Akodo-no-Kami | |
---|---|
Born: | Unknown |
Died: | 99 [1] |
Parents: | Amaterasu Onnotangu |
Siblings: | Bayushi Doji Hantei Hida Shiba Shinjo Togashi (Half) Fu Leng (Half) Ryoshun |
Children: | Five unnamed sons |
Titles: | Kami Lion Clan Founder |
People |
Akodo One-Eye was son of Lord Moon and Lady Sun, and one of the Kami who fell to the mortal realm from the Celestial Heavens, alongside his siblings. [2]
Heavens[]
Since the beginning of time, Lord Moon chased Lady Sun about the world. One day, he caught her, and as her light faded, the curtain fell on the age of the ancient races. Over the course of countless seasons, Lady Sun gave birth [2] to ten children: Hida, Doji, Togashi, Akodo, Shiba, Bayushi, Shinjo, Fu Leng, Hantei, and Ryoshun. [3] Fu Leng was openly despised by Lord Moon, and all their siblings did not know why. Unknown to them, Fu Leng and Togashi had a different father than the rest of their siblings, a Lord who Lady Sun met during her wanderings from an unknown land he called Tian Guo. [4]
Fall of the Kami[]
Legends told that the Moon, jealous over Lady Sun's love for their children, swallowed their Kami children. This day was the night with no light, when Amaterasu wept for her children. Amaterasu saved her final child, Hantei, from being swallowed to save his siblings. [5] Amaterasu trained Hantei in the martial arts. When Hantei and Lord Moon finally did battle, he sliced open his father's belly, and the rest of his siblings tumbled out. They fell from the sky to Seppun Hill, save for one. Lord Moon reached out at the last moment and grasped Fu Leng. Hantei swung his sword one last time and severed his father's very arm. Fu Leng tried to grab ahold of Hantei, and they both fell. Plummeting downward, Fu Leng plunged through the earth to Jigoku itself, where he was lost. [2] Ryoshun's name was lost to history. [3]
Founding Rokugan[]
The Creation of Mankind[]
In some places, the blood mixed with Lady Sun's tears, and from that mingling came the first men and women. [2]
Tournament of the Kami[]
No longer immortal, the Kami shared the mortal realm with human beings. They resolved to teach and guide these humans, and they held a great tournament to see who would lead those who lived in this land they dubbed Rokugan. Lord Akodo defeated Lady Doji, and when he turned to fight Hantei, he nearly lost himself in his battle fury. Hantei turned Akodo's rage against him, and emerged victorious. Hantei was the final victor, and after his coronation as Emperor, he charged each of his siblings with a different task. [2] The reflection of the sun on Hantei's blade had stilled Akodo's own sword. [6]
Lion Clan[]
To defend Rokugan, Akodo would lead great armies. [2] Akodo was the founder of the Lion Clan. Rokugani considered him the god of war and the greatest commander to ever live. [7] Akodo was the greatest tactician of the Empire, [8] capable of learning from past mistakes and adapting new stratagems on the battlefield. [9] His war treatise Leadership was renowned in the Emerald Empire. [10] He was also regarded as the Kami who gave the way of Bushidō to the Rokugani. [11]
Patience[]
To establish his clan, the Kami Akodo sought out the greatest fighters and tactical minds, challenging them in whatever they claimed as their mastery. But few proved his equal, and his clan grew slowly. While his siblings boasted the allegiance of entire families and their clans began to swell, he had only a small fellowship of warriors, tightly knit but few in number. Akodo did not mind. He knew his patience would one day pay off. One winter, when he brought only a handful to court before the Emperor, Hantei remarked that he was “a lion without a pride.” Akodo simply replied, “A lion does not stand with sheep.” [12]
Shinsei[]
When Shinsei spoke with the Emperor, and his brother Shiba wrote what would become the Tao, Akodo made to leave. Hantei stood, angry that his brother had insulted the Little Master, requesting an explanation. [13]
"His way is not my way."
-Akodo [13]
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Akodo found Shinsei's philosophy to be so odious, so antithetical to the samurai way, that he denounced it as soon as he heard it, before the Emperor and the Little Teacher himself. [14] Akodo ordered the Tao would not enter Lion lands, but Hantei reversed his order, so a copy of Tao was included in every Lion dōjō. Akodo decreed that the Lion Clan should never open their copy of the Tao, the teachings of Shinsei. [13]
War Against Fu Leng[]
But not long after the Kami had begun to order the world and formed clans with their earliest followers, Fu Leng emerged from his subterranean lair. He confronted Hantei because he had not been invited to the Tournament of the Kami, and challenged Hantei's right to rule Rokugan. Togashi was selected as the Emperor's Champion, who in turn selected all that lives in Rokugan as his weapon. [15] Fu Leng assaulted the Empire with his dark army from the place which would be known as the Shadowlands, but they were eventually repelled from Rokugan by the Seven Thunders on what became known as the Day of Thunder. [5] Akodo had confronted his brother, and he eventually had wounded Fu Leng, forcing the Ninth Kami to retreat and creating the opening Shinsei required to end the conflict. [16]
The Kitsu[]
Akodo waged war on the kitsu race, thinking them beasts, and only when the kitsu learned to speak Rokugani did he understand and ask forgiveness. To atone for almost exterminating their race, he offered them a place in his clan, and the surviving kitsu married his children, and founded a new family, the Kitsu family. [17]
Family[]
Akodo had five sons. [6]
Legacy[]
Military in Rokugan was upgraded with the innovations brought by Akodo, such as the employment of bows in massed and disciplined units of archers, firing in a coordinated manner. Akodo also revolutionized the use of wartime spies, often turning agents sent to observe him back on their masters through false information or bribery. [18]
Preceded by: None |
Lion Clan Champion 5 [19] - 99 |
Succeeded by: Unknown |
Preceded by: None |
Akodo Daimyō 5 - 99 |
Succeeded by: Unknown |
References
- ↑ Fields of Victory, p. 30
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 4
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 9
- ↑ Adventures in Rokugan, p. 139
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Whispers of Shadow and Steel, by Mari Murdock
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Fields of Victory, p. 92
- ↑ The Great Clans (Learn to Play Rulebook)
- ↑ Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 223
- ↑ Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 45
- ↑ An Empire in Turnoil...
- ↑ In the Garden of Lies (Part 1), by Marie Brennan
- ↑ Fields of Victory, p. 46
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Fireflies, by Robert Denton III
- ↑ Fields of Victory, p. 49
- ↑ Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, pp. 4-5
- ↑ Celestial Realms, p. 101
- ↑ Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 183
- ↑ Fields of Victory, p. 28
- ↑ Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 10
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