Category:Five Paragons of the Shogunate

The Five Paragons of the Shogunate, also known as the Five Banished Immortals, were five Dragonblooded heroes who lived in the Shogunate Era, in the centuries prior to the War of One Thousand Shoguns. Each of the Paragons was so named because of their perfected talents in the five skills considered key to Shogunate Dragonblooded, and they were named Banished Immortals for it was said that each had talent ‘as if a god had fallen, banished from the stars of Heaven’. Each Immortal was styled according to one of the Maidstars.

Heavenly Reed, styled Banished Mercury, Master of Calligraphy.

Plum Blossom, styled Banished Venus, Master of Poetry.

Peimin Vessal, styled Banished Mars, Master of Swordplay.

Sen Wabicha, styled Banished Jupiter, Master of the Tea Ceremony.

Hellish Ash, styled Banished Saturn, Master of Iaijutsu.

The art and skill of the five was so highly respected that they were welcomed at the courts of nearly every daimyo in Creation, and made regular appearances at the Shogun’s Court in Meru. While they often traveled alone, often two would cross paths at a particular court, and these encounters would birth tales and performances that would grace silk screens and wall hangings right up until the Great Contagion. On a very few occasions, all five Paragons would meet, and their contests and artistry at these times shaped the wider culture of the Shogunate Era, establishing entertainments at Drinking Parties and many forms of the Sword Dance.

Though their names and influence spread widely in the Shogunate, none of the Paragons ever held the title of Shogun or Daimyo. During their lifetimes they were recipients of prayer from personal cults, which persisted after their deaths, a time where their imagery and lessons also saw adoption by various Maiden Cults.

The Great Contagion left only a few who could give accurate accounts of their lives, and destroyed nearly all of their works which had survived the Shogunate Era’s own oft-violent landscapes. In the Age of Sorrows, some powers who claim cultural descent from the Shogunate still reference the Paragons, but they are granted little attention on the Blessed Isle, often as footnotes of great artists whose works have been lost, without titles such as ‘Paragon’ or ‘Banished Immortal’, which the Immaculate Order has largely managed to suppress.