Schools

When faced with insurmountable odds, a warrior often retreats to fight again another day. To the Crab Berserker, this is not an option. The Berserker will fight wherever his lord directs him, and focuses his entire being into that fight. The Berserker fights with no limits and continues to ferociously attack until either he or his enemies is bloodied and dead on the ground. The Berserkers often fight against the ravaging Shadowlands Horde and are said to match those beasts in rage and viciousness.

The limited Crab dueling tradition is maintained in the Unbreakable Blade Dojo. It emphasizes endurance rather than speed, teaching its students to endure their opponents' first blow in order to survive to deliver their own. Due to the Crab Clan's martial and pragmatic nature, the sensei of the Unbreakable Blade focus their training on lethal duels (both on the battlefield and in court) rather than on the duels to first blood that are more common in other clans.

A few Crab have specialized in knife-fighting over the years, enough for the clan to maintain a few sensei who teach advanced knife techniques. Many of these are sailors, especially Yasuki, who prefer a fighting style which uses small, cheap weapons in an environment where speed and mobility are more important than reach and power.

The Crab have a long and storied tradition of excellence in sumai, whose social respectability can grant skilled Crab wrestlers access to courts where they might otherwise never be invited. Promising students are taught at the Grip of Earth Dojo, the principle home to the Crab Clan's sumai fighting technique. When another samurai encounters a Crab bushi utilizing sumai techniques, it is almost always a graduate of the Grip of the Earth Dojo. Those students who show a knack for the ritual and pageantry of sumai as well as its more physical aspects are sent to Stone Tower Dojo in the Imperial Capital.

A tiny off-shoot of the Falcon Clan's bushi traditions, the Falcon's Strike Dojo becomes much larger and more influential after the Falcon are absorbed into the Crab Clan in the early twelfth century. The dojo selects its students for keen vision and sharp senses, and they learn to reply on focused senses rather than the mechanics of drawing and firing to hit their targets.

While most samurai despise the masakari as little more than a peasant axe, the Hiruma found value in its combination of relatively small size and the ability to deliver powerful cutting blows against Shadowlands beasts. The Slayers specialize in hunting down dangerous Shadowlands creatures, often operating deep within Fu Leng's realm with little to no support. During wars with other clans, however, the Slayers' skills can also come in handy for raiding behind enemy lines.

The Snipers are an outgrowth of the fall of Hiruma lands in the eighth century, and the Path does not exist prior to that era. they are trained to stay calm and shoot accurately even when assailed by terrifying monsters, targeting their foes' weak points.

Since the first days of the Crab Clan, the athletic and attentive Hiruma have often served as yojimbo for the Crab Champion and his most important vassals. This is not because the Hida lack for physical or martial power, of course, but rather because the Hiruma excel at perceiving threats that other Crab might easily miss. They are also considerably faster than the average member of most other Crab families, and speed is an essential component of any successful yojimbo’s repertoire of talents.

The Crab Clan has maintained a fleet of iron-armored "Turtle Ships" for centuries, but during the age of the Shattered Empire the threat of Mantis raids and the lack of any support from the rest of Rokugan forces them to expand the fleet and to arm and reinforce all of their wooden vessels as well. Hida O-Ushi commands that Earthquake Fish Bay be made impregnable against any naval attack, whether mundane or Shadowlands in origin. This task is given to Kaiu Utsu, the family daimyo and a famed Siegemaster. Utsu went to work with classic Crab practicality, adapting his methods to naval warfare. After he dies of heart failure in 1139, the task is taken up by his heir Kaiu Umasu, who regularized the Technique which Utsu had devised and made sure it was taught to later generations.

"We sometimes play a game amongst each other. One Kaiu devises the strongest fortification possible, and the others must figure out its weakness." - Kaiu Watsuki

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The Kaiu are acknowledged throughout the Empire as the foremost practitioners of siege warfare, especially on the defensive. Within their ranks, the elite order known as the Siege Masters holds a position of particular fame ever since they emerged in the fourth century. Siege Masters are known for rendering castles nigh-impregnable and for constructing defenses that break the spirit of opposing armies, even Shadowlands forces.

