Senzai

Senzai

Senzai was a peasant woman, the reincarnation of Shinsei.

Peasant

Senzai was born in the last decade of the 11th century, a peasant raised in the Dragon village of Senseki Mura. From a very early age she showed uncanny insight into those around her, understanding their motivations and deducing their secrets from the tiniest of clues. Eventually her neighbors accused her of being a yōkai disguised as a human. She fled before they could attack her and lived for a time as a beggar before taking refuge in the wilderness.

Yōkai

Cutting herself from human society, from her duty to the world, gradually she lost her humanity and would became in time a Kobukaiba, a hag of the deep woods. In 1123 she eventually encountered the ise zumi Togashi Kazue, and attempted to kill her, but Kazue used her mystical tattoos to give the peasant a moment of kenshō, an initial insight or awakening, which repaired Senzai's soul. The next day Senzai had gone, and when Kazue returned to the High House of Light, the Dragon Clan Champion Togashi Yokuni sent Togashi Mitsu to find her, for the sake of the Empire. When Mitsu found her, they shared a short conversation and let Senzai go.

Shinsei's Reborn

In the Month of Ryoshun, Senzai realized she was the reincarnation of Shinsei, the Little Teacher. A crow dove from the sky and landed on her shoulder. The events surrounding the Battle of Cherry Blossom Snow awoke her past-life memories of the dawn of the Empire. She would be known as "the injured woman" until her identity would be revealed. In person, she was serene, gentle, and firm, with the same uncanny insight that made her an outcast in childhood. She could anticipate any attack from those around her, through the subtle cues that gave away hostile intent, but she could be ambushed, and if forced into combat she had little ability to defend herself.

Conclave of the Brotherhood

In 1124 the Brotherhood of Shinsei held their annual conclave at the Mountain Song Temple under the hospitality of Mirumoto Daimyō Mirumoto Masashige, being its main agenda item a vote on whether to formally bestow the label of False Path on the Perfect Land Sect, with the risk to fall into a violent schism. She was approaching the temple when a sōhei named Iwa intercepted her. Senzai would be mauled to death but the tengu Ajari attacked the nun and carried Senzai to safety, in the peaks. The peasant was recovering when a group of samurai found her, and brought Senzai to the temple's infirmary. The next morning Senzai exposed herself as Shinsei's reborn. At this very moment, the Mountain Song, which had fallen silent the day before when Senzai was attacked, resumed. She told to the conclave the Perfect Land did not exist, and the words of the kie had no power to free souls from the wheel of rebirth. Bur his moral message was correct: the samurai of Rokugan had indeed lost their way, and the Empire as a whole; all of Rokugani society was out of balance. The very concept of the Celestial Order had been warped over time, becoming a too-rigid system used to justify the oppression of those below for the gratification of those above. The effects of her declaration would ripple far beyond the conclave itself over time. Some Perfect Land communities broke up, others vowed to create the Perfect Land in the Mortal Realm, by righting what had gone wrong.

References

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