Traitor's Grove
From L5r: Legend of the Five Rings
Traitor's Grove is a grove of trees to the south of Kyuden Bayushi, and the most vicious place of punishment in Rokugan. The unusual method of punishment employed in the grove was devised by the Scorpion Clan in the sixth century as a response to an unprecedented betrayal. To the Scorpion, loyalty is valued above all other virtues, and thus betrayal is the most heinous of all crimes, necessitating the most painful penalty they could devise. The most vile criminals in the clan - almost exclusively traitors to the Scorpion - are executed there with special knives, and their souls are permanently bound to the trees to suffer for eternity.
[edit] The Execution Ritual
When a traitor is discovered and caught, he is taken to a small copse of trees just south of Kyuden Bayushi. There, he is bound to a tree. After a long, intense, and painful ritual, the traitor in question has a knife put to his or her chest. Their crimes against the Scorpion are read aloud. With each crime read, the knife is thrust in a little deeper. Only the magic of the shugenja performing the ritual keeps the accused awake and alive for the ceremony. Once the recitation of crimes is finished, the knife is fully plunged into both traitor and tree. This kills the betrayer, and binds his soul within the tree to begin an eternity of torment. Personal effects and treasures are hung off the boughs of the condemned soul's new prison, so that each tree can easily be identified.
While it is impossible to be absolutely sure that this punishment is eternal, the Scorpion do not seem to believe that such a fate is anything but eternal agony. Trees in the grove give off a continual, unearthly creaking and moaning sound, forever protesting the pain. Even following the Scorpion Clan Coup, no one outside of the Scorpion Clan has ever entered Traitor's Grove.
[edit] First Use
Traitor's Grove was first created to the actions of Bayushi Tesaguri, son of the Scorpion Clan Champion Bayushi Junzen. By the year 545, Junzen's faith in the Yogo family had waned considerably. Believing them untrustworthy, he took the forth, fifth, and sixth Black Scrolls from them, and trusted them with his son, Tesaguri. Tesaguri was both an able general and capable shugenja, who had proven his value to the clan time and time again. (Scorpion pp. 55, 103)
Unfortunately, Tesaguri was not nearly as trustable as his father believed him to be. Seeing an opportunity for quick profit, he sold the original scrolls to the Phoenix Clan, created forgeries to put in their place, and went about his business suspecting that no one would be any the wiser for it.
Yogo Ichinore, daimyo of the Yogo, was not so easily fooled. He quickly deduced that the scrolls were fakes and brought the matter to the attention of Junzen. When Junzen called his son forth to explain himself, the Champion's son wasted no time in fleeing. He didn't get very far.
He was hastily bound to a tree, and an impromptu ritual was enacted. In time, and with some modification, it would become the standard procedure for the punishment of those who betray the Scorpion Clan.
As the first to enter into the tortured place that is Traitor's Grove, Tesaguri has the dubious honor of being considered its founder. As such, on the day of his birth -- the third day of the Monkey -- any Scorpion within a reasonable distance comes to Traitor's Grove to throw stones at the trees of those who dared to put even the slightest stain upon the loyalty and brotherhood of the Scorpion Clan.
