#Way of Rites RP — The Words of Loyalty and Hegemony

Contents

Loyalty bows its own head. Hegemony bows the heads of others.

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#Introductory Fragment — The Knee Folded Twice

By day, the retainer Narita knelt before his lord. "Seal off the eastern village." The command was firm. Narita pressed his forehead to the tatami and answered, "I receive the command."

When night came, he sat on the same knee before a child of the village. With dirty hands the child clutched his sleeve. "My mother is still inside. Please open the gate."

A subordinate whispered, "It is a sealing order. Make one exception and they will all press in."

Narita looked at the child's hand. The knee of the day had been Loyalty. The knee folded now was Righteousness. The two were in the same body, yet pulled him in different directions.

"Open the gate," he said.

The subordinate asked in shock, "Do you defy the command?"

"No. The command means: do not let the yoma out. It did not mean: abandon the people within. I interpret my lord's command so as not to shame my lord's name."

His words were Loyalty. Yet the moment those words covered his own will with his lord's will, they could become Hegemony at any time.

#The Basic Questions of a Way-of-Rites Character

A Way-of-Rites character is a person of order. But to say one merely loves order is not enough. Answer the following questions, and a scene is born.

The Way of Rites is not merely "good order." Order always makes an outside. How one treats that outside divides Loyalty from Hegemony.

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#How to Play Loyalty

Loyalty is the heart that binds oneself to something greater than oneself. Thus a character of Loyalty speaks of "what I have taken charge of" before what he himself wants.

Good Loyalty looks like this.

• He remembers his promises.
• He does not exaggerate his own merit.
• He protects the weak, but protects them as the responsibility of his own side.
• He follows commands, yet keeps a moment for asking the meaning of the command.
• He does not easily shift the blame for failure onto others.

A scene of Loyalty must be restrained. A low bow is better than a loud voice. A short answer of "I will do it" is often stronger than a long oath.

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#How to Play Hegemony

Hegemony is the heart that compels order. The figure of Hegemony is convinced that the order he means to establish is right.

Hegemony is no simple villain. Rather, it holds a cause that is all too clear.

• "Abandon this one village, and the whole castle lives."
• "Permit disobedience, and tomorrow a hundred die."
• "One who speaks with yoma is no longer on the side of humanity."
• "Mercy is not too late even if granted after order is established."

The terror of Hegemony lies in the fact that its words are logical. So when a Way-of-Rites PC fights Hegemony, he sees the same logic within himself.

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#The Moment of Sliding from Loyalty to Hegemony

This shift need not happen suddenly. The first time it was a necessary decision; the second time it was easier; the third time it was nothing. By then Loyalty has already become Hegemony.

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#A Bundle of Confucian Manners of Speech

#To One's Lord

• "I receive the command."
• "If that command does not shame the name of the house, then even my life is not too dear."
• "I dare to ask: where lies the cause of this command?"

#To Comrades

• "Your sword is not yours alone."
• "If you have received a kindness, you must repay it. That is the way of a human being."
• "Cut in anger, and the edge of the blade grows clouded. Cut with Righteousness."

#To Enemies

• "Surrender, and your life is guaranteed. The promise I make upon my own name."
• "You too must have had a name you served. How could you so defile that name?"
• "Enter the order. Otherwise, die outside the order."

The last line is already close to Hegemony.

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#Way-of-Rites Scene Tools

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#The Way of Rites in Conflict with Other Ways

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The distance between Loyalty and Hegemony is thinner than the thickness of a single order document.