This spell was originally devised by the Shiba Illusionists, and is one of their few significant contributions to the ways of magic in Rokugan. In keeping with the traditions of the Shiba Illusionists, this spell is intended primarily for entertainment, but it can sometimes have more practical applications (such as helping a courier describe his experiences to his lore).
Understanding the ways of the Air reveals the indistinct line that exists between language and cipher. A shugenja can cause a piece of writing to be placed under an elemental cipher, enticing the kami to play a small game with those who read the text. The block of text becomes completely unintelligible unless read by the original author or the intended recipient, whose name is whispered as the spell is cast. Normally, an Elemental Cipher is not breakable by traditional decrypting and the kami will only reveal the true text to the intended recipient.
You can entreat the capricious spirits of the wind to create a perfect duplicate of you a short distance away. The illusion exactly reflects your appearance at the time the spell is cast, including your clothing and any equipment. The illusion may appear anywhere within the spell's range, and will perform whatever actions you perform while it is in effect. (If you sit down, for instance, your duplicate will sit down as well, even if there is nothing to sit on). Once you leave the normal range of the spell, the duplicate disappears.
You can create a flawless illusion of one object. The item appears real in every way up until the spell expires, at which point it disappears. If you are attempting to create a specific, familiar object, such as another samurai's katana, you must declare one Raise, and that individual may make a Contested Roll using his Perception against the total of your Spell Casting Roll to detect the forgery. Images created by this spell are completely stationary, and if placed in a situation where they must move (such as floating in water), disappear instantly.
You can upon the kami to wrap an object in their embrace, hiding it from the sight of mortal beings. You may target any one non-living object smaller than you. This object becomes invisible to the naked eye. Attempts to perceive it magically will automatically succeed if the Mastery Level of the spell is higher than that of this spell. Spells of equal Mastery Level require a Contested Air Roll to detect the hidden object. The object is still physically present and can be touched, smelled, or sense with any normal sense other than vision.
This spell entreats the Earth kami to hide and conceal the targeted creature. Earth flows up to cover the target with a realistic-looking facsimile of some natural object, such as a tree or a boulder; this shell collapses back into loose earth when the spell expires. The target can hear and breathe normally, but has no other interaction with the world outside of the concealing shell of Earth; if he speaks, moves, or is actually hit by an attack, the spell immediately ends and the concealing shell collapses as above.