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.
I control a bowed Fatina at home when my last unit in my army is destroyed. I want to react with her and create the Ghul at the current battlefield. Can I do that if my army is currently empty?
Spider Clan • Shugenja • Jackal • Lose 3 Honor. Reaction: Even if Fatina is bowed, after a Personality is destroyed: Create a 2F/2C/0PH Shadowlands, Undead, Ghul Personality in your current army or your home. Lose 2 Honor.
Can I [create the Ghul at the current battlefield] if my army is currently empty?
Yes, per Army (in the glossary): "When “army” is used to refer to a side of a battle that units are being moved to, assigned to, entering play in, or created in, this does not imply that an army must already exist there; the location can have no units to begin with, as an army is being brought into existence there."
If your Personality was destroyed by battle resolution, the Ghul is not destroyed because it enters your army after its destruction by battle resolution; then if the Ghul enters an attacking army, she returns home bowed; if the Ghul enters a defending army, she remains at the current battlefield, unless the Province was destroyed, in which case it returns home at the same time as any attacking units would (see Battles, Final Steps).