later the Lion was lying dead on the steps of Kyuden Agasha.
With their leader defeated in such a startling manner, the legions of the Lion were forced to withdraw back to their own lands. Tonbo Kuyuden, now the seven year old leader of his own Minor Clan, turned to Togashi Ayoko and beseeched the wise Champion to aid his Clan. Ayoko agreed to do so, but only if the Dragonfly would agree to serve as emissaries for the Dragon in the future. Kuyuden saw no problem with this arrangement, and upon his word, the relationship between the two Clans grew even closer.
The bond between the Dragon and the Phoenix also grew closer at this time, but unlike their relationship with the Dragonfly, this was an alliance that was not meant to last. Though their close ties resulted in plenty of food for the Dragon and a very respectable influx of koku to the coffers of the Phoenix for almost thirty five years, the arrangement was quite unexpectedly brought to a close by the Dragon Champion Togashi Shotaro in 738.
Over the course of the next two years, the already anemic economy of the Dragon began to suffer as the gold from their mines seemed to disappear right out from under their noses. The cause of the disappearance was discovered by Agasha Yuugho, a shugenja who determined that the Phoenix had developed a ritual to pluck the wealth directly from their mountains. Outraged that their former allies would betray them over some colored rocks, Yuugho petitioned his lord to allow him to lead the armies of the Dragon to war against the Phoenix and received permission to do so, but only for the span of a single season.
Agasha Yuugho was pleased to have been granted his request, but he did not see how he could defeat the Phoenix in a single season. It was only after a discussion with a Togashi monk that Yuugho realized that his goal was not to win the war, as he had been thinking, but to stop the Phoenix from stealing the wealth of his Clan. The next spring, the two armies clashed all along their border, neither taking much land from the other. Throughout the conflict, however, the samurai under Yuugho's command carried small pouches of gold dust, which they emptied out into the ground at their feet before every battle. By the time the season had ended, the entirety of the Dragon's border with the Phoenix had been seeded with gold dust, rendering their ritual ineffective.
With their relationship with the Phoenix having cooled considerably, the Dragon began to gradually recall their ambassadors and courtiers, and it seemed to many that Togashi Shotaro seemed content to allow the Dragonfly to serve as the voice of the Dragon in the courts. The sudden return of Iuchiban in 749 produced a sudden shift in the Clan's priorities, however, and soon the armies of the Dragon were once again on the march, this time to support the rest of the Empire in battle against the Bloodspeaker.
As they marched to war, uncertainty and doubt began to spread among the Dragon back in their mountains. All the way back to the time of Togashi, the Dragon Champion had always possessed a certain sense of precognition that allowed his Clan to be react to current events almost before they happened. The sudden reappearance of Iuchiban seemed to catch Togashi Shotaro completely off-guard, however, and even those monks who did not normally spend time with the reclusive daimyo could sense the self-doubt and reluctance behind his commands.
Even more troubling was Shotaro's reaction to the fate of Togashi Yamatsu. The ise zume had sacrificed his life to trap the spirit of Iuchiban within his body and was, by all accounts, considered to be one of the greatest heroes of the war, but Shotaro responded to the news of Yamatsu's noble sacrifice with undisguised horror. It was common knowledge among the Order that Yamatsu was being considered for the honor of replacing Shotaro as the leader of the Togashi Family, but none of the monks would have expected their leader to be surprised at the news of Yamatsu's entombment, let alone to retreat into seclusion afterwards.
Shortly afterwards, Shotaro announced that he was stepping down from his position as Dragon Champion. In his wake, he left the young Togashi Motaro, a brash teenager who had joined the Order only a few years prior, in full command of not just the Togashi Family, but also the Dragon Clan as a whole. The news came as such a shock to the Togashi that a full third of the Order left their mountains to wander the Empire to find answers to questions they could not properly put into words. Though few of the monks formally cast off their oaths to the Dragon, the exodus still stands as the largest instance of mass musha shugo in the Empire's history.
There was tension for a time between the Mirumoto and Togashi families over these monk's perceived abandonment of their Clan, but when Togashi Minoru, a wandering monk, returned to the Dragon Clan with the young heir of the Mirumoto family and stories of her abuse at the hands of her Crane instructors, the enmity between the two families was set aside. While a few samurai in both families still carry grudges against the other, for the most part they have found peace once again.
