Musings on Haki Shinpi

[Kasumi Rou]

@ Ewencummins,

Haven't looked at it yet. I'm living in Japan and English language books let alone RPG material is hard to come by. Usually just have family sent it to me for X-mas/ B-day. That being said, some of the older adventures like the Rakshaka and Dragon articles I have are good at giving you a basic outline. For research I would say net/ library to try and fill in what is left out. The other problem is a lot of information is spread out all over place.

For example Forgotten Realms, Volo's guides! Some of those are really detailed on places etc.
Take a similar idea and level of detail.

If every bar is serving sake and sushi only in campaign it's only surface deep.
If every temple/ Shrine is a exact duplicate then its surface deep only etc.

[Kasumi Rou]

Anyways to get thread back on track hooks I would use for Shinpi

would be 1st establish if Islands are closed or not! (Japan was only closed for Tokugawa/ Edo bakufu years)
2nd do you have large gaijin population i.e. Similar country/ culture (i.e. China/ Korea and yes they are gaijin as well)
If you are going w/ large population then some one the pc's interact with has a gaijin blood line etc.

If your narrowing it down to smaller Gaijin population i.e. Focusing on ( Europeans in Japan/ Asia etc)
Then an item belonging to/ given to a gaijin hold the spirit and is given to PC or NPC etc
The spirit is dormant and can only come out at night etc until it finds a gaijin (think Talia Winters from B-5)
The ruins of a dwelling, trading mission, etc holds spirit and gives it life until next gaijin comes along etc....

[Deewun]

All of this talk about how authentic or not the domain is has gotten us off of how to use Haki, yeah, thanks for getting us back on track.

I definitely think that the four islands need to be open. I think that symbolically, the idea is that the country cannot thrive on its own with just one island. All four are needed. Each island is missing ... something. Perhaps one of the four has no springs or flowing water? Something along those lines.

I also would personally keep the gaijin population small, but notable. A quick google search finds a rough count that in current Japan the foreign population is 1.5%. I think that's a good number to aim for. 1 or 2 people per 100 are not from Rokushima Taiyoo. And Haki keeps the numbers a little lowers because of his schemes, leaving gaijin in debtor's prisons on one of the four islands.

[Zettaijin]

We forget that this is Ravenloft. People may attempt to sail to the islands but the DPs ultimately decide if they'll make it or not. This is the classic IoT problem - lacking a proper geographical location, reliably getting to and from an island of terror domains is difficult.

In any case, restricting access to water is far too extreme, better they lack ore or their lands be less appropriate for agriculture thus requiring importing food.

Also, Haki Shinpi himself would make sure no one brother ever attempts to overthrow the others using his DL abilities. Which brings up how the DL powers of border closing can be used to prevent invasions from within. After all, the storms would prevent ANY navigation including that between the islands themselves.

As I stated before, Haki's ability to move about his domain is not clearly established. I feel it should be difficult for him to move about the islands as a geist, requiring him to inhabit bodies more often than he would like. This is especially true for crossing bodies of water where the DL could, with major effort, accomplish the feat but would be unable to act in any way for a period of time.

[Zettaijin]

I was in a hurry and left my last post in a somewhat unfinished state, my apologies.

I'll try to (slowly) revise my thoughts on RT and its lord and offer some new perspectives.

The lord: Haki Shinpi never truly felt tragic, so I propose a quick revamp. The man was, in life, a member of the warrior class - a soldier as it were. His skill and loyalty earned him many accolades from the ruling elite as much as his peers and he rose naturally through the ranks. He was part of a new breed of soldiers who valued intellectual pursuits alongside martial ones but never lost sight of his warrior roots.

Over the course of his career, he saw the ruling elite grow decadent and aloof, often more concerned with its own little internal intrigues than with actually ruling the land. Moreover, a "retired" emperor came back to reclaim his lost title and more and more distant lords threatened to declare independence.

Yet, Shinpi was a soldier and it was not his place to question the rulers no matter how incompetent they seemed.

Further stirring the pot was the arrival of foreign ideas which garnered quite a bit of attention and adherence among the intellectual class and, by extension, the ruling aristocracy. According to the teachings of these foreign masters, there was no greater role than that of the learned man and no lesser one than the soldier. No man should give his best son to the army for he would do much greater good as a teacher, scholar, or even better, working for the emperor as a lawmaker or even a scribe.

Shinpi thought little of these foreign masters and, again, felt that reason would triumph in the end.

