The Ikoma Histories

The Rokugani faced another danger on the heels of the Gozoku threat when a strange fleet appeared on the shores near the capital city of Otosan Uchi. It was a fleet of gaijin, foreign explorers from the distant nations of Merenae and Thrane. The Rokugani were wary of the strange people, but Yugozo-hime gave them a chance to prove themselves, making a trade agreement with them. Unfortunately, the strangers proved untrustworthy, for just a few years later they attacked the Empire. Yugozohime died in the ensuing battle, known as the Battle of White Stag, but the Rokugani completely routed the foreign troops and ships. In the aftermath of the attack, the new Emperor, Yugozohime’s son, called for a complete ban of all things gaijin. No Rokugani would ever trade with the foreigners, the Emperor proclaimed, and he also forbade the use of gaijin technology, especially the explosive substance known as gaijin pepper (gunpowder). In the aftermath of this incident, the Minor Clan of the Tortoise was founded to keep watch for future gaijin threats.

The arrival of gaijin forces in Rokugan illuminated the exact problem Shinjo foresaw at the birth of the Empire. Until this event, Rokugan had no contact with those from outside its borders, and this first interaction nearly threw the whole Empire into chaos. As it was, this minor meeting resulted in a giant naval battle and the death of the Empress. The Rokugani grew deeply suspicious of foreign influences, which would create many problems centuries later with the return of Shinjo’s people.

The sixth century saw the rise of a new villain of grand and terrible proportions. Otomo Jama, the younger son of the Emperor, found a secret collection of magical texts written by a Crab shugenja who had researched the effects of the Shadowlands Taint. Jama was intrigued by the power described within and he began to dabble in these abilities. His research and hard work paid off by making him one of the most powerful maho-tsukai (blood sorcerers) of all time. Even worse, he learned from gaijin lands the secret of removing and hiding his own heart, making himself immortal. He adopted the name Iuchiban and gathered other depraved worshippers and power-mongers into a deadly cult called the Bloodspeakers.

At first, the Bloodspeakers stayed in hiding and spread their influence slowly across the Empire. Secret cult cells began to form in all the Great Clan lands, clandestinely worshipping the head of their cult. Iuchiban’s lieutenants spread chaos through the Empire with small, nearly unrecognizable events.

One of his followers, Agasha Ryuden, traveled to the Twilight Mountains to find the blood of the First Oni. He crafted a mighty nemuranai (magical artifact) called the Anvil of Despair, sacrificing the entire Minor Clan of the Boar to its creation. Another lieutenant, Asahina Yajinden, used the Anvil of Despair to forge a set of four incredibly powerful cursed blades, the Bloodswords. Each fed on the blood of those it killed, growing ever stronger, and each had the ability to influence its bearer, negatively amplifying his flawed emotions. Passion, Ambition, Judgment, and Revenge were sent to the leaders of four Great Clans in the hope they would misuse the power within the blades. The leaders did not suspect the treachery within the gifts and accepted them happily, dooming themselves – all except one.

The Scorpion Clan Champion, Bayushi Rikoji, realized from the start that there was something wrong with this mysterious Crane gift. He held the blade under close surveillance. His worst fears were soon realized when the other three recipients of the Bloodswords died in bizarre inexplicable tragedies. Rikoji ordered his men to find the source of the weapons, and one of his samurai traced the Bloodswords back to Iuchiban’s headquarters within the Imperial capital itself.

Facing exposure and arrest, Iuchiban called on a grotesque resource to oppose the Empire’s forces. The greatest heroes of the Empire were entombed within the Imperial crypts. Iuchiban raised these bodies into profane undead mockeries of what they once were. Only the courage of a bold Lion samurai enabled the forces of the Great Clans to rally and destroy Iuchiban’s zombies, capturing the evil sorcerer. Iuchiban’s gaijin sorcery made it impossible to actually kill him, so the people of Rokugan imprisoned him in a secret tomb designed to contain his power forever.

Unfortunately, Iuchiban did not remain imprisoned. His underling Yajinden had found the secret of jumping his spirit from body to body, and soon Iuchiban mastered this skill as well, escaping his tomb. With his earlier defeat on his mind, Iuchiban at first remained undercover, and set to work re-building and expanding his power base in the Bloodspeaker cult.

