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Shosuro 
Shosuro 
Born: Pre-calendar 
Died: 1133 
Titles: Scorpion Clan Thunder
Shosuro family founder
People

Shosuro was a human who became the first follower of the Kami Bayushi. She was actually made from a piece of the Lying Darkness. Her superb acting skills and expert deceptions impressed her master. A Kharmic Tie was created between them, and she was sometimes known as Bayushi's Daughter. [1]

Creation[]

Shosuro was created by the kenku Mukashi and his brother Takashi using a small piece of Nothing. Mukashi hoped that by giving the small piece a purpose it would be shown a different path. Mukashi intended for Shosuro to replace a small girl named Shuro who had gone missing from a nearby village. Shortly after Shosuro's creation Shuro was found and Shosuro was left without a purpose. Saddened, Shosuro vowed to find a father for herself. [2]

The Name[]

The name "Shosuro" was thought by many as an obvious pseudonym, being a slight bastardization of the word "shosuru", which means "name" in Rokugani. It was known that Bayushi often called her "Shosuko", a nickname fathers usually gave to their first-born daughters, and "Soshisa", which meant "founder" in Rokugani. [3]

Questions Unanswered[]

Shosuro did not know her origins, and she did not know why she could alter her form with a thought. She expected Bayushi would surely be able to give her the answers she sought — who was she? [1]

Bayushi's Follower[]

Bayushi and Shosuro

Shosuro and Bayushi

In the year 17 [4] Shosuro came to Bayushi's notice first as a stable boy. It was not until later that same night that Bayushi realised she could change her shape when Shosuro held a knife to his throat at a geisha house. Shosuro became one of Bayushi's first followers. [2] [5]

Shiba and Togashi[]

Bayushi would bring Shosuro to meet with Shiba, but Shosuro could sense that Shiba was aware Shosuro was something more than human. Sometime later Togashi appeared before Bayushi and warned him that Shosuro would have to follow her own, different path. Bayushi was quite angered with Togashi and refused to believe in the destiny Togashi had foreseen. [2]

The Day of Thunder[]

"Bayushi forbade any more of his followers to die in this war. I do not intend to die, Atarasi-san."
-Shosuro
Shosuro 2

Shosuro

When Shinsei came to aid the Kami in their fight against their brother Fu Leng and required seven humans, The Seven Thunders, Bayushi refused to let any more Scorpion die in this war. Shosuro ignored his order and she went anyway, intent on not dying. [6]

Shosuro family[]

Shosuro left behind three students who had learned the secrets of her techniques, being the eldest Shosuro Kinjiko. They took on their sensei's name and continued to serve Bayushi in her memory. Since then, the Shosuro family has served the Bayushi family. [7]

Facing Fu Leng[]

When they entered the Fu Leng's keep Shosuro was not with them. Isawa was already binding Fu Leng when the Thunders saw Shosuro again. She had been finding another way out. Fu Leng was eventually bound to the scrolls and the First Oni attacked furiously when it did not see its master. Hida Atarasi stood and sacrificed himself to allow Shosuro to escape with the scrolls and Shinsei. [8]

Bargaining with the Nothing[]

The Darkness had followed Shosuro and the other Thunders since they entered the Shadowlands. [9] While the First Oni was chasing Shsouro, the Darkness approaced her, and promised escape, hope... and answers. The Darkness had the knowledge Shosuro had sought, and the Scorpion Thunder willingly embraced the touch of the Darkness. [1]

Returning Rokugan[]

Shosuro was the only one of the Seven Thunders who survived the battle and came back to Otosan Uchi. She had made a pact with the Darkness to escape the Shadowlands alive, and yet even so it was only when the Kami Shiba intervened and sacrificed his life battling with the First Oni, which had been chasing Shosuro to recover the scrolls, that enabled her to escape the Shadowlands alive. [10] [8]

