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.
_________________ Lion Clan • Daimyo • Shugenja • Toshigoku • Sage • Haunted • Miserable Status: 7.0 Glory: 5.7 Infamy: 4.3 Honor: What is Expected
NPC by Mindshred
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