Lesser Sects Most of the Dharma’s countless splinter sects are of limited geographic influence, or driven by a single charismatic leader, and very few are of a stable character. Such sects can form very quickly and dissolve just as rapidly from internal dissension.
A jungle of lesser beliefs has proliferated in the shadow of the three great Devil-Tiger sects. In coming to understand this culture of religious diversity, it must be kept in mind that the Devils of Heaven embrace a polysectarian existence. Many sects in no way attempt to provide for the whole of a member’s spiritual existence, because it is assumed that the Cathayan will be a member of another group which
does deal with those issues. These “sects” are really much more like professional organizations or special interest clubs than religions. Obviously there are some exceptions. The Searing Wind cult, for example, is the very model of a rigid monosectarian system. However, belonging to multiple sects is accepted, and unless the sect you chose to join is proscribed by the political authorities of the area, there are no real penalties associated with cross-membership. Though there might be social problems for Devils of Heaven who belong to unpopular sects, the ancient prohibitions against religious coercion among the Devil-Tigers are still quite well-enforced.
The basis for sects can vary wildly. The structure of the Thousand Embers Righteousness Societies makes every different gathering of Crimson Tigers essentially an independent religion, a perfect breeding ground for extremist and deviant beliefs. After all, every Devil-Tiger perceives her role as a Devil slightly differently, and thus, she perceives different ways of going about it. The foundations for sects range from carrying out local political agendas to the genuine extremist sects who back some Kuei-jin or another as their Chosen Champion to battle the Demon Emperor. In reality, the only difference between the average lesser sect and a number of Righteousness Societies working together informally is that the sect takes a special name for itself.
Proscription Proscription for individual sects can have its roots in politics or theology, and it is always a hazard for minor sects. Political proscription is fairly common. In a society where religion and politics are inextricably intertwined, the difference between “political opponent” and “heretic” is minimal. Religious proscription is much more rare, at least in the Quincunx, because of the permissive nature of both the society and the Devil-Tiger Dharma. It is generally undertaken only when a sect is both militant and unrepentantly hostile to other sects or Dharmas, and by tradition, formal proscription requires three or more bodhisattvas of two different sects to testify that the sect is spiritually corrupt or ill-founded.
Proscription for political reasons is undertaken for reasons of expediency, not out of a direct concern for the theological soundness of the sect. Membership in a politically proscribed sect is no shame, just very dangerous. Membership in a sect that has suffered the Three Bodhisattva Denouncement is treated as quite a different matter than membership in some Righteousness Society that made the wrong enemies. For example, Black Iron Talons and other Kuei-jin who see themselves as the swords of righteousness take the time to hunt and dismantle sects proscribed for religious reasons, something they would never do for mere political proscription.
Penalties for Proscription In theory, belonging to a proscribed sect is punishable by meeting the Eye of Heaven. In the case of genuine heresies, this fate is the penalty an unrepentant heretic can expect. The heresiarchs can expect much worse. The Kuei-jin, particularly the Devil-Tigers, have had many centuries to think on manners in which to make the demise of the unrighteous both extremely unpleasant and fitting to the crime.
The reality is that a religious proscription is enforced much more widely and emphatically than a political one. If a Kuei-jin who belongs to a denounced sect is caught, the actual penalty varies. Political proscriptions are undertaken with judicially-sanctioned murder in mind, but they sometimes fail to achieve their goal. A strong personality, important allies or a weak opponent can reduce the punishment. An astute politician can usually manage to secure accepting exile, heimin, or
akuma status. In very good circumstances, one might be forced to accept a demotion, to issue an empty formal apology or to receive some other token slap on the wrist. The outcome really depends on the situation of the court at the time.
Religious proscription, however, draws in Kuei-jin
akuma-hunters from around the court to collect the bounty, increase their fame and do their duty to Heaven. Many vampires in sects proscribed for religious reasons are “killed during their apprehension.” Those who are dragged before the local authorities are usually unwilling to recant their heresies, and thus, they end their Road Back with a defiant hymn to the rising sun. While few religious heretics are willing to recant their ways, those who are willing to renounce their false beliefs are generally pardoned. By way of contrast, those under prosecution for belonging to a sect that has been proscribed for political reasons can expect as much mercy as they have the political capital to buy, and not one iota more.
