Katanaka

[Skitt_Happens]

I just listened to the latest beachside broadcast: as a player who started in m2e I am very excited they've reached the introduction of The Ten Thunders!

I don't know why it surprised me, but I never realised Misaki is in fact, Misaki Katanaka. It makes a lot of sense now i think about it, but what is the history of the clan?

As far as I can figure, the clan was massively powerful in the Three Kingdoms until it came under the control of Toshiro. Toshiro's brother, Yan Lo, was accused of some hideous behaviour (necromancy?) and banished from life itself.

The clan split at the seams, decending into civil war, culminating in the death of Toshiro at the hands of his own men.

The remaining Katanakas are driven underground, becoming a crime syndicate that specialises in training assassins (now refered to as Snipers). The Oyabun, and consequently Misaki, is a direct decedent of Toshiro. Chiaki is somewhere on the family tree too.

This is the impression I've got from cobbled together memories of fluff - anyone know anywhere I am wrong/more info to add?

[tomjoad]

I'm not sure that Yan Lo is a direct ancestor of Misaki or the oyabun. Chiaki seems to be a contemporary of Misaki (unlike Izamu, Toshiro, and Yan Lo, who are all much older). Also, I don't know that Toshiro and Yan Lo were contemporaries either, although Izamu and Toshiro both died in the same uprising against the Katanaka. In addition, it isn't made clear in what way Yin is related to them all, but she is definitely in the same family tree as the other Ancestors.

I haven't read the 1.5 books though, so I could be wrong about some or all of this. This is my understanding of the M2E fluff, though.

[Skitt_Happens]

Don't know why I thought Yan Lo and Toshiro were brothers... that might be all in my head. I equated the "excesses" that caused the in fighting in the clan to be linked with Yan Lo being cursed.

Toshiro though, "headed the Katanaka clan", which would imply he is himself a Katanaka, would it not?

[Cadaverousbirth]

Yan Lo and Izamu are brothers 

[Yvarre]

Yan Lo addresses both Toshiro and Izamu as "brother" in their respective Storm of Shadows fluff; it's not entirely clear whether as a gesture of respect or if the three are indeed brothers.  It's fairly clear that both Toshiro and Izamu suffered the same fate of the Katanaka army turning on them and desecrating their bodies and spirits.  It's likely than Yan Lo could have suffered his fate at the fall of clan Katanaka as well, though under slightly different circumstances as his po was exiled from his body to walk the paths of Ash, Bone, and Spirit for eternity, to later be salvaged by Chiaki, a promising medium of the modern Katanaka clan.  While related as Katanakas, Misaki is possibly not a direct descendant of Toshiro or Izamu, as their particularly brutal branch of the family tree seems to have been pruned at the fall, and there were likely other relatives on business elsewhere who survived, but ruling out that one of their children sired Misaki's forebears isn't possible with the information currently available.

So, right, the clan fell and its survivors gathered what resources they still had and went underground, out of favor with the Han Dynasty, I believe.  Through subterfuge and guile, they grew their resources and influence to the point of a shadow government crime syndicate.  In finding and controlling a breach into another plane, they then engineered the Boxer rebellion against the Guild to force a mass emigration to Malifaux.  Though brutally extorting the people to build a new Three Kingdoms Breachside, they tell their new subjects never to forget where they came from.  Presumably, they are harnessing the collective unconscious of their people's myths, dreams, and aspirations in The Library, a physical manifestation of the subconscious of all Malifaux's denizens which the Thunders control in their bid for control of Malifaux.