Dragon Clan Letter - #15
What is the Way? Shinsei will tell you. Look there, to the Tao of Shinsei, or to the New Tao, and you will find answers. Or look to the clans, to the great families of Rokugan, and see how they each embody a path.
The Kakita will tell you that every second, every breath, is art, and that by their art of living they enrich the Empire. The Kakita are right. Yet to find a Kakita who will share art without expecting a favor in return, that is not so easy. Theri breath is honorable but tainted by expectations.
The Akodo will tell you that war is honorable, because it serves the Emperor's needs and what serves the Emperor protects the Empire. The Akodo are right. But the Akodo have no time to think about the Empire they serve and are always dragged into dubious situations by the severity of their devotion to honor. Akodo do not take the time to reflect until they turn fifty, cut off their hair, and become monks.
The Isawa say that they world is made of the Five Elements and that they are the masters of those Elements. The Isawa are right or rather, they would be right, if they themselves were the celestial Dragons or the elemental kami rather than mere mortals who channel their power. We are descended from a true Dragon, a master of existence who did not need to make claims; he just was.
Now we Dragon are assailed by the Phoenix, clearly jealous of our power, of the ease with which the Tamori surpassed the Agasha's former stature. In different times, this rivalry would mean nothing. We Dragon are above petty squabbles. However, we are under assualt from our own lands, from volcanoes that have lain dormant for eternity, only to roar to life and remind us that the mountains are alive.
What path must we take out of these perils? What more shall we do, besides relocate a few of our farmers and fight for their new homes? Shall we seeks to help choose a new Emperor, one to rise up and help us with our troubles?
No, we shall not. We will welcome a new Emperoer or Empress, but we need not fight new battes for the sake of any one of Toturi's children. Toturi would not wish to to be so, and neither do we.
And yet each of them has another lesson to teach us. Listen:
Naseru plies the Court with his flatteries and intrigue. He is a clever man, and knows well how to rule. Hantei Naseru does not expect to beocme Emperor, but he acts as if he already were. He stirs the courts do discontent so that he will be needed, but would anyone do less?
Akodo Kaneka grew up within his clans' close-knit ranks, and is a Lion to the core. However, the circumstances of his birth have made him thoughtful where the rest of his family is inflexible. Honor binds him as tightly, but he knows that one failure does not doom a life.
Tsudao spends all of her time at war - or does she? Her troops call her Lady of the Sun, though she has never sought that name for herself. Perhaps there is some echo of vanished Amaterasu in her bering, in her spirit.
Sezaru. Whether behind his mask of walking plain-faced, Sezaru is best known to us. He does not need a tattoo to understand the mysteries of the Void. He larned his first magics at our feet, and he has taken them to lefvfes even his teacher cannot comprehend. Time spent among the Isawa did not bend his steps from the path he had already chosen. He is one of us.
So what is the answer? One answer is change, and the willingness to accept change. That is the Way we Dragon learn anew every moment.
Togashi Hoshi