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Air 3 Earth 5 Fire 4 Water 3 Void 4
Reflexes 4 Intelligence 5 Strength 3
Honor: 2.8 Status: 9.0 Glory: 5.3
School/Rank: Kuni Shugenja 5
Advantages: Heartless, Social Position (Jade Champion), Strength of the Earth (4)
Disadvantages: Antisocial (2)
Kata: None
Skills: Calligraphy 3, Battle 2, Defense 3, Etiquette 1, Heavy Weapons 4, Instruction 3, Jiujutsu 3, Kenjutsu 3, Meditation 5, Spellcraft (Maho, Spell Research) 5, Shadowlands Lore 7, Tea Ceremony 2, Theology 4
Spells: Banish, Commune, Counterspell, Importune, Sense, Summon, Earth’s Stagnation, Force of Will, Jade Strike*, Fires from the Forge, Tetsubo of Earth*, Armor of Earth, Grasp of Earth, Tremor, Slash of the Lion*, Strength of the Crow*, Tomb of Jade*, Divide into Ash, Prison of Earth, Spikes of Earth, Fury of Osano-Wo, Aura of Flame, Speed of Flame*, Fist of Osano-Wo*, Light of Yakamo, Castle of Water, Path to Inner Peace, Wave-Borne Speed, Bane of the Scorpion, Regrow the Wound, Sacred Ground
Note: Spells marked with an * are Innate Abilities for Kuni Daigo.
The results of the Emerald Championship were unexpected to everyone but the Emerald Champion himself. The man to become the direct servant of the Emperor was not a paragon of honor, respected all
across the land, but a man who was rumored to be an assassin and a murderer. The Imperial families decided then and there to fill a position of equal weight and importance. The new Jade Champion, they hoped, would divert the attentions of Shosuro Jimen and dampen his machinations.
Many people remember the reign of Kuni Utagu nicknamed the Wall. His constant vigilance protected the empire while it was weak and staggering from the massive civil war that rent the Empire. The new Jade Champion Kuni Daigo made neither grand promises nor assurances to fill the void left in the world by such a great legend. He simply knows his duty. He will fulfill them, or he will die at the task.
Kuni Daigo is a man devoted to one goal and one goal only: the destruction of the Shadowlands.
Even as a boy, Daigo knew exactly what the future lay in store for him. He grew up in the Kuni Wastes, a harsh reminder of the sacrifices the Crab Clan has made to protect the empire from the horrors of the Shadowlands. He read the histories of the Clan and noted the thousands of heroes who gave their lives to defend the Wall. On his gempukku, he saw firsthand the dangers of the lands beyond the Crab lands. Daigo took the lesson to heart and trained to learn all the weaknesses of the Shadowlands.
Daigo was not disheartened to learn those weaknesses were few and far in between. Daigo was never a frivolous man, but any outgoing behavior was erased in 1158. On the very first day that he was assigned there, the forces of Daigotsu assaulted and took the Kaiu Wall with a surprise attack from all sides. He fought bravely but could not stop the deaths of his companions. Daigo considers the Wall’s capture a personal failure, as he believes that he should have been able to do more. He keeps these thoughts to himself but lets the memory of the day push him toward greater feats.
When he heard that Hida Kuroda had returned to the Crab Clan as Kyofu, Daigo volunteered for the opportunity to follow him into the Shadowlands. He was not important to the Clan, he reasoned to his daimyo, yet his skills would prove invaluable in the dangerous land. Tansho gave him permission to lead the Damned into combat, and Daigo followed Kyofu to the Wall of Bone. He survived, but the horrific day would only convince him more that there was nothing more important than ensuring that such nightmares be exterminated as soon as possible.
Kuni Daigo knows the true duty of the Jade Champion. He believes his predecessor, Kuni Utagu, had the right idea. The Shadowlands is the only enemy, and the fight should be taken to the doorstep of the enemy. As soon as he ascended to the position of the Jade Champion, he began to gather all the jade he could from the sources now available to him. He began to prepare for his duty.
