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  Two unconscious Chaos Cultists flew through the temple doors before 
  plummeting and landing at the green-robed master’s feet. Tommy Li stepped 
  through the hole they left and announced, “Emerald Duke of Toads, your evil 
  schemes are at an end!”
  He’s really quite good at that, thought Zheng Tan. Even if he did take most of 
  his lines from those wretched movies, Tommy knew how to make an entrance. 
  None of the cultists massed below paid any attention to Tan as he sidled along 
  the mezzanine above Tommy, gun in one hand, looking for a junction box. With 
  all the neon this temple uses, it has to be wired like an arcade.
  “I should have known those gunmen couldn’t kill you,” hissed the Duke, his 
  voice slightly muffled by his emerald mask. Tan rolled his eyes. The bad guys 
  always seemed to slide into wuxia roles and lines as easily as he did. 
  “But you are wrong, Tommy Li,” the Duke continued. “You have come to your 
  end, through the power of Hundun and the Devil-Scream Portal!” A huge device 
  resembling an upright sarcophagus stood before the huge, faceless image of 
  Hundun, the titan of Chaos. Eight slender, glittering legs radiated from the 
  sarcophagus like a spider’s legs, while spiraling glass tubes ran up its sides. 
  The traitorous Scion seized the nearest cultist and slammed him into the 
  open sarcophagus. The man wailed as the device’s arms snapped shut. They 
  pierced his body and started to pump quicksilver into his body. The tubes 
  along the device glowed yellow-green and violet, and the cultist’s wail rose 
  into a shrill scream.
  Tan glanced down as the scream abruptly choked off. Two clawed hands, 
  the pale yellow hue of bone, reached out of the cultist’s mouth, gripped his 
  cheeks and stretched… and stretched…. Tan winced and shut his eyes as the 
  demon struggled out of the impossibly distended mouth, leaving a bag of torn 
  and bloody skin to flop at the base of the device. In a rustle of green robes, all 
  the remaining cultists dropped to the floor and prostrated themselves before 
  this vile miracle. 
  Maybe it was just the clashing hues of the temple’s neon lights that 
  made Tommy look pale and sick, and maybe he only swallowed a few 
  times because he was parched from all the fighting earlier. He sounded 
  firm enough when he said, “That won’t save you, sorcerer. I’ve defeated 
  demons before. Chopsocky-hai!” Tommy didn’t bother with the stairs 
  
  that swept down to the temple floor; he flipped over the rail and arced 
  down to slam into the demon, feet first. The bone-hued demon staggered 
  but did not fall.
  Tan watched closely as Tommy bounced down to the floor. The cult’s leader 
  clenched his fists in rage before reaching into one capacious sleeve and pulling 
  out a square of black paper bearing characters in vivid green ink. He held it up 
  as Tommy backflipped around the flailing, roaring demon. “By imperial order!” 
  the Duke shouted.
  At the same time, Tan concentrated and imagined a current of his divine power, 
  his Qi, spinning down to wrap around the Duke. “For every action, there is an equal 
  and opposite reaction,” he whispered. Not a traditional way to perform Yin-Yang 
  Destruction, but it was high time a few traditions got updated.
  The Emerald Duke of Toads was strong. Tan had never pitted his power 
  against someone so strong, but Tan inhaled sharply and glared down at the 
  Duke, imagining every great scientist of East and West at his back. Equal and 
  opposite reaction! Sure enough, instead of bursting into flame to release the 
  Duke’s spell, the ebon paper merely smoldered. But the traitor Scion’s gaze 
  snapped up and met Tan’s. Uh-oh….
  No longer bothering to stay inconspicuous, Tan ran along the mezzanine to where 
  he guessed a junction box ought to be. He also glanced up at the pipes and conduits 
  that ran along the ceiling of the basement chamber. From below came smacks of 
  fists and feet, growls and howls from the demon, and yelps from cultists who finally 
  found the sense to flee.
  A sound like the magnified croaking of a toad echoed through the temple. The 
  Emerald Duke of Toads crouched down, knees and elbows splayed, and leaped up to 
  the mezzanine in front of Tan. Damn it. I’ll have to improvise. Backpedaling, Tan 
  waved his gun in the Duke’s direction and fired. The bullet passed yards from the 
  Duke and struck a pipe, causing water to spray out and drench the cultists below. He 
  hoped Tommy would remember the plan.
  “How unskilled,” sneered the Duke as he advanced on Tan. “Your Taiyi is 
  strong, but I am a master of the physical as well as the spiritual!” He pounced 
  forward. Tan prayed to his foster-mother that she would smile on this plan 
  before it fell apart completely, grabbed two power cables running along the 
  wall and threw himself off the balcony.
  
  Half the neon on the wall came crackling with him, raining glass and spitting 
  sparks as tubes and cables pulled away from the wall and snapped. He didn’t land 
  as gracefully as Tommy, but at least he landed on his feet with a splash. The spray 
  had stopped, and the ruptured pipe now poured down a steady stream of water.
  Tommy launched a roundhouse kick with a loud crack that took the demon 
  under the jaw, snapping back its head and breaking its neck. The demon fell with 
  a splash into the spreading pool. With a second splash, the Emerald Duke jumped 
  down to land before Tan in his toadlike fighting crouch. “I can still kill you both,” 
  he snarled.
  
  “I don’t think so,” Tan replied, and jerked the cables in his hands. One end spat 
  sparks as it landed in the pool of water. The traitor Scion spasmed as high-tension 
  current shot through the water into his feet. The last few cultists flopped 
  around him. Tommy stood atop the Devil-Scream Portal, balanced on one foot. 
  He leaped down to kick the Duke in the head as he had kicked the demon, and the 
  Duke’s green glass mask shattered. The Duke fell and flopped a bit more. The last 
  lights in the temple went out as fuses blew.
  Tommy pulled a penlight from his pocket and shone it at Tan. He asked, “Are 
  you okay? That was dangerous!”
  Tan smiled wanly as shock set in. Yes, that had been quite absurdly dangerous. 
  He wasn’t a kung fu master like Tommy. Still he kept his voice from shaking too 
  badly as he said, “Well, I couldn’t let you have all the fun. See why I asked you to 
  wear rubber boots and coveralls? Insulation.”
  Tommy shook his head. “Engineering’s too crazy for me. I’ll stick to fighting 
  demons.” He hoisted the body of the Emerald Duke of Toads. Together, they 
  squelched to the temple’s exit.
  
  6
  Credits
  Written by: Dean Shomshak
  Developer: Eddy Webb
  Scion Line Developer: John Chambers
  Creative Director: Rich Thomas
  Production Manager: matt milberger
  Editor: Jason Bolte
  Art Director: Brian Glass
  Book Design: Jessica Mullins
  Layout: Jessica Mullins 
  Interior Art: Rich Thomas, Andy Hepworth, Tom 
  Garden, Justin Norman, Jeff Laubenstein
  Cover Art: Rich Thomas
  © 2008 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written 
  permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes of 
  reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for personal 
  use only. White Wolf and Scion are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All 
  rights reserved. Scion Hero, Scion Demigod, Scion God, Scion Ragnarok 
  and Scion Companion are trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. All 
  characters, names, places and text herein are copyrighted by CCP hf. CCP 
  North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf.
  This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction and intended 
  for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
  Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com
  C
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  Part 1: the tuatha  
  de dannan
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  Part 2: mainifestation  
  of iChor
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  Part 3: Celestial 
  BureauCraCy 
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  Part 4: seCrets of the World 
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  sCion: ComPanion 
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  7
  taBle of Contents
  the mandate of heaven 
  8
  the Celestial BureauCraCy 
  10
  Birthrights 
  21
  sCions of the Celestial BureauCraCy 
  25
  Cosmology 
  32
  antagonists 
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  titan: hundun-Chaos 
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  Celestial BureauCraCy
  
