Public Letter From Doji Makoto

[Kakita Shiro]

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Samurai of the Empire,

As many of you may know by now, the shadow of violence has covered our holdings in the Colonies. Iweko Seiken and his supporters have taken control of the SecondCity. As a result of this, we have removed our presence from the Colonial capital and offered sanctuary at TwinForksCity to those who also protest this gross overreaction. That our closest allies among the Lion and Phoenix support the military occupation of the SecondCity is saddening, and I am especially alarmed that the Phoenix would participate in a naked show of force. Events in the Colonies have progressed even to the point that I have directed our forces there under the command of Daidoji Tametaka to work with the Mantis to promote stability in the region, even though we were so recently engaged in hostilities.

I have been in communication with the Empress’ second son, Iweko Shibatsu, since before these events took place. He shares my concern for the escalation of events in the Colonies, and hopes that through mediation peace will be restored. His cool head and understanding of the dangers posed by inter-clan warfare have impressed me greatly, and I would offer the support of the Crane Clan toward his attempts at mediation, unconventional as it may be.

Although our forces in the Colonies are outnumbered, I would encourage my clansmen to take heart, for the Crane are not unfamiliar with those circumstances. Although we have been at peace with the Lion for generations, we held them at bay for a thousand years of warfare before. The Lion may be overstepping their bounds in this conflict, but they are honorable and wise. They know the dangers of the Crane when we are threatened and must defend our lands. I am certain that, once cooler heads prevail, the Crane will be at the forefront of restoring civility to the untamed Colonies.

Doji Makoto

Published through

[Suzume Suzaku]

Definitely unhappy with this decision.

[Kakita Kaikira]

I'm worried that we're pitted against our allies, but I support out siding with Shibatsu. We will be stronger with Shibatsu as Emperor. I was hoping we'd look at this as a political vs military decision rather than a traditionalist vs progressive.

[Himoto]

Much as I hate standing against the Phoenix and Lion on this one, what they've expressed in their clan letters make standing up against them a necessity (especially the Lion).

There's only one thing one can do with a rabid cat, no matter how beloved.

[Kakita Toroda]

I am shocked.
Standing against our oldest ally, the Phoenix and our newest "ally" the Scorpion, to stand with our last enemy, the Mantis and the most suspect Spider looks like a terrible mistake to me. I don't understand how we could choose to take a stand against the mighty military force of crab and lion while the forces of spider and mantis are concentrated far away in the colonies. It stands to reason, that a lot of the fighting will take place in crane land, and that the crane lands will burn for it. There is much to loose and little to gain in conflict with the crab and the lion and it threatens our new alliance with the scorpions and with it our fresh "Otomo-Deal".
It seems such an obvious mistake to me, that i expect some political maneuver to gain even more, when declaring for Seiken.

OR

AEG gave us a stupid decision to get the old Crane - Crab and Crane - Lion Trope back - that would suck!

PS: I hope my english was understandable.


Kakita Toroda

[Hendrick]

Personally, I think Makoto is being quite clever. He is condemning the actions taken, while still looking reasonable. By with withdrawing to Twin Forks City, which we control, and saying all we want is peace. He is essential creating a "neutral zone" in which in theory both sides of the current conflict can talk, trade, and interact.

What I got from the message is we want peace. We like peace so much we are even getting along with a former enemy. Lion clan I respect you, but we will defend ourselves. Phoenix, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself. Lets all take a deep breath, count to 10, and get back to things that really matter. Like destroying the Otomo.

[Himoto]

Most of the fighting will take place in the colonies to begin with.

I love the Lion-Crane peace, but I absolutely do NOT believe we should turn that alliance into riding a tiger. We should not follow the Lion and Phoenix off a cliff just because we like them as allies.

[Asahina Shimato]

Well, that brings us back to the AEG talk about how it is a mistake not to inform the players what their choice entails.
Choosing Seiken seemed like the obvious in-character choice, and now it's not. Who could have predicted that we'd confront all of our closest allies and ally with virtually all of our enemies? Who could have predicted that we are supposed to emotionally invest in the heir that we lost to the Spider? Not so long ago, when the first progressive Crane card appeared, I thought it was all about getting half of the clans to the Shibatsu side. I imagined somebody piping up at a meeting and saying "what about the Crane? They like courtiers. They are on Shibatsu's side," completely ignoring long-standing alliances, recent conflicts, and what the Crane really stand for.

It's a tough sell and the story has finally begun doing the selling. So far, it's starting to look like a high-risk, high-reward scheme - that could also go horribly wrong. But at least it's starting to look a lot less arbitrary. It remains to be seen how Gencon factors in.

[Kakita Kasukaru]

I am very unhappy about this as well. Supporting Shibatsu makes simply no sense whatsoever. We fought teeth and nails (against hostile odds) to get him to be fostered by the Crane instead of the Spider and lost. Why would we support him, an ally of the Empire worst foes? And this against our own long term allies? To ally with the Mantis, our worst enemies? Seriously? And we are supposed to be a Clan of honor and traditions... Frankly, I have stopped playing this game already, but I was still caring about the story a little. Now, not so much any more.

[Enlightened Courtier]

I have stopped playing L5R (might just be a haitus),
but if I were still playing, I'd be VERY HAPPY about this.
We need something new and interesting to happen to the Crane.
Having new allies and taking a different (yet still logical) stance is what we need for an interesting story.

The way the letter was written, we are not necessarily antagonizing our former allies.
we just want peace