The Black Iron Talons The Talons are certainly one of the best-known, if least-loved, of the Devil-Tigers’ lesser sects. The Black Iron Talons take it as their duty to hunt and destroy the minions of the Yama Kings in the here and now. Most particularly, the Talons hunt
akuma, but they also stalk Kumo, Kura Sau, nephandi, Spectres and whatever other prey crosses their path. This list also includes followers of blasphemous Dharmas, whom the Talons see as at least as bad as, and probably worse than, direct servants of the Yama Kings.
Many low-ranking Black Iron Talons are also Thousand Embers, Electric Money investors and what have you, but the Kuei-jin who form the core of the Black Iron organization hold titles from the Sagacious Devils at most, if they belong to any other sect at all. The Talons implicitly accept Thousand Embers philosophies on the Sixth Age, but they feel that the Righteousness Societies tie sect members too closely to the politics of the courts. Talons who wish to rise in the sect should be careful to sever their other sectarian ties.
Tightly organized on a regional basis, the Talons have a strongly paramilitary structure. The Black Iron Talons are particularly notable for their heavy use of bakemono and Ban Ren Guei servants. Talon Devil-Tigers fill a role similar to military officers and police detectives, leading combat teams and performing investigations. However, the foot soldiers who perform the assassinations and kidnappings for which the Talons are justifiably famous are rarely Wan Kuei at all.
Interestingly, senior bakemono and devil-people effectively outrank Crimson Tiger disciples within the sect. While the disciples nominally have the authority to command older non-Kuei-jin Talons, a Devil-Tiger still wet behind the ears can expect to be ignored or put aside (at best) until such time as he has earned the right to command. Eventually, he should fill his station properly, but until then, he is but an observer along for the ride and the experience.
Other than their unusual trust in and reliance on non-vampire members, the Talons are known for two exceptional traits. The first is their unerring accuracy, and the second is their incredibly methodical record-keeping. Unlike many witch-hunters, who cleanse first and investigate later, the Talons never, ever move until they are certain beyond the faintest shadow of a doubt that their quarry is
akuma. This care is central to the sect’s beliefs. They believe that to kill an innocent Kuei-jin as an
akuma is to do the Yama Kings three services; to have misspent effort investigating an innocent, to have destroyed a potential force for Righteousness and to have spoiled the name of the Black Iron Talons. While there have been some regrettable accidents in the history of the sect, they are a bare handful spread across the millennia, and the Talons aim to keep it that way.
Rumors persist that the Talons keep a list, jokingly called the Imperial Appointments, of the Kuei-jin they are certain are
akuma but whom they cannot move against for political reasons or lack of evidence. Supposedly, the Talons will exterminate these suspected
akuma systematically at the changing of the Age. Such talk is all conjecture, but what is known as almost certain fact is that the Talons cooperate with the Searing Wind’s
akuma-hunting branch, the Righteous Apostles of Extraordinary Valor, and that the Apostles have a habit of striking at politically untouchable targets.
The Talon’s reputation for unexcelled record-keeping is an outgrowth of this meticulous investigative style. The Talons may keep a target under surveillance for decades, gathering information before they strike. During this time, every contact, every interaction and every other bit of potentially useful data is recorded and sent back to the regional superiors for collection and analysis of possible relevance to other pending cases.
Prior to the modern era, some very sophisticated systems came about for dealing with the vast amounts of knowledge accumulated by the sect. With the modern era, however, the sect’s dependence on Bane spirits and the strange constructions of the Yellow Springs known as Eunuchs has been reduced, and modern computer systems have been phased in. Equipped with Bane-driven search engines and ghostly database miners, these computers grind away constantly at the evidence gathered by the sect, attempting — with the help of their Devil-Tiger operators — to determine the topology of the Yama King’s labyrinthine schemes and keep ahead of the Lords of Yomi Wan. As is to be expected, success is limited, but the system definitely seems to have a positive impact.
