Ganryu
Your Lovable Jackass GM
Long ago, those monsters, the Jiu, began to attack humanity. Evil spirits given form of a monster, and a taste for blood. No matter what the people did, they could not harm these monsters. Fire, Steel, Nature, the sea, landslides, nothing the people did could put these monsters down, for no whatever what they did, they always came back. They seemed immortal! Not even time could touch them.
The Jiu had always been a problem, but one or two lost in a village was put down as myth, but now they seemed scared, and their rampage lasted hundreds of years. Humanity was nearly destroyed, only a handful of refugees lived here and there, avoiding the Jiu whenever possible. Colonies of a few dozen were the largest humanity could manage. Any more, and the Jiu would find them.
Then things changed with a man called Sun Yang. Sneaking out of the camp to hunt, he noticed two Jiu arguing with eachother. His body told him to run, yet he stayed to watch. One Jiu killed the other, and left the corpse behind. And import thought came to Yang. A Jiu can kill a Jiu. Looting its body, he soaked his sword in its blood, and wrote a simple symbol on the blade. 活, to live. Licking the edge for luck, he went. Charging the other Jiu, he swung his blade at from behind. It rolled its eyes... until its arm fell to the ground, and would not heal.
For the first time ever, a human had hurt a Jiu, and it now fought viciously to live. A fierce battle raged in the woods as trees fell, rocks shattered, the earth rend, and in the end, Yang stood over the first ever Jiu killed by man.
Returning shattered to his encampment, they were horrified at the state he was in. He should have died, yet the demon blood he'd eaten kept him alive, healing his body, and changing him, making him stronger. Torn flesh mended, broken bone healed, even hair grew. Symbols for 活 began to appear across his body, and continued to heal him, black tattoos with it. No one believed his tale, even when he showed the entire village both corpses, hauling the two bodies into the small camp. They scorned Yang, called him an idiot boy. What if he had led the Jiu to them?
He kept the corpses just in case, draining their blood, laughing like a madman. He knew he was onto something great, and it didn't matter what others thought. Some thought he had gone mad, but like the Jiu, they could not kill him. He forgave them, but he seemed so quick to anger those days.
A Jiu did find their village, however, and this time Sun Yang was ready for them. Dipping his sword in the blood, he attacked, only to be swatted away, his blade glancing off their hide, doing no damage. The village screamed, another settlement to be snuffed out, they had grown too big.
Coughing blood from the tree he had been embedded, Yang couldn't understand it, until an epiphany came to him... Peeling himself off, he licked the blade once more, he felt a surge of power, and charged a second time, engaging the demon, though near death. The battle lasted for an hour, again scarring the earth, before both man and demon lay dying. Smiling, he spoke of his techniques, his discovers, each word weaker than the last, until his eyes fluttered shut. This time the village listened, and the next Jiu that came against them found warriors ready.
Humanity had learned how to fight back, and slowly, decades and centuries, towns began to come back. After 300 years, his once scarce camp has become the proud capitol of the Lands of Wu, Yang, named in his honor.
Those who slay the Jiu became known as the Xian, the Immortals. In honor of Sun Yang, a tatoo of a sun was always worn by those who had graduated. Three schools emerged from three philosophies of thought:
School of Blades: The orignal school, the school of the blade found that Sun Yang was correct, carving blood runes into weapons would give it various powers. Their philosophy is tradition, the first man to kill a Jiu used a blade, so in honor of him, they master their weapons
School of Charms: The next school noticed that such blood runes granted power upon whatever they were embedded in, so long as they were activated by drinking blood. The school of the Charms would embed the runes into various patterns like magic, expending a charm to deal massive damage quickly. Using paper tags became popular. Their philosophy is that it is by the magic of the Jiu that one can kill one, not a man, not a blade, so they forsake any attempt at other skill, focusing on that magic.
School of the Body: The final school observed that if anything could be embued with magic, why not one's body? Forsaking all weapons, they tattood their entire body with the runes, their fists rending the Jiu with discipline and training. Their philosophy is that blood on the ground does nothing, it is the man who uses who is strong, so they will strengthen that man.
No matter the school though, a few facts began to manifest:
* The Blood of the Jiu is needed for any school to be effective, ingesting it before a battle is absolutely necessary.
* There are 5 elements that the blood of the Jiu manifests as, 5 powers that can be used. Each Xian tends to align to one of the five: Water(Any flows, including air, and tempests), Wood(Life and healing), Fire(energy), Steel(weapons, creation), and Earth (manipulating the ground). They have an order of weaknesses.
* The blood of the Jiu corrupts whatever Xian ingests it, there are four stages to this. The further down one goes, the more violent they become. Initiation, the first stage, Indulgence, the second stage, Madness, the third stage, and Despair, the fourth stage. Anyone who reaches Despair becomes as bad as a Jiu, attacking all around them. Ingesting more blood can power one up more, but might progress a stage. The timing of progression almost seems random to some, others have attributed it to emotions.
