A short history lesson...

Οι παρακάτω πληροφορίες είναι μία σύντομη σύνοψη της ιστορίας της Rokugan, ξεκινώντας από το Scorpion Coup και καταλήγοντας στην συνθηκολόγηση Totuti I με Hantei XVI, συνολικά 29 χρόνια.

Σημείωση για τους φανατικούς καρτοπαίκτες : Τα γεγονότα είναι αλλαγμένα ανάλογα με τις ιδέες που έχω για το campaign και σε μερικά σημεία αρκετά διαφορετικά από το canon history της AEG.
 
Οι χρονολογίες βασίζονται στο ημερολόγιο των Isawa.
 
Pre Scorpion coup era
 
Scorpion clan ends the era of the Thousand Years of Peace in strong political position and unusual prosperity. Their champion, Bayushi Shoju, is close friend to the Emperor, Hantei XXXVIII, and his wife, Shosuro Kachiko, is also appointed as Imperial Advisor.
 
1121: Taisha (military title) Bayushi Tomaru attacks the minor clan of the Sparrow. He is defeated by the Three Man alliance of Sparrow, Fox and Wasp minor clans.
 
1122: The climax of opium war in Ryoko Owari (City of Lies). The three scorpion families fight for control of the illicit, but extremely profitable, opium trade. The emerald magistrates struggle to restore imperial peace in the city.


1123: Taisha Bayushi Tomaru eradicates the Hare clan and destroys its holdings after its champion Usagi Ozaki is accused as maho (bloodmagic) practitioner.


1123: The Scorpion clan coup takes place. Scorpion champion Bayushi Shoju murders the Emperor and exterminates all but one of the Hantei lineage. The coup fails by the united efforts of the rest of the major clans.

The new Emperor, Hantei XXXIX excommunicates the Scorpion clan, disbands the Akodo family of the Lion clan (Akodo Toturi was self –appointed Emperor until the new Hantei appeared) and married Kachiko, wife of the now dead Bayushi Shoju.

Daimyo of the Yogo, Yogo Junzo, embittered by the Scorpion clan excommunication breaks the seal of the first black scroll. Thus, Fu Leng soul reappears in Rokugan after one thousand years.


1124: The absence of a strong Emperor, the disorganized central imperial bureaucracy and the lack of major conflicts for at least five hundred years  led to the Clan War era which had devastating effects to almost all of the clans and changed the face of the Empire forever.


1128: The Clan war era ends with the Second day of the Thunders, where the spiritual descendants of the seven original Thunders under the guidance of the Hooded Ronin (incarnation of the Little Sensei) and the Kami Togashi defeated the possessed by Fu Leng body of Hantei. Toturi becomes the new Emperor, Toturi I, ending the one thousand years of the Hantei dynasty.


The Scorpion clan is reinstated and Kachiko becomes its champion.The Akodo family is still disbanded. The Mantis is elevated to Great Clan status after its champion, Yoritomo, threatened the Imperial City with naval blockade when the clans tried to assault the Shadowland armies of Fu Leng.


Hidden Emperor Era


Prior to this era, Toturi I tried to re organize the Empire and heal the deep scars that the Clan War left. Unfortunately this effort ended when he was kidnapped during the Winter court.


This Era includes the Crab’s titanic struggle against the Shadowlands armies of the Dark Moto and the corrupted Kuni Yori (former advisor of Hida Kisada and daimyo of the Kuni family), the “unexplained” short war between Hida O-Ushi and Ikoma Tsanuri (champions of Crab and Lion respectively), the tyrannical rule of Mirumoto Hitomi and the schism in the ranks of the Togashi family, the traitorous attack of the Naga race against the Dragon clan and the corruption of the Kitsu family’s daimyo, Kitsu Okura of the Lion.


