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 Post subject: The Crab Clan
PostPosted: Sun Jan 08, 2017 3:25 pm 
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The Crab have been exposed to watershed events of the Fifth Century somewhat ill-prepared. Weakened by the Yasuki War and effectively suppressed during the rule of the Gozoku, they failed to get involved when Yugozohime successfully challenged her brother in 435 for the right to claim the Emerald Throne. Unlike her grandfather and father, the Empress had no special fondness of them. When the Empire defended against the gaijin attack in 442, unlike many other Clans they were not present to defend the capital, licking wounds from their humiliating defeat in an ill-conceived war with Dragon and their Lion allies over commercial benefits. That caused much soul-searching in the Clan in the aftermath of those events. While some among the Crab perceived their lack of contribution as a failure and called for reinventing the Crab role in the Empire, others recommended retrenchment around their original mission of guarding the Empire from the evils of the South. More as a outcome than a cogent choice, the Crab have pragmatically found a middle ground as the Empire was swept up by modernisation.

The reception of the notion of progress among the Crab has been uneven, though net positive. The Kaiu and the Yasuki have shared in the spirit of industrious inventiveness that would increasingly become the trademark of the era, in their own respective fields of speciality, while many Hida and Hiruma wanted to ignore the changes in favour of focusing on southern threat. The problem was that except for the Yasuki captains which joined the Tortoise, the Crab hardly formed their independent gaijin ties and had to largely rely on intermediaries for both goods and technology. While the Crab lacked the headway some other Clans enjoyed, that difficulty didn't prove insurmountable. Cultivation of ties with the Mantis, the Tortoise and the Scorpion have helped narrow the modernisation gap. By late 460s new accomplishments in maritime engineering and metallurgy allowed Kaiu Sunshin to establish shipyards in Fundai Mura near Kyuden Hida where first koutetsukan, or Iron Turtles, were built. The construction of great white water junks was further perfected by his son Kaiu Shimatsu to a point even the Mantis started considering them seaworthy. By the end of the century the Kaiu schools have been training technical specialists capable of dealing with and improving on gaijin technologies, while the Yasuki have steadily tapped into the booming new markets. As progress seems to have strengthened the Clan against the Enemy, most of the Crab have grown to cautiously embrace it. They don't fall for the fads of the era, but if something new proves to be useful they gradually introduce it without much concern for traditions they shed in the process.

One of the defining features of Crab external involvements for the last sixty years has been their alliance with the Scorpion. Originally conceived during the Crab-Dragon trade conflict and the war that followed as little more than a short-term tactical convenience, to the surprise of all it has proven quite durable. Perhaps its unique formula is to be credited. Neither side treats it as a lofty brotherhood-in-arms. The Scorpion are not expected to directly aid the Crab samurai in their sacred mission, nor the Crab have been contributing troops in Scorpion conflicts. It is the convergence of interest on family-to-family level that has driven cooperation and helped the Crab overcome their initial distaste of being in league with a Clan tainted by its role in the Gozoku.

The original tie between the Kaiu and the Shosuro solidified in 438 through political marriage have long served as the axis of the relationship. In the new era their rapprochement took a scientific turn, with Kaiu achievements in infrastructure, manufacturing and weaponry being traded for Shosuro advances in chemistry and medicine. In time the Yasuki and the Yogo learnt to coordinate in pushing back against their Daidoji rivals, while the Yogo and the Kuni have also increased exchanges on matters of their mutual concern, unified in their opposition against the Phoenix and jointly supportive of the office of the Jade Champion. While the Scorpion have been selective in aiding the Crab in courts, balancing their other commitments, they did allow the Raikuto vassals of the Hiruma to study in the Dojo of Lies. Once in a generation, the entente has been reaffirmed by a political marriage between the kuge of both Clans. The last one was arguably the most high profile, with Crab Champion Hida Tenburo marrying the sister of Scorpion Champion Bayushi Hajioki. Unfortunately for the alliance, the marriage has turned unusually sour and has become a source of tension between both leaders. However, there is still enough rationale for both sides to put up with their differences and displeasures.

