The Hyōketsu was a yobanjin tribe who lived in the mountains near the Garanto Province. Their priestess were called princess, and were part of the tribe's council. The Hyōketsu used to stage raids against Rokugani lands of the Isawa family. [1]
Traditions[]
Political Structure[]
Leadership of the Hyōketsu was divided between three positions: a high priest, a military chieftain, and a tribe elder. Each leader maintained their own ties and alliances, owing their position to the spirits themselves. When a new leader was required, a test of spiritual favor would be undertaken, to prove that they carried the favor of the tribe's guardian spirits. [2]
Religion[]
The Hyōketsu worshipped the Fortunes and the kami, their priests using the bow and arrow as tools to worship the kami, ward off malicious spirits, defend sacred places from intruders, and even for divination. The Hyōketsu rejected to invoke kami for favor with offerings and prostrations, the point that divided them with their ancestral enemies, the Tribe of Isawa. The kami would simply bestow favor without ever being asked. [3]
History[]
Leaving Rokugan[]
Before the Fall of the Kami, the Hyōketsu and the Tribe of Isawa had their territories overlapping, so the two tribes clashed over resources and theological differences. After the Day of Thunder, the Hyōketsu were among those who would not bow to Hantei. They left north, finding a pass through the mountains to new lands. They expanded into windy steppes, eventually stumbling into a warm pocket valley protected from the colder climate outside. They erected a shrine to their guardian spirits and returned to their way of life. [4]
Assimilation[]
In the 5th century, drought and famine pushed them into desperate raids against the lands to the south, clashing with the descendants of their former enemies, now known as the Phoenix Clan. [4] Eventually the tribe was assimilated by the Phoenix as the Kaito family after a civil war which was won by Kaito no Momotsukihime. [1]
See also[]
References
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