Isawa Takeda was a dutiful if thoroughly shy and unremarkable shugenja working in the Asako archives in the 21st century. His work was unremarkable and he lacked confidence, so his superiors didn’t think much of him – when they even remembered he was there. Until the day, that is, that he stumbled upon a lost scroll in the deepest levels of the archives. Relaxing with his lunch in the gardens of the Asako, Takeda finally opened the scroll – and disappeared in a flash of light visible for dozens of miles around. He reappeared within minutes – but now he was 20 years older. Refusing to tell his Phoenix superiors what he’d seen other than that a “terrible calamity awaited Rokugan” that he must do anything to avert, Takeda demanded an audience with the Emperor, who was curious enough to grant him one. None recorded what was said during that meeting, but his words were apparently persuasive: while Isawa Takeda went into the meeting, just Takeda came out, now the head of his own Minor Clan he called the Rooster and a family named in his honor.
Collecting a small number of shugenja from every clan in the Empire, the Rooster spent a millennia (and counting) guarding their founder’s great secret. Today, they make their home in the windswept peaks of the mountain world they’ve named Daybreak. Rarely seen outside their homeworld save by passing Tortoise traders, the Rooster are all but forgotten, waiting for the moment when their centuries-long purpose will finally come to pass.
Takeda Family Bonus: +1 Perception