Ronin

Current Population: ???


Fairuz Family

The Fairuz family - sometimes referred to as "House Fairuz" by its founder - is made up of those ronin who have sworn fealty to the Jade Champion, Fairuz. Though their numbers are still small, they have the backing of the Otomo family, which has resulted in the family having access to far more resources than most other ronin groups of similar or even larger size.

Fairuz himself has thus far decided to stay out of politics as much as possible, and his quiet yet dignified manner is in direct contrast to the loud and abusive nature of his predecessor. The family has thus far done little save to claim a small portion of the lands in the far northwestern corner of the Empire as their own, which had been unoccupied prior to the recent return of the Unicorn Clan. Fortunately for the Fairuz, their knowledge of gaijin ways has made them quite indispensable to the Unicorn and those who wish to host them.

Family Bonus: +1 Intelligence
Signature School: Jade Sahir



Ronin Otokodate

The perception that ronin are singular creatures is not an entirely accurate one. Ronin brotherhoods exist, small groups of wave men who band together for protection, mutual benefit, banditry, or out of devotion to some ideal. These brotherhoods are known as otokodate ("manly fellows"). While many of these groups are loathe to commit themselves to a debt of honor against a Great Clan, such circumstances are not wholly unheard of, though generally most Clan samurai do not pay much attention to such brotherhoods.

Note that a character does not necessarily have to possess the signature path of a otokodate group to be a member of that brotherhood, but it is fairly common among its members. Characters should keep the Technique Rank of the brotherhood's signature path in mind when deciding whether or not their character might be a member; while it is possible for an Insight Rank 1 character to be a member of the East Wind (Technique Rank 2), it is quite unlikely for them to be a member of the Weavers (Technique Rank 4).



Aika's Army

Inspired by the young and charismatic ronin Aika, this group of ronin and peasants rallied together to protect the heimin of the Scorpion Clan from their abusive and uncaring masters. Many of their number dreamed of seeing Aika claim what they believed was her birthright as the unrecognized daughter of Hantei XXII, but the Scorpion shattered that dream when they captured Aika and executed her in the streets of Otosan Uchi. Naming themselves after their fallen leader, Aika's Army went into hiding and vowed vengeance on the Clan of Secrets for Aika's dishonorable death.

Signature Path: Tawagoto's Army.



The Disciples of Sun Tao

The ronin who call themselves the Disciples of Sun Tao are a group that have taken the teachings of the legendary ronin tactician Sun Tao, who is said to have studied with each of the Great Clans in turn, and applied his wisdom to the art of the duel. Although they lack the skill and recognition of the dueling traditions within the Great Clans, those who follow dueling have, over time, come to grudgingly acknowledge the skill of their technique.

With the appearance of Sun Gang, the apparent descendant of Sun Tao, and his oath of fealty to the Centipede Clan, a number of the Disciples of Sun Tao have traveled to the Valley of the Centipede, either to follow in Sun Gang's footsteps or to expose him as a fraud.

Signature Path: Disciples of Sun Tao



The East Wind

The East Wind is a benevolent ronin brotherhood devoted to protecting the common people of East Hub Village, a city on the outskirts of Otosan Uchi. The Eastern Hub's primary role as a port causes a constant stream of wealthy merchants who often suffer from mild paranoia and are not above paying for some additional protection. The East Wind initially found gainful employment with such merchants and used their pay to purchase simple holdings of their won within the city, from which they extended their influence throughout the city in an attempt to curb crime and other unpleasant excesses. Although they prefer to keep a low profile, the people of Eastern Hub recognize the value of what the ronin do and look on them with fondness and gratitude.

