I'm building a Hida Pragmatist for an L5R game, and I've got some questions

>Unless your marriage explicitly included a school transfer, you're still a member of your original school and will have to travel there every once in a while to brush up on skills and eventually gain new Techniques
That's assuming you're important enough to be given leave to travel to Crab lands, or bring a foreign sensei into Lion lands. Most aren't, which means marriage into another clan is either the end of their formal training, or a pause while they find a new sensei.

Why were they married into the Lion?

Inter-clan marriages always happen for a reason.

The Matsu want more big guy genes in their gene pool. Guess what clan has the best big guy genes?

Getting leave to visit your family (That's family as in parents/siblings, not capital F Family) isn't that difficult to get. Sure, you might only go once a year, but that's enough for most people. And since you are a full member of your new clan, you can use their basic training facilities. You're not going to be getting any Techniques or fancy Kata, but if you just want to improve your swordsmanship or the finer points of battlefield tactics, you can sit in with your Clan's students for those classes or work with a sensei or advanced student for personal study.

>Getting leave to visit your family (That's family as in parents/siblings, not capital F Family) isn't that difficult to get.
For a Lion to Crab journey? That's crossing the empire, a considerable bite into time you would otherwise spend fulfilling your duties to your clan, and a personal indulgence when you are supposed to be thinking primarily of your new clan.

Really isn't a Rokugani line of thinking.

There are always ways to work it out. You could be delivering important mail, further reinforcing inter-clan ties, working out minor deals, escorting someone else to work out more important deals, ect.
Part of being honorable is respecting your ancestors, parents, and sensei, and most lords can respect that enough to find something useful for you to do out that way every once in a while. It might not be when you want it exactly, and it won't be like clockwork, but going back to get your next Technique is not going to be impossible for a PC who is far from their School.

>going back to get your next Technique is not going to be impossible for a PC
And sometimes the answer is just, "You got married and now you have to live with it. 10xp for Multiple Schools."

That's a rather strict approach. A 10 exp penalty is kinda brutal for something with no benefit.

No benefits to marriage? There are any number of beneficial results to swing from marriage.

Blissful Betrothal is such an obvious thing, provided the two actually like each other, that I'm inclined to think anyone saying there's nothing to be gained through marriage has switched off their brain - or they're just being difficult. And that's just getting started.

...

...

>First- my character is marrying into the Matsu- my wife thinks I'm scum and my brother and superior likes me- what issues should I expect as a new Lion clan member?

Hida-Matsu marriage has some historical background. Read Hida Osano-Wo's case with his Matsu bride and learn.

>Second, how does my marriage change my loyalties?

You are now effectively Lion Clan, unless your wife and her family do not care about your loyalties, in which case you are loyal to whoever you want to be loyal.

>Third, as a pragmatist, can I expect to be competitive on the battlefield with improvised weapons?

Forget improvised weapons, the are shit. Go grapple or go home.

>Forget improvised weapons, the are shit
As 0k2 unarmed combat weapons, they're effectively Hands Of Stone for people who don't want to pay xp.

Improvised Weapons are great.

You can't use them in grapple, so they are shit. Hands of Stone is a bazillion times better because it improves grapple damage too.

If you build an unarmed character, then there is no such thing as "I don't want to pay xp for Hands of Stone". That's shrameful dispray and you should feel bad for even thinking about it.

There are three options; hands of stone, hitsu-do, and improvised weapons. That you're being so abrasive about it leaves me thinking I don't much care what your opinions are.

Ah, yes, honorary mention goes to hitsu-do, but it is a Monk-only IR 2 Alternate Path, so not something that should concern the OP.

I'm not exactly sure why would you go with improvised weapons. So that your opponents can disarm you? Isn't avoiding that the whole point of going unarmed?

This leaves Hands of Stone, so there is that.

