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Black Hand
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An organization of ninjas, spies, and assassins, run by the Scorpion Clan.
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Bushi
- Used as another word for samurai.
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Bushido
- The code that samurai live by; "The Warrior's Way".
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Clans
- A general term used to describe a faction of noble families; the major form of social organization among the nobility. Members of a clan are by definition noble; non-nobles are officially clanless, though they may be in the employ of a clan. Major Clans include: Crab, Crane, Scorpion, Lion, Dragon, Phoenix, Unicorn.
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Daisho, Ancestral
- A samurai sword blessed by ancestor spirits. Advantageous in battle.
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Damiyo
- In general, a leader; usually used to mean "warlord".
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Hengeyokai
- Shapeshifters; each hengeyokai has an animal form and a hybrid animal-human form that they can change into.
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Geisha
- Broad translation is "art person"; in the late 16th century, the word is just coming into fashion and refers to a class of people who are entertainers of various sorts, males and females. Courtesans, singers, actors, and dancers are all known as geisha.
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Katana
- The longer of the two samurai swords. Generally reserved to the samurai class.
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Kitsune
- Spirit foxes. Like hengeyokai, they have a fox form, but unlike them have no hybrid form. Kitsune are energy vampires who usually feed through sex.
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Shaman
- Divine spellcaster, drawing power from ancestral (or other) spirits.
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shugenja
- Divine spellcaster, drawing power from the elements. Uses scrolls to cast spells. shugenja schools only accept nobles, so it's a good bet that any shugenja one meets will be a noble of some sort. (Hybrid of cleric and sorcerer.)
- Thrykreen
- Warriors created by Takumi Yamashita (also known as the Demonbane) to kill immortals, specifically to kill kitsune. Their human forms are very handsome and quite charismatic; their warrior forms are seven-foot-tall mantids whose scythe-like front legs are edged with jade.
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Wakazashi
- The smaller of the two samurai swords; available for use by non-samurai. (Katana are usually reserved for the samurai class, as is most plate armor. Samurai have very little sense of humor about people pretending to be them.)
- Warresh
- Creatures thought to have
been created by the gods as a servant race for the humans. They turned on
the humans as they had been given better strength and regenerative
abilities. They were placed directly under the control of the dark son
whose used them to destroy great swaths of humanity. Thought extinct. How
they were defeated the first time is unknown.
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Wu jen
- Spellcasters, the equivalent of wizards.