The Two
For all Kuei-jin, regardless of ethnic background of homeland, there exists in myth a pair of beings, called the Two, believed to have created the East's vampires. The identities of the Two vary from region to region, as different mythologies and creation myths ake hold, but most Carthayans accept that this pair of individuals, one male and one female, by their actions and interactions, ordained Kuei-jin existence. The Two represent the incarnations of Yin and Yang, whose interaction with the opposition to each other maintain the balance and the integrity of the universe.
Unlike Caine, whose identity and exploits are firmly established in Kindred lore, the identities and myths surrounding the Two vary among Cathayans. When speaking across cultural and national lines within the Middle Kingdom, Kuei-jin often default to calling them the Ebon Dragon and the Scarlet Queen, in order not to offend others' perceptions of their nature.
The female Scarlet Queen personifies the force of Yang for Kuei-jin: the creative, initiating, kinetic force of the universe. The warriors, artists and hellraisers among Cathayans consider themselves to be subjects of the Scarlet Queen; many of these Cathayans employ specific rituals and homages to her. The Scarlet Queen, so the myths say, first provided life to men and women: In her Chinese guise of Na Kua she created the first human beings; as the Japanese Izanami she gave birth to the islands that compose Japan. She is the guardian of emotion, ecstasy and the fire nature, and vampire aspected to Yang give thanks to the Scarlet Queen for allowing them to live and feel again.
In contrast, the Ebon Dragon symbolizes the Yin force, the contemplative, reflective, meditative half of existence. The sages, hermits and judges of the Kuei-jin follow the Ebon Dragon in his many passive forms. In China, the Ebon Dragon is Hun dun, the deposed judge of the Underworld to whom the humans created by Na Kua went when they died; in Korea, he is Hwan-ung who spent 100 days in darkness in his quest for immortality. The Ebon Dragon is the bellwether to the Scarlet Queen, the counterweight to unbridled passions and absent self-control. Yin-centered vampires believe in study and reflection, in meticulously controlled rituals to understand their true nature and, they hope, to transcend their karmic state.
Keui-jin see themselves as the children of the Dragon and the Queen. Unlike many spirits, the vampires are neither fully of Yin nor fully of Yang, but suspended between these two. It was for this reason that they were chosen to return to the Middle Kingdom, that they might guard and guide its inhabitants.