1130: Scorpion clan exiled to the Burning Sands after being accused for kidnapping Toturi I. They avoided a second excommunication by the intervention of Chancellor Takuan and Emerald Champion Kakita Toshimoko who had doubts for the evidences. For a second time in two years, the clan faces an existential crisis. All their children below the age of twelve were fostered in the other clan’s families, in an effort to save the clan’s lineage. Kachiko leaves behind Bayushi Aramoro, brother of Bayushi Shoju, so as to secretly administer the clan’s interests.


1131: Yoritomo taking advantage of an imperial edict stating that the Mantis clan has legitimate rights on all “unclaimed territory”, try to control the abandoned Scorpion lands. The Crane champion Doji Kuwanan stops him at Beiden Pass. Yoritomo’s campaign was a secret agreement between Bayushi Aramoro and Yoritomo. To cement the agreement, Aramoro offered his son, Aramasu as a hostage to Yoritomo.


Toturi I was found in the Phoenix lands by  under the custody of a mysterious new enemy, named the Lying Darkness. It is shortly proved that the Lying Darkness has penetrated all levels of Rokugan society and manipulated all of the above events.


1132: Bayushi Aramoro, disguised as ronin, wins the Emperor’s Gift tournament that Toturi I organized for his amusement. Aramoro asks for his reward the rights to his clan’s land.


Kachiko awakes from her slumber the Kami Shinjo, founder of the Ki Rin clan, now known as Unicorn. The Kami returns to Rokugan along with the remnants of the Scorpion clan and the hordes of the Desert Moto. She shortly eradicates the corrupted members of their clan and assaults the Imperial City in order to purify it from the Lying Darkness influence.

Kachiko organizes the clan and cleanse the Darkness that has spread in its society. Unfortunately dies in the process.


1133: Rokugan is covered in total darkness for twenty seven days. Religious paroxysm in all Rokugan. Bayushi Yoziro, the Honest Scorpion, becomes the new clan champion.


The battle of Oblivion Gate takes place. Toturi and an allied army of clan samurai, bolsted by the returned spirits of Rokugan ancestors defeat the armies of the Lying Darkness led by Kuni Yori and the Dark Moto, Moto Chen.

Yoritomo of the Mantis dies in the battle and his adopted son Aramasu becomes the new Mantis champion, renouncing his Scorpion heritage.


Spirit War


After the Oblivion Gate battle many of the ancestral spirits chose to disobey the imperial decree of Toturi I that ordered all spirits should either become mortal or return to the afterlife by seppuku ceremony. The rebellious spirits aligned behind Hantei XVI known as the Steel Chrysanthemum Emperor. Little is known for Hantei XVI since the Ikoma libraries (Lion family and official historians of the Empire) were burnt during the Clan War and the imperial records have only superficial information about his reign.


This rebellion caused civil wars in the clans since loyalties were split between the divine blood of the Hantei dynasty and the mortal Toturi. The clans stand divided and a twelve year campaign begins with several bloody but inconclusive battles between the mortal and spiritual armies.


Crane and Unicorn clan were devastated by open civil war. Dragon and Crab choose to stay unaligned. Lion and Mantis offered their full support. Scorpion sides with Toturi but hesitates to offer any practical help. Phoenix ally with Hantei but they lately rebel and join Toturi.


1138: Hantei XVI rebels against Toturi I who refuses to give the throne.


1146: The second battle of White Shore Plain. Bayushi Paneki becomes hero of the Scorpion after successfully disorganized the spriti army.


1150: The Beiden Pass battle. Scorpion army changes sides amidst the battle, forcing Toturi to retreat and Hantei to pursue the mortal army through the mountainous pass. Scorpion and Phoenix shugenja collapse the mountain destroying the Beiden Pass and the majority of the sprit army ending the brilliant plan that Scorpion champion Bayushi Yojiro had begun orchestrating 10 years ago.


Hantei XVI signs a peace treaty with Toturi I and disbands the sprit army. Toturi seals the treaty by providing lands to Hantei and his youngest son, Toturi Naseru, as hostage to the Steel Chrysanthemum.


1152: L5R campaign begins…