IMPERIAL EDITORIAL
by Doji Sakura, Emerald Champion

After nearly one and half years of no new heralds (shame on me, *baps self*) I once again step in to bring you the news of our beloved Rokugan community.

This month will herald two contests, which will give the winners a lot of bragging rights, although the second one will have a prolongued deadline until the end of september.

In the meantime, we bid all the newcommers welcome to our halls, and hope that the Fortunes guide you always.


Founder and Emerald Champion

***

INFORMATION

To know how to join the community, submissions, etc., read our "Oriental F.A.Q" here ==> [link]

To see who the members of our community are, go here to check "The Legion of Two Thousand" ==> [link]

***


NEWS

1 - ROKUGANESE T-SHIRT COMPETITION - This month's contest will run till the 1st September and it will be exceedingly simple: in the tradition of T-Shirt Hell ([link]) design your own Rokuganese T-Shirt. Anything goes, from images, to logos, to smarmy sayings. Back and Front, Just Front or Back designs are acceptable. The limit of entries is 3 per participant (no, multiple personalities don't count as different contestants). The decision of the winner will be made (as usual) per voting of the whole community. For those of you not drawingly inclined, you may use this blank Tshirt image to creat your own [link]

2 - SEPTEMBER COMPETITION The second competition being hosted this month will be a double dealing of art and prose. The theme will be "Going Back to School... Rokugan Style" and will feature participation in both literature and artwork. Let creativity grow rampant as anything goes. Submission is limited to 1 per category per participant and the deadline is 20th September. The winner of the art section will gain the Jade Champion Position and the winner of the writing section will get to be our Topaz Champion (unless either is one of the shadowy types, and then will become Obsidian Champion), and the best qualified members of each clan who do not win, will get the Clan Champion title.

3 - MISSING DEVIATIONS I insist again on this matter: several people have made Samurai/ L5R-related artwork in their personal galleries but have not submitted it to our community gallery. Please, I beg of you to do so - some of the pieces are great, but I cannot post them here without your consent, i.e. without a note with the link to the piece (which basically acts as your permission to post your pics up).

4 - L5R RPG 3rd EDITION - This is slightly non-community related, but the 3rd Edition of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG has come out finally, in a very pretty, full colour, hardbound book, discarding the horrible D20 system for a revamping of the original R&K system. The price is close to 35 dolars, and (in my humble opinion) totally worth it. More information here ==> [link]


***

FUTURE EVENTS

- DA's Rokugan Community Resource: I have been made this proposal long ago, and it seems a very valid one. One of my nemesis, Akodo Blint, has delivered me a few of his links which he uses for resources, both of traditional japanese artwork, photography, text, traditions, and so on. I would very much like to build a gathering of such links with anything that might be useful to any member of the community.

***


ADVERTISEMENT

This section is open for all the members: if you want to advertise your homepage, an interest link, an event, or whatever, please send me the devnote and I'll be more than glad to post it here for all members to see.


- L5R PORTUGUESE FORUM "Voice of the Empire" - this is the portuguese forum of l5r, with a section alone for Art. I would like to have some of your art there, so just register and comment (in english, spanish, whatever) on whatever topics you understand. Or create new ones. There is an international speaker section for those of who non-portuguese. The adress is here ==> [link]

- THE ANCESTRAL HALLS OF THE CRANE owned by our newest member, , this contains a bevy of L5r-themed information, mostly for the L5R RPG and with a special Crane Clan flavour. You can find it here ==> [link]

- THE GREATEST ROKUGANESE STORY EVER TOLD - the Crab Daimyo, Hida Keda, has surprised the entire community and Empire with his epic of samurais "Obsidian Underwear". You are hereby ordered to go read it ==> [link]



***


Imperial Submissions & Other Things - if you want to be heard by the other members, and think that you deserve some space here in The Imperial Herald to speak about something, send me a dev note, and I will make your voice heard by the entire empire... well, at least by the entire community.

EMPERIAL EDITORIAL
by Doji Sakura, Emerald Champion


At long last, after many weeks, we have a new issue of The Imperial Herald, the source of all your news concerning the L5R & Samurai community in DA, ROKUGAN.

