Clan Ikachi

Clan Ikachi
Clan
The first Toroshu of the Ikachi.
RPG	BZPRPG III
Type	Clan
Status	Defunct
Creator	Blue
Pronunciation	Ee-KAH-chee

The Ikachi were a minor Dasaka clan, native to Odaiba. However, the clan has been defunct and all but forgotten for decades, after the violent deaths of their last two Toroshu and the disappearance of their heir. While active, they were known for their legends of a dragonslayer ancestor, the supposed curse on their bloodline, and the martial prowess of their Soulswords. Ikachi Soulswords were trained in as many physical weapons as possible, in order to supplement their psychokinetic abilities and ensure they were always versatile and adaptable in battle.

History

Origins

The clan was allegedly founded and named after their first Toroshu, Ikachi, a Menti Soulsword who rose to prominence due to her reputation as a dragonslayer. Legend has it that the clan's metal heirlooms - silver scale armour and two tonfa - had their materials harvested from the very dragons that Ikachi hunted. Likewise, Ikachi wielded a crystal katana with a bone hilt, supposedly dragon bone; this sword was passed down as a symbol of office from Toroshu to Toroshu. The true origins of Clan Ikachi, and the source of their metal, remain unknown, their tales of dragon-hunting ancestors being understandably hard to verify.

The ancestral katana of Clan Ikachi

The Ikachi Curse

From generation to generation, the Ikachi bloodline struggled to establish heirs. This was in part the result of the clan's minor status - when the birth rate for men dropped, opportunities for actually creating heirs became scarce. However, this fails to account for why the family did not branch prior to this; those few accounts that can be found attribute this at times to a tendency for Ikachi women to be barren, and elsewhere the frequency with which children of the Ikachi met violent ends. The latter is the source of the legendary 'curse' of the Ikachi, despite the fact that the clan's focus on combat entirely explains that statistical tendency.

The Fall of Clan Ikachi

The reputation of the Ikachi Curse was cemented, in the minds of those invested in the histories of minor clans, by the bloody fate of the final two Toroshu and the disappearance of Ikachi Caana, the only remaining heir to the bloodline. Sisters, the first branching of the Ikachi family tree in generations, Saada and Caris were both murdered in cold blood, years apart. After the assassination of Toroshu Saada, Caris adopted her only daughter, who had been spared by the unknown assailants. Years later, when Caana was about to come of age, there was another attack on Clan Ikachi; this time, Toroshu Caris was killed with her own katana, and Caana herself vanished entirely. The clan was also robbed of all its metal heirlooms in the process, leaving only the very ancestral sword that was still embedded in Caris' corpse. Those few who were still loyal to the dwindling clan were absorbed by others, and though the fates of both Toroshu are still in living memory, few now recall the existence of Clan Ikachi. Although their eventual demise was as violent as it was perplexing, the Ikachi had already been all but forgotten by the time of Toroshu Caris' death. Her murder, and the disappearance of Ikachi Caana, were only the final punctuation mark on a minor clan's slow and inevitable end.