The House of Tao

Legend of the Five Rings card from Hidden Emperor 3, Promotional–Jade, Siege of Sleeping Mountain

Card Type

Stronghold

Province Strength

5

Gold Production

3

Starting Family Honor

4

Clan

Brotherhood of Shinsei

Card Text

After all players reveal Strongholds, you may search your Fate deck for a Ring and put it into play.
After you put a Shadowlands card into play, remove all your Rings from the game.

Legality

Hidden Emperor (Jade)

Deck

Pre-Game

Notes

There were two versions of the Hidden Emperor 3 printing of this card. One had a Dynasty back and was a Fixed card in the starter deck, one had a Fate back and was a Rare in the booster packs.

Printings

Rulings

• Causes a Dark Ring put into play to remove itself from the game. [JA, 21 October 2002] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 147
• Is distinct from the Dragon stronghold of the same name. [JA, 13 August 2003] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 147
• Ring is played before Fate hands are drawn (i.e., there is no way to play Introspection). [Stronghold text] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 147
• The House of Tao: In game formats where the earlier version of this Stronghold is legal, either version may be played verbatim. The original version retains its original statistics and its Monk affiliation. Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, April 26, 2004, p. 16
• Cards referring to the Brotherhood of Shinsei also apply to it. [DW, email, 3/99] Accumulated Rulings, February 8, 2000, p. 67
• Q: With the House of Tao, can I wait until I've drawn my starting hand before finding and playing a Ring? A: No. You must search for and play your Ring "after all players reveal Strongholds," and in L5R, "after" and "before" mean "immediately after/before". Legend of the Five Rings FAQ, April 26, 2004, p. 10
• Focus on... the Elemental Rings: You must have all five Rings in play together to achieve an Elemental Victory. Merely playing all five at some time during the game is insufficient. (The rulebook presents several slightly conflicting accounts of this rule.) How a Ring got into play is immaterial. Effects which put a Ring into play without technically "playing" it, such as the Finding the Harmony kiho and House of Tao stronghold, are perfectly valid. The Rings are no longer Action Cards, as per p. 11 of the Ambition's Debt rulebook. They are their own card type. Furthermore, as official Errata, playing and using them are also no longer Reactions (although they are no different timing-wise). The Imperial Herald, Issue 13, p. 35

Rules Q&A

• Q: If I play feeding on flesh and it causes one of my personalities to gain the shadowlands trait, does this get around the House of Tao clause, since I did not bring the shadowlands personality into play?
  A: Yes. Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 2 November 2003", 2 Nov 2003
• Q: I thought AEG had said that the Dark Rings do not count as rings for the purpose of the House of Tao.
  A: Incorrect. The Dark Rings are specifically mentioned in House of Tao rulings in the Archive.
  Zen Faulkes! * Crab Clan Scholar * Unaligned Dispenser of Righteous Ruling Justice Zen Faulkes, "Rules for 2 November 2003", 2 Nov 2003
• Q: Can the House of Tao start with a Dark Ring in play or does the ring you start with count as being put into play and then discarded by the stronghold? If it does count as being put into play can a player react to it being put into play with cards like A Vision of Truth or Distraction of the Flesh.
  A: The Dark Ring comes into play, and then gets discarded by the Stronghold.
  Theoretically, there could someday be Reactions printed that would be available to use when the Ring enters/leaves play (either on Strongholds or Winds, because those are revealed at the same time), but right now, I don't think there's anything available to be used in that Reaction slot. Vaughn Derderian, "Post for June 19, 2003", 19 Jun 2003
• Q: How do the dark rings interact with the House of Tao?
  It's immediately discarded.
  A: I highly doubt I'd have said it enters play when the first turn begins -- that isn't when it's selected. Jeff Alexander, "post for 2 May 2003", 3 May 2003
• Q: First question: House of Tao and The House of TaoAre the two strongholds mentioned above different, or is the first one just a MRP of the second one? Both have the same text (irrelevant for this question) but are from two separate factions (Dragon and Brotherhood), and have different stats. If House of Tao is a MRP of The House of Tao, can i play it as a Brotherhood alingned faction, or is it just a Dragon stronghold now and i can't play my monk deck out of it?
  A: Legacy Pregame Rules, Most Recent Printings: "Despite their similarities, the differently-titled "The House of Tao" (Brotherhood of Shinsei Stronghold, Hidden Emperor 3) is distinct from "House of Tao" (Dragon Clan Stronghold, Diamond Edition)." Brook Cunningham, "House of Tao, Crushing Attack, and Broken Lines", 18 Feb 2011
• Q: House of Tao After Strongholds, Sensei, and Winds are revealed, search your an Elemental Ring and put it into play. If you put a Shadowlands card into play, remove all of your Elemental Rings from the game.
  Dark Ring of Air Shadowlands Lose 5 Honor.This card does not count towards an Enlightenment Victory. Destroy this card if a Ring of Air enters play.Play this card after you destroy another player's Shugenja or Monk with an action.Elemental Benefit: Once per turn, cancel a Spell or Kiho targeting you or your cards.
  My question is: when does the second sentence begin to trigger? Does it happen as soon as you are playing the first Ring off the Stronghold, even though no one has begun their turns yet and play has not started?
  More directly: If I play the Dark Ring of Air with the House of Tao's effect, will it cause itself to be discarded?
  [Mod edit: Thread title. -ZF]
  A: The House of Tao's second trait is active as soon as the stronghold is revealed: if you put a Dark Ring into play with the first trait it is immediately removed by the second.
  The rulings here may be of use: http://www.legendofthefiverings.com/rul ... hold_boxes Alex Jones, "The House of Tao and Dark Rings", 21 Apr 2008
• Q: [OBH] with the House of Tao (dragon SH) if one of your personalities becomes shadowlands for any card effect, you loose the ring?
  A: No. The card has to have Shadowlands when you put it into play. Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 5 Dec 2025