L5R Third Century

210: Disappearance of the Kami Hida

In the year 210, the aged Kami of the Crab took up his tetsubo, announced he intended to seek out his lost son, and departed into the Shadowlands. He was never seen again.

210: Togashi's Secret

Two hundred years after Hantei's coronation, Scorpion Champion Bayushi Oshiro sets his spy network to discovering the truth behind the Dragon's mysteries. His own daughter ventures to Togashi's mountain, but does not return for seven years. When she does, she is blind and her hair is streaked white - but Togashi's greatest secret was hers. She is pregnant and her baby will be the child of a Kami. She leaves Scorpion lands after sharing the truth of Togashi's identity with her father. Unbeknownst to the Scorpion Clan, Togashi's bride also retrieves the Twelfth Black Scroll for the Dragon Kami, which he takes under his personal protection.

223: War with the Rocs

Crossing a vast mountain range, the Ki-Rin are attacked by men riding gigantic birds, large enough to carry a man and his steed off. The two forces battle for days amid the snow-capped mountains before students of Iuchi call down the mountain-side to crush their enemies. The gambit is successful, but destroys the pass through which the Ki-Rin entered, permanently blocking the path leading back to the Ujik-hai and Rokugan.

In response, Shinjo splits the Hantei's mirror into four pieces then divides the Ki-Rin into four groups to search for a passage home. Each group leaves in a different direction, and the mirrors allow them to communicate with one another intermittently.

225 - 442: Trials and tribulations

The Ki-Rin are seperated for over two centuries, with each group encountering a variety of friends and goes. The Otaku run afoul of their old enemies from the City of Sorcerers and discover that the insidious villains have learned to remove their hearts from their bodies to ensure their immortality. The iuchi combat and then eventually make peace with strange, elemental beings known as jinn. Shinjo's family thwarts the activities of a cult of assassins who worship a murderous, multi-armed deity called the Destroyer. The Ide and Moto encounter the Ashalan, a race of immortal beings sharing a finite number of souls. The Moto take to the seas and make contact with the distant kingdom of Merenae.

In 442 the Otaku, Iuchi, and Ide receive a startling image of Shinjo being torn apart by darkened talons. They rush to reunite and discover what threatens their beloved lady, a lady who most of her servants have never seen.

234: Formation of the Shinmaki Shinseist sect

At the twentieth Great Convocation, a monk called Basso appears, claiming to have in his possession a lost compilation of Shinsei’s wisdom, written immediately before the Little Prophet disappeared into the Shadowlands. Many believe its philosophies are an outgrowth of Togashi’s interpretations of Shinsei’s wisdom, rather than Shiba’s. Basso urges the wisdom of this “Diamond Sutra” over other collections of Shinsei’s writing. Basso’s urgings were considered outrageous by some, including the legendary monk Kobo, who left the meeting and was never seen again. At the Convocation’s end, enough monks had embraces Basso’s ideas that a new sect, Shinmaki Shinseism, came into being. The exact teachings of this sect remain a mystery to all save those within it, as the differences between the Diamond Sutra and the original Tao are subtle to be sure. Even so, subtle differences in a document as important as the Tao are enough to cause a wide rift between the Shinmake and other Shinseists.

243: Invention of Koku

Yasuki Tanaka invents the koku. The system of exchanging items of worth for goods or services existed long before Tanaka, but his design is the koku recognized today. The koku's design features the kanji of the Fortunes on one side and the Kami on the other. Though they are simple and recognizable, Tanaka's coins manage to confound most attempts at forgery. When the Emperor inquires as to the nature of the strange little copper coin (which was, at that point, exclusively used by the Crane) Tanaka gladly provides the Emperor with his minting plates as a gift.

247: Death of Hantei Genji

Like his father, Genji is said to have ascended into the Celestial Heavens upon his death. The latter part of Hantei Genji's rule secures Shinseism and the philosophy of Shintao in the Empire, although it does not become widely popular until later in the history of the Empire. Hantei Ningi succeeds him.

251: Togashi Kaze is executed

The ise zumi Togashi Kaze, progenitor of kaze-do, is called before Hantei Ningi to demonstrate his arts. As he refused all other samurai before him, Togashi kaze refuses even the Emperor, and he orders his Emerald Champion to cut him down. He refuses, and commits seppuku. The Hantei then tells his general, a Matsu, that he will become Champion if he slays the monk. The Matsu does not hesitate, and the monk dies, but kaze-do survives.

254: Formation of the Shintao sect

At the twenty-second Great Convocation, it is decided to resolve the growing disputes between the monks by dividing the Brotherhood into multiple sects. Of these, the Shintao sect is the largest.

268: Creation of Kaze-do

As the Empire grows, so too does the division between the classes. It expands greatly when the third Hantei commands that no peasant may carry a weapon on pain of death. This unintentionally leaves all heimin with no defenses against the dangers of the land, both natural and otherworldly. Few consider the peasant's plight worthy of attention, but one man - an ise zumi named Togashi Kaze - takes action. Kaze develops a new style of jiujutsu and makes it famous by demonstrating it on furious (and well armed) samurai a number of times. The Emperor requests a formal demonstration of Kaze's technique, but the monk refuses, stating the art is for the peasants alone. Enraged by the monk's effrontery, the Hantei orders Kaze's death and he goes to his grave never having taught a single samurai his style.

283: Death of Isawa Akuma

Isawa Akuma loses control, and his soul, to the extremely powerful Oni that he summoned and bound to his name. Oni no Akuma utterly destroys the province in which it gained freedom, and carves an unstoppable path of destruction before finally reaching the Shadowlands.

Only the Maw ever gained greater infamy since, and only for the army it led.