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  The MandaTe of heaven
  The Chinese believe in thousands of Gods and 
  spirits, whom they call shen. All these greater and lesser 
  divinities form a civil service under the command of a 
  divine Emperor, a Celestial Bureaucracy that resembles 
  the mortal government of Imperial China. Or rather, the 
  Imperial government followed the model set by the Gods 
  – the Mandate of Heaven. The Celestial Bureaucracy 
  has deities for every possible purpose, from great Gods 
  who oversee wide areas of mortal society or natural 
  phenomena, to petty spirits of individual households.
  It also has Scions. Indeed, this immense and ancient 
  pantheon includes a large proportion of Scions who achieved 
  divinity. The current generation of Scions can do the same: 
  They just need to perform sufficient deeds of merit. The 
  Titans’ escape should give them plenty of opportunities.
  hisTory
  The Celestial Bureaucracy traces its dynasty back to 
  the origin of the World. In the beginning, the giant Pangu 
  emerged from the primordial chaos and chiseled it into 
  order. Eventually, Pangu merged with his own creation to 
  become the World. His flesh became the soil, his blood 
  the seas and rivers, his breath the winds, his hair the trees 
  and so on. The lice on his body became human beings.
  The Gods become vague and change the subject 
  when asked where they came from. Nevertheless, they 
  claim Pangu as one of their number: China holds several 
  temples to Pangu, including one on the mountain that 
  shares his name. The shen also claim pride of place as 
  the first pantheon to teach civilization to humanity. The 
  boast is slightly tautologous, in that many shen deny 
  that anyone outside China has ever been civilized.
  The Celestial Bureaucracy began with a small number 
  of primal Gods. The oldest Gods of Chinese myth were 
  not quite human, at least in their early portrayals. The 
  famed couple Nüwa and her brother-husband Fuxi have 
  human heads on serpentine or dragonlike bodies, while 
  Xiwangmu, the chatelaine of the Western Paradise, 
  has a panther’s tail and tiger’s teeth. These early Gods 
  taught mortals all the civilized arts. Three of them 
  ruled the Middle Kingdom in remotest antiquity, and 
  legend remembers them as the Three Sovereigns. After 
  them came several generations of Scions who became 
  legendary kings, heroes, nobles and sages in the ancient 
  World. Many of them became Gods as well.
  The shen continue to produce Scions who achieve 
  divinity, and the Celestial Bureaucracy finds positions 
  for them. The Celestial Bureaucracy has lasted millennia, 
  with a few notable periods of reorganization; the Gods 
  expect it to last forever.
  nüwa repairs The sky
  The greatest challenge to the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  came long ago. The water-God Gonggong rebelled 
  against Heaven and sought to make himself the supreme 
  deity. Enraged by his defeat, Gonggong struck one of 
  the mountains supporting the sky and broke it. The sky 
  broke too, releasing dreadful chaos, and the Earth itself 
  tilted. Floods and fires surged across the World, while 
  terrible beasts roamed freely and devoured mortals.
  The Goddess Nüwa restored order. She propped 
  up the World using the legs of a divine tortoise, and 
  melted stones of five colors into a paste to repair the sky. 
  Nüwa also defeated a terrible Black Dragon and saved 
  the World from disaster. 
  Yu the Great is also credited with stopping a terrible 
  flood, perhaps the same one caused by breaking the sky. 
  First his father Gun stole Xirang, the magical Growing 
  Earth, from the Gods and tried using it to channel the 
  floodwaters with dikes and levees. The Gods killed Gun 
  for his presumption, but the infant Yu emerged from 
  his corpse. Yu employed the Xirang as well. After many 
  years of hard work, he built up dikes and dredged rivers 
  (including the famous Three Gorges canyon) to channel 
  the excess water to the sea. Yu eventually became Emperor 
  for his great deed, and then a God in Nüwa’s entourage.
  The invesTiTure war
  The Shang dynasty lost its virtue. After the Shang 
  Emperor wrote a lecherous poem on the wall of Nüwa’s 
  temple, she decided the dynasty must end. Many Gods 
  helped her in her plan to replace it with the righteous new 
  kingdom of Zhou. Other Gods and immortals defended 
  the Shang kingdom because they thought that rebellion 
  could never be right. Their battles raged across the Middle 
  Kingdom. The magical weapons and powers of the divine 
  combatants destroyed whole armies in their battles. The 
  supporters of Zhou won in the end, but many Gods and 
  immortals died on both sides. The Celestial Bureaucracy 
  never again faced such civil war, and the prospect of 
  another such conflict is the pantheon’s greatest fear. The 
  war led to a reorganization of the Celestial Bureaucracy, 
  and the promotion of many Scions to divinity.
  China’s deCline
  The nineteenth century was a trying time for China. 
  The empire suffered defeat after defeat in the Opium Wars. 
  The Taiping Rebellion and Boxer Rebellion caused even 
  worse damage. The Celestial Bureaucracy suffered a similar 
  decline: Numerous Gods pushed their Scions to become 
  warlords or revolutionary leaders, in hopes of founding a new 
  
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  imperial dynasty, and schemed against their rivals in Heaven. 
  Occasional incursions from adventurous Aesir and other 
  Western deities caused further disruption — only because the 
  shen disagreed over how to deal with the incursions in China. 
  By the twentieth century, office politics left the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy virtually paralyzed and functionally impotent.
  CoMMunisM and Beyond
  When the Communists came to power, they 
  declared China officially atheist and closed or destroyed 
  many temples. Many shen were outraged but Guan Yu, 
  the new Jade Emperor, forbade any retribution. The 
  Cultural Revolution and its aftershocks ravaged China, 
  but the Jade Emperor declared that mortals had to work 
  this out for themselves. Instead, Guan Yu focused the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy’s efforts on reforming itself.
  Some Gods now laud the Jade Emperor’s foresight. 
  They see the People’s Republic as China’s third Legalist 
  dynasty, following the Qin and Sui and, like them, bringing 
  strength and order after a period of chaos and weakness. 
  Ironically, some Chinese now pray to Mao Zedong as a God. 
  (The paperwork to promote his ghost into the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy as a minor functionary should be complete in 
  a few decades.) Other shen, however, despise the People’s 
  Republic of China and seek ways to restore imperial rule.
  The escape of the Titans inspires concern among the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy, but no real terror. They coped 
  with Titans before and expect to do so again.
  foreign relaTions
  For most of its history, the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  didn’t have foreign relations — or rather, it concentrated 
  on the Gods of over fifty ethnic minorities within 
  China, either destroying them or assimilating them into 
  its own organization. All other Gods are barbarians, just 
  like the mortals who worship them. If other pantheons 
  try to move in on the Celestial Bureaucracy’s turf, the 
  Bureaucracy’s spies stir up a third pantheon against the 
  enemy: Use the barbarians to fight the barbarians.
  The shen feel somewhat greater respect for the 
  Amatsukami, mostly due to the mortal cultural ties fostered 
  through Buddhism. Sun Wukong himself, for instance, 
  helped bring Buddhist scriptures from India to China, 
  and Guanyin is worshipped in Japan as Kwannon. The 
  Amatsukami have the intellectual depth that the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy finds conspicuously absent in the Aesir, the 
  Dodekatheon and indeed most other pantheons. They 
  even share most of the Celestial Bureaucracy’s Virtues.
  World War Two, however, gravely damaged relations 
  between the Celestial Bureaucracy and the Amatsukami. 
  When Japan invaded China, the Celestial Bureaucracy lost 
  millions of mortal worshippers. The Jade Emperor of the time 
  sent Amaterasu a beautifully calligraphed, elegantly phrased 
  demand that she exercise her ancestral prerogatives over her 
  descendant, the mortal Emperor Hirohito, and order him to 
  withdraw his troops from the Middle Kingdom. Whatever 
  Amaterasu thought of the mortal war, she did not like being 
  ordered about like a misbehaving child. She sent back a 
  beautifully calligraphed refusal, involving some elegantly 
  phrased suggestions of what the Jade Emperor could do with 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy. Matters went downhill from there.
  For the first time in millennia, the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  faced a major threat from a rival pantheon. After the terrible 
  atom-fire burned in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however, the 
  Amatsukami had grave issues confronting them in their 
  homeland. The Celestial Bureaucracy, meanwhile, found 
  plenty of turmoil in the Middle Kingdom and its own 
  ranks. The resurgence of the Titans gives both pantheons 
  problems of greater urgency than their grievances against 
  each other. Nevertheless, the shen refuse to treat the 
  Amatsukami as equals until they receive a formal apology 
  from Amaterasu herself. Gods, lesser immortals and Scions 
  may deal with the Amatsukami on an ad-hoc basis, but 
  relations between the two pantheons stay tense and frosty.
  Most shen believe they do not need allies, anyway. 
  They are, after all, one of the largest pantheons in the 
  Overworld, and disruptions in the mortal World did 
  not weaken them too badly: Hundreds of millions of 
  Chinese still show their reverence in great and small 
  ways, from praying at Nüwa’s temples to dabbing honey 
  on the Kitchen God’s mouth to sweeten his report in 
  Heaven. More than once since the Titans escaped, the 
  shen have set one Titan’s servants attacking the minions 
  of another: Use the barbarians to fight the barbarians.
  No longer, however, does the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  simply ignore all the mortal World beyond the Middle 
  Kingdom. Millions of Chinese now live in distant lands 
  (a migration sometimes called the Chinese Diaspora) 
  and they do very well for themselves. Most significantly, 
  perhaps, American Chinese began shipping the coffins of 
  their ancestors overseas for reburial. Home is where your 
  ancestors are buried, so these emigrants make it clear they 
  intend never to return to the Middle Kingdom. On the 
  other hand, they show their intent to maintain the central 
  tradition of Chinese faith. A special commission now 
  ponders how the Celestial Bureaucracy should respond. 
  Does the Chinese Diaspora fall under the Mandate 
  of Heaven? Does this impose a duty on the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy to exercise its power in distant lands?
  Some shen have already made up their minds. They use 
  Chinatowns as an excuse to meddle abroad. Other Gods 
  call the exodus of the dead a threat to the sacred harmony 
  between the pantheon, the people and the soil. It’s a small 
  dispute, but many Gods fear how it might grow. The Celestial 
  Bureaucracy’s greatest enemy has always been Hundun, Titan 
  of Chaos, who sets the pantheon warring against itself.
  Hundun, who gave Gonggong the power to break 
  the sky.
  Hundun, who turned Chiyou against Heaven, lured 
  the 10 suns to sporting and set the shen warring for and 
  against mortal dynasties.
  Hundun the Unmanifest — the Titan who was 
  never bound!
  
