Schools

The Scorpion Clan often approaches court, like war, as a domain where misdirection and confusion are its most potent allies. Although the Bayushi Courtier School focuses primarily on blackmail as its favored weapon, the school’s sensei also teach specialized techniques in spreading false information. The more rumors and confused gossip suffuse a court, the easier it is for the Masters of Secrets to prevail.

The fact that the Bitter Lies technique works at all is astounding. The founder of the Bitter Lies style, Bayushi Tangen, was a man who capitalized on chance and reaches success through sheer force of will. He refused to accept anything as out of his reach and would take insane risks to accomplish his tasks. He passed this style of no-holds-barred adventurous fighting to a single student, who later found several students of his own. The Bitter Lies Swordsmen carry on this legacy with their own reckless antics. The Swordsman's natural fortune helps him survive situations where logic says he could not.

The Fading Shadows are a tiny sect operating out of the Hidden Moon Dojo, the secretive Scorpion organization devoted to studying the Nothing and its manifestations in Rokugan. The Fading Shadows recognize that a link may exist between the Nothing and the Void, a disturbing idea but one that provides useful means of defeating the Nothing’s machinations. They are predominantly Soshi, but the Hidden Moon Dojo does not hesitate to recruit shugenja from other Scorpion families if it seems advantageous to do so.

The Kuroiban were originally created by the Yogo, and the Yogo family still leads the organization. However, it draws recruits from both the Scorpion shugenja Schools. Only the most trustworthy and skillful shugenja are recruited into the Black Watch, since its very existence is known to only a handful of people. Outside the Scorpion Clan, only the Kuni family is full aware of the Kuroiban, although the Asako Inquisitors have a vague realization that something of the sort exists.

Students of the Kuroiban are taught a secret technique to call on their connection with the kami and root out those who are corrupted by Jigoku's touch.

The iaijutsu duel is a sacred tradition in Rokugan and a lynchpin of the Empire's legal system. Given the history the Scorpion Clan has in the creation of that system, it comes as no surprise that a small but effective branch of the clan's primary bushi school is devoted to the art of iaijutsu. Through much of the Empire's history the group did not have an official name, but during the years immediately prior to the Clan War it drew attention for the deeds of Bayushi Saido, one of the finest graduates of its training program. Saigo's victories over other clans' duelists were so notable that the graduates of the dojo became known - first informally, then later formally - as Saigo's Blades.

The long period of relative peace and tranquility the Empire enjoyed took its toll upon the Scorpion just as it did all the clans. When the whispering of Ambition began to take hold in Bayushi Shoju’s mind, his demeanor changed, affecting those closest to him, then their vassals, and so on. When the Scorpion discovered the prophecy that foretold the return of Fu Leng through the last Hantei, this growing seed of dissent and paranoia blossomed into a loyal cadre who would do anything to make Shoju’s vision a reality. These warriors, priests, and courtiers, conspirators one and all, formed the bulk of the forces in the Imperial City during the Clan Coup, commanding even senior officers and agents in the successful capture and security of the city as a whole.

The technique which these men and women employed was not wholly exclusive to their era, however. The Scorpion Clan has always had those willing to do anything at all to fulfill their lord’s commands, and in truth the technique of the Scorpion Loyalists can probably be traced back to the internal split within the clan during the Gozoku era.

Although every clan has artisans who specialize in the creation of courtly masks, the Scorpion Clan takes such artistry to a much higher level. This is hardly surprising given the importance of masks to Scorpion culture.

The Scorpion are not generally known as a clan of great warriors, at least not in the same manner as their rivals among the Lion and the Crab. They are much more commonly perceived as villains, thieves, and assassins, accusations that are vehemently contested and yet not without a kernel of truth. Still, there are many within the Scorpion Clan who excel at martial pursuits, and the Scorpion army is rightfully feared on the battlefield. A small handful of Scorpion, however, possess the perfect combination of natural talent and extensive training to elevate combat beyond the simple act of war; in the hands of a Scorpion master, a weapon is but a brush and combat is his art. Perhaps ironically, the greatest weaponmasters among the Scorpion are typically found within the ranks of the Bitter Lies legion, which has led some within the clan to speculate that the prodigious physical talents these samurai possess are in fact some manner of compensation for their damaged psychological state.