Signature Path: East Wind



The Eyes of Nanashi

Nanashi Mura ("Anonymous Village") can be found near the vast Dragon Heart Plain. Imperial records indicate that the village is a holding of the Dragon, and it is true that they are responsible for its administration. In reality, however, the Dragon have always permitted the ronin who call the city home to rule the village's affairs, so long as they meet their taxes and maintain peace in the region. The village is overseen by a council of ronin and their will is enforced by a group of warriors and magistrates known as the Eyes of Nanashi. Within the village the Eyes are generally regarded as honorable law enforcement, and even visiting Great Clan samurai treat them with respect, albeit mostly out of deference to the Dragon Clan.

Signature Path: Eyes of Nanashi



The Forest Killers

The Forest Killers are perhaps the most ruthless and fearsome bandit organization in the history of the Empire. For centuries they have exploited the superstitions surrounding the Shinomen Mori by hiding within its depths. While they have always been a thorn in the side of the Scorpion and Crab Clans, they have recently taken to raiding the lands of the newly founded Hare Clan and even took the life of the Minor Clan's founder, Usagi Reichin.

Signature Path: Forest Killers



The Hateru

Descendants of Ide Hateru, a sworn servant of Ide, the Hateru are second only to the ninja of the Scorpion Clan in the length and depth of their operations. When the Lion claimed the Kirin lands from the remnants of that Clan, the Hateru split from their brothers and sisters that would eventually become the Fox Clan and migrated north to the outskirts of Dragon lands, where they remain to this day. Their small size and unassuming nature makes it easy for them to avoid attention, though this has become more difficult in recent years with the Dragon Clan taking a more active role in the Empire.

The Hateru generally fill a "ninja for hire" role in the Empire, though few of those who deal with the small otokodate know precisely who they are contracting. Fortunately, such individuals are usually concerned about their own anonymity as well and rarely pry too deeply into the Hateru's identities. In recent years, the Hateru were contracted by the Scorpion Clan for a number of tasks, which has spooked the leaders of the ronin band, who had thought themselves unknown to the Clan of Secrets.

Signature Path: Tengoku's Justice



The Hidden Sword

The ronin band known as the Hidden Sword is a large group that patrols the outskirts of the Shinomen Mori, trying to protect the people in the lands around it from the various enemies that threaten them. The Sword targets primarily bandits but also the enigmatic creatures emerging periodically from the Shinomen, such as the Naga. The band's area of operation requires them to interact with the Scorpion and Crab Clans fairly regularly, and as a result the samurai of the Hidden Sword, while honorable, remain extremely practical and realistic individuals who do not succumb to blind idealism. They have been in conflict with the Forest Killers from the very beginning of their formation and have recently made attempts to ingrate themselves to the newly-formed Piranha Clan.

Signature Path: Hidden Sword



The Iron Gauntlet Brotherhood

The battered and scarred veterans who make up the Iron Gauntlet Brotherhood are among the seasoned and fearsome ronin in all of Rokugan. Those familiar with their reputation whisper prayers to their ancestors when they catch sight of the Iron Brotherhood banner. The individual members of the Iron Gauntlet are survivors of other ronin groups that have been wiped out by one force or another. Some believe that the group formed in the aftermath of the first war, while others think it may have been as recent as the Battle of Stolen Graves. No one knows for certain, and the Iron Brothers do not speak of it to outsiders. In battle, they are utterly ruthless and without hesitation. Anyone who has seen them on the battlefield understands how they survived their individual units' destruction.

Signature Path: Iron Gauntlet Brotherhood



The Kaeru

The Kaeru are the ronin "rulers" of Kaeru Toshi, the City of the Rich Frog, the largest city on the western edges of Lion territory. Though technically a Lion holding, the Kaeru family manage the city so well that the Lion have more or less left them to the task for the past two hundred years. The ronin are most well known for their signature weapon, a long iron smoking pipe known as a Machi-kanshisha, which they use as non-lethal weapons to subdue troublemakers rather than kill them.

With its relative seclusion from the rest of the Empire, Kaeru Toshi has remained relatively unchanged throughout the centuries, steadily growing larger as it ignores the politics of the Empire at large. There are some who accuse the Kaeru family of being thuggish and heavy-handed in their methods, but until the Lion Clan decides that the city would best be served with more direct leadership, the Kaeru family are essentially the law within the city's walls.

