The title of this is mostly a joke, but I make that joke because of the fact that... One of my favorite parts of the Tome is the fact that it had so much story and background that one could honestly make a novel or adventure path in its own right from the concept (9 legendary blades, each representing an equally legendary martial tradition, these nine 'swords' have been since lost to time, and a number of heroes come together right when these blades are needed the most. Also note I was incredibly upset that path of war didn't have nearly as much of that flavor) However...
Well the title kinda says it. I have a slight distaste towards the systems presented therein. Not because they are actually bad, but because the idea of needing what amounts to miniature spell slots in order to make a martial character good kinda annoys me.. Also I use Spheres of Power/Might in most of my games which I think is worth mentioning.
How would a 'tome of battle' campaign that does not literally use the system play out?
And I guess whilst I'm yapping about ToB and Spheres I'll throw out some ideas as to what specialists in these 9 areas might use as spheres characters.
Desert Wind: Athletics and... alchemy? Sadly I think that only Champion/Gish builds could truly represent this concept. However not needing to worry about BaB makes it very possible to make this work. Maybe Duelist would be in there somewhere too.
Devoted Spirit: Guardian and... Yet again one of the most supernatural abilities, most likely users would be some kind of gish capable of grabbing Fate. Also depending on the situation I could see three different secondary spheres. Berserker for 2 handed characters (because berserking's temp HP helps your delayed damage pool by a LOT), Shield for shield users, and Lancer for polearms.
Diamond Mind: Fencing and Scout. This is a sphere very much about the idea of finding the tiniest weaknesses in the enemy and exploiting it. So it only fits.
Iron Heart: Equipment and seemingly literally anything else. the description being based on "Pure weapon Skill" tells me that there are a tonne of ways to take it.
Setting Sun: Wrestling and Scoundrel (and some athletics). It's somewhat designed around underhanded attacks and turning the tide on more powerful foes. It also has a lot of abilities to throw people hence wrestling.)
Shadow Hand: Scout, Scoundrel, alchemy, and Fencing: A sphere that is all about ambush, stealth, deception, an murder. Also Alchemy because it's the one with the supernatural 'strength draining strike'.
Stone Dragon: Guardian, Berserker, and this one would be a Gish once again since you would want either Protection or Nature with the Earth package. And Berserker because of the idea of breaking things in singular, powerful blows.
Tiger claw: Berserker and Athletics. Maybe Dual Wielding. It says all about being incredibly deadly and bringing terrible ferocity to bear upon your foes. and I mention dual wielding because it has kurkis among its weapons.
White Raven: Warleader and Gladiator. The best choice for the pure support group has to use the one ability not specifically about hitting people..
Organized Play Developer
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The lore and background from ToB was far and away my favorite part of the book. Agreed entirely that the nine swords and everything else were really cool.
When you say a "Tome of Battle campaign", do you mean a campaign that uses that background information? I'd probably have some BIG EVENT that requires the swords to be used in a ritual; maybe some dark god that needs to be resealed every 1,000 years or so, with each sword serving as the key to one of the locks. Some number of the swords would be hidden in vaults and dungeons, one or two of them would be wielded by prominent NPCs, and one of them would already be in the possession of the BBEG.
I think your school and sphere match-ups are solid; I'd probably give Iron Heart Berserker and swap Berserker for Dual Wielding in Tiger Claw; other than some thematic overlap the mechanics of Berserker don't match up with how I recall Tiger Claw actually playing? You could also make martial traditions or unified traditions for each school to get players rolling in the right direction thematically.
Depending on how granular you want to get and what your player's interests are, you could have them each be a scion of one of the schools. You could even, potentially, have a list of aligned classes for each school that can take advantage of that school's unique martial tradition.
Honestly you could do a whole lot with that idea, and most of it comes down to how much time you want to spend on it and how much buy-in you have from your players.
Stuff
Let's take this one piece at a time.
1: Good to know I'm not the only one that loved the lore.
2: I mean a tome of battle campaign as in that idea that it uses that lore in the background and has it be part of the story yes. Though the first thought that came to my mind was something in the aftermath of the temple's destruction.
3: I just thought Berserker for Tiger Claw because reading the description (I admittedly didn't look at the talents themselves) it described itself as using feral rage and savegery. (Also one of the first images in the section of the original PDF shows a great sword, so I imagine it could go either way (though most of them are that) And I thought of Iron Heart as more of the 'fighter' class than the barbarian.
4: I don't think that I'd make specific classes for each school since that could get kinda ugly, but my first thought was the idea that they had at least a passing knowledge of them, and it could easily be used as martial traditions.
5: Though I wonder somewhat whether it might be better to make something more specific to spheres in order to use more of the spheres in general rather than going straight up tome (seeing as it's an incredibly rare game that has 0 ranged characters). and I also.. don't have any players yet so I can't say how much buy in I might have, and am mostly in the process of designing things so I have all the time in the world.
