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, 25 May 2007
3/4
-/7/0
Spider Clan, Shadowlands, Bloodspeaker, Shugenja
Lose 4 Honor
Maho Battle: Even if Eiichi is not at this battlefield, bow him: Bow a target Personality with lower chi and permanently give him Shadowlands.
The phrase, "Even if Eiichi is not at this battlefield," leads me to believe that he is ignoring the rule of presence as this action would always be relevent when targeting a card in the battle. On the other hand, perhaps it means that he can target someone outside of the battle regardless of his own location, as if he was a card there. I'm puzzled. Could you please explain which it is?
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 27 May 2007
The phrase, "Even if Eiichi is not at this battlefield," leads me to believe that he is ignoring the rule of presence as this action would always be relevent when targeting a card in the battle. On the other hand, perhaps it means that he can target someone outside of the battle regardless of his own location, as if he was a card there.
It waives the requirement for Relevance. (Corrected.)
Zen Faulkes (rules official), 28 May 2007
Additional: Strictly speaking, this card ignores the Rule of Location. Which doesn't exist yet. It's coming in Samurai Edition. The Rule of Relevance is kind of close to it, and I was trying to put it into Lotus Edition terms, but it's kind of pointless.
So really, don't fret about this until Samurai Edition releases.