The Hidden Emperor and Jade Edition
This scroll contains the fragments of information that have been revealed concerning the storyline of The Hidden Emperor. Please send any additions and updates to Kitsu Sei.
From the pen of Ryan Dancey:
Greetings!After many long months of work, the Legend of the Five Rings Design Team and Five Rings Publishing Group is very pleased to introduce all of you to the Hidden Emperor story arc!
Beginning today with Episode 1, and continuing for nine monthly installments, you'll all have a chance to experience another fantastic, epic, heroic tale set in the mythical world of Rokugan, the Jade Empire, a land where Honor is a force more powerful than Steel!
The story proper began almost two months ago with the release of the Jade Edition for L5R. Jade updated the various factions active in the game to a time period approximately two years after the defeat of the evil god, Fu Leng on the Day of Thunder. Since that time, the new Emperor, Toturi, has been consolidating his power and laying the groundwork for the next thousand years of Rokugan's development.
But something has gone horribly arwy.
Toturi is missing. Many believe that the Scorpion clan have taken their final revenge on the man who killed Bayushi Shoju during the failed Scorpion Clan Coup. In the halls of the Imperial Assembly there are calls for blood - after so much has happened, to have Toturi taken from the Empire is viewed as the ultimate disaster.
A Kitsuki Magistrate presents physical evidence to the Emerald Champion, Kakita Toshimoko indicating that the Scorpion may not have been involved. But in Rokugan, evidence is meaningless - only the testimony of samurai matters. And after the Coup, the many betrayals of Bayushi Kachiko and the legacy of fear the Scorpion have engendered, many are willing to testify against them, and no one of repute is willing to stand against the Assembly.
Toshimoko makes a fateful choice - instead of death, he orders the Scorpion Clan exiled, never to return. As proof against their treachery, he orders the young children of the Scorpion taken from the clan, and fostered among the other Clans. The threat is clear - return, disobeying Toshimoko's order, and the Scorpion Children die.
Kachiko rallies the tattered remnants of her Clan, and they depart for the mysterious wasteland known as the Burning Sands under the watchful eye of their escort, lead by the butcher of the Clan Wars, Matsu Gohei.
Meanwhile, the Crab Clan have insitgated the war they have longed to fight for generations. With Fu Leng dead, the Crab are convinced that they can destroy the Shadowlands utterly. Lead by their young, powerful diamyo Hida Yakamo, a massive army of Crab bushi and Naga allies strike deep into the old Hiruma provinces and liberate the ruins of Hiruma Castle. The fight goes well for the Crab, until the Naga mysteriously withdraw from the field and begin a march northward across the Empire. Without the aid of their serpent allies, the Crab are driven back, and only a stalwart band, commanded by Yakamo himself remains ensconced in Hiruma Castle.
The Naga are indeed set on a dark errand. They cross the Empire in mere days, and commence an assault on the ancient mountain fortresses of the Dragon Clan. In their haste, they spend no time explaining their actions. Their diplomats have left the Imperial Court, and none speak for the Naga in the Assembly. To the rest of Rokugan, the Naga appear to have gone quite insane, and to have turned on their former allies without provocation.
At the center of this swirling maelstrom stands the man known to the Naga as The Daini. Formerly a son of the Mirumoto, brother of Hitomi, current Dragon Clan diamyo, The Daini must make a fateful choice: Stand with his adopted people against his clan and Family, or turn his back on the clear signs of evil in the actions of his sister Hitomi.
With the Empire in political chaos, the Hitomi/Naga war threatens to spread beyond the provinces of the Dragon, especially when word comes from the Brotherhood of Shinsei that many members of the Ize Zumi, the tattoed men have left the protection of Hitomi to take up the cause of Togashi Hoshi, half man, half dragon, and son of the dead kami, Togashi himself.
Under the gathering storm-clouds of war, the Empire of Rokugan begins a new, bloody chapter in history. The history of the time of the Hidden Emperor!
From the pen of Ryan Dancey:
The set marks the introduction of the Jade Empire - Rokugan under the rulership of Toturi. Much has changed since the Day of Thunder. The Shadowlands horde has been driven from the Empire (mostly), but it continues to menace the Kaiu walls. The Phoenix have been decimated by the war and are much reduced from their former position. A new Tao has been created, an interchange between the descendant of Shinsei and Toturi, setting forth "the Age of Man" to replace "the Age of Myth" that has just passed. Across the Empire, there is still great turmoil and dissention.The Jade Edition sets the stage for the Hidden Emperor storyline. We'll be providing more details on HE as we get closer to the release. The planned schedule for HE is as follows:
Month 1: 6/19 (the Dragon Clan under Hitomi's leadership)
Month 2: 7/17 (the Brotherhood of Shinsei with a few special additions)
Month 3: 8/21 (the Armies of the Naga on the march)
From Mirumoto Shokan, a follower of Toturi during the Clan Wars:
It also seems as though the Dragon and the Naga had a falling out and they are going at it tooth and nail. The Unicorn is trying to police it all up between the two. Ugly stuff caused by Hitomi.Shokan-san's information comes from a less-than-reliable source, he fears, so one should be cautious before taking it to heart.