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  The CelesTial BureauCraCy
  The Chinese gods
  Virtues: Duty, Harmony, Intellect, 
  Valor
  The 
  Chinese 
  pantheon 
  consists of literally hundreds of 
  Gods, plus thousands of lesser 
  immortals and countless minor 
  spirits. Relatively few of the 
  Gods possess sufficient 
  Legend to breed potent 
  Scions. These Gods 
  still number in the 
  dozens, though, so only 
  a selection of the most 
  notable (or notorious) can 
  be described here.
  True to its name, the 
  Celestial 
  Bureaucracy 
  organizes all its Gods and 
  spirits into departments 
  that oversee both mortal life and universal 
  concepts. Originally, the Bureaucracy had just 
  eight ministries. Over the millennia, other ministries 
  were added as they became necessary, or through the 
  vagaries of bureaucratic infighting. The Ministry of 
  Thunder and Storms, for instance, monitors the weather, 
  while the Ministry of Fire governs all manifestations of 
  that element. The Ministry of Epidemics watches the 
  spread of diseases; the separate Ministry of Smallpox 
  was recently abolished and its personnel reassigned. The 
  Ministry of Exorcisms acts as the Celestial Bureaucracy’s 
  internal affairs division, policing the demons who form 
  the pantheon’s least reliable agents and chastising lesser 
  immortals who step out of line. The large and powerful 
  Ministry of Hell governs the Chinese Underworld and 
  sees to the punishment and reincarnation of sinners. 
  (Storytellers can invent other ministries as needed.)
  All these ministries answer to the Yu Di or Jade 
  Emperor (also called the Pearly Emperor). Despite 
  his monarchic title, the Jade Emperor merely holds 
  executive power for a sixty-year term of office. Eight 
  senior Gods appoint the Jade Emperor; while Gods 
  often hold the office for several terms, replacement 
  also happens frequently enough that few Gods treat 
  the office as a sinecure.
  The eight senior Gods, in turn, divide into the three 
  Pure Ones and the five Heavenly Emperors, or Shang Di. 
  Two of the Pure Ones — Yuan Shi Tian Zun, or “Universal 
  Lord of the Primordial Beginning,” and Ling Bao Tian 
  Zun, or “Universal Lord of the Numinous Treasure” — 
  have never manifested in the World and usually remain 
  wholly disembodied. The third, 
  Tai Shang Lao Zun, or “Supreme 
  Elder Lord,” incarnated himself 
  as 
  Laozi, 
  founder 
  of 
  Daoism. None of them 
  father Scions (though Laozi 
  occasionally acts as a Guide 
  for promising demigods).
  The 
  five 
  Heavenly 
  Emperors taught civilization 
  to humanity. Some of them 
  ruled China in the most 
  ancient times. Each of 
  them is associated with 
  a particular direction. 
  Fuxi, Emperor of the 
  East and Wood, taught 
  divination, music, hunting, 
  how to make clothing and other 
  rudiments of civilization. As Empress of 
  the North and Water, Fuxi’s sister-wife Nüwa keeps 
  watch over the patch of sky she mended. Shennong, 
  the Divine Farmer and Emperor of the South and of Fire, 
  taught agriculture and invented medicine. Xiwangmu, 
  Queen Mother of the West, is Empress of Metal and 
  mistress of reward and punishment. Huang Di, the Yellow 
  Emperor of Earth and the Center, fought the World’s first 
  war against the rebel Chiyou and instituted the first mortal 
  government. These five elders eschew day-to-day politics, 
  but the Jade Emperor occasionally asks them for advice.
  Gods tend to have multiple names or descriptive 
  epithets, which makes it hard for mortals to tell how 
  many there are or who’s God of what. Some epithets are 
  permanent; others change as a God moves from office 
  to office in the Celestial Bureaucracy. Thus, Shennong 
  has always been the Divine Farmer; but he took over 
  the office of Yan Di, the Blazing Emperor of the South, 
  after the previous Yan Di was executed for joining his 
  son Chiyou’s rebellion. Gods can also incarnate in the 
  World to form new cults to themselves, under new or 
  variant names. For instance, Huang Di recently became 
  an immensely popular God in Hong Kong and Kowloon 
  under a new Cantonese guise as Wong Tai Sin, “Great 
  Immortal Wong,” a.k.a. the Red Pine Immortal.
  Chinese myth claims that most Gods were born 
  of mortal parents and lived in the World before 
  attaining divinity (sometimes after death, sometimes 
  after becoming immortal through Daoist or Buddhist 
  studies). In the case of the eldest Gods, these tales are 
  allegorical. Many of the younger Gods, however, are 
  
