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The Lion Clan
Current Population: 3,990,000 people, 18% of whom are samurai.
The Recent Past
The 8th century began with one of the Lion Clan's most embarrassing losses in recent memory. The battle of Kyuden Tonbo occurred due to the jealousy of Akodo Yokutsu, who became infuriated when his betrothed broke her engagement and instead married the Dragon samurai Mirumoto Asijin. The couple had no sooner settled into their home than the Lion were marching upon their castle, with the vengeful Yokutsu at their head. The Dragon and Phoenix came to the defense of the couple and Yokutsu found his army unexpectedly locked in battle with the armies of two separate Clans.
As the battle began to turn against the Lion, Yokutsu signaled the retreat, only to find his escape route blocked by pillars of earth summoned by the Dragon and Phoenix shugenja. Rather than killing him, the two Clans shamed Yokutsu by forcing him to give his word that he would never again harass Asijin or Maroko. To further deepen his shame, Hantei XX gave his blessings to the couple by granting them permission to form their own Minor Clan, the Dragonfly Clan. Yokutsu returned home with what was left of his army, but was unable to put the insult behind him.
Seven years later, Yokutsu twisted an insult against him by an Agasha courtier into an insult against his entire Clan. Realizing that the Lion would not allow him to violate Imperial Law by attacking the Dragonfly, Yokutsu instead gathered his army and marched against the Dragon, intending to seek revenge for the insult they had given him seven years earlier. The resulting war was almost entirely one-sided, and the Dragon repeatedly forced back into their mountain home until they were literally on the doorstep of Shiro Agasha. There, Yokutsu met with Togashi Ayoko, the Dragon Clan Champion, and agreed to end his Clan's assault upon the Dragon if Tonbo Asijin would face him in a duel of honor.
Tonbo Asijin agreed to the duel, but shamed Yokutsu again by not drawing his sword in the duel. Yokutsu cut Asijin down in cold blood, and the Dragon Champion revealed that Asijin's dying wish was to have the Dragonfly placed under protection of the Dragon. Realizing that he had been used as a tool by the Dragon Champion to bring the minor clan under the control of the Dragon, Yokutsu claimed that he was now the Dragonfly Champion, by virtue of his engagement with the now-widowed Tonbo Maroko never having been formally ended. The young son of Asijin and Moroko, Tonbo Kuyuden, is said to have stepped forward and defeated Yokutsu in a lethal duel to protect Dragonfly, but few historians have been able to work out how a boy of little more than six years could possibly have defeated an experienced samurai such as Yokutsu.
When Akodo Gaijuko took control of the Lion a few years later, much of the anger the Lion still felt toward the Dragon was set aside as the Crane found themselves fighting a war with the Crab along their southern border. After a year of gathering his forces, Gaijuko turned the might of the Lion against the distracted Crane, taking advantage of their conflict with the Crab to seize their lands and expand the territory of the Lion Clan.
Despite Crane Champion Doji Kazuki's attempts to bolster his Clan's military with ronin, the forces of the Lion could not be stopped, and each year more and more of the Crane lands fell under Lion control. The advanced age of Hantei XX made it difficult for the Crane to lobby for the return of their lands, for the Emperor's mind seemed content to linger in the days of his youth. Gaijuko realized this and made no secret of his wish to completely wipe out the Crane before the Emperor named his successor and stepped down from the throne.
Gaijuko's plan might have succeeded had the Emperor not died unexpectedly in his sleep in the spring of 726, forcing his oldest son to ascend to the throne as Hantei XXI. Knowing that the new Emperor was fond of the Crane, Gaijuko redoubled his efforts to wipe the children of Doji out before the winter, only to learn that the Crab had apparently withdrawn from the Crane border in favor of attacking the Scorpion. With the full strength of the Daidoji now arrayed against Gaijuko's armies, the Crane were able to halt the Lion advance long enough for winter to arrive and end that year's campaigning. By the time the snows had thawed, the Emperor had restored the borders of the Crane to their previous locations, shattering Gaijuko's ambitions and undoing years of warfare and Lion conquest.