Although I will say if we'd think of classes...
Bloodclaw Masters would simply be Martial Shifters, perhaps with the Beastlord or Beastmind archetypes (Though the former is to do some cheese to get access to Rage)
Deepstone Sentinels would be... I want to say clerics but you can't get martial talents as a cleric, but something to do with rocks.
Eternal Blades would be Mystics (magus) who uses Conjuration, grabbing the Bound companion boon somewhere in their tradition, making it a Shadow Creature (since that's the only form talent that gives essentially incorporeality) and using their conjured companion mostly for support and skill monkeying. (Granted mystics usually specialize in things that have attacks so you might want to grab some attacks too) I'd note any kind of conjuration full bab characters but I don't think those actually exist in a way other than 'you now have a mount;.
Jade Phoenix Mage would be... complicated. My only possibly thought would be martial hedge witch with Temporal Traveller or Font of Inspiration, refluffing your bonuses from those being by knowledge of your past lives.
Masters of Nine would be Armigers. Why? Because... They can't necessarily learn EVERY martial talent, but they gain 5 weapons with 6 talents each. meaning you could have 6 different spheres of influence with relative ease and just grab talents that have a lot of overlap. Unarmed strikes or gauntlets with Wrestling for setting sun, a greatsword with berserking for tiger claw and stone dragon, a rapier with fencing for diamond mind, etc.
Hm... sorry for the bump but I'm still trying to think of what full spheres unique equivalents might be...
Idea: Each school has 2 "Major Spheres" and one "Minor Sphere". the "Major Spheres" will used and not repeated, however other traditions can use the same minor spheres, or have someone else's major sphere as a minor sphere.
Also I don't feel confident enough to name them yet, so I'll be using working titles based on tome or path of war
Solar Wind: Praticioners of the Solar Wind train primarily to to deliver deadly precision and force in any environment. Finding weaknesses in the defenses of their foes and sometimes ending fights in a singular blow.
Major Spheres: Sniper and Scout
Minor Spheres: Athletics (finding a position is Precious to a good sniper after all)
Iron tortoise
Practitioners of this tradition feel the best offense is a good defense, standing as strong protectors of those around them whilst destroying foes with powerful reactionary abilities.
Major Spheres: Shield and Guardian
Minor Spheres: Berserker or Dual Wield (Berserker because of the synergy that berserking has with delayed damage, and dual wielding because sword and board builds being able to shield bash is fairly reasonable if you want to do that)
Serpent Shadow
Practitioners of this sphere learn to use the shadows as their greatest ally, delivering death through stealthy assaults and poison in equal measure. Rarely is this ever someone's PRIMARY tradition due to its stigma.
Major Spheres: Alchemy (poison) and Scoundrel
Minor Spheres: Athletics, Fencing, and Trap
Rolling Thunder
This tradition gets its name from the fact that the sound of these practitioners can be heard from great distances, as the tradition specializes in Mounted Combat, and either peppering their foes with ranged weaponry, or impaling and carrying them across the battlefield like a grotesque trophy.
Major spheres: Beastmastery and Lancer
Minor Spheres: Sniper, Barrage, Shield, and Guardian (The Former is for those that want to use the ranged play style, impaling foes with Ranged Impale more, whilst the latter is more knightly)
Scarlet Throne
The discipline of Scarlet Throne arose in the battling aristocracies of the world, where its nobles initially only practiced dueling styles that were of little use. When war came, these nobles found their abilities were sorely under-prepared for the rigors of true combat. Combining their roots in the dueling arts dueling and subsequent training by masters of practical combat and leadership, the Scarlet Throne style was born. Regal and unflinching, a practitioner of Scarlet Throne owns any field of battle he walks upon, for it is his court and there he rules, painting his chambers red with the blood of his enemies.
Major Spheres: Duelist and Fencing
Minor Spheres: Gladiator and Warleader (Honestly though I'd say these are almost if not more important than duelist and fencing, but I wanted to have these two act in other traditions so yeah.
Dragon's Claw
This tradition is used among Aescetics and Daredevils alike, and specializes in the deadly use of two weaponry in order to tear foes to ribbons. The name Dragons Claw comes from the fact that it relies on quick, deadly strikes as well as an often palpable aura of fear that these practitioners can inspire.
Major Spheres: Dual Wielding and Gladiator
Minor Sphere: Berserker (if you'd rather use something other than dual wielding) Brute.
Drunken Fist (I have no interesting name for this)
This as an actual tradition is said to have began with a "Monk King", whose political rivals attempted to get him so drunk as to be unable to fight back against them when they attempted an assassination. Only to find out that he was just as capable in this state as he was before, and even gained some minor benefits from it.
Major Spheres: Open Hand and Barroom (most likely using the alcoholic drawback)
Minor Spheres: Brute, Boxing, Wrestling (basically just the unarmed spheres)