The Dragon Today
The Dragon are currently suffering through a period of mild uncertainty. Nearly a quarter of the Togashi are still wandering the Empire, disillusioned with their Champion and seeking enlightenment away from their mountains. Even those who remained behind in Dragon lands have begun to question the wisdom of Togashi Motaro, leading to a certain amount of pessimism among the Togashi and the Dragon Clan in general.
The wanderings of the Togashi have not been without benefits, however, as many of those traveling the Empire have rediscovered forgotten pleasures long forgotten, such as the serene sounds of peasants working in their fields to the quiet beauty of a warm summer evening. Just as often, however, the wandering monks find themselves surrounded by the echoes of the horrors unleashed by Iuchiban's forces, or the simple ugliness of a caste system that seems to care little about those at the bottom rungs of society. Rather than dwell upon these injustices, many of the ise zumi have taken it upon themselves to help the Empire rebuild, much to the gratitude of the peasantry (and the occasional annoyance of their lords).
The Mirumoto, meanwhile, are quite upset with the Crane over the treatment of Mirumoto Aiki, the daughter of their daimyo. She had been entrusted to the Crane for special training at the Kakita Academy, but was instead abused by the former Kakita daimyo, Kakita Takashi. The young girl is currently safe in her home and training diligently with her father, but the Mirumoto still carry a grudge against the Kakita, despite Takashi's recent death.
The Dragon also count the distant Crab as their allies, though the Crab would likely not describe their relationship in quite such glowing terms. In truth, the vast distance between the two Clans prevents much interaction between them, but the handful of Togashi monks who have traveled to the Wall to assist the Crab in their struggles against the Shadowlands have not been ignored by the children of Hida, ensuring that their relationship is friendly, if nothing else.
The Dragon have a similar relationship with the Phoenix, looking upon them as allies even though the Phoenix are not quite willing to commit to a proper alliance. The two Clans still stand on friendly terms with one another, and it is rumored that Isawa Kibou, the Master of the Void, is one of a handful of men who can count himself as a personal friend of the Dragon Champion. The two gather at regular intervals, but just what two such men might discuss between them is unknown.
Relations with the Dragon Clan's southern neighbors, the Lion Clan, have been steadily deteriorating for years. The Dragon understand that the Lion must roar, but having that hostility pointed in their direction for so long has begun to try even the patience of the Dragon. Between their threats to remove the Hantei from Dragon lands when he was seeking sanctuary from the mountain Clan to numerous political incidents at Kyuden Agasha's Winter Court of 755, the Lion have shown the Dragon time and time again that they have little interest in diplomacy or mutual understanding.
The biggest wedge between the two Clans, however, has been the Dragonfly Clan. Created from either the love between a Dragon and a Phoenix or a slight to the Lion Clan (depending upon one's point of view), the Minor Clan proved to be a point of contention between Lion and Dragon. After numerous attempts to destroy the Clan and half-hearted excuses to justify their behavior, the Lion were finally pleased to see the Dragonfly on their last legs... which is when the small Minor Clan approached Togashi Motaro and successfully petitioned to join the Dragon. The Dragon allowed the Tonbo to retain their family name, which only served to transfer all the grudges the Lion held against the Minor Clan back to the Dragon.
The open dislike the Dragon feel toward the Scorpion Clan, the closest allies of the Lion, only serves to polarize both Lion and Dragon in their dislike for each other. While many Dragon samurai could look at the actions of the Lion and attribute their decisions to misplaced honor, in the Scorpion they see only darkness and spite. If there is any Clan that the Dragon can be said to truly dislike without reservation, it would be the Scorpion.
The only other faction that has earned as much enmity from the Dragon is, surprisingly, the Imperial Families. The time that the Hantei spent with the Dragon was a joyous time for the Clan, and many samurai felt honored to be able to spend personal time with him, not just as their Emperor, but as a man. With the arrival of Winter Court, however, the Otomo and Seppun swooped in and quickly cut the Dragon off from the Hantei, minimizing everything they had done to save his life and drawing the Hantei back into a complicated life that the Dragon knew he did not enjoy.
