Courts of the Crane Clan

To that I would add that Crane's real focus is NOT about controlling the imperial ministers (champions, advisor, chancellor, etc). Crane's real focus is, and has always been about controlling the ministries - the bureaucracy. Controlling ministers who are appointed by imperial fiat or tournament (in-setting tournament) is desirable, for sure, but unreliable, precisely because no matter how good your duelists or your courtiers are...at the top, the other clans have great ones too.

But implementing your clan's presence in all the lower-ranked ministry positions that actually implement their policies, the people whose support the ministers *need* to carry out any decision...now that's a reliable sort of control.

(But it's not an easy one to represent in story)

One of the reasons why Zinser has espoused the new policy of transparency is that in years past the story team often interpreted story choices differently than the players choosing them expected. We now have the opportunity to ask for more concrete assurances of what this would mean than we would have been able to in the past. I for one want to know how the story team would interpret to make sure its a cost I'm willing to pay and a benefit I'm willing to buy.

We are still not allowed to tell you what we plan to do for the story without permission.