Fantasy Core RPG
© Jerry Harris 2013
(This link will take you to the
Fantasy Core Index.)
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:
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.
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