L5R Fourth Century

314: Beginning of Nezumi-Crab Alliance

This is the beginning of the famed Nezumi-Crab alliance (the existence of which the Crab still does not yet admit openly). Twelve-year-old samurai Kazuma has a strange rapport with Ratlings, and forges the bonds of trust between man and Nezumi. The Nezumi believe that Kasuma possessed the soul of both Human and Nezumi, and went on to become a Transcendent spirit after his death.

339: Founding of the Snake Clan

Imperial Magistrate Isawa Chuda successfully saves the Emperor's life from the deadly threat of a Maho cult. In reward for his years of service and valorous actions, the Emperor declares Chuda to be the Daimyo of the Snake Clan after Chuda proclaims that he is the Emperor's serpent, "creeping into the hidden places and striking down your enemies."

347: Founding of the Centipede Clan

Around the dawn of the century, a minor Isawa daimyo founded a modest shugenja school in an isolated valley east of the Mountains of Regret, near the sea. He left eleven daughters and no sons, and those daughters left a similar legacy. Due to their isolation from the Phoenix, both culturally and physically, several Otomo convince the Hantei that records would be tidier were they a minor clan. The Hantei grants their request, giving them the name of Moshi. The Centipede revere Amaterasu even over the Hantei himself, with his permission and that of every Hantei following.

353: Founding of the Asahina family

Isawa Asahina was the Phoenix master of air, also known for his power with Fire, and the greatest artificer of his time. A great war was fought between the Lion and the Phoenix, and the Crane forced a peace. Isawa Asahina was furious, believing that the magic of the Phoenix would have crushed the Lion, and he went on a rampage across the lands of the Crane, destroying whole villages, and those samurai who dared to stand against him were struck down.

Until he met a lone samurai-ko, Doji Kiriko, who risked everything by standing in front of his targets, making no move to attack or even defend herself. He made two attacks, and she threw herself into the path of both, saving the lives of the peasants gathered behind her. Awestruck by her bravery, he relented.

Caring for her wounds over the next months, he eventually joined the Crane clan, bringing with him many brethren, and the Asahina family was born.

Asahina forms a close bond with the Brotherhood of Shinsei, particularly the Order of Mercy, a sect devoted to the Fortune Jizo. Many new monasteries are built throughout the Crane lands as a result of this bond.

371: Crowning of Hantei Fujiwa

Hantei V (also known as Hantei Fujiwa) was an exceptional Emperor for many reasons. He believed that the more recent Emperors were too concerned with increasing the quality of life in the Empire for certain areas instead of improving the Empire as a whole. Hantei Fujiwa was the first Emperor since Hantei himself to actually engage the forces of the Shadowlands in combat. Hantei V himself slew oni with the powerful Sword of the Hantei, and led the Imperial Legions in combat side by side with the Crab.

When the Emperor returned to Otosan Uchi, his wrath upon the Lion and Crane was great. He accused them of weakening the Crab through political attacks, requiring as a result his direct intervention on their behalf. Fujiwa's first wife died childless during the time he was in Crab lands, only furthering Hantei's anger. Late in Fujiwa's reign, his eldest son was kidnapped by a conspiracy of Crane, Phoenix, and Scorpion courtiers calling themselves the Gozoku.

387: The Yasuki split and the Crane-Crab war

The great Crab-Crane war was the first large-scale internal war in Rokugan. Caused by the Crab seizing territory along the Crane's southern borders (presumably to feed the Crab's beleaguered troops after a number of major battles against the Shadowlands), and the split of the Yasuki family from Crane to Crab, the war lasts over a decade.

391: The Kidnapping of Hantei VI

Bent on taking the power of the Emerald Throne for their own, the Gozoku Alliance plots the end of the Hantei line with the death of Hantei Fujiwa's heir, the sixth Hantei. Unbeknownst to his co-conspirators, Bayushi Atsuki is visited by the Dragon Champion unexpectedly a week before the assassination is to be made. Togashi requests the Hantei hair be spared and instead allowed to live as a figurehead of the Gozoku's rule. The Dragon Kami cryptically states, "The time of the last Hantei has not yet come." Seeing Togashi's advice as implicit approval of the Gozoku's course, Atsuki alters the designs on Hantei VI and gains immeasurable confidence in his actions.

391-435: Rulership of the Gozoku

After the kidnapping of Hantei Fujiwa's heir, the Hantei Emperor had little choice to but to concede to the demands of the Gozoku Alliance. Fujiwa fell ill and died shortly after capitulating to the Gozoku, leaving his aged uncle Otomo Tohojatsu, as reagent until Hantei Kusada could rightfully claim the throne. Tohojatsu quickly fell in with the Gozoku, as he had always coveted possession of the Emerald Throne. Hantei Kusada (Hantei VI) was destined to serve as nothing more then a figurehead -- by the time he was of age to take the throne, Otomo Tohojatsu's concessions to the Gozoku had rendered them completely in control. The Gozoku themselves were interested in establishing the independance of the clans, with the Hantei Emperor to serve as a "face" for their rule over the clan provinces. The Gozoku's rule was a prosperous time for Rokugan. They encouraged a detailed system of roadways and new ways of conducting trade and travel so that the clans would be able to stand more apart from each other. Art and culture flourished. Unfortunately, so did crime and corruption as it became clear that even the Great Clans cared nothing for the Emperor's law.

Doji Raigu (son of the Crane Champion and later Champion himself), Shiba Gaijushiko (the Imperial Scribe), and Bayushi Atsuki (the Emperor's spy master and Scorpion Clan Champion) led the Gozoku.

397: Coronation of Hantei Kusada

The son of Hantei Fujiwa's coronation was held completely under the power of the Gozoku Alliance.