City of Tears & bowed shugenja

Hi there, I'm new to the game and very new to the boards.

I have tried looking through the large quantities of posts and rules and have yet to find a concrete answer to my query. The question I have is regarding the use of the Phoenix Stronghold City of Tears and bowed shugenja, which goes as follows (the particular cards in the combo were City of Tears, Isawa Tanaka & Consumed by Five Fires).

City of Tears: Equipping Spells is a Battle/Open action for you. After the resolution of an Equip Battle action you took, you may take an additional Battle action from the Spell it attached.

Consumed by Five Fires: Battle: Bow this card: Destroy a target enemy unit with fewer cards than this unit.

Example: I attach the spell Consumed by Fives Fires to Tanaka (who is bowed) and then use the City of Tears trait to play the battle action and on the newly attached spell to destroy an enemy unit as per Consumed by Five Fires text. Now since the spell itself doesn't say I need to bow the shugenja itself as a cost of using it only needing to bow itself, is it possible for me to legally do this even though Tanaka is bowed?

Many thanks

My friend and I were discussing the lethal capabilities of City of Tears shugenja. He's had his face wrecked many times by it. He continues to swear up and down that shugenja can't cast spells while bowed, because bowed personaliteis cant perform actions. I did a quick search of the rule book, but the only thing I can find about bowed cards not performing actions, is you can't perform actions on the bowed card itself. I told him this, and he said that items and spells give their abilities to the personality. I wasn't able to find anything to support this, either. In his defesne, he's been playing for a long time, and barely played throughout samurai. Is this an old ruling that changed with samurai edition or before?

I know he's not right about shugenja not being able to cast spells that only require the spell to be bowed, because of this (viewtopic.php?f=59&t=77734) ruling. How would I go about explaining this to him, other than "that's what the rules team said"?

I have seen the posts and responses (that I can find) on this topic and it still makes me scratch my head. According to what I have read, bowed shugenja are able to cast spells if the cost for bowing the spell does not involve bowing that shugenja. The only justification thus far is that there is no rule specifically preventing this. I have gone over the rules and I must agree: there is no ruling that prevents this. There is also no ruling that states that shugenja, or any personality for that matter, may perform actions given to them by spells, items, weapons, or armor while bowed. In fact, the rules that cover restrictions given to bowed personalities specifically state that they MAY NOT perform actions. Actions from spells and the like are performed by the personality to which they are attached, therefore, even if the spell does not require a personality to bow as a payment for the effect, the personality must be ready in order to perform said action.

Followers differ from other attachments in that they do not give their abilities to their personality. This is why a follower still contributes force in battle resolution while attached to a bowed personality, but other attachments still offer no force increase.

I would need a more compelling reason to justify this other than the fact that there is no rule expressly prohibiting it. By the same logic, no rule expressly allows it.

In fact, the rules that cover restrictions given to bowed personalities specifically state that they MAY NOT perform actions.

You are wrong here: bowed Personalities and Followers are allowed to perform actions. Rules only state that abilities on bowed cards can not be used (see Abilities and actions, Using abilities).

There is a difference between where the ability comes from and who performs the action. If you use the ability on your unbowed Spell attached to your bowed Shugenja, the ability comes from the Spell, not the Shugenja, although it is performed by the Shugenja (see the Glossary: From and Perform). The card that must be unbowed in order to be allowed to use its ability is the Spell, not the Shugenja.

Followers differ from other attachments in that they do not give their abilities to their personality.

No. Abilities on Spells and Items are not given to the Personality they are attached to (unless specifically stated in their text), they are on and comes from the attachment itself: if a Spell or Item is bowed then its ability cannot be used, no matter if its Personality is bowed or unbowed.

This is why a follower still contributes force in battle resolution while attached to a bowed personality, but other attachments still offer no force increase.

No. An unbowed Follower contributes Force in battle resolution regardless of the bowed state of its Personality because rules about an army's total Force say so. Rules about abilities do not matter here.

For more information about abilities and actions, see the Comprehensive Rules.