Yuki Clan

*"Our snow is dyed red upon the pure white."*

**-The old motto of the Yuki Clan**

Symbol of the Yuki Clan

A clan that was once well received and well respected within the Frost Country, the Yuki Clan were well known for their skilled artisans, impressive work ethic, and their skill with their natural born release: Ice. Their impressive Clan Compound, located some distance outside of the Village Hidden in the Frost, was a common location for visits during the Winter seasons as its fine construction and elegant surroundings were the envy of many Clan Leaders and common folk of the land. However, the Yuki Clan now lies in the ashes of history, little more than a footnote in the textbooks tell of how the Yuki Clan seemed to destroy itself from within in the span of a single night, leaving many to wonder what happened and how it came to be that the once respected and mighty clan fell so quickly.

## Traits

The traits of the Yuki Clan are still known to those that once interacted with members of the Clan, and are in places recorded in public record for purposes of census, birth certificates, and other administrative work which lend credibility to the myriad claims of the almost inhuman appearance and function of the members of the Yuki Clan.

* Resistance to Cold - Older generations still wind tales of a Yuki's resistance to the cold, telling stories of Yuki's surviving in the harshest a Frost Country Winter had to offer with little more than a thin layer of clothes while entire families froze to death in their homes.
* White Hair - A proven characteristic of the Yuki found in census records and other administrative work, it appeared a little over 3/4 of the Yuki Clan possessed white hair, like snow.
* Gifted Shinobi - It was stated in records that the Yuki possessed some of the finest Shinobi in the Frost Country, specifically in the fields of Silent Killing and Ninjutsu.
* Artistically Inclined - The Yuki Clan was well known for its many artisans. Ice Sculptors, Painters, Writers, Poets, Actors, and Musicians among others.

## History

The true history of the Yuki Clan has been all but lost to the sands of time. What is known is merely public record, kept in old libraries or governmental offices, and passed down from generation to generation from the lips of those who truly knew the Yuki before their sudden demise.

Said to have been originally from the North, it is said that the original peoples that would become known as the Yuki left their snow blown land of the present day Snow Country and traveled across the Gaikotsu Bay by foot some several hundred years ago during a still unproven and unprecedented time of cold. It is rumored that in this time of cold people froze in their homes as their fires were snuffed out by the unprecedented freeze, that the great Northern oceans; mighty and roiling, ever in motion; stopped for the first and only time in noted history, and that the Yuki appeared from the snow blown wastes of the North as if the cold simply didn't bother them. They carved out their own portion of land during the great period of cold and built the foundations of their clan compound during this time without the interference of other clans and peoples too focused on their own survival to stop them the Yuki were said to have created the base of their clan lands around this time.

For an unknown amount of time after this, the Yuki would mostly involve themselves in the local area and seldom travel far from the only place they called home. The Yuki would during this time cement themselves as caluable craftsmen and artisans among the lands of the not yet formed Frost Country and during the formation of the country in 398 they would strongly support the effort, pledging what little strength they possessed to the task at hand and helping to stand the country up from the loose collection of clans and rulers it had been prior.

For some time before the founding of the Frost Country the Yuki had enjoyed great prosperity in their fields of work due to their friendly relations with both the Village Hidden in the Frost and the Village Hidden in the Clouds, their two largest neighbors and sources of stability in the region. This prosperity was only deepened by their seeming lack of interest in the realm of Shinobi and warfare, what few Shinobi they did possess were noted to be of high quality by their neighbors but remained within their clan lands and rarely ventured out for no good reason. But things changed when the then ruler of the Yuki decided to begin to teach the knowledge of their own Shinobi to the Cloud, giving up techniques and skills to their close friend caused anger within the Yuki Clan, and a division formed between supporters of the action and those opposed to it.

In the year 414, tension within the clan rose and some still unknown actor in the great scheme of the their demise incited open violence between the two sides, resulting in small skirmishes of supporters. Soon after news of this small scale fighting began the Village Hidden in the Frost, with more to gain with the Yuki out of the picture, intervened in the fighting dying the compound red and leaving it littered with dead. This fact is unknown to most people, and only the higher ups within the Frost and those directly involved in the subsequent slaughter of a feuding clan are privy to the information, sealed and locked away from the world deep within the archives of the Frost Village.

The Clan Compound is less a compound and more so a moderately sized city in which the Yuki Clan resided. It now lays in ruin, a solemn and untouched reminder of the once great Northern clan that had called it home. It is said that the ruins are haunted, that members of the destroyed Yuki prowl the ruins and freeze all that attempt to enter and loot it of valuables in ice for the rest to see. Although these tales are unsubstantiated, most tend to stay away from the ruins out of respect and due to having no want to possibly prove the stories true.

## Members

It is currently said that the Yuki Clan are all but gone, yet stories of those who can wield Ice and possess white hair tend to pop-up in the oddest of places. Even now the Yuki Family of the Republic of the Water Country proudly wear the name of their long since fallen clan and strong possibility remains that many Yuki managed to escape the destruction of their clan and have long since taken on new identities in new places.

## Traditions

Whatever traditions the Yuki may have once called their own have been long since forgotten by any that remain.

## Techniques

The Ice Release Techniques of the Yuki were said to have once been feared by their neighbors, even if they seldom used them in anger.

<<NOTICE: ANY TECHNIQUE MARKED WITH AN (L) AFTER THE NAME MEANS IT WAS LOST IN THE DESTRUCTION OF THE CLAN>>

 **Weakness:** | It can both be melted by fire techniques and can be used for water techniques, though the latter wouldn’t be as effective as it would be on regular water bodies.

 **Weakness:** | It’s weak enough that wind, fire and earth techniques can render the senbon useless quickly, shattering or melting it.

 **Weakness:** | Not only is the amount of snow limited, but it’s also much easier to melt than it is to replace, so fire techniques are ideal to get rid of the disadvantage created by the technique.

 **Weakness:** | The user of the technique must be in contact with the body of water or ice in order to use this technique

 **Weakness:** | It’s quite vulnerable to quick attacks that can damage the ice.

 **Weakness:** | Though it’s a lingering technique, it can be easily noticed as a genjutsu to be dispelled.

 **Weakness:** | -