Gifts

This

Gift allows the Zhong Lung to assume the perfect likeness of any human, of any age, gender, ethnicity, or station. It is taught by ancestor-spirit.

System: The player spends one Willpower and one Gnosis point, and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (dif­ ficulty 7). The Gift lasts for one day per success, during which time the Zhong Lung may don or remove her disguise with only a turn’s concentration.

People visiting Asia and an increasing number of heng­ eyokai and their human Kinfolk visiting or immigrating to areas outside Asia. Many come to the United States or Canada, but many areas of Europe, Africa, and Australia are now home to small numbers of hengeyokai.

The outlying islands of Indonesia number among the wildest places in Southeast Asia and are home to most of the Changing Breeds that make up the hengeyokai. Unfortunately, some of these remote islands, like West Papua, are the site of brutal and violent oppressed by the Indonesian government. While much of this op­ pression is rooted in the human urge for violence and conquest, some government officials are under the control of Bakemono who want nothing less than the total destruction of the isolated wilderness. The situ­ ation is far worse on the densely populated island of Java, where much of the population works under almost slave-like conditions in giant factories. Some of these manufacture goods exclusively for Pentex subsidiaries, including deadly toxins that poison both workers and customers, and cheap consumer goods. Everything that comes out of these factories carry a spiritual infection causing buyers all across the world to crave the cheap goods coming out of the islands.

The Beast Courts on the nation's outlying islands spend most of their time defending their own territory and have little time to worry about in pollution in the industrial centers. Many of the Beast Courts on Java feel the same way about the outlying islands. Cooperation is made even harder by the Nezumi’s domination of the Javanese Beast Courts, while the wererats are relatively uncommon on the more remote islands. In those wild places, the Tengu and Zhong-Lung make up most of the hengeyokai, and both Nagah and Same-Bito are at least as common as Nezumi.

Worse, the infighting means the Bakemono are winning. Human soldiers and police officers under the control of the Bakemono slaughter suspected human kinfolk in West Papua, and are planning to use similar tactics on other remote islands. All across Indonesia's outlying islands, isolated tribes that contain large number of human kinfolk face extinction. At the same time, the Nezumi and other hengeyokai living in and near Jakarta are desperate. A growing area encompassing the densest slums and most polluting factories is now too dangerous for even the Nezumi to spend more than a few hours in. These poisonous zones grow daily, and the local Bakemono have weaponized toxin-laden smog to get a foothold in more remote regions.

The Los Angeles Metropolitan Area is now home to approximately one and a half million people born in Asia, and many more whose ancestors moved to the United States within the last several decades. Though vast majority of these immigrants are ordinary humans, several hundred are hengeyokai and their human Kinfolk. Today, there are more than two dozen hengeyokai in Los Angeles. Similar to cities across Asia, the Nezumi are the most common of the urban Changing Breeds, but LA is also home to most of the denizens of the Beast Courts, with even a few Hakken and Same-Bito.

LA is also home to several packs loyal to the Garou Nation, as well Balam, Corax, Nuwisha, and Ratkin. Because the city is sprawling and segregated, the members of the Beast Courts rarely encounter the other Changing Breeds in the course of their daily lives.

Hundreds of small oil wells operate inside the city limits, and while most are remarkably toxin free, their presence draws fomori and Wyrm-elementals who sabotage the wells and spread toxins throughout the city. The city is also home to one of Pentex’ corporate headquarters, and the megacorporation often uses the area to as a test market for its corrupted products. As a result, all of the Changing Breeds who live in LA regu­ larly confront large and dangerous threats. Over the last decade, members of the LA Beast Court and the other shapeshifters have grudgingly worked together to defeat some of the deadliest of these threats.

