The Dream Hunters
Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Point per session, on the subject of The South. You may only use points from one book on this subject in a year. If delivered to the Church, this tome is worth **** Church Prestige Points. With a year of study and **** Research Points, this tome will provide information on the topic of The Tengu.
Author's note:
Readers must be warned that all information contained herein is by its nature incomplete. The material comes from personal experience and various scholarly sources (such as the ancient book Happoufusagari). We still know very little about the Kitsune (or Tengu), and we know even less about how to handle direct or indirect threats from them. Partial information can sometimes be more damaging than none at all. However, as I have had to answer so many questions about them, I feel it is necessary to publish a document. It is likely that additional information will come out soon, as the recent military troubles in the South may turn out to be Kitsune-caused. Also, various people are researching The Wishbringers, which may lead to more information about the Tengu. Another caveat: sometimes, having an empty mind is the best way to deal with a Kitsune. Reading this document will place expectations about them into your mind that the Kitsune is sure to see and react to. Forewarned, in this case, may actually be unfortunate. Nevertheless, it is my hope that this book will provide an introduction that is not too far from the truth. I have risked much for this information so as to keep others safe from the evils of the Tengu.
Sachiko Yuasa, Spring 227
First, it is worth knowing that these creatures have many names. They have been called the Tengu, the Kitsune, both, or neither. I will use the terms Tengu and Kitsune interchangeably.
For this book, I will both relay some of my experiences (as accurately as I can and need to) and tell you what I have come to regard as possibly true from them.
Recently, the attempts to deal with a handsome man who may or may not be a Kitsune have led to disaster in the Plains. Although the battle against his grey thralls was won, the use of a single theurgical spell by an individual (Pulse of Light) led to the utter destruction of all theurgists present, and the wounding of all other troops there. If nothing else, this proves that the Kitsune are no friend of the Church.
The First Tale: The Theurgists and the Inhabitants of the Plains
In the summer of 222, I sent a group of volunteer Theurgists to seek something for me in the Plains of Crystal. It is worth mentioning here that there is no vegetation, nor any animals in the Plains. What is more, the water there will cause an illness: within a week, your hair to fall out, your nails to become brittle and painful, you will experience fevers and wracking nausea. Because of this, it is important to bring lots of provisions when journeying there.
Some of these same theurgists died upon their return in 227. They did not go to the Light, as we would have it known, but were destroyed by darkest magics. This was not their fault. Let this report be a testament to the bravery of their lives and a hope that they are now in a better place, with the Light.
"Three days into the wastes, we discovered a crude settlement, built out of baled plant matter and dried mud. It housed approximately ten families.
The inhabitants proved to be the most debased examples of humanity I have ever seen. Their skin was grey, and their nails and hair were grossly misshapen -- disgusting to look at. They were, however, cautiously friendly after we made a show of peaceful intent, banishing their original fear. Andre Smith, who had some experience in the north, attempted to learn their dialect to permit communication beyond hand- sign and expression. We remained in the village for two days before Andre declared a breakthrough. He announced that the people's, ah, god would be showing up that evening. We decided that this was probably one of the kitsune you referred to, although the natives called it a variety of other things, dream and tengu among them."
Lily gritted her teeth, and pressed on. "It came, and the warnings you gave us were all that allowed us to maintain some semblance of sanity in the face of its arrival. An orange-haired woman, tall and fine-boned, walked out of the desert, and suddenly we all found ourselves elsewhere. My vision took me to my..." she flushed. "Well, let's just say that the loss of a man led me to the Church. I'll tell you more if it matters, but I doubt it does. I talked to him, and he seemed the very reincarnation of..." She shakes her head to clear it. "I used the Seal of Shadows rite upon it, and the vision ended. The villagers did not approve of this, and turned on us. Fortunately, we were able to withdraw. I'm afraid Andre didn't make it -- he was closest to the villagers, and bought us time to flee."