Improvised Weapons is useful for when you can justify a bigger bonus than 0k2. There's no reason not to pick up hands of stone for your default unarmed attacks, but if your gm will agree that the object you grab should do damage comparable to a tonfa (a goddamn small wooden stick that still does 0k3), then there's no reason not to use it. It's not like being disarmed will inconvenience you if they try, and dropping the thing when you go in for a grapple is as simple as opening your hand, and should be a free action.

>There's no reason not to pick up hands of stone for your default unarmed attacks, but if your gm will agree that the object you grab should do damage comparable to a tonfa (a goddamn small wooden stick that still does 0k3), then there's no reason not to use it.

That's a weird way to go around it. I mean, improvised weapons should also behave like staves by this logic, and that means doubled Armor TN bonuses from armor. And/or improvised weapons should break if they do too much damage (like the parangu), and/or lack exploding damage dice (like the shuriken).

And even then there is hardly a situation I can imagine when swinging around a chair is better than go straight for the grapple.

>I'm not exactly sure why would you go with improvised weapons. So that your opponents can disarm you?
I see you've started down the path of the straw man. No, but you get an 'also posted' prize. Well done.

Improvised Weapons come for the low price of FREE, if you're limiting the maximum xp spent on advantages or don't want to lay out 6xp. They're also actual weapons, which can be important when you don't want to touch your opponent - possibly because they're on fire / acid / poisonous / horribly tainted / other.

It can also come into question if the game has consequences for advantages. IIRC official suggestion was along the lines that other martial artists would recognise the thick calluses characteristic of hands of stone, and it could even be an impediment to using one's hands delicately.

>And even then there is hardly a situation I can imagine when swinging around a chair is better than go straight for the grapple.

Tainted enemies. You won't want to touch that shit if you can avoid it.

Also;

>HUGE:
>A huge creature is impossible to Grapple, due to its vast size and bulk, or perhaps due to multiple limbs or a monstrous form. A Huge creature cannot be Grappled or targeted with the Knockdown maneuver, and will not initiate a Grapple with others unless it has ranks in the Jiujutsu skill.

Look, if the campaign outlook is "Advantages suck dino cock" then Hands of Stone is obviously a lesser choice. But I like to assume the GM is not trying to undermine the OP's character from the get-go.

Hell, you can argue that Hands of Stone probably increases improvised weapons damage too, in which case the character can just use both for maximum effect.

>They're also actual weapons, which can be important when you don't want to touch your opponent

I think if you can't touch your opponent because he/she/it is so fucked up then picking up a bench will most likely not help. Unless it is a very-very well made bench.

Honestly, you're building a Matsu.
If your character is marrying into a family, that is your family now.
If you are trained at a school with notably low honour, and took the infamous hindrance then expect the lion as a whole to either regard you with utter contempt or (more likely) ignore you.

If you marry into a family, you are dead to your previous family. Also, you are your spouse's social inferior if you married into their family rather than the other way around.
What did your wife do to deserve such a shameful match? How did she dishonor herself so much that she would be forced to take a known villain into her bed?

If you expect training after you move to house arrest land (The social inferior spouse stays at home while the real head of family goes on assignments) the only real option is the Death seeker.
Just keep being an untrustworthy scumbag (which is what low honour and infamy indicate) and you may be lucky enough to get thrown in a suicide unit after you shame your spouse into suicide.

The point is that some monsters have nasty side affects if you make skin contact with them or get ichor spray into yourself.

The bench is an extra meter between you and Jade petal tea for life.

But the bench will just melt in the ichor spray without doing any damage. It isn't exactly a tetsubo stand-in, if you know what I mean.

>you are dead to your previous family
This is not how it works. Half the point of inter-clan marriages is to improve relations between the two clans or cement other deals. Maybe if you eloped you'd be considered dead to them, but not for an official marriage.
>Also, you are your spouse's social inferior if you married into their family rather than the other way around.
This is true in the vast majority of marriages.
>The social inferior spouse stays at home while the real head of family goes on assignments
Not always. Sometimes they both do things and have servants to deal with their home. Since the character is a PC, it's probably going to be that situation.
>the only real option is the Death seeker.
Not necessarily. Honorabru marriage means that you are an official member of the clan. Multiple Schools would be easier to get and there are ways to continue training in your previous school, especially as an active PC.