Akodo Gaijuko would go on to assault the Crane multiple times over the course of the next fourteen years, but never with the same fervor or dedication as his first attempts. The frustrated general would often comment to his advisors that such activities were largely pointless, as the Emperor would simple restore the Crane borders to their previous position each winter, but despite this, Gaijuko would not allow the perceived insult of the Crane Clan's continued existence to go without answer.
By the time that Hantei XXII ascended to the throne in 740, Gaijuko's lust for battle was nearly spent, though his hatred for the Crane still burned bright. He could feel age settling in his bones and set about gathering the strength of the Lion for his daughter Misaki. It was Gaijuko's hope that his daughter might continue in his footsteps after he was gone, and that he might look down upon her from Yomi as she brought the Crane Clan to its knees.
The escape of Iuchiban forced an abrupt change in Gaijuko's priorities. As his armies fought against the walking dead and the blasphemous maho-tsukai that had rallied to Iuchiban's side, Gaijuko realized that he had spent his life fighting the wrong enemy, and that it was only the past decade of relative peace and military recovery that had given the Lion the numbers and strength they needed to defeat the Bloodspeaker. Had he been actively campaigning against the Crane when the Bloodspeaker had pushed into Lion lands, there would have been nothing standing between Iuchiban and Otosan Uchi... nothing save for thousands of fresh corpses ready to rise up and march against the Emperor.
Gaijuko spent the year following the war with his daughter, traveling along the borders of the Lion and sharing whatever knowledge he could with the ambitious young woman. When he felt she was ready, Gaijuko turned the position of Lion Clan Champion over to Misaki and retired to a monastery in Ikoma lands, where he lives to this day as the monk Tetsu.
Akodo Misaki's first war proved her skill as both a general and tactician as she led the armies of the Lion against the Phoenix, who had attempted to broker a peace treaty with Iuchiban during the Bloodspeaker War. Misaki placed the blame of such a shameful action solely upon the shoulders of the Elemental Council, and the War of Burned Wings would eventually see the death of four of the five Elemental Masters and the forced marriage of the surviving Elemental Master to a Lion samurai, ensuring that the Lion would have eyes within the Phoenix in case they once again decided to betray the Empire.
During the war, Kyuden Asako was destroyed by the Lion using the Mirror of Sorrow, a nemurai which tore a hole in the spirit realms and unleashed a wave of vengeance spirits upon the Asako within the castle. The Lion stood back and allowed the spirits to fight against those Phoenix that did not abandon their home, winning the battle and claiming the haunted castle for themselves. The castle has since been returned to the Phoenix, but the spirits unleashed by the Mirror of Sorrows yet haunt its halls, making it uninhabitable for the living.
In retribution for the destruction of Kyuden Asako, the rogue maho-tsukai Asako Shioro returned to the Empire from the Shadowlands with a Black Scroll. Fueled with the desire for revenge against the Lion, Shiori broke the seal on the Black Scroll and directed the unnatural energies contained within towards Shiro Akodo, flooding it and everyone within with the raw essence of Jigoku. The Kitsu stationed within Shiro Akodo realized their plight almost immediately, and the kansen were all to eager to reveal the reasons behind Shiori's hatred to the horrified shugenja. The samurai within Shiro Akodo clung to their honor, however, and fought back the unwholesome urges rising within them as they put down their maddened servants. When the sepukku of the castle's guardian, Akodo Tanaka, resulted in his return as a ravenous undead monster, the bushi of the castle finally grasped the full extent of the curse upon their souls. Those who had fought against Iuchiban's army of Bloodspeakers explained the situation to their fellow samurai, and all agreed to take their own lives rather than risk spreading their corruption to the rest of their Clan. Only a single samurai, Ikoma Kato, remained behind to pass on word of what had happened to those who came to investigation the castle's silence. With no way to battle the unwholesome energies infusing the castle, the Lion razed Shiro Akodo to the ground and put every living thing within miles of the city to death in the hopes of containing the corruption of Jigoku.
The Lion managed to hunt down Asako Shiori within the year and killed her before she could unleash further horrors upon the Empire. The Black Scroll was returned to Kitsu Izumi for study, and after repeated attempts by maho-tsukai to steal the opened Black Scroll and the sealed Black Scroll the Lion had purchased from the Scorpion years ago, Izumi cast both cursed scrolls into the realm of Toshigoku, far beyond the reach of mortal hands.
