#Survey of the 12 Fiend Classes

Contents

Before a fiend class is a list of powers, it is a list of the single sentences by which a human left the human seat.

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#Opening Fragment — Twelve Name Tags

In the underground archive of the Hannyakai hung twelve name tags.

The Shurado's tag bore dried blood. The Dokuchushi's tag carried the smell of medicine. A small talisman was stuck behind the itako's tag, and the Jikiniki's tag was torn at the corner.

A young scholar asked, "Is this a list of classes?"

The old archivist shook his head. "No. It is a list of the reasons they could not return."

"Then where is the power written?"

"The power is in the main volume. Here we write the reasons."

At those words the scholar took up his brush. On the first line he wrote this:

A fiend is not a yoma. A fiend is the way a human discards his own name.

#Principles of Use

This document does not rewrite co's fiend-class data.

• Talents, values, progression, and class conditions follow each fiend class's source text.
• The dark-side links in this document are RP interpretations.
• The same fiend class can have a different dark side depending on the campaign.
• A fiend PC always requires GM permission and table consensus.

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#Quick Table of the 12 Fiend Classes

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#Shurado — When War Takes the Place of the Human

Source: Shurado

The essence of the Shurado is not "a strong warrior" but one who survived even after the war, only in the body of war. The oni core is a device explaining monstrification, but the true core is the void that comes once the fighting ends. The Shurado cannot breathe without an enemy, and when peace comes he feels he has become useless.

To express him well, show habit rather than rage. Even while eating he reads battlefield deployments; even mid-conversation he counts the exits; he hears the festival drums as the signal to advance. He does not fight only because he loves fighting. He fights because, when not fighting, he has no words to explain himself.

In a slightly different direction, an "orderly war addict" works better than a "berserker." A Shurado obsessed with commands, formations, military law, and the record of merits leans toward Hegemony. Conversely, a Shurado drawn to the smell of blood, predation, and bodily pleasure leans toward Demon. The former is a general-type villain; the latter is a disaster of the battlefield.

Scene questions:

• What can this person not endure in a peaceful room?
• When someone says the war is over, whom does he newly designate as an enemy?
• If any humanity remains, for which name does he slow his blade?

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#Dokuchushi — One Who Makes Another's Body a Battlefield

Source: Dokuchushi

The essence of the Dokuchushi is not poison but inner erosion. If the Shurado breaks down the door to enter, the Dokuchushi is already inside. He turns into a battlefield the things that are safe only when kept within — the body, the well, the food, rumor, trust.

To express him well, give the attitude of an administrator rather than killing intent. He counts people as one counts insects in a jar, speaks of how fast a sickness spreads as if of the weather, and turns suffering into experimental records. The Dokuchushi is frightening not only because he is cruel but because he tends his cruelty with delicacy.

Other directions are possible: an avenger, an apothecary, a quarantine officer, a shinobi instructor. The avenger Dokuchushi brings down a house or a castle from the inside. The apothecary Dokuchushi blurs the line between cure and poison. The quarantine-officer Dokuchushi wears the Void face of casting people aside "to prevent a greater infection."

Scene questions:

• When did this person begin to see another's body as a place?
• What is the way to bring someone down from inside without using poison?
• When asked to heal, does he think first of healing or of the experiment?

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#itako — The Living Who Will Not Release the Dead

Source: itako

The essence of the itako is not the borrowing of souls but the failure of mourning. The ability to hear the words of the dead looks at first like comfort. But as time passes the dead cannot leave, and the living loses her own voice.

To express her well, show a crossing of voices rather than "a medium." Several dead voices overlap on the same question, and the itako wraps her own judgment as the will of a dead family member. What matters is less whether the dead truly spoke than whether the itako uses those words to escape responsibility for her own choices.

Other directions include an itako who would protect her family, an itako who is a battlefield recorder, and a power-holder's exclusive medium. The family-type itako blurs love and possession. The recorder itako gathers the testimony of the dead to indict the world. The power-type itako uses the names of the dead as political weapons.

Scene questions:

• Of this person's voices, how much is her own?
• If the dead say they wish to leave, can the itako let them go?
• When the living make a choice different from the dead, whose side does she take?

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#Jikiniki — One for Whom Hunger Became a Worldview

Source: Jikiniki

The essence of the Jikiniki is not predation but the philosophizing of hunger. Everyone has hunger, but the Jikiniki makes that hunger a law of the world. More frightening than the fact that he ate is that eating looks all too logical to him.

To express him well, do not push only the bestial. The Jikiniki must speak very concretely about food, the hunt, corpses, the seasons, famine. He reads the world by actual sensation, not by metaphor. If he remembers scent and the weight of bone before a person's name, the Jikiniki's field of vision grows vivid.

