All posts by Steve Rosenstein

Oni are physical beings of varying origins. Some are Ogres, some are human beings so wicked, that they have transformed into a more horrific form. All are eaters of human flesh, but far from being mindless thugs one usually associates with ogres, they are clever in their evil. Some have been worshipped as kami by local peasants who make sacrifices of their population to them in exchange for the Oni’s protection. Oni appear as huge, brutish red or blue skinned humanoids, generally male, but females, called Kijo, exist as well.

Small, goblin-like creatures that feed off the filth and excrement of human habitation. They possess a long and sticky tongue, used for feeding. Akaname are associated with the unclean places of human habitation: bath houses, out houses, etcetera. They are especially attracted to areas with large, hard to clean spaces, such as prisons, flop houses, and sewers. They are not picky and, just as cockroaches do not discriminate, Akaname are found in the spaces occupied by the both the rich and the poor. They have
an uncanny ability to remain unseen by humans, although dogs and cats can sense their presence; when the family dog is staring at a spot on a wall, or scratching at a corner of a tatami mat; when the house cat stands with arched back and fur on end, they are more likely than not chasing a mouse or other common commensurate pest, but sometimes they sense that they are in the presence of an Akaname. Even the mildest mannered pet will attack an Akaname once their presence is detected, and many a beloved family friend has met their end by attacking the disease-ridden yokai.

The Katachi no Shouyu is an experiment gone wrong. One of the functions that the shouyokai fulfill is that of an organic battery used to power ongoing spells such as gates. Vast numbers of shouyokai are linked together using technology absorbed from the knowledge of countless civilizations that have fallen to the mold. One such array was disrupted in Edo Period Nippon during the reign of Tokugawa Iemitsu resulting in the creation of a formless mass of viscous black protoplasm reeking of soy sauce. The faces of the individual shouyu occasionally bubble up and are visible along the surface of the Katachi, and there is a constant screaming sound coming from it as its once-human components writhe in pain, constantly being consumed.

Shouyokai are revenants reanimated through the agent of the Shouyu mold. Shouyu is an alien parasitical mold that has enslaved planetary populations. Every part of the Shouyo is connected to its collective consciousness, and therefore, part of the whole. There is no central intelligence or body: each colony of mold IS the collective consciousness, and that trait is extended to the beings that it infects. The only goal of Shouyu is to expand.