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Gender and the Golden Courts
It may seem odd that a culture of master shapeshifters can be built on a foundation of gender bias, when to most penangallan, sexual characteristics are just another part of their wardrobe. Gender among Golden Courts Kuei-jin is much more a sign of social status and enlightenment than of reproductive status. Feminine characteristics are symbols of enlightenment, whereas masculine characteristics are base.
While the penangallan may sport outrageously exaggerated feminine sexual traits and revel in their sexuality, females of low status are forced by custom to masculinize themselves. This simulation can be done either through shapeshifting or via dress and manner, but for a disciple to be mistaken for one of her spiritual betters is an offense against the honor of the penangallan as a group, and it is punished as such. Past a certain critical point of enlightenment (generally Dharma 6) gender-masculine Kuei-jin are seen as a threat to the social system of the court. These enlightened males must either change their gender through either shapeshifting or transvestitism, or be driven from the courts. Likewise, Kuei-jin visiting from regions of the Middle Kingdom where enlightenment, gender and mastery of Flesh Shintai do not fit together quite so intimately would be wise to adopt gender-neutral dress and mannerisms during their stay.
As if it needed to be said, attempting to “unmask” a transvestite Cathayan or speculating on someone’s “actual” gender is a killing insult in the Golden Courts. Outsiders may be permitted one misstep, if the aggrieved parties are of a generous nature, but this offense is one for which there is rarely a second chance given, and never a third. Gender politics in the Golden Courts are immensely complex, with submissive partners in relationships assuming quasi-masculine attire and mannerisms, and with male traits often denoting depression or sadness. Ambassadors and well-informed travelers quickly pick up the habit of strictly avoiding the use of gender-specific pronouns, and instead always referring to the subjects of discourse by name.
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Brilliant Coals Though the structure of their local bureaucracy varies, the influence of the August Body of Sagacious Devils extends across the Middle Kingdom. The Thousand Embers, however, have a more strictly circumscribed authority. In the Golden Courts, the Brilliant Coals sect takes the place of the Thousand Embers as the dominant Devil-Tiger faith.
The Brilliant Coals is, in many ways, quite similar to the Thousand Embers. The Coals eschew large, formal organizations, instead preferring small groups. However, unlike the Embers, the Brilliant Coals are loosely hierarchical. Rather than organizing themselves into societies, the Crimson Tigers of the Brilliant Coals follow the general pattern of Golden Courts society instead, grouping behind a single, charismatic female vampire.
Generally, each vampire of this sort (often called a
penangallan, in congruence with the title in the Golden Courts; indeed, many
penangallans hold the rank both within their sect and their court) has between five and 15 hangers-on, who serve as an artificial family of students, servants and lovers. There is usually a clear division within the ranks of the attendants. Members of the inner circle, aspiring
penangallan themselves, share a bond with their mistress and one another similar to the one created by the
guanxi rite, and they are relatively close to her in terms of their progress on the Road Back. The outer circle are younger vampires, who move from elder to elder until they find a
penangallan whose service they enjoy and whose fellow-followers they appreciate.
The Brilliant Coals emphasize passion and physicality. The Coals revel in the impulsiveness and the animal magnificence of the P’o, yet they hold the reins of the Demon much more tightly than the Devil-Tigers of the north. To the Coals, sexuality, hunger, violence and self-gratification are intimately intertwined with Enlightenment, but it is absolutely essential to an Ember that it is the Hun, the conscious mind, whose desires are satisfied, and not the P’o’s.
A Thousand Ember Devil-Tiger would say that the Lower Soul is an integral part of the vampire’s personality. While it must be unquestioningly subordinate, it must also be understood and accepted as part of the whole that makes up the Kuei-jin. By way of contrast, a Brilliant Coal sees the P’o as an unnatural aberration, a collection of instinctive drives given a voice by the Second Breath. A Thousand Ember attempts to come to harmony with himself, educating and disciplining his P’o until he and it share a single voice. A Brilliant Coal kicks her P’o and beats it with iron rods, sending it sniveling back down into the basement of her subconscious where hunger, fear and the sex drive belong. This vehement hatred of the P’o causes many Brilliant Coals to learn Cultivation, and for this power, they are particularly feared.