Enjoy, and may the Kami be with you!


Founder and Emerald Champion

***

INFORMATION

To know how to join the community, submissions, etc., read our "Oriental F.A.Q" here ==> [link]

To see who the members of our community are, go here to check "The Legion of Two Thousand" ==> [link]

***


NEWS

1 - NEW JADE CHAMPION - The "Hunks of Rokugan: We Girls Have Rights Too '2005" Contest has ended, and a new Jade Champion has risen among our ranks.

is the new Defender of the Empire! All hail the new Jade Champion.

For the list of all the entries in the contest, go here ==> [link]

For a complete list of the entries to the first contest of the ~rokugan community, "Ladies of Rokugan '05", please go here ==> [link]


2 - Missing Deviations I insist again on this matter: several people have made Samurai/ L5R-related artwork in their personal galleries but have not submitted it to our community gallery. Please, I beg of you to do so - some of the pieces are great, but I cannot post them here without your consent, i.e. without a note with the link to the piece (which basically acts as your permission to post your pics up).


3 - Rokugan on the IRC the honourable Asahina ~linuxraichu and the lord of darkness ~ShiroDaigotsu, have created the #Rokugan channel on the Deviantart server on the MIRC.


4 - The Greatest Rokugan Story Ever Told - the Crab Daimyo, Hida Keda, has surprised the entire community and Empire with his epic of samurais "Obsidian Underwear". You are hereby ordered to go read it ==> [link]


***

FUTURE EVENTS

- The Topaz Championship - I would like suggestions for a theme for the first writing contest of the community.

- DA's Rokugan Community RPG: Lord Akodo has recently suggested that I should organize a Play-by-Post (using a forum), or a Play-by-Email RPG game based on the DA's version of Rokugan (i.e. where Doji Sakura is the Emerald Champion, Akodo Blint is the Akodo Daymio, Bayushi Shinme is the Bayushi Daymio, etc.). I think that this is a rather interesting idea, and I would like to know a) Who is interested in joining? and b) Who is interested in giving me a hand organizing things and GameMastering?

***


ADVERTISEMENT

This section is open for all the members: if you want to advertise your homepage, an interest link, an event, or whatever, please send me the devnote and I'll be more than glad to post it here for all members to see.


- DOJI SAKURA'S L5R PORTUGUESE FORUM "Voice of the Empire" - this is the portuguese forum of l5r, with a section alone for Art. I would like to have some of your art there, so just register and comment (in english, spanish, whatever) on whatever topics you understand. Or create new ones. The adress is here ==> [link]

- VORPAL SPYDER'S FINAL FANTASY PBEM RPG this is :devorpalspyder:'s PbeM FF-based RPG - Fatal Fantasy. The group works though an Yahoo group ([link]), where members can post both their story entries for the RPG, as well as artwork, competition entries, fiction, etc. The official homepage can be found here ==> [link]


***


Imperial Submissions & Other Things - if you want to be heard by the other members, and think that you deserve some space here in The Imperial Herald to speak about something, send me a dev note, and I will make your voice heard by the entire empire... well, at least by the entire community.

IMPERIAL EDITORIAL
by Doji Sakura, Emerald Champion

Welcome one and all to this special issue of The Imperial Herald, the best source for news concerning the Samurai and Legend of the Five Rings Community of the DA.

This issue will be entirely dedicated to the 2nd Contest of the Rokugan Community: "Hunky Men of Rokugan '2005: We Girls Have Rights Too!"

All updates, information, changes, etc. will be posted HERE - whenever you have a doubt about the contest please refer to this journal, as it will be constantly updated to include the latest data.

Enjoy, and may the Kami be with you!


Founder and Emerald Champion

***

REGULAR INFORMATION

To go to the latest regular issue of The Imperial Herald go to ==> [link]

To know how to join the community, submissions, etc., read our "Oriental F.A.Q" here ==> [link]

To see who the members of our community are, go here to check "The Legion of Two Thousand" ==> [link]

***

THE HUNKS OF ROKUGAN '2005 CONTEST

START THE VOTING!!!!

