For the Empire

Legend of the Five Rings card from Diamond Edition, Gold Edition, Time of the Void, Training Grounds, Celestial Edition 15th Anniversary, Wrath of the Emperor

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Card Text

Limited: Target a Samurai Personality and a Shadowlands Personality, one of which is your unbowed performer: Your Personality duels the other. If the winner is a Shadowlands Samurai, his controller chooses only one of the two following conditional effects to apply to him. If the Samurai wins, permanently give him +1PH and his controller gains 3 Honor. If the Shadowlands Personality wins, permanently give him +1F/+1C. Destroy the duel's loser.

Focus Value

3

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold), Rain of Blood (Diamond)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "For the Empire 0G 3FV Limited: One of your Samurai issues an unrefusable challenge to a Shadowlands Personality, or one of your Shadowlands Personalities issues an unrefusable challenge to a Samurai. If the Samurai wins he permanently gains +1 Personal Honor and his controller gains 3 Honor, and if the Shadowlands Personality wins he permanently gains +1F/+1C." [MRP, Diamond Edition, 27 October 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 18
• A Shadowlands samurai may challenge either a samurai or a Shadowlands Personality, with the appropriate results. If the challenged Personality also has both traits, you decide who gets which bonus upon winning when you play the card. Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 18
• Erratum: For the Empire: The +1 Personal Honor bonus if the Samurai wins the duel is permanent. [errata] Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, May 21, 2003, p. 14

