Scale

Scale, also known as the Infernal Kirin, is one of the five legendary kirin kami from Kamigawa that are known to meet with each other every 1,000 years.
==History==
Scale is one of the five legendary kirin kami of Kamigawa representing black. In his natural form, he appears as a black-skinned kirin with lanterns of fire hanging off of his body but he can also shift into many other forms. 
As the Kami War began, the five kirin met up as they do every 1,000 years. They met in a small teahouse inside a painting in Minamo. Scale was the last to arrive and they all began discussing whether they should be for or against mortals in the Kami War. When Silverbeard told of how humans can reach enlightenment, Scale laughed calling it a petty thing they become even after all the effort put in. When Thorn told his stories of becoming nature and observing the mortals' interaction with it, Scale again laughed giving counterpoints for the destruction they spread across nature. He also brought up how much destruction in turn Thorn was brought under the guidance of the Great One causing great floods and other disasters. After Pipe told his story of the rise and fall of a samurai, Scale just called him a greedy fool and that Pipe's standards were too low. When Dew spoke of the great dreams of mortals and their creations, Scale in turn dismissed this saying just because they have such dreams doesn't mean they are so great. After all their stories were done, he was the last to tell his story of what he did in the past 1000 years.
Scale told the others how he has seen many mortals from the inside looking out and soon after each of my visitations the mortal he chose would die. Some he would visit for months, some for a week, some for only a day, and each would receive signs of his presence. He acted as disease-causing sores in the throat and mouth, bleeding from joints and the skin, or crimson wounds that blossomed on the face overnight. Once he saw the whole village die, as he passed from dog to child to mother to father, and then to the next family. His travels knew no prejudice or favor and he leapt as easily from wretch to nightsoil-man as I did from peasant to lord. They called him the Black Wind, and the Weeping Plague, so named, from the trails of blood that fell from the eyes of those he blessed. He looked to all the others and told of how he has seen mortals reach dizzying heights only to fall on their knees, lamely cursing the kami as though they had nothing to blame but their mortality. He pointed out how each of you claimed to know what it is to be mortal and how they might reconcile the great rift between their two worlds that are one. In the end, he claimed that "It is only at the end of something that you truly understand it, and I have seen so very many endings . . . And," he added after a moment, "I will see many more, for my work is not done." Following this, Scale bowed deeply, then stepped out the door of the teahouse.Alex Smith, The Meeting (archived).
==Story appearances==
Title 	Author 	Publishing date	Set 	Setting (plane)	Featuring
The Meeting	Alexander O. Smith	2005-05-18 	Saviors of Kamigawa	Kamigawa 	Makie, Toru, Pipe, Silverbeard, Thorn, Dew, Scale, Godo (mentioned), Meloku (mentioned), Ishi-Ishi (mentioned), Snow-Fur (mentioned)
==In-game references==
==References==
Category:Kirin