The Spider Clan was granted Great Clan status by Empress Iweko I as part of a deal she made with their founder, Daigotsu. So long as its members remain free of the Shadowlands Taint, they are afforded the rights of members of the buke. Despite their being a Great Clan, no clan is as hated, distrusted, or looked down upon as the Spider.
Yogo Junzo
Once a lord of the Scorpion, Yogo Junzo’s fury at the dissolution of his clan following the Scorpion Clan Coup led him to betray his duty and open the Black Scrolls containing Fu Leng’s essence. He became a self-willed undead monstrosity and led a Shadowlands army into Rokugan, assailing temples and monasteries and putting dozens of great libraries to the torch. The effects of his campaign of destruction still haunt the Empire generations later. His dark blessings allow you to call on the most dire and blasphemous knowledge to enhance your power.
Kuni Yori
Kuni Yori was once a loyal Crab, a servant of his lord Hida Kisada, but he was seduced by the Shadowlands and betrayed the Crab Clan. Transformed by the power of maho, Yori became an undead abomination, leading the forces of the Shadowlands against his former clan. Yori’s guidance teaches both deceit and greater mastery of the forces of maho. You gain +1k0 to all Sincerity (Deceit) rolls and all maho spellcasting rolls. However, Yori’s malign influence draws the Taint to you even faster than otherwise. Any time you cast a Maho spell, you gain 1 extra point of Taint.
Hida Atarasi
The first son of Hida, and the original Crab Thunder, also became one of the first samurai to be Lost to the Shadowlands
Taint. So great was his power that those who encountered him
Chuda Bikimi
Chuda Bikimi was a corrupt, ruthless, and utterly evil maho-tsukai, a terrible phantom who moved throughout the Empire like a blade of darkness. He snatched victims from their beds, from their dojo, from all imaginable locations, never once seen by any save his victims. All those who were kidnapped met terrible fates in necromantic maho rituals. Even beyond death, Bikimi’s legacy persists and he bestows his sinister blessings on those engaged in similar evil schemes. His guidance grants you a +1k0 bonus to any Stealth Skill Roll.
Susumu Courtier
At the end of the twelfth century, the Susumu have existed as a family for only a single generation, and have barely begun to differentiate themselves from the earlier methods of the Daigotsu family. This is represented mechanically by giving them a Path rather than their own full School.
Obsidian Magistrate
When the Spider Clan was formed out of the Lost, its founder Daigotsu decided to organize his forces as a subversion of the values Rokugan holds dear. He created an ideology and a set of laws with which to rule his own empire. The Obsidian Magistrate acts as the dark mirror of the Emerald Magistrate. He imposes the law of the Spider on everyone he meets, and his fanaticism fuels ferocious charges against his foes on the battlefield.
The Dark Whisper
Dark Whisper courtiers use the power of a bound Air kansen to dig out the secrets and sins of their foes, allowing them to subtly inflict chaos on the courts they attend. Because of the danger that their supernatural nature might be uncovered, they are deployed selectively, preferably in courts where their kansen ally is unlikely to be uncovered.
Dark Path Sohei
The Order of the Spider is an enigmatic and sinister order, with its origins in the diseased and diabolical mind of the fallen monk Roshungi. Under his teachings, enlightenment could only be discovered by completely unlocking an individual’s greatest physical and mental power. The path to doing that, Roshungi reasoned, was completely up to the individual to discover. In his order, those who wished to embrace their full potential and thus unlock enlightenment and the secrets of the universe were encouraged to embrace whatever means were necessary to achieve power.
Daigotsu Scout
In addition to serving as the lords of the Spider Clan, the Daigotsu are also the rank and file of its legions. Of the many samurai who have joined the clan since its inception, those with a talent for speaking to the kami join the Chuda, those whom the Shadow Dragon has chosen as his own become members of the Goju, and a small handful take up the path of the monk as members of the Order of the Spider.