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Our rendition of the Deception’s Veil Dojo, using Charles Urbach’s card at as a reference. This part has yet to find it’s final home in our Rokugan world, but expect additional screenshots when it does. 

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Before anyone asks, the pure black is water.  This is rokugan as per our current campaign. 

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About the Nothing

So after being extremely confused about the Nothing for quite some time I finally figured out how the Nothing, Lying/Living Darkness, Goju, Ninube, Akodo, and the Shadow Dragon all line up. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I FINALLY know how to differentiate these forces. Nothing: On it's own, it isn't even truly sentient. It is simply exists to balance out the universe, it does not expand or attempt to consume things. Potentially just another manifestation of the Void. Very different from how Celestial Agonies depicts it. The Lying Darkness: An unnamed entity which hid from the Kami, thus becoming connected to the Nothing. It was lonely being the only thing unnamed, and reached out to Goju. Also known as Living Darkness to the Dragon Clan. Goju: A Human, possibly a Scorpion Shinobi, who met the Lying Darkness. When he joined the Darkness, his twisted mortal mind sought revenge. This changed the nature of the darkness, and turned it into the enigmatic force seen by the Empire in the War against Shadow. Akodo: The Lion Clan was without the Akodo family as the name had been removed from the Empire at the time. When the Lying Darkness was captured, Hitomi recognized that Goju could be separated  from it, and when this happened Darkness gained the Name Akodo. Many Goju Ninja, (The faceless minions of the Darkness) then joined the Lion Clan as Akodo Samurai being freed from Nothingness. What happened to old One-Eye?  I still have no clue. Shadow Dragon: With Goju being destroyed, the Lying Darkness now being Akodo, the Nothing was essentially defunct. However, the Air Dragon consumed the last fragment of Goju, and became the Shadow Dragon. Being the new Avatar of Nothing, the Shadow Dragon was actually quite different in it's plotting. It does not desire to unmake the universe unlike Goju. Although it's true mission is unknowable, it is possible that the shadow dragon itself shall simply fade away in time restoring the Nothing to it's true peaceful state and restoring harmony to the universe. Should the shadow dragon be destroyed, or consumed by the true Nothing entirely (Which has no Agenda), then Goju would truly be destroyed as well and the nothing would cease to threaten Rokugan for eternity.  Ninube: The woman given the name Ninube is simply shadowspawn, but the far more important person is the extremely obscure Kuni Hoseki, AKA the Ninja Mystic. Like Goju, Hoseki was terribly alone and the Lying Darkness came to her. Hoseki viewed the nothing as family, and embraced it wholly, even to a degree that Goju did not due to his material concerns with unmaking reality in revenge. Rather than being consumed by the Nothing, she gave herself to the nothing, and yet strangely she retains her sense of self. Perhaps this is due to her positive relation with the Nothing. Either way, while the remaining Goju are under the Shadow Dragon's control it would seem that the Ninube are not. Hoseki herself seeks to oppose the Shadow Dragon, as do many of the other Ninube. Or perhaps this is a plot by the Shadow Dragon? Either intentional or not, there is a rift between the old minions of Nothing. Perhaps the shadow dragon is preparing the Ninube to destroy it, thus taking itself, the last ties of Goju, and all connections the Nothing has to ningen-do with it?

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It's been a long time since I posted any photos from the minecraft project so here is one of my latest additions to Koutetsukan [Iron Turtle City]. Before anyone asks, the lack of sails is on purpose. The city isn't too much to look at yet, but I'm slowly coming up with ideas on how I want to present it. I potentially inspired my GM to run a Tortoise Clan Winter Court campaign where they hold court on one of these monstrosities. 

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In the last campaign, one of our players was an amphibious half-naga. He was on a quest to find his family, which was something everyone knew because he would literally walk up and say "HAVE YOU SEEN MY FAMILY."  So our Shosuro Actor decided to immortalize his plight with her kabuki play: Finding Ningyo.  The climax of the play involved him walking up to his family, whom were tied up, and asking them "HAVE YOU SEEN... MY FAMILY." and walking away.  It was a smashing success. He commit seppuku. 

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On this topic: Should probably ignore the fact the rumours that little Tonbo Yamahana is carrying a Daisho made from Obsidian. Giving children weapons capable of obliterating things from existence due to an unusual connection to the Void/Nothing would just be irresponsible and no honorable Daimyo would allow that to happen. 

TFW: Your Daimyo is the Dark Oracle of Void. Never mind the fact that my orders come from the dark side of the void, I’m sure I’m not being sent on random missions to create chaos. I didn’t spend 4 days running around the Togashi Monastary shouting “DOOM” on behalf of my Daimyo, that would be silly and insane. 

