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, 14 March 2014
I just want some clarification because I think there is still some confusion.
Favor actions require that you control the Imperial Favor or have an alternate way of discarding the Favor, to be taken in Good Faith. And viewtopic.php?f=59&t=107210&view=unread#p1412397
Bowing your Stronghold does not say it pays the costs of the favor. So can you use imperial summons without the favor by bowing your stronghold? Or must you control the imperial favor and then you may bow your stronghold instead of discarding the favor?
Thanks!
PS the good faith rule was taken from Roger's post "http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=107181&start=25";
Ben Higgins (rules official), 14 March 2014
Favor actions require that you control the Imperial Favor, or have an alternate effect, substitute, or waiver (“need not”) for discarding the Favor.
Imperial Summons itself has the inherent substitution of bowing your Stronghold.
Because of this, Imperrial Summons is legal to announce if any of the following is true: A) You control the Imperial Favor. B) Your Stronghold is unbowed. C) You control and have available to use another effect that would substitute itself for discarding the Favor (An Ivory templated version of Kyuden Otomo or Doji Kurohito XP3, for instance).