She brought with her an obsidian hand which came to be known as Shosuro's Hand, which was in fact Onnotangu's Hand. Given to her by the Darkness, the Obsidian Hand held not only the flesh of a God, but a piece of the soul of the Shadow. [9] She also brought back from Shadowlands an obsidian mirror and a satchel with twelve scrolls, which had been created by the Phoenix Clan Thunder, Isawa, to imprison Fu Leng's soul. [11]

Corruption of the Shadow[]

Shosuro arranged for a small number of shinobi students to be “recruited” out of the clan each year. These students were taken to secret dojo, and each was touched with the Obsidian Hand, exposing them to the power of Shadow. Most of them eventually became Shadowspawn, absorbed into the Lying Darkness forever. [12]

Faked Death[]

After returning to the Imperial Palace of Otosan Uchi, she faked her own death. [11] The Darkness had told her of her true self. She and it were the same, it claimed, formed from the primal Nothing that existed without form and without a name. Nothing was slowly turning her back into the formlessness from which she came. [1]

Shosuro family[]

The Shosuro family was founded by the remaining followers of Shosuro herself, built around the nucleus of an acting troupe who were actually spies and infiltrators. [13]

Soshi[]

Soshi and Bayushi

Soshi and Bayushi

The mask and clothes of Shosuro were cremated, and a young shugenja stood beside Bayushi and lit the pyre. Bayushi and the shugenja, who said his name was Soshi, walked together and built a secret fortress guarded by sorcery and shadow. The shugenja took Shosuro's place at Bayushi's side, becoming Bayushi's advisor and closest confidant. [7] She had changed her identity and founded one of the two Scorpion Clan Shugenja schools, the Soshi family. [14]

Shadow Brands[]

After Fu Leng's defeat Hantei requested Bayushi to create a spy network. Bayushi accepted and the ninja were born. [15] Soshi aided Bayushi developing a new style of magic called Shinobi. After further experiments, Soshi was able to imprint Bayushi's spies with shadow brands, literally making them one with the shadows. [7] Of the souls it touched, one in fifteen were taken by the Darkness never to return. These nameless souls would be the price of Shosuro's bargain for the incoming years. [9]

Imprisoned[]

Her link to the Lying Darkness was too strong, and she finally was Lost to the Shadow. Traveling to the Dragon lands, she importuned Togashi to help her, whereupon he encased her in a crystal cage by deep beneath Kyuden Togashi in 82, [14] while other sources dated it in 59. [16]

Tempting Kokujin[]

In 1132 the mad Dragon Hitomi Kokujin began their conversations with Shosuro. They made a bargain, Kokujin would join the Shadowlands forces and Goju Adorai would lure the armies of the Empire to a trap deep in the Shadowlands, where surrounded by minions of Jigoku they would be destroyed. Kokuhjin should wait until Shosuro were released from her prison. [17]

Hitomi[]

The Dragon Clan Champion Hitomi believed that Shosuro had the knowledge to avoid the future she saw and how to defeat Onnotangu, [18] and threatened Shosuro with death. [19] Then, using the knowledge she had of Darkness (for the Obsidian Hand was the hand of the Moon himself), Hitomi began experimenting with Shosuro. [20] Hitomi wished to gain knowledge about the Lying Darkness and the Nothing, how to harness the Darkness, and she expected Shosuro could give her these secrets. [21]

Shosuro Released[]

Shosuro goaded Hitomi, who pressed her Obsidian Hand against the crystal prison and invaded the mind of the prisoner. As Hitomi's will was distracted by the visions Shosuro grudgingly shared with her, the Scorpion Thunder reached the scrap of Nothing that remained in the Hand. As if by its own will, the Obsidian Hand smashed the crystal, [22] Hitomi had released her from this imprisonment before realizing her grave mistake. For hundreds of years Shosuro had been trapped in the light of the crystal prison, hidden away from the Darkness. Now her Master's will won her freedom from the crystal cage through a tiny crack, but it was all the Shapeshifter needed. [23] The two Thunders clashed one against each other, but Shosuro was too weak, too dazed from over a thousand years of imprisonment and a sudden release, so she escaped. [24]

