Phoenix Clan

If the Lion clan exemplifies the ideal of the samurai warrior, the Phoenix clan models the ideal shugenja: a master of magic whose devotion to the kami and attunement to their ways is as complete as mortal minds can attain. The Phoenix are the most pious clan in Rokugan, and enjoy many blessings of the kami as their reward. The clan has its samurai, of course, but they are sworn to protect the shugenjas above all else.

RECENT HISTORY

The Phoenix study of history leads to only one possible conclusion: The Phoenix clan is preeminent among the clans of Rokugan. No other clan can claim as exalted a position . According to Phoenix legend, their glory predates the arrival of the kami, for their city Gisei Toshi flourished in the time before time, the first example of human civilization. Magic was discovered in Gisei Toshi, the Phoenix claim, and it was Isawa shugenjas who taught magic to the other clans. In the centuries since, the Phoenix clan has produced countless masters of elemental magic and oracles in carnations of the divine dragons-to continue the glory of the clan . Phoenix inquisitors have guarded the empire from practitioners of maho and the heresies of the Bloodspeakers . The Agasha family's decision to leave the Dragon clan and join the Phoenix clearly shows the excellence of the Phoenix way.

More recent history continues to affirm an outlook of Phoenix superiority. Isawa Hochiu is widely regarded as instrumental to victory over the Shadow, for he destroyed Goju Adorai at Oblivion's Gate. An ancient Phoenix champion, Shiba Mirabu, rode out from Jigoku to save the beleagured armies trapped in the Shadowlands after the Shadow's defeat, leading them back to safety behind the Kaiu Wall. Phoenix masters taught religion to Hantei Naseru, and all the shugenja's arts to Toturi Sezaruone of the most powerful shugenjas in recent history.

Jealous of this record of success, other clans view the Phoenix as insufferably proud. In contrast, the Phoenix feel they are the only ones who clearly understand the terrible burden they hold-shepherding the religious ideas of an empire. Seeing themselves as the only true practitioners of magic has not won them any friends among the shugenjas of the other clans. They tend to be quick to take insult, and Isawa Tetsuya's angry reaction to an impassioned Dragon remark ("We need room to live, not your protection") may have spurred the two clans into war without real cause . The blame for the poor relationship between Isawa Taeruko and Tamori Shaitung of the Dragon probably belongs to both women, but Taeruko is a very vocal proponent of the philosophy of Phoenix superiority.

PHEONIX LANDS

The Phoenix dwell in the lush, hilly lands of Rokugan's far northeast. The sea and surrounding mountains shelter the Phoenix lands from the cold of the north. The Isawa home is in the extreme northeast of Rokugan, on the coast beyond the Mori Isawa (Phoenix Woodlands). Shiro Shiba lies a little farther south, but also on the coast, at some distance from the heart of the Phoenix-Dragon conflict. The Asako dwell in a castle at the southern tip of the Phoenix Woodlands, its white walls rising high above the forest to shine like a beacon over the Phoenix, lands. The Agasha dwell closest to the Dragon lands, high in the mountains that remind them of their Dragon homeland.