  11
  Scions who attained divinity. (Indeed, the current Jade 
  Emperor is one such God.)
  The huge number of Gods who have Legends 
  ranging from 9 to 11 result in a corresponding 
  number of Scions who lack any associated Purviews 
  (because, as described on p. 79 of Scion: God, a 
  Purview becomes associated with a God only when 
  the God learns the Purview’s avatar power). When 
  such Scions show promise, a senior God may adopt 
  them and provide a Visitation. The five Heavenly 
  Emperors adopt far more Scions than they breed 
  conventionally. Others of these low-potential Scions 
  simply work to cultivate themselves despite their lack 
  of associated Purviews. The Celestial Bureaucracy 
  considers itself a meritocracy, where any Scion can 
  advance himself through hard work and diligent 
  study. No matter what disadvantages a Scion begins 
  with, he can at least hope for later adoption by one of 
  the greater Gods.
  relationships to affairs of state. Obedience to these 
  rules enables people to live in harmony with each 
  other and with the essentially benign order of the 
  Universe. Careful thought and study help Gods and 
  mortals to understand both Dao and duty. Passive 
  understanding, however, is not enough: A hero must 
  act to correct offenses to the natural and human 
  order, whether by protesting an Emperor’s unjust 
  policies or battling a rampaging demon.
  While Duty, Harmony, Intellect and Valor 
  represent the broadest possible spread of the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy’s interests, the pantheon recognizes 
  other Virtues as well. Obedience to authority and 
  respect for the bureaucratic chain of command can 
  shade into Order instead of (or as well as) Duty. The 
  Chinese (and their Gods) formalize this Virtue as 
  the doctrine of Legalism, which became the guiding 
  philosophy for China’s first historical emperor, 
  Qinshihuang. On the other hand, Chinese heroes 
  often fall deeply in love and find their passion 
  conflicting with their responsibilities — an aspect 
  of Loyalty. Chinese notions of Duty often fold in 
  both of the other Virtues, but some characters might 
  substitute Order or Loyalty for Duty, or replace 
  another Virtue with one of these.
  Chang’e
  aka: heng-o, Many  
  oTher variaTions
  Description: Chang’e has been up and down the 
  three Worlds, from deity to mortal and back again. 
  Through a complicated series of events, she ended up 
  living on the Moon and becoming its presiding deity. 
  Her marriage to the solar deity Houyi is complicated, 
  but neither God seems ready to end it. While Chang’e 
  is one of the younger Gods, she is also immensely 
  popular among the Chinese people, who eat round 
  “moon cakes” during her festival and ask her to make 
  their offspring beautiful. The People’s Republic of 
  China named its first lunar probe for her, which she 
  found immensely flattering.
  Chang’e enjoys visiting the World incognito. She 
  has run an ice cream stand and a beauty parlor, been 
  a fashion model and a jewel thief. While she attracts 
  admirers and likes being around people, she always 
  seems a little distant. Her Scions likewise tend to 
  be attractive and socially adept, but disinclined to 
  show their own feelings or get deeply involved in 
  mortal lives. Deep down, they know they belong in 
  a different World.
  Associated Powers: Epic Appearance, Epic Wits, 
  Frost, Moon, Taiyi
  Abilities: 
  Awareness, 
  Empathy, 
  Integrity, 
  Investigation, Larceny, Presence
  Rivals: Houyi; Artemis, Bastet, Kalfu, Susano-o, 
  Tezcatlipoca
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  Just Fill Out  
  the PaPerwOrk
  At the Storyteller’s option, the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy can give a brand-new Scion 
  any selection of associated Purviews, Epic 
  attributes and Abilities, using a variation on 
  the spell of adoption. Such a character — 
  in a way, a Scion of the Bureaucracy as a 
  whole — doesn’t have a divine parent; she 
  has a caseworker. The character can possess 
  at most two associated Epic Attributes and 
  two associated Purviews, plus the usual six 
  favored Abilities.
  This option gives players much greater 
  freedom in designing the character they 
  want. On the other hand, developing the 
  character’s power beyond the initial concept 
  becomes more difficult.
  The Many virTues of The shen
  The Virtues espoused by the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  come from (or inspired) Daoism and Confucianism. 
  The mystic doctrine of Daoism proclaims that all 
  existence partakes of one indefinable essence — the 
  Dao, or “Way,” which manifests as the contrasting 
  but interdependent principles of Yin (darkness, 
  stillness, feminine) and Yang (light, activity, 
  masculine), the Five Elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, 
  Metal and Water) and the Ten Thousand Things 
  of actual existence. Nothing has existence entirely 
  by itself: Everything changes, fast or slow, into 
  something else. The doctrine of Confucius lays 
  out the rules of proper social conduct, from family 
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  When his duty to the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  permits, Fuxi works to advance human welfare and 
  culture. Fuxi no longer simply hands new arts and 
  sciences to humanity; instead, he slips suggestions 
  to scientists, artists, legislators and other people who 
  can do the work themselves. China remains the focus 
  of his attention, but he also visits arts festivals, UN 
  conferences and other international gatherings.
  While Fuxi’s ancient form was that of a 
  serpentine dragon with a human head, he now 
  prefers the form of an elderly Chinese man of gentle 
  and scholarly mien. In Heaven, he wears silk robes 
  embroidered with dragons, clouds and the Sun. On 
  Earth, he chooses contemporary garb appropriate to 
  his surroundings.
  Fuxi’s Scions take after their real or adoptive father 
  in their wide-ranging interests and intellectual prowess. 
  They often become known among fellow experts as 
  skilled administrators, insightful scholars and wise 
  advisors — near the centers of power, but guiding the 
  rulers rather than ruling themselves.
  Associated 
  Powers: 
  Epic 
  Intelligence, 
  Epic 
  Perception, Epic Stamina, Fertility, Prophecy, Sky, Sun, 
  Taiyi
  Abilities: Animal Ken, Art, Awareness, Craft, 
  Integrity, Occult
  Rivals: Huang Di; Ares, Odin, Set, Shango, 
  Tezcatlipoca, Zeus
  the FrOst Purview
  Chang’e is associated with the Frost Purview 
  detailed in Scion: Ragnarok. Storytellers who 
  don’t have access to that book can variations 
  of the powers in the Fire Purview as needed, 
  or simply ignore the use of this Purview in 
  their cycle.
  fuxi
  aka: fu hsi
  Description: Long, long ago, Fuxi found 
  humanity living like animals. He taught them 
  to clothe themselves and to cook their food, to 
  domesticate beasts and to craft musical instruments. 
  Fuxi invented the first calendar and laid down the 
  first laws, including the laws of marriage. He saw 
  the mystic trigrams of the I Ching on the back of 
  a dragon-horse and so discovered divination. For 
  these and many other achievements, the Chinese 
  call him the First Sovereign, and he remains widely 
  worshipped to this day. Ancient pictures show Fuxi 
  holding the sun or a knotted rope and carpenter’s 
  square. He now lets the younger God Houyi act as 
  solar deity, however.
  
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  guan yu
  aka: guan di (eMperor 
  guan), Mei rán gong (lord 
  of The MagnifiCenT Beard), 
  Marquis ZhuangMou
  Description: The Celestial Bureaucracy points to 
  Guan Yu as its great example of a Scion who made good. 
  Guan Yu was born in 160 CE, and history books say he 
  died in 219. The famous Romance of the Three Kingdoms 
  recounts some of his adventures. After his death, people 
  worshipped Guan Yu as a God, according him every-higher 
  honors until he became one of the most popular Gods 
  in the Celestial Bureaucracy. After the debacle of World 
  War Two, the elder Gods chose Guan Yu as the new Jade 
  Emperor — the youngest God ever to hold that office.
  Guan Yu finds ruling the Celestial Bureaucracy a 
  constant struggle to balance competing factions. Under 
  Emperor Guan’s stewardship, the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  has rebuilt its power to an astonishing degree, paralleling 
  China’s return to world power in the mortal World.
  His imperial duties leave little time for Guan Yu 
  to visit the World, but he still found time to become 
  a Triad soldier in Macau, a cop in Hong Kong and 
  in California and a businessman in Taiwan. In all his 
  guises, he keeps his ruddy face (deep red in his divine 
  form) and magnificently bristling beard. Though not 
  one of the strongest Gods, Guan Yu is a great sausage of 
  a man who looks more than ready to beat the stuffing 
  out of any God who disobeys him. Which he has done, 
  on occasion — not ideal Confucian rulership by virtuous 
  example, but it gets the job done. Still, Guan Yu also has 
  one of the keenest political minds in the pantheon, and 
  his reputation for strict honor has few equals.
  Guan Yu’s Scions share their father’s talent for 
  strategic use of power. They become prosecuting 
  attorneys or gangsters — sometimes in the same life — as 
  well as military officers, spies, martial arts instructors, 
  bodyguards and hard-driving business executives. They 
  don’t always follow the law, but they always follow a code 
  that makes them highly trusted even by their enemies.
  Associated Powers: Epic Charisma, Epic Manipulation, 
  Epic Stamina, Guardian, Justice, Taiyi, War
  Abilities: Command, Control, Fortitude, Integrity, 
  Melee, Politics
  Rivals: Sun Wukong; Amaterasu, Odin, Osiris, Zeus
  guanyin
  aka: oBserver of The Cries 
  of The world, BodhisaTTva 
  of CoMpassion
  Description: Guanyin is probably the most popular 
  Goddess in all China, and people in Japan, Korea and 
  southeast Asia worship her as well. She is also the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy’s leading exponent of Buddhism. Guanyin was 
  born a princess, but sought only to become a nun. Family 
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  troubles led to adventures that form the core of her legend. 
  Guanyin’s relentless compassion eventually triumphed over 
  her father’s wrath and elevated her to full divinity. Her 
  countless kind deeds repeatedly draw her into danger, but 
  her penetrating insight and help from other shen always get 
  her out again. Just about everyone in the pantheon loves 
  Guanyin, including most of the demons. She has many 
  admirers in other pantheons, too. Guanyin’s enemies are the 
  cruel manipulators, brutal thugs and pitiless avengers among 
  the Gods — and these Gods hate her, giving her an unusually 
  long list of rivals. (Her fellow shen Houyi and Xiwangmu 
  merely think the Goddess of Mercy is annoyingly naïve.)
  Guanyin frequently visits the World to help suffering 
  mortals. Recent guises include a hospital nurse, the 
  director of an orphanage, a UNICEF assistant director 
  and a Red Cross volunteer. Indeed, every major charity or 
  humanitarian aid group in the World knows her under 
  one alias or another. Guanyin prefers to use her divine 
  powers sparingly, allowing mortals help themselves, but 
  the death tolls from many natural disasters, famines and 
  brush wars would be much higher without the Goddess 
  of Mercy subtly facilitating international aid.
  Scions of Guanyin tend to follow their mother’s 
  interests and methods. They are not great warriors, but 
  are often superb persuaders. Whether as the relief worker 
  facing down a warlord, a diplomat demanding to see 
  political prisoners or the doctor who runs a clinic in a 
  brutal slum, Scions of Guanyin show quiet courage in 
  facing humanity at its worst. They bring the same quiet 
  courage to the Overworld War. While other Scions have 
  slain titanspawn without number, a few Scions of Guanyin 
  have convinced servants of the Titans to switch sides.
  Associated 
  Powers: 
  Epic 
  Appearance, 
  Epic 
  Charisma, Epic Perception, Health, Mystery, Taiyi
  Abilities: 
  Academics, 
  Awareness, 
  Empathy, 
  Investigation, Medicine, Presence
  Rivals: Houyi, Xiwangmu; Aphrodite, Ares, Hel, 
  Isis, Kalfu, Set, Tezcatlipoca, Tlaloc, Vidar
  houyi
  aka: arCher yi
  Description: Yi the Archer saved the World, and 
  he expects to get a little respect for it. Like his wife 
  Chang’e, he’s both been exiled to the World and 
  allowed back in Heaven, but not allowed into the 
  pantheon’s centers of power. While Houyi does possess 
  some talent for leadership, he became a tyrant when for 
  a time he ruled part of ancient China. Houyi does not 
  apologize for this and remains the pantheon’s leading 
  advocate for Legalism. The pantheon values Houyi for 
  his ability to take swift, direct action — but Houyi needs 
  cajoling. He insists on having things done his way and 
  he no longer agrees to help others until he has a solid 
  contract for repayment.
  This last attitude serves Houyi well in the modern 
  World. While he sometimes exercises his hunting prowess 
  as a safari leader, Houyi has also been a high-priced 
  
