#The Spirit Realm Gate — Heian Model
Contents
Campaign Module (fc04 internal only). This document does not overwrite the Sengoku Spirit Realm model of
fc02-01-03-realm-split.md. It is an alternate setting for the Heian era, of lower authority than the worldbuilding Canon ofco. Placing a different model for each era is the purpose of this document.
#Opening Fragment — The Thin Ceiling
The ceiling of the noble's manor had an old stain. It was not a leak, nor was it from rising smoke. And yet, night after night, that stain shifted a little.
When a lady-in-waiting moved to fetch a ladder, the onmyoji stopped her. "Do not touch it. That thing is not above us."
"If the ceiling stain is not above us, then where is it?"
The onmyoji did not answer for a long while. Then he said, low: "It overlaps. The ceiling of this room, and the floor of another night."
In that moment, a single drop fell from the stain. The drop that touched the tatami did not wet it but spread out black. Everyone in the room held their breath.
The Heian Spirit Realm is not a gate opened in some far-off place. Like the ceiling of the court, the back of a folding screen, the dark of the sleeping chamber, it already overlaps with living space. It is close enough to touch if you reach out — and so it is the more fearsome.
#Scent — The Shadow on the Ceiling
One autumn night of Enkyu (延久). The dwelling of a certain Fujiwara branch house. A noble sleeps in his own chamber. About an hour into the dead of night — he wakes. Waking, he looks at the ceiling.
On the ceiling — there is a shadow.
The shadow is neither the form of a person nor of a beast. It is merely a black mark, and the mark is not stuck to the ceiling but watches him from inside the ceiling. The noble brings his hands together and recites a mantra. The single mantra he had learned — received from his mother. While he recites it, the shadow only watches him. When the mantra ends, the shadow — vanishes.
The next day he calls an onmyoji. The onmyoji examines the chamber. "The Barrier is weak. Let us affix a talisman to the ceiling." The onmyoji affixes a talisman and departs. After that, the shadow never comes again.
The noble does not record the matter in his diary. In Heian — such things happen often. It is not a matter worth recording in a diary.
#This Document's Place
The Sengoku period (fc02-01-03-realm-split.md) = "the gate of the Spirit Realm opened wide" — all yoma are in the same world.
The Heian period = a different model is needed. This document defines the "manner of opening" of the Heian Spirit Realm.
"Faint gates everywhere" — the Spirit Realm is neither closed nor opened wide.
#The Three Features of the Heian Spirit Realm
#1. The Boundary Between the Spirit Realm and This World Is Thin — Yet Not Closed
Heian is an era of a hazy boundary. It is not that there are no closed gates — rather, gates are everywhere.
Everywhere:
- in the mountains (mountain ascetic grounds)
- by the river (near the bridges)
- the mountain pass (foothills such as Mt. Oe)
- the bridges (Shijo Bridge, Rashomon)
- the outer reaches of the palace (even the Seiryoden — Michizane's lightning strike)
- the temples (the ritual sites of Tendai and Shingon temples)
"Even the palace's Seiryoden is a gate of the Spirit Realm" — Michizane's lightning strike (the year 930) proves it. Even in the most protected place within the capital, the Spirit Realm opens.
#2. The Hyakki Yako = The Spirit Realm Briefly Enters This World
The Hyakki Yako of fc04-02-01-hyakkiyako.md is the clearest example of this model.
- a set time (around midnight)
- a set road (Shijo Bridge, the fork at Mt. Oe, etc.)
- if a human yields the road — coexistence is possible
- if a human knows the talismans and stances well — safe
The Spirit Realm does not "open" — rather, the Spirit Realm "briefly enters this world and returns." A human survives by yielding that road at that time.
#3. Spiritual Power-Holders (the Emperor, the Nobility) Are Directly Linked to the Spirit Realm
The Emperor = a descendant of the gods (fc01-02-01-koshin.md imperial deities). The nobility = those close to divinity.
This distance from divinity is why kuge PCs so often encounter spiritual incidents. That the Fujiwara branch-house noble in the "Scent" above saw the shadow on the ceiling — was no coincidence. Because he was one close to divinity, the Spirit Realm saw him.
#Sengoku vs Heian — Comparison Table
| Axis | Sengoku (fc02) | Heian (fc04) |
|---|---|---|
| the Spirit Realm gate | opened wide | faint gates everywhere |
| yoma activity | directly in cities and battlefields | in mountains, the outer reaches, the night |
| human response | sword, gun, war | Onmyodo, Barrier, Sorcery |
| aspect | wide-area, collective | individual, elegant |
| core classes | samurai, shinobi (combat) | onmyoji, scholar, feng shui master (spiritual) |
| scenarios | military, the battlefield | the court, the mountains, the bridges |
The Sengoku period, where the Spirit Realm is "opened wide," and the Heian period, of "faint gates everywhere" — the two models are different times of the same world.
