WOD - Kindred Of The East - Core Rulebook.pdf - Kindred of the East - Kurea

£PIDRED or THI EAST

Original Concept and Design: Robert Hatch

•^*~. Additional; jt|esign: Phil Brucato, Jacki

CeiKzyk, Nieky'lKia-

Authors: Justin Achilli, Phil Brucato, Jackie Cassadaj|

iCenczyk, Rjphird'E. Dansky, Rdbert Hatch, lari Lemke>

ea, Ethan Skemp

Mark!

.«'...;:

Developer: Robert Hatch

'Editor: Ed Hall ; ^'"

Art Director: Lawrence Snelly

Layout and Typesetting: Robjsy Poore

Logo Design: Ash Arnett j : ""

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Front and Back Cover Design: Lawrence Snglly

Runchuu Typeface: Ash Arnett and Robby Poore

1 Interior Ar^i Andrew Bates, Tim Bradstreet, Matt Clark,

Mike Danza, Guy Davis, Tony Diterlizzi, John Estes, Jasoffi

, Darren Fryclendall, Michael Gaydos, Doug Alexander

bry, Rebecca Guay, Tony Harris, Leif Jones, Karl Kerchel,

Eric Lacombe, Vince Locke, George Prsitt, Robby Poore, Steve

Prescott, Andrew Ritchie, Matt Roach, Andrew Robinson,

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' Sook Design: Lawrence Snelly, and Robby Pobre

- CalligirapJiy:-Andy Lee

C3Hi STUDIO

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reproduced for personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire the

Masquerade, Vampire the Dark Ages and Mage the

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Apocalypse, Wraith the Oblivion, Changeling the

Dreaming, Werewolf the Wild West and Kindred of the

East are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All

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The mention of or reference to any company or product

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CONTEMTS

PNTRODUCT?ON: BEHIND THE WALL

A|H CHAPTER ONE: Hit HUNGRY DEAD

CHAPTER Two: THE SECOND BREATH

THREE: THE Tin THOUSAND THJNQS

CHAPTER

FOUR: FORCES ?N THE LAND

132

CHAPTER FIVE: ARTS OF THE

CHAPTER Sjx: THE MIDDLE

CHAPTER SEVEN: SroRyrELMNCf

186

CHAPTER E^QHT: ^VALS AND BARBARIANS

£JMD*ED orTHt bur

Tflt WftCC

He steps into.

leather. With a smirk,

had done a marwlows.j

Prime feeding ^atind.? : • , -&•.&?•••#'•.•>*

His mind's eye dancingxvtth samurai flicks, the Ventfue crosses Naka Meguro Street.

Tiny people in bright colors make way for the stranger. None poses any threat. Behind this

man lies the weight o/ centttriii> tf'Cainite's strength and the power of a clan.

.' . ,.:f^:. . • ' • ... . " 4^;:,..,:^,v..

AO easy. . .... i. , -. " . «. , ^

A whistling song cuts through his reverie. And 'KiMi$cl|. ' e

The pavement leaprup t| jn«et the Cainlte-siffBjfly^e^ecomes a blur of nggrirutfar,

street and sky, until a bit of trash brings the

From a distance, he heafs his body spasm and falj.,,, ..,

A flash. A sizzk behind" 'Mat, The smell of cooking meat. AcrdSffhi streelt, he /feels a

hot blade dice him into quarters,:

One final sizzle as the heart dies. Five hundred yeifim die with it. "

copying everything "

and soulless in ike West: \

1 .

No one notices.

•

"Konnichi-wa, gaijin," .says a young man's veieev ,"5s|j|lcome, to my home.

While living .^.^mbuS

Be a dead man,

r J

Be thoroughly de0d' —

And behave as you Sfe,

Arid all's well.

— Zen Master Bunan

JiicFor thousands of years, the Kindred have ravaged the

World of Darkness. Claiming descent from the First Murderer,

Caine, these parasites have riddled Old and New World alike.

The Children of Caine influence, subvert and pervert the

highest echelons of mortal government, economics and cul-

ture. Nothing, they claim, escapes their corrupting touch.

They are wrong.

One realm eludes their clutches: the ancient land of Asia.

Although Asia offers unthinkable riches and oceans of blood,

Kindred who come here do so fearfully. Since the nights of the

galleons, Western vampires' attempts to exploit this land have

met with dismal and horrific failure.

For another sort of vampire rules Asia's nights. These vam-

pires scorn the myth of Caine — for they are cohorts of spirits and

demons. Not for them are the indulgences of generation —

respect, power and age are privileges to be earned. Their curse is not

a random, pointless Embrace, but a karmic debt to be repaid. Their

Beast is not a mindless adversary, but a double-edged weapon/

And, as the Kindred have learned to their dismay, their Easfern

counterparts have developed fearful powers and arcane arts.