Then, a great war ensued that would span many more. He was called upon by the emperor to defend the current regime from those who would usurp it and, as he was a loyal and faithful soldier, he did. He fought battles in the outer reaches of the land and disposed of invading barbarians as well as treacherous nobles who forgot their place. He saw a great many of his men die and others crippled, but he was a loyal and faithful man and bound to the men who ruled.

Over time, perhaps under the influence of those foreign masters but possibly simply due to greed and the law of diminishing returns, the warrior class saw itself gaining less and less for their loyalty. The aristocracy and the emperor himself had long since moved away from material rewards to offering up land to the generals and great warriors who fought valiantly. But, the land was never fertile and almost always poor. A retired general could hardly hope to subsist off of it and the warrior class grew increasingly unruly as a result.

Even as his peers pleaded with him to lead a revolt, hoping that his legendary pride in his profession would somehow push him to join them in overthrowing the current regime, he refused. A man's honour is by far the most important of his possessions.

Years passed and it seemed as if the precious order could not be restored and faith in the emperor was declining as numerous lords and ladies vowed their allegiance to the retired emperor and those fallen families that supported him. Again, Shinpi was tasked with bringing down the threat by imperial edict and while he knew that many men he once fought with were now his foes, he could not stray from his responsibilities. Also, he had a family now and knew that their lives would also hang in the balance should he falter.

What Shinpi failed to realize was that the retired emperor was perhaps a better fit for him than he had anticipated. The man knew of Shinpi and his exploits on the battlefield. He also knew of his honourable ways and how he never once betrayed his masters despite having had many chances to do so. So he asked to meet with him and ordered his men to bring him for an audience.

A bold move as Shinpi could simply slash his throat right there and then, but the fallen emperor put his entire trust in Shinpi's sense of honour.

Shinpi was wary of a trap and did not trust this man whose name had long been sullied to the point that he appeared as a ruthess brigand in royal garb. Yet, the general was surprised to find an older, soft spoken man whose eyes had seen as much ugliness as his own. They spoke at length about the state of the land and how divided it was. They were no fool - men had ambitions and the history of the land was hardly as smooth as the tales would have one believe. His own fall from power was portrayed as a willing "retirement" yet he was forced out in a political coup by ambitious families wishing to install a friendlier figurehead. Shinpi knew of this, in fact, he was there to aide in the said coup.

The once emperor asked if Shinpi thought it was honourable to be loyal to a family that would overthrow a long enduring, peaceful regime simply because they were somewhat more prudent toward foreign influences and changes in the order of things. "Are we not but mirror images? When you look at men, do you not see yourself?"

When Shinpi returned to the court he explained that the issues would be resolved shortly and as he bowed, his men began attacking the assembled lords and nobles along with he emperor's men. Shinpi and his army were soldiers and warriors. They were men who killed barbarians and rebels. The men tasked with protecting the court were no match for the might and skill of the soldiers.

The retired emperor would now be able to regain his place in the order of men and pledged to rule not as a figurehead but as a true leader of men. No longer would the soldiers be humiliated, as the great generals would have as much presence as the scholars and poets. As he prepared to greet Shinpi in person, the latter stabbed the would-be returning ruler to death and declared himself to head of the new regime.

Shinpi agreed that he was a mirror image of the retired emperor, but the moment he swore loyalty to a new master is the moment he knew he was no longer a man of unerring loyalty. The new emperor would betray Shinpi if he deemed it politically necessary and, given the ways of regime changes, Shinpi knew he had too many enemies in the court. He himself was the only man he could truly trust.

Shinpi declared boldly that the capital was no longer fit for a ruler. It stank of perfumed letters and a new one would be built in the northern lands where the warriors had gradually been exiled. He would rule as a man not a puppet and return glory to those whose bodies toil for the land.

Bold words indeed, yet he would find it harder to rule under such conditions. Shinpi was a great tactician and, for a soldier, quite learned. He was no stranger to poetry, and while no great master, he could handle himself quite aptly in the arts in general. Usually sober in his judgements, he came to realize the sheer difficulty of ruling. Every day voices would whisper in his ears like flies buzzing about his head. He would swat them away but they would always return. His headstrong move inspired regional lords to revolt in turn, demanding emancipation from ALL central leadership. Nobles planned to have him killed even as he robbed them of their fortunes. Yet another retired emperor thought he would try to regain power through the coffers of a disgraced aristocracy but failed - a coup that cost many lives and brought his mighty army to its knees.

The constant harassment cost him some battles. A great blow to a warrior ruler whose greatest attribute was the soundness of his tactics and unblemished military record.

