Legend of the Five Rings -- An Introduction

Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) is a set of games set in Rokugan, a land of heroic samurai, mystical shugenja, and fearsome creatures from the Shadowlands. It started in 1995 as a collectible card game (CCG) with a new twist: each new set of cards changed the world, as the cards told the story of the Clan War that ravaged Rokugan. Although the shape of the two-year story arc was roughed out during the original all-night design meeting in February 1995, it left scope for variation so that the game's players could have an effect on that story.

The game stayed remarkably true to its initial vision: a high-fantasy samurai epic, exploring the theme of honor against the backdrop of sweeping battles and lightning fast iaijutsu duels. The players exceeded our wildest expectations: we put control of major story threads in their hands, and they treated them with as much reverence as we could have given them ourselves. L5R fans are legendary for their honor, sportsmanship, fair play, and eagerness to help out new players.

In the spring of 1997, a few months before the legendary Day of Thunder tournament that concluded the CCG's Clan War storyline, we released the first edition of the Legend of the Five Rings Role- Playing Game (RPG). With two years of card game story development behind us, we already knew Rokugan's clans intimately: we'd seen them ally, clash, maneuver for the favor fo the Emperor, and strike bargains with dark powers. We decided to set the RPG a few years earlier in the storyline than the CCG, in a time when the Scorpion had not yet made their play to save the Empire by destroying the Emperor, when the wisdom of the Akodo family still guided the Lion Clan, and when the Crab Clan still faithfully guarded the Kaiu Wall against the constant assaults of the Shadowlands.

The CCG continued with a new story arc, The Hidden Emperor which concluded with Hitomi, the Dragon Clan Champion, defeating the evil moon-god Onnotangu and taking his place in the heavens, while Hida Yakamo, Daimyo of the Crab Clan ascended to become the new Sun.

The Gold Edition and set took place approximately twenty years after the end of The Hidden Emperor story arc. Emperor Toturi was slain and the heirs, the Four Winds, vied for the throne. The Empire fell into turmoil and the Shadowlands quickly seized this opportunity to extend their reach into the Emerald Empire, laying waste to the capitol city of Otosan Uchi and enacting a sinister ritual that allowed the dark god Fu Leng to assault the very Heavens themselves. Toturi’s children marched upon the Shadowlands to confront Fu Leng’s chosen heir, the dark lord Daigotsu. There, Toturi Tsudao gave her life to save her three brothers, ending the threat of Daigotsu for the time being. When the Four Winds returned, Toturi’s youngest son, Hantei Naseru, took the throne as Emperor and became the Righteous Emperor, Toturi III. His brothers joined the Phoenix Clan, although the ambitious Kaneka was permitted to retain his self-proclaimed title of Shogun. In the Diamond Era, the dreaded sorcerer Iuchiban, imprisoned for centuries, returned to plague the Empire once more. Iuchiban quickly laid waste to the City of the Lost, driving the weakened Daigotsu into exile across the Burning Sands. Further, Iuchiban’s cult, the Bloodspeakers, aided their master in a ritual that caused a great Rain of Blood all across the Empire, corrupting hundreds or even thousands of loyal samurai and driving them mad. In the chaos that followed, Iuchiban attacked the Phoenix in hopes of seizing their powerful artifacts. A conspiracy called the Gozoku, radicals dedicated to usurping the Emperor’s power to place it in the hands of those better suited to use it, spun a web of lies and deceit throughout Rokugan, a web in which the Shogun became ensnared. A terrible battle was fought in the realms of the dead, where the greatest heroes of the Empire’s past fought its greatest villains, resulting in the legendary hero Hida Kisada returning to Rokugan to face Iuchiban. Together with the Lion and the Emperor’s brother, Isawa Sezaru, the villain fell, although the Empire would never forget his power. In the months that followed, the heir of Shinsei returned to the Empire and challenged the samurai of Rokugan to seek enlightenment, resulting in the appointment of six Keepers of the Elements to guide mankind into a new age. The cost was high, however, as Shinsei’s descendant was murdered by the Bloodspeakers in revenge for the death of their lord.

Now, as the Age of Enlightenment begins with the Lotus Era, the samurai of Rokugan find themselves without a unified Shadowlands enemy for the first time in decades. The Gozoku conspiracy is broken, shattered by the Shogun, and with the remnants absorbed into his ranks. The Emperor and the Shogun stand at odds, both with legions of supporters. Confusion reigns supreme, and in the chaos, will the samurai of Rokugan turn to the Keepers for guidance, or will they turn on one another, hoping to find certainty in the bleak emptiness of war?