The Lion Today
Today, the Lion stand as one of the greatest Clans within the Empire. The rise of the Scorpion within the courts has only further strengthened them, not only due to their alliance with the Clan of Secrets, but also because such a shift in power has weakened their traditional rivals, the Crane Clan. The recent death of the Scorpion Champion's wife - a former Lion whose marriage tied the two Clans together - under suspicious circumstances placed a strain upon the Clan's alliance with the Lion, but neither Clan was willing to see their alliance dissolve because of it. In the end the Lion simply chose to look the other way and not ask too many questions. The Scorpion Champion's engagement to a Crane maiden would likely have caused more grumbling in the Clan, were their own Champion not married to a former Crane.
Akodo Misaki's marriage to Doji Riko has blunted some small amount of the Lion's hatred toward the Crane. Misaki's repeated attempts to prepare for a war with the Crane keep getting sidetracked by more important matters, and now her husband stands at her side, blunting her aggression with self-depreciating remarks. Despite this, the Lion have not forgotten that the Crane greatly inflated the price of their trade good during the War of Burned Wings to drain the coffers of the Lion, and despite the Emperor's claims that Doji Masato, the Imperial Chancellor, had no longer been a Crane when he attempted to assassinate the Hantei, many Lion find it difficult to easily forget such a treacherous conspiracy.
Despite the apparently friendliness of the Dragon Clan, the Lion still carry a grudge against the children of Togashi, primarily due to the former Agasha daimyo's attempts to place the Lion delegates at last year's Winter Court under house arrest. The restriction did not long survive the attention of the Imperial Court, but it remained a thorn in the side of the Lion for the rest of the winter. The Dragon seem to have moved beyond the insult, but the Lion do not so easily forgive slights to their honor. When the Dragon absorbed the Dragonfly into their number, the Lion were able to consolidate two past grudges into one, and their scouts have been seen traveling along the southern Dragon borders since then, mapping out the area for unknown reasons.
The previously antagonistic relationship between the Lion and the Phoenix has improved quite dramatically in the past few years, to the point where the two Clans now call each other friends. Much of this can be attributed to the excellent diplomatic skills of the Phoenix delegates at last year's Winter Court, when the Phoenix not only offered apologies for their prior actions but also worked with the Lion to redraw their borders. This returned the lands captured by the Lion during the War of Burned Wings back to the Phoenix while placing lands that had recently gifted to the Phoenix by the Crane in Lion hands, further increasing the length of the Lion-Crane border and cutting the Phoenix off from the rest of the Empire. Most importantly, it left Morikage Toshi in the hands of the Lion, allowing them to shift the seat of their government from the ruined Shiro Akodo to the lucrative trade city.
Relations between the Crab and the Lion remain tense. The War of Hidden Honor had many consequences, but the accusations of spiritual corruption the Crab levied against the former Matsu daimto, Matsu Takeshi, were the most serious in the eyes of the Lion. It was only during the War of Broken Fangs and the subsequent Winter Court that the Lion finally realized that the corruption among their ranks was real, which sparked off a fierce economic rivalry between the Lion and the Crab, both of whom were determined to snatch up as much jade to protect their troops as possible. The sudden surge in demand caused the price of jade to jump to many times its own worth, causing strong tensions between the two Clans as the Empire's jade supplies became scarce. Warfare was only averted after the Phoenix gifted their entire supply of jade to the Lion, ensuring that Lion would be protected at the cost of their own purity.
Relations between the Lion and the Imperial Families have recently become strained. Previously, they had been close, as Matsu Shikyo, the Matsu Daimyo, had been the one to save the Emperor's life during the Winter Court of 755. It was only when Seppun Kato, the Emperor's brother, approached Akodo Misaki with blackmail on her daimyo and a number of high-ranking Lion samurai that the Lion realized that the Imperials were not the steadfast allies they had assumed them to be. Rather than see the honor of the Lion Clan threatened by widespread political scandals, she ceded the city of Toshi Ranbo to Seppun Kato, much to the surprise of just about everyone in the Empire.
