Gift of Fealty

Legend of the Five Rings card from Scorpion Clan Coup 2

Card Type

Strategy

Gold Cost

0

Keywords

Political

Card Text

Limited: Target your Personality and another player: Give control of the former to the latter.

Focus Value

2

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial)

Deck

Fate

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: There's a rulebook definition (Spirit Wars rulebook, p. 49) more recent than this FAQ entry. To paraphrase, a card performs an action if either the action is printed on that card or the card bows as a cost of the action.
  Gift of Fealty does not fit either of these cases. It is not performed by the Personality. Enough Talk! cannot be played.
  Just so you know my feelings on the matter, as well as my reasoning: Darn!
  I think your reasoning is dangerous. "He's mine!" is performed by the personality who's being replaced in the duel.
  A: No it's not. The bowing is not a cost. Jeff Alexander, "replies to the 6 June digest", 10 Jun 2001
• Q: Then there's a whole slew of Battle Actions: a Charge is _surely_ performed :-) The rulebook talks about changes to personalities, but only as costs.
  This generally isn't a serious problem - I'm not sure I would agree that Gift of Fealty is performed by the targetted personality, anyway, I just want a way to counter Pekkle bombs - but it does become important with Touching the Soul.
  Jeff, you might want to reread what you wrote about this for Zen's Card of the Week. That was in 1998, and you may be standing by the wording in the Spirit Wars rulebook, in which case Zen needs to add some notes to the entry for it!
  A: The definition of "performed" has always been a sticky issue.
  Ask yourself this: is Meditation performed by the target Personality? What about Uncertainty? Most people who answer quickly would say "yes" and "no". (I know you'd say "yes" to Meditation because of your attitute towards Charge.)
  Consider, however, that they're both actions that can target any Personality belonging to any player. (One is Open and one is Limited, but why should that matter?) There isn't enough mechanical difference between these two cards to support treating one as performed and the other as not. The rulings are inconsistant when compared back to back.
  The scope of this problem renders individual intent-based rulings infeasible. The term has been used for a long, long time without a formal definition. Between having too many cards on which to issue specific rulings and the unacceptable subjectivity of the FAQ's guideline ("it's performed unless it does something bad"), the only solution was settling on an objective, easily- defined-and-remembered rule with the full knowledge that it wouldn't apply seamlessly. Jeff Alexander, "replies to the 6 June digest", 10 Jun 2001
• Q: Can I "Enough Talk!" a Gift of Fealty?
  Guess so. Had to go way back to the old FAQ for this, but "...generally any targetted card that's not purely detrimental is considered performed."
  A: There's a rulebook definition (Spirit Wars rulebook, p. 49) more recent than this FAQ entry. To paraphrase, a card performs an action if either the action is printed on that card or the card bows as a cost of the action.
  Gift of Fealty does not fit either of these cases. It is not performed by the Personality. Enough Talk! cannot be played. Jeff Alexander, "replies to 28 May 2001", 3 Jun 2001
• Q: ...that you can sneak into the daily list of 'em next time you get around to it.
  Otomo Dsichi and Gift of Fealty. Tech?
  A: Tech. Just like Pekkle, the penalty will hit Dsichi's controller when he gets kacked.
  -and- Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for December 27th", 27 Dec 2000
• Q: For instance, if I give Pekkle to my opponent with Gift of Fealty and kill her, will my opponent get the honor hit?
  A: Yup. Vaughn Derderian, "Rules for December 18th", 18 Dec 2000
• Q: Nice. What if I use Gift of Fealty on a Pekkle no Oni and give it to the Ninja player? If it gets killed do they get the honor loss
  A: (Replying to a player: "This applies to Imperial/ Jade ruling also? Forgot to tag the format in the question since it was a follow-up") Yes. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 30 Sep 2025