>This is not how it works. Half the point of inter-clan marriages is to improve relations between the two clans or cement other deals.
You can improve relations between the two clans symbolically, without it greatly impacting your new life in a new clan.

>Hell, you can argue that Hands of Stone probably increases improvised weapons damage too, in which case the character can just use both for maximum effect.
If AEG hadn't shut down their L5R forums, I'd be able to point to the most official word short of the actual GM on the subject of how improvised weapons work. Some stuff accidentally never made it to core rules.

And being completely dead to your previous clan would be greatly impacting your life. It would also lose one of the better uses for married-in members. An ex-Crab is the perfect person to negotiate with the Crab and deal with Crab visitors. They'll be more friendly to Matsu Crabman than Matsu Lionborn.

lynks.se/errata/
This site has most of the official answers from the forums.

>And being completely dead to your previous clan would be greatly impacting your life
Not really. You're now busy with an entirely new set of duties, as well as learning subtle but important customs and etiquette you previously didn't have any reason to abide by. Think Hida Sozen (actually part of an exchange of hostages, but still relevant for leaving the Dragon), or Bayushi (nee Toturi/daughter of Toku) Miyako.

You might deal with those former clansmen who visit your new clan's lands, if your new clan doesn't consider it a conflict of loyalties (and they really can) and you're somehow seen as a better choice than their established samurai for such duties. You might also eventually travel back to your former clan's lands, if your lord doesn't consider sending a letter to be sufficient. (but for most samurai it will be seen as enough)

It's lacking the conversation, no?

>lynks.se/errata/
Man, that cumulative discounts thing is a game-changer.

>Not really. You're now busy with an entirely new set of duties, as well as learning subtle but important customs and etiquette you previously didn't have any reason to abide by.
Nothing about that requires cutting off all ties with your previous family. At the very least, Rokugani write a lot of letters, and the mail service is fairly fast and reliable.
Your loyalty is to your clan, but every samurai has to be loyal to their ancestors and parents as well. Marrying out of your birth clan does not mean that you forget it entirely or avoid associating with it.

>Nothing about that requires cutting off all ties with your previous family
Nothing about it suggests you will be able to maintain regular visits to your family, who are literally across the empire in the direction Rokugani will travel out of their way to avoid. (South West)

Not that the former Crab will have issue with that, but every time they bring it up travelling to their old clan, it's there like an unmentioned fart.

Also; nice sidestepping of canon examples.

You mean the canon example that voluntarily joined a different clan because it fit his personality and his previous clan bored him, or the canon example who had no problem adjusting to her new clan and literally became its Clan Champion while also not cutting ties to her previous clan?

And she became the Clan Champion because her mother (Who had married Toku) was originally a Scorpion, giving Miyako further support towards the Scorpion position.

Not that anyone related to the Monkey Clan should be used as an example. If they weren't so irrelevant, the favoritism and exceptionalism given to the Monkey by the story team would be unbearable.

>the canon example that voluntarily joined a different clan because it fit his personality and his previous clan bored him
Exactly why he volunteered to be a hostage in clan negotiations is irrelevant, unless you're trying to suggest he was 'bored' of his direct family and lost all ties to them through that boredom.

>the canon example who had no problem adjusting to her new clan and literally became its Clan Champion while also not cutting ties to her previous clan?
Yes. The one who unexpectedly had few issues adjusting to her new situation when everyone expected otherwise. Take notes, because the Scorpion and Monkey are right next to each other, precisely how the Crab and Lion are *not*.

Just in case that wasn't clear; Miyako isn't a great example because of how she adjusted - she's a great example because she does her Monkey thing and excels against expectations - which shows us the expectations for other samurai.

She's the finger pointing to the moon, ladle by the well, or hollow that makes a cup.

Nothing about Miyako was unexpected, because her Mother (A Scorpion who married Toku) did not cut ties with her birth clan.