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TFW: Your Daimyo is the Dark Oracle of Void. Never mind the fact that my orders come from the dark side of the void, I'm sure I'm not being sent on random missions to create chaos. I didn't spend 4 days running around the Togashi Monastary shouting "DOOM" on behalf of my Daimyo, that would be silly and insane. 

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So our group entered the Lion lands, as my Tonbo (For some godawful reason, by which I mean her trouncing an Akodo Bushi in sparring.) has been officially invited to the Matsu Dojo of the Lion Clan. We stopped by Kyuden Akodo so my character could thank the Akodo Daimyo for the paperwork given to her. He was nice enough, (Considering the Lion HATE the Dragonfly.) but on our way out of the Kyuden my character decided to practice her Kenjutsu on a training dummy. Her badass Kitsuki-trained ears overheard some Lion talking about her, apparently under the impression she is a Matsu being married to a Tonbo. She attempted to correct them multiple times, but they pretty much just kept saying "Whatever you say Matsu-san...sama..." probably hoping to avoid conflict.  So now after about another month of travel she has arrived at Shiro No Matsu, and is expected to meet up with the Matsu Daimyo. All of this because apparently the Matsu are going to help the poor little Tonbo on her quest for enlightenment. All I know, is I have the distinct feeling I might suddenly find myself a most "honored guest." [Hostage] if I don't play this right. 

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Just got done with our latest L5R session. Most of our group spent the session traveling up to the Dragonfly Valley accompanying the step-daughter of the current empress. Mostly uneventful, but they were ambushed by a Kolat attack force.  Near Kyuden Tonbo (Castle of the Dragonfly Clan) my character was sitting in her house when she got a knock at the door. Apparently she has acquired the affections of an Akodo Bushi. Terrified by the possible ramifications of insulting him, she has allowed him to stay around and spend time with her. (The Akodo are from the Lion Clan, which has attempted to slaughter the Dragonfly twice already.) However, due to a bizarre misunderstanding, the Akodo (Who was SUPPOSED to be made ronin for leaving his post to follow my character.) is now believed to potentially be marrying the step-daughter of the empress.  In an attempt to entertain her guest, she offered to spar with him. After completely destroying him (Literally rolling twice what he rolled.) they continued until the Akodo FINALLY got a hit on my character. At which point she conceded that he was the better Bushi. The next day, an Ikoma showed up sent to mockingly praise his actions at his post (which he left). Being oblivious, my character believed he was actually an extremely honorable samurai. Later that afternoon, they sparred again while the Ikoma watched and once more, the Akodo didn't manage to land a single hit, and the contest ultimately stopped when both the training swords broke. (We both rolled 55s.) Despite the fact she had practically thrown him across the room twice before, she once again claimed she had lost. The Ikoma then insisted my character consider joining the Matsu Berserkers. This invitation was formally made by the EXTREMELY HONOURABLE AND IMPORTANT AKODO BUSHI AND POTENTIAL EMPEROR WHO IS IN NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM A RONIN THAT DITCHED HIS POST. (So sayeth the Ikoma Bard)  Next Stop: The Togashi Monastery to see what they can do for our Fox Clan Shugenja turning into a literal dragon. 

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Campaign Update 2

All but one of our group [Who was absent from game.] was signed up for the Topaz Championship. (A large tournament for young samurai.) Most of us were given the wonderful motivation of "Do well or become ronin."

Most did well on the tasks, except the older female Kitsune Shugenja. She nearly failed out, but pulled through at the very last minute and we all ended up making it to the day 3 of the competition: Iaijutsu Duels. The duels were over pretty quickly as apparently destiny chose one of the random NPCs (A young Mirumoto Bushi) whom did not roll lower than a 43 on any of his Iaijutsu/Void rolls. Because of the prestige required, each of us was approached after the main event to discuss our future. The female Kitsune Shugenja (Yoshie) was approached by a mysterious figure and commended on her "free-thinking attitude." She attempted to respond negatively, explaining she wished only to serve the Fox Clan, but it is clear that she has potentially picked up the attention of the Kolat. The Bat Clan Shugenja being trained as a Soshi was approached and offered a position in the Kuroiban, although he doesn't know details about his offer yet. Only that it's an "exclusive group". My character (Tonbo trained as a Kitsuki Investigator) was approached by a man she believed to be her Daimyo, but is actually the Dark Oracle of Void, and offered a position being "the necessary change in Rokugan." The Dark Oracle also confirmed her beliefs that her "brush-buddy" (Penpal) has been captured by the Kitsune Daimyo. She has accepted the position, and now knows that her Daisho, crafted from untainted obsidian, has the potential to unmake things. On top of all this she has acquired the affections of an unknown Lion that has decided to begin following her. Her adoptive father also decided to reward her by taking her out to eat at a small restaurant that served many types of "tuna" [Meat] much to her vegetable-hating delight. Finally the younger Kitsune Shugenja was approached by the Voice of the Empress. He simply stated he could make the young Shugenja extremely successful, and when the young Shugenja accepted the offer he was asked about his choice of favorite fruit. After saying "pear" he was handed what appeared to be a pear delicately crafted from glass and informed that it was in fact edible. The young shugenja walked away, biting into the pear and subconsciously wishing to be more like a dragon. He awoke the next day to discover he has begun growing scales and claws, and perhaps even starting to sprout horns from his head much to his delight. After the discovery of the young Kitsune's sudden transformation, his sensei intended to ship him off to their Daimyo so she could dictate his fate. After a series of suggestions that very likely would have gotten someone killed, I intervened, explaining it was extremely important that the Kitsune-sensei trust me. To prove this, I handed her a pouch of rice I keep around my neck. (The Rice was blessed by the Fortune of Rice, Inari. I basically was nonverbally stating "I'm on a mission from a god.") This was accepted, and I arranged the kid to be sent North to the Dragon Clan.

