Chapter One: The Hungry Dead
One thing that needs to be said is that art quality varies all over the place here. Sometimes they go for very detailed, other times they go for ultra simplistic. There are some characters drawn chibi/SD style here and there. Sometimes people are drawn in ugly caricature ways. There is no standard.
What we then get is a very short story telling of someone's experience in a hell, where their skin was used to make a blanket that was pulled, bitten at, used to wipe up shit and so on. From there they go on again about how Asia Is Different, a mention of Dragon Nests (Chi reserves in the ground) and Dragon Tracks (the lines that stretch out between the Nests, so... ley lines would be close enough as an analogy), and finally an explanation as to what it means to be turned into a Kuei-Jin.
It mentions how becoming a vampire in the West doesn't actually say anything about you, how you can be murdered and turned into a beast through no fault of your own, and you can go on a drive to make a whole bunch of weak-ass minions this way, vampires who don't really have what it takes. Eastern ones, on the other hand, are created in one of two ways:
1. You live life as a monster, such that your P'o awakens while you are human. Your Humanity has to drop below 5 for this to happen, and it's most likely to happen when it hits 1 and you gain a Derangement).
2. You die in a particularly horrible way while still wanting to remain, causing your P'o to awaken at the moment of your death. It mentions that in the current day, with all these wars,
torture facilitiesdetention centres and such, this is becoming more common.
Also, you actually need the will to drag yourself out of hell. You need to be strong enough to, having been given lemons by life, jam those lemons into life's eyes and demand vodka. So you need a minimum Willpower of 5.
I could have picked any other Courage Wolf macro. But I chose this one. Have a nice day.
So far, the explanation, while later than I'd have liked, works pretty well, and the game terms they've included at least match that explanation, even if you personally think the Humanity stat (or its execution) is stupid.
What's interesting to note is that these unfulfilled spirits actually are fated to become Kuei-Jin. You aren't fighting against your destiny by living on past death and escaping hell, doing all this
is your destiny in the Karmic Wheel. Now sure, destiny as an idea generally rings hollow, and once you say "oh yeah, the circle of life has a planned spot for the undead" it is weird, but at least it's kind of interesting.
So yeah, you go to a hell. Once there, the P'o realises it is not the biggest bad-ass around, and is about to be eaten. Sometimes, the Hun (human side) splits off from the P'o and remains in the world as a homing beacon, and that allows the P'o to claw its way back - if not, the P'o is eaten and the Hun remains trapped as a useless spirit. But if it does escape, if they can reunite, now you have a kindred. A monster, certainly, as the P'o is driven mad and the Hun is incomplete, but now it has a second chance at life.
A few notes: the time limit is generally a few months, so you actually can't do the Ikkitousen thing where Cao Cao and Lu Bu are reincarnated into the modern world, and this makes me sad.
Also, the body does not show the signs of death (unlike in Demon: the Fallen). Even if cremated, the Hun weaves Yin and Yang energy to reform the body perfectly - but sometimes you also come back to life in someone else's body, so if you ignored that time limit, you totally could do the actual Ikkitousen thing, where Lu Bu now looks like this:
You might think Asian burial rites and "what they do with the dead" are at least vaguely important for this - yes you get uncremated or whatever, but where do you wake up? What weird stuff did they wrap you in? If it happens during a funeral, what is going on?
You'd expect White Wolf to skip that, going "well fuck you", but actually, you do get a page that talks about the general things to expect. Yeah, it's actually surprising.
When you wake up, the P'o is almost always in control. Basically, here are the options of what happens:
- P'o is in control, you starve and die again. All gone.
- P'o is in control, you're put down by various hunters.
- P'o is in control, other Kuei Jin find you and tame you.
- Hun is actually in control, other Kuei Jin train you.
The last two options result in player characters. If you are a player character who can control their own actions, then you were put through the trials and found worthy. This means you actually know what the fuck is happening, so you can't do the shovelhead thing where you play "a vampire, I dunno" who has no clue. In actual fact, you undergo training as a Hin (non-person) for about five years before being a player character. This doesn't explain why you have such lame starting points.