Daigo would ignore politics completely, if he could. In doing so, however, he hinders his own efforts. In order to focus his attentions on truly important matters, he gathers assistants to act on his behalf, giving him freedom to fight the Shadowlands. If he can do that, none of the political repercussions matter. The Shadowlands must be crushed.
New Path: The Jade Magistrate [Shugenja] Technique Rank: 4
Path of Entry: Any shugenja School Rank 3
Path of Egress: Re-enter the same School at Rank 4 Requirements: Glory 3.0+, Status 3.0+, or Honor 3.0+, must be invited by the Jade Champion
Technique: Path of Jade
Those who serve the Jade Champion share his mission of keeping the Empire pure from corruption in all its forms. You add your Insight Rank to the total of all your rolls involving Perception or Awareness. Any spell you cast that targets someone or something you know to possess any amount of Shadowlands Taint receives a number of Free Raises equal to your cumulative rank in shugenja Schools.
The Jade Seal
The Jade Seal is a small, almost insignificant object that belongs to the Jade Champion. When the seal was created, it was a simple badge of office that was used by the champion to stamp onto official documents. Only the mark of the Jade Seal can promote someone to a Jade Magistrate or a Jade Legionnaire. The seal was often given to an assistant of the Jade Champion that would handle all the small but important duties that the Jade Champion simply did not have time to do on his own.
Since the Jade Seal has always been associated with powerful shugenja, it was only a matter of time before it absorbed enough magic to awaken. In the hands of Asahina Sekawa, Master of the Five Rings, the Jade Seal became a nemuranai of no small power.
The Jade Seal can only be handled by the Jade Champion or someone with the permission of the Jade Champion. The mark of the Jade Seal is immune to forgery; any attempts by the greatest of forgers look fake to all viewers. Documents with the stamp of the Jade Seal never fade, though it may still be destroyed by normal methods. Finally, the bearer of the Jade Seal gains three Free Raises to detect forgeries.
Trappings of the Jade Champion
For more information on the rights, responsibilities, and trappings of the office of Jade Champion, see the chapter on Politics in Emerald Empire, and on the Mantle of the Jade Champion and other items in the upcoming supplement, Prayers & Treasures.
Yogo Rieko, Agent of the Kuroiban
Air 5 Earth 3 Fire 4 Water 3 Void 4
Reflexes 6 Willpower 4 Intelligence 5
Honor: 1.2 Status: 5.6 Glory: 4.9
School/Rank: Yogo Shugenja 4/Kuroiban
Advantages: Forbidden Knowledge, Read Lips Disadvantages: None
Kata: None
Skills: Acting (Disguise) 3, Anatomy (Torture) 2, Calligraphy (Scorpion Clan Cipher) 2, Courtier 2, Deceit 5, Etiquette 4, Forgery 2, Investigation (Interrogation, Search) 7, Kenjutsu 2, Knives 2, Lore: Maho 6, Medicine (Wound Treatment) 3, Meditation 3, Shadowlands Lore 4, Spellcraft (Maho) 5, Tea Ceremony 3, Theology 3
Spells: Banish, Commune, Counterspell, Importune, Sense, Summon, By the Light of Lady Moon, Cloak of Night*, Tempest of Air, Way of Deception*, Call Upon the Wind, Mists of Illusion, The Eye Shall Not See, Mask of Wind, Summon Fog, Know the Mind, Lady Moon’s Legion, Slayer’s Knives, Whirlwind, Earth’s Stagnation, Jade Strike*, Armor of Earth, Walk Without Passing, Immortal Steel, Tomb of Jade*, Path to Inner Peace
Note: Spells marked with an * are Innate Abilities.
