Test of the Emerald Champion

A Tale of the Early Clan War Story Prizes

The story tournaments of the original AEG Clan War era were legendary, and today we continue our series diving into those epic moments when the players determined the fate of the Great Clans and their loyal samurai. This fan involvement set the original Legend of the Five Rings collectible card game apart from its competitors in the mid to late 1990s, and ensured its place in the halls of gaming history. This week, we dive into another early story prize tournament, one that would launch an L5R tradition: the Test of the Emerald Champion.

The Emperor’s Champion

The position of the Emerald Champion is among the most prestigious in the empire, and is typically held by a samurai of impeccable reputation and exceptional dueling skill. In addition to serving as the emperor’s personal bodyguard, the Emerald Champion commands the emperor’s vast Imperial Legions, which draw troops from across the clans. The role is also responsible for ensuring the enforcement of imperial laws and the collection of taxes, meaning the Emerald Champion oversees many Emerald Magistrates to help carry out these duties. The title is held for life and has been an institution for generations, ever since Kakita was named the first Emerald Champion after he won a contentious duel against Lady Matsu, another of the original followers of the Celestial Siblings at the dawn of the empire.

In the story tournament titled “Test of the Emerald Champion,” one hundred and eleven players turned out at OrcCon 1996 for the contest that would determine who would don the armor of the Emerald Champion to help restore order after the Scorpion Clan Coup. According to the results published in the second-ever issue of The Imperial Herald, the official L5R magazine,

“Many samurai arrived for the opportunity to become the Emperor’s Champion, but when Kakita Toshimoko arrived, all who were in attendance said a heavy cloak of silence fell over the crowd. Even though he was recently wounded by a nearly fatal ninja attack, the iaijutsu master faced sixteen other samurai, and each of them fell before his blade.”

His opponent in the tournament is said to have been Mirumoto Hitomi, Dragon Clan duelist and adept of the Mirumoto signature dual-wielding technique. Following a fateful confrontation at the Battle of Beiden Pass, her right hand had been replaced with a terrifying artifact known only as the Obsidian Hand, but even that did not help her best Toshimoko.

The Gray Crane

Known as “the Gray Crane” for his graying hair, Crane Clan samurai Kakita Toshimoko was the master sensei of the Kakita Dueling Academy and held the title of Kenshinzen, one held by only the most elite duelists in all the Crane Clan. Unlike his stickler-for-reputation brother-in-law, Doji Satsume, Toshimoko was something of a vagabond and womanizing scoundrel, yet none could contest his skill with a blade. The Kakita family motto, “For the coward, there is no life. For the hero, there is no death,” was especially associated with Toshimoko during his long but pain-filled life.

To celebrate his victory, Kakita Toshimoko premiered as a rare personality in the Forbidden Knowledge set, the second expansion of the card game released in July 1996. In the card art, he wears the iconic Armor of the Emerald Champion, which he could equip without cost. A year later, another rare card bearing his name but featuring different art was printed in Obsidian Edition. In 2000, in the Fire & Shadow set from the Hidden Emperor expansion, Toshimoko was again depicted wearing the armor in the card “Return of the True Champion.” In his time serving as Emerald Champion, Toshimoko was tasked with rebuilding the disbanded Emerald Magistrates during the tumult of the Clan War, and he played a pivotal role at the legendary Battle of Oblivion’s Gate (the premiere L5R story tournament of 2000, held at Gen Con).

Sadly, the names of the winning player and top 4 of the 1996 Test of the Emerald Champion are lost to the mists of time, but once again, should any archivist or historian have these records on hand, please reach out to us on Facebook so we can immortalize these feats of victory!

The Jeweled Champions

The original Test of the Emerald Champion was the beginning of a legacy that continued throughout the collectible card game’s life. Every few years, a new Emerald Champion would need to be named, and players from far and wide would flock to the tournaments in the hopes of winning the top prize: elevating a character from their clan to the lofty position. Besides occasionally repeating the Test of the Emerald Champion that started it all, additional “jeweled championships” were created over time, named after other gems and precious stones.

The first offshoot was the Jade Champion, who was charged with hunting down heretics and users of mahō, or blood magic, and the first tournament to name that champion was held in 1998 at Gen Con. Kitsu Okura of the Lion was elevated after David La won with a corrupt Lion deck. (Reflecting the corrupt nature of the winner’s deck, Kitsu Okura would later give his name to Okura no Oni.) The first Amethyst Champion, Isawa Sawao of the Phoenix, was instated to serve as the custodian of a cursed crown after a tournament in June of 2006. The Turquoise Champion, Matsu Kasei of the Lion, was named to represent the most accomplished artisan in Rokugan in a tournament held in the Philippines in 2010.

The Topaz Championship was originally created for the Legend of the Five Rings Roleplaying Game, and the title was bestowed upon the winner of a series of contents, culminating in the prestigious dueling tournament held by the Kakita Dueling Academy. Notably, contestants in the Topaz Championship were very young, having not yet completed the coming-of-age ceremony that marked them as an adult and samurai within Rokugani society. Originally included as the beginner adventure in the L5R RPG core rulebook in 1996, the Topaz Championship was used across editions as a means to introduce players and characters to the rich world of Legend of the Five Rings. The Topaz Championship crossed over to the card game in the Test of the Topaz Championship tournament in 2002.

None of these jeweled champions would have existed were it not for the inaugural Test of the Emerald Champion in 1996, when Kakita Toshimoko of the Crane started it all.

Similar topics