"We regrouped on a hilltop, thirty minutes from the village, and discussed our options. The encounter cost us many of our supplies, and we decided to turn back to report. However, the creature was not done with us quite yet. Remember Vicky Cooper? Twenty-one, a man-hater? Halfway back to the border, slowed by having to carry our supplies ourselves, Vicky and Anthony Bellatrix became extremely, ah, intimate. We knew because we all found ourselves experiencing it from one of their points of view. And as we did, we realized that the thing from the village -- your kitsune -- was inside Vicky, riding her, and there wasn't anything we could do until it was done with her. The women were the lucky ones -- Anthony died of a heart attack, and from what I hear from the other men, the experience damn near did them all in as well. We Sealed Vicky again. We were going to bring her back with us, but we couldn't afford to keep her Sealed for two days. So we left her in the wasteland, tied up. One of the other convinced me to leave her some food and water. I still think we should've killed her."
Lily then took a stout pull from the gin she requested at the start of the report. I offered her whatever she needed and thanked her and the others personally.
Given the description of the people, it is my guess that these barbarians are the "grey thralls" that the Bellatrix and Veiled Guard fought in 226. Given the experience this Kitsune had with theurgists, it would frighten, but not surprise me, if it is the same Kitsune. After all, they can appear as either women or men.
The Second Tale: The Kitsune in the Castle
A good while ago, a Kitsune visited the Castle of the Sea and attempted to kill Crescentino Sone. It was in the body of a weapons master. Standing in his presence made feelings of ecstasy course through one's body (the first clue that he was not a normal person!) He was defeated by Meiko Komaru's theurgical magic, which disembodied him. As there was no none way to destroy the creature, he/it was later bricked up in a spare room. It has been uncomfortable to sleep overnight in the Castle ever since, as the monster sings and talks to you in the voice of your beloved.
In 223, I had reason to believe that the Kitsune in the Castle of the Sea would be a source of important information. Glory Touraine, at the time the mistress of the castle, and Crescentino Sone, who had experience with Kitsune, came with me.
When we first entered the room, we did not see each other. Each of us only saw a single person dear to us. In the Crescentino Sone's case, it is clear that he saw his dead wife; in Glory's, she saw her (quite alive) husband. The Kitsune spoke to us individually, in each form. As we each spoke back to it, we appeared in the vision -but dressed as it would have us, not as we were truly dressed. It is worth mentioning that it did not appear as a child (say, to Glory).
I regret to say that I immediately approached it with suspicion and a demand for answers, although I was polite. The Shattered Blade of Paraceln was suddenly gone - assumedly the Kitsune removed it from its dream because of the possible harm it could have cased it/him/her. In fact, all of my theurgical strips and weapons were removed, much to my great dismay.
However, it greeted us with sensual delight. My attempts at meditation and theurgical concentration did not allow me to break free from the vision, or achieve my Blade. Again, much to my dismay. The Tengu insisted that it was happy in the Castle with so many peoples' dreams to hear, and indicated interest in getting a body again. We all refused. Later in the conversation it indicated that it could take mine if it wanted to, but didn't. It is unclear if that was a bluff or not.
The Kitsune seemed to respond truthfully when questioned with Kikyonosai's power (the Judgment of the Truth), but that "truth" was incomplete. The Kitsune greeted grief with comfort, curtness with disdain, sarcastic politeness with sarcastic playfulness, coldness with coldness. When pressed for information while not under Kikyonosai, its answers have later turned out to be mostly false - half-truths told because they were what it wanted to say for its own agendas, and what the listeners wanted to hear. Its touch brought heights of greatly unwanted ecstasy.
When I challenged it angrily, it grinned kindly. Then, it thrust its hand into my chest and clutched my heart. I was wracked with pleasure so great it could have been pain, yet I could also feel a strange humming within me. I could feel strands of something binding within me, connecting my body to my spirit. Then it waved its free hand, making a piece of reflected light in front of me, and showed me its own vision of my soul. It showed me the colors of my bloodlines and the ravaged holes that theurgy had formed in them. It also showed my hair changing to become a color associated with one of those bloodlines. It then let me go, and I crashed to the ground. To everyone around, my hair was this changed color. It then was cruel with words that only it knew would wound me. Never forget, a kitsune can see into your mind, your heart, and your history. You have no secrets before a kitsune. Also remember, what it showed me was its own vision. I would not think the Church or I would have the same impression of theurgy's affects upon the soul.