Yogo Rieko was never an outstanding student and her parents did not realize her gifts until late into her
childhood. Her ability to speak to the kami was at first stilted and unimpressive. However, Rieko did not complain that it took her twice the effort to perform the simplest spells. She accepted the fact that she was not gifted and worked harder.
She gained the attentions of the Kuroiban during the chaotic years after the death of Toturi the First. It was a confusing time, where strange tainted beasts appeared in the middle of the empire. Without waiting for orders or clarification, Rieko acted to destroy everything Tainted in the Scorpion lands. The Kuroiban were impressed with her dedication and quick responses and recruited her for their organization. With the help of the finest shugenja in the Scorpion Clan, Rieko trained harder and honed her powers to a level she had never dreamed.
Rieko is forward and sincere in her dealings with everyone. The honesty tends to surprise everyone she meets, as they do not expect a Scorpion to be forthright about her dealings. However, when she is performing the duties of the Kuroiban, she seems like a different person. In her eyes, the targets of the Kuroiban are less than nothing. They are not humans; they forfeited that right when they decided to betray the empire. In this, Rieko is brutally effective as a Kuroiban agent.
If anyone asked Yogo Rieko what she had done to reach her position, both as an influential Jade Magistrate and a high ranking member of the secret Scorpion organization the Kuroiban, Rieko would respond with a simple word: “diligence.”
She attended the Jade Championship with cool confidence. She prepared for months for the competition and was as ready as she could be. No one knew her identity before the beginning of the Championship. With the help of a few tricks she learned while performing missions for the Kuroiban, she disguised her true abilities and pretended to be a shugenja of little worth. The deception helped her best her opponents until she faced Kuni Daigo. She accessed his abilities and thought that he would be no match against her skills with air and earth. Her defeat only made her see that she was just as likely to fall into the same trap she had posed to her opponents. She believed her foe to be “just a Crab,” and was unprepared for his power.
Rieko is prepared to fall back into obscurity and return to her duties with the Kuroiban. However, her future is out of her control. The Emerald Champion Shosuro Jimen promised her at the tournament that she would be chosen as one of Daigo’s magistrates. Though such an outcome seemed unlikely, she was unsurprised to receive the call to become a Jade Magistrate.
Rieko would much prefer to be with her comrades in the Kuroiban, but she will do what must be done to guarantee Scorpion power in the empire. She watches Daigo and waits for him to falter. Daigo undoubtedly knows that his newest assistant reports to the nefarious Emerald Champion. Rieko must perform in a delicate dance where any misstep will mean her downfall.
Perhaps her life would have been different had she not followed a simple whim.
Moshi Minami, Jade Magistrate
Air 3 Earth 2 Fire 4 Water 3 Void 3
Awareness 4 Willpower 3 Intelligence 5
Honor: 2.2 Status: 2.9 Glory: 3.4
School/Rank: Moshi Shugenja School 2*/Yoritomo Courtier School 1
Advantages: Benten’s Blessing, Clear Thinker, Precise Memory
Disadvantages: Momoku, Small
Kata: None
Skills: Artisan: Ikebana 2, Calligraphy 4, Courtier (Gossip, Political Maneuvering) 6, Divination 1, Etiquette (Conversation, Sincerity) 5, Investigation (Notice) 4, Lore: Orochi 5, Meditation 3, Spellcraft 4, Storytelling (Poetry) 3, Tea Ceremony 3, Theology (Fortunes) 6
Spells: Sense, Commune, Summon, Counterspell, Burst, Extinguish, The Fires that Cleanse, Hurried Steps, Inferno’s Tooth, Fist of Osano-Wo, Heart of Nature, Path to Inner Peace
Note: Moshi Minami can no longer hear the kami, nor will they answer her. Minami cannot use any spells, her Moshi Shugenja School Techniques, or any kiho unless this affliction is treated. However, if this affliction is treated, she loses the Momoku Disadvantage as well.
