Imperial Edition
The war began in the second year of the twenty-seventh Emperor Hantei. After the failure of the Scorpion coup, activity between the clans was tense. A young, inexperienced Emperor sat on the Throne, an Emperor who had taken the Lady Kachiko as a bride to end the Bayushi line. But in that two-year span, mysterious happenings began taking place. A wasting disease had spread across the Empire, infecting even the Emperor himself. At first, the Court suspected poison, but after an assassination attempt was foiled by the Lady of Scorpions herself, Kachiko was ruled out as a possible culprit in the Emperor's imminent demise.
As word of the Emperor's illness reached the Clans, dramatic changes took place. A Crab army was seen marching from its homelands toward Beiden Pass. The Unicorn reported unusually brutal assaults from the Shadowlands. The Lion Clan sent a contingent of samurai, led by a young apprentice shugenja, out to the northern borders of the provinces of the Kakita family and the Crane Champion himself rode out to the Imperial Palace to speak to the Emperor about the thunder that was brewing on the not-so-distant horizon. A tiny army of shugenja from the Phoenix Clan appeared in the northmost regions of the Crane territories and its general, Shiba Tsukune, called out to the general of the Lion army. The shugenja scoffed at the young samurai-ko and a duel ensued. At the end of the duel, the shugenja was killed, his army was routed and his head was carried back to the Phoenix stronghold as a trophy.
At the Imperial Palace, Doji Hoturi met with Bayushi Kachiko. She told him her husband was too sick to speak to anyone, but she would act as a correspondent between himself and the Emperor. The Crane Champion's sensei and escort, Kakita Toshimoko, was mistrustful of the Lady Scorpion, but he said nothing. That night, Hoturi awoke to discover that he was not alone in his bedchamber. Every muscle in his body had been paralyzed. Through heavy eyelids, he managed to make out the form of Lady Kachiko, holding a glowing orb, her victorious smile shining in the shadows. On the other side of the room, a mirror image of Hoturi began to form in the swirling green mists. Using the Egg of Pan Ku, Kachiko had created a doppleganger of the Crane Champion. The next morning, the False Hoturi commanded Toshimoko to journey to the lands of the Unicorn to ask their assistance against the Crab. Toshimoko knew he could not reach the Unicorn lands and return before the Crab armies reached Kakita Castle, but he did not question the authority of his lord. He left that morning on the fastest steed Lady Kachiko could provide.
Meanwhile, the Crab armies continued to march, moving straight through the pass and into the provinces of the Kakita family. They sacked Kakita Palace - the oldest standing structure in the Crane Clan - and moved south toward Doji Palace. But as Sukune moved his army southward, an army of Dragon samurai appeared, taking the Crab completely by surprise. Spies soon discovered that a ronin led the Dragon army, a ronin who many had thought would never be seen again. His name was Akodo Toturi, and once he was the Great Lord of the Lion Clan and the Emperor's most trusted military advisor. Sukune immediately retreated to Beiden Pass and waited for the reserve army led by his brother, Yakamo. Yakamo's army arrived two days after Sukune's retreat. Convinced that the appearance of Toturi was some sort of trick, he charged the Dragon forces. In the midst of the charge, Yakamo encountered a young and beautiful samurai-ko with the fires of vengeance in her eyes. Her name was Mirumoto Hitomi, only just graduated from her training at the schools of the Dragon, her tattoo fresh on her back. Yakamo remembered his famous battle against her brother and he taunted her with his memory. A duel began, and the two samurai remained engaged in deadly combat as Toturi led the Dragon army in a brilliant counterattack that would outflank the Crabs. At a key moment in the battle, Yakamo was struck by a wild blow from a sorely wounded Hitomi. Her blind strike (perhaps guided by her brother's watchful spirit) sliced off the Crab's hand. The Crab army retreated with their wounded general as Toturi's army regrouped outside Beiden Pass.
The battle that followed would prove to be the most important of the first half of the war. Toturi's army of Dragon, Unicorn, and ronin defeated Hida Sukune and forced the retreat of the Crab presence from Beiden Pass. The wounded Yakamo was approached by a hooded shugenja who offered him a magical artifact to alleviate his handicap and Toturi left behind a contingent of Unicorn cavalry to guard the Pass.
The general then turned to the young Dragon, Mirumoto Daini. Impressed with his courage and loyalty, Toturi commanded him to follow up on the reports he had heard when he was still the Emperor's high advisor. Two years before, advance scouts had reported sightings of the Naga in lands between the Unicorn and the Shadowlands. He commanded Daini to seek out the truth behind these rumors. "We will need all the allies we can muster," he told the young samurai. Daini swore he would return with the Naga, and left. Toturi would not see him again for five months.