Birthrights - The Shén

CREATURES

Animal Officers: They might start out wild and dangerous, but if you beat them up and/or expose them to the Way of Laozi or Buddha or someone else reputable, various sentient animals will faithfully serve you in whatever way you need. The Dragon King Ao Guang, for example, commands crab generals, shrimp amazons, bream provincial commanders, and crocodile ministers in addition to his own draconic family. Many of these animals can shapeshift into human or demonic forms to blend in or raise hell.

FOLLOWERS

Triads: “Triad,” denoting a Chinese crime family (or one of its members) in common English parlance, comes from the name of the Three Harmonies Society (Sanhe Hui), a well-known branch of the older clandestine fraternal organization originally called the Heaven and Earth Society (Tiandi Hui). Many modern Triads pay lip-service to popular deities such as Guan Yu, but are otherwise entirely secular. A few, though, hearken back to their earliest Qing-era roots as ardent Shén devotees. Fundamentally, like many worldwide organized crime outfits, an old-school Triad is a community support organization that relies on donations and volunteer efforts from a lower-class community to look after its most vulnerable members. Triads are often politically active as well, supporting candidates and causes; many American Triads, for example, support the Taiwanese government over the Chinese Communist government — a conflict about which the Shén are studiously silent. But with friends like the Triads, maybe you could tip the scales the way you want without Huangdi noticing…. The Wudang Clan: This ancient Daoist priesthood devotes itself to political meddling and internal alchemy in equal measure. Rumor has it that they have their hooks in everything from the Chinese government to the financial services sector to the record industry. They practice several ancient martial styles, especially the internal schools — supreme ultimate boxing, form-mind boxing, and the eight-trigram palm — which align with their alchemical expertise. Challengers to their machinations should know they are nothing to fuck with.

RELICS

Any natural feature or piece of hardware that allows a God or mortal to ascend quickly and easily to Heaven is called a sky ladder. Many sky ladders are physical-terrain features anyone may climb to get to one precinct or another in Heaven, such as ancient trees or sacred mountains like Kunlun. You can also get a portable version in the form of a collapsible ladder, grapnel gun, or similar climbing aid; the Òrìshà, who also employ sky ladders to get to their Heaven, like golden chains. Especially outside the Middle Kingdom, where natural sky ladders are rare, a pocket sky ladder is a great way to keep in touch with your superiors, or escape to your office when your ex shows up.

Somersault clouds are the best way to travel. A somersault cloud is just that: a fluffy cloud, about a meter in diameter, which looks even in real life like it’s been drawn with brush and ink, or maybe crayons. Hop on and your feet will sink and lock into the vapor, which feels like cotton candy under your feet (but isn’t quite as sticky). Lean in a direction and the cloud speeds off with you attached. With a little practice you can rise, drop, twirl, and otherwise manipulate it like a space-age hoverboard (except it won’t catch on fire or explode).

Many Shén of high station rule a specific constellation. You can have one too! A constellation is a group of burning plasma balls an unimaginable distance away in space, but also conveniently located in Heaven. A handful of lights in the sky can communicate a vast quantity of information, or inspire individuals to feats of storytelling or art. By controlling the twinkle of those stars just so, you control how they speak to those beneath.