Yokai Monogatari
At Chupacabracon, I ran two games. One, The Doktor, is from The King is Dead. The other, Toketsu Onsen Monogotari, is a new mini-setting I plan on developing. Sean and I love Japanese history and folklore, so we plan on a number of Japanese mini-settings. The ghost stories or Heian-Kyo inspired another that we know we will create. As for others, well, we will decide when we get there.
I started on the setting from the Japanese game, currently titled Yokai Monogotari. Below is the intro and a quick overview. This is just beginning development and is my side project as we return to The King is Dead.
A battle nears and will sweep us into its maw. How did we come to this?
I started on the setting from the Japanese game, currently titled Yokai Monogotari. Below is the intro and a quick overview. This is just beginning development and is my side project as we return to The King is Dead.
A battle nears and will sweep us into its maw. How did we come to this?
First, the capital burned. Clans fought to control the
imperial court and reign as shogun. Before long, the fire spread into the
provinces and throughout the islands. Provincial leaders, the daimyo, thirsted
for power and land. They waged war against one another, invading their neighbors’
lands. War envelops the land and the eight islands burns.
So men say. They believe they direct all that occurs.
But we know better. The forces beyond us, from the High Plain of Heaven and
Yomi flow through the earthly plain. When the Mongols sailed to our shores,
samurai claimed they fought the horde back. They do not praise Susanoo and the
great wind he set upon the navy: the kamikaze wind blew some ships farther to
sea and sunk others. We do not forget.
The emperor and his grand court flourished in their capital, a shining
light for the entirety of the eight islands. In time, the western residences
fell into disrepair. One-by-one, each home grew dark and began to decay. The
nobles fled to the East, leaving the remains to the desperate unafraid of what
may lurk in the shadows. The emperor allowed half of the capital to rot. The
onmyoji warned the Ministers of the Right and the Left; they pleaded with the
emperor to act. They foresaw a corruption that would fall upon the land, the
age of the yokai.
At first, great heroes challenged the threat faced in
Heian-Kyo. Warriors of incredible fortitude and virtue faced the foes. Watanabe
no Tsuna cleansed the Rashomon Gate, and under his commander, Minamoto no
Raiko, protected the capital from a growing supernatural threat. Ghosts dwelt
among men. They brought darkness to the hearts of men and possessed others. The
great onmyoji engaged the dead and sent them to Yomi. But when onmyoji like Abe
no Seimei and the great warriors left this world, the yokai had no adversary to
stop their assault.
Then, the gods lost faith in the emperor and his ministers.
Each year brought new yokai, and soon the yokai possessed
half of the capital. The more demonic among them lead the new populace. They
required reverence and loyalty, demanding followers to turn from the gods. The wicked
faith stretched out along the Western streets, and the contamination expanded. Their
darkness blocked the protective light of Amaterasu-no-Mikoto, and her descendants
did nothing.
Few can withstand the temptations of the yokai. The
infection took hold of the greatest families. The Genji and the Heike turned on
one another. The blood of their feud soaked the earth. The honorable, like
Tomoe no Gozen, gave their lives for peace. Those lands prospered when the war
moved on. However, far more of the blood came from the innocents crushed
beneath the armies. They left the living world angry and vengeful. If they did
not return as yokai, their blood fed those already here.
The four guardian beasts could not hold the tide; with
no center, they could not retain the whole.
The provincial governors, the damiyo, and their generals
smelled the blood. The sharks along the coast found brothers in these men. These
opportunistic men seized the moment, rose-up to secure land and power. Confident,
the yokai urged many men to engage in battle, and so their disease spread. Some
daimyo and generals, at least in the beginning, fought for the gods, the land,
and the people. Embodying the greater heroes before them, they resisted the
coming plague. However, the disease had grown too strong for single men to
fight against the tide, and they succumbed.
Today, the eight islands belong to the yokai, and you
and I must take up arms to drive them from our homes.
Hereos in Yokai Monogatari
battle the supernatural threat to medieval Japan.
Japan enjoys a long history of supernatural stories.
The creation myth and the early heroes found in the Nihongi, the ghost stories
of the Heian courts, and the yokai tales of the countryside speak of a world
teeming with being and creatures, both good and bad. Storytellers use the
Sengoku Jidai, or the Warring States, period to weave such tales. In modern
times, manga and anime try to capture the otherworldly of this era. Works like
Sengoku Basara and Ninja Scroll present humans capable of supernatural feats.
On the other hand, Inuyasha and Princess Mononoke tell of a world of gods and
yokai.
Yokai
Monogatari brings these sort of stories together. Heroes are not
mere mortals, but humans with gifts not of the earthly plain. Yokai, both good
and bad, exist and do commit acts both helpful and damaging. Disgusted by the
growing avarice and destruction of the daimyo, the heroes of Yokai Monogatari band together to deal
with the threat left in the armies’ wake. Invigorated and inspired by the war,
the yokai grow stronger and wreak havoc upon the innocent and survivors. With
no one left to fight, these heroes take up the charge and wage a spiritual war
for the soul of the eight islands.
The adventures, or misadventures, of the heroes can
take any form. The setting is ripe for stories of horror and despair. Comedic
romps with wacky yokai belong in this setting. Intrigue figures well into the
setting, both as a story element or type. The heroes may find themselves in a romance
that may fail or succeed. The main tone of the setting is the heroic. Dangerous
yokai pose threats that normal people cannot hope to defeat, and the heroes,
blessed by the gods, defeat the evil presence alongside those yokai desiring
peace. Samurai turned ronin, renegade ninja, wandering holy persons – from both
the Shinto and Buddhist traditions – wizards, monks, and yokai join forces to
save the eight islands of Japan. Welcome to Yokai
Monogatari.
Comments
Post a Comment