Dragon

Enigmatic and mysterious, the samurai of the Dragon Clan have walked their own path since the Empire was first created. More individualistic and less concerned with material wealth than other clans, the Dragon have much in common with the monks of the Brotherhood of Shinsei, despite the considerable variety among their individual families.

Tamori Master of the Mountain

The Great Wall of the North is a treacherous mountain range that kills those who are unready for its sudden, vicious changes in weather. Despite its dangers, the range is admirable to those who can see the beauty of its cold violence. Mountaineers who brave the fierce peaks are forged into powerful men. The Tamori Masters of the Mountain learn to harness the power churning within their own souls, a violent echo of the strength of the Elements themselves. It is an old tradition, dating back to when the Agasha family first explored the mountains and studied their secrets.

Swordmasters

The two-sword style of Niten was founded within the Dragon Clan's borders and the evolution of that martial art remains the heart of the Dragon Swordmaster school. The Swordmasters attempt to learn every aspect of this fighting style so they may adapt to any situation they can face on the battlefield. While the Crane Clan's Kenshinzen focus on the art of the iaijutsu duel, the Swordmasters focus on the pragmatic use of the swords in the thick of combat.

Mirumoto Master Sensei

High atop the mountains of the Dragon lands, in remote dojo and obscure strongholds, dwell the Master Sensei of the Mirumoto family - a tiny elite group of men and women who have attained true mastery of not only swordsmanship but also of their bodies and souls. Their primary home is Morning Frost Castle, but they also have several lesser dojo scattered through the most remote and inhospitable corners of the Dragon lands. The Master Sensei are very few in number, seldom exceeding two dozen in total, and those who would join their company must meet with their personal approval.

The Hitomi Kikage Zumi Order

Where the monks of the Hoshi family embrace the tsurui path of mystical power and deep contemplation, those of the kikage zumi order - especially the Hitomi - embrace violent physical action as their path to enlightenment. Kikage zumi are most prominent during the reign of Lady Hitomi, but remain a prominent element of the tattooed orders all the way to the Race for the Throne.

The Togashi Tattooed Order

The monks of the Togashi order, known as ise zumi, are the most recognizable and well known members of the Dragon Clan, due in large part to their highly unorthodox appearance. The Togashi monks embrace a strange philosophy that includes as part of its doctrine extensive tattooing of their bodies with ink crafted from diving blood of the Kami Togashi. These tattoos confer incredible, supernatural abilities that defy explanation even by the most powerful shugenja.

Tamori Shugenja

Formed from the remnants of the Agasha family following their defection to the Phoenix Clan, the Tamori have inherited centuries of experimental studies conducted by their predecessors, and have embraced it just as they did. The most prominent among these unusual disciplines is the study of alchemy. The Tamori have mastered the abandoned Agasha secret of containing the essence of a spell within ritually prepared liquids, allowing them to be used later.

Mirumoto Taoist Swordsman

Although the Mirumoto family are best known for following the twin-sword fighting technique pioneered by their founder (and defined most clearly in his famous book Niten), not all members of the family embrace Mirumoto's fighting techniques. The Dragon Clan's long association with the quest for enlightenment, not to mention the existence of a special monastic order right within its own ranks (the Togashi tattooed men) has given rise to other warrior traditions.

Mirumoto Bushi

Famous throughout the Empire for its unique teachings, the Mirumoto Bushi School is the lone fighting style that utilizes the Niten technique, wherein a samurai wields both the katana and the wakizashi simultaneously. This is a controversial style because it flies int eh face of the traditional style used by the other clans for centuries, although Niten was actually developed at the same time as the one-sword style.

Kitsuki Investigator

Even among the Dragon, the methods and beliefs imparted at the Kitsuki School are unusual. Alone in the Empire, the Kitsuki believe in the importance of evidence, something that most others cannot comprehend. The sensei of this unusual School place tremendous emphasis on developing the family's trademark powers of observation, honing them to a razor point, so much so that those trained in its Techniques possess a nearly infallible memory, perfect recall, and an almost inhuman attention to detail. Very little escapes the eye of a trained Kitsuki investigator.

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