Roleplaying game

6
Introduction
Introduction
All Imperial authority and patterns of life proceed from the Hantei, 
the Emperor, who is descended from divinity and sits on the Emerald 
Throne. He is attended primarily by his jeweled champions (the Emerald 
Champion in particular) and by the clan champions, the leaders of the 
Great Clans. The clan champions are masters of the Great Clans, oversee-
ing the families sworn to each. These families are descended from the 
heroic mortals who swore fealty to the Kami.
The clan families are themselves ruled over by daimyō (literally, “the great 
names”), lords of the families, who hold the power of life and death over their 
kin and command absolute loyalty. Their individual lands are divided into 
provinces, the divisions of land in Rokugan, which are ruled over by lesser 
daimyō—who themselves rule over district and city governors, lords of rich 
lands and wealthy cities. The clans and their representatives vie for domi-
nance in the courts of these daimyō, prevailing over others with silk and steel.
The way of the samurai is the way of the warrior. Most are trained from 
birth to fight for their lords and lay down their lives if need be. When 
ownership of a territory falls into dispute, or when threats from beyond the 
Empire’s borders imperil the very existence of the Empire, the daimyō of 
the clans mobilize their armies and fight for their champion or on behalf of 
the Emperor as part of the Imperial Legions. The Emperor permits his vas-
sals to take a share of the annual rice harvest so that they may arm them-
selves for war and defend the lands they have been entrusted with.
Not all wars are won on the battlefield, however. Samurai skilled in 
the subtle arts of the courtier fight their battles with honeyed words and 
mocking, tittering laughter behind face-concealing fans. Their arena is 
the courts, be they the provincial courts of city or family daimyō, the 
castles of the clan champions, or the famed yet deadly Imperial Court. 
In these places of delicate and indirect speech, impeccable etiquette is a 
better defense than the finest katana when a samurai walks into court. 
Courtiers seek out one another for private meetings, each expressing 
their clan’s wishes indirectly and sealing treaties with honor and promises 
rather than ink and parchment. 
Winter is harsh in Rokugan, and battles cannot be fought in the bitter 
cold and impassable snow. Yet winter is when court is most active, for there 
is little else to do except attend court. The Emperor’s Winter Court is a 
highly selective social event, with higher stakes and rewards than any other. 
Crime and Punishment
The task of stewarding the land for the Emperor requires a samurai to 
execute the Emperor’s will. This includes the Emperor’s laws, which are 
collected and enforced by the Emerald Champion. The maintenance of 
order, law, and justice in Rokugan—in that order of importance—is one 
of the primary responsibilities of the samurai. Crime in Rokugan is much 
the same as anywhere else; theft, assault, murder, and arson are all known 
within the Emerald Empire. 
To enforce laws and maintain an orderly society within their bor-
ders, provincial daimyō appoint special investigators called magistrates. 
These magistrates are loyal to clan and daimyō, and are assisted by yoriki 
(lesser-ranking samurai) and budōka (armed peasant vassals) in tracking 
and apprehending criminals. Historically, two classes of magistrate have 
attended to Imperial crimes: Emerald Magistrates, appointed by the Em-
erald Champion, and Jade Magistrates, appointed by the Jade Champion. 
The former investigate crimes crossing multiple clan boundaries or in-
volving national personages. The latter were shugenja tasked with investi-
gating crimes against religion or black magic involving the Shadowlands, 
but the office has not been filled in centuries. 
Crimes committed upward, or against those of higher social rank and 
against the social order, are taken quite seriously by magistrates. Crimes 
committed downward, such as a samurai’s theft from a peasant, are rarely 
investigated or taken seriously unless the peasant has the backing of another 
samurai. Rokugani criminal justice is based on honor, and considers only one 
form of evidence to be valid: eyewitness testimony. Fines, public reprimands, 
and house arrest are common punishments for samurai—although if there’s 
any doubt as to the samurai’s guilt, the defendant may challenge the offender 
to a duel, the winner of which is considered beyond reproach. 
Commerce and Currency
Rokugan’s economic system is based on the land tilled by farmers and 
protected by the samurai. The Emperor properly owns all land, yet leases 
it to the clans, which hereditarily lease it to their daimyō in turn. Given 
the limits between roads—often dangerous and unpaved affairs—many 
provinces become lawful lands unto themselves, where the daimyō acts 
as an extension of the Emperor over the peasants who work the rice pad-
dies. It is rice—a vital crop that keeps the Emerald Empire alive—that 
provides much of Rokugan’s wealth. Barley, wheat, millet, soybeans, and 
rye are also common crops grown by farmers, but it is a yearly stipend of 
rice that forms the basis for currency in Rokugan: koku. The clans able to 
harvest the most rice are among the wealthiest in the Empire, and therefore 
the most influential politically, but to directly conflate wealth with power 
would be an insult to the importance placed on honor and virtue in society.
Trade and commerce are indispensable for Rokugan to thrive, but it is 
considered dishonorable for samurai to involve themselves in such mer-
cantile pursuits. Their primary concern should be with serving their lord, 
not personal enrichment, but virtue and reality can sometimes diverge. 
Nevertheless, to maintain a veneer of civility, samurai leave monetary 
matters to non-samurai, who in turn seek the patronage of a powerful 
lord. This allows samurai to engage in trade and currency manipulation 
without sullying their honor with crass, uncouth avarice. Those few clans 
and families that flagrantly involve themselves in trade are looked down 
upon by the others, who see greed as incompatible with absolute loyalty.
The Celestial Order
Belief and religion are inculcated into a samurai from birth—and before, 
from the time of their last death. Spirits and gods are a fact of life for 
samurai, and faith folds with honor a thousand times over in the steel of 
a samurai’s soul: faith in the gods, faith in the cycle of reincarnation, and 
faith in the divine mandate that binds the Empire together.
The Emperor is a divine being, charged by Lady Sun with overseeing 
the mortal realm. The blood of literal gods—the Kami—runs through the 
veins of the Great Clans’ ruling families. The will of Tengoku organizes all 
of existence into a hierarchy. This system—the Celestial Order—is sacred 
and unquestionable, ordering both Heaven and the Emerald Empire. 
From the Emperor to the lowest burakumin, all are born with a dharma, 
a sacred duty of the soul; the performance of this duty in life is how a 
Rokugani’s karma is measured, determining their judgment in Meido and 
potential rebirth into a higher or lower caste. 
Most souls are reborn, returning to live new lives in mortal bodies—a 
belief that predates even the Empire. However, Rokugani also worship 
their ancestors, a seeming contradiction. Each soul’s dharma accords 
them a destiny preordained by Heaven; so long as that destiny goes 
unfulfilled, the soul will be reborn. Only when dharma is completed is 
the soul permitted to shuffle off the Celestial Wheel and enter Yomi, the 
Realm of the Sacred Ancestors. The fear of death holds little purchase in 
Rokugan—so long as it remains untainted by Jigoku, the Realm of Evil, a 
soul will return again to the Emerald Empire until it fulfills its destiny.
Those Who Serve
The samurai, “those who serve,” rule Rokugan in the name of the Hantei. 
The class consists of many social ranks: The kuge, or houses of the nobil-
ity, consists of the Emperor and Imperial families, the family lines of the 

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