Gorobei was a merchant of the Mantis Clan who through inheritance was Chuda Gorobei, a Maho-tsukai. His ancestor was the student of a survivor of the Five Nights of Shame. Though not descended directly from the Snake Clan themselves, Gorobei considered himself the true heirs of their legacy. After his son Tenkazu passed his gempukku they journeyed to the Phoenix lands. There Gorobei revealed as a bloodspeaker and introduced Tenkazu to the ways of maho, passing his son the katana Jadoku, the Ancestral Sword of the Snake Clan.