The old man had few pleasures left in life. One of the last ones was provided by the library on the little hill behind the main dojo of Golden Sun Plain. Practically no students ever came to this aisle dedicated to forgotten spell research. In here, he indulged in the bittersweet enjoyment of memories long past.

"Sensei?", a young voice asked timidly.

Slightly annoyed, the old man turned to see one of his pupils standing demurely between two stands of parchment. She kept her head bowed, waiting for him to acknowledge her.

He did so with a nod. "What is it you want, Natsuko?"

She gathered her courage to ask the question that had bothered her all week. "Sensei, last week you said that we would have to become midwives, matchmakers and undertakers. My comrades thought that you meant that we would have to preside over birth, marriage and funeral ceremonies. But..."

With a gesture of the hand, he encouraged her to continue. "But?"

"But that is not what midwives, matchmakers and undertakers do", she blurted out as if to ensure that she would not be able to take the words back. "They don't do ceremonies. They do the groundwork for them, so to speak."

"You think I made a mistake, then ?" the old man asked in an icy voice.

"No, sensei", she said quickly. "You do not do these mistakes. I think you meant something else. I think, perhaps, you meant that we needed to bring into the universe a world without magic. And that we needed to reconcile samurai with what this new world brought them. And that... And that we had to lay to rest the old world of magic." She saw a painful look cross the sensei's face, furtively, but the sensei stayed silent. "And what I need to know is... Why not say this to us? Why the need to conceal?"

The sensei took his time to answer, but when he did, it was in a voice tinted with pride. "Because magic was made of secrets, Natsuko, and if you can pierce the secrets, then there is yet hope for the world."

This school was founded by order of the Shogun Seppun Morito so as to ensure the continuation of ceremonial functions that became increasingly harder to perform with the rarefaction of shugenja. The scholar school is the result of the combined efforts of Moshi Kikiesu and Tonbo Tasuku, two relatively untalented shugenja, and of magistrate Asako Toshiki. Special note: Samurai from any family in the Empire do not need to take the "Multiple School" advantage to study at the Seppun Scholar School. If they do, however, they gain the disadvantage "Minor Obligation: Bakufu" without gaining the corresponding Character Points. Scholars can cast kihos as non-monks.

Benefit: +1 Intelligence

Skills: Meditation, Shintao, Theology, Calligraphy, History, Conversation, 1 lore skill.

Equipment: Books of Rokugani history and tradition, fine kimono, calligraphy equipment, incense, 5 koku.

Rank 1: The Ancestors Guide Us: The scholar possesses enough spiritual power to temporarily call upon ancestors having known the mythical times of Kami and heroes. She can spend a Void point to substitute History to any of her skills until the end of the turn.

Rank 2: Wisdom Past: With time, the scholar can concentrate on her knowledge and her links with the past to accomplish shugenja-like actions. By spending a Void point, she can substitute any of her traits for another for any rolls for a number of rounds equal to her Insight rank.

Rank 3: Call upon Yomi: The scholar possesses an intense link with the Realm of Blessed Ancestors and can use it to channel her elements. Once per day, she can spend a Void point to rearrange her skill points between her skills (keeping a minimum of 1 in each skill and a maximum of 10) for one round. No roll performed by the scholar in the same round can roll more than 10 dice.