Well, it has been a year since this whole thing started, and we decided that maybe it is time to fill in all the details that you folks may be missing. So, here it is from start to middle (the finish shows up in August '97, you know...).

Imperial Edition

The war began in the second year of the twenty-seventh Emperor Hantei. After the failure of the Scorpion coup, activity between the Clans was tense. A young, inexperienced Emperor sat on the Throne, an Emperor who had taken the Lady Kachiko as a bride to end the Bayushi line. But in that two year span, mysterious happenings began taking place. A wasting disease had spread across the Empire, infecting even the Emperor himself. At first, the Court suspected poison, but after an assassination attempt was foiled by the Lady of Scorpions herself, Kachiko was ruled out as a possible culprit in the Emperor's imminent demise.

As word of the Emperor's illness reached the Clans, dramatic changes took place. A Crab army was seen marching from its homelands toward Beiden Pass. The Unicorn reported unusually brutal assaults from the Shadowlands. The Lion Clan sent a contingent of samuraL led by a young apprenUce shugenja, out to the northern borders of the provinces of the Kakita family and the Crane Champion himself rode out to the Imperial Palace to speak to the Emperor about the thunder that was brewing on the not-so-distant horizon. A tiny army of shugenja from the Phoenix Clan appeared in the northmost regions of the Crane territories and its general Shiba Tsukune, called out the general of the Lion army. The shugenja scoffed at the young samurai- ko and a duel ensued. At the end of the duel, the shugenja was killed his army was routed and his head was carried back to the Phoenix stronghold as a trophy.

At the Imperial Palace, Doji Hoturi met with Bayushi Kachiko. She told him her husband was too sick to speak to anyone, but she would act as a correspondent between himself and the Emperor. The Crane Champion's sensei and escort, Kakita Toshtmoko, was mistrustful of the Lady Scorpion, but he said nothing. That night, Hoturi awoke to discover that he was not alone in his bedchamber. Every muscle in his body had been paralyzed Through heavy eyelids, he managed to make out the form of Lady Kachiko, holding a glowing orb, her victorious smile shining in the shadows. On the other side of the room, a mirror image of Hoturi began to form in the swirling green mists. Using the Egg of Pan Ku, Kachiko had created a doppleganger of the Crane Champion.

The next morning, the False Hoturi commanded Toshimoko to journey to the lands of the Unicorn to ask their assistance against the Crab. Toshimoko knew he could not reach the Unicorn lands and return before the Crab armies reached Kakita Castie, but he did not question the authority of his Lord. He left that morning on the fastest steed Lady Kachiko could provide.

Meanwhile, the Crab armies continued to march, moving straight through the pass and into the provinces of the Kakita family. They sacked Kakita Palace - the oldest standing structure in the Crane Clan - and moved south toward Doji Palace. But as Sukune moved his army southward, an army of Dragon samurai appeared, taking the Crab completely by surprise. Spies soon discovered that a ronin led the Dragon army, a ronin who many had thought never would be seen again.

His name was Akodo Toturi, and once he was the Great Lord of the Lion Clan and the Emperor's most trusted military advisor. Sukune immediately retreated to Beiden Pass and waited for the reserve army led by his brother, Yakamo. Yakamo's army arrived two days after Sukune's retreat Convinced that the appearance of Toturi was some sort of trick, he charged the Dragon forces. In the midst of the charge, Yakamo encountered a young and beautiful samurai- ko with the fires of vengeance in her eyes. Her name was Mirumoto Hitomi, only just graduated from her training at the schools of the Dragon her tattoo fresh on her back.

Yakamo remembered his famous battle with her brother and he taunted her with his memory. A duel began, and the two samurai remained engaged in deadly combat as Toturi led the Dragon army in a brilliant counterattack that would outflank the Crabs. At a key moment in the battle, Yakamo was struck by a wild blow from a sorely wounded Hitomi. Her blind strike (perhaps guided by her brother's watchful spirit) sliced off the Crab's hand. The Crab army retreated with their wounded general as Toturl's army regrouped outside Beiden Pass.

The battle that followed would prove to be the most important of the first half of the war. Toturi's army of Dragon, Unicorn and ronin defeated Hida Sukune and forced the retreat of the Crab presence from Beiden Pass. The wounded Yakamo was approached by a hooded shugenja who offered him a magical artifact to alleviate his handicap and Toturi left behind a contingent of Unicorn cavalry to guard the Pass.

