Editing Phoenix Clan (section)

==History==
The history of the Phoenix hinges on two individuals: the [[Primarch|Kami]] [[Lorgar|Shiba]], deeply devoted to the words of Shinsei and the mysteries of Enlightenment and the universe, and Isawa, one of the earliest and most powerful mortal mages in Rokugan's history with an ego to match.

===The First City===
When the blood of the Moon and the tears of the Sun first mixed and created life as Rokugan knew it, the Isawa tribe arose as the greatest of these early humans. 

Alone among the other humans, they built [[Prospero|Gisei Toshi]], an early city, and began to harness the finer points of civilization, from religious study to early science...largely because they had mastered the earliest forms of magic to make this entire process go easier, entreating the Elements to aid them. From this city, Isawa and his tribe reigned supreme, studying all the magic they could get their hands on, from the elements to the earliest forms of ''maho'' blood magic (which, to be fair, hadn't been corrupted into its modern form). Through their devout worship of the Seven Fortunes and the multitude of lesser ones that predated the Kami that fell from the heavens, they would be the earliest and most numerous of Rokugan's shugenja.

Isawa was the head of this earliest iteration of what would become the [[Order of Hermes|Council of Five]]. And while it was his brother who discovered magic, it was Isawa who was [[Galactic Partridges|honored]] for "recognizing its full potential". Certainly, he had the drive and thirst for knowledge to push the mystic arts to their limit, and the pride and force of personality to take charge and protect his tribe's interests. This early ascendance convinced them that they were truly the greatest Children of the Earth, and [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|they had no need for these so-called divine rulers]] who were [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|taking over and telling everyone what to do]]. They were masters of the mystic arts! They could manage just fine without them!

Just ignore the fact that Hantei's forces vastly outnumbered them and the Emperor only stayed his hand because Shiba took them under his wing (heh).

===Shiba Kneels===
When [[Horus|Fu Leng]] came back and threw his little [[Horus Heresy|temper tantrum]] over his siblings leaving him to rot in [[Chaos|Jigoku]] while they played Sim Empire without him, it was a state of total war. But for a lot of the early battles, Isawa...decided his people would mind their own business and sit this one out.

Isawa had always resented the Kami's conquest of Rokugan, and their demands that he serve them, as well as the shaky "alliance" he had with Shiba for such insults as ''placating Hantei's conquest'' and ''sponsoring their continued existence''. And as far as he was concerned, this entire catastrophe was essentially a dysfunctional family affair that was entirely the fault of the Kami (which is a few grains of truth buried under a whole lot of bullshit they had no control over). This led him to a conclusion: if he stayed out of this huge war in the south threatening to wipe out the entire country (while leaving that upstart Empire to take the hits for them), the extremely vengeful and possibly magically insane megalomaniacal demigod and his horde of eldritch terrors would turn a blind eye to him and leave his lands alone. After all, as Isawa put it, "''If you would fail without me, why do you deserve me as an ally?''" We'll let that line sink in for a bit.

But as the war dragged on and the hits kept coming, Isawa and his people began to realize that the eldritch monstrosities indiscriminately butchering all of humanity also indiscriminately counted ''them'' as humans to butcher. Shadowlands monstrosities also found their way to Gisei Toshi, and Isawa finally consented to send shugenja to the Empire to help and train more shugenja among the other Clans. But even then, his primary focus was on [[Imperium Secundus|holding onto what he had]], so he never fully committed the vast magical power at his disposal. Finally, when it was becoming clear that the danger to Gisei Toshi would only increase, along came Shinsei, asking Shiba to join the Seven Thunders and overcome Fu Leng with humanity's ability to master fate.

And yet, despite coming to realize that [[Irony|his people would most certainly fail without Hantei's forces]], Isawa still had the balls (some would say gall) to demand something in exchange for his aid: for Shiba to kneel and swear to protect Isawa's family long after he was gone. Now, to be sure, extracting an ironclad promise of protection in exchange for taking on a suicide mission can be a reasonable response. But it takes an ego of a certain [[/d/|throbbing girth]] to demand that the person you're swearing fealty to should be the one to bend the knee. And yet, even at this critical juncture, Isawa still felt that the Kami, being the ones who screwed up, should be prostrating themselves when they begged for help, and that he wouldn't place his people under someone else's rule without being able to say that he represented them on his feet while the other guy got on his knees. Isawa [[Meme|did nothing wrong]] indeed.

Shiba did so without hesitation. To most of his heavenly siblings, this would have been unthinkable. But thankfully, Shiba had the sense to understand that kneeling and protection were a small price to pay to recruit the Empire's most powerful spellcasters as well as the Thunder destined to join the group which would save them all. Shiba's kneeling would be remembered as the most humble and heroic moment in the Phoenix Clan. The rest is history: Isawa gave his life to seal Fu Leng within the Black Scrolls, and Isawa would sacrifice himself bringing back the last survivors bearing those scrolls. And in these two leaders, the Phoenix would find an eternal cycle of behaviours: blinding idealism, boundless curiosity, tremendous hubris, and heroic self-sacrifice (often against whatever their hubris caused).