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The Crane Clan
Current Population: 3,000,000 people, 10% of whom are samurai.
The Recent Past
The past few decades have been tumultuous for the Crane Clan. Following the Battle of the Cresting Wave, the Crane military found itself fighting defensive battles not just against the Lion to their west, but also against the southern Crab. Faced with enemies on two of their borders, the Crane were forced to supplement their forces with countless mercenaries, drawn from Mantis Clan and ronin alike.
Though this strategy succeeded in slowing the advances of the armies during the summer months, it proved to be a costly method of waging war and as the conflicts entered their third year, the Crane were bleeding koku in order to keep their borders secure, primarily due to the Mantis mercenaries demanding more money when they knew the Crane needed them the most. Faced with a battle that he could not endure, Doji Kazuki, the Crane Champion, made a bold decision and in 719 announced that any ronin who had served for a year within the Crane armies would be allowed to swear fealty to the Clan. Though the announcement stunned many members of his Clan, it had the intended effect of swelling the Crane's ranks with new Crane samurai, none of whom would have to be paid mercenary wages.
Over the next few years, many ronin traveled to Crane lands to seek fealty, allowing Kazuki to replace the expensive Mantis mercenaries with ronin who were willing to endure low wages and poor supplies in exchange for the opportunity to gain fealty. Though the majority of these ronin eventually joined the Daidoji family, Kazuki was surprised to learn that a small number of wandering shugenja and courtiers had also answered his call. Realizing that his Clan could put these uniquely talented wave men to good use, Kazuki allowed them to swear fealty to the Doji and Asahina families.
Following the very public assassination of Doji Kazuki at the hands of his Daidoji bodyguard, a former ronin, in 724, Kazuki's daughter and new Crane Champion Hanako formally ended the process of offering fealty to ronin on the sole condition of military service. Though Hanako suspected that the Scorpion were responsible for the assassination of her father, she did not investigate the matter very deeply. Instead, she spent her time maneuvering the Crab into further conflict with the Scorpion, which in turn alleviated much of the pressure along her Clan's southern border. In 739, she passed the Crane Championship on to her son, Doji Ryota, and assumed a position of semi-retirement as his advisor.
The poison injected into the Crane by Doji Kazuki's acceptance of ronin was not quite finished running its course, however. In the year 750, Iuchiban escaped from his tomb and marched upon Otosan Uchi with an army of maho-tsukai and seemingly numberless undead. Word of Iuchiban's return had no sooner reached the lands of the Crane than the Bloodspeaker cultists who had infiltrated the Clan years earlier attempted a bloody coup to seize control of the Crane for their master.
The coup began and ended within Shinden Asahina. Asahina Tako, a maho-tsukai who had joined the Crane as a ronin, murdered the venerable Asahina daimyo Chakote in his sleep and used his blood to flood the temple with seductive kansen. The spirits whispered into the ears of the more impressionable younger shuegnja, slowly turning them towards corruption. A young priestess named Asahina Noa eventually uncovered the corruption and gathered the remaining pure shugenja to her side in an attempt to flee the temple, but one of the acolytes was corrupt and exposed her plan to Tako. The temple erupted into a bloody battle that ended with a victory for Asahina Noa, but the cost was high; with the kansen giggling in their ears, few of the pure shugenja felt it safe enough to call upon the kami and were forced to instead cut down their kin with mundane weapons, a gross violation of their vows of nonviolence and pacifism.
Though the corruption of Shinden Asahina still haunts the Crane to this day, there was one final twist of the knife left for Tako's betrayal. The Crane Champion, Doji Ryota, traveled to the Shinden Asahina a month later to inspect the purified temple, against the better judgement of his advisors. Despite the cleansing rituals, a single kansen had managed to linger in the temple and as Ryota named Noa the new Asahina daimyo, it slipped into his lungs and tore the Crane Champion apart from the inside.
With her oldest grandson nearly a decade away from his gempukku, Doji Hanako reluctantly reclaimed her position of Crane Clan Champion, though there was little celebrating from the rest of her Clan. The battle against Iuchiban may have been won, but the Crane would bear the scars of a single shugenja's betrayal for many years to come.
