The Factions: GINBUSHI

We've already talked about our neo-samurai playable class, but the ginbushi are also a faction in their own right.

This is one of the defining features of Wireless Soul Transmission - character's exist in the world. You're not just a generic 'samurai', you're an aspirant of the Whiteblade clan, and that means something, to you, and to the characters you encounter.

Did you miss last weeks post on the megacorps? Find it here.

Ginbushi Ranks

House Guards
Before they can officially join the house, ginbushi candidates must serve it as house guards. While beingtaught the rules of the clan and its parent corporation, the guards provide manpower for security tasks too menial to warrant a full ginbushi.

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Aspirant
The most loyal and capable of the House Guard are formally adopted into the house, forswearing any previous family ties. In return they receive the nanotech augmentation that is the hall mark of the ginbushi strength.

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ORIGINS
The same autonomy that made the corporate arcologies free from planetary law, gave the Hansei authorities no obligation to defend them against a military attack. Conventional security contractors served initially, but how could a megacorporation hope to enforce a contract breach against their own enforcers.

The answer was the ginbushi, each corporation would be served by an adoptive clan of soldiers, trained and indoctrinated from a young age to serve their house above all, and that house would in-turn be bound to the corporation.

POST-SHATTER
​When the arcologies were spared the initial onslaught of the Shatter, the ginbushi readied themselves for the fight of their lives. Instead they found the Whisper seemed as ambivalent about the arcologies as the arcologies did about those outside. Perplexed and dismayed the ginbushi have time and again asked for a chance to go on the attack, to deal with the Whisper before it inevitably looses patience with the zaibatsu. Time and again that permission has been denied.

But a few ginbushi have been sighted in the streets on unknown missions, a sign that some clan leaders have determined that ‘absolute loyalty’ means saving your masters from themselves

True Samurai
Also called 'bladed samurai', these Ginbushi have proven themselves both capable and loyal during their time as an aspirant. They are now considered competent enough to act without oversight and receive a nano-forged katana as a mark of rank and, not incidentally, a potent weapon.

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House Mother/Father
Every ginbushi clan is led by a single individual referred to as the House Father, or House Mother. Rising from the adoptive nature of the clans, this individual is legally (not just metaphorically) the parent of all the ginbushi in their house.
Since each clan is fanatically loyal to its house master, it follows that these are chosen for their absolute willingness to obey the leaders of the parent corporation. Alone of the ginbushi, the House Father or Mother is responsible for balancing the bushido tenets of the ginbushi with the commercial values of the corporation.

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Master
The rank of master is given to those True Samurai chosen to train the next generation of aspirants. Ginbushi masters are selected, not for their combat skill, but for their prudence and wisdom. Such is the respect these individuals command, that many True Samurai will often still seek counsel from their old masters.

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Daimyō
The daimyo are not part of the clan, rather it is the ginbushi term for those within the parent corporation who may give orders to the ginbushi. Some corporations award this power to a great many of their staff, others might rest it all in a single individual.
Smart daimyos understand that ordering ginbushi around with contempt is a mistake. Despite their overarching loyalty, the samurai are not above interpreting orders overly literally to inconvenience a disrespectful daimyo.

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Who do the augmented turn to when the Whisper threatens to seize control of their mind? Find out next week when we return to our class reveals with a look at the noble System Guardian.