One such reason is the opium-producing Sparrow Clan, over which the Crab and the Scorpion have extended a joint protectorate. While the Crab are rather ambivalent about the Sparrow, they want to keep the current state of affairs going for several reasons. Processed opiates have become a popular painkiller and diversion among the Crab, prolonging service of many wounded veterans of southern battles, with addiction usually deemed a small price to pay. The Kuni have developed their own uses of the substance they don't speak loud about. The Yasuki have formed their own distribution cartel out of their share, operating in western Rokugan from Face of the East Castle, which keeps bringing a steady income. The Crab also enjoy how they can stick their support for the Sparrow up to the Crane, both out of spite and out of political and commercial reasons.

The overarching reason, however, is that the Sparrow are the fulcrum of the cooperative scheme the Crab have developed with the Scorpion and the Mantis, which has gone a long way to bringing the Crab out of isolation and making their voice better heard in Rokugan. Opium was also one of commodities through which the Yasuki could leverage their presence into markets of other Clans and make their business presence despite stiff competition, even though their portfolio of traded assets has become much more diverse by the end of century. It is primarily the Yasuki who realise that this strange arrangement of a sparrow between three sets of pincers will collapse one day out of greed or political expediency of one of the parties involved, and they hedge against the possibility of finding themselves on the receiving end. Despite the area of operation between the Shosuro, the Yasuki and the Gusai cartels largely being delineated, there's still enough competition across the fault lines. One reason behind it is that when the Daidoji lash out against the opium business, they usually do that in a way to hurt the Yasuki much more than other cartels, and so the Crab are compelled to ever seek new breathing space to make up for the losses.

The other problematic aspect of the tripartite alliance of pincers is that for the Crab it's constraining, not flexible enough. The Crab find themselves pretty much at odds with every other Great Clan in the Empire, mostly because of unresolved feuds. While the Scorpion and the Mantis keep a good room for manoeuvring outside the tentative entente, the Crab don't manage anything else than perpetuating unresolved grievances. The hatred for the Crane after the Yasuki War has not really waned and they are still number one enemies. The notoriety of Daidoji covert operations against them signifies that the rivalry has never really ended. The resolution of their war with the Dragon and the Lion was also more a cessation of hostilities than a genuine peace, and their involvement in the opium business as well as being allied with the Scorpion have prevented any normalisation of ties with the Right Hand despite their shared strategic interest in opposing the Crane.

In Crab perception of the Dragon and the Phoenix negative stereotypes prevail. Most often than not they are branded cheaters, cowards, traitors, turncoats by the Crab. The Isawa separatism, going into hiding of the Council of Five and thus their abdication from their role in the Empire has allowed for the recent rise of Kuni Tokaji to be the first Jade Champion - he defeated best combat shugenja from all Clans in taryu-jiai duels except the Dragon and the Phoenix ones who refused to face him. Since the position was very reluctantly established by the Emperor in 491 the opposition of the Emerald Champion Doji Shioden and the Asako acting on behalf of the absent Isawa have been stalling its progress into a genuine Imperial force. Tokaji himself is getting increasingly frustrated with the state of affairs, though he does little to make friends with potential supporters - he has alluded on several occasions that the Lion have yet to answer for Kitsu Uragiri, the daimyo maho-tsukai who turned Lost after his involvement in Matsu Hitomi's demise. This is a harsh time for shugenja because of the Emperor's displeasure with them and Tokaji's detractors make full use of it, so the resources and following the Jade Champion can count on mostly come from his own Clan, and the Scorpion.