Once you have finished your training, and been accepted into a Dharma, and are no longer a Hin (who can be arbitrarily killed by any Kuei Jin for any reason), you are placed into a Wu - yes, they literally go "Okay, you player characters there, form a team together. Here are your colour-coded lycra uniforms."
In other words, they actually go out of their way to start you off as a team that has to work together. Holy fucking shit, is this even White Wolf?
Also, you're assigned a Direction on top of your Dharma, and it is said that only through following both of these can you find your true purpose and achieve your goals. Let's just sum these up:
- North: Preservers and enforcers of tradition. Goals might involve establishing your influence outside of Asia or brokering peace between two Wu.
- West: Messengers and guardians of the spirit world, studying the spirits and the flow of chi. Also assassins and spies. Goals could involve relic-hunting, appeasing the dead, or turning the dead against enemies.
- East: Farmers of the herd, to engage in mortal affairs. Goals could include gaining control of corporations or gangs.
- South: Firestarters - their duty is to cause change, to question what must be questioned and to lead battles. Goals could involve battles against hengeyokai or akuma, or wiping out other Wu.
- Centre: Students of the interaction between opposing forces, they have to uncover the secrets of supernatural existence. Goals could include increasing understanding or solving riddles of important leaders.
Note that Kindred from outside Asia do not have a direction, they are barbarians that should just be put out of their misery instead.
Next we get the Yama Kings. It's more than a page so I'll sum it up: they rule over the hells and are kind of sort of the baddies except you could also find yourselves working for them. If we looked at WoD books as being influence for the factions of Exalted, this book is the origin of Infernals, and the Yama Kings are the Yozi Kings, the Titans.
It then talks about the ranks, which depend on your rating in your Dharma. Note that the actual Dharmas have not been explained yet, but whatever you do choose, your rating in it is important. In terms of Vampire, it's both your Humanity
and your Generation (except high is good). It shows how enlightened you are and directly makes you more powerful. It can both rise and fall, too.
So at 0, you are a Chih-Mei. This is a monster that can only gain Chi by eating human flesh. They are usually put down, but it is
possible to rebuild them, even rebuilding them along a new Dharma altogether.
At the 0-1 stage, they are a Hin. We covered that before. Once they graduate they're still at 1, but think of it as a "solid" 1. Even as a Hin, having Dharma 1 still means you no longer need to eat flesh, you can instead drink blood for your Chi sustenance.
At 1-3, you are a Disciple. PCs start at Dharma 1 and it is assumed they are Disciples, not Hin.
At 4-5 you become a Jina, which makes you influential in the courts, and you might even want to start training Disciples yourself. At this point you can spend two Chi per turn, and have a minimum age of 5 or 10 years respectively. That's minimum age since being awoken. At 5, you can draw Chi out from someone's breath, no longer needing blood.
Once you reach 6, you're a Mandarin, so you get to boss courts and Wu around as a big-time honcho. Your Attributes/Abilities can go up to 6, any pair of virtues (Yin+Yang, Hun+P'o - individually these cap out at 10 but the paired maximum is 10 until now) can total 12, you can spend 3 Chi per turn, you can draw Chi from the world itself without needing humans to feed from, and your minimum age is 100. From this point on, the maximum rating for stats equals your Dharma and the maximum pair of Virtues becomes twice your Dharma. Minimum age and Chi/turn also increase as the Dharma increases, and you gain bonuses to social pools.
Your title
can increase as you go along - at Dharma 7 you are able to be an Ancestor, and at 9 you are able to be a Bodhisattva. But you might still just be a Mandarin. Whatever.
Next we get several pages all about the way of propriety, obligation, integrity, lineage and all those other important things. It continues for a bit more, but honestly, it's not that interesting to write about.
Next time I'll finish the chapter with the writeups on the Dharmas (finally). Look forward to "Make the right choice at character creation if you ever want to advance"! There's the WW we all know and hate!