Other directions include a famine survivor, a judge of the mountain, a battlefield cleaner, and a returner of hanyo blood. The famine survivor still excuses the first time he ate. The judge of the mountain calls the weak being eaten "nature." The battlefield cleaner begins with the practicality of disposing of corpses, then crosses the line.

Scene questions:

• When did this person first call a human food?
• Does he make the same choice even on a day he is not hungry?
• When he meets a greater being that sees him as prey, can he keep his philosophy?

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#Kaibutsu — The Violence of a Salvation That Does Not Move

Source: Kaibutsu

The essence of the Kaibutsu is neither immortality nor defense but stillness. By not moving, the Kaibutsu makes the world conform to its surroundings. It looks like a savior, but that salvation is not a salvation that comes to you — it is a salvation to which all must come and stop.

To express it well, show the surroundings rather than words. The Kaibutsu cannot speak, or need not. Instead, the scene is made by the people who guard it, the village whose road was rerouted for it, the believer who cannot weep before it, and the person who died because it would not move.

Another direction is possible: a Kaibutsu close to a true saint. In that case the fear grows more complex. It may truly have warded off yoma and saved people. The question is whether that salvation leaves people any choice. The more benevolent the Kaibutsu, the more easily the people around it interpret its silence as their own power.

Scene questions:

• Whom did this being first stop in order to save?
• Who now exploits that stillness?
• If it takes a single step, who lives and what collapses?

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#Kekka — When Beauty Demands Blood

Source: Kekka

The essence of the Kekka is not only the pleasure of blood but a violence that demands an audience. The Kekka turns death into a stage rather than an event. More than the fact that blood was shed, what matters is the composition and tempo in which that blood appeared.

To express her well, set aesthetics before cruelty. The Kekka is conscious of the hem of a robe, footsteps, gaze, lighting, silence. Combat is slaughter and performance at once, and performance is the process of making others props in her own scene.

Other directions include the dancer type, the agitator type, and the revenge-play director type. The dancer Kekka is obsessed with the rhythm of her own body and blood. The agitator Kekka moves crowds and raises allied morale with blood. The revenge-play director Kekka prepares the most beautiful ruin for a particular house or hero.

Scene questions:

• When did this person come to see composition before suffering?
• Does she commit the same evil even when there is no audience?
• If someone refuses her stage and turns their back, what does she lose?

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#Shikome-no-Tsukai — One Who Opens the Gate That Should Be Closed

Source: Shikome-no-Tsukai

The essence of the Shikome-no-Tsukai is not the summoning of the dead but the betrayal of boundaries. The onmyoji and the esoteric monk are by origin classes that read, close, and purify boundaries. The Shikome-no-Tsukai uses that knowledge in reverse, opening the gate that should be closed.

To express him well, emphasize the gate rather than death. Places like thresholds, rivers, caves, mirrors, and the boundary of a funeral matter. The core of this fiend is less "he commands the dead" than "he brings back what must not return."

Other directions include a gatekeeper turned traitor, a diplomat of Yomi, a liberator of the dead, and a prophet of the end. The gatekeeper type betrays his own duty. The diplomat type sees Yomi and this world as a trade relationship. The liberator type claims to free the dead from oppression. The prophet type believes the age of the living is over.

Scene questions:

• What gate did this person first open, and why did he not close it?
• For whom is the return of the dead a salvation, and for whom a disaster?
• If he can open the gate, does he believe the responsibility to close it is also his?

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#Tatarigami — When Punishment Takes the Place of Faith

Source: Tatarigami

The essence of the Tatarigami is not the curse but the desire to judge. After feeling abandoned by the gods, he fills the seat of the gods with punishment. The Tatarigami does not punish only out of hatred. He punishes because he believes that, without punishment, the world will collapse.

To express him well, give procedure rather than rage. The Tatarigami writes out the charges, gathers testimony, and prepares a rite. He makes a private vengeance look like a public judgment. That is how followers come — because people believe the word "judgment" more easily than "vengeance."

Other directions include the god of victims, the guardian deity of rebellion, the fallen judge, and the cursed saint. The god of victims at first stands with the weak. The guardian deity of rebellion faces unjust power, but soon absolutizes his own punishment. The judge type loves the completeness of punishment more than the evidence.

Scene questions:

• Before what injustice did this person feel the gods fell silent?
• When the punishment is over, as what does he remain?
• When an innocent person is caught in his punishment, will he mend the procedure or invent a new charge?

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#Tengushi — One Who Sees Humans as Small from on High

Source: Tengushi

The essence of the Tengushi is not mobility but the difference in altitude. He is physically above, but his mind is above as well. The problem is that whether that height is insight or arrogance often blurs.

To express him well, give wind and a sense of distance. The Tengushi does not see people up close. A village is a dot, war is a current, and human promises sound like noise below the mountain. And yet he is not entirely nature. The danger of the Tengushi is a human climbing high and looking down on humans.