That a number of influential courtiers never returned home from Winter Court also enraged the Dragon, for they saw the hard work they had done to distance the Emperor from the Gozoku conspiracy cast aside as he was drawn into another conspiracy of murder and influence, this time at the hands of his Otomo servants. The cleansing of the Imperial Capital cast things into stark contrast for the Dragon, and many now regret that they did not act sooner to prevent the Emperor from being once more strung up by malicious puppet masters.
Fortunately, the addition of two new prophets - Agasha Akiko and Agasha Mokushi - to their Clan have given the Dragon a means to glimpse the threads of destiny and a way to plan for the future. While neither prophet tends to agree with the other very often on what the future holds, the Dragon have taken to viewing this as a boon, as it allows them to glimpse two possible futures and take actions to bring about the one that best suits them. Agasha Mokushi has already assisted the Clan in warning them about the angry spirits of a volcano, which the Clan reluctantly appeased with the deaths of ten samurai-ko.
Most surprisingly, however, has been the Dragon Clan's contact with the distant Kirin Clan, who now call themselves the Unicorn. Using an enchanted mirror that was discovered buried in the refuse of a Nezumi warren, Togashi Myo-en was able to establish communication with Otaku Xiu, the daimyo of the long-missing Otaku family. Through the mirror, the Dragon were able to learn of the Unicorn Clan's struggle to return to the Empire and were able to assist them with maps, information, and Togashi Motaro's guidance, hastening their return to the Empire. Now that the Unicorn have returned, the Dragon are doing their best to help their distant cousins adapt to the home of their ancestors.
Togashi Daimyo & Dragon Champion
Togashi Motaro (current alias of Togashi): The Dragon Clan Champion has changed quite a bit since taking over control of the Clan. The previously hot-headed and rude Motaro became much more thoughtful and withdrawn following his rise to power, and while many of his followers attribute the sudden shift to the pressures of duty, the truth is far darker still. Motaro, like his predecessor Shutaro and every other Dragon Champion before him, is actually the Kami Togashi, who has been possessing the bodies of his ise zumi for centuries. This allows Togashi to remain within the mortal realm, manipulating events and people like pieces on a go board.
The appearance of Iuchiban, however, sent many of Togashi's plans reeling, for the Bloodspeaker's actions were shrouded from the Dragon Champion's sight. Togashi spent much of the war attempting to manipulate events to his wishes despite this, and while some attempts were successful, others - such as the loss of Togashi Yamatsu - were both unexpected and shocking in their resolution. Togashi cared little for Yamatsu's life, but the loss of one of the few ise zumi capable of housing his spirit forced him to fall back upon the only other monk with the unique qualities he required in a spiritual host. That Motaro was new to the order and somewhat unwilling to make the ultimate sacrifice for the benefit of the Empire was of little concern to Togashi or his plans.
While the motives of the Dragon Champion remain as inscrutable as ever, some of the older monks have begun to suspect that the recent rift among the Togashi Order is merely one phase in a grand plan by their master to set important events into motion all throughout the Empire. Others whisper that Motaro was simply unprepared for the responsibility of leadership, and that he has been intimidated by the chaos that has engulfed his Clan. While it is certain that few of these monks know of Motaro's true identity, this has done little to stop the forces pulling the Dragon Clan in different directions.
The recent visit of the Emperor to the Dragon mountains returned a measure of Motaro's self-confidence, for it heralded the gradual return of his foresight to him. The ripples of Iuchiban's influence within the Empire have begun to calm, but the future left in the Bloodspeaker's wake is far darker than what Motaro had anticipated. Three of the twelve Black Scrolls have been opened, and now Motaro waits for his foresight to recover, so that he might better anticipate what this means for the distant Second Day of Thunder.
Mirumoto Daimyo
Mirumoto Aiki: The new Mirumoto daimyo is a very young woman who assumed the position following her father's loss of his arm in a duel. Aiki was trained and abused by Kakita Takashi, the late Kakita daimyo, though she was saved from that terrible situation by Togashi Minoru. Her father finished training her, which has given her Kakita style some distinctly non-traditional elements that make Aiki's stance difficult for her opponents to read.