The local Nezumi and Ratkin have a close alliance, but they’re the only Breed with such a connection. Even when dealing with their American fellows, the Nezumi keep the Nagah’s existence a secret. Relations between members of the other Changing Breeds are far more strained. The Hakken and Garou have open contempt for each other, and even the Tengu and the Corax — normally happy to share stories and secrets — distrust one another so close to a Beast Court. The last time the Same-Bito ventured far from the shore, they encountered a slew of Rokea who forced them to retreat onto land. The only exception to this culture of suspicion and violence is the Nuwisha, who are fascinated by the hengeyokai. Most Nuwisha care far more about their own curiosity than about rules or propriety, but their obvious knowledge of the Umbra has prevented most of the Beast Courts from attempting to kill the overly curious werecoyotes.

Many in the human world consider Malaysia to be one of the major Asian success stories — it has rela­

tively high income, a greater degree of freedom, and a reasonable standard of living for most residents. The local Beast Courts know far too well the price of this prosperity. Malaysia now has fewer than 500 tigers and no habitat for more. Humans have cut down almost a third of the local jungle, and loggers are cutting more down every day. Because of this destruction, the Beast Courts are determined to protect the half of Malaysia still covered by old growth tropical forests. These forests are home to a wealth of animal life, as well as several powerful Dragon Nests.

Malaysia is currently one of the major battlegrounds for the hengeyokai. The Kumo and Bakemono launch regular attacks the local Dragon Nests, while the Beast Courts stage daring raids on their enemies when not defending themselves from attack. Beyond open war­ fare, the Beast Courts are also working on longer-term strategies for victory. Nagah have started assassinating human leaders who serve the Bakemono — or are their unwilling pawns — while the Nezumi foment urban unrest to disrupt the local industry, while pushing for the chance to turn plagues on their foes. Meanwhile, the Tengu are attempting to identify enemies, allies, and potential dupes of their own among the humans, while the Khan simply kill loggers and other humans who trespass on their territory.

Some Same-Bito have turned to piracy to aid the Beast Courts. They capture cargo ships passing through the Strait of Malacca that separate Malaysia from Indo­ nesia, kill the crew and passengers, destroy the cargo and scuttle the ships. Recently, the Zhong-Lung prevailed upon the Same-Bito to steal valuable cargoes rather than destroying them; the Tengu and Nezumi sell the cargo on the black market to fund freedom fighters and terrorists throughout Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Bakemono, in turn, have deployed similar Wyrm-tainted smog in Malaysia as in Indonesia in an attempt to control the human population. At its worst, this smog and smoke can kill the elderly and infirm, and transform a few humans into monstrous Bakemono themselves. Many people suffer a mild form of taint from the smog that leaves them inured to the strange appear­ ances and actions of the Bakemono. Zhong-Lung sages and diviners predict that if the Beast Courts cannot stop this smog soon, as much as a quarter of the population of several large Malaysian cities could succumb — eventu­ ally transforming whole cities into mutated agents of the Corruptor.

In much of Asia, the hengeyokai covertly aid local human freedom fighters and environmental activists. These humans are working to halt pollution and envi­

ronmental destruction, and forcing an autocratic regime to become more accountable to its populace. For many hengeyokai, Myanmar is a very different — and far less ethically comfortable — situation.

For 50 years, a brutal and repressive military dictator­ ship has ruled Myanmar, but within the last three years the dictators have instituted some democratic reforms. The regime's repression prevented Myanmar from in­ dustrializing, which kept the populace far poorer than any of the other Southeast Asian nations. The lack of industry kept Myanmar from suffering from the same combination of pollution and burgeoning population as the rest of Southeast Asia. The sudden upswing in freedom enticed outside industry into the nation. The sudden start of industrialization has split the country’s hengeyokai.

Myanmar currently has more tigers than the rest of Southeast Asia, and the Khan fear that industrialization and modernization will lead to their deaths, but their ties to their human kinfolk mean that they also wish to see the people become safer. Unlike many of the other Breeds, including the Nagah, Tengu, and Zhong Lung, most of the country’s Khan were born among the tigers and put the needs of their animal Kin above those of the country’s human population.

