Blackmail

Card Type: Strategy
Gold Cost: 8
Card Text: After this card is discarded from the effects of the action its ability granted: Destroy the province its ability targeted and lose 10 Honor.
After this card leaves play: Give control of the Holding its ability targeted to its owner.
Limited, : Put this card into play in your home and target another player's province and one of that player's Holdings: Take control of the Holding. Until the game ends or until the province is destroyed, that player has the ability, "Open: Once per game: Discard from play the card that granted this ability."
Focus Value: 4
Legality: Clan Wars (Imperial)
Deck: Fate

Printings

Erratum: Reads, "Blackmail 8G 4FV Limited: Choose a Province and a holding of another player. Take control of that holding while Blackmail is in play. As an Open Action, the affected player may reveal the Blackmail, destroying it and the target Province. Also, the holding is returned, and you lose 10 Honor. If the Province is destroyed, Blackmail cannot be revealed." [MRP, Obsidian Edition] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 8
Revealing this card is an action taken by its original target, but the loss is caused by the Blackmail itself. [Card text] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 8
Thus, the blackmailer can avoid the loss with Defend Your Honor, and the revealer can double it with Court Jester. [DW, 31 October 1996] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 8
If you steal a Fortification, it stays attached to its original owner's Province, but you control its abilities. [Reversal, RD, email, 5/8/97] Rules Archive, August 18, 2007, p. 8
Clarified: this is a Limited action. Text Change & Errata List, February 15, 2000, p. 2
Accumulated Rulings Accumulated Rulings, April 22, 1998, p. 10
If, during battle, the Defender reveals a Blackmail on the current Province and destroys it, the battle continues normally. The only difference is that the Province cannot be destroyed during resolution (obviously). [DW, l5rinfo, 7/10/97] Accumulated Rulings, April 22, 1998, p. 10
Erratum: It's a Limited Action, but doesn't say so on the card. The Imperial Herald, Vol. 1, Issue 1, p. 11

Q: Considering a situation where player A have -16 family honor and player B have only one province, what would happen if player A plays a Blackmail and player B reveal it? Who loses first: A for dishonor or B for provinces?
A: Effects occur in order written. Province first, honor loss later. Zen Faulkes, "Blackmail and Desperate Measures", 25 Mar 2009
Q: [jade] Are retainers a type of holding? Meaning, can the card Blackmail target oracle of fire? Or only things like jade works and such?
A: Holdings are a card type that may or may not have the "Retainer" keyword. Having it does not make them not still be Holdings, just like Personalities are a card type that may or may not have the "Samurai" (or any number of other) keyword(s). Brook Cunningham, "Sun and Moon #rules-questions", 20 Apr 2026