Distraught, frustrated and even at times humiliated, Shinpi grew increasingly hostile to the people he vowed to honour. The warrior class grew greedy and demanded more food and more land, which Shinpi could not refuse, but this meant that the peasants - already living in abject poverty - were forced to endure even more hardships. The nobles never claimed to be protectors of the men who toil for the land, at least.

Popular revolts grew and Shinpi abdicated in favour of a more traditional regime. He would sit by the side of the new emperor and guide his hand, but he found it difficult to keep others from the emperor's table. It took some time, but he managed to fashion a new court filled with men and women friendly to his ideas and ways but as he did so he gradually fell ill.

Shinpi could not fully enjoy the order he had brought back, neither did he spend time reflecting on how this new order was not all that different from the old one he helped topple.

[Zettaijin]

On Haki Shinpi and his relationship to his sons:

Outside his first born son, the sons of Shinpi were raised mostly by men whom the patriarch had handpicked for their loyalty and skill. These men would recite many tales of their father's heroic deeds and how he saved the land from endless chaos.

None ever doubted the veracity of the tales, although each reached a somewhat different conclusion about the lessons to be learned from them.

Be that as it may, to this day they have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for their late father whom they all see as someone who may have transcended the very limits of humanity: he may have been the greatest hero the land had ever seen and will ever see. For all their pride, none of the four remaining sons feel they will ever surpass their father.

The first son

The first son was to be the heir and take his father's side by the emperor. He was by most accounts just as gifted as his father and born under very favourable omens, however he did lack his father's ruthlessness - possibly since he had not experienced the same hardships as the latter.

Being born into a position of power with little to fear made him somewhat idealistic and naïve, but more importantly trusting. This would be his downfall as his brothers orchestrated his murder shortly after their father's death.

The second son

The second born was, as his brothers, gifted in the martial arts but felt that intellectual matters were perhaps more in line with his interests. He saw his father as a thinking warrior as opposed to a mere brute and admired the way he balanced a solid grasp of scholarly knowledge with martial ability. But more importantly, he felt his father's respect for traditions is what brought order back into the islands. Without his tireless efforts to establish a solid backing of old ways, the new ways ran amuck. One cannot hope to succeed without first mastering the ways of the old masters and showing them the respect they richly deserve.

Before his father's death, he took tonsure and became a lay monk. His father saw in him a means to control the political clout of the religious order. He would go on to write important treatise on religious matters and spirituality and maintained close ties with the more dominant variants of the Order of the Sky Wheel, a foreign religion which was quickly adopted long ago for with it came the written language and, especially code of law.

By the time of his death, Shinpi worried that his second born was losing sight of his brothers' own roles. A worry that would eventually grow into great concern as the others also seemed fairly critical of each other.

The third son

His third born was a powerful child and lacked the patience of his elder brothers. Quick witted to be sure and without a doubt a formidable future general, he was also quick to anger and too often lacked foresight. He respected warrior literature and even saw himself as a patron of the art - provided the arts in question praised the ways of the warrior.

Even as a young boy he could recite the tales of his father's numerous battles and the names of all the men who participated in them. He could recall with great detail every crucial moment of every battle and his keen eye for matters of war allowed him to see the genius of his father's tactics and the failings in those of his adversaries.

He too felt a strong link to the past, remaining quite critical of the apparent "softness" of contemporary warriors. The success brought upon his father's great military victories allowed the warrior class to grow complacent and to forget the hardships they once endured. Associating them with the noble class, which he hates, his men would be warriors first and poets second. One needs to win a battle before writing about it.

Shinpi was proud of his third son's military knowledge and ensured that he would have a prominent role in matters of war. However, while Shinpi agreed that a warrior needs a sharp sword, a sharp mind should also be cultivated. He feared his son's brashness would bring the warrior class closer to what it was in its infancy and remove the respect it acquired over time. Perhaps if he kept him away from more political and diplomatic matters...

The fourth son

The fourth son seemed to have inherited his mother's beauty and grace. Even as a young age, many nobles sent perfumed letters containing delicately crafted poems to try and gain his favour. Some warriors secretly considered making him their squire or wakizashi in hopes of perhaps sharing a few nights in his company.

It should be said that while he quickly realized that his appearance was a powerful tool, his biting tongue and stinging wit were also very much appreciated by the remaining nobility. And let us not forget that as a son of Haki Shinpi he was given strict martial training making him a match for many of the land's greatest soldiers. Yet, he preferred to abstain from violent conflict in order to preserve his youthful looks.