From Shiba Toma, Lord of the Agate Palace, Phoenix Clan Strategist:
I had the good fortune to attend the L5R Live action RPG game at Orc Con. The "Hidden Emperor" story received its official kick off durring that game. There was about three hours of non-stop interaction amongst the heads of the 7 Clans and their guests.The game itself was set at the celebration of the first anniversary of Toturi's ascension to the Emerald Throne. However, the Toturi that attended was proven not to be the real Toturi at all! Ikoma Tsanuri somehow discovered the presence of the impostor, killing him in a duel and using her victory as evidence that this wasn't the real Toturi (who would've won the duel and killed her -- it's good to be a Lion!). The impostor was revealed to be a former Scorpion clansman known to have become a ronin. At the time of his death, he was wearing a magical mask belived to be the property of Bayushi Aramoro.
Furthermore, it was revealed that Bayushi Kachiko was the last to see Toturi, and that her scarf was found in his blood-stained chambers (Wick). Additionally, while Kachiko entered Toturi's chambers alone, she was seen to emerge with Bayushi Aramoro beside her (D.W.). All evidence pointed to Toturi being kidnapped by the Scorpion. The Scorpion's legal defense amounted to "This was sloppy. We are not sloppy!" While there was some agreement to this, no one put forward an alternative, and the Scorpion Clan were banished into exile, presumably by Toturi's chancellor, Takuan.
Shiba Toma continues:
Ikoma Tsanuri revealed the impostor, killing him in a duel that the real Toturi would have certainly won. She also told the other clans that the Lions hear their ancestors spirits all the time. Those spirits revealed the impostor... but they do not hear the voice of Toturi, so he must still live*! Matsu Turi defeated Mirumoto [Taki] in a duel at the celebration. The various champions offered him many prizes including a Togashi tattoo and a fine Unicorn steed.Akodo Kage died durring the fighting after the day of thunder. The Kolat Master's Evil shames the Lion no longer.
Later during the evening, Yoritomo and a drunken Kakita Toshimoko came within a hair's breadth of duelling over some unknown offense (Toma), but resolved their conflict with a staredown (Wick). Apparently, after the staredown, Kakita Toshimoko also disappeared mysteriously.
According to Toma-san, other characters at the L5R LARP included Matsu Hiroru (disguised as Nakamuro), the ninja shapeshifter, and the spirit of Matsu Tsuko.
*: Doji Shizue has a clarification on this point. The Lion cannot hear either Toturi's voice or Akodo Kage's voice among the ancestors. The prevailing theory is that this doesn't necessarily prove that they're alive (since everyone knows that Kage died during the Day of Thunder, afterall), but rather that something is interfering with their spirits. As one who honors her ancestors, Kitsu Sei finds this idea abhorrent, and would enthusiastically slaughter those responsible for this atrocity.
From Wizards of the Coast 1998 Product Catalog:
[Trying to track this down again.]
From Ryan Dancey's February FRPG Mailing List Update:
E) Legend of the Five RingsSo, we whack the ultimate bad guy, reveal that the Hooded Ronin is the descendant of Shinsei, kill a bunch of people, and put Toturi on the throne.
But what have we done for you lately?
How about the Jade Edition, the 4th printing of the L5R Basic Set. The Jade Edition is going to be the most important shake-up in L5R history. We're rotating out a bunch of older cards and replacing them with cards from the various expansions. The set will contain enough cards to make all >twelve< active Factions playable. It will also update you on what's been going on since the Day of Thunder and the Death of Fu Leng. There will be 12 new cards (one in each deck), and a whole lot of new flavor text, and some changes to existing cards. The rulebook will contain a full and complete "Most Recently Printed" list of all the existing cards to help out with rulings and wordings.
How about The Hidden Emperor Story Arc, where you'll learn all about the corruption of Hitomi, the duty of the Unicorn, the new goals of the Naga, what Yoritomo thinks about Occupied Terrain, where the Scorpion go, the Army of the Shadowlands, the Lion Invasion, dark secrets of the Kolat, the truth about Ninja, and much, much more!
Look, we're invading something. If this humble scholar were to guess, she would say that the Crab and Lion's roles have been reversed, and the Lions will be invading the Shadowlands.
From InQuest Magazine:
Though the rules remain the same, making The Hidden Emperor fully compatible with earlier incarnations, the theme is radically different. "For 1,000 years, the emperor of Rokugan was the son of the Sun Goddess, " says [John] Wick, but now there's a mortal man on the throne. Society has lost is connection to religion."The effect is like dropping an anvil on a carton of eggs. Shugenja are scrambling for power. The Clans, the Dragons and Scorpions in particular, are at each other's throats. And magic is literally at the caster's fingertips. "Instead of using spells, you channel your own energy, " explains Wick. "Before, you drew lightning from the sky. Now, it's - bang! - right out of your hands." Result: a faster, deadlier game.
Last updated by Neil Laughlin on July 6, 1998.