More land was ceded to the returning Unicorn when Akodo Misaki met with their Champion, Shinjo Wakumi. The Lion Champion had intended to follow the Emperor's example in welcoming the descendants of the Ki-Rin back to the Empire, but a social slight of the part of the Unicorn Champion (she accepted Misaki's offer without refusing twice) has left a sour taste in the mouths of the Lion. Though the Lion has not yet pressed the issue, their impressions of the returned Unicorn have dampened significantly.
By far the most difficult situation that has arisen for the Lion is the appearance of Hantei XVI outside Morikage Toshi. In the wake of the Emperor came an entire legion of spirits dredged from the depths of Toshigoku. The former Emperor requested an audience with his living descendants, Hantei XXII and his siblings. While he waited for a response, the samurai of Morikage Toshi ventured out into the camp of the slaughter spirits to determine whether any of their ancestors might be among their number. The returned samurai gradually spread out through the Empire, returning to visit their descendants, only for the Steel Chrysanthemum to spring his trap: at the end of Winter Court, he assassinated Hantei XXII as the returned spirits attacked their descendants, sending the Empire (and especially the Lion) spiraling into chaos.
Akodo Daimyo & Lion Champion
Akodo Misaki: Standing nearly a foot shorter than most bushi, Akodo Misaki seems more like a young girl dressed up in her father's armor than a Champion of the Lion. Those who would assume the girl unskilled in combat would be in for a most unwelcome surprise, however, as Misaki is a skilled swordswoman more than capable of holding her own in combat. Despite her combat skills, Misaki's true strength lies in her tactical prowess. A graduate of the Akodo War College, Misaki's lessons were tempered by the constant criticism of her father. A lesser woman might have cracked beneath the pressure placed upon her to be the best tactician, the best warrior, the best courtier...
Instead, the pressure forged Misaki into a harsh perfectionist just as unforgiving of her Clan's flaws and mistakes as she is of her own. Her tenure as Lion Champion has resulted in a number of impressive victories for the Lion and its rise to one of the most powerful Clans in the Empire, which has only reaffirmed her belief in hard work and relentless drilling. The soldiers serving under Misaki's personal command are subjected to merciless training that has resulted in the deaths of more than one samurai, but those who survive are said to be utterly unstoppable on the battlefield.
The instructors of the Lion have learned to dread Misaki's visits, for though her presence is inspiring to their students, her standards are impossibly high, and each failure in her presence only serves to increase the number of changes she makes to the curriculum. Her proclamation that those Lion who fail their gempukku should be cast out from the Clan for their weakness has resulted in a sudden increase in sepukku from young samurai seeking to cleanse the shame of being unable to live up to their Champion's impossible standards. It is rumored that roughly one out of ten prospective Lion samurai are now failing gempuku ceremonies that had been, a decade earlier, mostly formalities.
Misaki's recent marriage to Doji Riku has caused some rumors across the Empire, but her Clan has - somewhat reluctantly, in some cases - embraced her husband as one of their own. Her wedding was very elaborate, only just failing to eclipse that of the Emperor earlier in the year. While Misaku was initially dismissive of her husband, he has since proven his worth and she has recently given birth to their first child.
Matsu Daimyo
Matsu Shikyo: The new daimyo of the Matsu family is one of the few surviving members of the Lion's Pride, which suffered heavy losses during the War of Hidden Honor. The burns Shikyo suffered when Matsu Takeshi exploded in a nova of tainted flames refused to heal no matter which healer tended them, leaving the burned warrior in constant pain. Even the kami seem unable (or unwilling) to ease her pain, much to the concern of the Kitsu healers who followed Shikyo at all times, tending to the bandages which covered a full third of her body.
While few can imagine just what sort of agony Shikyo's life became, in public the lioness was the very epitome of the stoic samurai, to the point where a few of her aides whispered that the flames which burned away her skin and muscles must have also consumed her once fiery temper. Where once she was known for being as hot-headed and brash as one might expect of a Matsu samurai, Shikyo has since become capable of an intensity that many find off-putting, and few samurai could stand to meet the gaze of her one good eye for longer than a few seconds.
