Welcome to the dojo's of the Daidoji. This is where are soldiers train. It is they who give their lives when battle comes to protect the houses of the Crane. Some of our training is less well know than others. Our archery school is not respected for its prowess, until it is too late for the invading enemy.
 
 The Daidoji Ite School

     Daidoji Tenzo was a taisa in what passed for the Crane army. At the time, he led the only archery command. Even though he studied at the Daidoji school, he was fascinated by Kakita, the man and his prowess, with the blade. Tenzo was a great archer, but like many Cranes, he was dissatisfied with his performance and that of his men, so he drove them to higher levels as well as himself. In pursuit of excellence, he sought many ways to improve his skill. One day, while rereading Kakita’s The Sword, he decided that many of Kakita’s words could be applied to archery. He spent more than twenty years perfecting his style and technique. With each discovery, he passed his knowledge on to his men. Astounded at their effectiveness, the then Crane Champion commanded him to create a formal school to instruct future soldiers so that his technique would be preserved.
    Graduates of this school are often not regarded as real bushi by the many other schools of Rokugan, but as Daidoji, they know that they serve their clan in their capacity and do what they must to protect the Crane. They compose the bulk of the deadly Crane Elite Archers. When firing, many don’t even look at the target, because they say that they simply know where to hit.  Out of deference to their ancestors, the ite teach iaijutsu as well as standard kenjutsu.

Benefit: +1 Reflexes
Starting Skills: archery 2, defense, kenjutsu, battle, meditation, iaijutsu

Rank 1 Kyudo The archer begins to learn the deep strength necessary to use the bow to its utmost degree. At this rank he may substitute his archery skill for his meditation skill when he has his bow. Additionally, he may ad his Air ring to all to hit rolls with his bow.

Rank 2 All or Nothing  At this level of skill, the archer has come to realize that by ‘opening himself’ to the target, he can make seemingly precise shots. For each action spent meditating about the target, he receives a free raise up to the limit of his school rank. When doing so, the archer is still and becomes TN 5.

Rank 3 A Moment of Clarity At this level, the archer’s skill has further progressed, so that he may fire with surety more swiftly. He may spend a number of void points up to his school rank when using archery.

Rank 4 Blackened Sky Through economy of motion and the deep power of his trance, the archer may fire twice per melee round.

Rank 5 The Way Has No Distraction When the archer has achieved this level of skill, he has learned to ignore any distractions; there is only the target. When making this supreme shot, he may only fire once per round, but all other techniques may be used. He always hits unmoving targets such as a wall or a stationary samurai. If the target is moving such as in normal combat, the archer may roll his Void + Archery skill to hit. When doing so, he ignores any TN or dice modifiers to whether they be from wounds, armor penalties, distance, movement, horseback fire, paper walls, etc. Only the targets decisive action may save him form being struck

Starting Honor: 2, plus 5 boxes

Starting Kit: bow, 20 arrows, light armor, katana, wakizashi, kimono, any 1 weapon, 8 koku, traveling pack (all items are considered fine quality)
 

School Modifications to the Daidoji Yojimbo school

Rank 1  The Force of Honor - Instead of calculating your wound ranks based on your Honor trait, it is based on your Earth ring as normal, but you add the character's Honor trait as additional wounds per rank that may be taken. For instance, if a samurai has a 2 Earth and a 2 Honor as many starting bushi do, you would have 4 (Earth base) + 3 (Honor trait) equaling a total of 6 wounds per rank.

(Author's Note: The basis for this, is that a technique should provide a bonus, but never a penalty. Using this method it is possible to have no bonus at all similar to the Akodo rank 2, Strength of Purity, instead of dying if your Honor drops to 0)