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Taint Post-Iweko

Something I find really interesting is how the Taint is handled in a post-iweko rokugan. In theory you can't become tainted unless you have willingly accepted the taint. All Spider-Clan members found to be tainted were sent outside of Rokugan to conquer distant lands. Which means the single largest bastion of tainted samurai in Rokugan would be from the little Sparrow Clan. So, basically the story goes that the Spider Clan [Evil servants of Jigoku] infiltrated the Sparrow, but life is so hard for the tiny sparrow clan all the evil tainted Spider samurai found themselves needing to work in the fields alongside everyone else. Eventually many of them found their life of honourable poverty gave them strength over their own previous dark allegiances and they turned against their brethren who sought to destroy the Sparrow for good.  Now mechanically, there is actually something that is relevant. In 4e, a character that lives a "spiritually pure life" is supposed to receive a bonus anywhere from 1k0 to 2k2 to resist the shadowlands taint. This is why most tainted samurai are shipped off to monasteries to become monks. Yet the Sparrow, living a life of honest work and selfless efforts by default are living extremely spiritually pure lives. It's become a running joke in our L5R group that "Anything is better than being a Sparrow, because even Fu-Leng couldn't tolerate the Suzume Hills."  For this reason, ironically I think the Sparrow are actually more prepared to fight off Maho-Tsukai or other scourges of the empire than even the Crab. (Whom inevitably fuel the chaos with their own spiritual ills of being at war constantly.)  Maybe it partially comes down to flavour. In an Eastern-Fantasy setting, I feel that the image of the humble hard-working down-to-earth samurai in a tattered kimono with a perpetual smile on their face and a story for every occasion far surpasses that of the battle-shaken major-clan juggernaut with a heart of rage when it comes to the fundamentally spiritual nature of the taint.  I know some people would find a Rokugan where the taint is minimized to be a rather potentially dull world, but I'm personally a fan. It opens up opportunities to make evil more about personal failings, which is the kind of intimate storytelling L5R really does well. Of course I'm also biased because I find most of the prominent enemies in L5R to be downright boring. [I'll make another post about this sometime.]  Not to mention, the taint is kind of the lazy-GM's go-to for villainous affairs. You can literally take any situation, throw in some taint and suddenly OH NO, EVIL. Especially when the cosmic conflict between good and evil is so removed from the lives of most samurai. Give me an enemy created from a person's inability to be free of desire (gaki), or the spirit of a warrior that couldn't mentally leave the battlefield (slaughter-spirits), or even just an ambitious but otherwise totally human samurai any day.

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I really gotta say though, the thing I'm really interested in this particular campaign is how the Scorpion Clan [Bound by Loyalty] is going to philosophically survive the false-daimyo ordering them to fight the true daimyo (Who is only a teenager, despite her prodigal accomplishments.)  My GM is extremely good at weaving the spiritual politics and inter-spirit realm nonsense with the "real-world" politics of the Rokugani courts. Of course, 3/5 players in our group are Shugenja at the moment, so heavy spiritual involvement should be expected. 

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My depiction of the Rokugani Cosmology. I spent quite a bit of time reading up on which realms were close to which other realms, and although I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a 4-dimensional mess I suddenly realized the positioning could be fairly accurately depicted using this model. Yume-do technically touches all realms because even gods dream, so I decided to depict it as the outermost-layer if you will.