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  archery instructor, a mercenary, an assassin for hire, a 
  millionaire architect (one of his less well known talents), 
  a bounty hunter and a venture capitalist in solar energy. 
  Various spy movies in the 60s entranced Houyi with 
  laser weaponry’s potential, so he backs this technology 
  as well. In every identity, Houyi looks like a hard-bitten 
  Asian man with the unnerving, thousand-yard stare of 
  an experienced sniper. His Scions likewise tend to be 
  hardcases who do the dirty work for other people — but 
  expect their due reward.
  Associated Powers: Epic Dexterity, Epic Stamina, 
  Epic Strength, Sun, Taiyi
  Abilities: 
  Athletics, 
  Command, 
  Craft, 
  Marksmanship, Stealth, Survival
  Rivals: Chang’e, Guanyin, Yanluo; Apollo, Baldur, 
  Huitzilopochtli, Set.
  huang di
  aka: yellow eMperor, wong 
  Tai sin
  Description: The Yellow Emperor still involves himself 
  in war and politics, in both Heaven and the mortal world. 
  Although Huang Di no longer rules the shen, he cannot 
  resist advising the Jade Emperor (whether that office-
  holder wants it or not) as Heaven’s most visible policy 
  fanatic. Currently, Huang Di debates strategies for fighting 
  the Titans. The Jade Emperor also sends him on regular 
  diplomatic missions to other pantheons. The Yellow 
  Emperor believes that China has the right and duty to 
  dominate the world — all three Worlds — but he knows 
  better than to express such sentiments around barbarians.
  Huang Di is too busy and restless to keep 
  mortal identities for long. Instead, he uses his Epic 
  Manipulation to mingle with mortal movers and 
  shakers without anyone realizing that they don’t actually 
  know him. He regularly visits the Chinese Congress of 
  People’s Deputies as a nameless (but highly respected) 
  Party official or retired general, though he also visits 
  and advises the government of Taiwan. Huang Di takes 
  guises ranging from an international security consultant 
  to the great-uncle you never heard of before.
  Scions of the Yellow Emperor show the same restless 
  intellectual energy. Like their father, they tend to take 
  over by sheer force of personality, and by presenting 
  coherent plans while everyone else wonders what they 
  should do. Huang Di actively steers his Scions toward 
  positions where they can shape world events and public 
  opinions, in occupations ranging from the military to 
  the media.
  Associated 
  Powers: 
  Epic 
  Intelligence, 
  Epic 
  Manipulation, Epic Stamina, Earth, Guardian, Mystery, 
  Taiyi, War
  Abilities: 
  Academics, 
  Awareness, 
  Command, 
  Integrity, Melee, Politics
  Rivals: Fuxi, Sun Wukong; Athena, Huitzilopochtli, 
  Ogoun, Questalcoátl, Tyr
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  neZha
  aka: no Cha, ZhongTan 
  yuanshuai
  Description: As a rising demigod, the Scion Nezha 
  became so arrogant and troublesome that the Jade 
  Emperor commanded his suicide. Nezha had a Fated role 
  to play in the Investiture War, though, and so his teacher 
  resurrected him. While Nezha became one of the great 
  heroes of that war and one of the great adventurers of the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy, the rest of the pantheon neither 
  forgot nor forgave his past misdeeds until the Handsome 
  Monkey King gave them a new standard of comparison.
  Whether as a God or in mortal guise, Nezha looks and 
  acts like a teenager around 16 or 17 – frequently, a smartass 
  teenager. He’s the young soldier whose CO swears he will 
  never become an officer, the brash kung fu student, the 
  fresh-faced collegian, the novice firefighter or the obsessive 
  hang-glider. Flight, fire and combat attract him.
  Nezha’s Scions are usually accidental, but he tries 
  to do right by them when he finds out about them. He 
  tends to Visit them in their teens, though, which ensures 
  that they experience youthful adventures just as he did. 
  While Nezha’s Scions tend to be quick studies, they 
  also tend to overestimate their capacities and become 
  impatient with anyone who says they’re too young. Like 
  their true father, they also tend to have issues with their 
  mortal stepfathers and other aged authority figures.
  Associated Powers: Epic Dexterity, Epic Strength, 
  Epic Wits, Fire, Sky, Taiyi, War
  Abilities: Athletics, Brawl, Control, Larceny, 
  Melee, Thrown
  Rivals: Sun Wukong; Athena, Damballah, Horus, 
  Izanagi, Odin
  nüwa
  aka: nu kua
  Description: One Chinese legend credits Nüwa 
  with creating humanity from yellow clay, but her most 
  famous deed was to repair the broken sky and restore 
  order to the World. She shares her role as lunar deity 
  with the newcomer Chang’e.
  Nüwa still takes great interest in boundaries, travel 
  and management of land and water. Like her husband 
  Fuxi, she once took the form of a human-headed dragon. 
  Nowadays, though, she visits the World as an elderly but 
  vigorous woman, in guises such as a village farm-wife, a 
  tour guide, a civil engineer specializing in flood control 
  or an old lady selling fish from a sampan. Nüwa prefers to 
  take socially invisible roles as she watches for the Titans’ 
  influence in the World. When she finds it, she appoints 
  lesser immortals or Scions to deal with the problem.
  The lesser immortals of the Three Gorges region 
  hold Nüwa responsible for the great dam that is 
  drowning their homes and will change the balance of 
  natural forces throughout China. Nüwa did not devise 
  the Three Gorges Dam, but she blocks every petition for 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy to act against it. Nüwa takes 
  a great interest in all flood control projects; she wants 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy to take covert control of New 
  Orleans dike repairs and similar projects around the 
  world, to make sure they’re done right.
  Scions of Nüwa often become builders, nurturers or (all 
  too often now) cleaners of other people’s messes. They tend 
  to be good at finding things out and designing innovative 
  solutions to problems, whether as sewage-treatment engineers, 
  psychiatrists, computer hackers or high-tech assassins.
  Associated Powers: Epic Intelligence, Epic Stamina, Epic 
  Wits, Fertility, Magic, Moon, Psychopomp, Taiyi, Water
  Abilities: Academics, Awareness, Craft, Integrity, 
  Investigation, Science
  Rivals: Xiwangmu; Isis, Kalfu, Poseidon, Tlaloc, 
  Tsuki-Yomi
  shennong
  aka: divine farMer, yan di
  Description: As the second of China’s three mythic 
  sovereigns, Shennong invented medicine by finding 
  every plant in the world, eating it and identifying what 
  it did to his body. He also invented agriculture. His 
  favored mortal identities include ethnopharmacologist 
  and agronomist, though Shennong has also appeared as 
  a medical researcher, an agribusiness tycoon, a fertilizer 
  dealer and a hermit in the mountains.
  Some Gods don’t like the amount of time Shennong 
  spends on projects to improve mortal agriculture and 
  health care, especially outside China. They believe he 
  should confine his efforts to the Middle Kingdom. The 
  Divine Farmer brushes aside such criticism by saying that 
  what’s good for the wider World is good for China, too.
  Like their divine father, Shennong’s Scions tend to 
  speak bluntly and do things themselves. They also naturally 
  gravitate to the same occupations that interest the Divine 
  Farmer himself. While Shennong does not order his 
  Scions about, he encourages them to help the World 
  through direct action, particularly in the Third World: 
  Shennong has Scions in a variety of non-governmental 
  organizations devoted to improving agriculture, public 
  health and education. Operating on the ground, close to 
  the people, they sometimes spot malign forces that escape 
  the notice of other Gods. Then, Shennong expects his 
  Scions to deal with the problem on the spot. This does not 
  endear them, or their father, to shen who insist on acting 
  through proper channels — and Shennong doesn’t care if 
  he or his Scions trespass on the turf of other pantheons.
  Associated 
  Powers: 
  Epic 
  Intelligence, 
  Epic 
  Perception, Epic Stamina, Fertility, Fire, Health, 
  Prophecy, Taiyi
  Abilities: 
  Awareness, 
  Command, 
  Fortitude, 
  Integrity, Medicine, Survival
  Rivals: Guan Yu; Amaterasu, Atum-Re, Geb, 
  Huitzilopochtli, Shango, Xipe Totec
  
