The starting individuals known as the Moto Death Priests are adherents of the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang, the pantheon of wrathful gods of death and judgment who were worshiped by the Moto family prior to its allegiance to the Unicorn Clan. When the Moto were still nomads, they paid homage to these Lords of Death out of both reverence and fear. However, when the Lady Shinjo taught the Moto there gods who could show compassion and reward loyalty, they forsook their old devotion and joined the Unicorn. For centuries, the enraged Lords of Death sought their wayward worshipers, finally locating them in the Empire of Rokugan and afflicting them with ill fortune and misery, a kharmic phenomenon sometimes referred to as the Moto Curse. It was not until the days of Moto Gaheris, near the end of the War of Spirits, that the gods were contacted directly and a bargain was struck: the Lords of Death would stay their wrath and in exchange the Moto would resume their worship.
After the reunion of the Moto and the Lords of Death, worship of these gods spreads to other families within the Unicorn, especially once they are elevated to the position of lesser Fortunes in the cosmology of Rokugan. Holding sway in the Realm of Waiting, they pass judgement on the dead who await reincarnation, and their power even attracts a few worshipers from other clans. The Death Priests who revere the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang are singularly focused and disturbing men and women; they bring the blessings of death to those who are determined to be enemies of the Unicorn, and their prowess in battle is something other clans quickly learn to fear.