Events causing Destruction vs. Destruction Negation

L5R CCG Rules board, 8 December 2012 to 9 December 2012

A topic from AEG's L5R CCG Rules forum, copied for Oracle of the Void from a copy of the forum saved in October 2015, so pages it didn't save are missing. Players' names are left out; the rules officials are named. Rulings are as they stood on these dates; later rulings, the rulebooks and the Rules Archive may differ.

A player, 8 December 2012

Hi Rules Team,

I was searching through the Rules Forum and found this ruling (more of an explanation, really).

With that in mind:

Imagine that my opponent has a personality with "Ancient Armor of the Qamar" attached. If I reveal The Wall is Breached during my Events Phase, does the event count as one of my actions which the Ancient Armor can negate?

In the bigger picture:

If an event is revealed that would destroy a target and that target has destruction negation (from actions), can the event be blocked by that negation?

I believe the answer is that The Wall is Breached (or the like) would successfully destroy the target, per the ruling above. However, this kind of question ("Does XYZ count as an action?") has come up so much in recent games that I am unsure.

Thanks!

Relevant Card Text:

You may destroy the province from which this card resolved; if you did, choose a unit and destroy it.

Reaction: After another player's action targets this Personality: Negate his destruction from the action's effects.

Ben Higgins (rules official), 9 December 2012

A sequence of performing, targeting, costs, and effects that comes from an ability. Actions always have a single designator: "Limited," Open," "Battle," or "Reaction." An action that comes from an ability with multiple designators such as "Battle/Open" has the designator appropriate to the phase it was taken in. Actions are taken. See Abilities and actions.

Since The Wall is Breached has none of the action designators, it is a trait and not an action, and will therefore be able to destroy the unit containing the Ancient Armor of the Qamar.