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  sun wukong
  aka: handsoMe Monkey king, 
  greaT sage equal To heaven
  Description: The Handsome Monkey King hatched 
  from a stone egg, and his adventures became the subject 
  of the famous Journey to the West. Sun Wukong is trouble, 
  especially because the shen believe Hundun created him. 
  His passage from titanspawn to God was turbulent, to say 
  the least, but the shen learned to accept him. Usually. On 
  good days. Indeed, more shen enjoy seeing the Great Sage 
  Equal to Heaven flout the pantheon’s famous decorum 
  than would care to admit it. An equal number of Gods 
  want to strangle him, but Monkey is one of the most 
  unkillable entities in Heaven – the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  has tried. Now they’re just glad he’s on their side.
  Monkey is vain and impulsive. Though clever, he is 
  not half as clever as he thinks. Hard lessons somewhat 
  reduced his kleptomania and gluttony. He learned 
  manners, though he sometimes forgets them. He’s also 
  one of the pantheon’s greatest fighters, with an awesome 
  talent for driving his enemies mad with sheer irritation.
  The Handsome Monkey King often visits his simian 
  subjects in the World. Now and then he takes human 
  form, usually to go to a party. He never maintains a mortal 
  entity for long (usually just for one day or night). He is 
  the boisterous guy, immune to put-downs and rejections, 
  who seems incredibly funny and charming if you’ve had 
  enough to drink. Sun Wukong never checks to see if a 
  dalliance results in a Scion, but he always Visits his Scions 
  if another God discovers them and calls them to his 
  attention — and then he says he planned it all along.
  Sun Wukong’s Scions can be born into any social 
  stratum. They take after their father in their combat 
  prowess and their ability to get in trouble. Whether 
  pickpockets or playboys, they collect arrests and slapped 
  faces, but laugh it off and dive into the next adventure. 
  They show great loyalty to their friends, though, especially 
  when standing up for a friend means a good scrap.
  Associated Powers: Epic Dexterity, Epic Stamina, 
  Epic Strength, Animal (monkeys), Chaos, Taiyi, War
  Abilities: Athletics, Brawl, Fortitude, Larceny, 
  Melee, Survival
  Rivals: Guan Yu, Huang Di, Nezha; Hermes, 
  Kalfu, Loki, and all other tricksters. Plus, all the more 
  humorless Gods loathe him.
  xiwangMu
  aka: hsi wang Mu, queen 
  MoTher of The wesT, 
  wangMu niangniang
  Description: Few Gods in the Celestial Bureaucracy 
  changed so much over the millennia as the Queen Mother of 
  the West. Long ago, Xiwangmu was a deity of cataclysm and 
  divine vengeance, a woman with tiger’s teeth and panther’s 
  tail. At the same time, she grew the peaches of immortality. 
  Later, she adopted gracious manners, elegant gowns and 
  a gift for extemporized poetry. Xiwangmu became the 
  chatelaine of Mount Kunlun and queen of the Daoist sages 
  who achieved immortality. As such, she remains one of 
  the most important members of the Celestial Bureaucracy, 
  whose authority extends as far as she wishes it to go. When 
  the Gods desire a subtle yet savage Fate for an enemy, they 
  hand the job to Xiwangmu, and bid her show her teeth.
  Acting in the mortal World, Xiwangmu has been a 
  secret agent, a lion tamer in a circus, a fortune-teller and the 
  mistress of a Triad leader. Wherever she goes, people tend to 
  receive amazing good fortune or horrible deaths, depending 
  on how the Queen Mother judges their merits. Her Scions 
  tend to be similarly subtle and ruthless, particularly in their 
  benevolence. Whether the World knows them as a secretary 
  in Shanghai, a martial arts sifu in Hong Kong or an exorcist 
  in Taiwan, Xiwangmu bids her Scions to see that mortals 
  receive the consequences of their actions. Thus does the 
  Queen Mother uphold the harmony of the World.
  Associated Powers: Epic Dexterity, Epic Stamina, 
  Epic Wits, Animal (panther, tiger), Health, Justice, 
  Magic, Taiyi
  Abilities: Animal Ken, Awareness, Brawl, Integrity, 
  Occult, Presence
  Rivals: Guanyin, Nüwa; Athena, Frigg, Quetzalcoátl, 
  Susano-o, Shango
  yanluo
  aka: yen-lo-wang,  
  king yaMa raja
  Description: The Celestial Bureaucracy’s second 
  great exponent of Buddhist compassion became overseer 
  of Di Yu — the Chinese Hell (pp. 34-37) — so that he 
  might help the dead to expiate their sins instead of 
  being weighed down by them for lifetime after lifetime. 
  Every few centuries, the Celestial Bureaucracy demotes 
  Yanluo for excessive kindness to his charges and letting 
  them reincarnate too soon. However, no other God 
  of Yanluo’s Legend wants the job, and the other nine 
  Yama Kings of Di Yu lack Yanluo’s power. Eventually, 
  the Bureaucracy gives Yanluo his old job back.
  The Chinese Diaspora extends Yanluo’s interests beyond 
  traditional Chinese territory. He advocates increased 
  involvement of the shen in world politics (all three Worlds). 
  He treats with other death-Gods and meddles in mortal 
  affairs far more than the Jade Emperor authorizes.
  In mortal guise, Yanluo has been an undertaker, a 
  Buddhist monk, a grief counselor, a homicide detective 
  and a prison psychologist. His Scions likewise feel 
  attracted to occupations that deal with death, spirituality, 
  captivity or reform, from priest to forensic pathologist. 
  Spiritual pride is a frequent character flaw: Convinced 
  that they act for the best, they neglect to ask mere 
  mortals if they want to be enlightened or improved.
  Associated Powers: Epic Manipulation, Epic 
  Perception, Darkness, Death, Justice, Taiyi
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  Abilities: Empathy, Integrity, Investigation, Occult, 
  Politics, Presence
  Rivals: Houyi; Ares, Hades, Hel, Mictlántecutli, 
  Osiris
  panTheon purview: Taiyi
  This Purview’s name means “Great Principle.” It 
  refers to the universal law of transformation: Nothing 
  stays the same forever, and everything eventually changes 
  into something else. The universal force called Qi flows 
  and changes according to the principles of Yang and 
  Yin – the active and passive, archetype of all polarities 
  and oppositions – as well as the Five Elements of Fire, 
  Earth, Metal, Water and Wood, and the trigrams and 
  hexagrams of the I Ching. One who masters these 
  principles of change can transform anything into 
  anything. The shen regard all their powers as exercises 
  of Qi. Their study of the Great Principle, however, leads 
  to a unique set of Boons dedicated to transformation.
  A Scion who wants to learn Taiyi must engage 
  in mystic exercises to develop her sense of how 
  supernatural power flows and changes form. The 
  martial arts are one way to learn Taiyi: Many shen 
  perform special taolu (similar to Japanese katas) 
  when they wield the Purview’s Boons. Scions can 
  also meditate and imagine their Qi flowing between 
  different parts of their bodies. Special diet, herbal 
  medicines and many other disciplines can also enable 
  a Scion to learn Taiyi.
  five-CyCle augMenTaTion 
  (Taiyi •)
  Dice Pool: None
  Cost: 1 Legend
  The first art of Taiyi is learning to pass Qi to 
  another being to augment his own supernatural force. 
  The Scion concentrates, touches another character 
  who is using a Boon or spell, and spends a point of 
  Legend. This enhances the target character’s use of 
  the Boon or spell as if his Legend were one higher 
  than its actual value. For instance, a dice pool that 
  included the character’s Legend would gain one die, 
  or the recipient’s Legend would be treated as one 
  higher than its real value (for purposes of Boons 
  whose effectiveness depends on the attacker’s Legend 
  being equal or higher than his target’s).
  Shen can perform Five-Cycle Augmentation in a 
  series, each character passing her point of Legend to 
  the next in line until the final character receives the 
  boost in effective Legend from all of them. This boost 
  cannot exceed the highest Legend value of any of the 
  participants, though, and it cannot raise anyone’s 
  effective Legend above 12. Thus, if four Scions used 
  Five-Cycle Augmentation in series on a fifth, and they 
  all had Legend 2, the final recipient’s effective Legend 
  could not rise above 4.
  yin-yang desTruCTion (Taiyi ••)
  Dice Pool: Legend + Occult or Science
  Cost: 1 Legend (+ 1 Willpower)
  After learning how to enhance the Qi of another 
  legendary being, a Scion learns how to counter the 
  supernatural force in powers directed against him. He 
  shapes his own Qi into the perfect negation of the power 
  used against him, the Yin to its Yang. This is much 
  easier, however, against powers the Scion has experience 
  at using himself.
  When someone uses an All-Purpose Purview Boon 
  or spell against the Scion, and he has a tick free to engage 
  in a Guard action, he may spend a point of Legend while 
  his player rolls (Legend + the highest of the character’s 
  Occult or Science). Sufficient successes mean that the 
  Boon or spell does not affect the Scion. If the Scion 
  knows any Boon from the Purview that was used against 
  him (or a spell, in the case of the Magic Purview), the 
  roll’s difficulty equals the attacker’s Legend. Otherwise, 
  the difficulty becomes twice the attacker’s Legend.
  Yin-Yang Destruction can be used at range to 
  counter a Boon or spell that isn’t specifically directed 
  at the Scion, but this requires the character to spend 
  a Willpower point and take a Miscellaneous Action 
  (Speed 5, -1 DV) instead of a Guard Action. If you can 
  perceive the character’s use of the spell or Boon, you can 
  negate it. Of course, nothing keeps your enemy from re-
  using the Boon or spell on her next action.
  five-CyCle ConjunCTion 
  (Taiyi •••)
  Dice Pool: None
  Cost: None
  Increasing mastery of Yin, Yang and the Five 
  Elements enables a student of Taiyi to protect his own 
  All-Purpose Purview Boons from Yin-Yang Destruction. 
  She does this by altering the effect of a Boon so that 
  it falls within two Purviews at once. She must know at 
  least one Boon from each Purview, and still needs to 
  carry a Birthright for at least one of the two Purviews.
  The altered Boon still has the game effect of its 
  original Purview, but a visual effect based on the other 
  Purview. For instance, a Scion who knew Unseen Shield 
  (Guardian ••••) and at least one Fertility Boon could 
  manifest her Unseen Shield as a celestial lotus that 
  grows from her mouth to block incoming attacks. Or, 
  a Scion with Heavenly Flare (Sun •••) and Animal 
  Communication with snakes (Animal •) could conjure 
  a host of glowing spiritual snakes that bite the eyes of 
  nearby people, dazzling them for a time. A Scion with 
  Wind’s Freedom (Sky ••) and a Fire Boon could define 
  his flight as riding on a wheel of fire, like Nezha. Some 
  combinations of Purviews may seem quite peculiar, but 
  if the player can come up with some flamboyant effect 
  to justify the linkage of the two Purviews, the Storyteller 
  should allow it.
  