Many outsiders find it difficult to distinguish between the Passion Bloodflower sect of the Thrashing Dragons and the Brilliant Coals, though the practitioners are quite aware of their differences (which often lead to violence between the groups). The Coals, like the Thousand Embers, embrace the philosophy of violent individual resistance to the Demon Emperor. But, where the Thousand Embers are abstract and detached, the Brilliant Coals are visceral and immediate. The Thousand Embers may lay their schemes to ruin the world like musicians tuning their instruments, but the Coals are improvisationalists. Gather a few hundred guns, 30 or 40 thousand rounds of ammunition and a ton or so of explosives, and the next step will become clear when the time is right. The Coals have no plan, other to make the Golden Courts a Hell so hot that not even the Demon Emperor can bear it.
In many ways, this more positive outlook on the Sixth Age reflects the web of intimate community the
penangallan share. The Thousand Embers see themselves as tiny fires in a matrix of chaff, each liable to being snuffed out casually if it is noticed too soon. They believe their plans must be cunningly laid and meticulously detailed to have any chance of success. In contrast, the Coals see their families not as isolated sparks, but as many separate brands, all burning together in the community of the Golden Courts. Each may sport its own tongues of flame and glow a certain color, but together they can make a heat so great as to be unapproachable. Both approaches have their merits and drawbacks, and which set of assumptions is correct will be made clear soon enough.
The Electric Money Wickedness Club Western perceptions of Asia invariably run to traditional temples and agriculture, or ultramodern skyscrapers and factories. This is a false dichotomy — the Chinese were the first to develop paper money, and Asian nations have had sophisticated economies since the dawn of history. Where there is money, there will be sin, and where there is dishonesty, greed, vice and corruption, there will be Devil-Tigers.
The Electric Money Wickedness Club is only the latest and largest incarnation of a Crimson Tiger mercantile tradition dating back millennia. There are dozens of similar but smaller societies extant today, and the Kuei-jin who make up these groups scatter and reform over the decades like leaves in a stiff breeze. Over the course of their long, long unlives, most elder Devils of Heaven have spent some time involved in business ventures, just as most become artists, priests, lovers, soldiers and thieves in turn. Diversity, like hardship, is unavoidable over a long enough span of existence. Nevertheless, the Wickedness Club is the current centerpiece of Heavenly Devil business and investment, and so it merits special mention.
The Electric Money is best described as an investment club. Members pay a certain yearly entrance fee that maintains the infrastructure of the club. By means of a sophisticated message system relying on everything from pen-and-silk notes to email, the various members can advertise their own business ventures, make contact with other Kuei-jin who may wish to employ them or invest in businesses that are either being floated now or already established and seeking capital for expansion.
With one foot in the daylit world and the other in the sophisticated
guanxi networks and black economies of the Pacific Rim, the Wickedness Club is an underground economy for the Devils of Heaven as built by the Devils of Heaven. Major drug deals and data piracy are transacted alongside blue chip insider trading and luck clubs whose only abnormality is that the members are dead. Money is laundered, partners are found and investments are made, all off the books and away from the prying eyes of government officials interested in troublesome questions like taxation and business ethics.
What makes the Electric Money unusual is that the organization itself has an agenda. Funded by entrance fees and the fact that the Club runs the best money-laundering operation in the Middle Kingdom, the board of directors of the Electric Money pursue their own war against the Yama Kings. It is an economic war, but unlike most such conflicts, it has nothing to do with the ownership of some profitable commodity or attractive monopoly.
The board knows that some of the Yama Kings, particularly Mikaboshi, have their fingers in developing economies across the world. The Club picks out the financial movements of the Lords of Yomi through a combination of espionage, open-source analysis and fortune-telling — bodhisattvas make excellent market analysts. Of particular interest to the club are physical plants and other such investments, which cannot be easily sold or transferred. Through skillful manipulation of markets and physical circumstances, the Electric Money seeks to destroy or devalue these assets.