Obviously, he grew up quickly and learned to manipulate the silly nobles through their complex games of whispers and secret affairs. Behind the sliding doors even the proudest, mightiest and richest men could be made to prostrate himself.

Even though he has read the poems more times than he remembers, he often still weeps while reciting his father's prose. Haki Shinpi's bittersweet ode to fallen comrades in arms remains a favourite of his. To his mind, his father was perhaps not a pioneer but clearly the greatest example of the warrior as artist. He even saw beauty in his father's fabled battles with every one being akin to a deadly dance. Any artist may create a masterpiece given enough time, but few will have truly lived their art like his father did.

And as a being of such exceptional beauty, he would develop a great affinity for the arts and support a great number of artists in different fields. A valuable endeavour to be certain, but his father felt he was squandering money on art that had little value beyond an aesthetic one. And also, he worried that while his son kept the aristocracy busy with infighting and intrigue, the boy didn't seem to have a proper end game and was enjoying the "game" for its own sake rather than a means to an end. And beyond that, the men he kept in his company included petty, dangerous and quite jealous individuals who could end his life at any time.

The fifth son

The fifth son was somewhat of a disappointment for Haki Shinpi. While exceptional when compared to most, he lacked his brothers' skills and affinities. He could hold his own in a fight, true, and he was always clever, but this did not make him much of an heir should his brothers fall. Still, Shinpi did notice that the boy had an eye for value and a certain gift for negotiations. He would try, and often succeed in, swindling his superiors.

With time, the fifth son came to associate with shadowy individuals and had a wide array of assassins, spies, and rogues at his beck and call. He would even create an elaborate system of proxies to deal with some of the more undesirable elements so as to better combat them.

He too looked up to his father, seeing in him a man who understood his interests and how to best further them. Here was a man who saw traditions and ancient ways as weapons. Here is a man who outsmarted the chaos to bring order by appearing less important and ruling from the side. He knew full well that the emperor was nothing without his father and vowed to never forget how the patriarch of the family quickly and efficiently established their power base.

Right until his death, Shinpi worried about his son. True, he abdicated the throne to rule from the shadows, but he did it to preserve what he felt was a proper order of things and prevent the injustice that befell he and other members of the warrior class. His son's lack of reverence toward the warrior class was a terrible blow, but he sought to use the boy's contacts to at least protect his heirs from unfortunate "accidents".

The sixth son

His last son was nearly disowned, but Shinpi was stubborn and felt he would manage to bring the best of of this limited boy.

Firstly, the boy lacked both the pleasing traits of his mother and his father's constitution. He was somewhat weak and lacking; so much so that even a strict regimen of physical exercise and martial training only made him the equal of a lower tier soldier.

He did seem clever enough to understand the sutra and even discuss them, although his older brother and second son of Shinpi did not approve his conclusions. Indeed, he seemed fascinated with the strange esoteric cults which formed in the northern mountains as well as those which made their home in the capital.

Usually, the Order of the Sky Wheel did not particularly care what fringe groups decided to do, however these individuals were gaining popular support thanks to a less sutra-centric approach to their beliefs. Shinpi thought that perhaps his youngest son could aide his second one in maintaining some manner of control over these odd radicals.

The art world was also afflicted with the disease of chaos as troupes of prostitutes joined brigands in performing lewd and critical acts which they called "theatre" - although it barely resembled any established forms of acting. These groups were suspected of harbouring a political agenda. Shinpi was in luck, his sixth son was the one who discovered them and brought them to his attention.

Given the boy's strange fascination with counter-culture groups and those who wished to stray from the path of tradition, Shinpi tasked his men with pursuing the boy's academic learning while keeping an eye on him so that these radicals did not poison his easily warped mind.

Somehow, the boy saw in his father a great rebel. A man who broke with traditions when he saw them as a burden and celebrated his father's obvious betrayal of his two masters. Oddly enough, this version of the events, albeit true, were never explicitly or implicitly involked in his presence and indeed Shinpi would have put to death anyone calling him a rebel or a traitor.

The boy was barely on the cusp of adulthood when his father died and he himself would not live to see his coming of age ceremony...

[Zettaijin]

Haki Shinpi post death and Darklordship

Powers and abilities/limitations

Shinpi is a greater geist, but in may ways his abilities make him closer to an odem as he can take over the body of mortals for a time. Sadly for Shinpi, it is difficult for the Darklord to take over the bodies of more capable individuals and as such he is forced to inhabit merchants, labourers and even derelicts instead of nobles, warriors or monks.

