#The 3 Human Conspiracies
Contents
Canon. Defines the human primary antagonist factions for an Edo campaign.
#Scent — The Door Humans Open
The most dangerous doors in Edo are not opened by yoma. Documents erased with a black brush, seals set in reverse, and a famous blade placed on the gambling table open the door. Humans fear yoma while trying to convert that fear into power, knowledge, and money.
#Law — Using the Conspiracies
- The heads of conspiratorial factions are human. Yoma can be tools, deal-makers, victims, or the runaway results of their work.
- Each of the three factions poses a different question: records, experiments, merchandise. When placing two or more in the same incident, do not let their roles overlap.
- When using one as the campaign's primary antagonist, leave one trace and one loss in every scenario.
#Scene Commentary — Humans Leave a Longer Mark
Human conspiracies must be more realistic than yoma to be frightening. Black-Tag Office changes the paper; Hidden Hannya reads seals backward; Black-Tag Gang sets a price on fear. They do not appear like great monsters. They appear through the ledger left behind after the incident is over, the wrong death record, and the famous blade that was sold.
This is also why the leaders are kept human. If yoma are the source of evil, cutting them down might end it. But a human organization leaves behind successors, ledgers, and contacts. Even when PCs win, the faction's habits remain and open the next incident.
How to distinguish the 3:
- Black-Tag Office attacks with "what was never recorded."
- Hidden Hannya unsettles "the line at which something can still be called human."
- Black-Tag Gang creates "the moment when what cannot be sold gets sold."
#Session Application — Leaving Human Traces
- First scene: the site holds a ledger that was incorrectly corrected, a changed family registry, and a suspicious receipt before any claw marks.
- Complication: even after capturing the yoma, money, documents, and experiment records keep moving.
- Closing question: will the PCs be satisfied with defeating a monster, or will they trace the humans who needed it?
#The 3 Factions
| Faction | Core |
|---|---|
| Black-Tag Office | Documents, censorship, family registries, temple registration, Spirit Realm gate record manipulation |
| Hidden Hannya | Fiend transformation, possession, oni-transformation, karakuri and occult experiments |
| Black-Tag Gang | Gambling, pleasure quarters, smuggling, yoma artifact market, kept ronin |
#Using the Detail Documents
This document is the overview of the 3 human conspiracies. When using any organization as a PC faction, primary antagonist, recurring ally, or traitor in an actual campaign, refer to the individual detail document.
| Need | Reference |
|---|---|
| Record erasure, arrest warrants, censorship, vanished registries | Black-Tag Office |
| Enryokan remnants, possession treatment, oni-transformation, reversed seal experiments | Hidden Hannya |
| Yoma artifact auctions, pleasure quarter and ferry violence, kept ronin | Black-Tag Gang |
#Common Principles
The leaders of human conspiracies are not yoma. They do not lack fear of yoma — they fear yoma while trying to exploit them. This is the difference from the Hundred-Tale Society. The Hundred-Tale Society tries to protect yoma names and whereabouts; the human conspiracies convert yoma into documents, experiments, and merchandise.
#Conspiratorial Factions After the Enryokan
The collapse of the Enryokan was a major turning point for the human conspiracies. The library, specimens, and negotiation records the shogunate failed to secure scattered across Edo, and the ones who moved fastest to fill that gap were Black-Tag Office, Hidden Hannya, and Black-Tag Gang.
| Faction | How they use Enryokan remnants |
|---|---|
| Black-Tag Office | Manipulate Enryokan arrest warrants, forbidden-text lists, and disappearance records to remove political opponents |
| Hidden Hannya | Absorb escaped descendants and research notes, twisting coexistence research into possession, oni-transformation, and fiend transformation experiments |
| Black-Tag Gang | Sell vanished specimens, yoma artifacts, and torn illustrations from archives as auction lots and blackmail material |
Not all Enryokan descendants became villains. Some survived as shogunate collaborators; some still believe in the possibility of coexistence between yoma and humans. But descendants outside shogunate protection are easily treated as dangerous elements, and the only places they can hide are often dark corners like Hidden Hannya. This tragedy is what feeds the Edo-style conspiracies.
#Black-Tag Office
Black-Tag Office is the faction that controls records. They hide inside the shogunate's archives, temple registrations, censorship bureaus, family registries, and domain reports, and change the shape of events.
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Representative leaders | Senior councillor's aides, document bureaucrats, temple registration officials |
| Adversaries | Corrupt inspectors, document-forgery scholars, doshin who enforce silence |
| Incidents | A village that disappeared, a daimyo who does not exist, a Spirit Realm gate erased from the record |
| Theme | If the truth was never recorded, did it happen? |
#Hidden Hannya
Hidden Hannya is the successor ideology of the Hannya Society and the shadow that absorbed the most Enryokan descendants. They do not worship yoma. They study them. Oni-transformation, possession, fiend transformation, and the fusion of karakuri with Spirit Realm remnants is their domain.
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Representative leaders | Onmyo officials, medical scholars, apostate monks, artisan patrons |
| Adversaries | Possessed daimyo, killing-demon swordmasters, oni-transformed warriors, karakuri assassins |
| Incidents | Dojo experiments, domain succession manipulation, seal dismantlement, yoma core implantation |
| Theme | Can humans control yoma? |
#Black-Tag Gang
Black-Tag Gang is a market. Gambling dens, pleasure quarters, ferry crossings, warehouses, merchant companies, and theater patrons are intertwined to buy and sell yoma artifacts and Kaidan.
| Element | Details |
|---|---|
| Representative leaders | Gambling bosses, merchant company agents, pleasure-quarter proprietors, theater patrons |
| Adversaries | Yakuza Enforcers, kept ronin, yoma artifact appraisers, smuggling escorts |
| Incidents | Cursed famous-blade auctions, yoma exhibitions, Kaidan performance manipulation |
| Theme | Can fear be sold? |
#Rationale for Three Factions
The reason for limiting the conspiracies to 3 is to make them memorable in a campaign and to ensure each faction poses a different question.
Black-Tag Office asks "what gets recorded." Hidden Hannya asks "how far can something still be called human." Black-Tag Gang asks "how far can buying and selling go."
"Yoma come from beyond the door. But it is always humans who put a price on the door."