The method of destruction varies. It may be accomplished directly through violent action, through tips passed to local hengeyokai or through the introduction of legislation or regulation designed to render the assets valueless. Mikaboshi’s new cash cow factory will do him little good after it has been nationalized and paid a midnight visit by the local Hakken. Other, more indirect action might take the form of passing weapons to local guerrilla groups, spreading rumors that cause a major investment partner to pull out of a business venture or making a boatload of spare parts desperately needed for the gunships of the local dictatorship disappear
en route. There is currently a great deal of evidence emerging that the Electric Money anticipated the Asian Crisis and pulled large sums from various investment funds at strategic points to exacerbate the downturn for unknown reasons.
This action hardly goes unopposed, but the Yama Kings have always been hostile to the Kuei-jin. A shadow war rages across the Middle Kingdom, as the various sides lash out at each other’s economic strong points. In this financial conflict, it is the Devil-Tigers who have the upper hand. To the bodhisattvas and mandarins of the Wickedness Club’s board of directors, the struggle is mostly just an elaborate game. When they lose all their money, they’ll go do something else. Like a swordsman resigned to death, the members of the Wickedness Club do not care if they win or lose this battle, and so cannot be defeated, only destroyed. But money is life to Mikaboshi and Pentex, their mode of existence and ticket to power. If they lose their economic might, the Wickedness Club’s enemies have lost everything.
The Searing Wind Probably the most infamous of the widely proscribed Devil-Tiger sects, membership in the Searing Wind is grounds for Meeting the Eye of Heaven in every civilized court in the Middle Kingdom. Violent, bloodthirsty and above all highly organized, the Searing Wind follows the self-proclaimed Grand Arhat Hon Li. A blazing violation of the Five Emperors-period prohibitions against large-scale political organization among Devil-Tigers, the Searing Wind came into existence shortly after the treaty of the Quincunx was finalized.
In founding the Searing Wind, Hon Li made public expression of the widespread sentiment among Devil-Tigers that early decisions prohibiting Celestial Devil organization had been motivated primarily by political considerations (which was hardly the first time such sentiments had been expressed). The call for removing the proscription on large Devil-Tiger political parties was historically (and still is) one of the primary rallying points for Celestial Devil dissidents against the established political order.
However, with the corruption of the Changan Ancestor, the arrival of the Sunset People in the Middle Kingdom and the clear abandonment of the Five Emperors structures, the time seemed ripe for change. More importantly, Hon Li was already a bodhisattva at that time, and he had participated in the authoring of the Treaty of the Quincunx. The future Grand Arhat’s call for reform was received, not as a voice in the wilderness or an extremist sentiment, but as a clarion call.
The reaction of Kuei-jin society was predictable. The newly minted ancestor of the Quincunx proclaimed the bodhisattva an
akuma and slave of Yomi. The August Body duly stripped Hon Li of his titles, and all those Kuei-jin who saw slaying a renegade bodhisattva as a viable option for political advancement hunted Hon Li and his handful of loyal followers across the Middle Kingdom. Had matters progressed as was usual in the case of such zealots, Hon Li would have been eventually driven to ground and destroyed.
However, Hon Li was considerably more powerful than the typical Crimson Tiger rebel against Gui Ren society, as well as being a shrewd thinker and an extraordinarily charismatic speaker. The same skills that had served him in authoring the Quincunx Treaty also aided Hon Li in his rebellion. Gathering followers, the bodhisattva turned some of his pursuers to his own cause and destroyed others who were unwilling to convert. Over the next several centuries, the Searing Wind (as Hon Li called the sect) became a fixture of Middle Kingdom society. Like the Assassins of the West, the sect existed on the fringes of society, prosecuting a relentless war against the Yama Kings and their servants regardless of political consequences.
Less palatably, the Searing Wind also prosecuted a war against the Thrashing Dragons and Resplendent Cranes, striking particularly at those who had persecuted Devil-Tigers, or who were activists in causes that opposed the Celestial Devils. Multiple efforts were made to stamp out the Searing Wind, but the Wind’s cellular structure, the meticulous character of its plans and exquisitely well-developed system of intelligence sources and secret strongholds made such efforts only partially successful.
The period around the Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Uprising were excellent times for the sect, as unsettled times bred urns like flies, and the obvious menace of the Kin-jin caused many Devil-Tigers to realize how close at hand the Sixth Age truly was. It was at the end of the 19th century, flush with new resources and recruits, that the Searing Wind pulled their greatest trick and disappeared from the political landscape of the Middle Kingdom altogether.