Since X-mas is almost upon us, and only one submission is missing, I'm going to start the voting now. Please send me your votings UNTIL DECEMBER THE 21ST, by devnote.

Follow the links to see each submisssion, then choose wisely.

HAPPY VOTING!


DA SUBMITTING
As usual, post it on your site and send me the link by devnote. I will not post the images, but I will put the links up at this journal, so that people can check it out whenever they want. When the competition ends, I will pick up all the pin-ups, adjust them into that month's calendar and only then put them up.


DA PRIZES
The winnah will become my Jade Champion, which means that: a) from henceforth, s/he'll be featured in the "Emperial Section"; b) S/he'll be able of lording it over the rest of the people at the community. c) The winner's piccie will be our second "FAVOURITE". d) I'll also make a piccie for him/her of her choice, (maybe a personalized L5R card, like the one I'm doing for ~remichan, at her suggestion


DA VOTING
EVERYBODY will vote. Everybody will have 1 (one) vote, and the samurai whose piece receives more votes will win (in case of a tie, I'll vote as well, to break the tie - I will only vote in this case, much to my pity, but, alas, one must make sacrifices for the Empire). To vote, just send me a Devnote - when all entries are in and the voting starts, I will warn you via The Imperial Herald.



DA HUNKS
And DA HUNKS ARE *rolls drums* (when making the pin up, please bear into mind what MONTH and SEASON the hunk will represent to, and do try to remain more or less faithful to the character - new dos and clothes are always permitted).

1 - Mister January - Bloodspeakers: Iuchiban, the sexiest undead/ human/ goblin/ shadowland/ bloodspeaker/ samurai/ courtier/ shugenja in the Empire. assigned to *LadyEntropy OUT OF CONTEST
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]

2 - Mister February - Crab Clan Hida Kuon, the BIG BIG Crab Champion... really Big... YUM! assigned to ~zech
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


3 - Mister March - Crane Clan: Doji Kurohito, the sexy Crane Daymio - who can teach those bulky Crabs how to handle a sword. assigned to ~blint
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


4 - Mister April - Scorpion Clan: Bayushi Paneki, the sexiest Defender Of The Empire in the history of the Empire. assigned to ~demica OUT OF CONTEST
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


5 - Mister May - Dragon Clan: Mirumoto Shiryu, voted "The Sexiest Man Of Rokugan" in all the L5R forums. assigned to ~remichan
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


6 - Mister June - Mantis Clan: Yoritomo, the Master and Commander... of the Rokuganese seas. assigned to ~ monotone-magpie
SEE IT HERE ===> [link]


7 - Mister July - Lion Clan: Matsu Domotai, the Lil' Lion... with a nice chest! assigned to ~Noland
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


8 - Mister August - Phoenix Clan: Shiba Aikune, Hot Hot HOT Phoenix! assigned to ~demica OUT OF CONTEST


9 - Mister September - Unicorn Clan: Moto Chagatai, the Rider On The Storm... and raider too! assigned to ~ shima-shima
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


10 - Mister October - Imperial: Hantei Naseru, aka His Hunkiness Toturi III. assigned to ~Suiki
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


11 - Mister November - Imperial: Toturi Sezaru, aka. The Sexy (Emperor's) Voice. assigned to ~Orahlith
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


12 - Mister December - Shadowlands: Daigotsu, aka "He's Divine/ He blows Me Outta My Mind" Lord of Evil. assigned to ~shaliara
SEE IT HERE ==> [link]


For a complete list of the entries to the first contest of the ~rokugan community, "Ladies of Rokugan '05", please go here ==> [link]

