Messages from the Oracle of the Void #l5r Discord channel, copied for Oracle of the Void. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings and the rulebooks may differ.
A player, 8 February 2024 14:27
What was the thought behind not making Hunger and the other Five Swords have a designation like the Bloodswords? My instinct is to think that it would be "trait lore text" that could create confusion, but other cards have the same "trait lore text" that doesn't seem to have a purpose, e.g., Goju Yurishi's Dragon Child trait, or Diagotsu Yajinden's Khadi trait.
It implies there could be a card later than may never come ("Search your Fate Deck for a Weapon of Legend equipment"), but we've seen that in many cases, and it would attach a certain mystique around the equipment?
A player, 8 February 2024 14:30
Bitter and Hunger sound like Bloodswords, but they're not. Honorable doesn't sound like it should be related to Bitter and Hunger, so if you don't know any history, you'd miss the interesting link between them.
Brook Cunningham (rules official), 8 February 2024 14:35
The short, simple answer is that story simulation within the cards is not applied exhaustively. Also, talking about the Bitter/Honorable daisho and Hunger, you're looking at cards printed over a decade apart by completely different teams. If anything, their lack of unifying keywords speaks more to internal consistency than if Hunger had gotten any, well after the other two lacked them.
A player, 8 February 2024 14:36
That makes sense. I was opening some packs, and it made me think about it. I know after the Claw Wars, some traits were cleaned up to avoid unnecessary keywords, but then some came back, so I wasn't certain if there was a rules decision about it.
A player, 8 February 2024 14:36
Well, not "rules".
A player, 8 February 2024 14:36
Style might be a better word.
A player, 8 February 2024 14:37
I wonder if homebrew "Lore Cards" like the kind distributed about Clans would be interesting to some people.
A player, 8 February 2024 18:53
Emperor edition has clan lore cards
A player, 8 February 2024 18:53
For each of the clans
A player, 8 February 2024 18:53
From CW till the start of the colonies iirc
saaam (not official), 8 February 2024 18:56
Time of the Void did that with the Stronghold reprints, and so did... Soul of the Empire, IIRC.
A player, 8 February 2024 19:04
Oh sorry I stand corrected. They just went over the major players in the game at that time (for the EE lore cards)
A player, 8 February 2024 19:04
Just went and checked them to be on the safe side
A player, 8 February 2024 21:06
Yeah, I have most of those. That's what i meant, some little cards that people can see little bits of more esoteric lore. The wiki exists, but doesn't spark anything unless you know what you're looking for.