It is not that the Searing Wind is actually gone, however. Searing Wind agents still roam the night on missions of slaughter, though the Wind blows mostly against the Yama Kings now, husbanding its strength for the upcoming Age. But the Grand Arhat and his inner cadre of mandarins and bodhisattvas have vanished utterly. Some claim they have gone to the depths of the Yin World, while others say that Hon Li and his people have gone to the badlands of Afghanistan, or that the Searing Wind has found a way to survive in the Himalayas and live among the ruins of Meru. Speculation is common, but facts are rare. All that is known for certain is that Hon Li has left the Middle Kingdom, and perhaps even the Floating World, until the abdication of the August Personage draws him back to do battle with the Demon Emperor.
Structure and Governance The members of the Searing Wind follow a strict military hierarchy. The Searing Wind soldiers make up the Army of Righteousness, and they ready themselves for the final battle against the Demon Emperor. Enlightenment is important, but practical ability is more so. Rank is awarded based on individual merit. Normally, merit evaluation is based primarily on martial ability, but within the ranks of specialist troops (who make up about 10 percent of the Searing Wind) other criteria are applied.
Devil-Tiger military units parallel the pyramidal nature of Gui Ren power. The core of the Wind is the Grand Arhat, who will fight the Demon Emperor directly, supported and defended by his bodhisattvas. Each of the bodhisattvas will be supported and defended in turn by their mandarins, and so on. This structure assures a concentration of power on the most dangerous target in a battle on the open field, and it means that, in a more disorganized conflict, each soldier will take orders from someone he knows is older and wiser than himself. The Searing Wind divides itself roughly into five units each following one of the sect’s bodhisattvas. Each of the bodhisattvas has her own distinctive personality and methods, and this individuality is reflected in the uniforms and demeanor of their subordinate troops.
The governance of the Searing Wind is strictly top-down. The Grand Arhat makes decisions in consultation with the bodhisattvas, who in turn discuss implementation with their subordinate mandarins, who pass the orders down to the jina, and so on until the lowest Bane and bakemono have gotten word of their duties.
Like the Black Iron Talons, the Searing Wind makes extensive use of Devil-Men and bakemono to round out its ranks. If one counts bakemono and devil-men, the ranks of the Searing Wind may number as many as high as 4000 members. The Wind also makes extensive use of Banes as spies, messengers, and weapons of warfare. There are several hundred powerful Banes in the direct service of the Wind, and three times that many bound into Inauspicious Objects or serving as menials to high-ranking officers.
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Searing Wind Ranks
The Searing Wind rejects the Confucian ideals of the August Body of Sagacious Devils, preferring instead a ranking system that rates each Kuei-jin based on his martial merit, not his administrative acumen. Parenthetically noted beside each rank is the minimum level of enlightenment required to hold that position. Promotion comes via military aptitude, not simple enlightenment, and all members of the Wind enter at the bottom and work their way up. Thus, it is possible for an elder Crimson Tiger mandarin of little martial talent who recently joined the Wind to hold only the rank of Courageous Soldier.
Two ranks, the Sturdy Footman of Hell and the Crusader for Celestial Justice, are used to give mortal auxiliaries a place in the Searing Wind chain of command. These two ranks are graded to provide relative ranking between different auxiliaries. The proper form for a graded title follows the format of “Third Class Sturdy Footman of Hell.” Such a Ban Ren Guei would be outranked by a Second Class Sturdy Footman, but he would outrank a Fourth Class Sturdy Footman.
Searing Wind Ranks, Highest to Lowest Grand Arhat
Enlightened Master (Arhat)
Distinguished Heavenly General (Bodhisattva)
Righteous Commander (Mandarin)
Bloodthirsty Young Officer (Jina)
Courageous Soldier (Older Disciple)
Brave, Untested Warrior (Young Disciple)
Sturdy Footman of Hell (Devil-Person or Dhampyr, five classes)
Crusader for Celestial Justice (bakemono only, three classes)
Searing Wind Directions North Direction: The Seven Venom Tempest, under the bodhisattva Great Depth. Uniforms are dark green, blue and black.