Though many Matsu daimyo - including her predecessor - had taken a direct role in leading the armies of their Clan into battle, Shikyo's attendant healers all but forbid her from doing so, as the risk of her wounds becoming infected was simply too great. She went along with their recommendations without complaint but refused to cease her daily training regimes despite the terrible pain such practices caused her. Those who witnessed the bandaged and bloody Shikyo limping back to her rooms after such training sessions took to calling her the Crimson Lion, a moniker which she has since been unable to shake.
Matsu Shikyo came to particular prominence during this last year's Winter Court, where she single-handedly saved the Empire from an assassination attempt. For her dedication and loyalty, the Hantei granted Shikyo permission to found her own vassal family within the Matsu. A handful of Lion delegates immediately swore fealty to Shikyo and joined her new family, and much of the daimyo's time since that day has been focused upon gathering worthy followers and setting up the infrastructure for the Shikyo family.
After the War of Broken Fangs, Ikoma Nishiko returned from the Shinomen with healing waters that were reportedly taken from a pool where Shinsei once rested. Though hesitant to believe such a story, Shikyo drank the magical water and was amazed to feel the constant pain of the last few years fading. The waters healed all her wounds and restored her lost eye, returning her to her former glory. As word spread through the ranks of the Matsu, Ikoma Nishiko's name found itself in the thankful prayers of an entire family.
Ikoma Daimyo
Ikoma Furatto: Ikoma Furatto recently ascended to the position of Ikoma daimyo following the public assassination of her mother, Ikoma Sayuri. Her mother's political standing and ruthlessness were such that she was able to lead a prolific career in the courts despite all three of her children being bastards. While she was casual about her own dalliances, Sayuri was quite set upon controlling the love lives of her daughters, to the point of arranging the death of Furatto's Mantis lover to ensure that she would not run away with him to the Mantis Islands.
Furatto did not take kindly to her mother's bloody interference in her life and set into motion an elaborate plan to topple Sayuri from the position of daimyo and claim it for her own. The division between the two became a growing source of tension for the rest of the Ikoma, who saw it as a fight between the older, somewhat scandalous Sayuri and the younger, inexperienced Furatto. Despite her youth, however, Furatto's political skills were quite sharp, and when her mother began blaming the Scorpion for the death of her oldest daughter Yuri, Furatto was quick to marry a Scorpion in order to show her support for the Lion-Scorpion alliance.
The balance was tipping towards Furatto when Sayuri was assassinated, and Furatto vowed to find the murderer no matter what. The duties of her new position soon consumed her time, however, and she ended up handing her investigation over to her husband Takeda, who was unable to track down the assassin. Exactly what sort of daimyo Furatto will prove to be is still a matter to be determined, but many of her subordinates suspect that she - or perhaps more likely, her husband and his Scorpion allies - had something to do with her mother's death.
Kitsu Daimyo
Kitsu Izumi: Faced with increasing pressure to prove herself to her Champion, Izumi's predecessor, Kitsu Tokimeku, attempted to harness the power of a ancient Kitsu nemurai known as the Mirror of Sorrow. She had hoped to use the power of the mirror to create a permanent portal between Ningen-do and Yomi, thus allowing the Kitsu to call forth their ancestors for advice, or even to fight alongside their mortal descendants.
The ritual proved to be too much for Tokimeku, though, and instead ripped a hole into Toshigoku. Tokimeku was possessed by a vengeful spirit as others descended upon Toshi Ranbo, brutally butchering anyone they came across. Izumi managed to fight off the spirits and retrieve the mirror, closing the Toshigoku portal and putting an end to Tokimeku in the process. As her reward, Akodo Misaki promoted Izumi to the position of Kitsu daimyo with a stern warning against muddling with nemurai that her family does not understand.