:bulletred: IMPERIAL EDITORIAL by Doji Sakura, Emerald Champion Welcome one and all to this special issue of The Imperial Herald, the best source for news concerning the Samurai and Legend of the Five Rings Community of the DA. This issue will be entirely dedicated to the 2nd Contest of the Rokugan Community: "Hunky Men of Rokugan '2005: We Girls Have Rights Too!" All updates, information, changes, etc. will be posted HERE - whenever you have a doubt about the contest please refer to this journal, as it will be constantly updated to include the latest data. Enjoy, and may the Kami be with you! :iconladyentropy: Founder and Emerald Champion *** :bulletred: REGULAR INFORMATION To go to the latest regular issue of The Imperial Herald go to ==> http://rokugan.deviantart.com/journal/3050742/ To know how to join the community, submissions, etc., read our "Oriental F.A.Q" here ==> http://rokugan.deviantart.com/journal/2702645/ To see who the members of our community are, go here to check "The Legion of Two Thousand" ==> http://rokugan.deviantart.com/journal/2703037/ *** THE HUNKS OF ROKUGAN '2005 CONTEST :bulletred: DA JOINING To join, just send a note TO THE COMMUNITY stating that you want to join. I'll send you a message giving you the assignment. BTW, the competition will NOT start until all the 12 hunks are distributed, but you can start working on your assignment as soon as you get it. All assignments will be decided RANDOMLY (with a roll of the Magical D12 I keep on my desk). :bulletred: DA SUBMITTING As usual, post it on your site and send me the link by devnote. I will not post the images, but I will put the links up at this journal, so that people can check it out whenever they want. When the competition ends, I will pick up all the pin-ups, adjust them into that month's calendar and only then put them up. :bulletred: DA PRIZES The winnah will become my Jade Champion, which means that: a) from henceforth, s/he'll be featured in the "Emperial Section"; b) S/he'll be able of lording it over the rest of the people at the community. c) The winner's piccie will be our second "FAVOURITE". d) I'll also make a piccie for him/her of her choice, (maybe a personalized L5R card, like the one I'm doing for :devremichan:, at her suggestion :bulletred: DA VOTING EVERYBODY will vote. Everybody will have 1 (one) vote, and the samurai whose piece receives more votes will win (in case of a tie, I'll vote as well, to break the tie - I will only vote in this case, much to my pity, but, alas, one must make sacrifices for the Empire). To vote, just send me a Devnote - when all entries are in and the voting starts, I will warn you via The Imperial Herald. :bulletred: DA HUNKS And DA HUNKS ARE *rolls drums* (when making the pin up, please bear into mind what MONTH and SEASON the hunk will represent to, and do try to remain more or less faithful to the character - new dos and clothes are always permitted). You can find REFERENCES for your works here: these are several takes of several artists on the chosen Hunks. There are 4 reference sheets, with 3 Hunks each. By each hunk I also included the Clan Mon, in case you might need it. Ref. Sheet 1 - January, February and March ==> http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/savechangeling/Ref_1_-_janeiro-mar_o.jpg Ref. Sheet 2 - April, May and June ==> http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/savechangeling/Ref_2_-_Abril_-_Junho.jpg Ref. Sheet 3 - July, August and September ==> http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/savechangeling/Ref_3_-_Julho_-_Setembro.jpg Ref. Sheet 4 - October, November and December ==> http://www.angelfire.com/dragon/savechangeling/Ref_4_-_Outubro-Dezembro.jpg :bulletblue: 1 - Mister January - Bloodspeakers: Iuchiban, the sexiest undead/ human/ goblin/ shadowland/ bloodspeaker/ samurai/ courtier/ shugenja in the Empire. :bulletblue: 2 - Mister February - Crab Clan: Hida Kuon, the BIG BIG Crab Champion... really Big... YUM! :bulletblue: 3 - Mister March - Crane Clan: Doji Kurohito, the sexy Crane Daymio - who can teach those bulky Crabs how to handle a sword. assigned to :devblint: :bulletblue: 4 - Mister April - Scorpion Clan: Bayushi Paneki, the sexiest Defender Of The Empire in the history of the Empire. :bulletblue: 5 - Mister May - Dragon Clan: Mirumoto Shiryu, voted "The Sexiest Man Of Rokugan" in all the L5R forums. assigned to :devremichan: :bulletblue: 6 - Mister June - Mantis Clan: Yoritomo, the Master and Commander... of the Rokuganese seas. assigned to :devmonotone-magpie: :bulletblue: 7 - Mister July - Lion Clan: Matsu Domotai, the Lil' Lion... with a nice chest! assigned to :devnoland: :bulletblue: 8 - Mister August - Phoenix Clan: Shiba Aikune, Hot Hot HOT Phoenix! :bulletblue: 9 - Mister September - Unicorn Clan: Moto Chagatai, the Rider On The Storm... and raider too! :bulletblue: 10 - Mister October - Imperial: Hantei Naseru, aka His Hunkiness Toturi III. assigned to :devSuiki: :bulletblue: 11 - Mister November - Imperial: Toturi Sezaru, aka. The Sexy (Emperor's) Voice. assigned to :devorahlith: :bulletblue: 12 - Mister December - Shadowlands: Daigotsu, aka "He's Divine/ He blows Me Outta My Mind" Lord of Evil. For a complete list of the entries to the first contest of the :devRokugan: community, "Ladies of Rokugan '05", please go here ==> http://rokugan.deviantart.com/journal/2404155/