The people of the sixth century were ill prepared for the terrifying might of unfettered blood magic, known as maho. They knew vaguely of the power inherent in such dark magic, but it had never been used on such scale and power before Iuchiban. Yajinden’s Bloodswords incapacitated the leaders of three powerful Great Clans and would have done even more were it not for the caution and guidance of the Scorpion Clan Champion. Even so, the terror of facing undead soldiers nearly routed the magistrates and Imperial guards who came to arrest Iuchiban. Although the warriors of the Crab Clan were accustomed to fighting shambling corpses, other samurai were not prepared for such horrors. The thought of fighting perverted corpses of past heroes was especially shocking to a society that revered its ancestors. After Iuchiban’s defeat, Emperor Hantei XII decreed that everyone would be cremated upon death to prevent such an atrocity from occurring once more.

After a quiet century of relative peace, Rokugan erupted in war again. This time the Empire would face a clear enemy, the Shadowlands. An Oni Lord known simply as “the Maw” gathered the largest Shadowlands army seen since the War Against Fu Leng. They appeared without warning and assaulted the Crab lands, quickly overwhelming the clan’s defenses. The Maw’s army advanced relentlessly, overrunning the Hiruma lands and threatening to crush the entire Crab Clan. Finally the battered Crab armies gathered in the Hida provinces for a last-ditch effort. All looked hopeless, until a young, unknown shugenja named Kuni Osaku called forth remarkable power from within herself and raised a river into a wall of water to stand in the path of the Shadowlands army. Osaku bought the Crab Clan precious time, and they put it to good use. For 73 days, the Crab used magic and manpower to construct a giant wall that stretched across their lands. Other clans sent aid and supplies, and the Great Carpenter Wall was finally completed with no time to spare. Osaku died, her life force consumed by her mighty spell, and the Maw’s armies resumed their attack. The Wall, however, stopped them where nothing else could. The Crab crushed the Shadowlands army, slew the Maw, and forced his shattered army back to the south. Rokugan was safe once more. Thereafter, the Crab went to work expanding and lengthening the new Carpenter Wall, also known in the Empire as the Kaiu Wall, until it stretched across their entire border with the Shadowlands.

Although the Crab had prevailed, they paid a bitter price. The Kuni lands had become Tainted, and cleansing them would reduce them to a gray and lifeless wasteland. Worse yet, the Hiruma lands had been lost completely, left on the wrong side of the newly built Kaiu Wall. These losses engendered an even fiercer hatred of the Shadowlands within the Crab Clan, as well as a wary respect for their monstrous might. Over the next three centuries, countless Hiruma samurai would die in fruitless attempts to reclaim their castle and birthright.

Sadly, the other Great Clans did not learn as much as the Crab from this near-disaster. The Kaiu Wall did become very effective in stemming the Shadowlands threat, and the other Great Clans, who rarely saw it with their own eyes, came to believe the Shadowlands was always kept well under control by the strong Crab.

Decades after the Maw’s attack, the plans of the Bloodspeaker Iuchiban were finally exposed when he made the mistake of trying to possess the body of a Dragon Clan tattooed monk. The Togashi was well trained and fortified against spiritual attack, and fought off Iuchiban’s influence. He quickly warned the other clans of Iuchiban’s escape. The Great Clans remembered the terror Iuchiban spread across Rokugan the first time, and gathered their forces against the Bloodspeakers. Iuchiban assembled his own followers and a terrible seven-day-long battle ensued, at the end of which the clans totally destroyed Iuchiban’s undead army. The Togashi monk who had first detected Iuchiban was able to capture the sorcerer with a special tattoo, sealing Iuchiban within his own body. He entered Iuchiban’s tomb, sacrificing himself, and the shugenja of the Empire worked a great ritual to bind the Bloodspeaker’s soul into the very stone of his prison.

It was simple for everyone to push aside petty rivalries with other Great Clans to come together against Iuchiban’s threat. The Imperial Edict for cremation greatly limited the size of his new army, and the Dragon Clan monk’s sacrifice limited the Bloodspeaker’s actions. However, it was a strong reminder that this villain was not yet truly defeated.

Due to allegations of maho use testified to by the members of several clans, the Hare Clan is disbanded by the emperor on the 370th anniversary of its founding.

Former Clan Champion Usagi Oda commits seppuku as a result.