Rules Q&A

• Q: Player A attempts to play For the Empire on player B's Samurai. Player B uses Moto Gurban to cancel it. Player A plays Keen eye and negates Moto Gurban reaction..Or does it?
  A: Keen Eye can't be played against Gurban's ability. Gurban's ability gets played when the player using For the Empire gets to the targeting step of playing the Action. He picks a legal victim for the Action, then Gurban Cancels it. No Challenge or Duel ever happens. There is no timing window for Keen Eye, which must be played during a Challenge or Duel. Martin Lund, "Rules for 27 August 2004", 31 Aug 2004
• Q: Let's say I have a Blade of Fury on a samurai. He loses to a For the Empire. The samurai has 2 personal honor. I also have a Shrine to Jurojin in play unbowed.
  A: On page 87 of the Diamond Edition Rulebook, it states that if a card is destroyed or removed from the game, everything attached to it at that time will suffer the same fate. That means the destruction with be simultaneous.
  Blade of Fury says, "This Personality may not be restored to Honor while Blade of Fury is attached. Blade of Fury may not be moved. After this, Personality is destroyed while in a battle or duel, his controller draws a card and gains 2 Honor."
  Shrine of Jurojin says, "Bow Shrine to Jurojin before a bowed or unbowed Personality dies dishonorably to restore that Personality to honor first. If the Personality is yours, gain 2 Honor."
  Jurojin happens BEFORE the destruction of any cards. Its re-honoring effect fails due to Blade of Fury. You gain 2 Honor, though. You'd normally restore your Personality to honor instead, but you can't do that due to the Blade so the whole mechanism fails. The honor gain happens normally.
  Then the Personality and his attached cards are destroyed. You lose 2 Honor from your Personality dying Dishonorably.
  After that, the effect from Blade of Fury triggers. You gain 2 Honor and draw a card. Your Personality wasn't involved in that gain (not targeted or anything) so the gain happens normally. Martin Lund, "Rules for 8 June 2004", 10 Jun 2004
• Q: My opponent has already revealed/resolved For the Empire--I've sent him home 2x on previous turns with the Favor (which had raised the honor win requirement-hwr-to 46). Now, my Unexpected Strike reveals/resolves...future uses of the Favor won't increase the hwr any further, but Is the hwr still 46? Or does it 'reset' to 40?
  A: Back to 40. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 29 September 2003", 30 Sep 2003
• Q: I challenge Yokubo with For the Empire. He negates the challenge. Can I cancel this with Keen Eye?
  A: Yes. Yokubo's Reaction happens after targeting, when effects are being resolved. At that point, the action has become a challenge, and Keen Eye is legal to play. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for July 22nd, 2003", 22 Jul 2003
• Q: will voitagi gain +1/+1 and +1 ph if he wins a duel vs. a shadowlands personality. [using For the Empire]
  A: Yep. Says so in the Rules Archive (http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/rulings/). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 20 April 2003", 20 Apr 2003
• Q: A player asked me what would be the result of the following...
  Bob is running Kyuden Doji. He attaches Armor of Shadows to Crane Bobby. He then plays For The Empire on Bobby and Fred's samurai. As a reaction, Bob bows non-shadowlands samurai Bobbi to take Bobby's place. Bobbi wins (so Fred's samurai dies). So...
  a) Bobby gains +1/+1 permanently. OR b) Bobbi gains +1 personal honor and Bob gets 3 honor. OR c) No other benefit is gained. OR d) Leon's not leaving so we're going to create a new list and not tell him where it is.
  A: c. Only if the winner of the duel is one of the Personalities originally targeted are the appropriate rewards gained.
  I'm not impressed, Leon. As has been pointed out, this was asked and answered a month ago. Or are you testing to see if you can get a different answer? Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 April 2003", 9 Apr 2003
• Q: Hi there, just a quick question for Jeff.
  I am playing out of Kyuden Doji and I have a Voitagi and another samurai in play. I use For the Empire to initiate a duel between my Voitagi and my opponents samurai.
  If I replace Voitagi with my non-shadowlands samurai, which of the winning benefits go I gain??
  a) My non-shadowlands samurai won the duel therefore I gain 3 honor and +1 ph.
  or b) Voitagi initiated the duel therefore I get +1f +1c.
  A: c) Neither the Shadowlands Personality nor the Samurai originally targeted won the duel, so there is no reward. The loser still dies. Jeff Alexander, "post for 7 March 2003", 8 Mar 2003
• Q: 1) If the SLH player uses For the Empire and wins the duel, can I winds truth away the 3 honor gain?
  Assuming they had the Samurai and they challenged a Shadowlands Personality (because otherwise there is no honor gain to begin with), no. The gain anyone else would get does not exist for them, not even for a moment.
  2) Against the SLH with Suspicions in play and Dojo Nagori, can I increase the honor loss with Nagori and gain the 1 honor for doing so?
  There is no loss for them, so there is nothing for Nagori to react to.
  Jeff, I don't mean to be rude, but doesn't this answer directly contradict what you're saying in part 1 above? In the above answer, you're saying that he CAN Wind's Truth the honor gain from a Shadowlands player's For The Empire, provided the SL player made the challenge with a samurai.
  A: Read what I said again. Assuming the Shadowlands player is the one who controlled the Samurai, and he challenged someone else's Shadowlands Personality with that Samurai (and you have to assume that because For the Empire only produces Honor when the challenge is done in that direction, so challenging the other way makes the whole question moot), the gain that any other player would get does not exist for the Shadowlands player. Jeff Alexander, "post for 4 June 2002", 5 Jun 2002
• Q: I don't usually play honor stealing decks, so I have a couple questions about them.
  When playing against a shadowlands deck what happens in the following?
  1) If the SLH player uses For the Empire and wins the duel, can I winds truth away the 3 honor gain?
  A: Assuming they had the Samurai and they challenged a Shadowlands Personality (because otherwise there is no honor gain to begin with), no. The gain anyone else would get does not exist for them, not even for a moment. Jeff Alexander, "post for 3 June 2002", 4 Jun 2002
• Q: If the Samurai wins the duel For The Empire, how long does his bonus to Personal Honor last?
  A: D'oh! The bonus is permanent. This is ERRATA. Jeff Alexander, "post for 6 May 2002", 7 May 2002
• Q: Can a Veteran Samurai be targeted with For The Empire? Can a Veteran Samurai say "Enough Talk!"?
  A: No and no. Followers are not legal targets for challenges (giving or receiving) or moving into duels. Dueling can only happen between Personalities without explicit card text otherwise. Jeff Alexander, "post for 8 April 2002", 9 Apr 2002
• Q: It is not. Changes to printed numbers need to be explicitly worded as such. Most bonuses do not change the printed value.
  Permanent changes to Personal Honor do change the printed value, correct? (Last Gift, a Samurai's win from For the Empire, etc)
  A: Not correct. A permanent change is just that: permanent. In other words, it lasts for the rest of the game. How long a change lasts has nothing to do with whether it applies to printed or current value. Jeff Alexander, "post for 20 February 2002", 21 Feb 2002
• Q: Just a quick question Does the loser of the duel started by For the Empire die
  A: Yes. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 18 September 2001", 19 Sep 2001
• Q: [OBH] PRIMARILY
  Hello. If I have a shadowlands Samurai and I play "for the empire" can I..
  1. Target either a shadowlands or samurai personality? 2. If I win can I choose to either gain 1 personal honor and 3 honor or 1+f/+1c?
  I say OBH primarily because that's what I care about the most, but to prevent having to ask about other sets, is there a reason why this would not be universal for every legality for this card?
  Thank you!
  A: 1+2. Yes. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 17 Jul 2026