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  On buying this Boon, the Scion defines one of her 
  All-Purpose Purview Boons as conjoined to another All-
  Purpose Purview she knows. Each time she gains another 
  dot of Taiyi, she can define another one of the Boons 
  she already knows as conjoined to another Purview. A 
  Boon cannot be part of more than two Purviews.
  Aside from looking cool, Five-Cycle Conjunction 
  protects a Boon from Yin-Yang Destruction: Since the Boon 
  has two Purviews, a defender’s player must roll twice the 
  character’s Legend to negate the Boon, unless the defender 
  knows Boons from both Purviews. Magic, unfortunately, 
  cannot be conjoined with another Purview.
  eighT TrigraM 
  TransforMaTion (Taiyi ••••)
  Dice Pool: Wits + Craft
  Cost: 3 Legend
  Matter constantly takes new forms, from water vapor 
  condensing into rain to rock’s slow decomposition into 
  soil. All matter is just a particularly dense form of Qi, 
  and the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams govern all 
  their transformations. A scholar of the Great Principle 
  of Change can nudge this potential for change into 
  new paths, and so transform matter into new forms 
  and substances. To do this, she need merely touch the 
  object and trace out the trigrams that represent the sort 
  of change she desires. For a small change, she can trace 
  the trigrams with her finger. Large objects (anything 
  larger than person-sized) requires drawing trigrams 
  on the object using ink, chalk or some other means. 
  Transforming an object takes as many miscellaneous 
  actions as the difficulty set by the object’s size.
  With this Boon, a Scion can transform inanimate 
  objects. The size of the object sets the difficulty of the 
  player’s roll.
  Difficulty 
  Size
  1 
  Hand-sized (pistol, book, 
    
