Aotora

Aotora, the Green Tiger, was one of Bayushi Shoju's most loyal followers, and the Aotora family founder.
== Peasant ==
Aotora was a heimin, and became a peasant herbalist in service to the Bayushi. His entire family tended the gardens of Kyuden Bayushi before the clan was banned to the Burning Sands. This task was commissioned by the Scorpion Clan Champion, Bayushi Shoju, few before the Scorpion Clan Coup. But his real mission was not only to collect plants. In fact, Aotora's main task was to document the effects and antidotes on plant poisons. He continued his research until the day his lords would return. However, this research was extremely kept in secret. Shoju died without telling anyone about Aotora's mission and efforts. Aotora was not his real name, which was lost to time, but the code name Shoju gave him in their secret communications. Secrets of the Scorpion, p. 23
== Vassal Family ==
When the Scorpion returned from the Burning Sands, Aotora was a very old man. His body was failing, and he feared he would die before presenting the fruits of his research to anyone. Because he did not want his life's work be in vain, he approached Bayushi Yojiro, the new Scorpion daimyo, a man who he respected, and he told the new champion that he might have something that the Scorpion wanted. Aotora showed then a full room of hand-written scrolls cataloguing decades of meticulus botanical research. Aotora had continued his efforts throughout the troubles without reward or aknowledgment. Yojiro, impressed by the peasant's effort and loyalty, inmediately granted his family the status of Bayushi vassals, the Aotora family, and commissioned Aotora and his children to continue this research in perpetuity. Secrets of the Scorpion, pp. 23-24
=== Risky Task ===
But although this loyalty to the Scorpion Clan, its cost was high. The main purpose of his work was to find new and deadly poisons, and his research entailed the testing of various poisons on living subjects, both human and animal. This led to a horrible accident: three of Aotora's five children accidentally exposed themselves to a potent slow acting contact poison he was testing, and they touched their mother and their grandmother before they died. In a single afternoon, Aotora lost almost all of his family. Only the two oldest children, a son and a daughter remained. After that, he was forever scarred. Secrets of the Scorpion, p. 24
== Death ==
Aotora died in 1149. After his death, the Aotora family was composed by his two surviving children and their families, and they continued Aotora's tasks in botanical research of new poisons in the Garden of the Green Tiger. 
Category:Peasants
Category:Scorpion Clan Leaders