Editing Crane Clan (section)

==Clan Relationships==
As one of the most political and influential Great Clans in Rokugan, the Crane are almost always involved in everyone's affairs. Like a courtly version of the Lion, they are both admired and resented for being the paragons of their chosen field, being the foremost masters of courtly protocol and politics. They are either generous, beneficial allies to have on your side, or pompous manipulators who stonewall any and all attempts to advance your agenda.

In most cases, opinions of the Crane revolve around their many privileges: peaceful lands, immense wealth, social influence, political cunning, and the Emperor's favor. Their allies (or at least those with something to gain) appreciate the weighty benefits of having the Crane as an ally, while their detractors hate how these advantages are rubbed in everyone else's face and leveraged against them.

Another reason the Cranes are deeply involved with everyone, besides their immense wealth and political clout, is the fact that their lands also produce the most food in all of Rokugan. Because of their vast, fertile, and peaceful tracts of land, Cranes frequently trade and sell rice and other supplies to other Clans, and often with deals which will greatly benefit the Crane and indebt the other party to them.

'''The [[Crab Clan]]''': The Crab and the Crane have a very obvious dislike of one another. The Crane see the Crab as brutish guard dogs (and sometimes outright liars making up what goes on up at the Kaiu Wall) who stomp all over the finer manners and culture they live for, while the Crab look down on them as the softest courtiers who are somehow as loud and obnoxious as the Lion, flaunting their wealth and influence at every opportunity while the Crab wage a perpetual war where death and a lack of supplies are daily realities. This goes double for whenever the rice trade comes into play and the Crane are manipulating market forces so it costs the Crab even more. There's also a noteworthy vendetta with the Yasuki, former Cranes who run the black markets and are now part of the Crab, as well as a notable exception with the Daidoji, the only Crane family the Crabs unironically admire and respect. Partly because of how dead 'ard they are, but also because an underequipped Daidoji lord and his retinue gave their lives to help a Crab unit fight off an oni invasion they stumbled upon.

'''The [[Dragon Clan]]''': Like almost all the other Great Clans, the Crane don't actively dislike the Dragon Clan, but they are also usually quite confused about them. The Crane Clan, as worldly traditionalists focused on mortal politics, are befuddled by the non-conformist and monastic ways of the Dragons, believing that if they really are so enlightened, they should use that knowledge to benefit the rest of the Empire. But for the most part, they are content to leave them to their mountains while being smugly aware that, like the Crab, Dragons heavily depend on trade to have enough rice and food. The Dragons, being the enigmatic and [[Druid|mysterious bunch]] that they are, keep their opinions to themselves. They don't actively hate the Crane's materialistic ways, but likely see it as a fleeting mortal concern next to Enlightenment. They are also rather insightful on certain truths about the Crane: that their honor does keep them from being mere greedy bureaucrats, and that their way of life focuses more on the strengths and weaknesses of others rather than their own inner qualities. One exception to these aloof interactions, of course, is the rivalry between the Mirumoto and the Kakita, as the unorthodox Mirumoto two-sword style is the main rival of the conventional Kakita quickdraw style whenever duelists debate the most effective technique.

'''The [[Lion Clan]]''': Where the Crab Clan is usually too far to actively war with the Crane, the Lions are right next door and have been bickering with the Crane Clan for generations, like the jock and nerd siblings who have to share a room. Cranes backhandedly acknowledge the military prowess and rigid honor of the Lions (not as great as being the most cultured and honorable artists, of course), but such recognition is far from reciprocated, as the average Lion dismisses the Crane way of life as anathema to their own (peace over war, indulgent wealth over spartan discipline, and social evasion over direct confrontation). Essentially, each looks down on the other as a spoiled, jealous child playing at being the bestest samurai ever. And like squabbling siblings, the Lions hate that the Cranes go crying to Daddy E to reverse their gains which they earned fair and square with blood and sweat, while the Cranes hate how the Lions keep beating up their brothers and sisters to take their stuff.

'''The [[Mantis Clan]]''': As you might expect when you put old money traditionalists with new money capitalists, the Crane and Mantis don't exactly get along. The general attitudes are that the Crane see the Mantis as upstarts and social inferiors with an utterly unseemly mercenary attitude (though they'll still happily hire their warriors and navy), while the Mantis think the Cranes are weak cowards who hide behind their many non-military advantages. When it comes to commerce, however, they do have a complicated relationship: both Clans actually understand the importance of trade and economics to a greater degree than the others (except maybe the Unicorn), and have both cooperated and competed in the economic arena. However, the Wasp Clan within the alliance actually respects the Crane, namely because it was a Crane Emerald Magistrate who backed their founder Tsuruchi and led to their creation.

'''The [[Phoenix Clan]]''': The Cranes and the Phoenixes have an unambiguously positive relationship, and there's plenty of clear overlap between them (bird theme aside). Both Clans highly prize peace, tradition and culture, and their main strengths lie in non-military areas. This common ground allows them to appreciate (and be wary of) each other's particular forms of strength (particularly since some like the Lion Clan look down on diplomacy and magic as unmanly), making them two nerds looking out for each other against the school jocks. Of course, as solid as this relationship is, their respective egos do mean that each thinks their way of thinking is superior, particularly with the contrast of the worldly politicians and the religious shugenja.

'''The [[Scorpion Clan]]''': As the Empire's top politicians, the Cranes and Scorpions have a weird love/hate relationship. They frequently clash at court and look down on the other's failings: Scorpions scoff at the trappings of Crane honor as hypocritical, while Cranes see the Scorpions as treacherous schemers without honor. But unlike other rivalries where they both tend to have an attitude of "Yeah, they're dangerous, but we can easily take them with our SMARTER approach", both Cranes and Scorpions actually take each other seriously as rivals. When working against each other, their polar opposite approaches to politics result in their intricate webs getting tangled up, schemes and fake-outs getting uncovered while agreements and alliances fall apart. But when they work together, they can bring about some pretty impressive results. Cranes also took in Scorpion children as wards when the Scorpions were exiled in one edition. So basically, they're [[A Song of Ice and Fire|Varys and Littlefinger]].

'''The [[Unicorn Clan]]''': Like the Phoenix, the Cranes and the Unicorns enjoy positive ties, and that comes from a long history of cooperation. The Crane were the ones who risked their reputation by backing the Unicorn's claim that they were the descendants of Shinjo, and they spent many generations helping them to integrate into the culture of Rokugan. Of course, the degree to which this relationship stays positive depends on just how bro-tier the samurai in question are. At worst, Unicorns stubbornly cling to their ways while Cranes look down on their "primitive" ''gaijin'' traditions. But on a day-to-day basis, your average Crane and Unicorn partnership involves each meeting the other halfway: the Unicorns accept (begrudgingly or willingly) that they have a lot to learn, while the Cranes (condescendingly or warmly) attempt to respect the new customs of the Unicorn and find a compromise they can both be happy with. And since the Unicorns are their main military ally against the Lion, that gives the Cranes a huge incentive to keep the relationship healthy.