In addition to the manifold dilemmas presented by the Kindred, rival shen and the P'o, Kuei-jin disciples learn to fear another peril. According to the Kuei-jin's most ancient myths, it was the original responsibility of the Cathayan race as a whole to battle the depredations of a group of dreadful spirit beings, collectively known as the Yama Kings. In the Fifth Age, the Yama Kings still exist; they are evil spirits and demons of the highest order. They wait in the darkness of the Yomi World, but their minions burrow through the Middle Kingdom like maggots through a corpse. The Yama Kings' demonic nature gives them an uncanny amount of control over a Kuei-jin's P'o, and they enjoy nothing more than subverting their ancestral enemies' loyalties.
These dreadful beings are believed to have been created soon after the world's beginning. Originally powerful servants of Heave, the Yama Kings disgraced their posts through gluttony and greed for Chi, whereupon they were exiled to the farthest reaches of the Yomi World. A few Kuei-jin scholars dispute this detail, and claim that even the Yama Kings serve Heaven in their appointed roles as instigators of strife and turmoil. In the Fifth Age, it matters little: The Yama Kings are demons and masters of demons. It is their role to foment misery, punish the wicked and test the mettle of the pre. Their spies are numerous and everywhere; little in the Middle Kingdom or the spirit world escapes their notice.
The precise number of Yama Kings is unknown; some sources say nine, others ten, and a few sutras list dozens. A few names have survived the Ages. Mikaboshi, Ruler of the Wicked City of Yin; Emma-o, Lord of the Shikome Hell; Tou Mu, Queen of teh Bell of Being Skilled Alive; Rangda, Mistress of Pestilence. They are rarely met, as they prefer to act through their servants: evil spirits, malignant ghosts, goblin spiders and other foul creatures.
Although it was originally the Kuei-jin's role to guard the world's Chi against the rapacity of the Yama Kings, the vampires succumbed to their own hungers and became little better than their ancient foes. Indeed, many Kuei-jin have come to worship and revere the Yama Kings, fatalistically rationalizing that, since the Yama Kings' superiority through the swearing of vassalage. Among younger Kuei-jin, some see service to the Yama Kings as an easy ticket to worldly power and endless Chi. Both sorts of vampires are known as akuma: devils. In exchange for oaths of loyalty (commonly sworn during the akuma-to-be's nightmares), the Yama Kings provide power and Chi to their servants.
The Great Cycle's devolution, particularly the coming of the foreign devils and their Kindred parasites, is likewise thought to be a stratagem of the Yama Kings. Many Kuei-jin believe that, come the Sixth Age, the August Personage of Jade itself will abdicate its celestial throne, and the mightiest Yama King will rise to take its place. This figure will become the Demon Emperor and will lead the other Yama Kings in an orgy of destruction that will consume Middle Kingdom and spirit worlds alike.
Some Cathayans exhort a return to their ancestral duties as warriors against the Yama Kings, while others shrug and go about their business, resigned to whatever fate Heaven has in store. In any event, the myth of the Demon Emperor sounds suspiciously similar to the Kindred's legends of Ghenna. For Cathayans, this correspondence is one more proff that the Kindred are the dupes of demons, and thus, should be exterminated as efficiently and mercilessly as possible.