After this powerful and unwelcome experience, I tried mirroring the Kitsune's own playful and superior attitude with my own. That seemed to work, if "to work" means that it did no further harm and seemed more willing to talk. Its talk, however, was full of sarcastic contempt and insults. This particular Kitsune seemed to indicate that it had come to the Castle in order to both love and kill Crescentino Sone (of course, this information should not be taken for granted).
After the Kitsune made us leave its dream, my hair seemed unchanged. However, three months later, it was growing in the color that the Kitsune had willed it.
The only other information relevant that the Kitsune gave us was its opinion of the Mer. "The Mer are thieves," it said. "They think I should just jump one of you and go seduce, I don't know, the Crown Princess. It's kind of fun to bait them, but don't tell them I said that."
The Third Tale: The Kitsune in the Plains
Later in 223, I voyaged to the Plains of Crystal myself for the information I sought. I brought with me Lily Petraux. She was one of the few people I knew and trusted who had faced a Kitsune and survived intact. She was also a theurgist, and therefore had the strength of will and grasp of the Light necessary to deal with the possibility of a Tengu. We took two full weeks' worth of food and water for our mules and ourselves.
Three days in, we spied a village of what we assumed to be the Plains Barbarians. We did not investigate. On the third night, I started to dream what could only be described as Kitsune-influenced dreams. My hopes and fears came to life within the dreams, and when I awoke, the blanket was warm near me. On the fourth day, Lily grabbed my hand and pointed ahead. I saw a smudge of something in the distance, like a coming storm, and my heart leaped. When I asked Lily about dreams, she admitted to having had intense dreams with erotic overtones since we entered the Plains. I warned her that they were surely Kitsune-induced, and not to enjoy them too much.
That night I had a powerful erotic dream. When I awoke, a blueberry twig (which had not featured in the dream, but which is of personal significance to me) lay across my thigh. Remember that this is in the Plains of Crystal, where no plant survives. Lily was also dreaming intensely, and a swirl of hay was around her. I woke her, to her dismay, and tried speaking to whatever unseen Kitsune had caused these dreams. There was no response, except Lily asking if they usually answered.
On the fifth day, we discovered a group of miners. These miners were immediately suspicious of me and took me captive. To me they seemed to disarm Lily, but it became clear after they held me within their tent that they were actually oblivious to her presence. When the miners and I realized what had occurred, one performed the Theurgical Rite of Pulse of Light. My sudden joy at being surrounded by siblings of the Light was dashed by what followed.
As the theurgical strip burned, three pulses of Light tore through the tent-space around me. The first rippled over Lily and jerked her to her feet. The second pulse melted Lily's face away like so much flesh-toned wax. Gibbets of bristly blackness were visible where chunks of skin fall away. The third pulse sheared away yet more of her flesh. The ruin of Lily's mouth opened, and I saw a tongue move. The kitsune tsk'd my captor and said, "No need to foul yourself like that on my account." The man's eyes glazed over as he fell to the ground.
I can never forget that moment.
In the chaos that happened next, the Kitsune pushed away the remains of Lily's body, revealing it to be a huge black bird. Its body entirely filled the tent. It broke the chair I was tied to, freeing me, and while the miners attacked it (and me!), it encouraged me to flee. As the miners tried to shoot the creature, it would look at them; they would then drop their guns and hold their hands in agony.
I do not know why it allowed me to live in that moment, except that, in some circumstances, I think the Kitsune like me. Or I amuse them. Or both. I have often lived the life of great frustration that draws the Kitsune to people.
A Summation and Scholarly Advice:
The Kitsune's Place Among the Four Cardinal Creatures
The Kitsune are one of the four races of powerful, non-human beings that surround Komaru. The others being the Mer to the West, the Naga to the North, and the Aten to the East. They have always been, to some degree, in opposition with the humans who live in Komaru. Tales speak of the Betrayer (here a symbol for Komaru, perhaps?) raping a fox-eared girl, and her children being the Kitsune. On a basic level, it is likely that they seek, like the others, to control the End Times and have a say in the what form the next Age will take.
