Asakura Family

The **Asakura Family** (浅倉家, *Asakura-ke*?) is a Japanese mage lineage deeply shrouded in mystery.

## History

What little is known about the Asakura family is from knowledge obtained by the Himenomiya Family, one of the most prominent mage lineages of Hokkaido, where the Asakura family originates from. According to the knowledge of the Himenomiya family, the Asakura family can trace its origins to the mythological crane of the Japanese folktale, *Tsuru no Ongaeshi*, with its English name being *A Crane's Return of a Favor*. To fully understand the history of the Asakura family, the Himenomiya family had also done deep research into the *A Crane's Return of a Favor* tale. The story goes as follows.

> One day, a man sees a crane being shot down by hunters and saves it from the hunters. In the evening, the man returns home to find a woman at his door who introduces herself as his wife. Surprised, the man insists that he cannot financially support the both of them and the wife says that she has a bag of rice that will keep them fed. True to her words, the bag of rice never seemed to go empty and later, the wife told her husband that she would be making something in her room and that he cannot enter. The husband listens and when his wife emerges again, she is holding a beautiful piece of clothing but she strangely looks emaciated; nevertheless, the wife tells her husband to sell the article of clothing and sure enough, he is able to sell it for a high price and are now wealthy. The wife once again tells her husband to not enter her room but the man's curiosity overtakes him and he peers in on his wife; she is, in fact, the crane he had saved many days ago and having been discovered, the crane insists that she cannot stay by his side any longer and flies away, never to be seen again.
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From what the Himenomiya family can understand about the Asakura family, the Asakura family's matriarch is that very same crane of the folktale. She was, in fact, pregnant with her husband's child when she flew away from him. A few months later, she was forced to find a place to semi-permanently roost as her pregnancy was already in its latest stages. Choosing to settle in Lake Mashū, she gave birth to a single daughter; this occurred in 97 BC in the waning years of the Yayoi period. Once the daughter had become of age, she left her mother's care, with the single piece of advice her mother had left for her: should her identity as a crane be discovered, she should return to their home. Several years later, the daughter indeed returned home, having heeded her mother's advice and she too soon gave birth to a child. Slowly but surely, the Asakura family grew in number and despite this, the family maintains minimal contact with the outside world. This is due primarily to the magical phenomena that occurs in Lake Mashū which is a crater lake of an active volcano which is itself located on a network of concentrated leylines and as a result, spawns many befuddling phemomena that prevents one from entering normally. However, in spite of this, the Asakura family had recently made contact with the outside world, namely, with the Himenomiya family, with their relations only dating back to just half a century ago.

## Characteristics

### General Characteristics

As stated previously, the Asakura family is a family of, to put it nicely, magical creatures, and to put it harshly, magical beasts. Depending on who one asks, the Asakura family can be treated in one of two ways: similarly to the elves or similarly to creatures such as trolls. Despite having two millennia of history, the family is exceedingly small with their numbers perhaps only consisting of around 2,500 total over the course of history with maybe only 50 alive at any one time depending on a specific member's lifespan (an Asakura lives, on average, three times longer than the normal human). THis is due to the fact that an Asakura woman would only give birth to one child and the woman who give to more than one being considered miraculous mothers. As the family originates from a crane who could freely shapeshift, the Asakura family is capable of shapeshifting as well, changing between a crane and a woman of varying beauty.

### Society

The Asakura family is an extremely tight-knit family especially considering they have had little contact with the outside world save for the young members who leave the nest to return with the child of an outsider. The little influence they receive from the outside comes from the new customs and traditions that the returnees bring with them upon coming home. For example, a rudimentary "class system" was formed in which the eldest child of the eldest descendant of the clan's matriarch is automatically designated the next head of house and any siblings will be the patriarch or matriarch of a branch lineage, charged with the duty of protecting the main family, that is, the eldest child and their ancestors and descendants.

**TBA**

#### Laws

The Asakura family has a set of unique laws that only their family has and sets them apart from many other mage families. These laws include...

The Asakura family also has another special law dictating how to treat any male children born to the family; all male children are conditioned from birth to behave and speak like a woman as that is considered to be the proper mannerisms of an Asakura and when it is time for the aforementioned male children to leave the nest, they are instructed to enter the outside world in the guise of a woman with the same mission given to the legitimate females of the family: they are still to return carrying the child of another man. This behavior is considered normal and none have ever questioned this law, at least, within the Asakura family itself; for male children who *do* question these laws and attempt to not conform are considered an abnormal child and are usually shunned by the rest of the clan as a disgraceful outlier.

## Known Members

* Arisa Asakura
* Honami Asakura

## Trivia

* The Asakura family came about when User:NejiHyuga2 and User:HikariYukigawa joked about the idea of a family of magic cranes.