The general then turned to the young Dragon, Mirumoto Daini. Impressed with his courage and loyalty, Toturi commanded him to follow up on reports he had heard when he was still the Emperor's high advisor. Two years before, advance scouts had reported sightings of the Naga in lands between the Unicorn and the Shadowlands. He commanded Daini to seek out the truth behind these rumors. "We will need all the allies we can muster," he told the young samurai. Daini swore he would return with the Naga, and left. Toturi would not see him again for five months.

Shadowlands

The second chapter of the Saga begins with the end of the Battle at Beiden Pass. After her duel with Yakamo, Hitomi left behind Toturi and his army to seek out the wounded Crab. Unfortunately for her, she found him. With the magic of his new "appendage" Yakamo was not only able to defeat the Dragon samurai-ko, but also able to snap her brother's sword the Ancestral Dragon sword - and crush her right hand However, Yakamo did not kill her when he had the chance, but allowed her to escape from the Crab camp. She was discovered by a wandering shugenia who took her to the Imperial Palace, where she was introduced to the lovely new bride of the Emperor. Kachiko's servants mended Hitomi's wounds, and the Lady Scorpion also ordered her high advisor to perform a magical ceremony that would attach to Hitomi an ancient artifact: a hand made of rune-carved black glass.

Meanwhile, in the lands of the Crane, a new Lion army - this time led by the Lion Champion herself - descended on the unprepared Doji Palace. Toturi had only left behind a small garrison to protect the Palace augmented by the Phoenix army led by Shiba Tsukune. However, the unorthodox tactics of the Dragon and Phoenix caught the overconfident Matsu Tsuko off guard. The defenders of the Crane were able to hold out against the superior forces of the Lion for three days, but on that third day the Crane Champion returned ... with an army of Shadowland madmen.

The False Doji Hoturi marched his army against his kinsmen as Matsu Tsuko watched The Lion Champion now had a choice: she could stand with the False Hoturi or against him. She chose to do neither, and watched the Shadowlands army decimate the dwindling forces of the Crane. Tsukune retreated - along with the Dragons and an untrained army of Cranes led by Daidoji Uji - south to the ancient shugenja temples of the Asahina family.

In the meantime, Toturi had been chasing the retreating Crab army across Rokugan. When word reached him of the Lion's attack, he called off his march and moved his army back toward Beiden Pass. When he reached the Pass, however, the Unicorn cavalry - commanded by Shinjo Yasamura would not let him by. Toturi refused to draw his sword on Yasamura, but now he was forced to move his army north through the provinces of the Lion. Toturi gritted his teeth and prepared to meet the army he used to command from the other side of the battlefield.

As Toturi planned his movements through Lion territory, a single rider approached his army. Bearing no insignia, but wearing ill- fitting armor a generation old, the ronin, who called himself "Akiyoshi" delivered a slight and sickly Doji Hoturi. "She will harm him no more," the ronin said cryptically and rode back to the east. The drugged and half- starved Hoturi explained to his childhood friend the situation in the Palace as best he could, but his fevered mind could not muster any details.

Toturi sent the Crane Champion along with a small contingent of samurai back to the Crane provinces. Yasamura gave Hoturi passage, explaining to Toturi "I have orders to not let your army through. Nothing in my orders mentions the Crane Lord" When Toturi asked who had given him those orders, the Unicorn refused to answer.

Far to the north and east, in the temples of the Phoenix, Shiba Ujimitsu was laced with a difficult decision. The shugenja known as "The Nameless One" (who had once been the Master of Void, but was now twisted and corrupted by his dealings with the Shadowlands) reported that he had sensed the power of the Shadowlands growing Ujimitsu sent out Isawa Tadaka, the Master of Earth, to investigate. He returned with dark news.

One of the black scrolls - guarded for a thousand years by the Scorpion Clan had been opened. He had taken it upon himself to go to the Shadowlands to discover who was responsible. His journey had changed him considerably. His eyes were now fllled with a black fire, and his body burned with energies he had never encountered before. Yes, there was a force in the Shadowlands, a force of such energy that not even the combined might of all of Rokugan's shugenja could counter. They would have to gain an understanding of this energy source to destroy it, but in order to do that, they would have to embrace its energy and take it within themselves. So began the corruption of the Phoenix Clan.

Forbidden Knowledge

The assault on the Crane continued. Having fallen back all the way to the Asahina Temples, the Crane and Phoenix armies were met by an army of Naga led by Mirumoto Daini and Doji Hoturi, now fully recovered from his wounds thanks to Naga magic. Also returning was Doji Kuwanan, Hoturi's nephew. Having spent many years learning foreign battle tactics from the Unicorn Clan, Kuwanan was immediately placed in command directly under Daidoji Uji.

