Iuchiban (TCG)

Iuchiban was a dangerous and powerful sorcerer practitioner of mahō, whose teachings were preserved by a group which was collectively known as Bloodspeakers. Legend of the Five Rings - Roleplaying, p. 317 He was known as the Blood Sorcerer, Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 16 and only the name of Fu Leng himself was more reviled throughout the Empire. Celestial Realms, p. 49
== Cunning for Power ==
Iuchiban was a younger child of a past Emperor. His bitterness at not ascending to the Throne led to his eventual indulgence in the practice of forbidden sorceries, including some of gaijin origin. 
=== Corrupted Blades ===
His true goal was the acquisition of a Black Scroll of Fu Leng. After opening and reading the scroll, Iuchiban was prepared to unleash a dreadful new enemy upon Rokugan. Introduction to Adventures in Rokugan In the late fifth century Iuchiban rose to power wielding potent, dangerous, and illicit magics in an effort to seize control of the Empire. He was able to animate corpses to do his bidding and fight on his behalf, and he even imbued those foolish and corrupted mortals who choose to follow him—the Bloodspeaker—with the power to do likewise. Fields of Victory, p. 31 A disguised Iuchiban taught Bloodspeaker rites to Asahina Yajinden, and the Crane artisan unknowingly used these foul rites to forge the infamous Bloodswords. Shadowlands: The Essential Guide to the Dominion of Fu Leng, p. 110 In the year 510 Yajinden presented the swords to the champions of the Crab, Crane, Lion, and Scorpion Clans. Soon afterward, the Lion Clan Champion launched a disastrous winter battle against the Dragon Clan, the Crab Clan Champion murdered his children, and the Crane Clan Champion confessed to a love affair in front of his entire court. All three took their lives with these blades. Only the Scorpion Clan Champion escaped such a fate, soon revealing the smith's corruption, and the presence of the Bloodspeaker Cult. 
=== Rise and Fall of Iuchiban ===
A Scorpion Clan magistrate, Soshi Takasho, undertook an investigation that eventually led him to the Imperial Capital. There, accompanied by Imperial Guard Akodo Minobe, he uncovered Iuchiban's plot, a foul ritual to animate the dead who had been laid to rest in the city's tombs and catacombs, but they were discovered by the Bloodspeakers. While Minobe fought a desperate rearguard action against the undead monstrosities pursuing them, Takasho was able to raise the alarm. Iuchiban raised an army of the undead to march on Otosan Uchi, using the corpses of buried Rokugani. Thanks to the warning provided by the Scorpion Clan Champion, the Imperial Legions and the armies of the clans defeated the undead forces. After his execution, Iuchiban was buried in a tomb specially warded to prevent his spirit from escaping. This gave him the distinction of being the last person in the Empire to be buried; after this the Emperor issued a decree that all corpses must be burned to prevent them from being desecrated by foul magic. It was Akodo Minobe who eventually realized that decapitation and total bodily destruction were the two most effective means of neutralizing the undead, which was instrumental in the Rokugani victory in the Battle of Stolen Graves. After the battle, the Emperor declared that from then on, all bodies must be cremated rather than buried or entombed. This would prevent them from ever being subjected to animation by foul sorceries. Virtually all references to the battle, Iuchiban, and the Bloodspeakers were omitted from the Imperial histories; the whole incident was described only as a “brief period of unrest in Otosan Uchi, which was quickly resolved.” Legend had it that Iuchiban's body was sealed in a warded tomb, its location unknown even to its architects. Fields of Victory, p. 32
== The Second Rising of Iuchiban ==
In the year 750 the spirit of Iuchiban escaped his tomb and possessed the body of one of his strongest followers to serve as his own. Gathering an army of maho cultists and reanimated corpses, he again attacked the Empire. His Bloodspeaker disciples instituted a wave of unrest, assassinations, and sabotage throughout Rokugan to hinder the Empire's ability to organize a response. The Bloodspeakers converged on the Twilight Mountains to join their evil master. Marshaling his monstrous forces south of the Shinomen Forest, Iuchiban launched them on a vicious rampage that swept across the lands of the Scorpion Clan, culminating in the fall of Ryokō Owari Toshi. The Scorpion fought a bitter and brutal rearguard, now known as the Battle of the Bloody Retreat, to buy the needed time for the clans to raise forces large enough to offer help. Eventually, they were forced out of their lands entirely, and into Beiden Pass. When all seemed lost, the Lion Clan finally arrived, flanking Iuchiban's forces from the south and drove them northward. By the time the Lion reached the vicinity of Sleeping River, forces dispatched by all of the clans had arrived to support the Lion and Scorpion. Fields of Victory, pp. 32-33 The armies of the Great Clans stopped the advance of Iuchiban's forces at the Battle of Sleeping River, and one Ise Zumi succeeded in trapping Iuchiban's spirit in the monk's own body long enough for both to be sealed into a tomb. Emerald Empire: The Essential Guide to Rokugan, p. 18
=== Entombed ===
Iuchiban's vile powers had rendered him immortal. Since he could not be executed, he was instead imprisoned in a cunningly wrought tomb whose location was one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Empire. 
== Masks of Iuchiban ==
The Four Masks of Iuchiban were created to seal the entrances of the Tomb of Iuchiban. One of the masks was once located in the Shadowed Swamps. The Yogo Curse 1, by Josiah “Duke” Harrist and Katrina Ostrander In 1123 the Kuni Daimyō Kuni Yori was the owner of two of the masks. Trail of Shadows, by D.G. Laderoute
== Duel with Daigotsu ==
At some point it was known that Iuchiban dueled the Dark Lord Daigotsu to confront the preminence as leader of the forces who opposed the Empire. 
Category:Imperial Families Members (TCG)
Category:Bloodspeakers (TCG)