Fantasy Core RPG: Jianghu Setting-Faith and Divine Favor

Fantasy Core RPG

© Jerry Harris 2013

Published here as Open Game Content.

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Jianghu Setting

Faith and Divine Favor

The Mandate of Heaven is absolute. . . for now.

The current Emperor and his dynasty have the current Mandate of Heaven.  He can trace his lineage to the Celestial Emperor, who rules the Heavenly Bureaucracy.  However, a dynasty can be seen to lose divine favor and be replaced.  Events such as a severe economic downturn, rampant natural catastrophes, foreign invasions, open rebellion, and personal embarrassment are seen as the signs of losing favor.

Confused?  We have a god for that.

The current Faith of the Empire is a mixture of several native and imported religions and philosophies that all interlock fairly effortlessly.  Old deities have been absorbed into the pantheons of newer ones as they are ideologically compatible.  People honor and seek the advice of family ancestors, placate an array of minor deities ruling everyday responsibilities, and attend festivals and holy days at temples to worship the major ones.  Outside the Empire, the mountain people of Tibet share a similar version of faith, while the Mongol tribes practice a shamanic-centered faith that intercedes and communes with the Spirit World.

The sweetest fruit on the tree is the hardest to get at.

Of particular interest in Shang-tu is the legendary presence of the Palace of the Queen Mother of the West and her orchard, where the Peaches of Immortality grow.  The palace is located at the top of Mount Tien, though it can only be reached via the Floating Bridge of Heaven (a rainbow).  All of the pantheon of deities, as well as a select few mortals, visit the orchard to eat the peaches there.  A group of eternally young and beautiful women, the Jade Girls, serve, tend, and protect the orchard.  (They are deadly, yet leave smiles on their victim’s faces.) 

Lineage makes a king, apprenticeship makes a craftsman, battle makes a veteran, but immortality is by faith alone.

A few individuals have achieved a sufficient level of faith that they have been invited to the orchard to become the Immortals and to serve the gods.  Unlike the pantheon, the Immortals still walk the earth and actively enter into the affairs of men.  In their various guises, they may be acting as divine messengers, delivering divine missions, looking for help to right injustices, spreading and promoting virtuous ideals, offering wise advice and pertinent information, and even testing the honor of heroes.  Immortals can appear and disappear seemingly at will and for (as seems to mortals) whimsical reasons.  Serving an Immortal also has the possibility of leading to immortality for the characters too.

These Immortals can be compared to the Eight Immortals of the Tao or the Seven Shinto Gods of Good Fortune.  While they may be appear in different guises, an Immortal usually has one or two distinctive traits.  All of them are often portrayed as being drunk as well.  Here are a couple of examples:

I am not riding backwards.  I have merely lost my way and am attempting to find it.  However, I am in too much of a hurry to stop my travels, so forward I go. (Hic)

Zhang the Traveler: A powerful necromancer, Zhang rides a white donkey, seated backwards.  The donkey can be folded up and then restored with a sprinkle of water and can cover 1000’s miles in a day.  Zhang is usually searching for the Lotus Sutra, a lost book of prayers.  He may enlist others to help him track it down, however Zhang and his companions will only ever find one page at a time.  Strangely, the verses on the page will always relate directly to the companions’ current situation or a future one, and offer guidance and insight.

Blessed am I that such honorable, noble, and virtuous gentlemen have crossed my path when I am in such desperate need.  (Hic)

Li the Beggar: A disreputable-looking character, Li walks with the aid of an iron crutch, a gift from a goddess.  He is a master of medicine.  Li is in possession of the Magic Alms Bowl.  It is never emptied of money, but only a few coins will ever be present.  Li often loses the bowl and may enlist the aid of others to find it, mostly because it tends to cause problems for whoever is keeping it.