Her time among the Kakita left Aiki with a bitter hatred of the Crane and the Kakita family specifically. That she was denied her vengeance by Takashi's suicide left her despondent for a time, though her continued lessons with her father helped to dull whatever melancholia might have otherwise overtaken her. In addition to her hatred of the Crane, still blames the Scorpion for the death of her older brother, and she considers the Lion to have failed in their duty to protect the Emperor on multiple occasions. There is a great deal of hatred and vengeance within the young daimyo, and only time will tell whether she will be able to move beyond it or whether it will dictate her path for years to come.
Agasha Daimyo
Agasha Fujiko: Agasha Fukiko assumed the position of daimyo under unpleasant circumstances. The former daimyo, Agasha Aotu, perished in the spring of 757, his life taken by his wife after the third Black Scroll was opened in the distant lands of the Scorpion. Fujiko watched, horrified, as her brother clawed out his own eyes, only turning away after Aotu's wife had put him out of his misery. By all rights, the position of daimyo should have passed on to his wife, but Aotu had left strict instructions for the position to pass into the hands of his niece, Agasha Murasaki, Fujiko's daughter.
Fujiko, however, did not believe that her daughter was ready for that sort of responsibility and stepped forward, claiming that she should be the one placed in command of her family, as the Agasha could ill afford to gamble their fate upon a young, untested woman in such trying times. Togashi Motaro refused to become involved in the discussion and Mirumoto Kabe was too concerned with seeing that the dead were properly buried to play politics, which left the decision up to the Dragon's newest daimyo, Tonbo Mariko. As a young woman who had been thrust into the position of Clan Champion and then watched as her Clan fell apart around her, Mariko sided with Fujiko, reasoning that the Agasha needed strength and experience to weather the storm that was upon them. When word finally reached the mountains of Agasha Murasaki's death in Ryoko Owari during the gang wars that raged through the city a month prior, any debate on the subject ceased out of respect for Fujiko's loss.
What the Dragon didn't know, however, was that Fujiko had been compelled to seek the position of daimyo on behalf of Seppun Kato, who had learned that many years ago, Fujiko's husband had been experimenting with maho and had been murdered by his brother-in-law, Agasha Aotu, to cover it up. Were the information to come out, not only would it disgrace Fujiko's family, but it would also disgrace her brother, who attempted to hide the information from the rest of the Empire. Kato's agents made it clear that they would reveal their information to the Lion and Scorpion if she did not seize the position of daimyo for herself.
It did not take much effort of Fujiko to connect the dots and realize what that would mean for her Clan. In the months since assuming control of the Agasha, Fujiko has met with her Champion a dozen times, and each time, she has come close to telling him the truth of her situation, that she has become a pawn in the Spider's game. Each time, though, she has hung her head and kept silent, unaware that Togashi Motaro saw far more than she could ever know.
Tonbo Daimyo
Tonbo Mariko: A few years ago, Tonbo Mariko was a quiet shugenja whose only real interests were divination and astrology. She only became Champion after the death of her distant cousin, Tonbo Saburo, who abused his position and the Clan's funds to keep himself supplied with sake and prostitutes. He was slain by Shimizu Takata before he could completely run the Dragonfly into the ground, but the Dragonfly were in bad shape by the time the Championship found its way to Mariko.
Mariko might have been able to lead her Clan through a tough few years had that been the end of it, but numerous attacks by the Lion Clan and the revelation that the sole representative her Clan had sent to Winter Court at Kyuden Agasha was a Bloodspeaker proved to be too much. After a terrible winter where a full fifth of the Dragonfly starved to death, Mariko was forced to swear fealty to the Dragon Clan in order to ensure that her people had a future.
The Dragon have been welcoming, but Mariko feels as if she has failed her family, and there are few former Dragonfly stepping up to console her on her decision. Morale among the Tonbo is essentially nonexistent and suicides are on the rise, both out of shame for having to turn to the Dragon and out of loss for the many loved ones who starved to death. Tonbo lands are a desolate place, and it will likely be some time before the family manages to recover from its many scars.
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Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
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