Hanako served the Crane for another five years before her death at the hand of bandits, who not only managed to kill the Crane Champion and her guards, but also her grandson Ichiro. With her line wiped out, Doji Masato, the Imperial Chancellor, appointed one of Hanako's cousins, Doji Shiai, to the position of Doji daimyo and Crane Champion. Shiai's appointment was cause for confusion among the rest of her Clan, as few could understand why a simple flower breeder deserved to be promoted to such a high position of leadership.
The machinations behind the appointment became more apparent that winter when Doji Masato attempted to assassinate the Emperor and seize control of the throne. The assassination was thwarted by the Matsu daimyo, Matsu Shikyo, and the resulting investigation exposed Masato as the leader of the Gozoku conspiracy, which had been working to gain control of the Crane Clan and the throne for quite some time. Masato was executed by the Emerald Champion, and the Crane were plunged into chaos.
The Imperial Families instigated a purge of the Gozoku within the Imperial City, and a similar purge took place within the families of the Crane, claiming the lives of both traitors and innocent samurai who were accused of being complicit in the conspiracy by their ambitious rivals. A second investigation into the death of the former Crane Champion, Doji Hanako, and her grandson brought Asahina Noa to Kyuden Doji, where she accused her Champion of being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Hanako and claim her position. Noa was stripped of her name and banished from the Clan for speaking out against Shiai, but her accusations - combined with Doji Shiai's apparently friendship with Doji Masato - shattered her reputation in the eyes of her Clan.
Faced with a warning from Kakita Seiko, the new Emerald Champion, the leaders of the Crane met to discuss how they might be able to salvage the situation and protect their Clan from further retribution. In desperation, Shiai was forced to suggest a drastic course of action, and while the other daimyo were not pleased with the idea, they saw that it was the only way to save their Clan. The four daimyo traveled to Otosan Uchi to protest their Clan's treatment for the actions of a single man who had risen to power long before any of them had been born. Midway through the Imperial Advisor's counter-argument, the Crane Champion passed out from blood loss, at which point the other daimyo revealed that they had already committed kanshi in protest for the Hantei's unjust punishment of their Clan.
As the last of the Crane daimyo died in front of the Hantei, the horrified Emperor announced that the Imperial purge had come to an end, and that Doji Masato had not been a Crane when he committed his acts of treason, thus freeing the Crane Clan from his dishonor. The Crane had managed to reclaim their honor, but at a staggering price.
The Crane Today
Three years ago, the Crane were considered by many to be one of the most powerful of the Great Clans in the Empire. While the rest of Rokugan was drawn into one war or another, the Crane remained at peace, remaining neutral as their courtiers gathered favors in the courts and their bushi stood vigilant along their borders. There were some internal disagreements and minor diplomatic incidents, of course, but for the most part the Crane lands were at peace in a time when much of the Empire was being churned into mud by the boots of marching soldiers.
The actions of Doji Masato, the Imperial Chancellor, brought all of this to ruin. For decades, Masato had carefully manipulated events in the capital and within Crane lands, carefully bleeding away power from the Imperial Families to strengthen the Crane. Marriages were arranged to move those loyal to him further up the chain of command, while those who proved unwilling to swear their loyalty to his cause found themselves cut down by the finest duelists the Kakita had to offer. Eventually, Masato borrowed a name for his group from the pages of history: the Gozoku.
While many samurai were swayed to Masato's side with his promises of an Empire where the Hantei was merely a figurehead that allowed those more skilled them himself to run the Empire, few suspected that Masato was intending to assassinate the Hantei and place his granddaughter upon the throne. The assassination attempt was foiled by Matsu Shikyo, the Matsu daimyo, at the Winter Court of 755, and the resulting investigation exposed Masato's conspiracy to the rest of the Empire and resulted in his execution at the hands of Suzume Wara, the Emerald Champion.
The shock waves of Masato's treachery rippled through the entirety of the Crane Clan and came close to tearing the Clan apart. Samurai at the very highest levels of leadership - including Doji Shiai, the Crane Champion - were implicated not just in the Gozoku conspiracy, but also in the suspected assassination of the former Crane Champion, Doji Hanako. The Katogama vassal family conducted extensive investigations into the conspiracy in an attempt to determine just how much of the Crane had been corrupted, and the number of executions, sepukku, and duels that took place during their investigation was staggering.
As a result of the attempted coup, the once pleasant relations between the Crane and the Imperial Families have cooled to outright antagonism. Doji Etsuo, the new Crane Champion, has done everything he can to show that he is not Doji Shiai, but he has thus far been unable to make any real progress in improving relations with the Imperial Families.