South Direction: The Unquenchable Bonfire, under the bodhisattva Crimson Peony. Uniforms are saffron, scarlet, crimson and black.
East Direction: The Immortal Forest, under the bodhisattva Graceful Crane. Uniforms are green, brown and black.
West Direction: The Fearless Iron Blades, under the bodhisattva Winter Morning. Uniforms are white, gray and black.
Center Direction: The Sky-Scraping Mountain, under the bodhisattva Nine Tongues. Uniforms are gray, white and green.
Searing Wind Special Branches Righteous Apostles of Extraordinary Valor (
Akuma-Hunters)
Black Magicians of Terrible Might (Ritualists/ Bane Trainers)
Cat-Footed Gatherers of Secrets (External Affairs)
Doubly Fearsome Excisors of Treasonous Behavior (Internal Security)
Skillful Manipulators of the Mortal Press [in the sense of a pushy crowd, not a newspaper] (Human Relations)
Healers of Wounded Comrades-in-Arms (Medical)
Doctrine and Beliefs The Searing Wind adheres to the belief that the Five Emperors’ strictures on the Devil-Tiger faith have nothing to do with Righteousness or the final battle against the Demon Emperor, but were instead motivated by political concerns. Hon Li claims, on some fair authority, that when the Demon Emperor accedes to the Throne of Heaven, he will be at his weakest immediately thereafter. If there is to be any hope of defeating the Emperor without centuries of conflict, or perhaps even of defeating him at all, he must be assaulted with every force on Heaven and Earth that the Gui Ren can muster. What precisely that means at this point is an open question. No one below the rank of Righteous Commander knows any details of the Searing Wind battle plan. With the exception of Special Branch troops (who are usually kept ignorant due to their exposed positions) only Bloodthirsty Young Officers and below have been seen in the Middle Kingdom for almost a century.
However devoted the Searing Wind is to the cause of defeating the Demon Emperor, they are still dangerous fanatics. Hon Li openly lays claim to the very same intolerance that motivated the Five Emperors in their long-ago decision against the Crimson Tigers. The Searing Wind would happily stamp out the other Dharmic paths and fight a great war to unify the Gui Ren under the Grand Arhat’s banner, had it the time. For now, Hon Li only hopes that when the moment is right, the Wan Kuei will see the urgency of the need to combat the Demon Emperor immediately. From the number of known and suspected Cat-Footed Gatherers moving through the Middle Kingdom recently, it looks as if the Wind may be doing its very best — through bribery, persuasion and blackmail — to help ancestors and mandarins in making the right choice when the Demon Emperor accedes.
The Righteous Earth-Prison Smiting Fist Another widely proscribed sect, the Righteous Earth-Prison Smiting Fist opposes the rule of Yu Huang, the lord of the Middle Kingdom’s afterlife, violently. This cause is certainly popular enough. Many Righteousness Societies and other Devil-Tiger groups outside China oppose Yu Huang’s racist policies openly or quietly, often with the tacit approval of their courts. Certainly, one of the reasons that Yu Huang has such difficulty holding the areas claimed by the Golden Courts is the penchant of the strong-headed
penangallan to tear into his troops.
Generally, a mutual balance of terror reigns in the Occupied Territories, with the Kuei-jin often capable of killing anything they come across in a one-on-one fight. The ghosts in turn possess superior numbers and a much wider activity cycle. The wars are undeclared and furtive, but all across the Middle Kingdom, the Gui Ren wear away at the Chinese ghosts who oppress their ancestors, and the Restless Dead remove those
ketsuki who become too daring in their resistance.
Not so in the Quincunx, where Yu Huang’s policy of domestic mercy and his friendly relations with the Resplendent Cranes engender much kinder feelings between the Restless Dead and the Wan Kuei. Yet the Righteous Earth-Prison Smiting Fist exists primarily in the Quincunx, and is an implacable a foe of Yu Huang as any.