And here's a canon example that is actually relevant.
Hida "Mother Wolf" Tsuneko. Born a Matsu, married the Crab Clan Champion, became acting champion when her husband died because her children were not old enough to inherit the position. The Crab and the Lion explicitly had good relations at that time because of her ties to the Lion Clan.

Also, look at the second and third Yasuki wars. It's "discovered" (Fabricated really, but it's perceived as the truth and so Rokugan acts as if it was true) that someone was actually the heir to the Yasuki because one of their ancestors was a member of the ruling line and married out. Two entire wars that would not have happened if ties were cut. A major position was inherited through the distant blood of someone who had married out of the family decades prior.

>Nothing about Miyako was unexpected
There's direct conversation with Paneki where she talks about she can actually be a Scorpion in more than name. Before that, she was going to be relegated to a similar status as Junshin.

That has more to do with the nature of the Scorpion than it has to do with the way marriage works.

>Before that, she was going to be relegated to a similar status as Junshin.
The Monkey Clan is favored by the Scorpion precisely because they're seen as all Junshin, all the time. Miyako didn't have problems adjusting because her mother was a Scorpion and she's a Monkey, which means she literally cannot fail to do something thanks to writer favoritism.

Also, again, Miyako is a good example because of what she is not - this extends as far as being a regular samurai.

Champions, daimyo - kuge in general - are held to different standards than buke. It allows them to get away with things like using a tetsubo in an iai duel, when normal samurai would get their shit kicked in.

Kisada is a poor example of the breadth of options available to average samurai in an officially sanctioned duel.

Tsuneko is a poor example for maintaining familial relations and visitations. (though I don't see you mentioned anything that would suggest she did much of either)

Miyako's lack of problems adjusting are not the focus, because Monkey clan and writer favouritism.

The expectations of problems *are*, because they show what would happen to regular samurai.

It's the most extreme example, but it's not absent from other clans - just less simple to contrast with.

"Due to Tsuneko's familial connections to the Matsu, the Crab enjoy good relations with the Lion during much of this era" - Imperial Histories, pgs 107-108

Having to adjust to your new clan does not mean that you do not still connect to your previous clan. Adjusting takes weeks or months. Blood is forever, and ever, and ever, even beyond your death. Inheritance crosses clan lines, because you do not lose your connection to your previous family.

I'm not convinced that speaks of regular visits and so on, but ok. You're still not talking about regular samurai.

And neither are you. A Monkey from the ruling line who married into the ruling line of a family that her mother was born in is not regular.

Also, you are greatly overestimating the distance one would have to travel to go from Matsu lands to Hida lands.
The Matsu are the southernmost Lion territories. The Hida are directly south of them. The only thing between them is the lands of the Scorpion.

>And neither are you
Then you completely missed the point of using Miyako, and haven't read anything I've said since. Well done.

There is no point using Miyako, since she didn't have problems adjusting and even if she did have problems adjusting, they would not last forever and wouldn't have impacted her ability to continue in her previous school or communicate with her birth family.

Hida to Matsu is very easy to adjust to. The Matsu are loud and militant. The Hida are loud and militant. Neither are particularly polite, neither would tolerate cowardice, both have proud martial traditions. At worst, it would take a few weeks of adjusting, which still would not prevent one from writing to their previous family or, eventually, finding a way to visit.

Who said anything about regular visits? People don't rank up that quickly, and regular trait and skill increases do not require being at your own school's dojos. The only thing you really need to go back for is learning a new Technique, which is not a regular occurrence. Some characters go their entire lives only learning two or three. Even fast growing characters don't learn them *that* fast, and there's actually precedence for being able to learn Techniques from written instructions. They could literally send your technique by mail (Probably via Crab courier for security).

>There is no point using Miyako
My apologies for making assumptions on your abilities, user. Here's a cool picture instead.

You never had a point, which is why you won't explain it.
She's not a normal character and does not represent normal. Using her as an example of the norm, or even of the expectation is literally pointless, no matter how much implied smug you use.

