Unicorn Clan Pack: Warriors of the Wind - General Unicorn Lore
Posted: Thu May 21, 2020 11:23 pm
The Unicorn Clan has been settled in Rokugan for almost three hundred years, but they still retain much of the wildness and many of the gaijin customs that set them apart from the rest of the Empire. It is not that the Unicorn are unable to assimilate, but rather they have centuries of practice at adapting to new lands by remaining true to themselves. Rokugan is no different, and the Unicorn will not lose that essential part of themselves that makes them so valuable to the Empire.
The Unicorn are charged with the defense of the western border against all threats, which they feel justifies their maintenance of the Sand Road even its existence has never been sanctioned the Emperor. Furthermore, the Unicorn still hold themselves charged with Shinjo's original duty: to explore, to find new threats and prepare Rokugan for them--sometimes by turning those threats into allies.
Shinjo’s Clan
Shinjo-no-Kami was renowned for her swiftness as much as for her kind heart and love of freedom. During the dawn of the Empire, she gathered like-minded mortal follower to her and founded her own clan, choosing the Ki-Rin, a mystical beast known for its speed, beauty, and sense of justice, as her emblem.
After the Day of Thunder, Shinjo felt troubled. She could not help but think that her own failure to search for her fallen brother Fu Leng had helped turn him to his evil ways. She was also aware that Fu Leng had threatened her new homeland from beyond its borders. What other grave threats lay hidden beyond the edges of the map?
Shinjo gathered her followers together and told them she was planning to leave. She released them from their oaths to her, saying they needed only go with her if they chose to do so. The majority of the Ki-Rin, however, loved Lady Shinjo and shared her curiosity and thirst for adventure. They made preparations for a long journey. When Shinjo took her leave of her siblings, her brother Hantei gave her a magic mirror, with which she could communicate with Rokugan even while far away. Her sister Doji gave Shinjo a beautiful sandalwood fan to serve as a reminder of her homeland. Then, the Ki-Rin rode into the west and vanished from all knowledge for nearly 800 years.
When the Ki-Rin returned, it was as a strange horde of gaijin horsemen galloping with great haste out of the Shadowlands. They used foreign sorcery to blast a hole in the Crab clan’s vaunted Kaiu Wall and rode north, smashing or evading each army that sought to oppose them. As they entered the lands that once belonged to the Ki-Rin, and were now held by the Lion, a massive and brutal war seemed inevitable. But then a delegation from the Unicorn Clan reached the Imperial capital. This delegation spoke a strange, archaic version of Rokugani and wore outlandish clothing, but they carried with them Lady Doji’s sandalwood fan. At the insistence of the Crane clan, the Emperor passed an edict welcoming the Unicorn--as they were now known--back to Rokugan. Conflict with the Lion clan ceased, the Unicorn reclaimed their land, and the long process of adapting to their once and future home in the Emerald Empire began.
The Sand Road
Shinjo Temujin Khan, Champion of the Unicorn at the dawn of the 10th century, saw that his clan was in peril. His clan had just lost many of their warriors in an ill-fated expedition into the Shadowlands, and they had not yet found solid footing with the Imperial Court, so the Unicorn Clan was vulnerable to both the military and political depredations of the other clans. In an attempt to secure his clan’s future, Temujin gathered together one hundred of his best scouts and charged them with finding a safe route across the Burning Sands to the rich lands to the west, where his clan had once traveled. Trade, the khan hoped, would be his clan’s salvation.
Five years later, after the death of half of Temujin‘s scouts, a reliable route to the Ivory Kingdoms and even to al-Zawira in the Cradle of the World was found. This so-called Sand Road became a critical source of treasure and er not just for the Unicorn, but for the entire Empire. By shipping silk, tea, and works of art westward, the Unicorn receive a wealth of nephrite jade, precious stones, honey, sugar, gold, silver, opium, exotic glassware and tools, not to mention foreign innovations andknowledge. Temujin Khan had saved his clan.
