Air

Security in communication is of paramount importance in many situations, and shugenja often find themselves in situations where a conversation is intended to be completely private, or when they cannot allow themselves to be interrupted by extraneous sounds. By placating the spirits of the Air, a shugenja can convince them to create a barrier against sounds, a bubble of silence through which sound will not pass. The spherical sound-barrier is normally centered around the caster, although with greater effort it can also be centered on a physical object up to fifty feet way.

With greater fluency with the kami comes the ability to craft increasingly convincing images from the stuff of the wind itself. You may create illusions of any object, individual, or image that you can imagine. These images are stationary, and they must fit within the spell's area of effect, but they can be as simple or complex as desired. These illusions are visual only, with no auditory component, no odors, etc.

The kami of the wind can carry whispers for great distances, and can even create them if properly entreated. You can petition the kami to create a false sound, either a voice or a natural sound such as an animal's growl or running water, for example. The sound can be no louder than a normal speaking voice, and cannot impersonate a specific person's voice. If used to create the sound of a voice, the spell is limited to twenty words.

Air kami are mischievous and capricious, and enjoy anything they perceive as a joke. You may call upon them to create a subtle illusion, altering your facial features just enough that you appear to be a different person. This spell does not allow you to impersonate specific individuals, or even people radically different from you. You appear as a person of the same age, build, race, and gender. The differences are subtle, enough so that you could be mistaken for your own brother or cousin.

An early attempt to use the magic of Air to gain advantage against the unwary, the Soshi family devised this spell to delay those who had stumbled upon their Clan’s machinations, or to cover their tracks. Once this spell is cast, the next thing the victim sees that seems unusual or out of the ordinary instead appears completely normal to them. This does not change the victim’s reaction, it simply clouds their perceptions such that they believe they are seeing something they expect to see, or at least something not unusual at all.

A cleansing ritual used by shugenja when preparing a house or other building for an important even such as a wedding or a festival. The spell entreats the Air kami to raise a soft but carefully controlled wind which sweeps all the dirt, insects, and other filth out of the building. The spell also has a spiritually purifying effect, making evil or malignant spirits reluctant to remain within the dwelling - any kansen, ghosts, or other hostile disembodied spirits within the building will leave for a number of hours equal to the caster's Air.

This spell was originally devised by the Shiba Illusionists, and is one of their few significant contributions to the ways of magic in Rokugan. In keeping with the traditions of the Shiba Illusionists, this spell is intended primarily for entertainment, but it can sometimes have more practical applications (such as helping a courier describe his experiences to his lore).

Understanding the ways of the Air reveals the indistinct line that exists between language and cipher. A shugenja can cause a piece of writing to be placed under an elemental cipher, enticing the kami to play a small game with those who read the text. The block of text becomes completely unintelligible unless read by the original author or the intended recipient, whose name is whispered as the spell is cast. Normally, an Elemental Cipher is not breakable by traditional decrypting and the kami will only reveal the true text to the intended recipient.

The winds can lift and buoy, carrying even the heaviest burden into the skies for short periods. The target of this spell gains a limited form of flight, allowing him to move through the air unimpeded. The target of the spell may make Free Move Actions, but not Simple Move Actions, and never move more than 10' per round. Heavy winds can interfere with this movement or prevent it altogether. At the end of the spell's duration, the target drifts harmlessly to the ground, no matter how high he might be.

While the Crane would go without an organized shugenja family or order until the Asahina would be founded centuries after the clan’s founding, a few of Doji’s followers had a talent for speaking with the kami. They focused on the arts of peace and meditation, and this spell was one of their first attempts to bring the harmony of the Elements to a samurai. While this spell is active, all rolls based on Void and Awareness gain a +1k0 bonus when made within the area of effect, and all hostile actions suffer a -1k0 penalty.