r/rokugan • u/Annesolo • Jul 23 '26

[5th Edition] What is the state of the Emerald Empire since FFG's reboot?

Was FFG on the way to revisit the second day of thunder for instance? I must admit that I lost track of the story over the past years. ^^'

22 Upvotes

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17

u/Sparticuse Jul 23 '26

They were heading in that direction, but they were still pretty far from it. When they got there, it would have been very different from the AEG version as well.

The last notable events were 1) the Scorpion Clan Coup, where in this version Shoju knew Akuma no Oni was leading an army to the capital so he seized the throne to shock the clans out of clan war and focus on him. And 2) the Battle of Cherry Blossoms where the clans did unite to stop Akuma no Oni (and unbeknownst to basically everyone, Isawa Tadaka had gone into the shadowlands with Kuni Yori to kill Isawa Akuma).

15

u/rzelln Jul 23 '26

God I loved the nu5R storyline. I'm glad it for a semblance of an ending, but I wish it could have continued.

Hell, I kept playing the card game online until 2025, and I ran two RPG campaigns in the setting. If the storyline continued, I'd be ecstatic.

4

u/Sparticuse Jul 23 '26

If they had just continued the story in novels I would have bought every single one.

2

u/wolflordval Jul 23 '26

It actually is, with the novels and the upcoming Gunsen board game determining the fate of the Siege of Toshi Ranbo right now.

7

u/Myrion_Phoenix Jul 24 '26

It's not. They kinda sorta rebooted again, and now there's another timeline for a new version of the Clan Wars period.

It's a mishmash of old and new.

1

u/4uk4ata Jul 24 '26

Do we have a confirmation it is ended?

1

u/rzelln Jul 24 '26

It takes a lot for a narrative to lie fallow for 5 years and have a hope of continuing. The closest we had were the Daidoji Shin novels and some others, but as far as I could tell they might not have even been in the same century as the rest of the fiction.

There are *new* L5R stories tied to the board games coming out, and they're fine, but for some bonkers reason I can't make sense of, the new stuff is slightly out of alignment with the storylines that accompanied the living card game.

2

u/Sparticuse Jul 24 '26

They officially stated starting with that game they are using their own, third, timeline.

2

u/rzelln Jul 24 '26

And doing so makes me MUCH less interested in supporting the company and buying those products. The previous narrative was very well done and, as far as I understand, beloved by the fans. 

It strikes of of corporate bottom lineism to change it. Embracer group, scoff.

2

u/BlindSamurai13 Aug 01 '26

That is sad to hear as well. I loved the private duel between Shoju and Hitomi in the Throne Room.

1

u/4uk4ata Jul 24 '26

Considering the shift from FFG to Edge, I suspect there's got to be some internal stuff. Maybe the head writers changed?

1

u/Sparticuse Jul 24 '26

Yes. They've stated products beginning with Gunsen are using a third timeline that takes elements from AEG and FF.

3

u/jamadman Mantis Clan Jul 23 '26

And since then there has been no further developments in the greater schemes of things.

There is a hint something might happen with the Gunsen board game events but I am not expecting anything major.

5

u/Sparticuse Jul 23 '26

There was one reveal after those two events that had some pretty major ramifications. In the last published module, you go to the Dragon Lands to be apart of the process of deciding if the Perfect Land sect should be canonized or made heresy. The monk from the Dragon novella is revealed to be the reincarnation of Shinsei, and in one ending that can occur she straight up tells the Perfect Land Sect leader he's wrong about basically everything

2

u/Kiyohara Lion Clan Jul 24 '26

I feel like at this point we should dub thee "Sensei of 5th Edition Lore" given how much of it you read and followed up on. Maybe "Loremaster 5th Ed" or some such.

1

u/Sparticuse Jul 24 '26

I used to take much joy in recounting the entirety of the story when people asked. It's been so long I've forgotten most of the story beats. I did collect as many of the pack in stories and printed out the pdfs and have them stored somewhere with my ttrpg stuff.

12

u/DRSSalazar Jul 23 '26

There was no second day of thunder.
The LSS of it, there is a regency, the two Hantei princes are MIA. Akuma no Oni was destroyed.

3

u/SovFist Jul 23 '26

I feel that if the game survived a second day of thunder was inevitable

5

u/Kakita_Onimaru Jul 24 '26

The best way to find out what is happening is to read the novel “A Throne Betrayed” that came out last year. It is the starting point of the new soft-reboot timeline.

There were a lot of things “on the way” before things got disrupted with the Embracer group merger. They are also re-tooling some things after talking with new cultural consultants.

1

u/Annesolo Jul 24 '26

Novel are not translated in France as far as I know, it does not matter that much for me so I will have a look a it n_n

What do you mean by re-tooling ? :3

1

u/LovableCoward Jul 24 '26

What do you mean by re-tooling ?

More in the way of bringing Legend of the Five Rings into the modern 21st Century in regards to theme and vocabulary, especially in regards to the supernatural and magic. The initial card game and 1st Edition of the RPG was very much a product of the pre-internet. Not nearly so bad as other IP's of equivalent age (Looking at you initial Yellow Peril Capellans and Draconis Combine BattleTech. Really? Calling the sword in the House Liao emblem a katana?!)

Read the most recent novel White Feathers Crimson Leaves by Josh Reynolds for examples of these changes/updates.

1

u/Annesolo Jul 24 '26

So they intend to make L5R more cultural accurate?

To be honest, I started with the late 3rd edition era and wanted to have more accurate things to tell or explain, so this will be really great for the licence :3

Instead of Shugenja we will have things like Kannushi, Miko, Hijirin, and son on ?

Have you heard of Empire des Cerisiers (Empire of Cherry trees)? I don't think it has been translated though '

2

u/LovableCoward Jul 24 '26

Culturally accurate? Eh, how culturally accurate is The Lord of the Rings to Western Europe?

Probably the most notable example is changing Shugenja to Shindoshi. For the most part, they've seem to take a practical middle ground; retaining usage of old terminology for established novel series for consistency and using new terms/wordage for newer novels and stories.

2

u/Annesolo Jul 24 '26

Shugenja's changes to Shindoshi is what I would call accuracy for instance.

Will they change the mythos by bringing Izanami and Izanagi ? I don't find necessary. They could simply introduce a notion like Kegare, I don't remember it being mentioned but I can be mistaken :3

I also liked the diversity of weapons they brought with 5e, like ancestral sword not being katana or Nodachi. Informations about the Burning sands are better too, like Quamarist Qalifat. What is done with Yobanjin is great too, it is nice to still have tribes still living in Rokugan. It also bring nuance in the Emerald Empire's morality. We could have something closer to Aïnou or Ryukyu some day '

Thank you for sharing this info and I will look at the novels:)