>You never had a point, which is why you won't explain it.
If you didn't get it the first few times I repeated myself, why would you now?
>Using her as an example of the norm, or even of the expectation is literally pointless, no matter how much implied smug you use.
It's not smug, just disappointment in the realisation you've mentally skipped right past that much of what was said.

>You're now busy with an entirely new set of duties, as well as learning subtle but important customs and etiquette you previously didn't have any reason to abide by. Think Hida Sozen (actually part of an exchange of hostages, but still relevant for leaving the Dragon), or Bayushi (nee Toturi/daughter of Toku) Miyako.
This is you saying that it's difficult to adjust, then you used two examples that had no difficulty at all adjusting.
Then we have , where everyone expected her to have problems because the two clans are very different. Unlike the Hida and Matsu, that are very similar.
And then you said that adjusting is not the focus right here, even though literally every single thing you said up to that point was about adjusting Maybe you think that Monkey are all about subverting expectations, but they're really not. They're just writer favorites, not a vehicle to show what is expected and then subverting it.
The Matsu and Hida are very similar, which means adjusting would not be hard. And even if it was hard, it would not change the fact that ties are not cut between a samurai and their birth family and school. If anything, being hard to adjust to would just drive someone closer to their birth family.
That's the most important point. Adjusting does not take all of your focus and is not a lifetime effort. There's room to write letters, receive letters, visit, and be visited. If you are an active samurai, as opposed to a housekeeper, your lord is not going to gimp you by denying your request to visit your parents and School when you need to. Traveling to visit relatives is common. Keeping up with your School is normal. Denying that for no reason is a quick way to get a reputation for being pointlessly cruel, and can be seen as a heavy insult.

>She's not a normal character and does not represent normal.

Dude. This is Rokugan. If a character is not a special snowflake in this setting, then he/she is literally a nobody.

Even for Rokugan, the situation of Miyako is silly.
She was born to fucking Toku, the marysuest of mary sues and his Scorpion waifu, and then she married the Scorpion clan champion after a bunch of Scorpion related portents happened in her life.

That's still leagues better than being the Crab Clan Champion who personally led the shadowlands horde against the Emerald Empire only to become the Fortune of Persistence after failing to put the country to the tainted torch.

I'm a crab fanboy and I still don't understand that.

It was a political decision. Even after that disaster, the Crab were still one of the strongest military forces in the country, if not the strongest. Toturi needed their support, and straight pardoning Kisada wasn't in the cards. So once he died, Toturi made him the Fortune of a trait that he really did personify (Dude survived for two years after being hit by the one-hit-kill sword of the Hantei, and never stopped pursuing his goals), cementing the Crab as Toturi dynasty supporters while not pissing everyone else off too much.

Nah, it was purely CCG retardation. After all Toturi handed out Family Names and Clan Status like it was candy, but neglected to restore his own family back to its original standing. A standing, mind you, that was lost due to Toturi making a bastard his geisha instead of doing his duty. It took a fucking Dragon, Lady, "I'm tha fucking moon," Hitomi, to restore the Akodo.

That's the meta reason for it, but the in-universe explanation is that Toturi needed their support.

Of course, if the CCG results had come out differently, he might not have needed the Crab support, or might have secured it in a different way. He might have even sparked further conflict by pushing them too hard in punishment.

Kisada going full retard was also CCG retardation. Hell, most of what is wrong with the metaplot ca be traced to CCG retardation with the exception of the Spider clan, that was pure wankery by the higher ups at AEG.

What're good boosts to unarmed? Hands of stone and Pragmatist is obvious, is there anything else?

Any other boost to Jujutsu is pretty much going to come through some form of Monkery - kiho or technique.

Mastery levels of Juijitsu, Togashi Tattooed Order, or going full Monk for unarmed delivered kiho.

Most other boosts are Brotherhood Monk locked or martial art alternate ranks that are only available to BMs and very specific schools that you are not in.

