Who is my Lord now?

[khelek]

I was working on a Holy Teacher character that came from the Pro. Warrior Setting and came up with this question:

Honor/Shame: When entering the buddhist monastery do I keep Honor/Shame (or Authority)? I would assume 'Yes'

But if Yes then who counts as the Lord for -san and the underlings for -sama/-domo. The other priests, my last lord... would a Bushi ever really consider respecting a Villager who had become a temple priest, and expect him to place honor debts on him?

Thoughts?

[luke]

Now technically, according to the tenets of the religion, you give up all earthly ties when you join the monastery. That includes family and obligations -- like Honor and Shame.

But we felt that was no fun -- it let sohei off too easy.

So you keep your ties to your old obligations and now you must weigh which is more important to you -- the monastery and the faith or your obligations and your family.

-L

[Bez]

I asked this in a different post, but I'll mention it again.
How would our characters be expected to behave? My character Shinjo-san is a former Bushi turned Sohei, so surely he would know the correct thing to do. If he makes a decision either way, would the other side cast him out? If he remains at the monastery whilst his family are being slaughtered, would they disown him? If he goes off to help his brother will the Abbot run him off monastic lands?
It makes for a great player quandry, but I'd just like to know what would be the best thing to do from the point of view of the character.

[stormsweeper]

That's for you (and your group) to decide!

[Bez]

Whatever happens, there will be never be a correct decision because one of your affiliations/relationships will suffer, and thus have some level of animosity towards your character.
This is obviously a deliberate inclusion int the game to try and bring about this decision making, but it seems a bit of a game-breaker to me. If my character chooses his brother over his monastery, then he may as well make a new character, as he won't be allowed to be a monk anymore. The reverse is also true.
So, wouldn't it be better off to have a monastic character renounce all worldy ties, as was historical? This would allow a monastic campaign to be just that, rather than getting involved in the provincial warrior setting.

(This isn't a gripe, just a point of contention that genuinely confuses me.)

[luke]

Bez,

As Stormie pointed out, you're talking about game play. We want you to make those decisions in the game.