Journey's End Keep

Legend of the Five Rings card from Torn Asunder

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

7

Gold Production

5

Starting Family Honor

8

Clan

Unaligned

Keywords

Experienced, Imperial

Card Text

"Imperial" is a Clan Alignment, and it is your Clan Alignment. If no other player has an Imperial Stronghold, you begin the game with the Imperial Favor. When this Stronghold produces Gold, you may not Recruit Personalities until the phase ends or until after you have spent 5 total Gold for non-Recruit costs or payments. You may not buy Personalities with Clan discount if Imperial is their only Clan Alignment (this trait only has effect when using the Clan Discount optional rule).

Legality

Age of Conquest (Emperor)

Deck

Pre-Game

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: Who gets the favor?
  From what I'm reading, both of them will. - JEKxp goes first to take the favor (active player resolving trait); - however, TPoOU's trait will then kick in, - leaving the TA player controlling the favor after step B http://rules.alderac.com/cr_for_20f/#start-of-game
  Thanks in advance!
  **** copied below their verbatim trait in the Oracle
  The Palace of Otosan Uchi Text If you are the only Toturi's Army player, you begin the game with control of the Imperial Favor. Your Imperial cards in and out of play have -2 Gold Cost.
  Journey's End Keep Text "Imperial" is a Clan Alignment, and it is your Clan Alignment. If no other player has an Imperial Stronghold, you begin the game with the Imperial Favor. This card does not produce Gold when paying for Personalities. You may not buy Personalities with Clan discount if Imperial is their only Clan Alignment (this trait only has effect when using the Clan Discount optional rule).
  A: Only one player can start with the Imperial Favor, since there is only one. It's like the first opportunity to take a Battle action in a battle; you can't both have it. And in this case, the player who's going first (the Journey's End Keep player if there aren't any other effects going on to change that) gets to decide who starts with the Favor.
  The reason is that both Strongholds' "you start with the Favor" traits try to happen at the same time, when the game begins. When there's a timing conflict of this nature, the active player (who would be the starting player in this case) decides the order in which they happen. So, whoever's trait happens last, as determined by the active (starting) player, would be the one to get it. Brook Cunningham, "The Palace of Otosan Uchi vs Journey's End Keep Exp", 28 Aug 2015
• Q: Just a quick doublecheck...since JEK xp states that Imperial is your clan alignment, that means your opponent would have to pay, for instance, 6 gold for a Demiyah in that game, as would be considered an aligned personality not of your clan, correct?
  A: Yes, that is correct. Jon Palmer, "Re: Journey's End Keep XP", 9 Jul 2015
• Q: So, there's an ongoing argument in several threads on FB about the interaction of Ring of Earth with Journey's End Keep or the Shadow's Lair.
  Will the Ring of Earth stop movement from JEK or TSL?
  (My personal belief - after looking over the comprehensive rules - is that it will stop the movement. My rationale:
  From the CR: Can not, cannot: These words mean that an effect is prevented (see p. 38). [<---should this be 58?]
  From the CR: Negate: A word used to indicate a prevention effect (p. 58). “Negate an action” means to prevent all the action’s effects and targeting, from the time the negation is applied.
  From the CR: Prevention: A prevention effect is one that uses language such as “negate,” “cannot,” “does not,” or “will not”. While a prevention effect lasts, it makes another effect or type of effect fail to happen whenever it would occur. When an ongoing type of effect is prevented (for example, “Negate all Force bonuses on him”), this only suppresses existing effects for as long as the prevention lasts; it does not prevent new ones from applying. When an instant type of effect is prevented (for example, “Negate his destruction”) this prevents new effects of that type for as long as the negation effect lasts.
  JEK and TSL specifically say that the actions effects won't be NEGATED. Negation is a type of prevention, but according to the CR, not all prevention effects are negation [some of them are indicated by cannot/does not/will not instead]. RoE prevents the effects without negating them.
  I could be wrong, but I want to make sure.)
  A: Per the CR entry on Prevention, all forms of Prevention are interchangeable. Therefore Journey's End Keep's "will not be negated" stops Ring of Earth's "cannot". Jon Palmer, "Ring of Earth and Old SH", 5 Jan 2015
• Q: Iweko Seiken and Shibatsu both have the trait:
  "Will not gain a clan alignment"
  If I'm playing Journey's End Keep XP, are they my clan alignment, since it's printed on them and they aren't "gaining" it?
  A: Correct. Brook Cunningham, "Iweko Seiken/Shibatsu and Journey's End Keep XP", 13 Feb 2014
• Q: Hi Rules Team,
  Does "Imperial" count as a clan alignment if you are not playing out of Journey's End Keep, Experienced? If not, does it count as a clan alignment if you are playing against someone who *is* playing out of that stronghold?
  I know that Ronin and Unaligned don't count, but I haven't been able to pin down this one anywhere.
  Thanks!
  Relevant card text:
  A: "Imperial" is a Clan alignment only in games where at least one player is playing Journey's End Keep experienced.
  See Clan alignment, in particular: Other Clan alignments given by effects only exist in games where those effects apply. Example 1: The Forgotten Temple is an unaligned Stronghold and its player has no Clan alignment. Example 2: An unaligned Stronghold gives the Panda Clan alignment to its player. This makes “Panda Clan” a Clan alignment in games where this stronghold is in play, but it is not a Clan alignment in other games. Alex Jones, "Imperial as a Clan Alignment", 7 Mar 2013
• Q: [obh] If I'm playing out of Journey's End Keep XP, and I have three Imperial Personalities who also have separate clan alignments (A scorpion, lion, and crane walk into a bar...), does Mutual Support give a force bonus? My assumption is yes, given that they still have different clan alignments, even though the share the Imperial alignment.
  A: Correct. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 24 Mar 2026
• Q: Another question with Journey's end keep and kage sensei. My kolat personalities have my clan aligment, that means I bring kolat personalities for 2 less gold because they would have both kolat and imperial?
  And can someone explain this part to me: When this Stronghold produces Gold, you may not Recruit Personalities until the phase ends or until after you have spent 5 total Gold for non-Recruit costs or payments
  If I am bowing the stronghold to buy, can I bring a personality first, before the other part activates? or I have to always spend 5 gold before I can bring personalities? If I need to spend the money first, can I bow the stronghold to produce 5 even if I am buying something that is worth only 2 for example?
  A: 1. No. "Kolat" is not a Clan Alignment. They would have to have something else that is a legal Clan Alignment for you to get the Discount for them also having "Imperial", per the Stronghold text.
  2+. This box was printed before Gold pooling in Ivory, but effectively, it is saying the 5 Gold it produces cannot be spent on Personalities, so it would be dumb to bow it when paying for a guy, because none of the Gold can go toward buying a guy. That's it. I worded it really cumbersomely in the Oracle text; in hindsight, I probably should have just said, "this Stronghold will only pay for non-Personality cards" or something? It's sort of the inverse of Gold that will only pay for a specific single card, so it was a diffcult thing to wrap one's head around, especially when Gold Pooling was a new thing at the time I was doing most Oracle texts. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 22 Jan 2025