EMPERIAL EDITORIAL
by Doji Sakura, Emerald Champion


Welcome again, to another issue of The Emperial Herald, the source of all your news concerning the L5R & Samurai community in DA, ROKUGAN.

Enjoy, and may the Kami be with you!


Founder and Emerald Champion

***

INFORMATION

To know how to join the community, submissions, etc., read our "Oriental F.A.Q" here ==> [link]

To see who the members of our community are, go here to check "The Legion of Two Thousand" ==> [link]

***


NEWS

1 - The "Hunks of Rokugan: We Girls Have Rights Too '2005" Contest is now officially underway, as all the representatives for the hunkiest men in Rokugan have been chosen.

The rules for the constest are as follows:

DA PRIZE: The winnah will become my Jade Champion, which means that: a) from henceforth, s/he'll be featured in the "Imperial Section"; b) S/he'll be able of lording it over the rest of the people at the community. c) The winner's piccie will be our second "FAVOURITE". d) I'll also make a piccie for him/her of her choice, (maybe a personalized L5R card, like the one I'm doing for ~remichan, at her suggestion

DA JOINING: Just send a note TO THE COMMUNITY stating that you want to join . I'll send you a message giving you the assignment. BTW, the competition will NOT start until all the 12 hunks are distributed, but you can start working on your assignment as soon as you get it. All assignments will be decided RANDOMLY (with a roll of the Magical D12 I keep on my desk).

DA VOTING: EVERYBODY will vote. Everybody will have 1 (one) vote, and the samurai whose piece receives more votes will win (in case of a tie, I'll vote as well, to break the tie - I will only vote in this case, much to my pity, but, alas, one must make sacrifices for the Empire). To vote, just send me a Devnote - when all entries are in and the voting starts, I will warn you via The Emperial Herald.

DA SUBMITTING: As usual, post it on your site and send me the link by devnote. I will not post the images, but I will put the links up at this journal, so that people can check it out whenever they want. When the competition ends, I will pick up all the pin-ups, adjust them into that month's calendar and only then put them up.

And DA HUNKS ARE *rolls drums* (when making the pin up, please bear into mind what MONTH and SEASON the hunk will represent to, and do try to remain more or less faithful to the character - new dos and clothes are always permitted). I will be posting a reference guide for all these hunks as soon as possible.

1 - Mister January - Bloodspeakers: Iuchiban, the sexiest undead/ human/ goblin/ shadowland/ bloodspeaker/ samurai/ courtier/ shugenja in the Empire.
2 - Mister February - Crab Clan: Hida Kuon, the BIG BIG Crab Champion... really Big... YUM!
3 - Mister March - Crane Clan: Doji Kurohito (~Orahlith's choice), the sexy Crane Daymio - who can teach those bulky Crabs how to handle a sword.
4 - Mister April - Scorpion Clan: Bayushi Paneki (~remichan's choice), the sexiest Defender Of The Empire in the history of the Empire.
5 - Mister May - Dragon Clan: Mirumoto Shiryu, voted "The Sexiest Man Of Rokugan" in all the L5R forums.
6 - Mister June - Mantis Clan: Yoritomo, the Master and Commander... of the Rokuganese seas.
7 - Mister July - Lion Clan: Matsu Domotai (~Suiki's call), the Lil' Lion... with a nice chest!
8 - Mister August - Phoenix Clan: Shiba Aikune, Hot Hot HOT Phoenix!
9 - Mister September - Unicorn Clan: Moto Chagatai, the Rider On The Storm... and raider too!
10 - Mister October - Imperial: Hantei Naseru, aka His Hunkiness Toturi III.
11 - Mister November - Imperial: Toturi Sezaru, aka. The Sexy (Emperor's) Voice.
12 - Mister December - Shadowlands: Daigotsu, aka "He's Divine/ He blows Me Outta My Mind" Lord of Evil.

