Lion Clan

More than any other clan, the Lion clan embodies the warrior ideal of bushido-the way of the warrior, the virtues and morals of the samurai. The Lion might be called the soul of the empire: The samurai of the Lion are the paragons of warrior virtue, while the shugenjas keep the voices of the past alive by speaking with the ancestors. The Lion also produces the empire's great historians, keeping Rokugan in touch with its past .

RECENT HISTORY

During the Battle at Oblivion's Gate, the Shadow was finally' defeated by virtue of being named. Its power derived from the fact that it had never been named, and thus it was never bound to a shape. When at last Hitomi gave it a name, she called it Akodo-a name that fit the Shadow, for like the Shadow the Akodo were nothing, but also a name that changed the Shadow, for the Akodo were always the most honorable family of the clans. Suddenly, the Shadow had a form and a nature, and its nature was the epitome of honor. The decimated ranks of the Akodo, disbanded after the Scorpion Clan Coup, were filled with all the shadow-walkers who had lost their previous identities, and the ronin Ginawa was made their daimyo, since he had pulled Toturi from Jigoku. The new Akodo family has not had an easy time being reintegrated into the Lion clan, but they have proven themselves as honorable as their name and as valiant as their adoptive ancestors.

Though refugees from the Dragon lands have avoided Lion lands so far, settling instead on the borders of the Phoenix, the Lions are wary of the steady stream of refugees and have agreed to an alliance with the Phoenix. Now that war has erupted, the Lions fight on the Phoenix side against the Dragons.

LION LANDS

The Lions live on the wide central plains north of Otosan Uchi and the Spine of the World Mountains. They build their houses and castles on hilltops, but their roads are wide, long, and flat for marching armies. The four families of the Lion have their ancestral homes at the four cardinal points in the Lion lands. Shiro Akodo stands on the far western border of the Lion lands, adjacent to the Crane plains. Kyuden Ikoma lies at the extreme east, at the base of Yama sano Kaminari (the Mountain of the Seven Thunders). The Kitsus hold the northern extreme, in Ken Hayai, which also serves as both the school of the Akodo family and the repository of the Lion clan history. Shiro Matsu lies at the southern edge of Lion lands, adjacent to the ruins of Beiden Pass.