Other directions include a guardian of the mountain, an exiled disciple, an assassin of the sky, and an arrogant master. The guardian of the mountain leans toward Demon while preventing human trespass. The exiled disciple casts off humanity to be acknowledged by the tengu. The assassin type produces only results, from a distance no one can reach.

Scene questions:

• Looking down on what did this person first feel human promises were small?
• Can a single name below the mountain stop him?
• If he is confined to a place where he cannot fly high, is he still a Tengushi?

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#Tesshin — One Who Stopped the Heart Along with the Pain

Source: Tesshin

The essence of the Tesshin is not mechanization but a misunderstanding of removing feeling. He wanted to be rid of pain, to be rid of fear, to be rid of the tremor of betrayal. But in the process he also processes the very capacity to feel responsibility as a defect.

To express him well, show an omission in the calculation rather than a cold tone. The Tesshin calculates efficiency well, but cannot understand why someone refuses that efficiency. He does not so much choose cruelty as fail to enter cruelty as a variable.

Other directions include the fortress designer, the artisan of modification, the wounded survivor, and the emotionless commander. The fortress designer sees people as part of the wall. The artisan of modification changes people while saying he is fixing defects. The survivor type wants to regain feeling but fears collapsing the moment he does.

Scene questions:

• Which feeling did this person first try to remove?
• When an efficient choice breaks an old promise, does he see the promise as an error?
• If someone saves him with an inefficient mercy, how does he record it?

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#Yorijin — One Whose Understanding Turned into Dissection

Source: Yorijin

The essence of the Yorijin is not scholarship but a thirst for knowledge that cannot leave its object whole. He says he wants to understand the yoma. But if his method of understanding is always separation, incision, classification, and reassembly, that understanding is already violence.

To express him well, do not let madness shout; leave the scholar's kindness intact. The Yorijin explains well, organizes specimens, and can be courteous even to his experimental subject. That is what makes him more unsettling. He believes he cuts not out of hatred but because he must know.

Other directions include the physician type, the gaijin scientist type, the yoma-coexistence researcher type, and the battlefield-dissector type. The physician Yorijin wavers at the boundary of cure and dissection. The coexistence researcher claims that only by understanding the yoma can humans live alongside them. The battlefield dissector sees the enemy as a collection of parts and weak points.

Scene questions:

• When did this person first think "I must know it while it is still alive"?
• Does he hold greater respect for what he has understood, or handle it more easily?
• When a yoma tries to study him in the same way, can he acknowledge his own method?

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#Zakkasho — One Who Believes the World Is Safe Once It Has a Price

Source: Zakkasho

The essence of the Zakkasho is not money but pricing. He is not a merchant who loves gold. He is a man who believes that once everything has a price it becomes predictable, and once predictable, even betrayal can be calculated as loss. So he fears most of all what has no price.

To express him well, give the language of the deal rather than greed. Friendship, faith, vengeance, safety — he speaks of them all in terms of conditions, collateral, and dividends. The Zakkasho can deceive people, but the more frightening Zakkasho keeps the contract. He only breaks people within the contract.

Other directions include the black-market coordinator, the war logistician, the information broker, and the cult accountant. The black-market type sells to both sides. The logistician's world collapses if the war stops. The information broker turns secrets into goods and destroys relationships. The accountant sees even faith as upkeep and profit.

Scene questions:

• When did this person begin to feel a free kindness as a threat?
• When he meets something that takes no price, does he destroy it or try to own it?
• If someone pays the price of his life in his place, can he see it as a kindness?

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#When Used as a PC

A fiend PC is not "a strong class" but "a dangerous question."

The player first sets these three lines.

My dark side: which of Hegemony / Void / Demon / No Heart do I see by?
My taboo: what line has this character already crossed?
My remaining names: what person, place, or promise have I not yet abandoned?

Without these three lines, a fiend PC easily becomes a bundle of combat talents.

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#When Used as an NPC

A fiend NPC is a mirror that throws a question to the table. Rather than setting him up merely as a strong enemy, make him a figure who answered the same question as the PCs differently.

Examples:

• Place a Hegemony-leaning Shurado before a loyal samurai PC.
• Place a Void-leaning Kaibutsu before a merciful Pure Land Monk PC.
• Place a Demon-leaning Jikiniki or Tengushi before a Way-of-Mystery PC.
• Place a Zakkasho before a No Heart ronin PC.

co provides the NPC's combat strength. This volume makes the reason the NPC uses that strength.

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#Using Them with the Samples

For concrete 1-dan, 5-dan, and 10-dan fiend examples, see Fiend Samples.

When using the samples, you may change the following.

• The first wound of the fall.
• The old name still remaining.
• The hero-mirror NPC.
• The scene where he can stop at the end.

What must not be changed is each fiend class's source data.

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#One-Line Usage

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The twelve fiend classes are not twelve monsters, but twelve ways a human pushed his own excuse to the very end.