Bloodspeaker Cult (TCG)

Bloodspeaker

Bloodspeakers were the students and followers of Iuchiban, those who preserved his teachings. A rare few learned to preserve their lives by placing their hearts in boxes, making them effectively immortal. After hundreds of years of study, their mastery of mahō was second to none.

Worship

All Bloodspeaker cults venerated Iuchiban as a godlike figure who personified awesome and terrifying power. Most members of Bloodspeaker cults were not themselves mahō-tsukai, though their bloody rituals invariably drew kansen to the places where they worked their rituals. Bloodspeaker cults were quite rare and the most successful ones tended to be relatively small, insular, organized into dispersed cells, and located in remote areas. Their reverence for Iuchiban sometimes manifested in the spilled blood of a sacrifice, a phenomenon known as the Oracle of Blood.

Words of Power

The Words of Power wielded by Bloodspeakers, called malefic words, allow them to better hide the unholy power upon which they drew and resisted the temptation to give themselves over fully to Fu Leng. Bloodspeakers dealt with and control corrupted spirits and undead beings, but their art let them avoid becoming one of the Lost or otherwise suffering the corruption of the Shadowlands. It did this primarily by siphoning any corruption off into the land or into other creatures. Bloodspeakers used true names to command evil spirits without needing to use their own blood as an offering, which also helped them avoid Shadowlands corruption.

Organization

Most Bloodspeaker cults tended to maintain a grimly rigid hierarchy, and each one generally had a leading figure, a high cultist or high priest, who had several deputies, variously called acolytes, adepts, or simply priests, who perform specialized roles. The remaining individuals were called members or, if they had yet to prove themselves to the leadership, initiates.

History

In the late fifth centurycentury, an evil sorcerer known as Iuchiban rose to power wielding potent, dangerous, and illicit magics in an effort to seize control of the Empire. He was able to animate corpses to do his bidding and fight on his behalf, and he even imbued those foolish and corrupted mortals who choose to follow him—the Bloodspeaker—with the power to do likewise.

Rise of Iuchiban

In the year 510 the samurai artisan Asahina Yajinden presented swords he had forged to the champions of the Crab, Crane, Lion, and Scorpion Clans. Soon afterward, the Lion Clan Champion launched a disastrous winter battle against the Dragon Clan, the Crab Clan Champion murdered his children, and the Crane Clan Champion confessed to a love affair in front of his entire court. All three took their lives with these blades. Only the Scorpion Clan Champion escaped such a fate, soon revealing the smith's corruption, and the presence of the Bloodspeaker Cult. Iuchiban raised an army of the undead to march on Otosan Uchi. Thanks to the warning provided by the Scorpion Clan Champion, the Imperial Legions and the armies of the clans defeated the undead forces.

The Second Rising of Iuchiban

In the year 750 the spirit of Iuchiban escaped his tomb and possessed the body of one of his strongest followers to serve as his own. Gathering an army of maho cultists and reanimated corpses, he again attacked the Empire. His Bloodspeaker disciples instituted a wave of unrest, assassinations, and sabotage throughout Rokugan to hinder the Empire's ability to organize a response. The Bloodspeakers converged on the Twilight Mountains to join their evil master. Marshaling his monstrous forces south of the Shinomen Forest, Iuchiban launched them on a vicious rampage that swept across the lands of the Scorpion Clan, culminating in the fall of Ryokō Owari Toshi. The Scorpion fought a bitter and brutal rearguard, now known as the Battle of the Bloody Retreat, to buy the needed time for the clans to raise forces large enough to offer help. Eventually, they were forced out of their lands entirely, and into Beiden Pass. When all seemed lost, the Lion Clan finally arrived, flanking Iuchiban's forces from the south and drove them northward. By the time the Lion reached the vicinity of Sleeping River, forces dispatched by all of the clans had arrived to support the Lion and Scorpion. The armies of the Great Clans stopped the advance of Iuchiban's forces at the Battle of Sleeping River, and one Ise Zumi succeeded in trapping Iuchiban's spirit in the monk's own body long enough for both to be sealed into a tomb.

Known Cells

• The Gatherers
• The Summoners

Known Techniques

• Blade of Blood
• Bloodbound Familiar
• Bloodspeaker's Sigil
• Fiend's Retreat
• Interrogate Dead
• Manifestation of Blood
• Soul Transfer
• Vile Curse
• Whispers Turned to Weapons

See also

• Bloodspeaker/Meta

References

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