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The Origins of the Kuei-jin

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Yayoi
Captain

Super Sex Symbol

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:23 am


The sword that kills the man
Is the sword that saves the man.
-- Ekat, The Gateless Gate

Cathayans do not view themselves as descendants of Caine, nor do they believe in evolution on their race to have any ties to the Western clans. In fact, most Kuei-jin scoff at the self-importance that many Kindred afford themselves, especially when the Westerners boast of their closeness to the Third Mortal. To Kuei-jin who have heard of the barbarians from the West tell such stories, Caine was nothing more than an insignificant farmer, and a murderer on top of that. A rather ignominious ancestry for an entire race of supernaturals -- and many Kuei-jin believe that the Kindred's unlifestyle of vice, anarchy, megalomania and destruction is a fitting legacy for such an unflattering sireship.

By contrast, say the Kuei-jin, they are the descendants of gods, hybrid beings of matter and spirit. True, many Kuei-jin see themselves as a species in disgrace, having lost their place in the karmic order. Nonetheless, unlike the Children of Caine, Kuei-jin realize the magnitude of their position, and some among them even hope to reattain their honored state. Even vampires who scoff at this premise and believe the Sixth Age to be at hand seek, nonetheless, to face it with dignity. Not for the Kuei-jin is the self-indulgent whining of the Kindred. "If it is our karma to be deomts," reads the Red Book of the Iron Bridge, "then we must happily leap into Hell."

The specific origins and mythological chronicles of the Kuei-jin are as fragmentary as those of the Western Kindred, perhaps even more so. What fables do survive, passed down through at least seven millennia is either oral or documentary forms, speak of eras and worlds trasncending the mortal one.
PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:33 am


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.

Yayoi
Captain

Super Sex Symbol


Yayoi
Captain

Super Sex Symbol

PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 8:40 am


Yin and Yang


The concept of Yin and Yang is one of the oldest and most prevalent in Asian philosophy. To the earlier Chinese philosophers, the universe was a dynamic entity, set and kept in motion by the forces of Yin and Yang. Yin is regarded as the passive force in nature, its reactive quotient; Yang is the active force, the initiator. Yin and Yang have been and are applied in Asian thought across a broad spectrum of concepts, both abstract and practical. This concept of action-reaction effectively separates everything into polar opposites: light/dark, male/female, etc. From the dynamism of these opposites acting upon each other, the world and the larger universe move in relative harmony and balance.

Cathayans know the forces of Yin and Yang well, as undead, they are suspended between the negative Yin pole of death and the positive Yang pole of life. Chi, the force on which Kuei-jin feed, is invariably aspected to either Yin or Yang, Yin and Yang also appear in much of Kuei-jin philosophy and mythology, from the first genesis of the Kuei-jin race to modern relations among various groups of vampires. Many Keui-jin wu and courts see themselves as embodying one of these two forces: There are courts devoted to a specific definition and practice of Yin and ones likewise dedicated to Yang. More temperate Kuei-jin believe that even they are in some sort of position to each other in this regard, and that they normal spiritual forces and practical activities of their various courts effectively balance each other.
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Kindred of the East Info

 
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