Minami was a daring child, unbound by expectations or rules. Her parents adored her and allowed her every indulgence. She always pushed the boundaries of what society and the world told her she could do. She was only three when her parents discovered her in her room, spirits of fire dancing around her as she giggled and laughed. Everyone was surprised except for Minami. To her, it was only natural that the kami would bless her. They had been talking to her all her life.
Minami entered the Moshi Shugenja School at the height of the Spirit Wars. Minami impressed her teachers by grasping the techniques to hone her attunement to the kami. She performed her gempukku ritual at the top of her class. When she became a samurai, the whole world was ripe for her taking.
Her sensei wanted Minami to become a teacher for the school, to help the younger children understand their abilities. Minami had something else in mind. She was young and reckless; the idea of spending the rest of her life in a remote school did not appeal to her. She respectfully declined the suggestions and offered her abilities to the Tsuruchi magistrates. A shugenja, she reasoned to the magistrates, would help hunt down fugitives of Imperial Law. A shugenja paired with a Tsuruchi Bounty Hunter would be able to perform feats that would be impossible without the help of the kami. Tsuruchi Nobumoto was skeptical, yet he gave Minami the opportunity to succeed. He paired Minami with another samurai fresh out of his gempukku and set them to work.
Tsuruchi Ki and Minami worked together to find many criminals across the Empire. It took several years for Minami to get accustomed to her duties but those years were the best of her life. Ki grumbled and moaned about the rotten conditions, sleeping in the wilderness, thanklessly protecting the Empire, yet Minami could not release the sense of adventure from her mind.
Doji Oto was just another criminal wanted for forgery of travel documents for bandit gangs, yet he managed to lead Minami and Ki on a chase across the Crab lands. They finally cornered him in a cave in the middle of the Twilight Mountains. The duo charged in after their quarry without hesitation and entered a different world.
The tale of her adventures in Sakkaku, the Realm of Mischief, is well known in the Mantis lands. The Mantis know of Minami’s pact with the orochi Tsurayuki and how Minami cast great magic to bind the soul of a human and an orochi to escape back into Ningen-do. No one had ever heard of anyone casting such a complex spell, let alone use it to escape their cruel fate. The repercussions of her experiments into magic are only spoken of in whispered rumors. When Minami returned to the human realm, she could no longer talk to the kami. It was as if a great blindfold had covered her senses, leaving her deaf and blind to the rest of the world.
Yoritomo Kaigen and other shugenja refined Minami’s spell and made it safe for further experimentation by the Mantis shugenja. Moshi Amika herself tried to figure out a way to cure Minami’s affliction but made no progress into her problem. Given the state of affairs between The Mantis and the Phoenix, it was no easy feat to receive the care of Asako Bairei, but the Mantis used every favor they could to make that a reality. Even the Master of Water could not figure out how to restore the lost abilities.
Instead of wallowing in despair, Minami decided to find another way to serve her clan. If she could not be a priestess of the kami, she would serve the clan in the courts. She attended the Yoritomo Courtier School and threw herself at the lessons as fervently as she had years before with the Moshi. She learned quickly at the side of other great Mantis courtiers like Yoritomo Yoyonagi and Yoritomo Sachina.
She attended the Jade Championship despite her painful memories and watched others flaunt their abilities. She maintained a low profile, yet even that small appearance caught the attention of Kuni Daigo. The new Jade Champion decided that her unique background made her a perfect match to serve as the Jade Champion’s representative in court. Minami accepted with eagerness; her new duties would offer her the greatest challenges of her life in the most dangerous battlefield of all.
At night, a voice whispers into her thoughts. If she had not followed Tsuruchi Ki into that cave, it says, she would not be in such a position of power. She would not have any of the opportunities at her fingertips now, but she would still be able to converse with the kami. At night, she admits to herself that she would do anything to regain everything she has lost.
Regret is a sin, yet Minami wonders every night if the sacrifices she has made for the Mantis are worth the pain she feels every day.