Signature Path: Machi-Kanshisha



The Moonless Riders

The Moonless Riders are an extremely small and specialized group of ronin who have carefully cultivated skills that allow them to not only survive but seek regular employment by the armies of the Great Clans. The Riders operate out of Nanashi Mura and are specialized in cavalry tactics, but they only train at night. As a result, they are among the preeminent nocturnal scouts and couriers in the Empire. They are primarily employed by the Lion Clan, though they have taken contracts with the Crane and Crab from time to time as well.

Signature Path: Moonless Riders



The Order of Isashi

Little is known of the ronin shugenja who called himself Isashi, only that he appeared at the end of the Bloodspeaker War. Without thought of rewards or any regard for his own safety, he traveled in the wake of the Bloodspeakers, healing the wounded and bringing the dying to their final rest. When he was slain by Iuchiban's followers near the end of the war, a dozen ronin shugenja formed an order of healers in his name and continued his work. They have slowly grown since that day and travel throughout Rokugan, visiting the most war-torn and saved areas of the Empire and offering their aid as healers. In the past few years they have mostly been found in the southern lands of the Scorpion, though a few of their order have been sighted amidst the armies of the Lion and Badger at the northern borders of the Empire.



The Scales of the Carp

The Yasuki Family has a richly deserved reputation as skilled merchants and traders, a reputation that can sometimes be their undoing. Many cities (especially in Crane and Lion lands) are suspicious of Yasuki merchants, often forbidding their entry at all. The Scales of the Carp are the Yasuki's answer to this problem.

The Scales are a secret society of ronin traders, smugglers, and gamblers funded and trained by the Yasuki. The Yasuki provide the Scales with equipment, weapons, information, and (mostly) quality merchandise in return for seventy percent of the profit. In return, the Scales can depend upon Yasuki assistance when they have trouble with the law, and they can always find a cheap inn or Yasuki household willing to house them within Crab lands.



The Serpents of Sanada

The Serpents of Sanada are a naval band who have, over the years, accumulated a small fleet of vessels, using them to become one of the most successful (and hated) pirate groups in the Empire's history. The Serpents are a particular offense to the Mantis Clan, who not only have lost many disgraced samurai to their ranks but who have also been attacked on their home islands by the Serpents, something no pirate has ever before dared to do. The recent war between the Mantis and Tortoise Clans was a period of great profit for the Serpents, whose benefited considerably from the lack of attention being paid to their piracy.

Signature Path: Serpents of Sanada



The Shadowed Steel

The word "ninja" conjures one of two reactions from the Rokugani: exasperation, because of course ninja do not exist, or fear, because they know better. The truth is that to some extent both statements are true. On the one hand, the black-clad assassins of superstition do exist, but they are largely a diversionary tactic used by groups like the Scorpion Clan - including through pawns such as the ronin group known as the Silent Blade. On the other hand, the primordial entity known as the Lying Darkness has subverted an unknown number of Shosuro samurai and transformed them into the inhuman ninja of myth. And then there is the middle ground, where few have ever tread and survived.

The men and women known as the Shadowed Steel are former vassals of the Scorpion Clan, surreptitiously culled from the Clan's ranks over the course of generations and carefully cultivated into a completely deniable and disposable asset. The Shadowed Steel are few in number and answer only to the Shosuro Family, who communicate to them through covert means such as blind drops. When an objective absolutely has to be eliminated at all costs, when the risk is simply too high to utilize the Shosuro family's own assets, they call on the Shadowed Steel to deal with the matter quickly and with absolute and unwavering finality.

Signature Path: Shadowed Steel




The Silent Blades

Although they pride themselves on their skill as hired killers and assassins, the Silent Blades are in truth little more than rank amateurs when it comes to the arts of infiltration and assassination. Although they do have some skill, it is vastly less than they like to imagine, and as a result they are constantly struggling to overcome the impact of botched jobs and the occasional disastrous failure. Fortunately for them, however, those who would hire ronin assassins rarely communicate with one another, and the group has managed to avoid cultivating a poor reputation despite their mediocrity.