#Game Application
#Scenario Introduction
Not "the gate of the Spirit Realm opened" but "the Spirit Realm is always beside you, and at times it touches."
The dead of night when a PC walks the Heian capital, the noon when they pass a mountain temple, the dawn when they guard a rear-palace chamber — the Spirit Realm is always beside them. "At times," within the PC's daily round, it touches.
#Yoma Encounters
More ritual and individual than random and collective. One yoma at a time. A procession is a set event like the Hyakki Yako. A mountain subjugation is a clear foe such as Shuten-doji or Ibaraki.
#The Onmyoji Class Is the Core
The Onmyodo of fc04-02-03-onmyodo.md is the core tool of the Heian Spirit Realm. With the Barrier they close the gate of the Spirit Realm, with purification they wash away the Spirit Realm's intrusion, with divination they read the Spirit Realm's clues.
If the Sengoku period has the samurai, the Heian period has the onmyoji.
#Scenario Guide
#Clues of a Spirit-Realm Incident
- divination — a black constellation in an onmyoji PC's regular divination
- a dream — a single shadow recurring in a PC's dreams
- a vision — something glimpsed briefly while a PC is awake
- a foreboding — a warrior PC's sense that "something is there" from one direction
When one of these four reaches an onmyoji PC (or another spiritual PC) — that is the start of the scenario.
#The Barrier Rite — The Scenario Climax
At a place where the Spirit Realm has touched too close, an onmyoji PC casts a Barrier rite. Both Energy and Wounds costs are possible:
| Item | Handling |
|---|---|
| casting the Barrier | caster Energy N (the casting cost. Usually Energy 4~10, by the Barrier's stage) |
| casting time | a time-unit rest (not instant, but 1 breath~1 scenario) |
| on failure | caster Wounds -N (a backlash penalty) |
| Barrier effect (on success) | blocks Spirit Realm entry — when a yoma enters, that yoma's Energy -N (an Energy effect. For detail, see the Barrier spell of fc04-05-03) |
- the Barrier casting cost = Energy N (action power)
- the Barrier-failure backlash = Wounds -N
- the Barrier effect (blocking yoma entry) = an Energy effect (the yoma's action power)
#An Existence From Beyond the Spirit Realm Directly Affecting a PC
= Wounds damage (including mental damage). It does not affect Energy.
#Fiction Introduction (Scenario-Opening Description)
#The Shadow in the Rear Palace
The dead of night. The manor of Fujiwara no Michinaga. A lady-in-waiting cannot sleep in her own quarters. In one corner of the quarters — there is a shadow. For a week now it has been there every night at the same hour, in the same place. The lady-in-waiting would call an onmyoji, but she fears she will be suspected of madness. She alone is seeing it — the other ladies-in-waiting cannot see it.
#The Clue in the Mountain Village
A certain mountain village. A single farmer comes to the capital and asks an onmyoji for a divination. "The old shrine on the hill behind our village — it shines every night. The light does not come out; rather, inside, someone is lighting a lamp. There is no one in the shrine." The onmyoji sees by divination — within the shrine, one gate of the Spirit Realm stands open.
#In One Line
"We are always walking the same road as those things. We simply do not look."
#Tone — The Dark Underside of an Elegant Era
The dark underside of an elegant era. The Spirit Realm is always beside you.
"Only one who handles the unseen is a true power-holder."
This explains why the Heian onmyoji stood at the core of power. At the very hour Fujiwara no Michinaga conducted politics — Seimei was purifying the dark of his sleeping chamber. The two are two sides of the same power.
#Links to Later Volumes
- fc05 (Edo) — "the era when the gate of the Spirit Realm closes." A Spirit Realm variant model of the Tokugawa peacetime. The hypothesis that, moving through Muromachi, Sengoku, and Edo, the Spirit Realm gradually closes.
- fc09 (Fin de Siecle) + fc10 (City) — "the era when the gate of the Spirit Realm opens again" (ancestral return). The motif that the Heian Spirit Realm opens again in the modern day.
This volume presents the Heian-style prototype of those later models.
#References
#Earlier fc Volumes
fc02-01-03-realm-split.md— the Sengoku Spirit-Realm-opened-wide model (the counterpart to this volume)fc01-01-01-divinity-ranks.md— the 5 ranks of divinity (a spiritual power-holder = the distance from divinity)fc01-01-02-domains.md— divinity domainsfc01-01-03-mechanics.md— divinity mechanics
#Within fc04
fc04-02-01-hyakkiyako.md— the Hyakki Yako (the way the Spirit Realm enters)fc04-02-02-onryo-aristocracy.md— living spirits and onryofc04-02-03-onmyodo.md— Onmyodo (the study of the Barrier)fc04-05-03-onmyodo-seimei.md— Barrier and purification spellsfc04-05-04-onmyodo-doman.md— counter-Sorceryfc04-99-00-closing.md— a preview of the Spirit Realm models of later volumes
The Heian Spirit Realm is not a gate but a thin ceiling — reach out, and your fingertips come away wet.