#About This Book — Heian Yawa
Contents
Fiction-Only. This document guides the character, scope, and reading method of this volume. The sheets and mechanics are handled in other documents.
#Opening Fragment — A Room Thick with Incense
When the smell of incense is too thick, the smell of blood comes late. The noble laughed, the lady-in-waiting bowed her head, and the onmyoji checked the direction of the stars once more.
"This room is at peace," the master said. "There is song, there is incense, and the moonlight is fine too."
The onmyoji did not answer. He was watching a black stain that had seeped beneath the threshold. The stain was not blood. Not yet. "The more peaceful the room, the later one comes to know what it is that has entered."
The lady-in-waiting asked quietly. "Then what should we do?"
"Do not stop laughing," the onmyoji said. "In Heian, if you reveal fear too quickly, fear takes the room before courtesy does. But when I affix the talisman, let no one look toward the folding screen."
This volume deals with such rooms — an age in which elegance does not erase fear, but makes the gate through which fear enters all the more beautiful.
#The Character of This Volume
Heian Yawa is a reading + data blended resource set against the four hundred years of the Heian era. It sits in the middle tone of its two predecessor volumes.
| fc02 "Sengoku Fudoki" | fc04 this volume | fc03 "Nihon Kengo Retsuden" | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Center of gravity | Scent (narrative) | Scent + Law in parallel | Law (sheets) + Scent (narrative) |
| Weight of data | almost none | medium (figure sheets · Onmyodo additional spells · samurai variant) | strong (sheets for 12 swordmasters) |
| Tone | folkways prose | the sentiment of monogatari + precise rules | a chronicle of swordmasters |
This volume keeps prose dominant like fc02, yet where mechanics are needed it sheets them precisely like fc03.
#What This Volume Contains
- 794~1185, four hundred years (center of gravity in the 10th–12th centuries)
- 5 figures — Seimei · Yorimitsu + the Shitenno · Michizane · Murasaki Shikibu · Kiyomori
- three yoma incidents — Shuten-doji · Tsuchigumo/Rashomon · Tamamo-no-Mae
- six mechanic modules — Yabusame samurai · Kuge PC · Seimei school · Doman school · 33-class Heian guide · spirit-realm model
- two scenario-seed bundles — aristocratic (court) · mountain (yoma)
#What This Volume Does Not Cover
| Item | Reason not covered | Alternative |
|---|---|---|
| full-scale sheets for Yoshitsune · Benkei | this volume concentrates on the five Heian figures | fc03-99-01-kenshi-roster.md swordmaster roster / co-09-09-minamoto-specter.md heroic-spirit scenario |
| full-scale sheets for myth-grade yoma | fc01 principle: a set with the scenario (no statting allowed) | fc01-99-02-not-in-scope.md |
| later swordsmanship schools (post-Heian) | this volume is the bow-and-horse-centered Yabusame samurai variant | fc03 main volume |
| post-Kamakura shogunate | this volume's terminus is 1185, Dan-no-ura | follow-on volumes: fc02 (Sengoku) or fc05 (Edo) |
#The Two Faces of This Volume
#One Face — Reading
The sentiment, poetry, daily life, and yoma tales of Heian. Prose read in a single breath. Short fictional intros for the five figures and narrative expositions for the three yoma.
#The Other Face — Mechanics
Yabusame samurai variant rules, the Kuge PC Guide, the additional spells of the two Onmyodo schools from 1st to 10th dan, the 33-class Heian application guide, and the Heian spirit-realm model. Mechanics, precisely — Energy, Wounds, Target Number, and distance all specified.
The two faces are divided within one volume, yet they do not negate each other. You may begin with reading and enter the mechanics, or set out from the mechanics and return to reading.
#Tone Guide
- The sentiment of monogatari (物語): the cadence of Heian literature, where elegance and sorrow coexist
- An age in which noble and yoma share a room: coexistence over fear, tension within coexistence
- A foreboding of the end draped over four hundred years of peace: the sense of time that ends at 1185, Dan-no-ura
#Time Baseline
- 794 — relocation of the capital to Heian-kyo (Kyoto)
- 1185 — the fall of the Heike at Dan-no-ura → the beginning of the Kamakura shogunate → the end of Heian
The earlier era (the Nara period and so on) and the later era (the Kamakura shogunate) lie outside this volume's scope. This volume's sequel jumps not to Kamakura but to fc02 (the Sengoku era) or fc05 (Edo) — how Heian's spiritual reverberation carries on into later ages is told in this volume's 99-00 closing words and in the follow-on volumes.
#Solo Play — With co Alone
This volume can be played solo with co alone. At a table that does not use ex2, the Onmyodo additional spells (05-03 · 05-04) are not opened, and only the body of the co onmyoji class is used. The Seimei-school and Doman-school spells are reinforcements exclusive to campaigns that use the ex2 spell structure.
The connection with fc01 (Shinseiki) · fc02 (Sengoku Fudoki) · fc03 (Nihon Kengo Retsuden) is compatibility, not dependency. Even if you bring only this volume, both reading and play hold up.
#Recommended Reading Order
| Rank | Document group | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | era overview (01) | the baseline of Heian's four hundred years |
| 2 | the spells of the two Onmyodo schools (05-03 · 05-04) | the core of the onmyoji and spell operation |
| 3 | Yabusame samurai (05-01) | the premise of the 5-figure Yorimitsu sheets in 03-02 |
| 4 | Kuge PC Guide (05-02) | the premise of the figure sheets in 03-03 · 03-04 |
| 5 | the five figures (03) | the central figures of this volume |
| 6 | the three great yoma incidents (04) | the great incidents the figures encounter |
| 7 | the 33-class guide (05-05) | era fit |
| 8 | the spirit-realm model (05-06) | scenario background |
| 9 | scenario seeds (06) | the place where the PCs meet this volume's incidents |
| 10 | meta · closing words (00 · 99) | the ordering of scope and conclusion |
#References
#co
co-99-meta/co-99-03-fc-spec.md— fc series specificationco-99-meta/co-99-04-fc-register.md— fc supplement-volume register
#fc predecessor volumes (about-style reference)
fc01-00-01-about.md— Shinseikifc02-00-01-about.md— Sengoku Fudokifc03-00-01-about.md— Nihon Kengo Retsuden
Elegance is not an ornament, but the thinnest veil that conceals fear.