Technically speaking, you could learn Mantis Brawler, since it is one of the only schools that is not jealously guarded. Of course, you need to find and convince a Mantis Brawler to teach you and accept the shame of downgrading to such an unrespected School. Kobo Ichi-Kai is known and respected as a proper samurai martial art, and its most ardent students are recognized as a proper samurai School. Mantis Brawlers are seen as just a bunch of drunk, uppity sailors and sometimes ronin.

>the Hida and Matsu, that are very similar
That's not really true beyond the most superficial similarities.
>The Matsu are loud and militant. The Hida are loud and militant. Neither are particularly polite, neither would tolerate cowardice, both have proud martial traditions.
The Matsu are way more focused on honour than you give them credit for, even if they consider militant etiquette better than courtly etiquette. The Crab in general aren't focused on Bushido, but pragmatism. If Bushido gets in your way at the wall, cut it down, or be cut down.

Crab > Lion: They alone understand what it means to wage war, but even they have no appreciation for what it is we do each day. Perhaps one day we can be true brothers, but until they gain perspective, they are to be respected but not feared.
>Lion > Crab: They are formidable, but they conduct themselves strangely and seemingly without thought for their honor. They are to be respected as warriors, but little else.
Matsu are the family that kill children who fail their gempukku.

>They're just writer favorites, not a vehicle to show what is expected and then subverting it.
Whether on purpose or by accident, they do rise above expectations of common samurai. With expectations spelled out, common samurai can be measured against them.

>Adjusting does not take all of your focus and is not a lifetime effort.
This is a world where the average ronin will be forced into servitude overseeing a muddy rice farm village for three generations, (with no help, and expected to cause no complaints and defend said village with a spotless record) before their descendants will be allowed to take the the family name. Just one example. However quickly *you* think you can adjust, it's not up to you.

>your lord is not going to gimp you by denying your request to visit your parents and School when you need to
Any reasonable lord could point out it's not gimping a samurai to bring them closer to the traditions of their clan.

It is gimping a samurai to force them to drop the perfectly acceptable and honorable training they have already received to start again at the basics or not get any further meaningful training at all. Ongoing education is an important part of samurai culture in Rokugan. Stopping your education means denying your potential, which could be contrived to be a failure of duty by not being the best you can be for your clan. Also remember that born members of the clan who are exchange students in other Schools are allowed to return to their sensei to learn their next Techniques. It's not very different for a married-in member.

>There's room to write letters, receive letters, visit, and be visited.
Letters are an excellent way of keeping in contact with people you're not within a day's travel of.

>Traveling to visit relatives is common.
Distances are still relevant. You might point out that they're relatively close compared to other Lion/Crab provinces, but it's still not a short distance.

>Keeping up with your School is normal.
Being inducted into a new school is normal when married into another clan.

>Denying that for no reason is a quick way to get a reputation for being pointlessly cruel, and can be seen as a heavy insult.
Continuing to request travel to your former clan can be seen as needlessly wasting clan resources, and not integrating into your new clan with gusto can be seen as a heavy insult.

Can I ask, then, what differences you could point out between the clans? Where is the crab likely to have difficulty?

... You realise I already laid out the basics for that, right?

>The Hida respect strength, perseverance, duty, and the courage and fortitude required to fight the Shadowlands. The only people the Hida respect more than strong battlefield leaders are their mothers.
One might think that last part would be a source of accord between the two families, but perspective and presentation also play their part.
>Indeed, the family considers its women to be the unsung heroes of the Empire; without their efforts the family would long since have faltered under the heavy casualties it suffers year to year.

The stereotypical Hida isn't just loud and brash, they're also sullen, poorly groomed brutes, who recognise the place of a woman is knocked up and tending the household. They have no time for court or the impractical aspects of Bushido that other clans can afford, though that does not make them stupid - even if they work to make it seem so.

