Senshi Question 5

[Bayushi Senshi]

/me dusts off the old senshi questions log in favor of getting something figured out.

Ok. Utaku men. 4e books say they are forbidden from riding a horse into combat. mostly cause the Utaku women are big fat %!^@*$.

The book also say that Utaku men can sometimes go to a different school, rarely.

So this gives me two questions that I cannot find a definitive answer on. 1. What is the punishment for a man riding a horse into battle? 2. It is implied that some utaku men can train at the different families' schools. What freedoms do these men have in regards to riding into combat?

Enjoy this question, I could use some help answering these as I am unsure how my npcs in a table top game should react to an utaku man on horse in battle.

[Bayushi Hisa]

If it was just any horse the entire moto family would be punished I would assume. I think Utaku males are only forbidden from riding Utaku steeds into battle. As for punishment, I would assume it is quite severe - exile or seppuku.

[Bayushi Senshi]

Utaku men can, at best case scenario, hope to get exiled just for setting 1 foot on the utaku shiotome dojo. Yikes.

[The Blue Ronin]

Wasn't that Morito's backstory? He had a crack at riding an Utaku steed, and all hell broke loose, and he got Roninised?

I think it's not just Utaku women being unreasonable, it's that Utaku steeds go insane if men try to ride them.

[Zeure]

In one of the other books, "The Great Clans" supplement book they have rules for a male Utaku school path thingie. If you're just looking for hard rules to back something up.

But if you're looking for RP, the Utaku males are traditionally trained in another school of the clan and as horsegroomers for the Utaku Battlesteeds. They are the ones that raise the horses and break them for riding and train them for combat. It is not an Utaku Battle Steed until these things have been done, so I guess it would depend on when they get on the horse.

But yes, they are allowed to ride normal horses into combat, just not Utaku Battle Steeds.

[Agasha Shodai]

Actually, it's not just men, because the Emperor of Rokugan is permitted to ride an Utaku Battle Steed. I think it's more due to the fact that the Utaku Battle Steeds are typically commanded using special techniques that permit a psychic bond to the horse that only the Utaku Battle Maidens are permitted to learn.

That and the fact that the Utaku are a matriarchal family and, per the Wiki, male Utaku were just not trained in mounted combat, leaving that honor to the women of the family.

l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Utaku_family

[Agasha Shodai]

And Morito's mistake was that because he wasn't properly trained on how to handle the a Battle-trained steed and attempted to ride one. Since they are normally commanded through the psychic bond - not to mention the fact that the horse would have obviously known Morito was a man instead of his proper Battle Maiden - it sought to throw him.

Morito, full of arrogant determination, acted like a rodeo rider until the horse injured one of its legs to the point that it could never again bear the weight of a rider. His actions directly impaired the Utaku's military strength - leaving them one horse short - and broke too many Family rules to count and got him, as Ryoumon put it, "roninized"

[Bayushi Senshi]

its interesting to point out that utaku men as per the great clans book and core book 4e says men are forbidden from riding horses into combat, not just steeds. any. the wikia as I have best been able to determine refers to the 3e way of the unicorn, but I have no way of confirming that, and the wikia is unsited.

[Mirumoto Asano]

Funny you mention Utaku customs, Bayushi Senshi-sama, because 4th ed. Emerald Empire, clearly states that "The Utaku family absolutely forbids daughters to marry men of higher status". What do you think of that custom.

[Zeure]

Bayushi Senshi and Mirumoto Asano, Can you quote page numbers for your references from the 4th ed book. I just re-read the Unicorn intro, the Utaku famil and the Utaku school, and while it illiterates to the fact that the men serve as infantry, I can't find the specific customs that you two are mentioning. I'd like to read the exact wording from the book, so a page number is ideal.

[Bayushi Senshi]

great clans page 241. and page 288.
core book page............. sorry misquoted that one. Just great clans it seems.

[Zeure]

Granted, L5R is an ever-evolving thing; in the past it was that the Utaku males just didn't do cavalry because it was in reverance to their matriarchal family. Now it is apparently a hard rule.

But the horsegrooming bit of my above post is dead on.

To actually answer your two questions as directly and factually as I think I am capable.

The punishment, if it is strictly forbidden, would, I agree with Bayushi Hisa, be severe; exile/roninization/seppuku. But, I would think that if they were allowed to train at a different family's school than there would not be a punishment as that would directly contradict Unicorn Military Power.

Ultimately it is up to you the GM, but -I- would be lenient. I wouldn't punish my player for trying to play outside the norm by killing the character or roninizing/exiling it. I would make it a social thing, it's ok to make his life hard for playing something different, but making the concept unplayable, you should have just said he couldn't play it, in my opinion.

[Mirumoto Asano]

4th ed. Emerald Empire, chapter about customs, section about weddings, p.41

[Bayushi Senshi]

so.... what? my marriage is voided?

Heres what I decided to do (and yes all my questions were rp related anyway, I wanted to know how exactly people should act to the sight of an utaku man fighting on horseback.)

honor, booyah. depending on the situation, an Utaku man fighting on horseback is a minor, major, or blasphemous breach of etiquette. However, if he disadvantages himself by getting off of his horse to fight (different situations have different effects here of course) it is considered as "protecting one's clan/ family/ lord's interests at risk to one's self."

I also decided that an Utaku daimyo who allowed a man to train with a shinjo or moto bushi school would at least be able to follow through on the logic that that man can fight on horseback if she let him train to do it. Still though, its his burden to bear for doing so the rest of his life as other unicorn, particularly the utaku, treat him like dirt.

[Agasha Shodai]

Well, did she marry you when you were the Clan Champion or before? Was it a negotiation that benefited the Utaku family sufficiently for them to change their usual policy? Just because they don't NORMALLY let their women marry higher statused men doesn't mean it NEVER happens.