Hida Kisada, however, was not waiting. The Great Bear's plan was nearing fruition. At the very beginning of the war, Kisada had sent Kaju Suman to the archipelago islands to convert his merchant ships into troop transports. While Suman experienced great hindrances from the strange Mantis "Clan" his work was finally finished. Kisada loaded his army onto the war barges and proceeded to sail along the coast to the Imperial Palace.

However, when the Crab army arrived, they found a Lion army waiting for them. Somehow, Matsu Tsuko had learned of his plan and had moved her armies out of Crane territory to the north where she could protect the capitol. What she did not know was that the information was provided by Bayushi Kachiko herself, who had learned of the plan through the Great Bear and had passed the information on to her ally in the Lion Clan ... the Kolat Master, Akodo Kage.

Kachiko saw an opportunity to crush the Lion Champion's heart and destroy the Lion armies once and for all. And so, just before the armies met, Tsuko received a message bearing the Imperial Seal. The message ordered her to stand aside and let her army fight by itself. Tsuko had no choice but to follow the Emperor's order. She rode her steed to a nearby ridge and watched as the Great Bear smashed her army.

Meanwhile, Toturi was trying to move his own forces through Lion territory to aid the Crane Clan. Because he had sent secret messages to his sensei, Akodo Kage, Lady Kachiko was fully aware of his position and movement. A Lion army was sent to intercept him and prevent him from reaching the Crane provinces. Despite his best efforts, Toturi could not make his way past the Uons. Every time he made a maneuver, the Llon general seemed to know his thoughts as he was making them and cut him off Toturi sent a scout to discover the general's identity; he discovered that it was Ikoma Tsanuri, the young samura maiden who had once been his finest pupil.

As for the Phoenix, their dark researches were beginning to take their toll on the Clan. One by one, their Elemental Masters were becoming tainted by the Shadowlands, while their samurai were beginning to have a greater voice in the Inner Council. The shugenja demanded a peaceful solution while the bushi insisted that pacifism would only spell doom for both the Empire and the Clan. The Unicorn, in Lhe meantime, had spent the entire war fending off Shadowlands creatures invading from the south. But because their attentions were on defending themselves rather than chasing after the Throne, their samurai were the first to begin to notice the heavy toll the war was taking on the peasantry of Rokugan.

Anvil of Despair

The long year of warfare has turned Rokugan into a bloody, lawless wasteland, and it seems the only who have noticed are the samurai and shugenja of the Unicorn Clan. As the other Clans continue their bickering and squabbling, the Unicorn have turned to guarding the peasantry of the Empire.

However, far across Rokugan, in the Imperial Palace, Hida Kisada faced the one thing he never thought he would see: a fire-eyed Emperor Hantei. But there he was, sitting on the Emerald Throne, waiting with his family's sword for Hida Kisada The battle between them was fierce and decisive. At the end, the Emperor was standing, and Hida Kisada was at his feet with the Emperor's Sword in his belly.

The events that occurred next were confusing. Kisada's son, Yakamo, remembered very little. He remembered a black fire erupting from the Emperor's lips and eyes. He remembered a pretty geisha helping him pull Kisada from the Palace, and the entire Crab army retreating.

Outside the Palace, Kachiko sat in the mud and rain looking back at the Palace that was nearly hers. Just beyond the shadows, Togashi Yokuni's voice told her that she could not deny her destiny. Slowly, she rose up in the rain and walked back into the Palace to face her fate.

The Crane, in the meantime, faced the army of the False Hoturi and his madmen. At the last moment, from the south, Daini and his Naga arrived along with the Crane Clan Champion. The combined might of the two armies was too much for the False Hoturi. He tried to retreat, but the Naga were too fast, and the Crane knew the territory too well. The true Hoturi faced the False Hoturi in a brutal duel that left the impostor with the Ancestral Sword of the Crane lodged in his heart.

Deep in the Phoenix stronghold, the Elemental Masters have begun to realize their fate. While seeking ways to master the dark forces of the Black Scrolls, they discovered that the Black Scrolls are their masters. In a final attempt to learn the name of the secret master of the Shadowlands, Isawa Tadaka followed in Kuni Yori's footsteps by binding his name to an OnL and the act has driven him to the brink of madness.

And angered debate fills the halls of the Lion Clan. Families are divided on which direction to turn. They have sworn fealty to who sits on the Throne, but it is obvious that it is no longer their Emperor who inhabits the broken body of Hantei. While the words rage on in the hall, Matsu Tsuko sits silently, apparently listening. But her eyes are distant as she remembers the empty eyes of her samurai, laying still and bleeding under the advancing tide of the western sea ...

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