Although trade has been periodically interrupted in the centuries since, Shinjo Khulan Khan led a united force of Shinjo and Moto hordes west in the 11th century, conquering the length of the Sand Road all the way to the gates of al-Zawira. The Caliphate counterattacked in 1072, but in 1074 an army of Moto and Utaku warriors, bolstered by Ganzu infantry from the Hidden Valley, broke the Caliphate offensive on the very borders of Rokugan and re-conquered the length of the Sand Road, which has remained a Unicorn holding ever since. Now, Khanbulak, on the border of Rokugan, is the richest and most important city in the Unicorn’s possession, and the Sand Road makes the Unicorn one of the wealthiest of the clans.
Families of the Unicorn
The Shinjo
The ruling family of the Unicorn are forever a people of two worlds. Both foreign and Rokugani. Both warriors and diplomats. Both creatures of the court and the open plain. In battle, the Shinjo are the leaders, providing many noyans (officers) to the Unicorn armies and fielding the most accomplished scouts and outriders in the whole of the Empire. In the courts, their compassion makes them valuable allies as their honorable actions back up their words.
The Shinjo daimyo is Shinjo Altansarnai, Champion of the Unicorn Clan, Khan of Khans, and Mistress of the Five Winds.
The luchi
While traveling through the world, the luchi family (and their founder, the sorcerous polymath luchi himself) had to develop a new system of magic that would function in the absence of the kami's influence. Fortunately, the Unicorn learned from the sorcerer-kings of Old Rempet a form of Name magic that they call meishodo. Since returning to Rokugan, the luchi family still practice meishodo and still serve as the preeminent shugenja of the Unicorn clan.
The luchi daimyo is luchi Daiyu, who in addition to his role as spiritual advisor to the Clan Champion is also her lover and father of her children.
The Utaku
The Utaku family is most famous for their elite battle maidens, the shiotome. No other family is more devoted to Bushido than the Utaku, and this purity and devotion not only makes the battle maidens fearsome opponents, but also earns them alone the right to ride horses of the blessed herd, the noble and powerful warhorses that share the family’s name.
Within the matriarchal Utaku family, the men serve as mounted infantry, grooms, equerries, horse Ticaclans and trainers, and household stewards. The Utaku battle maiden school accepts only women of great nobility and purity of heart, so those who reject these norms must look elsewhere for tutelage and advancement.
The Utaku daimyo is Utaku Rumaru, a gentle yet fierce matriarch who wishes to ensure the young warriors that will inherit her family are strong and virtuous enough to lead it well.
The Ide
When the Ki-Rin Clan traveled across the world, it was the Ide they relied upon to make them welcome everywhere they went. Now in Rokugan, Ide diplomats remain the most important ambassadors of the Unicorn clan, both to the Imperial court and to the other clans.
Famous for their calm and friendly demeanors, Ide serve as diplomats, merchants, and couriers throughout the Emerald Empire. Frequency pacifists, the Ide would always rather talk than fight.
The Ide daimyo is Ide Tadaji, whose impaired leg prevents him from riding free with the rest of his clan. Fortunately, his keen mind is put to good use in Otosan Uchi, the Imperial capital.
The Moto
Shortly after they left Rokugan, Shinjo’s people came to the Plain of Wind and Rock where the Ujik people dwell, living a nomadic lifestyle on the steppes. Near starvation in that inhospitable land, Shinjo and her people were saved by one Ujik tribe, which joined their clan and taught them Ujik ways. That Ujik tribe survives today as the Moto family, the stalwart warriors and fierce raiders of the Unicorn. Aggressive, proud, and deadly, the Moto are among the most skilled warriors in the Empire. Their horse archers and heavy lancers are unparalleled and form the backbone of all Unicorn armies.
The Moto khan is Moto Ogodei, who guards the western border and rules the city of Khanbulak.
Like the Wind
Of all the Kami, Shinjo most exemplified the Bushido virtue of Compassion, a virtue that the Unicorn still hold dear despite their rough and often warlike ways. Their compassion and their open-mindedness mean that the Unicorn are the best-equipped of all the clans to treat with outsiders and to defend the Emerald Empire from threats from without...and to identify and responsibly introduce those foreign ideas and technologies that are most worthy of adoption. This flexibility is maximized on the field of battle, where Unicorns make use of their superior horses and tactics to confound the enemy, and strike where--and how--they are least expected.