This serves the purpose of giving him a means of interacting with the world yet at the same time humbling him. The people who most suffered under his rule are free for him to inhabit yet he cannot rejoin his former peers.

Also, blood relatives - even somewhat distant ones - cannot be possessed by Shinpi.

Furthermore, foreigners are offered a chance to resist the invading geist Darklord as opposed to local commoners who are automatically taken over. The experience of taking over a foreigner leaves Shinpi somewhat confused and he prefers to avoid doing so unless necessary for his plans. Unlike natives, foreigners can also shield their minds to some degree. While Shinpi can access the thoughts and memories of a native commoner with ease upon taking over his or her body, a foreigner's would be much more difficult.

Lastly, with local commoners, Shinpi may inhabit a body for well over a week if he chooses to. He rarely does as he feels somewhat disgusted by the thought of living within the body of someone so low. However, traveling through his domain often requires him to take over a body for longer than he would like. Were he to stay longer than this rough period of time, the body would slowly attempt to reject Shinpi and, given enough time, would succeed. Even the lowliest beggar cannot be a host forevermore.

Shinpi's entering and exiting of a body requires careful planning as he cannot return to a former host until at least a day has passed and, in some cases, longer.

Another power granted by the Dark Powers is the ability to cast minor illusions affecting only one sense at a time and even then, these illusions are not powerful enough to do much more than create fear or confusion. Still, Shinpi found this to be a way to have some measure of influence on the still superstitious warriors, priests and nobles who interpret these signs as the movement of the Kami.

Also, with some effort, Shinpi can heighten certain negative emotions such as fear, anger and frustration and, with weaker individuals, cause them outright.

As with most Darlords, Shinpi has control over the borders of his domain and may close them at will. Control over the weather within the islands is a bit more limited, however. He can force storms to occur in certain regions, especially during the monsoon seasons, once a day. This leaves him quite weak and he prefers avoiding using this ability, although his rage has been known to trigger this ability automatically. For the most part he reserves it for those time when one son feels bold enough to attempt a takeover.

Also in keeping with typical Darklord abilities, he is aware of those entering his domain and powerful outsiders cannot hide their presence at all unless the DP decide otherwise.

Shinpi can travel without fatigue and is unhindered by most minor obstacles but he cannot simply phase through a mountain or cross over to another island. Despite his best efforts, he quickly finds himself blocked and requires a body. It should be noted that his movement speed is slower than average and thus it is often more advantageous for him to overtake a traveling merchant or trader to reach his destination.

Last, he is able to see and hear his four remaining sons at all time if he so chooses. Distance is not an issue although he can only see and hear what transpires within a very limited radius centered around a given son. As such, it is entirely possible for Shinpi to be unable to see and hear a retainer discussing with one of his sons if the two are far enough apart.

Reading a document held by one of his sons is also difficult if not impossible.

Current sketch

Over time, Shinpi has come to understand his abilities and their limits. He is still too proud to make full use of them which hampers the success of his schemes greatly.

He spends more time than he would like trying to maintain a semblance of order within his domain often finding himself causing distractions for his sons to keep them from invading each other.

His initial attempts at communicating with powerful figures within the domain and using his former status as regent to convince them of cooperating with his plans have lead to the death of countless individuals as the sons refuse to believe that their father would communicate with anyone but them first and, even worse, oppose their plans.

However, recently, Shinpi has made contact with a man related to a short lived retired emperor. His bloodline has long since been forgotten and he lives a rather simple life now (well, simple by the standards of the disgraced nobility). Shinpi is toying with the idea of having his sons forced to accept a new monarch through their retainers. If he can get a majority of powerful individuals to pledge allegiance to a new emperor, then the sons may be forced to go along. As such, he is trying to groom the somewhat aloof disgraced noble into a proper ruler. The man is difficult and pessimistic and Shinpi finds himself raging at his inability to influence the man as he feels he should.

At the same time, the growing presence of the Church of Ezra worries him. The foreigners have a distinctly different view with regards to how matters of faith work in Rokushima Taiyoo. Rather than combining the best elements of each one and discarding what if unneeded, they try to impose a single, united way. He fears that the foreigners may ignite revolts and violence - as if the constant threats of invasions of each of his sons weren't enough.

Also, their advanced technology means that the fifth son is gaining an edge over his brothers.

Shinpi has also been hearing faint echoes which do not belong to either of his four surviving sons yet feel quite familiar. Could his fallen sons still be alive?