He has fared better with the Scorpion. While the two Clans had been opening hostile toward each other for as long as anyone could remember, with the Scorpion most recently resorting to scandalous blackmail to supplant the Crane as the premier courtiers of the Empire, their conflict came to end when Doji Etsuo and Bayushi Yuuto were able to speak with each other at the Lion Champion's wedding. Realizing that their conflicts were tearing the Empire apart in a time of great peril, the two came to an agreement, with the Crane stepping aside and allowing the Scorpion to control the courts for a period of five years. In return, the Scorpion destroyed the blackmail they had on the Crane, ensuring that the last ties holding the Crane to Doji Masato and the Gozoku conspiracy were severed. To seal the deal, both men agreed to take brides from the other's Clan and parted on amiable terms.
The rise of the Scorpion had forced the Crane to turn a blind eye to the military posturing of the Lion, but they now consider the issue to have been more or less resolved. While the two Clans will never be friendly, the marriage of the Lion Champion to a Crane samurai has convince the Crane that the Lion can be "managed" in a way that won't lead to direct warfare between their Clans. In the wake of the jade bidding war between the Lion and the Crab, the Crane were able to quietly increase the prices of more mundane supplies, ensuring that they alone prospered from the two Clans' bickering. Thus far, the Crane have been unconcerned about the Lion Clan's recent access to ocean ports, but out of caution they have redirected a few of their ships to the Lion cities to monitor the situation, all with the pretense of opening increased relations with the Lion to celebrate their Champion's new marriage.
Unfortunately, the Crane have been unable to salvage their previously friendly relationship with the Phoenix, and it has cooled into indifference on both sides of their borders. The past two winters have found the two Clans unable to agree upon anything other than the fact that their delegates strongly dislike each other, and the Crane have been too distracted by their own internal issues to spend much effort repairing the relationship. That the Lion only have access to coasted ports because the Phoenix recently gifted them lands that had originally been given to the children of Isawa by the Crane has certainly not improved the situation.
The Crane are not entirely without allies, however, and they consider the Dragon to be one of them. This relationship is primarily one of trade, and the past few years have seen an influx of Dragon gold to Crane lands, much of it in exchange for their rice, and as a result golden jewelry has become in fashion within Crane lands. Armlets, circlets, rings, and earrings of gold have become more common, and those without at least one such piece of jewelry are considered to be quite unfashionable by their fellow Crane. There is very real tension between the Kakita and Mirumoto families over the treatment of the Mirumoto daimyo's daughter while she was training at the Kakita Duelist Academy, though thus far those samurai have managed to at least cling to the veneer of polite conversation even as they look for any excuse to defend their honor in a lethal duel.
The Crane also consider the Crab to be their allies and reinforced this belief by sending a legion of Iron Crane south to help the Crab defend their Wall. This assistance was gratefully welcomed by the Crab, and the Daidoji bushi proved themselves invaluable in shoring up the Crab defenses. A new wave of marriages between the Clans - though primarily between the Crab and the Daidoji family - has followed in the wake of the victory over the Shadowlands, which allows the Crab to begin replenishing their numbers and allows the Crane to save face by giving them a reason to leave their tainted samurai behind in Crab lands, where they can be monitored by those with the skills to do so effectively. The fact that the current Kakita daimyo was originally born into the Yasuki family has not been lost upon either Clan, and Kakita Rika's influence seems to be slowly drawing the two Clans closer together despite their differences.
Doji Daimyo & Crane Champion
Doji Etsuo: The new Champion of the Crane was trained as a bushi, much to the surprise of just about everyone that has ever met him. Etsuo is gracious, charming, and possessed of a self-depreciating sense of humor that most samurai find disarming. He lives by the philosophy that it is better to gather friends than create enemies, and few people can claim to genuinely dislike him. The only real exception are his family, who had all but disowned Etsuo after he refused to marry a Fox samurai-ko as part of a minor political arrangement
That distance proved valuable when it came time for the Emperor to appoint a new Crane Champion. It was important to choose someone from the direct line of Doji, but not one who might have been involved in the Gozoku conspiracy. Given the dislike that Etsuo's family had for him, it was unlikely that they would have included him in their plans, which made him the perfect candidate for the position.
