Ashigaru

From MoongatesWiki

Role

The ashigaru are the first part of the dokoro ranks, these men and women are often selected from the village and where not born into the rights of samurai. The ashigaru role in the dokoro is to form a main defence or sometimes a rear defence attacking the enemy with arrow fire or spears. Normally these men are paid very low wage and are given very weak armour and weapons as there status is nothing of that compared to a samurai. When not fighting in battles these men and women are often made to work hard by farming the feilds and maintaining the castles tideness. The ashigaru are often brushed away from the trainings of a samurai as it wouldnt be wise to train a low life villager the arts of your clans school.

Short story

Takeda and Yoshi had always admired the samurai of their clan for the countless stories of victory, honour and wealth. They each longed to be the men in the stories fighting off rival clans and serving their lord with honour. At the age of seventeen they both signed up to join the dokoro of Honzu Kotowa, Daimyo of the Kotodama. Before they where deemed as being a part of the dokoro as a true warrior they had to serve in the ranks of Ashigaru. It is here where they worked under the hot summers sun harvesting the crop and learning the basics of battle. They where the men who would hurry to the samurai once orderd, carry the injured, stand in the front lines of battle and become a light disposable army.