Ide Nominari

Ide Nominari was an Emerald Magistrate of the Unicorn Clan. She was possessed by a shozai-gaki which had merged with Yugoro's spirit, a infamous bandit Lord, and Nominari became a flesh-eater bandit Lord herself.

Early Years
Nominari was the granddaughter of Ide Ashijun, a renowned magistrate who died while seeking the infamous bandit-Lord Yugoro. Ashijun had chased this King of Bandits for years during the Clan War and even before. On the day of her gempukku Nominari was given a blade retrieved from one of his grandfather's yoriki, the only survivor of Ashijun's last mission. The servant who returned the blade swore it was the one Ashijun wielded in his death.

Guidance
Since Nominari took the blade, she realized it was a nemuranai. A voice from within claimed to be Ashijun's restless spirit, and guided the samurai-ko since to find the remnants of the former bandit-lord. Nominari began to suffer occasional headaches, and she had been blacked out for days or weeks if she did not find tracks of Yugoro. The blade's soul swore she would rest after Yugoro's Lair was found.

Magistrate
Nominari followed the family footsteps, as her father and grandfather before her had both been successful Emerald Magistrates. She went to the court of Yasuki Hachi where she proved herself to be a capable and studious magistrate. She was appointed to hunting down bandit gangs across Rokugan. In 1161 Nominari began a crusade against the remaining followers of Yugoro. Nominari had gained a flash of insight from the blade that identified a group of bandits she had encountered as descendants of Yugoro's Hordes.

Yugoro's Lair
In winter of 1162 Nominari found the cave on the northern side of the Spine of the World Mountains where Yugoro had had his hideout. For weeks, she had been experiencing horrible headaches and memory loss. The magistrate, her yoriki Ugure, and a slew of peasants were trapped in the mountain lair due to winter storms for over two weeks. The blade she carried was not her grandfather, Ashijun's, but the receptacle for the tortured soul of Yugoro himself and its spirit had taken hold of her mind.

Shozai-gaki
Ashijun many years ago had found the lair of the bandit ronin, and had taken Yugoro's head in the cave. A powerful gaki that had been observing the greedy ronin for years took advantage of that moment and had opened a passage into Ningen-do from Gaki-do, the Realm of Hungry Dead. It had lifted up Yugoro's body and had feasted upon all but one of the remaining magistrates, including Ashijun himself. The powerful spirit had merged with Yugoro to become a shozai-gaki. After no more flesh was available than a lone yoriki, the gaki bound himself to one of the many swords that laid about in his stronghold and convinced Ashijun's yoriki to carry him from the area, the blade wielded by Nominari since her came of age.

Possessed
Nominari had been guided by the powerful spirit, which managed to convince the woman to bring it a feast of flesh. Yugoro convinced the gaki to allow him to take her over and return to the mortal world. From here he would rebuild his vast network to feed the insatiable appetite of Gaki-do.

Bandit Lord
In 1165 Nominari had rebuilt Yugoro's Hordes, specifically the remnants of the Forest-Killers. She had taken the name Yugoro and passed herself off as a man as often as not. With Yugoro's spirit inside her she convinced dozens of lieutenants that she was the old bandit-lord reborn. Nominari was unable to get word out to anyone as to what had occurred and the new Bandit Lord operated in relative secrecy.

Appearance
Nominanari was a dour young woman with a dowdy appearance of that of a man her age. She had a taned skin, a wrinkled face, wispy hair, with searching eyes tinged with the taint of insanity.