#Baekgwi Jeonseunggi Terms
Contents
This document organizes the terms repeated within
fc08.
#Opening Vignette - The Night a Name Was Written Wrong
In the village ledger, that apparition was recorded as a "mountain beast."
Three days later, the mountain beast opened the door latch and came in. Five days later, the mountain beast cried in the voice of a dead child. Seven days later, the mountain beast sang a wedding song inside the well.
The village clerk took up his brush and hesitated a long while. He knew he must not write "mountain beast." Even "ghost" was not enough. If he wrote "onryo," he could not explain the water; if he wrote "yoko," he could not explain the crying.
Then an old woman spoke.
"If you do not know the name, do not ask the name—write what it does."
The clerk rewrote the ledger.
The thing that repeats a wedding in the well.
From that night on, the ledger became a little useful.
#Scent - A Name Comes Later Than the Blade and Faster Than the Rumor
A yoma's name is not a complete classification. The same name points to an entirely different apparition in another region, and different names sometimes point to the same Fear. Therefore the terms of this volume are not a biological classification but a handle for operation.
#Law - Core Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Yoma | A strange being out of step with the order of the human world. It can be born from the Spirit Realm, resentment, nature, objects, rumor, or taboo. |
| Kaidan | The way human society remembers the name and actions of a yoma. It can be a clue to an incident and food for a yoma. |
| Modern yoma | A yoma that gained form through urban legends, media, internet rumors, and anonymous sighting accounts since the modern era. |
| Gate of the Spirit Realm | The core setting device where the human realm and the Spirit Realm touch. To yoma it can be an entrance, a supply line, a seal, a throne, or a rumor passage. |
| Name | The mark by which a yoma is fixed in human society. Losing its name, it weakens; as its name spreads, it can grow stronger. |
| Place | The seat where a yoma becomes strongest. It can be a mountain road, a castle ruin, a well, a bridge, a warehouse, a station, a message board, and so on. |
| Food | Flesh, blood, dreams, Fear, memory, name, rumor, guilt, and other things a yoma takes in order to persist. |
| Taboo | A rule that must not be broken when facing a yoma. Do not look, do not count, do not answer, do not call its name, and so on. |
| Enhancement background | The incident, place, rumor, and seal conditions attached to handle an existing yoma more powerfully. |
| Yoma organization | A yoma group bound not by human-style bureaucracy but by shared desire, the rules of the night, domain, and food. |
| Yoma PC | An expansion option that expresses a yoma which has entered human society, lowered into a playable class structure. |
#Operation - Distinctions Easily Confused
| Distinction | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Yoma and hanyo | A hanyo is a being between human and yoma. A yoma PC is essentially a yoma and learns a human mask. |
| Yoma and god | A god stands in the order of offering, Faith, and Divine Authority, while a yoma stands in the order of fear, taboo, and rupture. There is overlap between the two, but they are not identical. |
| Onryo and undead | An onryo is centered on resentment, while undead are centered on the spiritual residue of the dead. Both can have the [Incorporeal] axis. |
| Kaidan and fact | A kaidan need not be objectively factual. But a repeated kaidan can give a body to a yoma. |
#Closing Words
A yoma's name is not the answer, but a small lantern held in the hand on a night road.