In the twelfth century, the Kuni begin focusing more intensely on the power and nature of crystal, partially influenced by the struggle against the Lying Darkness and partly by their interactions with other races who used crystal, such as the Naga and even the Nezumi. The Crystal Masters emerged from this research. They are the creators of the Sapphire Strike spell, and specialize in awakening the spiritual powers of crystal and using those powers to enhance their other magic.

Kuni shugenja dedicate their lives to eradicating the Shadowlands threat from the world. The Oni Slayers are an elite sect of the Kuni family that focuses strictly on dealing with the monsters that are too strong to fight on an equal footing. Their rituals and wards are essential in sapping the strength of these unnatural beasts. Oni slayers see things no man ever should, yet their dedication to their duties remains unshaken.

The Rajya ke Varisa are a group of Crab, Unicorn, and Mantis samurai who study the fighting techniques of the Ivory Kingdoms kshatriya and find ways to use them in conjunction with Rokugani combat techniques. The gaijin turned-Mantis known as Yoritomo Singh also contributes to the organization’s training, seeking to preserve some aspects of his former culture. So far they have managed to devise only one technique, albeit one of significant value.

The Severed Hand is the term adopted by those Crab warriors who are forced into the courts due to injuries or other physical problems that render them incapable of further military service. Such men and women, usually grizzled veterans, tend to view the courts as a mixture of deadly traps, pointless and puerile ritual, and stultifying boredom; nonetheless, they do their best to represent their clan. Over centuries of trail and error they have developed a Technique to aid them in their duties, and share it with their fellows through personal instruction.

From the days of their founding as the Falcon Clan, the Toritaka have studied the ways of the spirits, especially ghosts and gaki. Those of the Toritaka who had a gift of the kami undertook special studies in these topics, learning the ways of yorei and goryo, of gaki and kitsune-tsuki, and the ways to purge their influence from the natural world. The near-destruction of the Toritaka by a malevolent Shuten Doji spirit only furthered their determination to learn the ways of all such dangerous creatures. Toritaka Exorcists are skilled at both detecting dangerous spirits and purging their influence.

Created a few years prior to the Clan War, this unit was founded by Hida Tsuru, younger brother of Clan Champion Hida Kisada. He created a legion of cavalry trained to combine speed and power, delivering overpowering strikes to enemy lines. Over time this force became known as Tsuru’s Legion, a name it retained after the death of its founder. In modern times the Legion is a semi-independent strike force used by the Clan Champion, and stands outside the normal structure of the Crab armies.

The Yasuki merchants specialize in all manner of questionable forms of commerce and negotiation, and some few among them are discovered to have an exquisite talent for intimidation. Rather than see such gifts go to waste, the Yasuki lords at Clear Water Village prefer to teach them the methods they need to make their threats a reality. After all, a threat that cannot be followed through on is just poor business.

Some among the Yasuki, mainly in the Crab but also sometimes in the Crane, eschew their family's more conventional mercantile pursuits in favor of the practice of moneylending. Although this is considered especially disreputable activity for a samurai, it can also be hugely profitable - there are always both commoners and samurai who need additional funds, and the concept of paying interest is so strange to them that they usually do not realize how badly the Yasuki are taking advantage of them.

Although the Yasuki family as a whole is known for its mercantile and political role, many individual Yasuki serve in the Crab armies, with such members of the family often gravitating toward logistical and organization duties. As a result of this role, Yasuki bushi often found themselves in charge of organizing, training, and leading the Crab army's limited ashigaru forces. Eventually, this led to the establishment of a specific organization dedicated to that role: the Taskmasters. The dojo of the Taskmasters, located in Sunda Mizu Mura, admits students from any family but still tends to attract a disproportionate number of Yasuki, and the sensei is usually a Yasuki as well.

It may be noted that while the Taskmasters were originally oriented towards the command of ashigaru, over time their training and role expanded into a more general aspect of supervising lower-ranking soldiers. During the Clan Wars, when the Crab Clan forms a misguided alliance with the Shadowlands, some Taskmasters also find themselves saddled with the unpleasant duty of commanding units of goblin troops.