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Shadow Rose Ninja Clan

The Silver Mountain Village appears to be a normal fishing village on a small western island. Aside from attractive women, good sushi and decent boat repair skills, this village has absolutly nothing to recomend it. Which is exactly how the Shadow Rose Ninja Clan likes it.

The Shadow Rose Ninjas are excellent intrusion specialists, skilled in the arts of invisibility. For the right price they will steal information, the peace of mind of a nation, or the life out of someone's veins. Their calling card is a Rose preserved in black wax.

What makes these ninja unique is their ancient liniage, which goes back to the First Age, as well as their gender bias. They only allow women to learn their secrets of ninjitsu.

History

The Ninjas tell this story to all of their daughters upon their coming of age.

Long Ago, Back in the First Age, there were many Children of the Sun. One of them chose our Grandmother's Grandmothers to be his consorts for their amazing beauty. They were greatly pleased, for it was a high honor to be chosen for service to the Sun's Children. They served honorably for many years and then their Lord gave them a new task. For their devoted service they were to be raised up and taught the secrets of ninjitsu that they might better emulate their Lord and the ideals of the Silver Falcons. And their Lord

Long ago, there was a Solar who decided to form a ninja corps out of his harem. Perhaps he liked ninja girls, perhaps it was a bet, possibly he was just board. He activated their essence and then trained them in various forms of supernatural ninjitsu. He found them somewhat useful, as most exalted ignored mortals as a matter of course during this period, thus they could go where many exalts would be instantly discovered. They did still serve as the Solars harem and bore him many Golden Children. The most beautiful females of the Golden Children he incorporated into the ninja harem. He continued to do this, until his ninja harem was composed entirely of Golden Children loyal to him. These new golden ninjas were much more powerful than his previous mortal ninjas, as they were capable of combining low level Solar Charms with their Terrestrial Ninjitsu. Some were even capable of learning the basics of Ebon Shadow Style. They were useful to him and had a reasonably good life, until the Usurpation. When their lord was killed during the usurpation, they knew they had to get away, as the terrestrial insurgents would undoubtedly look askance on a group of ninjas loyal to the solars. They managed to escape to one of his safe houese and take over a nearby village, where they continue to pass down their bloodline and training to this day.

Government

The Shadow Rose Ninja Clan is about 500 strong. They are governed by the Council of Five, who act in the name of their Solar God. Each member of the council is the head of one of the five styles of Ninjitsu that the Shadow Roses use. The Q-division is run by two people (the heads of the Alchemy and Enchantment departments) who report directly to the council as a whole.

Headquarters

The Shadow Rose headquarters is the Silver Mountain Village on a small unnamed isle in the west. The village appears to consist of roughly 50 people living in a small rice farming community at the foot of the Silver Mountain. In addition to rice farming they also fish the sea and scavenge fruit from the remnants of a First Age peach orchard. While 50 members of the clan pretend to be villagers, the remainder live in the "old silver mine" in the mountain. These tunnels were actually dug during the First Age as part of some Twilight's manse construction experiment and were later enlarged by the Original Shadow Roses as an emergency bolthole, to which they fled during the Ursupation. It now serves as their training camp, base of operations, and true home.

Society

The most notable thing

Code

The Shadow Rose Ninja Clan holds the following code, which combines pragmatism with the dictates of their god. Notes and explanation follow each commandment.

1. Thou shalt worship no other god but me. (Self explanatory)
2. Thou shalt hold your clan sacred. (The clan is your family. Obey your elders. Never reveal the secrets of your clan. Never expose your clan. Never teach True Ninjitsu to a man, even one of your clan.)
3. Thou shalt hold the mission sacred. (The mission must be completed.)
4. Thou shalt always avenge an insult to your clan. (Self explanatory, but they consider failing to be paid a deadly insult.)
5. Thou art my wives and I am your only husband. (While on active duty, all Ninjas are to be chaste.)

Resources

When the Shadow Roses fled the Ursupation, they managed to take a number of minor artifacts with them. Over time they have manged to steal many more, accumulating a nice arsenal. Highly respected ninjas may be allowed to use them for certain missions, but they must be returned to the clan at the end of the mission. (Use the arsenal background. All of their artifacts are three dots or less and relate to either martial arts or ninjitsu in some way.) Most ninjas make do with the thaumaturgical equipment supplied by the Poison Thorns.