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, 1 July 2012
I've be playing for a long time. There was a rule along time ago about force pumps as a defender. That they lasted to the end of turn. So to the question. If I'm defending with Tamori Seiken and someone else. If i was to Rend the Soul on Seiken to give he the +5 force. Then play something like Encircled Terran or Fall Back and send Seiken home. The battle resolves. Seiken was not at the battle resolution. Then I play Retribution. Would Seiken be a 8 force unit. 2 because of him, 5 from the Rend the Soul, and 1 from the Retribution and can he take a province?
Thank
Fu
Jon Palmer (rules official), 1 July 2012
I've be playing for a long time. There was a rule along time ago about force pumps as a defender. That they lasted to the end of turn. So to the question. If I'm defending with Tamori Seiken and someone else. If i was to Rend the Soul on Seiken to give he the +5 force. Then play something like Encircled Terran or Fall Back and send Seiken home. The battle resolves. Seiken was not at the battle resolution. Then I play Retribution. Would Seiken be a 8 force unit. 2 because of him, 5 from the Rend the Soul, and 1 from the Retribution and can he take a province?
Thank
Fu
Yes, he will.
Effects whose duration is not specified last until end of turn by default. In this case the Rend the Soul bonus will be effective until the end of the turn, and apply during the Retribution.