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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Black Omega" data-source="post: 596503" data-attributes="member: 79">A bit of fun taken from the AEG website, a brief overview of the Clans of Rokugan with editorial notes.The Crab -- For a thousand years, the Crab have steadfastly defended the Empire from the Shadowlands. Unfortunately, this duty has left them little time for courtly activities, thus making them the most blunt and uncouth of the Clans.Editor's note: These guys are the Klingons. Though they're often uncouth and rude, you still must be nice to them so they don't bash your skull in. The Crane -- When it came time for Hantei I to wed, all the Clans offered up their most beautiful daughters for consideration. It was the daughter of Doji, from the Crane Clan, that he chose. Ever since that day, every Emperor has chosen a bride from the Crane Clan. Also, every Emperor has attended a Crane kenjutsu (fencing) school. The Kakita School is the most prestigious in the Empire, its students legendary for their prowess and courage. However, the Crane are often seen by the other Clans as sycophants for their relationship with the Emperor. Editor's note: These guys are the ones who always dress nice, compose poetry and music, and get all the girls. Think a bleached Hugh Grant in a blue bathrobe. The Dragon -- Since the earliest days of the Hantei dynasty, Togashi and his Clan have remained secreted away in the high mountains of Rokugan. Practicing their strange meditations in privacy, the Dragon Clan have the most misunderstood samurai in the Empire. Their spellcasters are fluent in the ways of war, and their samurai are familiar with the ways of sorcery. The strangest of their Clan -- the ise zumi -- shave all hair from their bodies and cover their skin with detailed tattoos. Always enigmatic, the Dragon Clan are sometimes seen as aloof and bizarre by the other Clans. Editor's note: Basically, the Dragon Clan contains the "mystics." If L5R had Jedi, they would be Dragon. The Lion -- The Lion has always maintained a reverence for the Emperor, a devotion unparalleled anywhere in Rokugan. The samurai of the Lion Clan are some of the most brilliant tacticians the Empire has ever known. However, some say the Lion clings too tightly to tradition, and their rigidity has caused much strife between them and the other Clans -- especially their chief rival, the Crane. Editor's note: The Lion Clan contains the jocks. If the Crab Clan has the frat boys, then the Lion Clan acts as the ROTC. The Phoenix -- The most powerful shugenja in the Empire belong to the Phoenix Clan. The scribe who stood by the Emperor and wrote down his conversation with Shinsei was the Kami Shiba, founder of the Phoenix, and he brought back all the details and verbal nuances of the conversation to his Clan. No other Clan has a more fundamental understanding of the Old Religion of Rokugan and the "new way" of Shinsei. It was the Phoenix who melded the two into the current belief taught across the Empire. Editor's note: The Phoenix Clan contains the magicians and sorcerers. Remember Mako's character in Conan the Barbarian? He was likely a Phoenix shugenja. The Scorpion -- Masters of intrigue, if there are secrets to be known in Rokugan, a Scorpion somewhere knows them. They are the masters of double-dealing and subterfuge. Theirs is a Clan of spies and information peddlers. Editor's note: If the U.S.A. had these Clans, the CIA, FBI, DEA, and CNN would all be Scorpion. The Unicorn -- Just after Hantei took the Throne, he turned to his sister Shinjo and asked her to ride into the outlands of the Empire to seek allies and look for possible dangers. Shinjo left with a small band of followers -- the Ki-Rin Clan -- and was not heard from again for eight hundred years. Two hundred years ago, they returned, as the Clan of the Unicorn, with wealth undreamed of, fabulous treasures of foreign make, and their most valuable prize: the war-horses of the west. The Unicorn Clan also brought with it many strange customs and beliefs, making them strangers to the people of Rokugan. Their ignorance of the delicate etiquette of Rokugan has made them appear to be "barbaric" and "uncivilized" at times, but their mighty horses and valiant samurai (all trained in what the Lion call "barbarian tricks") have made them valuable allies to any who would take them. Editor's note: Imagine if Huns, riding Clydesdales, had settled in medieval Japan, and you'd have the Unicorn.</blockquote>

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