For a complete list of the entries to the first contest of the ~rokugan community, "Ladies of Rokugan '05", please go here ==> [link]


2 - Missing Deviations I have noticed that several people have made Samurai/ L5R-related artwork in their personal galleries but have not submitted it to our community gallery. Please, I beg of you to do so - some of the pieces are great, but I cannot post them here without your consent, i.e. without a note with the link to the piece (which basically acts as your permission to post your pics up).


3 - Still On the Matter Of Having More Than One Title - This is a matter that is still drawing some debate: Should a Daimyo be able of acumulating the functions of Champion as well? Initially, I had barred this option to prevent title hoarding and to allow more people to be titled. Some people seem to actually disagree with me, so I want to hear the voice of the Empire on this matter, so that I can decide wether to keep things as they are, or to change them. Leave your comments, please. I want this matter settled by the end of the contest, because that will most definitely influence the titles people will be receiving as prizes in the contest. Please send your notes/comments. Until now, only a handful of people have manifested their opinion.

***

FUTURE EVENTS

- The Obsidian Championship - I am considering changing the theme of this contest, since it seems rather restrictive to force someone to have their character turn to the Shadowlands only in order to participate. Instead, I'm considering holding a free-for-all humour contest, with the theme "Shadowlands". The winner (if belongs to a Clan) will be Tainted - but, shhhhh, it will be a secret. The writing contest will be for the Topaz Champion title, instead.

- DA's Rokugan Community RPG: Lord Akodo has recently suggested that I should organize a Play-by-Post (using a forum), or a Play-by-Email RPG game based on the DA's version of Rokugan (i.e. where Doji Sakura is the Emerald Champion, Akodo Blint is the Akodo Daymio, Bayushi Shinme is the Bayushi Daymio, etc.). I think that this is a rather interesting idea, and I would like to know a) Who is interested in joining? and b) Who is interested in giving me a hand organizing things and GameMastering?

***


ADVERTISEMENT

This section is open for all the members: if you want to advertise your homepage, an interest link, an event, or whatever, please send me the devnote and I'll be more than glad to post it here for all members to see.

- SHIRO KUMO RPG GROUP - this is ~demica 's PbeM (play by E-mail) samurai RPG - Shiro Kumo. The group works though an Yahoo group ([link]), where members can post both their story entries for the RPG, as well as artwork, competition entries, fiction, etc. The official homepage can be found here ==> [link]

- DOJI SAKURA'S L5R PBP GAME - for all of you portuguese-speakers, I'll be hosting a L5R Play-by-Post game at [link] , with a special system cooked up by me, to make things easier. Just look in the "Information" section. (the address is now corrected)

- VORPAL SPYDER'S FINAL FANTASY PBEM RPG this is :devorpalspyder:'s PbeM FF-based RPG - Fatal Fantasy. The group works though an Yahoo group ([link]), where members can post both their story entries for the RPG, as well as artwork, competition entries, fiction, etc. The official homepage can be found here ==> [link]

- MONOTONE-MAGPIE's Final Waltz Competition: Basically, take people from the Final Fantasy games, pair them up into dancing couples (NOT necessarily romantic couples) and draw the couples dancing to...the waltz. Or at least, in ballroom attire, then send them to ~monotone-magpie. For more info go here ==> [link]


***


Imperial Submissions & Other Things - if you want to be heard by the other members, and think that you deserve some space here in The Imperial Herald to speak about something, send me a dev note, and I will make your voice heard by the entire empire... well, at least by the entire community.