Truths

The Old World

At the dawn of time, the nine children of the Sun and Moon fell to earth, becoming at that moment less than gods, but still far more than mortals. Eight of them fell together; the ninth, Fu Leng, fell some distance from the others. The first eight formed an empire, installing Hantei I as the Emperor. The other seven brothers and sisters gathered clans about themselves, naming them the Crab, the Crane, the Dragon, the Lion, the Phoenix, the Scorpion and the Unicorn.

Suddenly, Fu Leng reappeared at the border of the Empire leading a huge army of goblins, undead, and foul creatures from the Shadowlands, the dark place where he had fallen. Fu Leng's army attacked the fledgling Empire, defeating the clan armies again and again.

When complete defeat looked inevitable, a mortal man named Shinsei approached Emperor Hantei and asked for seven mortals, one from each clan, to follow him into the Shadowlands to defeat Fu Leng. These seven brave warriors became known as the Seven Thunders, and, together with Shinsei, they embarked upon their hopeless quest.

Fu Leng's forces continued to crush all opposition, but when they reached the gates of Otosan Uchi, they suddenly faltered. The Thunders had achieved their goal! The Shadowlands forces broke and fled back to their miserable home.

Honor

Honor as a system is an internal measure of a character’s devotion to the code of bushido. Those of deviant cultures such as the ninja may have honor among their own people, but are still considered dishonorable in regards to Rokugani society and the divine blessings of the Celestial Order. Those who forsake the bushido code or apply it only when necessary have low honor rank, while those who use the code to determine every action have a high honor rank.
Honor has a great deal to do with how an individual is treated in Rokugan. A samurai known for dishonorable conduct will be given mediocre assignments at best, and may never be entrusted with any important duties, ensuring that he will never eise in the ranks of his clan. Samurai with high honor, however, will be given pretigious and important duties that can result in their rapid ascension to command within their family or clan’s ranks.

Legacies

Before the Rokugani, before even the Kami, another people lived here. Their ancient ruins are found throughout Rokugan.

Communities

Rokugani society is based on a clan structure, with seven (later eight, then nine) so-called "Great Clans", as well as several minor clans. Each clan has areas of land bequeathed to them by the Emperor, which they were tasked with maintaining. The Emperor retained ownership of all lands, however, and the clans essentially rented the lands they used by paying taxes annually.

Leaders

In addition to the clans, a very powerful faction in Rokugan are the Imperial Families. The Emperor of Rokugan has no clan of his own, but he does have his own family, currently the Iweko family, and three families that served his interests directly: the Miya, the Otomo, and the Seppun family. The Imperial Families have no standing army of their own, though they largely control the Imperial Legions, which recruited soldiers from all the clans of the Empire. Unlike the Great or Minor Clans, the Imperial families have no Champion, as the Emperor himself leads them.

The Imperial Families are often smaller than the families of the Great Clans, but what they lack in numbers they more than make up for in sheer political influence. With the Emperor at their head, the Imperial Families are possibly the strongest political group in all of Rokugan.

Defense

Seven great clans inhabit this diverse realm, ever loyal to the Emperor, but ever fighting for dominance among themselves. As they battle for supremacy, the daimyōs who lead their people must use all their cunning and skill to gather information, anticipate their opponent’s actions, and lay battle plans that will lead them to victory.

Mysticism

In Rokugan, magic is a very real thing. Spirits of the elements dwell in everything and shugenja are trained to get the spirits to do their bidding. The Isawa family were the discoverers of magic within Rokugan. It is said that Isawa's younger brother was the one to make the actual discovery, but Isawa was the one who realized the full potential of the craft. At the time, Isawa saw magic as a tool to give his "Children of the Earth" an equal footing with the extraordinary power of the "Children of the Sky".

Religion

Rokugan's religious beliefs actually encompass three different forms of worship - Shintao, Fortunism, and ancestral worship - all of which are united by the will of the Emperor into a single religious system.

First Born

These Kami were:Hida who founded the Crab Clan was the strongest of the Kami
Doji who founded the Crane Clan was the most beautiful of the Kami
Togashi who founded the Dragon Clan was the most enlightened of the Kami
Akodo who founded the Lion Clan was the greatest warrior of the Kami
Shiba who founded the Phoenix Clan was the wisest of the Kami
Bayushi who founded the Scorpion Clan was the cleverest of the Kami
Shinjo who founded the Unicorn Clan was the quickest of the Kami


Beasts

Rokugan covers a large geographical area and contains many diverse types of terrain, from seas and marshes to mountains and deserts. As a result, it also contains a great diversity of animal life and humans are not the only beings to have developed a civilization.


HORRORS

This region was originally a tropical paradise of color and light, which changed when Fu Leng fell from heaven, and left a crater known as the Festering Pit deep within the Shadowlands. It was from here that the Taint spread out, blighted, and corrupted the land. This was also where demons and evil spirits could cross freely from Jigoku into Ningen-do. The Shadowlands was a constantly shifting and uninhabitable nightmare come to life. It was home to oni, ogres, trolls, goblins, the Lost and countless other vile creatures.