A Champion Must Fall

We continue our series of articles highlighting the foundational story choices from the original run of the Legend of the Five Rings Clan War storyline, which culminated in the Day of Thunder Tournament at Gen Con in 1997. Uniquely among collectible card games at the time, it was the players and fans of Legend of the Five Rings who steered the direction of the story through tournament results as well as votes conducted through the official fan club, the Imperial Assembly. In this installment, we look at the very first story vote offered through the first issue of the Imperial Herald official magazine, which was open to all members of the Imperial Assembly.

In the first months of the War of Rokugan, one of the Champions will turn against their own Clan, betraying them to the dark forces of the Shadowlands. Who will it be?

For the story choice titled “A Champion Must Fall,” the members of the Imperial Assembly were invited to pick one of the current clan champions. At the time, there were only six playable clans in the game—the Scorpion Clan had been disbanded for their role in the Scorpion Clan Coup, and were not a playable faction. The champion with the highest number of votes would be doomed, but beyond broadly hinting that they would “turn against their own clan” and “betray them to the Shadowlands,” the details of that champion’s fall were kept vague.

When all two thousand votes were tallied, the unfortunate soul to receive the highest total was Doji Hoturi, Champion of the Crane Clan. 1,400 votes were cast for Hoturi, while Hida Kisada came in second place with just three hundred votes. The other clans had marked the Crane for disaster.

The Doom of the Crane

At that early stage of the Clan War story (the first issue of the Herald was published in 1995), little was said about Hoturi in the game’s flavor text, but he was clearly established as a capable duelist through his card’s game mechanics. As Doji Hoturi’s story slowly unfolded, his doom was one of his earliest defining features. In the second issue of the Imperial Herald, where the results of the story choice were revealed, one entire page penned by John Wick was dedicated to the story Doji Hoturi and his doppelganger, the False Hoturi.

In this telling of events, Bayushi Kachiko captured and tortured Hoturi in the Imperial Palace to get vengeance against the Crane Clan, whom she held responsible for the death of her husband and the dissolution of the Scorpion Clan. While Hoturi suffered months of poisoning and imprisonment, Lady Kachiko used the magic of the Egg of P’an Ku, a legendary magical artifact, to craft a shadowy simulacrum of the man. (In fact, the Egg of P’an Ku would rear its ugly head multiple times over the course of the AEG storyline, wreaking havoc whenever it was used to create a clone of an important samurai.) A special promo card was published titled “The False Hoturi” to represent the evil duplicate of the Crane champion.

When unleashed upon the Emerald Empire, this “False Hoturi” turned against the samurai of his own clan. Hoturi’s evil body double began roving the empire at the head of a Shadowlands army, sowing chaos and ravaging the Crane Clan’s own castles. Kakita Castle fell entirely, leaving the Crane Clan’s western lands completely open to attack and pillage by their enemies’ armies. In the aftermath of the brutality, the recently enthroned emperor rescinded his protection from the Crane, permitting Lion Clan Champion Matsu Tsuko to “do as she saw fit” with the remnants of the Crane Clan armies. This would all but guarantee that the Crane and Lion clans would become embroiled in an all-out war, plunging the Emerald Empire into chaos at a moment when unity among the clans was needed to repel the invading Shadowlands Horde.

Eventually, Hoturi escaped from Kachiko’s clutches with the help of a mysterious hooded figure called “Akiyoshi,” who delivered Hoturi to the camp of Toturi the Rōnin. Hoturi tried to begin to clear his name, but already grave damage had been done to his reputation, as well as that of the Crane Clan. The fate of the clan had been written by the players, with ripple effects on the story as well as game.

This dark destiny was also reflected in the card titled “The Doom of the Crane”: “Of the Crane, a fallen foe will prove to be their undoing. They will be led astray by a deceiver, and the true hero will arise too late to save them.” Each clan had its downfall foretold by the “serene prophet” Uikku printed as a card in the Shadowlands set, the first expansion to the game, and of course he had foreseen and predicted the terrible impact the False Hoturi would have.

“He is not you, my dearest Hoturi, he is better than you. But the others will believe he is you, and while I hold you here, he will be the doom of your Clan.” – Bayushi Kachiko

You can read more about other story prizes from the early days of the collectible card game on our website. “The Battle of Beiden Pass” was a battle that shaped an empire, while a different sort of contest began a Rokugani tradition in “Test of the Emerald Champion.” Discover some of the Clan War’s most infamous villains and tragic heroes in “Return of the Fallen Lord” and “The Kolat Master and the Shadow Samurai.” And listen to an account of the legendary Day of Thunder Gen Con tournament from the minds behind it in the first episode of our 30 Years of L5R podcast.