Legend of the Five Rings/WMG

Nearly every major event in the history of the Rokugan between the two Days of Thunder was manipulated by Togashi from behind the scenes
Prior to the Clan War, the most notable thing about Dragon Clan was that they did almost nothing and seemed content to let the history of the Empire pass them by. When they did get proactive, it was a sign that something huge was about to happen. Perhaps this is not a accident. Perhaps the Togashi did not pass into Nigen-do when his siblings did because he knew that Fu Leng would come back and that the odds of the Empire surviving round two were not good unless history unfolded in a very specific way.

Thus, Togashi spend the next One Thousand years running an elaborate Xanatos Roulette, manipulating history so that the vents of the Clan war play themselves out. Then, at the critical time, the descendants of Shinsei and the Original Thunders would stand together against the Fu Leng, and eleven of the twelve Black Scrolls would be opened. All the was necessary to finish the plan was for Hitomi to take out his heart and open the final scroll to make Fu Leng mortal.

One thousand years of history led up to that one moment.

Exactly as Planned.


 * While that sounds utterly awesome (and it's a shame to spoil it), it's worth noting that it's explicitly stated that Togashi could see the future - but NOT his place in it. This is the justification for why the Dragon spent a thousand years doing very little... Togashi was never sure if any action he took would make things better, or worse. The only major events he was willing to interfere with were ones in which he was nearly positive that the Empire would suffer far, far more if he didn't act than if he did - and even then, he was never absolutely sure. He did, however, know that he was going to die on the Second Day of Thunder - and deliberately set his own death in motion when he hid the Twelfth Black Scroll.
 * That's not mutually exclusive with this WMG. Togashi is being sensible. Acting on visions of the future risks unleashing the Butterfly of Doom. If you don't know exactly what you are supposed to be doing, and if the prophetic timeline is already going your way, then the safest thing to do is usually nothing; he's presumably acting when he knows someone needs to do something and no one else has started doing it. The less you act on your vision of the future, the less time you need to spend checking the revisions.
 * To a degree this is fact. It's well known that Togashi took steps to ensure that some people lived, like Hida Yakamo, even when they might have otherwise died because of how important they were to the future. He also took steps some time ago to gain custody of one of the Black Scrolls, something he really wouldn't have had. For quite some time he knew what was going to have happen and so he sat back, let the Empire do its thing and then just waited. But really Togashi had no need to manipulate anything. History would unveil as it had to - the scrolls would slowly be opened, the power of the Shadowlands would spread and corrupt and the Prophecies of Uikku would come to pass. As long as Togashi only interfered in regards to ensuring that the proper future happened, by keeping the people whom he knew to be the Seven Thunders alive, then the Second Day of Thunder could be a success.

Hidden Emperor was originally intended to have a more Straightforward plot
The original plan, more or less, was to have Hitomi act as the Big Bad and kidnap Toturi as part of a plan to gain power for herself and send the entire empire crashing down. However, a combination of the action of the Honorable Dragon Movement and Executive Meddling in the face of declining sales led to the Eldritch Abomination ninja, moon killing Wall Banger-laden mess we have today.
 * This is confirmed. The original writer left abruptly after proposing the opening gambits of Hidden Emperor, leaving his understudy to run things.
 * It's partly confirmed. The Eldritch Abomination and moon angles were always part of the plan, the switch is that Hitomi opposed it instead of joining with it.
 * The Lying Darkness has been mentioned as far back as when the Naga were first introduced and they were always supposed to come into conflict before the Naga got flushed away.

Master Tiger is and always has been Togashi
A nigh-omnicient, future-seeing, immortal (or body hopping) god-man can't see the humanist enemies who run the most powerful criminal syndicate in the world? Not only that, but they just happen to end up training the man who would kill Fu Leng and protect the world - which is the entire reason Togashi's been hanging around the past thousand years?

No. It's only possible if Togashi is, in fact, Master Tiger, the most secretive post in the Kolat's secret organization. Kage was allowed to claim the title, but he was just one of Togashi's pawns.


 * The only way this works is if it's something that Togashi actually cared about. The Dragon didn't get involved most of the time when the empire was trying to tear itself apart, why would Togashi get involved in the Kolat?

The Divine Mandate of the Toturi Dynasty died with Tsudao
Think for a second. Of all the Four Winds, she was clearly the most honorable and noble. Also, she was rumored to be the reincarnation of Amaterasu, and she is pretty much a Gender Flipped version of her father. Also keep in mind that Kaneka was an illegitimate child whom Toturi I never acknowledged and that Naseru, AKA Toturi III, was a Hantei by adoption before taking the throne. As for Sezaru, he eventually became a Pheonix and never seemed very interested in ruling anyway. Tsudao, AKA Empress Toturi II, was the only true heir of the Black Lion; Naseru was nothing more than a pretender.

This also explains why Kaneka never took the throne. He knew that he could never be a true son of Heaven because, without his father's acknowledgment, he was not a true Toturi.

Toturi I's initial refusal to reinstate the Akodo name was a Take That directed against his former Clan
Considering how the Lion treated him before he became their Clan Champion (he was an Unfavorite who was shipped to a monastery until his brother died, making him Champion by default, And considering that One of his Vassals was making little effort to hide her Starscream nature, how can we blame him for being a little resentful?

That he demoted the Lion from the Traditional post of Right Hand of the Emperor and put the Unicorn in charge instead is also a big clue.

Had Togashi not intervened, Fu Leng would have triumped on the Second Day of Thunder and ushered in the events shown in the card set A Thousand Years of Darkness.
Togashi could only see the future but not his part in it. If he interfered it meant that it was BAD. If it involved his death then you can guess just what sort of Bad Future he was trying to avert.


 * The KYD setting comes about not because of anything Togashi did, he's the one who set the table for the everyone to be there after all, but because of Hitomi. Her choice to not fight alongside the Seven Thunders is what ended up with Fu Leng winning. Togashi knew he had to die to avert Fu Leng winning so him getting involved was never an option.