The Day of Thunder

Many heroes of the Empire have been gathered by Shinsei following cryptic warnings from the Little Teacher. He insisted to the Kami that those accompanying him must be mortals. After all, Fortune favors the mortal man. The Kami would interfere with their success, no matter how well intended. And success here is no idle matter.

This is the last stand for Ningen-do during this cycle. The Day of Thunder.

To qualify your character as a Thunder, they need to fulfill a few criteria. They must:

• Be human, at least partially; those with nonhuman blood still qualify
• Be a member of the Great Clans or have strict loyalty to one of the Kami (example: Someone made ronin involuntarily who retains their loyalty ala Toturi; a "formerly" Scorpion monk reporting information to Bayushi)
  
• Have Great Destiny
• Be alive by the end of the game

One from each Clan will be chosen as the representative of their particular Clan in the fight against the Champion of Jigoku.

Choosing Thunders

The Thunders will be chosen based on their demonstration of tenacity, heroism, and capability for going up against the Champion, whether that be mental, physical, or spiritual. The GMs will be monitoring threads and keeping track of character actions during the course of the game.

Of course, if there's only one PC of a particular Clan that meets the above qualifications, they will take the spot.

If there are no PCs from a particular Clan that qualify, an NPC will take the spot.

So, the GMs should have admittedly found this sooner, but they discovered something interesting. The Thunders weren't necessarily based on a specific Clan, but on seven parts of Shinsei those Clans/individuals embodied. Those were, in canon:

• Protection
• Destruction
• Rebirth
• Knowledge
• Honor
• Mercy
• Purity

Since we have nine, we will be adding:

• Clarity
• Introspection

We agreed that those seemed appropriate for Shiba's history.

Those choosing Thunders and the GMs will do our best to go one per Clan, and trying to find someone who embodies one of those in each, emphasizing PCs. That said, the virtues are the important things, so if we need to pick more than one from a Clan or something like that, it's a possibility. Previous rules still apply.

As I have noted on Discord, these virtues are but one of MANY factors used to determine Thunders, among which are: Event success, which events you were successful in, how well you followed Shinsei's advice from the beginning of the game, character development, heroic actions, and many more!

We will, as noted above, still be doing our best to choose one Thunder per Clan, with an emphasis on PCs.