Shinden Fu Leng

http://www.imperialassembly.com/news.php?news=116

In which the Dark Lord of the Spider arrives in Ryoko Owari Toshi to take back what was taken from him.

“We have started down a path of very different virtues, and Kanpeki knows that Shourido is not a road from which one returns.”


Yes Mantis, rebuild your clan. With Shourido!

interesting. i guess these take place before the scene in the throne room

i believe it mentions kanpeki as the daimyo of the daigotsu so i think its after the throne room stuff

The Clan Champ is also the Daimyo of his family. :p

Besides, Kanpeki won't get demoted until AFTER Seiken becomes Emperor. Which he isn't... yet.

fair enough

I'd imagine they take place before. I know the ST has to dance around before and after the throne room incident to make some stuff make sense. For example, the corruption of the Shrine to Yoritomo took place after the throne room fiction, which had yet to be published.

If the Iweko are toppled before his ascension, then the decree is NEVER enacted. Of course, if Kanpeki acts before any of this comes to pass, he clearly is the bastard.

If this happens before the throne room scene, it's a little bit odd for Kanpeki to already be musing about destroying the world...especially in front of a few scorpion.

I know I'm late to the party, but I really didn't want to pass this fiction away without commenting.

I like the fiction, even if I'm sceptical when the build-up in the fictions will actually reach their climax. The Mantis being transported to Thunder Dragon Bay, for instance.

I also like the vignettes with Kanpeki. That he'll save the City of Lies and that he has possibly gained some Scorpion allies weaves story prizes and path votes into the the story without disrupting the flow of the story. He takes the loss of the Hantei Sword rather light, maybe because the Mantis' theft will now enable the sword to be tainted again. However, I'm not quite sure what the Otomo did to the Mantis for them to slaughter an Imperial convoy and steal a Spider sword. If they (or parts of them) really distrust the Spider, I don't see what stealing the Spider accomplishes beyond shaming the Otomo.

That the Spider now foster 100 Yoritomo children into Daigotsu bushi and paragons of Shourido is very interesting, and I hope this story continues. Maybe we'll even get someone as cool as Hotako from this co-operation.

What I dislike, however, is that Shibatsu is on the Kill List for the autumn season. That implies that the is not important for the fortcoming plot of the Spider. Because if he were, he should have been offered as a target to kill. He is one of the few Spider(ish) characters for others to care about him, and he is a Spider prize that I feel hasn't reached its full potential. I'd rather he wasn't offered as a target, but I get that the Story Team needs to offer characters players care about, and there aren't many on the list that I care about. Of course, some are blank characters but for their cards, and kind of a headscratcher for me. I just don't see why some of the characters are on the list.

I think that he's on the list specifically because people care about him. Each of the lists have one or two that the clans are attached to, but the rest are just filler. Shibatsu is definitely there to create some tension amongst the fan base as he is the Prime Target for all the clans, either to save, kill, or Taint.

I think so, too. But this also means that he is not supposed to be the Spider Champion or play a a bigger role in the clan. Otherwise he wouldn't be offered. Why he isn't listed as a Spider character is beyond me, too. But I hope that he survives, pure or corrupted.

This might be a pivotal moment for the mantis, remember... they are almost dying out. Now 100 Yoritomo children could really be the future of the clan, and they belong to us. I see a Mantis on the side of Spider once the time jump happens at this point.




Because there is not much to go off of here. What spider charecters actually matter right now besides Naishi, Atsushi, Kanpeki, and Kuroko? None really. Atsushi is looking to be our perspective character so they cant off him. They dont have many real favorites to put on there.





If we are assuming that the Heirs was not decided until the Spring this makes perfect sense. They have cards for the next year and a half, If Shiabatsu was going to legitimately become the clan champion of the Spider then his card would have been made and thus, he would not be expendable. They cant say he does, because Onyx makes it all irrelevant anyway.

