Editing L5R Distant Thunder (section)

====The Jade Magistrates====

One cannot begin to understand the need for Jade Magistrates without first knowing of Kuni Nakanu. In the first century of the Empire one man chronicled the changes, effects, and powers of the Shadowlands. He chronicled the spread of the Taint, not just in the land, but in living beings, performing dozens, if not hundreds of experiments.

His death, at the hands of his own creations, and the wanton slaughter that followed served as a stark guide to the dangers of Kuni research.

Centuries later his notes would be the catalyst that would allow a scholar (player lore, not character lore: Otomo Jama) to become Iuchiban in the late 5th c. 

After Iuchiban was destroyed (player lore: entombed, but not killed) in the early 6th c, concern grew, and a body of shugenja dedicated to detecting and defeating supernatural evil were pondered... ...but ensuing decades of peace saw the task fall to the few shugenja among the Emerald Magistrates.

In 748 Iuchiban rose again, and rampaged across the Empire until his defeat in 750.

After this battle Kuni Tokaji, the daimyo of the Kuni, declared that he would volunteer to stand as the Emperor's Jade Champion. He would unify Kuni Witch Hunters, Yogo Kuroiban, and Askao Inquisitors. However the Council of Five, the Phoenix Elemental Masters, protested the position.

In the mid 8th c Phoenix shugenja discovered a Bloodspeaker cell hiding in the ranks of the Jade Magistrates. Their reputation tarnished, they lingered on in Court in increasingly ceremonial roles. Yogo Yoshi was the last Jade Champion, when he retired near the end of the 8th c the Emperor's functionaries stated that there would be no Test of the Jade Champion, and the office was retired as well.