Embracing her Fate[]

Shosuro's torment had awakened the Shadow itself. [20] After one thousand years of imprisonment Shosuro was disappointed with two broken promises. Bayushi never came, Togashi died years ago, and Shosuro's body and soul yet remained corrupted. She had come to understand that once again the Lying Darkness offered her the truth when others lied. She had become a willing minion of the Darkness. [25]

Against Rokugan[]

Seppun Toshiken

Toshiken fighting Shosuro

Shosuro went to the Shrine of the Seven Thunders, killed all the guardian monks and stole the Shosuro's Cloak from the Shrine. [26] Shosuro killed several Crane bushi. The Emerald Champion, Seppun Toshiken, fought her, and his blows fell like rain, but Shosuro only laughed, then cocked her head and vanished. [27]

War in the Heavens[]

Prior to the duel between Hitomi and Onnotangu that decided the War in the Heavens in 1132, Togashi incarnated in Hitomi condemned Lord Moon for stealing away Bayushi's only love in his envy and hatred. [28]

Kachiko's Lake[]

Shosuro was nearly lost to the Shadows, but while she shared part of her soul with Bayushi Kachiko and was the Scorpion Thunder alive, Shosuro could not be truly consumed. [29] She went after Kachiko to kill her and to replace Goju Adorai as the true avatar of the Lying Darkness. Even as the Clans were fighting the Shadows at the Battle of Oblivion's Gate in 1133, Shosuro went to Kyuden Bayushi and reached Kachiko at the Sleeping Lake. Bayushi manifested himself at the lake and drew both Kachiko and Shosuro into the lake with him. Kachiko merged her soul with Shosuro's. Their bodies would die but their spirits would be far from Darkness' reach. [30] [31] [32]

See also[]


Preceded by:
None
Shosuro Daimyo
? - ?
Succeeded by:
Unknown


External Links[]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Hidden Emperor, p. 72
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Daughter, by Seth Mason
  3. Way of the Scorpion, p. 22
  4. Imperial Histories, p. 14
  5. Way of the Scorpion, pp. 22-23
  6. 6.0 6.1 A Gathering of Thunder, by Rich Wulf
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Way of the Scorpion, p. 25
  8. 8.0 8.1 Day of Thunder, by Rich Wulf
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Way of Shadow, p. 146
  10. The First Oni
  11. 11.0 11.1 Secrets of the Scorpion, p. 7
  12. Great Clans, p. 213
  13. Great Clans, p. 206
  14. 14.0 14.1 Legend of the Five Rings; Third Edition, p. 10
  15. Roleplaying in the Emerald Empire, p. 185
  16. Imperial Histories, p. 18
  17. The Race to Volturnum: Shadowlands
  18. Rulebook Story (Siege of Sleeping Mountain)
  19. Mirumoto taki (Soul of the Empire flavor)
  20. 20.0 20.1 The Dragon Clan, by Edward Bolme and Ree Soesbee (Imperial Herald #15)
  21. Hidden Emperor, p. 39
  22. Hidden Emperor, pp. 39-40
  23. Careful Planning (Siege of Sleeping Mountain flavor)
  24. Hidden Emperor, p. 40
  25. Hidden Emperor, p. 73
  26. Clan Letter to the Brotherhood #7 (Imperial Herald v3 #3)
  27. Son of the Clan (Soul of the Empire flavor)
  28. War in the Heavens, by Ree Soesbee
  29. Hidden Emperor, p. 65
  30. Hidden Emperor, p. 81
  31. Legend of the Five Rings; Third Edition, p. 23
  32. Legend of the Five Rings: Hidden Emperor Who's Who PDF, p. 18


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