The Apprentice Witch Hunter

Tansho put little stock in omens. As a child, she’d been taught that certainties were few in number. That messages from the Fortunes were rarer still. Portents were a witch’s game; shadows on a wall, interpreted by the cunning and the ignorant. Even so, a warning was a warning, and only a fool ignored such things completely.

– White Feathers, Crimson Leaves by Josh Reynolds

Luckily, no diviner is needed to foresee the next L5R novel is coming soon, featuring the wardmaster Yogo Shuko and her wayward apprentice, Kuni Tansho. Like all members of the dreaded Kuni family, Tansho considers knowledge an essential weapon in the Crab Clan’s arsenal, and she isn’t precious about where that knowledge comes from. She’s been south of the Carpenter Wall and north of the Spine of the World Mountains in search of useful scraps of lore. As an elementalist, she recruits the might of earth spirits to aid her in battle against the Shadowlands. As a witch hunter, she is ever vigilant for signs of the Shadowlands Taint among her comrades. And as a Crab Clan samurai, she is devoted to defending the Emerald Empire, even if she must sometimes stand up to her superiors to do her duty. Read on to learn more about Kuni Tansho’s background before diving into one of her earliest adventures in White Feathers, Crimson Leaves by Josh Reynolds.

To Purge the Wicked

Kuni Tansho was born into the Kuni family and inherited their gift of speaking to elementals, with a special affinity for the spirits of earth and jade. No shindōshi tradition is more feared in the Emerald Empire than that of the Kuni, which taught Tansho to root out any sign of evil, whether in Crab lands or beyond. Some of her family members are willing to delve far deeper into the dark secrets of the Shadowlands than Tansho believes is prudent. The Kuni are known to use study, observation, and dissection to further their understanding of their enemy—even though such close contact with its dark creatures risks their very souls. Owing to her zeal (or perhaps her obstinacy), Tansho’s elders determined that she should study not only shindō, the path of spirits, but the way of the witch hunter as well.

To Gaze Into Darkness

While Kuni shindōshi often serve at the Wall or as spiritual advisors to lords, Kuni Witch Hunters wander the countryside. Their grim duty is to stop any within the Crab Clan who would aid the forces of the Shadowlands, whether knowingly or not. In preparation for that role, Tansho’s instructors passed down their order’s techniques of combating madōshi blood sorcerers, Tainted monsters, and evil spirits. Some pupils who show particular promise, as Tansho did, are sent beyond Crab lands to learn from other traditions.

As they travel the empire, witch hunters stand out thanks to their distinctive face paint, which resembles Kabuki-like makeup. While witch hunters generally do this to confuse and disorient demonic entities and evil spirits, other Kuni who wear the face paint frequently do so simply to instill awe and terror in outsiders. Tansho defies tradition by eschewing the practice, though whether her choice is borne in bravery or foolishness, none can say for certain.

The witch hunters’ remit also includes rooting out peasants, warriors, and even nobles who have tried to keep their corruption secret. The Shadowlands Taint—the corruptive influence of Jigoku—is a fact of life among the Crab. Simply being Tainted doesn’t immediately consign someone to death, but purposefully concealing it can endanger the clan. Witch hunters are ever vigilant for signs of the affliction, and they are charged with dealing with cases of infection that have gone too far.

Most witch hunters do not possess a shindōshi’s talents, making Kuni Tansho a rarity among her order. Her training among the witch hunters has focused on martial arts, investigation methods, and secret techniques to take down Shadowlands beasts and Tainted mortals without the help of elemental spirits.

To Seek the Truth

Kuni Tansho shares her family’s dedication to knowledge, but her search for understanding has led her to draw untraditional conclusions. She has never agreed with her family’s view of the Five Rings or the Taint, and she always finds a way to interject with her own sensibilities on those subjects. Her time spent with Yogo Shuko further shifted her perspective away from that held by her family. She believes the Kuni take too many risks with the Shadowlands Taint—even the Kuni daimyō subjects himself and the Crab Clan to more danger than he needs to, in her mind. She has not yet figured out how to make her family come to their senses, but she searches for a way.

To Glimpse the Past

The upcoming novel White Feathers, Crimson Leaves by Josh Reynolds offers a peek at a young Kuni Tansho, before she became the outspoken and confident witch hunter seen in Shadowveil: Legend of the Five Rings and Champions of Rokugan. In Reynolds’s folk horror novel of secrets and betrayal, Tansho is apprenticed to the unflappable wardmaster Yogo Shuko. From her, Tansho learns the arts of breaking curses, binding spirits, and exorcising demons. But what scars will the White Crane leave on the young woman? Tansho quickly learns that the living might keep more secrets than the dead. Journey alongside Kuni Tansho and discover her origins in the new novel available for pre-order wherever you buy books, or find a retailer near you here.