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Campaign Update

So I figure I'd give an update on the latest happenings in my L5R group. Our Rank-Zero campaign has started and we are all a bunch of kiddies. The setting is in the year 1209. The empire is involved in a Scorpion Civil War where the young lady Bayushi Amai fights to claim her throne with the blessing of the Empress herself. The opposing side is comprised of the followers of the old Daimyo, her father, whom unbeknownst to all has been replaced with a nogitsune shapeshifter bent on creating chaos wherever he goes. The Fox Clan has split from the mantis, and a new Minor Clan Alliance has shown up consisting of the Tortoise, Fox, Sparrow, and Dragonfly.  The first character in our party is a Kitsune Shugenja trying to stay true to her shape-shifting ancestors, while also dealing with numerous shady dealings which have been happening around her. Her sensei was murdered by the sensei of another PC who is training with the Soshi. The murdered sensei was replaced with an actor, whom died shortly after while attempting smother her 'student'. Her distress somehow summoned a dog to enter the room and rip the scorpion's throat out. While this is happening she has been struggling to deal with her families expectations that she will marry a man, but has recently been delighted to discover that her Crane fiance's cousin [a boisterous and extremely un-sparrow like sparrow.] somehow made a drunk challenge to Tamori alchemist offering him an estate in exchange for turning her cousin into a girl. (The Tamori NPC then proceeded to roll an absurd 147 on a spellcraft check, and produced a magical sex-changing elixir.) On top of this sudden turn of events, it was revealed that the Crane clan, whom were hosting first looks, have been sneaking high-paying samurai exclusive "viewing opportunities" for the most beautiful of the young guests. Numerous samurai have since been exposed to be involved in this, some of which have died and others have found fates just as bad in the eyes of Rokugan. As repercussions, the Sparrow, with the help of the Kitsune and an older Tortoise clan member have managed to twist the city of Aketsu from the crane's control.  The second character, and the second of the Fox Clan in our campaign. A younger girl being trained by the Tortoise to be a smuggler. She is extremely fond of math, and mostly spends her time playing games with the other characters. She is perhaps the most-normal of all the characters. (And most certainly the one with the best claim of being "entirely human.") The third character is the last Fox Clan samurai in the group. He is another Shugenja, who is a descendant of a Ryu. (Shapeshifting dragon spirit of Tengoku.) He is extremely fond of roaring loudly, and is generally a brat. He has discovered at his first look he is to be married off to a Tamori from the Dragon Clan, and he is contemplating becoming a Togashi Tattooed monk if the option becomes available to him.  The fourth character is from the Bat Clan. He was sent to join the group, as the Fox has been attempting to convince the Bat to join the alliance. He is being trained by the Soshi, and has found himself the black sheep of the group. Like the first Kitsune Shugenja he has a strong connection to his bat-shapeshifting ancestors. Much to his amazement however, he has been chosen to marry a Seppun, and become an Imperial. He has also been struggling with his secret desire to destroy the Fox Clan after his adoptive father (A Shosuro Ninja) was discovered during a dramatic escape from Kyuden Kitsune on a mission to save the life of the third in line for the Daimyo's Throne of the Fox Clan. Finally my character, a Dragonfly being trained by the Dragon Clan. Originally she was going to be a Bushi, but after a series of incidents of being at the right place at the right time, she was chosen instead to join the Kitsuki Investigators. Previously she was struggling with the realm of dreams slowly taking control of her due to her subconscious desires to escape her reality [involving a severely abusive mother] however she has recently made friends with a Gaijin, and a shape-shifting wolf spirit who collectively have helped her brutally murder her mother in revenge. In all the wondrous nature of being a naive 9-year-old [She's the youngest character in the group.] she very enthusiastically accepted the wolf-spirit's offer to be her adoptive father. We are about to have a year long time-skip, during which she is going to discover she can see very well in the dark, and for some reason she seems to be developing a very good nose. (But she's pretty sure it was all those gross Carrots the Kitsuki made her eat. She much prefers tuna. Like Mountain Tuna [goat], or Mud Tuna [pig], or anything else that bleeds.) All of these events are backdrop to the dramatic revelation that the current Kitsune Family Daimyo has been plotting to acquire people with connections to various spirit-realms perhaps on a quest to destroy the entire celestial order. (Most distressingly, my character was witness to the Fortune of Rice, Inari, being shackled with obsidian chains and lead deep into Kitsune Mori.) 

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That awkward moment when a minor clan shugenja wins the Iaijutsu tournament at Imperial Winter Court.

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Apologies for the darkness of a night-shot, but I thought the island looks nice in the dark. We've just started working on Iron Turtle City, which exists on it's own volcanic island and is controlled by the Seppun family. The city is primarily used to create ships, but in recent history it hasn't been used as much so there is some element of decay we are planning to incorporate into the city design. 

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My L5R groups current campaign is about to come to a close, which is exciting. We have been talking about doing a pre-gempukku campaign after this in which we will all be rank 0 minor clan samurai. I'll be playing a bookworm tonbo trained as dragon bushi.