Though they do not know it, the Blades are actually pawns of a more secretive and skilled order known as Shadowed Steel, which is in turn a pawn of the Shosuro family of the Scorpion. Thus the Silent Blades are essentially fodder for larger, more powerful, and more skilled groups, brought out when a scapegoat is necessary or when a very unskilled target needs to be eliminated.

Signature Path: Silent Blades



The Spider's Venom

The Spider's Venom are a small group of ronin who have only come into existence within the past few years. They owe allegiance only to the Emperor's brother, Seppun Kato, and wear ceramic masks that shield their identities from others. Many members of the Venom are convicted criminals who were pardoned in exchange for their loyalty, while others are merely sociopaths who have been bought with promises of coin or power. They are brutal in their execution of Kato's orders, most of which revolve around attempting to eradicate threats to the Empire's stability or its people. Unfortunately, Kato's judgement of what constitutes a threat to the Empire can be highly suspect at times, and the Spider's Venom do not shy away from enacting their master's will in the most grandiose methods possible.

Signature School: Claws of the Wolf



The Tessen

Composed primarily of former Crane and Lion, the Tessen came together to attempt to protect the people of Toshi Ranbo. The constant warring over the city between the Lion and Crane left the city in a terrible state, often plagued by criminals who knew the Clans were too busy with one another to bother hunting them. Both Clans tended to be harsh and unforgiving, often sending large groups of armed magistrates through problem neighborhoods to bring those responsible for crimes - both real and imagined - to justice. In addition, they continued to enforce an ancient mandate throughout the city, forbidding any person who did not belonging to the ruling Clan from bearing weapons. Samurai such as ronin are allowed to carry their daisho as a symbol of their station, but drawing a blade in public is a serious offense.

The Tessen are a brotherhood of ronin who attempt to keep the crime in the city to a minimum, as much for the sake of self-preservation as justice. They wield paired iron fans, as these are not bound by the technicalities of the weapon mandate and can be easily concealed. The Tessen patrol the streets in pairs to keep the peace and serve as bodyguards and escorts, more often to heimin than to samurai.

The Tessen were seen as a nuisance by Clan magistrates and were often treated just as severely as common criminals when they are discovered. Since Seppun Kato was gifted control of Toshi Ranbo by the Lion Clan, he has worked to raise the Tessen up to a position of prominence within the city, giving them the authority to enforce the city's laws and even to detain samurai under certain circumstances. The abrupt shift in the perception of their duties has earned Kato the loyalty of the Tessen, who now walk the streets of Toshi Ranbo with pride.

Ironically, the Tessen are composed mostly of dismissed Lion and Crane samurai. These individuals get along no better than they did before becoming ronin, causing deep factionalism within the brotherhood save for in periods of extreme crisis.

Signature Path: The Tessen



The Weavers

The Weavers are ronin assassins, traveling from place to place in the humble disguise of basket merchants. Their knowledge of Rokugan's underworld allows them to know when and where to reveal themselves to gain employment, as do their rather high-placed connections. The Weavers, though they do not know it, are agents of the Kolat.

The Weavers are swift, efficient, and professional. They always complete a contract and never report the name of their clientele, not even when tortured. Of course, every detail of the Weaves' operations and clients trickles back to the Hidden Temple, but no one has to know that. Through the Weavers, the Kolat maintain a long list of disreputable individuals whom they can blackmail when the time is right. They also gain an additional source of income to add to their already impressive resources, for the Weavers do not sell their services cheaply. As an additional bones, by working through the Weavers, the Kolat's assassins can keep themselves in practice.

The best hiding place is often in plain sight.

Signature Path: Weavers

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Credulous at best
Your desire to believe in
Angels in the hearts of men