Bayushi Megumi

Bayushi Megumi was the Scorpion Clan Champion under the rule of Hantei XIII.

Scorpion Heir
Megumi was the daughter of the Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Tsuya. In the year 533 the Scorpion Clan was humiliated by the Lion Clan in the Battle of Kenson Gakka, which led her father to commit seppuku.

Unwilling Betrothal
Megumi quickly found her and her clan in troubles. The monk and Imperial Advisor Gorinno was the religious leader of the movement known as Five Rings, Five Clans. He had proposed years ago that the unbalance in the Empire would end once the Scorpion and the Crane Clan merge in one Great Clan. Since the Crane Clan Champion, Doji Iwata, was widowed, Gorinno pursued his own agenda forcing the betrothal of both Clan Champions. The Emperor Hantei XIII granted Megumi to wait three years before the wedding, the traditional mourning period for one's parent.

The "Hawk Clan"
At the end of Winter Court the Emperor proclaimed the merged Crane/Scorpion “Clan of Air” would be known as the Hawk Clan. Megumi used her clan's resources and allied with the Crane and Phoenix Clans to push back against the Five Rings movement. In the next winter court Scorpion, Phoenix, and Crane courtiers all staged a series of relentless political attacks on Gorinno without success. At the end of winter a wave of kanshi sweeped through the ranks of both clans. The next year Megumi abandoned an assassination plot against Gorinno, as it would only make him a martyr for his creed.

Broken Betrothal
With only a week left before the fated wedding, a delegation from the Brotherhood of Shinsei named Gorinno's teachings a False Path, the Heresy of the Five Rings. Confronted, the Imperial Advisor lose his on in front of the Imperial Court, ordering his followers to destroy his enemies' temples. The Emperor turned his back and Gorinno was banished. The Order of the Five Rings was sanctioned as heretical and disbanded.