The Unicorn are charged with the defense of the western border against all threats, which they feel justifies their maintenance of the Sand Road even its existence has never been sanctioned the Emperor. Furthermore, the Unicorn still hold themselves charged with Shinjo's original duty: to explore, to find new threats and prepare Rokugan for them--sometimes by turning those threats into allies.
Shinjo’s Clan
Shinjo-no-Kami was renowned for her swiftness as much as for her kind heart and love of freedom. During the dawn of the Empire, she gathered like-minded mortal follower to her and founded her own clan, choosing the Ki-Rin, a mystical beast known for its speed, beauty, and sense of justice, as her emblem.
After the Day of Thunder, Shinjo felt troubled. She could not help but think that her own failure to search for her fallen brother Fu Leng had helped turn him to his evil ways. She was also aware that Fu Leng had threatened her new homeland from beyond its borders. What other grave threats lay hidden beyond the edges of the map?
Shinjo gathered her followers together and told them she was planning to leave. She released them from their oaths to her, saying they needed only go with her if they chose to do so. The majority of the Ki-Rin, however, loved Lady Shinjo and shared her curiosity and thirst for adventure. They made preparations for a long journey. When Shinjo took her leave of her siblings, her brother Hantei gave her a magic mirror, with which she could communicate with Rokugan even while far away. Her sister Doji gave Shinjo a beautiful sandalwood fan to serve as a reminder of her homeland. Then, the Ki-Rin rode into the west and vanished from all knowledge for nearly 800 years.
When the Ki-Rin returned, it was as a strange horde of gaijin horsemen galloping with great haste out of the Shadowlands. They used foreign sorcery to blast a hole in the Crab clan’s vaunted Kaiu Wall and rode north, smashing or evading each army that sought to oppose them. As they entered the lands that once belonged to the Ki-Rin, and were now held by the Lion, a massive and brutal war seemed inevitable. But then a delegation from the Unicorn Clan reached the Imperial capital. This delegation spoke a strange, archaic version of Rokugani and wore outlandish clothing, but they carried with them Lady Doji’s sandalwood fan. At the insistence of the Crane clan, the Emperor passed an edict welcoming the Unicorn--as they were now known--back to Rokugan. Conflict with the Lion clan ceased, the Unicorn reclaimed their land, and the long process of adapting to their once and future home in the Emerald Empire began.
The Sand Road
Shinjo Temujin Khan, Champion of the Unicorn at the dawn of the 10th century, saw that his clan was in peril. His clan had just lost many of their warriors in an ill-fated expedition into the Shadowlands, and they had not yet found solid footing with the Imperial Court, so the Unicorn Clan was vulnerable to both the military and political depredations of the other clans. In an attempt to secure his clan’s future, Temujin gathered together one hundred of his best scouts and charged them with finding a safe route across the Burning Sands to the rich lands to the west, where his clan had once traveled. Trade, the khan hoped, would be his clan’s salvation.
Five years later, after the death of half of Temujin‘s scouts, a reliable route to the Ivory Kingdoms and even to al-Zawira in the Cradle of the World was found. This so-called Sand Road became a critical source of treasure and er not just for the Unicorn, but for the entire Empire. By shipping silk, tea, and works of art westward, the Unicorn receive a wealth of nephrite jade, precious stones, honey, sugar, gold, silver, opium, exotic glassware and tools, not to mention foreign innovations andknowledge. Temujin Khan had saved his clan.
Although trade has been periodically interrupted in the centuries since, Shinjo Khulan Khan led a united force of Shinjo and Moto hordes west in the 11th century, conquering the length of the Sand Road all the way to the gates of al-Zawira. The Caliphate counterattacked in 1072, but in 1074 an army of Moto and Utaku warriors, bolstered by Ganzu infantry from the Hidden Valley, broke the Caliphate offensive on the very borders of Rokugan and re-conquered the length of the Sand Road, which has remained a Unicorn holding ever since. Now, Khanbulak, on the border of Rokugan, is the richest and most important city in the Unicorn’s possession, and the Sand Road makes the Unicorn one of the wealthiest of the clans.