Kindred of the East is a sourcebook detailing the unique

vampires indigenous to the Orient: their society, their wars,

their environment, their duties and, above all, their reaction to

the Western incursion. Before we address the vampires of the

East, however, a few notes about their world are in order.

THE MJDDLE KJNGDOM

Westerners have long spoken of Asia's exoticism, of its

alien ways and rules. In the World of Darkness, they are correct,

more so than they realize. The Asian World of Darkness is

referred to as the Middle Kingdom by its supernatural denizens,

and in many ways it is truly a world unto itself.

On the surface, the Middle Kingdom resembles the rest of the

World of Darkness. The same ambience of decay and gloom

shrouds it, highlighting its most sinister aspects. The major cities

are overcrowded hives choked with faceless, impersonal skyscrap-

ers, anonymous hordes of frantic workers, vice tongs, and teeming,

disease-infested slums. In the countryside, rural folk hack a subsis-

tence living — if that — from trackless jungles and defoliant-

saturated craters, all the while praying for protection from the

monsters and spirits they know exist just out of sight. In the Middle

Kingdom, it is all too easy to step around the nearest comer or the

firiext bend in the road, then simply.. .vanish.

In many areas, dictators grind their subjects to paste under gun

butts and tank treads. Every year, thousands of people simply

disappear, never to be heard from again. Government "facilities"

and political prisons are veritable abattoirs; once interned, no one

emerges to tell tales. Ancient families and secret societies manipu-

late entire economies from behind screens of honor and propriety,

while family vendettas from the days of emperors and samurai are

fitwtio THE WAU

•sw

;settled in boardrooms and back alleys alike. Most people are

ingrained simply to look the other way, and thus, even legitimate

investigations often become fruitless endeavors, punctuated by

noncommittal shrug|nnd blank staresi;

. -/•

Like the Western World of Darkness, the Middle Kingdom is

haunted by a variety of supernatural beings, remnants of past Ages

of the world. Vampires prowl the cities and shantytowns, while the

jungles and mountains are home to the shapeshifting hengeyokai.

Wily sorcerers weave their spells in suspiciously nondescript curio

shops, ghosts avenge unhallowed deaths or guard their mortal

families, and faeries curse those who fail to honor the ancient ways.

Although often at odds with one other, these beings differ front

their Western counterparts, for they see themselves as part of a

greater family of spirit beings. Collectively, supernatural beings are

known by many names, but often refer to themselves by the

Chinese word "shen."

Unlike supernaturals in the West, shen take relatively

fewer precautions against discovery. The supernatural here has

less need of Masquerades and Veils, for it is unobtrusive enough

to mind its manners. Conversely, the Middle Kingdom's mor-

tals, as a rule, have learned to ask fewer questions. Let the Night

People walk their road, the amahs say, and they will let you walk

yours — unless joss frowns on you.

THE ypR AHD yAMCf WORLDS

Beyond the Middle Kingdom, separated from it by a

psychic Wall, He entire worlds of gods, spirits and demons.

Those Westerners who are knowledgeable in such matters

speak of the Umbra, the Underworld or the Dreaming. Shen,

however, know that they interact with the dualistic Worlds of

Yin and Yang. Although invisible to mortal eyes, the Yin and

Yang Worlds lie just over the threshold of human conscious-

ness, and sensitive mortals often detect "eerie" aurasjli places

where the barriers are weak. ft § g* ,»,

The Yin World is a gloomy place, the source of passive,

negative energy. Many mortals pass into the Yin World when

they die, and some, become restless ghosts. Eerie spirits and

^phantoms of all descriptions haunt the Yin World, and its

|,central realm is the terrifying Dark Kingdom of Jade.

s : By contrast, the Yang World is a patchwork of wild,

turbulent realms, the source of active, positive energy. Spirits

of nature and the elements dwell there, as do those entities

revered by the shapeshifting hengeyokai. Some mortals, par-

ticularly those from Shinto or animist traditions, pass to the

IjStag World upon their deaths. Shapeshifters and fae, in

particular, are attuned to the Yang World. ;

In the First Age of the world, matter and spirit were one, as was

the design of creation's embodiment, the August Personage of

Jade. As the Ages passed, though, the Yin and Yang Worlds

separated from the Middle Kingdom. Now, a Wall separates the

Middle Kingdom from the spirit worlds, and travel between the

two is an arduous, and often hazardous, process. The forces of Yin

and Yang find it more and more difficult to turn the Great Cycle

of Being, and thus, the Middle Kingdom's essential spiritual

energies grow more and more dissipated. The resulting discord and

imbalance can surely be seen in the current state of the Middle

Kingdom and in the misery of its deni2ens.

I'M

WOD - Kindred Of The East - Core Rulebook.pdf

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