In this they have unlikely allies: Myanmar’s Nezumi are universally opposed to the changes occurring through­ out the country. They want to prevent industrialization and the population growth that is almost certain to fol­ low. Some wererats advocate sabotaging the increasing democracy and openness by attacking the government, hoping to provoke a backlash of government repression.

Heated and often somewhat violent discussions now fill most local Beast Courts. Some of the Nezumi want to take matters into their own hands, killing every important official from a transnational corporation who sets foot in Myanmar. Meanwhile, several Nagah nests are carefully watching these wererats and the Khan who speak up for them. Some of the more extreme Nezumi have received ambassadors from the Kumo who have offered to help their efforts. After all, violent chaos would allow the werespiders a chance to feed on humans more openly.

Before the American War, most of the central and northern highlands of Vietnam were untamed jungles inhabited by isolated groups of humans, an abundance of animals — and the hengeyokai. The war brought soldiers, napalm and poisonous defoliants like the infa­ mous Agent Orange that devastated the jungle and the shapeshifters who lived there, displacing Khan, Tengu, and Zhong Lung alike. The Blights created during the fighting last to this day, long after the war has ended.

Within the past 15 years, the costal cities have swelled as a result of massive amounts of industrialization; the amount of pollution spewing into the air and water has increased at a similar rate. The nation's already large population has doubled since the end of the war.

Today, the Nezumi remain by far the most populous of the Vietnamese hengeyokai, with many hundreds of their kind in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. They do their best to try to curb urban populations with all manner of diseases but advances in medicine now protect even the urban poor from most contagious diseases. In response, the Nezumi work with Ratkin elsewhere in the world to develop new and ever more deadly plagues. Vietnam's rich coastal farmland also has a dense and growing human population, and the Nezumi's diseases take root far more easily in these poorer rural areas. Here, they have slowed the growth of Vietnam's population — but not the cities.

For the past decade, Vietnamese Beast Courts have faced another threat: tourism. More than six million tourists a year travel to the previously unspoiled parts

of Vietnam, forcing the government to develop more and more of the wilderness to cater or them. Bakemono often enter Vietnam disguised as tourists and attempt to spread corruption to the Dragon Nests that are close to new tourist hotspots. Those Bakemono who can pass as Sunset People have an even easier way to make trouble for the hengeyokai. As long as they make sure that people see them regularly, their sudden disappearance — or grisly murder — will draw attention from foreign governments.

In their mountainous jungles, the Khan and the Zhong Lung hear rumors that these visiting Bakemono deliberately travel to the Blights created during the war. Precisely what they want with the Banes that dwell in the poisoned land, none of the hengeyokai can be sure. In truth, these agents of the Wyrm are planning a large coordinated attack on at least a dozen Dragon Nests throughout the north of Vietnam. To soften up the defenders, the Bakemono created in the jungle Blights have started raiding Dragon Nests; many of the local Beast Courts have suffered serious losses in battles with these monsters.

Characters sworn to the Beast Courts of the Em­ erald Mother are mostly generated as is standard for their Changing Breed, but there are a few small twists, detailed below:

• Beast Court characters may exchange one of their starting Gifts (player’s choice) for a General Hengeyokai Gift.

• In addition to any natural Auspice, Aspect, etc, that the character might have, he also has a Beast Court Auspice (Lantern, Fist, Mirror, Leaf, Pillar, or Courtier). Characters almost always take the Auspice that best matches any natural Auspice role they might have — an Ahroun is almost always a Fist. Exceptions are rare, and still always somehow tie into a character’s role in her sentai. For example, a Hakken Ahroun might act as her sentai’s Pillar, while a Khan serves as its Fist.

• Beast Court characters may exchange one of their starting Gifts (an Auspice or Aspect Gift, if the char­ acter has such things) for a Gift from his Beast Court Auspice list.

• Beast Court characters may buy additional Gifts from the General Hengeyokai list and their Beast Court Auspice list for (Level x 4) experience points.

These general Gifts are widely employed throughout the Beast Courts — any hengeyokai may learn them from spirits generally allied to the Beast Courts as a whole.