Families of the Unicorn
The Shinjo
The ruling family of the Unicorn are forever a people of two worlds. Both foreign and Rokugani. Both warriors and diplomats. Both creatures of the court and the open plain. In battle, the Shinjo are the leaders, providing many noyans (officers) to the Unicorn armies and fielding the most accomplished scouts and outriders in the whole of the Empire. In the courts, their compassion makes them valuable allies as their honorable actions back up their words.
The Shinjo daimyo is Shinjo Altansarnai, Champion of the Unicorn Clan, Khan of Khans, and Mistress of the Five Winds.
The luchi
While traveling through the world, the luchi family (and their founder, the sorcerous polymath luchi himself) had to develop a new system of magic that would function in the absence of the kami's influence. Fortunately, the Unicorn learned from the sorcerer-kings of Old Rempet a form of Name magic that they call meishodo. Since returning to Rokugan, the luchi family still practice meishodo and still serve as the preeminent shugenja of the Unicorn clan.
The luchi daimyo is luchi Daiyu, who in addition to his role as spiritual advisor to the Clan Champion is also her lover and father of her children.
The Utaku
The Utaku family is most famous for their elite battle maidens, the shiotome. No other family is more devoted to Bushido than the Utaku, and this purity and devotion not only makes the battle maidens fearsome opponents, but also earns them alone the right to ride horses of the blessed herd, the noble and powerful warhorses that share the family’s name.
Within the matriarchal Utaku family, the men serve as mounted infantry, grooms, equerries, horse Ticaclans and trainers, and household stewards. The Utaku battle maiden school accepts only women of great nobility and purity of heart, so those who reject these norms must look elsewhere for tutelage and advancement.
The Utaku daimyo is Utaku Rumaru, a gentle yet fierce matriarch who wishes to ensure the young warriors that will inherit her family are strong and virtuous enough to lead it well.
The Ide
When the Ki-Rin Clan traveled across the world, it was the Ide they relied upon to make them welcome everywhere they went. Now in Rokugan, Ide diplomats remain the most important ambassadors of the Unicorn clan, both to the Imperial court and to the other clans.
Famous for their calm and friendly demeanors, Ide serve as diplomats, merchants, and couriers throughout the Emerald Empire. Frequency pacifists, the Ide would always rather talk than fight.
The Ide daimyo is Ide Tadaji, whose impaired leg prevents him from riding free with the rest of his clan. Fortunately, his keen mind is put to good use in Otosan Uchi, the Imperial capital.
The Moto
Shortly after they left Rokugan, Shinjo’s people came to the Plain of Wind and Rock where the Ujik people dwell, living a nomadic lifestyle on the steppes. Near starvation in that inhospitable land, Shinjo and her people were saved by one Ujik tribe, which joined their clan and taught them Ujik ways. That Ujik tribe survives today as the Moto family, the stalwart warriors and fierce raiders of the Unicorn. Aggressive, proud, and deadly, the Moto are among the most skilled warriors in the Empire. Their horse archers and heavy lancers are unparalleled and form the backbone of all Unicorn armies.
The Moto khan is Moto Ogodei, who guards the western border and rules the city of Khanbulak.
Like the Wind
Of all the Kami, Shinjo most exemplified the Bushido virtue of Compassion, a virtue that the Unicorn still hold dear despite their rough and often warlike ways. Their compassion and their open-mindedness mean that the Unicorn are the best-equipped of all the clans to treat with outsiders and to defend the Emerald Empire from threats from without...and to identify and responsibly introduce those foreign ideas and technologies that are most worthy of adoption. This flexibility is maximized on the field of battle, where Unicorns make use of their superior horses and tactics to confound the enemy, and strike where--and how--they are least expected.