Ikoma Ryozo

Ikoma Ryozo is sometimes called the dark samurai, for he was born deformed, with his limbs shrunken and hands withered. The night of his birth his mother stayed beside his cradle and prayed to the Fortunes. When the morning came, Ryozo had miraculously changed - his limbs were straight, and his hands strong.

As he grew up, his mother came to be thought of as a paragon of virtue among the Ikoma family, her son's 'curing' being seen as a gift from the Sun Goddess. Ryozo's father, a samurai from the Matsu family, spoke little about his son's birth, and approached his wife only rarely after his birth. Some among the family said this was because he did not want to taint her purity, nor create another twisted child.

In truth, he did not wish to know how his son had been changed, for he knew his wife was a dabbler in forbidden magics. After they had married, he found documents in a strange tongue containing maho, along with blood rituals and other dark secrets. He had forbidden her from using magic and burned all the documents, and never spoke of it again.

Shortly after his father was killed, Ryozo's mother left for a convent in the lands of the Dragon Clan, and Ryozo never knew that magic had saved his life.

Ryozo is a good warrior, serving the Ikoma loyally on the fields of battle, although he has one strange quality. Ryozo possesses an unusual clarity in battle, the almost polar opposite of a berserker's rage. When he fights, time itself seems to slow around him, giving him much more time to study those around him. Ryozo has named this state 'deathwatch', and whenever he enters this state, his body glows dimly, and trails of shadow follow in the wake of his hands.