Ebon Daughter Dossier

 

by Shawn Carman

 

 

For the first time in far too long, the Empire of Rokugan flourishes under the reign of a new, divinely-mandated Imperial line. The Great Clans are at peace, if not particularly friendly toward one another, and the Empire as a whole focuses on rebuilding instead of destroying. Perhaps it is ironic that, at this time, a foe from beyond the Empire’s borders looms, threatening all that has been created. Is this the reason that the Celestial Heavens forcibly restored order to the mortal realm, to combat such a dreadful menace? Or is it the actions of the Heavens that have precipitated this nightmare of mankind? Only time will tell. The story, however, begins with a mortal woman, an honorable samurai and priestess named Iuchi Yue.

 

Years ago, during the Empire’s struggle against the Bloodspeaker cult and their sinister master, Iuchiban, a Black Scroll under the protection of the Unicorn Clan was stolen under mysterious circumstances. The Unicorn Clan Khan, Moto Chagatai, was angered by this failure and commanded the Iuchi family daimyo, Iuchi Yue, to recover the scroll at all costs. Dismayed and outraged by her family’s failure, Yue swore to handle the matter personally.

 

The trail of the scroll led Yue to the Phoenix lands, where she traveled in the guise of a simple magistrate. There, she temporarily joined forces with an aged Phoenix Inquisitor, Isawa Fosuta, and together they faced a Tainted opponent that Yue believed to be the thief, although that could never be conclusively proven. Determined not to lose the trail, Yue forged deeper into the rural mountains surrounding the Phoenix lands, and there she disappeared, assumed dead by her family and the Empire as a whole.

 

Unfortunately, death had not come for Iuchi Yue. In her wanderings, Yue had strayed perilously close to the Hidden Temple, the secret stronghold of the ten Kolat Masters, and was taken into custody by their Ox Clan guardians. Yue was held in captivity for more than a year, regularly interrogated and beaten severely in an attempt to discover her purpose in the mountains. For all her suffering, Yue never revealed the truth, and in time the Kolat came to regard her as useless and left her in her cell, uncertain what else to do with her.

 

Eventually, for reasons unknown to her, Yue was released from her cell and placed within the entourage of a Kolat agent called Nakima, who was traveling across the Burning Sands to the vast metropolis of Medinaat al-Salaam. Yue reached the city alongside Nakima, and there met a variety of strange individuals and experienced a bizarre assortment of cultures that she had only read about in the Unicorn histories, which were completely new to her. Despite herself, Yue enjoyed the experience, and was surprised when Nakima apparently traded her away, like some material possession, into the custody of a group called the Jackals.

 

Among the Jackals, Yue was ensnared in a carefully constructed web of lies that painted the Jackals as a persecuted group being oppressed by the Ebonite Templars, who were in turn unknowingly under the sway of some dark, Shadowlands-like force. Frustrated and desperate to do something—anything—Yue was easily manipulated into performing a ritual that awakened her every repressed desire, selfish urge, and wanton cruelty. She was transformed, unleashed by the Cult of Ruhmal, which had become a faction within the Jackals. In doing so, the Jackals brought about an ancient prophecy which called for one of honor to be consumed by darkness and turn against her people as the Ebon Daughter.

 

In the few short years since her rebirth, the Ebon Daughter has become the high priestess of the Cult of Ruhmal and the favored daughter of their patron, the sinister entity called Kali-ma. At her hands and at the hands of Kali-ma’s other Chosen, the Ivory Kingdoms have been consumed in war, fire, and death. Now her mistress seeks something new, something long forgotten and hidden away beyond her reach, something that is hidden within the boundaries of the Emerald Empire of Rokugan.


The Ebon Daughter is returning home, and she brings death with her.