Shinden Fu Leng

Here is my bounty for the Bride of the Empire event:

(1) If a Spider player wins the event chooses Daigotsu Anije as Seiken's bride, he or she will receive $40 (US) from me.

Anije was a very interesting female character when we had little female characters. She is a former Hida bushi who was forced to join the Spider and serve in the Colonies as an extortionist. She was low-level, but I've always wanted to learn more about her story. Seiken despises the Spider (of Kanpeki), but a Hida bushi seems like a suitable spouse, Spider or not.

(2) If a Spider Player wins the Event and chooses Yunmen, the Whisper as Seiken's bride, he or she will receive $30 (US) from me. She is our liason to the Order of Benten, was chosen by our iown Jason Pere and will teach her tricks to Omigawa. She should have more story.

(3) If corrupted characters are permitted (which I'm not sure of, but Tainted Gahseng was an Empress' Guard, too) and a Spider winner chooses one of the following characters, he or she will receive $20 (US) from me:

• Ninube (Toturi) Kaede; she is a former Empress, a former Toturi and now the Ninube daimyo freed from the Shadow Dragon's slavery. For her to sit on the throne again is an interesting story.
• Kokujin Kuchika, Blood of the Dark Lotus. Her artwork is awesome and I like the Order of the Dark Lotus since I first picked up a Shadowlands Deck in Lotus edition. That's reason enough.
• Daigotsu Sachio, she was the backbone of our Dark Virtue decks in Samurai Edition, has great artwork, but never got the storytime she deserves. Now we can remedy that.

(4) If a Spider (or Mantis) player wins the event and chooses Yoritomo Aranai, the Warlord of the Colonies, as Seiken's bride, he or she will receive $20 (US) from me. Aranai should be in her 40s or 50s, and she is currently a Fudoist monk. I realise that if she marries Seiken there must be some politicking behind it, as he probably would need a concubine to receive an heir. But Rokugan has been to much a blunt place as of late, we can use some political intrigue.

(5) If a winner of any clan chooses a character who is positively connected by blood, via rebirth or student/teacher connection to the following characters (no sworn enemy, nemsis or suchlike), he or she receives $20 (US) from me. Something similar was asked for when Unaliged (Jigoku) won Gen Con. The prize character should be connected to M'rika and this has given us Otomo Suikihime.

• Fu Leng (dead)
• Omoni
• Kayomasa
• Daigotsu Yajinden
• Daigotsu Shimekiri
• Daigotsu Chaozhu (Naleesh's uncle, 'nuff said)
• M'rika
• Goju Yurishi
• Susumu Akurei (Winter Court 3 working horse for our delegation)
• Taishuu
• Yoritomo Aranai (also available for Mantis players)

I will be attending this event and I'd also like to add a bounty.

Any spider player who wins and chooses Ninube Shiho for the bride will receive $100 cash from me on the spot.

Can the Demon Bride of Fu Leng be selected?

I wouldn't complain. However, I presume that if Spider wins, it's meant as a victory for the Shibatsu loyal Spider Clan, the minority. Having a Tainted Spider wife might, perhaps, mayhaps, maybe, work. Something worse than Tainted will probably give the Story Team a major headache and end up in a ST limbo that's not fun for anyone.

Isn't Shiho that redfurred Ratling girl?

Or would she shapeshift, but still be the friend of the One Tribe? In any case, it's not Chiisai, the Crab elephant bride.

I get the Impression that the bride is supposed not to be supernatural evil, but the Story Team is present, so ideas can be worked on quickly.

Also, go win the tournament, Sparks - and better choose one of my bounties.

I'm gonna try to win it. There is gonna be some hefty competition coming in.

Since Shiho is a ratling right now, would Onchi be a better pick?

Better as Shiho, yes. Because I don't think that she can be both, the Imperial Consort and a Ratling of the Last Tribe.

However, as far as Goju and Ninube go, they can assume either gender, so you could even choose Justin's Yurishi, the Dragon Child. Based on the artworks, I'd choose Goju Mitsuru, Goju Gochiso, Goju Asuka, or rather, Ninube Aitso.

Yajinden also can craft the body for himself that he likes (or so he did when he bargained with Suikihime).

Now, without the Shadow Dragon the Goju and Ninube definitely have bigger story potential, as they regain parts of their indentity. But I'm just not sure if this prize won't turn into a poison pill if we choose a Shadowspawn or other shapeshifter next to Seiken. The story can only go a few ways: the bride is found out and killed, the bride isn't found out and everyone feels duped or the bride is found out but healed somehow. If the purpose of the prize is to strengthen the Iweko dynasty, a Goju or Ninube won't work, but not every winner might want to strengthen the Iweko dynasty or to keep Seiken on the throne. So even an infiltrator could have an interesting story (and it doesn't have to be a Spider one, other clans have human-looking beasts, too, or shinobi).

Kokujin Kuchika... The only answer. Literally put the Dark Lotus into the heart of the empire.

A Crane, sure!

I've revamped my bounty (5) and made it available to every clan.

When did that happen? Is there a story somewhere?

It's heavily implied at the daimyo list of the Daimyo Project (PDF):

I will x10 this bounty from Audax, raising it to $220.

~Andrew