The specific point of disagreement between the sect and Imperial policy is the existence of Feng Tu, the Earth Prison, though this issue is not the whole of the sect’s agenda. In essence, the sect charges that Yu Huang is committing imposture and usurping the duties of Heaven and Hell by establishing himself as a spiritual and not a temporal authority in the Afterlife. By usurping the names and likenesses of characters in Chinese mythology for the officials of his Hell, Yu Huang commits an offense against the eyes of Heaven by claiming celestial titles for his ghostly kingdom.
More generally, the Earth-Prison Smiting Fist disagrees with Yu Huang’s policies which portray his kingdom as a place of long-term residence, including encouraging the growth of “families,” and policies which destroy ghosts rather than allowing them to continue on to Oblivion or rebirth. This particularly means Feng Tu, but it also extends to the creation of Eunuchs and white jade not made from
kuei. These ideals have moderate support among Quincunx Devil-Tigers and even among non-Devil-Tiger Kuei-jin, but the sect is generally proscribed for political reasons. In some places, the condemnation is purely a formal matter required to maintain relations with the Yellow Springs, but where the Resplendent Cranes are strong the prohibition is actually enforced.
From its foundation in the 1600s until the middle of this century, the Fist had a brilliant leader in person of the Kuei-jin known only as Imperial Physician Fu Tu. Under his leadership, the Fist’s adopted policies of disrupting the Imperial Bureaucracy through the destruction of Eunuchs and important bureaucrats. Infiltrators have never been able to slip into the Earth Prison directly, because they are reportedly unable to penetrate past the entity known as Mrs. Meng. Those who have attempted to do so are sent back unharmed, but unable to repeat what Mrs. Meng related to them before sending them away.
Imperial Physician Fu Tu and his bodyguards were attempting to organize communist starvation victims into a resistance force during the Great Famine when Resplendent Crane and Imperial Guard hunting parties finally caught up to them. Fu Tu and his followers met the Final Death, and it was expected that the sect would quickly fall apart. But Fu Tu kept no records save in his own mind, and he went to his final death fighting, as did all his inner circle. After the Imperial Physician’s death, the movement became even stronger, as its dependence on the charisma and ingenuity of one man was reduced. The decades since the Famine have seen, if anything, the strength of the Fist increasing, particularly as the major cells have begun receiving aid from Swar, the massive city-state that forms the core of the Indian underworld.
For more information about Yu Huang, the Yellow Springs, the Earth Prison and the Chinese occupation of the Asian Shadowlands, see the
Wraith: The Oblivion supplements
Dark Kingdom of Jade and
Dark Kingdom of Jade Adventures.
The Distinguished Sinner-Punishing Society The Distinguished Sinner-Punishing Society is a Devil-Tiger sect that believes that the duty of the Crimson Tigers is not just to punish sinners, but to provide stern examples for mortals who stray from the path of righteousness. This belief is not very far from the Devil-Tigers’ mainstream. The Devils of Heaven pride themselves on the poetic, often quite demonstrative natures of the punishments that they inflict on sinners. Subtle as the Devil-Tigers can be, some of these punishments look so much like manifestations of instant karma that they are never even noticed.
Yet “subtle” is one word which in no way typifies the Distinguished Sinner-Punishing Society, and it is for this reason that they are one of the most brutally suppressed Heavenly Devil sects. The Punishing Society believes that by finding and publicly executing mortals well-known for their iniquitous behavior, they remind mortals that their misdeed have very real consequences.
Obviously, part of the persecution of the Punishing Society stems primarily from the fact that its policies run directly against the
shen’s aversion to publicity. Teaching mortals the lesson that if you beat your wife, undead monsters will tear your limbs off and leave you in the trunk of an abandoned car is not the sort of thing that can go on without drawing undue mortal attention. If a sinner must be murdered, it is best if the body is never found again.
However, the proscription on this sort of direct and public punishment is not entirely without Dharmic justification. The Wan Xian fell for the hubris of their attempts at rulership over mortals. As devils, the Devil-Tigers are present only to carry out a celestial function, not to guide mortals. Evil is a necessary constant in human existence. By attempting to abolish sin rather than just punishing it, the Distinguished Sinner-Punishing Societies are seen as overstepping their place in the Celestial Order.