During the war, Izumi accompanied the Matsu army as they cut a path through the lands of the Phoenix. When Isawa Sora's forces at Kyuden Asako proved to be too much for the Lion to overcome, Izumi stepped forward and unleashed the power of the Mirror of Sorrows, tearing a hole between realities and unleashing the denizens of Toshigoku upon the Phoenix army. The spirits left no survivors but also remained in the area afterwards, leaving Kyuden Asako a haunted ruin littered with the bodies of the dead. Troubled by the magnitude of her actions, Izumi took to wearing the traditional white of mourning following the battle, in the memory of the hundreds of lives she condemned to Toshigoku.
When the Lion strike force sent to locate and assassinate Asako Shiori returned with the Black Scroll she had used to corrupt Shiro Akodo, it was given to Izumi for study and protection. By comparing the energies of the opened Black Scroll with those of the sealed Black Scroll that the Lion had purchased from the Scorpion many years ago, she was able to determine that the sealed scroll was being used to contain a great power, and that this power was intricately linked to the power of Jigoku. While she was ignorant of the process by which Isawa had sealed Fu Leng at the start of the Empire, further research might have allowed Izumi to discern the true nature of the Black Scrolls, were it not for the multiple attempts of various maho tsukai to steal the scrolls from her.
Izumi bound the essence of slaughter spirits to the stone lions within the Halls of the Ancestors, creating animate creatures tasked with guarding the scrolls from those who would take them. The Lions proved to be capable guardians, but the numbers attacks only increased, and with them, the number of priests killed in the resulting battles onto grew. Unwilling to be responsible for more death, Izumi used the Mirror of Sorrow to tear open a portal into the Realm of Slaughter and hid the two Black Scrolls deep within that realm, inside the Nightmare of the Lion. Traveling so deep into Toshigoku left its mark upon Izumi, both physically in turning a shock of her red hair bone white and mentally in leaving her shaken and mentally scarred by what she had seen.
Since then, Izumi has gradually recovered to the point of once again being able to lead her family, but it's clear that her time in Toshigoku damaged her on a fundamental level. The appearance of Hantei XVI - brought back to Rokugan through the portal she created with the Mirror of Sorrow - struck an emotional nerve with Izumi, and she traveled to Morikage Toshi to speak with the returned Emperor. She considers his assassination of the Emperor to be entirely her fault, which has sent her into a deep depression that struggles to entirely overwhelm the young shugenja.
Shimizu Daimyo
Shimizu Gochoku: In 743, Akodo Shimizu saved the Emperor's life by killing Agasha Enshoku, a maho-tsukai who was masquerading as Kakita Edako, one of Hantei XXII's proposed brides. In return for his service, the Emperor awarded Shimizu a new name and granted him leave to found his own family. Fourteen years later, the Shimizu family is growing at a respectable rate, and Gochoku is regarded as one of the greatest heroes to ever be produced by the Lion Clan.
Despite this growth, the Shimizu family is still rather small, especially by Lion standards, and thus some concessions have been made in their recruitment in order to bring them up to a respectable level of strength. A number of new Shimizu samurai bear a remarkable resemblance to various ronin who had served in the Lion armies prior to their disappearance, but few of them are willing to speak about their past at any great length.
While his fellow daimyo have been quick to berate Gochoku for his "low standards," Gochoku seems unconcerned with such matters, claiming that it is the actions of a man, not his birth, that make him a samurai worthy of bearing the Shimizu name. Needless to say, this opinion is not very popular among the samurai of his Clan and Akodo Misaki in particular, but even the new Champion of the Lion is hesitant to speak out against the man that saved the life of the Emperor.
Gochoku was left in defense of the Lion lands during the War of Burned Wings, and as a reward for his service Misaki gave a portion of the captured Phoenix lands to his Family to settle and manage as their own. They were forced to relocate when those lands were later returned to the Phoenix, causing a fair amount of grumbling among the young family until they learned that they were being relocated to the land surrounding Morikage Toshi. Now the Shimizu find themselves the stewards of the new political capital of the Lion Clan, a great honor for any samurai, and more importantly, a very clear sign of Misaki's support for Shimizu Gochoku and his family.
Ironically, the Shimizu are the Lion family least affected by the betrayal of the returned spirits, as few of their ancestors were Lion samurai. Unfortunately, they were also at the epicenter of the Steel Chrysanthemum's coup and have suffered heavy losses in the chaos following the Emperor's assassination.
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Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
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