Crab relations with the Minor Clans fare much better, especially those who somehow hail from the Crab Clan itself, though they are not exclusively cordial. The reappearance of the lost group once led by Hida Heichi and subsequent formation of the Boar Clan received jubilant reception among the Crab, though the honeymoon was over when the Crab realised the Boar are actually willing to act independently and challenge Kaiu supremacy in metallurgy and technical excellence. The close ties Muhaki established between the Tortoise and the Boar have been giving them better access to gaijin technologies and a headway in developing them over the Kaiu. Given how Heichi ores were usually of superior quality as well some of the Kaiu started to begrudge them. In the end, however, it spurred nothing more than a healthy competition that has sped up the advancement of the field.

A slightly similar situation occurred in another realm of perceived Crab speciality - sumai. The Badger have long been peer competitors in the field, but with the rise of their Fureheshu vassal family and the Empire-wide promotion Badger school of wrestling received thanks to Otomo Reju the Crab sumai wrestlers find themselves increasingly removed from their celebrity status by their distant cousins, lessening whatever small sway in courts they would have enjoyed. When one asks what is the dominant sumai stable these days, many point to the Fureheshu dojo in the West Hub.

The Tortoise, while they cultivate friendly relations with the Yasuki and the Crab as a whole, strengthened by marriage of Muhaki Genjiko and Yasuki Zazu, try to be everyone's friends and thus can hardly be counted among staunch allies of the Crab. They have strong commercial ties with the Crab, but so do they with many others. As the Mantis perceive them as main rivals in gaijin trade, this sets the limit to which the Crab can warm up to the Muhaki without straining their ties with the Gusai.

Among the Imperial Families, the Crab enjoy the best record with the Miya, though their ties with the Seppun are positive as well. The relationship with the Miya started back when Kaiu Anou joined the Imperials to found his family of architects and ever since both Clans have sustained cooperation. The Miya appreciate the hard work of the Crab in developing durable infrastructure that makes the Empire more traversable and interconnected in the era of booming commerce and intensified exchanges. It is not unheard of that teams of Kaiu specialists have been contracted by the Emperor's Blessing or for other projects spearheaded by the Miya. Good relations of the Crab with most Minor Clans also goes a long way to endearing the Miya. The opium is the main bone of contention between them as long-term societal effects of opium use become apparent. With the Seppun, the convergence of interest has been much more recent and still remains limited. They were the primary political force behind establishing the Office of the Jade Champion as a way to get around the Emperor's displeasure with shugenja. Many Seppun have joined Tokaji's force ever since. Seppun Matoshi, Tokaji's second-in-command, is their leader. For Tokaji they're a mixed blessing, because they retain their distinctness and behave elitist, preventing creation of a unified force. To those in the know it may seem that the Seppun have instrumentalized the creation of the Office to preserve their own impact on affairs in the Empire. This is something he can fret about but even with his temper he's reluctant to confront them as they muster the bulwark of support for the Office in courts, something their Scorpion allies do only half-heartedly. But Tokaji's brinkmanship in throwing accusations of maho-tsukai involvement on various parties and his general heavy-handedness unsettles the Seppun as well, and playing political damage control has been draining them, making them indebted to the Otomo on more than once occasion.

The Shadowlands have been active for the last century, but not in a way to challenge the Crab to the extent they did back in the times of Hantei Fujiwa's crusade. Probably the most painful incursion happened in the 480s into the Kaiu province, the one which helped Hida Tenburo to establish his credentials as a worthy Crab Champion. To some Crab this has been worrying, as always when the South becomes too predictable or quiet. A relative lull that lasts more than a century can lead to various conclusions. Tokaji's interpretation is that the the forces of the Ninth have changed their strategy and now they focus on corrupting the Empire from within through maho-tsukai activity, and he uses the case of Kitsu Uragiri and some more or less made-up accusations against the Phoenix or the Crane to justify this. But others, most notably the Kaiu, point to the fact that the border with the Shadowlands is way too porous both ways, and cursed or disgraced samurai fleeing South are as much of a problem as those fallen who try to come back. New technologies should be developed to a greater extent for the sake of increased surveillance, deterrence... and perhaps also sheer destructive power.



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