Retirement

Legend of the Five Rings card from Gold Edition, Anvil of Despair

Card Type

Event

Keywords

Unique

Card Text

After you reveal cards in your Provinces at the start of your turn, if this Event is face-up in one of them, the time has come to retire to a monastic life; permanently give the Human Personality or Personalities with the highest Chi -4F/+2C and Monk. Permanently remove from them the Samurai and Shugenja keywords, if any. Finally, bow them.

Legality

Clan Wars (Imperial), Four Winds (Gold)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rules Q&A

• Q: If I have a shugenja with a spell attached, who later Retires, can I still cast the spell?
  A: No. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 May 2003", 3 May 2003
• Q: Now the rules questions that came up:
  1) Retirement goes off and hits the 2F Ijiasu giving him a -4F permanently to put his force at 0. If he tacticians a 4 focus, does his force become 4 or 2? In other words, as the penalty is permanent, does he remember he's really at -2 for total force purposes?
  A: I could swear I've already answered this at least twice.
  Retirement gives a permanent -4F penalty. That gets added in with all other bonuses and penalties to produce a final result. You don't limit yourself to a minimum of 0 until after all your other math is done. This limit does not lessen penalties that would seem to make a Personality's Force drop below 0.
  A Retired Ijiasu who Tacticians for 4 has a total Force of 2. Jeff Alexander, "post for 10 June 2002", 11 Jun 2002
• Q: Yasuki Hachi has the Imperial Standard attached, and then gets hit with Retirement. He will forever have 0(-1) Force until he is given a permanent raise to his force-is this right?
  A: It doesn't have to be permanent. For example, a Charge will make him 1F (2 + 1 - 4 + 2) until the end of the turn, then it's back to 0F(-1). Jeff Alexander, "post for 18 November 2001", 19 Nov 2001
• Q: What happens to a spell attached to a Shugenja that gets affected by Retirement? Does it get destroyed when the Shugenja loses that trait or does that not matter?
  Likewise, what about items that state "You may only attach this to a Shugenja/Samurai"? i.e. Mantle of the Jade Champion...
  A: General rule: once attached, cards do not get destroyed if their original attachment restrictions stop being met. In the case of Spells, losing the Shugenja trait will prevent the Personality from casting them, though. Jeff Alexander, "post for 29 October 2001", 30 Oct 2001
• Q: What happens to a spell attached to a Shugenja that gets affected by Retirement?
  A: Nothing. A Perfect Cut rulebook, pg. 25 (in bold text, no less!). Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 29 October 2001", 30 Oct 2001
• Q: Do either of the following cards target:
  Imperial Levying Retirement
  Thanks!
  A: No.
  http://rules.l5r.com/Older_Cards#Abilities_and_actions_3:
  "For cards printed prior to DAWN OF THE EMPIRE: Abilities and actions ... An action targets whenever it requires a choice to be made of what card it affects, or what card pays the non-gold costs of the action."
  Those Events don't have actions, first of all. And, even if we consider that the above rule should be broader and apply to all effects rather than just actions, you have no choice as to what the Events affect; it's always the Personalities with the highest Force or Chi (respectively). Brook Cunningham, "(Legacy) Targeting", 16 Dec 2008