While Etsuo is certainly an attractive samurai, most people would describe his appearance as "beautiful" than "handsome." There is a definitive feminine quality to his features that leads to him often being mistaken as a woman, though Etsuo does not seem to take such mistakes as any type of insult. In fact, he seems to shrug off most insults with an amused laugh or - more annoyingly - a compliment on his opponent's sadane skills.
Most recently, Etsuo agreed to marry a Scorpion bride as part of an arrangement with his counterpart among that Clan. His marriage to Bayushi Sakae was marred by the appearance of her former lover, Bayushi Katsuo, who attempted to draw steel on the Crane Champion. Katsuo was stopped by Etsuo's bodyguards, and Sakae spent the rest of the evening quite embarrassed for both Katsuo and her Clan.
Daidoji Daimyo
Daidoji Hebiko: Daidoji Hebiko was given the position of Daidoji Daimyo on the merits of her field record, which is filled with commendations from her superior officers. Her first deployment was at the Battle of Sleeping River, and any sense of idealism or optimism she might have carried with her from the dojo was ground away over the course of a week of constant fighting. The woman that emerged from that battle was someone very different from the Hebiko that had been known by her friends, and over the next year she drifted away from her acquaintances as Hebiko threw herself fully into her duty.
Her rise through the ranks since then was slow but steady, and while her superiors were pleased with how quickly she was able to bring order to even the most unruly of samurai and ashigaru, those unfortunate enough to find themselves under her command cursed her name. The constant drilling, advanced training regimes, and lack of leisure time meant that her troops were invariably surly but also unwilling to speak out against Hebiko for fear of being punished.
Thus far, Hebiko is still settling into her position of daimyo, and while she has issued a few edicts regarding the training of young Daidoji, for the most part it seems to have been an easy transition from one daimyo to the next. Her predecessor, Daidoji Kenta, did not tolerate laziness or excess in his family, and many of his policies and arrangements have met with Hebiko's approval.
Kakita Daimyo
Kakita Rika: After the Yasuki-born Kakita Rika learned that her husband Takashi and the other daimyo intended to commit kanshi to protest the Emperor's actions, she resolved to keep the family running as best she could until her replacement took over. Much to her surprise, Doji Etsuo was quite happy with how she had managed the family and offered her the position of daimyo.
The Kakita have been somewhat hesitant about accepting a former Crab as their new daimyo, but less so than one might expect. For all his skill and charm, Kakita Takashi had more than a few scandalous hobbies, and Rika's presence at his side seemed to lessen their hold on him. While there are a few grumblings here and there, most of the Kakita seem willing to give her a chance to succeed or fail on her own merits before they pronounce any final judgement.
Rika, for her part, has drawn a number of advisors to her side to assist her in becoming a "proper" Kakita daimyo. She has two trainers to instruct her in the art of iaijutsu, another to assist her with her heraldry and etiquette, and yet another to help her understand just what must be done to keep the Kakita Dueling Academy functioning at top efficiency. Some of her subordinates believe that she might be taking on too many duties too quickly, but those who are familiar with Rika know that she's a workaholic and couldn't function any other way.
Asahina Daimyo
Asahina Noa: Tempered in battle against maho-tsukai, promoted at the feet of her murdered Champion, cast out of her Clan by a traitor and then reinstated as a result of prying too deeply into secrets most samurai would avoid, Asahina Noa has led an eventful and violent life. Her paranoia had always been a point of concern among the Asahina family, but learning that her suspicions were justified - that there actually was a conspiracy at work, pulling at the strings of the Crane Clan - has only served to galvanize Noa's spirit against any doubts that others might have in her beliefs.
Many of the policies that Noa's successor had stopped have been reinstated with her return to the leadership of her family. Within the boundaries of Shinden Asahina, spell scrolls are subject to random inspections to ensure they do not contain maho, conversations and thoughts are monitored by amused air kami, and anyone not meeting Noa's standards of "acceptable Crane behavior" is called into her office to explain to their overbearing daimyo why they are not a traitor to their Clan. Were their letters allowed to leave the temple without being screened by Noa's trusted lieutenants, the number of complaints about her leadership would surely be staggering. Noa's net of security is tight, though, and as she pulls it tighter to ensure that no more traitors remain within the Crane, it is unknown whether she realizes that in doing so, she is slowly choking her family to death.
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Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men
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