#What Is a Yoma

Contents

Before a yoma is a line on a combat table, it is the name people gave to what the world could not explain.

#Opening Vignette - The Name at the Water's Edge

In the village by the river, one child vanished on the same day every year.

At first they said it was the current. In the second year they said a drunken traveler had taken the child. In the third year they said it was a story the children had made to frighten one another.

In the fourth year, the mother of a vanished child stood at the riverbank and called the name all night. At dawn, small handprints rose upon the water. The handprints continued in a single line toward the middle of the river, and there they broke off.

The mother did not blame the current. She did not search for the traveler. She told the people of the village.

"In that river there is something that eats children's names."

From that day, the villagers floated a name tag at the riverbank every year. And no more children vanished. Instead, the name tags grew wet one by one and sank.

Someone called it a yoma.

#Scent - Yoma Come from the Cracks of the World

A yoma is not a single species. Put oni and onryo, tengu and tsukumogami, yoko and modern yoma into the same biological category, and it collapses at once. They differ in the way they are born, in what they want, and in the conditions under which they vanish.

But there is a common point. Yoma appear when a boundary trembles.

The boundary between mountain and village.
The boundary between the living and the dead.
The boundary between object and life.
The boundary between rumor and fact.
The boundary between the human realm and the Spirit Realm.
The boundary between fear and name.

When handling a yoma, the important question is not "what kind is this monster" but "which boundary trembled."

#Law - The Six Origins of Yoma

Origin	Explanation	Representative Examples
Spirit Realm	A being pushed out from the Gate of the Spirit Realm, the Core Zone, or a rupture	Konryu Fragment, shikome, Yomi lineage
Resentment	Death, betrayal, insult, or an unresolved name takes form	onryo, goryo, armored onryo
Nature	The power of mountain, river, sea, and wind hardens into human language	tengu, kodama, umibozu
Object	A long-used tool, an abandoned house, an object that ate memory	tsukumogami, mokumokuren
Transformation	A yoma nature that mimics or deceives human society	yoko, tanuki, bakeneko
Rumor	A repeated kaidan, a sighting account, or media gives a body	Edo kaidan forms, modern yoma

You need not choose only one origin. An Oiwa-type onryo overlaps resentment and rumor, and a modern station-kaidan yoma overlaps place and rumor. When two origins overlap, a yoma lingers longer.

#Operation - Five Questions That Explain a Yoma

Question	Use
Where is it strongest	Decides the battlefield zone, place gimmick, and seal conditions.
What does it eat	Decides the form of harm and the follow-up scene.
By what name is it called	Decides information gathering, weak points, and kaidan spread.
Whom can it bargain with	Decides the possibility of negotiation and of companion-making.
What must be resolved for it to vanish	Creates an ending that is more than a simple defeat.

When a yoma is weak, values alone are enough. When a yoma becomes the center of the story, you must answer three or more of the questions above.

#The Gate of the Spirit Realm

To a yoma, the Gate of the Spirit Realm can be a birthplace, a homecoming, a supply line, or a prison. In a world where the gate is open, a yoma is not only an "intruder." Some yoma originally belonged to the Spirit Realm; some yoma had human resentment gain a deeper form through the gate; some yoma wish for the gate never to close.

Therefore, when placing a yoma, choose one relationship with the gate.

Relationship	Explanation
Influx	It crossed into the human realm as the gate opened.
Backflow	The resentment of the human realm returned as an apparition through the gate.
Settlement	It made a domain around the gate.
Seal	If the gate closes, it weakens or is confined.
Bypass	It spreads without a gate through waterways, rumor, dreams, and tools.

#Faction Responses

Faction	Base Response
Kagura Domain	Sees yoma as the object of military operations. Strong at subjugation, Blockade, and battlefield control.
Hiei League / temple factions	Emphasize the resolution of resentment, sealing, and Exorcism. Rather than coexisting with yoma, they seek to cut karma.
Enryokan	Sees yoma as the object of understanding and Negotiation. Its weakness is underestimating the danger.
Biu Mountain	Sees yoma as kin, tool, and object of trade all at once. Skilled at deception and concealment.
Sakai Guild / merchant network	Circulates yoma material, kaidan, and goods. Unintentionally grows rumors.
Kunitomo Guild	Tries to turn spirit cores and yoma-nature substances into technology. When it fails, it makes new yoma.

#Closing Words

A yoma is not outside the world. When the world could not hide its own crack, a name was given to that crack.