Among the military ranks of the Scorpion, there is one unit that is known to the clan’s leadership but which appears in no formal documentation anywhere in the clan’s annals. These men are trained by sensei of both the Bayushi and Shosuro families, and are among the most proficient killers in the entire Empire. When they take the field, there are no survivors to tell tales of their abilities. Even their allies never lay eyes upon them. The location of their secret dojo is unknown to all save those who dwell within it, and those of family daimyo status or higher among the Scorpion. A persistent rumor among the attendants of those who know of the Shadow Blades’ existence places the dojo within Zakyo Toshi, but no one knows if this is simply conjecture or if there is a kernel of truth to the matter.

The Scorpion Clan never publicly acknowledges the existence of many of their elite forces. Their assassins and ninja can slip past powerful defenses to reach their targets. However, these ninja are only humaan and have limits to their abilities. The Soshi's Shadow Hunters are adept in speaking with kami, bypassing normal thresholds of power. The Shadow Hunters can alter the world with the help of their spells. These elite assassins meld with the darkness, revealing themselves only to devastate their foes.

The Assassins are the venomous sting of the Scorpion, their activities one of the greatest sources of paranoia in all Rokugan. They are trained to dispatch all manner of targets in every sort of circumstance, relying on tanto as small, easily concealed weapons which are ideal for infiltration work. The Shosuro Assassins learn to employ precise knife cuts and stabs to slay their targets in a matter of seconds with a minimum of noise and commotion.

The Defilers are an elite group within the Scorpion who specialize in the destruction of reputations, skillfully spreading lies and calumnies against their opponents, often lies backed with just enough truth to make them effective. They tend to be prominent figures whose vicious tongues earn them many enemies, and their tactics can sometimes rebound back on them - especially if the target of their words has a better dueling champion than they do. However, a true Defiler is more than ready to give his life in return for shattering the name, honor, and repute of an enemy of the Scorpion.

The Colonies are a vast area in which many dangers and secrets are hidden. The other clans are interested in those secrets, interested in what resources and power might be contained or unleashed by them, interested in how they can benefit from such things. But while the clans understand the physical dangers of such things, only the Scorpion understand the spiritual threat. Only they know the razor’s edge on which they walk, risking the integrity of their honor and indeed their souls by studying such gaijin artifacts. The two branches of the Soshi family, those who follow the path of the priesthood and those who follow the ways of combat and law enforcement, have both dedicated themselves to ensuring the danger presented by the Colonies is never fully realized. Whatever horrors they must perform, they accept them as necessary burdens to prevent even greater horrors from being unleashed. If all goes as planned, the other clans will never know the suffering the Scorpion have spared them.

For centuries the Soshi Deceivers are the darkest secret of the Soshi family: a secret group who combine Air magic and the power of Nothing to produce a host of sinister effects. They are notably adept at illusion magic, cloaking their actions in concealing shadows, rendering themselves invisible, or taking on the visage of others to deflect blame for their actions. After the exposure and apparent defeat of the Lying Darkness, the original Deceivers are purged from the clan, but the organization is later re-started in the belief that its powers can be replicated without relying on the dangerous influence of the Shadow. Whether this effort is truly successful, or the Soshi are merely deceiving themselves, remains to be seen.

Most clans and families maintain a highly skilled force known as an Elite Guard or House Guard, usually tasked with protection of the Clan Champion and/or of key clan holdings. Appointment to such a force is a privilege and reward, a mark of great trust from the clan’s rulers. The Scorpion Elite Guard, however, is a very different sort of force. Each member of the Scorpion Clan’s Elite Guard trains to adapt his fighting style to that of a specific enemy clan, becoming an intimidating opponent to any members of that clan - and also gaining the ability to pose as one of that clan’s samurai if necessary. Of course, this is a secret largely unknown outside of the Scorpion Clan, and most opponents believe the Scorpion Elite Guard is merely a highly proficient bushi unit like the comparable force of other families and clans. Within the ranks of the Scorpion Clan itself, the warriors of the Elite Guard are sometimes called "Violators".

Chain weapons are taught in the Scorpion Clan’s shinobi organizations, and in addition there is a showier type of chain ghting taught at the Shosuro Acting Academy which is designed to appear as a form of dance. Those few Scorpion bushi and assassins who actually specialize in chain weapons above other types of armament train in the small dojo which calls itself the Scorpion’s Tail. Their style specializes in the kusarigama, using it as both an infiltration tool and as a vicious weapon. They especially appreciate its ability to disable and even cripple opponents at a distance.