13/05/2026
Because of the sudden change of ownership of the L5R game and IP back in 2015 (more than 10 years now!) the release of the promo cards for the very last arc was somewhat bumpy. We can be grateful that they were distributed at all (like it happened with the Evil Portents already printed set) , instead of just pulping them, which frankly would have been easier and cheaper for AEG
However, one thing that happened is that there were two versions of the Claiming the Throne alternate art promo! Because of printing times, AEG probably decided to print both outcomes of the Twenty Festival arc metagame. This overall competition was to decide which one of the elder sons of Iweko I were on the run for succeding their mother in the Throne, The eldest one was Seiken, a conservative that didn't like the changes happening in the Empire over the last generation, like the cultural divide between the Rokugan and the Colonies and, the peace with the Shadowlands that had resulteed in the Spider being adopted into the Empire. On the contrary, the progressive Shibatsu embraced the changes a was on really friendly terms with the Spider leadership.
Eventually Seiken won, broke his mother promises to Daigotsu, which blew spectacularly in his face, leading to hell literally breaking loose in the War of the Seals.
In any case, Seiken victory probably meant that the Shibatsu version was supposed to be destroyed but, with the changeover, both versions were released!
This makes me wonder.... Despite the momentous changes involved, probably the outcome would have been the same in general lines, even if the details would be change. What would have happened had Shibatsu come ahead? What would have triggereed the War of the Seals? Maybe the Spider would have betrayed the Empire, instead of the other way around?
Also, were there other promos in this watch that remained unreleased? Probably they weren't for, at this point, AEG had taken the probably wise decision not to create new cards as promos, but making alternate arts of legal cards.
BTW the regular version of some of those cards were not part of the final Ivory/Twenty Festival legality, but were updated reprints of existing cards (some of them last printed several years previous) which made them legal in the Onyx arc. ***EDITED FOR CORRECTION
If you want to check how these ALTERNATE ART cards looked you may check:
https://obakemerchant.com/product-category/juegos/juegos-de-cartas/l5r/a-brothers-destiny-ivory/promos-ivory-onyx-2015/?orderby=sku&wpf_order=title&wpf_fbv=1