OTOH;
>Many samurai in the Empire, especially Crane and Scorpion, tend to stereotype the Lion Clan as a mass of brash, temperamental warriors, blindly honorable and obsessed with battle.
>Most samurai families eschew the call of battle lust, and the Crab embrace it crudely and heedlessly; the Matsu harness the rage of war, hone it, sharpen it, and turn it to their own ends.
>Between their lust for battle and their impatience with the elaborate rituals of society, the Matsu can sometimes draw comparisons with the Hida family of the Crab. However, one thing sets the Matsu firmly apart from the Hida: their devotion to Honor.
>They do nothing lightly or casually or quietly. To be meek or flippant or hesitant defames the memory of Matsu.
>The combination of this philosophy with rigid traditionalism makes the Matsu a rather touchy family.

Matsu are loud and hot blooded, but they aren't crude, pragmatic, or untidy. Everything must remain rigidly in alignment with Bushido and (by their perspective) etiquette.

You're a crane aren't you.

>Matsu are loud and hot blooded, but they aren't crude, pragmatic, or untidy. Everything must remain rigidly in alignment with Bushido and (by their perspective) etiquette.

Y'know it is at least interesting that the greatest modern heroine was a crude and untidy perma-virgin who said "fuck bushido I have sexual frustration" even when the Emperor was being possessed by Fu Leng.

You know, I never actually understood why the Lion exist.

The Crab have a huge military to defend against the Shadowlands- okay, that makes sense.

The Unicorn have a huge military because they needed it to survive seeking threats in the wider world. Understandable.

And the Lion have a huge military because...? Rokugan has been invaded by anyone other than the Shadowlands all of twice in thousands of years. The Lion seem to exist solely to toot their own horn about how great they are at war, and to attack other clans. It's an entire clan dedicated to waging civil wars and basically nothing else.

Why?

It is about waging civil wars because "keep your swords sharp" and stuff like that. They are supposedly the internal security of the Empire, but since they are the ones who compromise this security most of the time (or they simply deny to do what they are supposed to do), their job kinda takes off on the wrong foot.

I blame the shit writing. The Lion has good potential, but they are kinda wasted as the "warmonger clan".

I would kinda understand it if the Lion acted as the fist of the Emperor, which they kinda do sometimes, but the Imperial Legions do it better, and the only time it seems to come up is when a Hantei comes back from the dead or goes insane or whatever and suddenly half the Lion decide that it's time to go maximum Honorable Stupid instead of kicking minor clans like usual.

As an aside- Hantei best dynasty, Toturi okay, Iweko a tainted shit

Iweko is an otherwise pretty cool empress dragged down by AEG's boner for the Spider.

The Lion is basically the reserve/alternate force for the Imperial Legions. When the legions aren't enough or the Emperor doesn't want to deploy them for whatever reason, the Lion step in. Plenty of rebellions and national traitors have been wiped by the Lion.

They're also the solid core of most combined clan forces during crises, when they aren't being the Lawful Stupid opposition. Sometimes they're the core of both sides' forces when some of them go full stupid and some don't.

>The Lion is basically the reserve/alternate force for the Imperial Legions
The Imperial Legions are basically the emperor's way of assembling a military force that doesn't answer to any single clan. Lion are the emperor's strategists and main source of military muscle.

Right, but sometimes it's not appropriate for a military task, or needs to be doing something else, or just isn't large enough.

l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Legions

Yes, and?
The Lion objectively perform military tasks directly under the command of the Emperor.

>Roughly ninety percent of the Legions are away from the Imperial City at any given time. These Wandering Legions fulfilled duties such as patrolling the roads, protecting Tax Collectors, or providing protection for areas of critical importance.
Seems like a good reason to utilize the already assembled armies of a nearby clan for "normal" problems, rather than recall a bunch of scattered legions that are performing important jobs around the country.

>Yes, and?
Some people seem unsure exactly what the IL do. This explains it.

Currently the IL total sits at least at 100,000 troops. 9/10 legions away still leaves 10,000 troops, plus another 10,000 on standby, and an undisclosed amount of variance - before counting ashigaru and peasant levies. What is that not enough for?

Imagine you have two apples. The emperor has no apples, but asks you for one. How many apples do you have between you?

Trick question, the apples were always the Emperor's; I merely held them in trust on his behalf.