OVERVIEW:
The only living direct heir to the founder of the Crab Clan, Ryoma is believed to be an incarnation of Hida himself. While the weight of this responsibility might crush some, Ryoma has yet to shrink from this challenge. Despite the fortune of his birth, nothing has ever come easily to Ryoma. Many clan champions are often praised as prodigies and some certainly are--this is not the case for Ryoma. Instead, he studies tirelessly until he's grasped everything beyond him. Ryoma is driven by more than duty; a natural curiousity and diligence drive him towards engaging in challenges beyond the comforts of what he's already learned. Thanks to lifelong guidance from many other clans, chief among them being the Scorpion, Ryoma is not the embittered caricture that most Crab embody. Rather, the boy is genial, understanding, and sees the value in the arts and in all of the Great Clans. Many courtiers have hoped to take advantage of the young heir's open-mindedness, mistaking it for naivete, only to find the child implacable and unyeilding. This straightforwardness is well understood by the Crab bushi he regularly trains alongside, as Ryoma's weapon of choice is the two-handed Ono axe that is as difficult to master as it is deathly lethal in the right hands.
In the wake of his father's death, Ryoma has only become more driven to learn from non-traditional methods. After all, he saw his father as a cultivation of all the best that the great families of the Crab had to offer--and he saw his father fail. Ryoma genuinely believe that there is no future for the Crab if he only embraces tradition, and so, in the years leading to his late gempukku, he's surrounded himself with an unusual cadre of advisors, tutors, and guests in hopes of living up to the expectations of his clan and history itself. While lesser lords would be derided for this, Ryoma has come to discover that being the anticipated champion of his Clan has allowed him a level of social freedoms seldom seen by any but the most fortunate Rokugani.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
Ryoma possesses a gentle strength and assured countenance. While the certainty of youth and the privilege of his position almost certainly allow for this, the confidence in which Ryoma carries himself has become enough to rally the downtrodden Crab. Despite his smaller stature among the oft-large members of his clan, Ryoma is surprisingly strong. This has led other Crab to celebrate the density of his strength as tempered steel rather than the usual characterization of Crab champions as 'mountains' or 'fortresses'. Despite his renown as 'The Damascus Lordling', Ryoma is patient to the point of being taciturn. Under the quiet gaze of green eyes, often favorably compared to the gleam of Jade, challengers from other clans often shrink. In truth, Ryoma may be too soft to leverage what others intepret as severity, as the boy's mind oft-wanders--he's just good at maintaining a steady, focused expression.
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