Just as the Mer and the Aten hate each other and seek to defeat each other, there may be some similar relationship between the Kitsune and the Naga. In which case, just as the secrets to defeat the Aten lay in the hands of the Mer, the secrets to defeating the Kitsune may lay in the hands (do they have hands?) of the Naga, and vice versa. But this is just supposition.
It is clear that the Kitsune have a relationship with the Issorat and Gitany, but not the exact nature. They seem to like the people from these groups a great deal, and ancient lore indicates a relationship between them.
The Kitsune's Appearance
In their true forms, the Kitsune look like humans with animal bits (like fox ears) or as large, black birds. However, they do not necessarily need a form at all. Or they may borrow the form of their human hosts.
Discussing the Kitsune's "true form" is probably not relevant. It is highly unlikely that one would appear to you in its true form.
1. One power that you will probably notice first is the ability to change shape. However, I consider this to be a secondary effect of the Kitsune's ability to project powerful illusions into your mind.
2. Kitsune have the ability to appear as whatever you have in your heart and mind, with some limits. This is particularly true when they do not have an actual physical form. I suspect that adult Kitsune cannot appear as children - but just because one didn't, doesn't mean none can.
3. They can possess human beings. Whether the host needs to be willing or not, I do not know. I have heard arguments either way. I suspect that it is a spiritual/magical process, not a physical one. I have heard that when they possess a human, they can drive him or her to great heights of pleasure. I have not tested this, nor do I wish to.
4. They can bring pleasure coursing through the body of a person simply by being in their presence.
5. They can kill a human with a thought or a gesture. They can also cause pain; whether through illusion or through their power related to causing pleasure, I do not know.
6. They can make physical things appear from dreams, such as the hay and the twig. They can also change physical realities (such as my hair color).
7. They can bring intense and erotic dreams involving subjects and people dear to you.
8. They may or may not have found a new way to counter theurgy by turning theurgists into black, dangerous winds. For more information on this, speak with those who fought the handsome man in the Plains of Crystal in 226.
I am sure that the Kitsune's powers do not stop here.
The Kitsune's Desires
Certainly, most Kitsune are interested in riding the dreams, passions, and ambitions of humans. Some scholarly lore speaks of Kitsune who prefer to drive their hosts to pain. I hope that these are rare. They especially like humans who live lives of great frustration or great decadence/pleasure-seeking. I would guess that they also enjoy fulfilling the wishes and dreams of the humans they inhabit. I have read other lore that indicates that they give humans wishes - but the wishes are probably tarnished by the Kitsune's literal- mindedness, or pure inhumanness.
As illustrated by the Kitsune in the Castle, sometimes they seek out individual humans because they love them. Or at least that is what they say.
It is important not to forget that, just like the other four cardinal creatures, the Kitsune seek to control the End Times/Turning. Komaru is the key to this, so they probably seek to control Komaru somehow.
One useful key to the Kitsune is that they are often driven to be what you expect and want them to be. Therefore, expecting them to be beneficent, wise, loving, and helpful is a far better stance to take with them than any other. However, the true desires of a Kitsune are difficult to fathom. Just because a Kitsune appears as your beloved wife does not mean it will always treat you as such.
The Kitsune are individuals: they are not part of a larger hive mind, though it is possible that they could work together, just as humans do. What this means is that different Kitsune may have different personalities, agendas, and ways of fulfilling their desires. Some Kitsune seek their own pleasure through causing pleasure, others through causing pain.
In all of these tales, a common thread is that the Kitsune hate and can be harmed with theurgy. Seal of Shadows temporarily disarms them, but also angers them. Theurgy is one of our few weapons against the Kitsune.
However, given the recent events in the Plains of Crystal, I would caution anyone strongly against attempting theurgy on a Kitsune. If the handsome unnamed man of the Plains is indeed a Kitsune bent on domination, then at least one Kitsune has found a way to defeat theurgists quickly and terribly. Given that Kitsune are individuals, however, it is not clear that all Kitsune will know this devastating magic.
Nevertheless, the Kitsune are the enemies of the Church. If not, then why would they hate theurgy so? Therefore, the Church should keep a watchful eye on these creatures and attempt to discover new ways to stop them.