Its clear that his main role in the story was done. He played his part in the heir conflict. But Seiken won and now there really isn't a point to Shiabatsu, he cant stand and defend the Spider, because we are committing blasphemous treason, he cant rule the spider, because its clear that isn't happening because of Onyx and we voted against the Iweko.

The same would probably be happening to Seiken if Shiabatsu took the throne. Because of the necessity of the Heirs conflict neither heir needed a long term plan in case they won, because Onyx was literally on the way. Our prize was to get the heir, then we had the chance to put him on the throne, we failed and thus there really isn't anything to go along with for it. The only heir that really matters at this point is the emperor.

His becoming "champion" was just to give a catalyst for Kanpeki turning on the throne, nothing more. It might be sad to say he never lived up to his potential because, well he didn't, we lost.

I'm not sure Shibatsu's presence on the list necessarily indicates he won't have a role to play in Onyx - but rather, that his role isn't set. Maybe his role is to die during Kanpeki's initial rampage and underscore the seriousness of the threat. Maybe his role is to be corrupted and become part of the Obsidian Empire. Or maybe it's to live and do things that otherwise wouldn't be done, or would have to be done by someone else. Who knows? Even AEG doesn't have to know until the Kotei season is done. They're committed to the overarching Onyx plot by card printing schedules, but anything not printed on the cards themselves is fair game.

It does mean he presumably won't be carded, though, yes. Unless he gets a card in Evil Portents or The Blackest Storm... and who knows, he might.

Well it does, that's the point of these lists, we are determining their fates, if we kill Shiabatsu then he dies and that is that. They write his death and the impact of it. If he is corrupted then they write that. If he is saved it is written how he is saved.

His place in onyx is fill in the blank, his role as a setting defining character is over, now we just decide what happens to him.

Sure a good story COULD evolve from this, any of these characters could, but by putting him on the chopping block it's a message that he has no defined purpose anymore. You don't put the major players in a situation where they could die, that is very important and something story has been good with so far. There is a reason Seiken isn't on this list, because he matters in the long run. I'm willing to say that Kuroko has more importance to the plot right now then Shiabatsu, same goes for Renyu and others. So the obvious point is that he is at the end of his arc as a character that defines the plot. He is on the same level as Kozan, a character that right now is losing purpose and thus is free to be thrown out if the players choose so.

I would rather invest in a new character instead of more of an already used character. Especially if he isn't a spider.

The heir prize failed, we didn't get him on the throne and due to the story we are not in a position where he is able to be relevant or profitable to us. Hell, even if we DID get Shiabatsu on the throne they were planning on denying us any of the rewards for our hard work by throwing us into horde mode no matter what because of their dark empire story that most players don't even seem excited for as we watch it sound more and more impossible as the votes come in. He is a flavor personality now, there isn't any major swings that he is bringing to the table.

He will be an enemy if he follows the character that he was built up to be, a good honorable man who cares for his brother if saved, our mind controlled puppet if we taint him, and a tragedy for Seiken if we kill him, hopefully developing Seiken more.

I couldn't disagree more. His being on the list means none of this. It means HOW he will impact the future is undefined, but it in no way declares his level of importance or impact.

I remember when there was a contest about which Clan Champion would fall to the Plague during the Destroyer War, and Daigotsu was one of the prime contestant (although the Scorpion lobbied so hard for Paneki it was almost assured to be him). The story team said ''Sure, you can kill Daigotsu, but there will be consequences!''

And the Destroyer War would have had a different ending if that happened. The Story Team are trying to make our choices matter, both outside the game and with tournaments, and putting important characters a risk of death is just another way of shaping the story. Whether the Emerald Champion, the Voice or Shibatsu survives will have an impact on the story and we shouldn't discard them as useless to the grand scheme of things just because they might die.

^
This.

This so hard it hurts.

I could say I do not want to put pressure on the Story Team because that would be lying.

Please don't disappoint. I'm really hoping for something great.