Return to the Heavens

Legend of the Five Rings card from Celestial Edition, Honor's Veil

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, gain two Provinces, which permanently do not hold Dynasty cards, to the left of your leftmost Province. Then, destroy the Province this Event resolved from.

Legality

Destroyer War (Celestial), Race for the Throne (Samurai)

Deck

Dynasty

Printings

Rulings

• Erratum: Reads, "Return to the Heavens Gain two provinces, which permanently do not hold Dynasty cards, to the left of your leftmost province. Then, destroy the province this Event resolved from." [MRP, Celestial Edition, 29 June 2009] Comprehensive Rules, Celestial Edition, with specific card rulings, final version, February 2012, p. 150

Rules Q&A

• Q: One -- I think last -- followup on this:
  Just to confirm, am I correct that both Last Line of Defense and Strengthening Protection produce ongoing effects of this nature?
  A: Both specify durations, so are ongoing (http://rules.l5r.com/CE_Effects#Ongoing_effects). Zen Faulkes, "Last Line of Defense, Return to the Heavens, et al.", 21 May 2011
• Q: So I saw this and thought I'll add my two cents.
  The reason the indicated cards don't affect provinces created after their resolution is because their card text uses "each" instead of the "all" wording necessary to apply to provinces created later. Per the rule quoted by the original poster. "Each of your X" is a different type of ongoing effect from "all of your X".
  Could be totally wrong there but, each =/= all seems to be the most straight forward answer to me.
  A: I'm not finding a clear distinction in the rules between "each" and "all". I'm very reluctant to suggest a distinction, because it would affect so many cards. Zen Faulkes, "Last Line of Defense, Return to the Heavens, et al.", 16 May 2011
• Q: To be clear, this doesn't work on your own resolution of Return to the Heavens due to the wording on Shrine of the Sun, right?
  A: Right. Zen Faulkes, "Sun of the Sun + Return to the Heavens", 10 Mar 2008
• Q: re: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=66255
  Shrine of the Sun negates ongoing effects of an Event. Return to the Heavens has one Instantaneous effect and one Ongoing effect (unless I misread how Ongoing is defined): Instantaneous: Create two provinces. Ongoing: These two provinces never hold Dynasty cards.
  Is this correct?
  A: Two instant effects (you forgot Province destruction) but otherwise, yes, that's how it looks. Zen Faulkes, "Sun of the Sun + Return to the Heavens", 7 Mar 2008
• Q: Regarding http://www.alderac.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=66255:
  Return to the Heavens also makes the two created provinces "permanently" not able to hold Dynasty cards. Is this not a separate, ongoing effect? It does not "involve a change in the game state that is officially recorded by changing the position, orientation, or count of a physical game element." Also, it has a duration. This would would lead me to believe that this aspect of Return to the Heavens is ongoing, not instantaneous, and can, therefore, be negated by Shrine of the Sun.
  A: My initial thinking was that it was just a feature of the created Provinces. But there is that word "permanently" in there.
  So yes, Shrine of the Sun would allow those Provinces to be filled immediately (http://rules.l5r.com/Areas_of_the_game# ... of_play.29). Zen Faulkes, "Sun of the Sun + Return to the Heavens", 7 Mar 2008
• Q: What are the "effects" created by Return to the Heavens?
  A: 1. "Gain two provinces... to the left of your leftmost province."
  2. "(D)estroy the province this Event resolved from." Zen Faulkes, "Sun of the Sun + Return to the Heavens", 7 Mar 2008
• Q: What effect would the Shrine of the Sun have on the Event(?)
  A: Not a lot.
  Shrine of the Sun negates "ongoing" effects (card text). Creating something isn't ongoing; it's instantaneous (http://rules.l5r.com/Effects#Duration_of_effects). Zen Faulkes, "Sun of the Sun + Return to the Heavens", 7 Mar 2008