Pillar of virtue? Me?

(Brief aside : Himoto, the character, is not exactly the honorable or virtuous sort. If he were to have his own list of seven "virtues", it'd probably cherry-pick from both Bushido and Shourido. Not Control, Strength, Perfection - those he would see as waste of time - but Determination, Will? They'd likely be in.)

For what it's worth, I'm still around and I am still very much a Jade Hand Crab. Like anyone who is a true Crab at heart, I am ever busy attending to my duties which alas, require my full attention in the real world.

However, in those rare moment when I do get out to play, all can see what Great Clan I am a proud member of and that I fight for the Jade Hand.

If I can help by impassioned posting alone, count me in.

I would buy cards too and take the Taint out of circulation that way, but I can't get a student loan as a postgrad and I've spent up the last one.

I will do whatever I can for the Jade Hand.

Honour and purity will prevail.

While not a big tourney player, and not even much of a CCG player, I am all for erradicating the Taint and all who bear it (with reservations made for those who subjugate themselves the watchful eye of the Kuni/Kuroiban).

In the lands of the Crab Clan, near Kaiu Kabe, an elderly man kneels before a small table within a small room. There are many candles lit--a necessary risk as the man's eyesight is poor with age--and the room is very bright and full of flickering lights and shadows.

The man is writing, his right hand moving in firm strokes as he guides the thin brush, writing out a tale he had been told by a samurai a short time ago. At times the man stops as his hands start shaking violently, but he merely moves as he feels the shakes begin so as to not let ink spray all over the parchment he writes on. The shaking stops, the man curses his age and lack of discipline, and continues his writing. He must tell the samurai's tale, or else the samurai could be forgotten.

If anyone gazed at this elderly Crab, they would mistake him for a Kuni tsukai-sagasu. His hair is long and grey, no longer bound in the samurai topknot but allowed to hang down past his shoulders, much like a man he once knew that had been called 'The Wall.' His face showed the wrinkles of age, but his eyes--despite the poor eyesight they offered--were always watching and seeking out something in the words he wrote or in the flickering lights. And despite the tremors in his hands, this older Crab was quite proficient with the tetsubo and it was known that when he held it in battle, he never shook.

Writing a few more kanji on the parchment, the Crab put down his brush on a small jade brush rest shaped like a Crab and turned to the door just before it opened. He smiled as he faced the person entering, happy that while his eyes were slowly going blind, his hearing was still exceptional.

The person at the entranceway is one of his bodyguards whose father had been originally assigned to watch the old Crab during the Clan War. There were three assigned to watch the old Crab, a position that was not exactly glorious but one that had been assigned by the Great Bear himself shortly before the Battle of Beiden Pass.

"Messengers arrived," the yojimbo began as he offered a series of small scrolls to the elderly Crab. "Several from the Crane, and letters from the Dragon and the Unicorn."

The elderly Crab bowed his head in acknowledgement and dismissed the samurai with a wave of his hand. As soon as the shoji door slid close, the letters were opened, read, and held over a candle to be burnt to ash. When the last of the letters was destroyed, the Crab stood up and reached for the tetsubo he used as a walking stick. He looked at the writings he had finished and then at the scrolls in his room, each a tale he had yet to tell his clan.

"There can be no compromise. Has the Empire forgotten so soon?" the elderly Crab asked himself as he walked to the door...

I will do all I can to exhibit the best qualities of the Sword and the Bow. May Tsuruchi's wisdom be with my arrow as I strike down the tainted creatures of the Shadowlands.

I'd just like to note:

Part of the entrance cost at the recent Winner's Choice #2 tournament on Long Islands was a donated deck, for the store to promote L5R. Since I was bored, I actually built Five; Crane, Dragon, Lion, Scorpion, and Unicorn.

I made the conscious decision that they all be Utterly pure. Hehe; new players learning the game shall be Jade Hand, whether they like it or not.

We shall show them the power of honor and purity.

I'm here, knocking out tainted samurai, left and right.

I may not be Jade Hand, but I will stand with you. Anything with the taint (other than Akodo Godaigo) is my enemy.

I am in a constant struggle against the Spider Clan. After all, Daigotsu Usharo lives in my neighborhood.

I never betrayed my oath, I still stand with the jade hand.

my sword is for the jade hand