#Glossary — Anmen Shinkyo

Contents

This glossary is not a check rule but RP language. The actual values, techniques, and class data follow the original text of co.

#Introductory Fragment — The Reverse Side of the Same Word

The scholar wrote the same character twice. Loyalty (忠). Beside the first character he wrote "protect the lord," and beside the second character he wrote "burn in the lord's name."

The Pure Land Monk wrote compassion (慈) beside it. By the first he wrote "embrace suffering," by the second "erase a person in the name of erasing suffering."

The wildlander wrote Demon (魔). By the first he wrote "follow the flow," by the second "say it is all right to devour."

Last, the ronin wrote No Heart (無心). By the first he wrote "do not hold on," by the second "do not take responsibility."

The four looked at the same paper for a long while. The characters did not change. What changed was the heart of the one standing and holding those characters.

#The Larger Currents

Term	Hanja	Brief commentary	Konsei Reiyotan connection
dark side	暗面	The dark working of the Three Ways and Six Hearts. The face on which conviction hardens into excuse and violence.	RP centered on Hegemony, Void, Demon, and No Heart.
way of evil	魔道	The state of casting off human reason and making taboo, instinct, nihility, and coercion one's road.	The core question of fiend PCs/NPCs.
fiend	魔人	Not a yoma, but a being transformed by a human through taboo and the dark side.	The 12 fiend classes of `co`.
corruption	堕落	More than a single mistake, the slope of repeated choices.	Revealed through Heart Shift, session outcomes, and NPC reactions.
return	帰還	A scene of escaping the dark side entirely, or at least choosing to descend no further.	Can be expressed through repentance, atonement, sealing, death, banishment, and so on.
taboo	禁忌	A line the table and the world have decided not to cross.	Distinguishes the world's internal taboos from the players' agreed taboos.
accountability for outcomes	—	The traces a villain's choices leave on the world and on relationships.	Treated through follow-up scenes rather than a reward table.

#The Dark-Side Words of the Three Ways and Six Hearts

Term	Bright root	Dark-side reading
Hegemony	loyalty, order, cause	"Since my order is right, others may be broken."
Void	compassion, emptiness, impermanence	"Since there is only suffering anyway, there is no need to protect anything."
Demon	nature, truth, flow	"The world is the strong devouring and the weak being devoured."
No Heart	non-attachment, unwavering	"Since I believe in nothing, I bear no responsibility either."

#Fiend Operation Words

Term	Commentary
mirror class	The combination of ordinary classes that forms the base of a fiend class. E.g., the Shurado can be read as the dark union of samurai and esoteric monk.
path of corruption	The flow of repeated choices up to becoming a fiend. More important than origin.
dark-side declaration	A sentence of consent in which the player makes explicit the dark-side question of his own character. E.g., "This person examines whether he can abandon people for the sake of order."
halting scene	A scene where one can stop one last time before descending further. It need not guarantee success.
mirror NPC	A hero, victim, former comrade, or successor who gives a different answer to the same question as the fiend PC.
downfall scene	A scene where the fiend PC finally decides not to return, or the world no longer accepts him.

#Distinguishing the Prohibited Lines

Category	Meaning
world-internal taboo	What the people of the Konsei Reiyotan world fear or forbid. Subject matter such as cults, human sacrifice, and the binding of onryo falls here.
table prohibited line	Subject matter the players and GM have agreed not to actually treat. Even if possible within the world, it is omitted in the session.
fade-to-black handling	Handling that leaves only the outcome of a scene and skips the depiction.
sidestepping	Handling that swaps the same narrative function for less provocative subject matter.
stop signal	A signal for immediately halting a scene when discomfort grows during play. The method is decided by the table.

#Do Not Confuse

Confusion	Distinction
fiend and yoma	A fiend treats the corruption and transformation of a human. The yoma PC is outside the scope of this volume.
Void and emptiness	Emptiness is the wisdom that sees suffering and attachment. Void is the dark side that abandons meaning.
Demon and Truth	Truth seeks to form harmony with the world. Demon speaks of harmony while leaving only the law of the jungle.
No Heart and irresponsibility	No Heart can be a state of laying down attachment. Dark-side No Heart is a state of laying down responsibility.
villain and rude play	The villain PC is a character role within the table's consent. It is not an attack between players or the breaking of consent.

#A Note on Speech

The person of Hegemony speaks of "order," "the great cause," "necessary sacrifice," "command," "unification," and "pacification."

The person of Void speaks of "the end," "meaninglessness," "vanity," "no salvation," and "the end of suffering."

The person of Demon speaks of "instinct," "the strong," "prey," "the flow," "nature," and "survival."

The person of No Heart speaks of "it doesn't matter," "name your price," "it's not my business," "just get through today," and "I don't believe."

The terms do not commit the sin in your place — they only tell you with what face the sin speaks.