  bowling ball, briefcase)
  2 
  Person-sized (bicycle,  
   
  store mannequin, chair)
  3 
  Horse-sized (horse, big  
   
  motorcycle, sofa)
  4 
  Car-sized (auto, bank  
   
  vault door)
  5 
  House-sized (small house,  
   
  panel truck; maximum for 
    
  this Boon)
  +1 
  Create object with moving  
   
  parts (pistol, bicycle, car)
  +2 
  Create complicated object  
   
  (calculator)
  +3 
  Create substances with  
   
  exotic properties (nuclear  
   
  fuel rod)
  The character can only transform discrete objects into 
  other discrete objects of the same size class, such as turning 
  a rock into a flashlight, or turning a bank vault door into a 
  very large block of cheese. A Scion cannot simply disintegrate 
  an object, or create something from air or water.
  The change is permanent, unless the Scion decides 
  to reverse it. To do this, she need merely touch the object 
  and will it to revert; this does not cost Legend. Magical 
  objects are immune to Eight Trigram Transformation 
  unless they are the character’s own Relics.
  qi hand (Taiyi •••••)
  Dice Pool: None
  Cost: 2 Legend per item per action
  As demigods master the Great Principle, they can 
  manipulate objects using currents of Qi in a form of 
  telekinesis. A Scion could wrestle someone without touching 
  him, wield one weapon while another dances in the air beside 
  her, or type at a computer keyboard while peeking in through 
  a window. Anything a person can do by hand, the Qi Hand 
  can do as well. Actions involving the Qi Hand use the same 
  dice pools as they would if the character performed the action 
  himself. For instance, wielding a sword using the Qi Hand 
  would call for a (Dexterity + Melee) roll. The Strength of the 
  Qi Hand equals the character’s Legend, so a physically frail 
  Scion could use her Qi Hand to send burly bikers flying.
  A character can manipulate one or several objects using 
  the Qi Hand. If the character uses the Qi Hand on just 
  one object, she can also perform other actions at the same 
  time. However, these do count as multiple actions and take 
  the appropriate penalties (Scion: Hero, pp. 179-180). For 
  example, a character could hold one shotgun in her hands 
  and wield another in her Qi Hand, but would roll the 
  (Dexterity + Marksmanship) attack for both guns at a –4 dice 
  penalty. Any Knacks that permit multiple actions without 
  penalty apply as much to actions done using Qi Hand as 
  they would to actions the character performs herself.
  Alternatively, a character can simultaneously manipulate 
  as many objects as the sum of her Wits and Epic Wits 
  (though the cost in Legend points can mount up quickly). 
  For instance, a Scion with Wits 4 and Epic Wits 3 could 
  telekinetically pick up and hurl seven spears at once. All the 
  telekinetically-controlled objects must perform the same basic 
  task, though, so while the Scion could use Qi Hand to hurl 
  seven spears (using Thrown) or stab with them (using Melee), 
  she could not hurl three and stab with four. The player’s 
  dice roll also takes a single multiple action penalty, and the 
  character cannot take any other actions while directing all 
  these objects — the Qi Hand takes her full attention.
  The multiple action penalty that results from using 
  Qi Hand to attack can render this a dubious tactic. On 
  the other hand, a character can take a Coordinate Assault 
  action (Scion: Hero, p. 190) to reduce her target’s DV 
  against her multiple attacks. Since she coordinates with 
  herself, however, this requires no dice roll: The target’s 
  DV penalty equals the number of simultaneous attacks.
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  diviniZe kuei (Taiyi ••••• •••)
  Dice Pool: None
  Cost: 10 Legend
  To a great sage of Taiyi, the difference between ghosts 
  and Gods is more one of degree than of kind. At will, the 
  character can transform a ghost into a lesser immortal 
  with a maximum Legend of 4. This can be a demon, an 
  Earth God (see p. 23), the Chinese analogues to nymphs 
  or alfar — whatever the Scion wants. To perform this feat, 
  the Scion walks in a circle around the ghost she intends 
  to transform, placing her feet so her steps form stylized 
  images of various groups of stars, a practice called “pacing 
  the constellations.” The transformed ghost may feel some 
  gratitude for his promotion to lesser immortal, and the 
  exercise of Legend has the normal chance of Fatebinding, 
  but the Boon does not intrinsically grant the Scion any 
  control over the lesser immortal he just made.
  grand uniTy TransforMaTion 
  (Taiyi ••••• ••••)
  Dice Pool: Willpower + Legend + Craft, Occult or 
  Science
  Cost: 15 Legend
  A divine master of the Great Principle can create 
  whatever surroundings she wants, in a wide area 
  centered on herself. As a dramatic action taking five 
  minutes to complete, the character can create whatever 
  simple, inanimate objects she wants. She can also 
  create living creatures, natural forces such as flames 
  and storm-winds, or virtually anything else she can 
  imagine, depending on what other Boons she knows. 
  The Scion’s player rolls the dice pool and allocates the 
  successes to various transformations:
  • Area: Each success gives 5 yards of radius if the 
  Scion uses this Boon in the World, or 50 yards’ radius 
  in the Overworld or Underworld. At least one success 
  must go to area.
  • Followers: The Scion can create people (or person-like 
  creatures) by allocating successes to dots of Followers. For 
  instance, the Scion could allocate four successes to create 
  a demon, five successes to create a squad of five demons, 
  or 10 successes to create two squads of five. The character 
  needs at least five dots in Fertility or Health Boons to create 
  living Followers or in Death Boons to create ghosts, but no 
  specific Boon in any of those three Purviews is needed.
  • Creatures: Successes can also be allocated to dots 
  of Creatures. Every Creature must be bought separately. 
  Again, the character needs Fertility or Health Boons to 
  create living Creatures.
  • Powers and Environmental Effects: This requires 
  spending successes on a Boon with some connection to 
  the desired effect. For instance, spending two successes 
  on Wind’s Freedom (Sky ••) would create an area in 
  which everyone could fly, while six successes for Inferno 
  (Fire ••••• •) could fill the area with that effect — but 
  another success, allocated to Fire Immunity (Fire •) would 
  living hexagraM 
  MeTaMorphosis (Taiyi ••••• •)
  Dice Pool: Wits + Medicine
  Cost: 5 Legend
  Tales of Gods and sages often describe them 
  transforming people and animals as well as inanimate 
  objects. For instance, Wong Tai Sin turned the sheep he 
  was supposed to tend into white boulders, and back again. 
  This Boon functions like Eight Trigram Transformation, 
  but can affect living targets. This includes creating life 
  from the inanimate. However, the Scion cannot create 
  intelligence or a soul where none existed before.
  Shen can use this Boon to transform themselves into 
  a demonic creature, an application called the Devil-Sage 
  Body. The demonic form has skin colored some vivid 
  hue such as scarlet, green or indigo, claws, jutting fangs 
  and, very often, up to three heads and six arms. The chief 
  practical effect is to enable the character to inflict lethal 
  damage with unarmed attacks. The character also gains 
  one dot of negative Epic Appearance and the Dreadful 
  Mien Knack (if she did not have these already). Positive 
  Epic Appearance and associated Knacks are unusable while 
  the character is in Devil-Sage form. Characters cannot use 
  Living Trigram Metamorphosis to assume other forms. 
  Shen often assume the Devil-Sage Body for battle, as a way 
  to scare off weaker foes or innocent bystanders.
  resurreCTion anChor  
  (Taiyi ••••• ••)
  Dice Pool: None
  Cost: 10 Legend
  Most creatures of Legend return from death only 
  if they possess Ultimate Stamina. The shen, however, 
  regard death itself as just another change of form and 
  state. Even a demigod can return from death… with 
  help, and at cost.
  To use this Boon, a Scion must form a permanent 
  Fatebinding with another Scion, God or creature with a 
  minimum Legend of 5. Establishing this connection costs 
  10 Legend points, which the character cannot regain unless 
  he renounces the Fateful link (and with it, his chance for 
  resurrection). If he dies, this other character can bring him 
  back. This requires persuading at least 50 people to worship 
  at a shrine to the deceased character, within a year from the 
  character’s death. The massed worship recalls the character 
  and re-creates his body. However, his Legend score drops by 
  1. Any Boons or Epic Attribute ratings that exceed the new 
  (Legend - 1) limit are lost — the character must buy them all 
  over again (if he chooses) once he regains his former Legend.
  A Scion with this Boon can also serve as an anchor to 
  resurrect another character, who need not possess this Boon 
  but must have a minimum Legend of 5. This too costs 10 legend 
  points to forge the Fatebinding between them, constructing a 
  shrine and persuading people to worship the slain character. 
  However, the resurrected character loses the dot of Legend, 
  not the Scion who performed the resurrection.
  
  21
  make everyone in the area immune! The Scion can only 
  allocate successes based on the Boons she herself knows. 
  Use of Mystery can even imbue the transformed area with 
  information the Scion herself does not know equivalent to 
  one use of the Mystery Purview (so this offers no advantage 
  compared to using the Mystery Purview by itself).
  • Complexity: The Scion must allocate one success 
  to create objects with moving parts, or two successes for 
  notably intricate shapings, such as giving everyone in 
  the area a notebook computer or covering every surface 
  with immaculate calligraphy of the poems of Li Po.
  Storytellers can come up with additional ways the 
  character can spend successes to customize a zone of 
  Grand Unity Transformation. The wondrously shaped 
  reality of the zone lasts for one scene. Then everything 
  the Scion transformed reverts to its former state and 
  any animals, people, spirits or the like disappear. 
  A Scion can make the change permanent, but this 
  costs the character a dot of permanent Willpower. If 
  the Scion permanently transforms part of the World 
  into someplace visibly magical, the transformed zone 
  becomes a small terra incognita.
  reshape shen (Taiyi ••••• •••••)
  Dice Pool: Willpower + Legend + Command
  Cost: 20 Legend
  Ultimate mastery of the Dao enables a God to 
  transform other Gods, spirits or lesser immortals. The 
  other God must be willing or somehow compelled not to 
  resist. The greatest Gods in the Celestial Bureaucracy use 
  this Boon to reshape lesser Gods so they can better fulfill 
  the duties of a new office, or as the ultimate threat of 
  punishment by taking away a God’s former identity. The 
  Celestial Bureaucracy also used this Boon to assimilate the 
  Gods of China’s conquered ethnic minorities: It forms 
  the pantheon’s ultimate threat against foreign deities.
  To use this Boon, the character’s player must win 
  a contested roll of the Scion’s (Willpower + Legend + 
  Command) versus the target’s (Willpower + Legend + 
  Integrity), even if the subject is willing. The process is a 
  one minute, -2 DV dramatic action. If the roll succeeds, 
  the Scion can turn his subject into a different character. 
  The Scion’s player defines the transformed entity’s 
  Legend, Attributes, Abilities, Epic Attributes, Boons, 
  Virtues — everything.
  The chief limitation is that the Scion cannot create 
  a character of greater power than the subject was before. 
  This is defined as possessing more dots in a class of trait 
  than the character had before. Thus, the subject cannot 
  gain a greater Legend, more total dots of Attributes, more 
  total dots of Abilities, more total dots of Virtues, more 
  total dots of Boons or more total dots of Epic Attributes. 
  (Birthrights are largely malleable, since characters may 
  gain and lose them in the course of play, without any use 
  of experience points.) Also, the subject cannot be made 
  mortal: she must remain a creature of Legend (though a 
  God could be turned back into a hero).
  The God who uses this awful power can alter his 
  subject’s memories along with everything else. While 
  the physical and supernatural change is permanent and 
  irreversible by anything less than The Wyrd (Scion: 
  God, p. 111), however, erased memories may return. 
  This may happen when the transformed character 
  channels Willpower through a Virtue, faces a situation 
  that calls for a Virtue roll or any other stressful situation 
  that the Storyteller considers appropriate. Under these 
  circumstances, the transformed character’s player rolls 
  (Charisma + Integrity) as a reflexive action for the 
  character; the player cannot apply bonus successes for 
  Epic Charisma, spend Willpower for a bonus success or 
  apply Legend. With five successes, a memory from the 
  subject’s former existence returns.
  BirThrighTs
  Over the millennia, the shen have granted a prodigious 
  variety of mythic beasts, demons, spirits and magical items 
  to their Scions. These are only a few examples.
  CreaTures
  Zouwu (C r e aTu r e  • • • , 
  opTion al  re l iC • )
  Chinese legend includes many different creatures that 
  could be described as “unicorns.” The qilin (or Japanese 
  Kirin; see Scion: Hero, p. 326) is only one of them. The 
  zouwu is another. This beast resembles a deer or horse with 
  one short horn on its head — too short for any possible 
  use as a weapon. Its coat is dappled red, black, blue, white 
  and yellow; the beast’s mane, fetlocks and tail can be any 
  one of those colors. A zouwu’s tail extends longer than its 
  body, with a tuft of long hair at the end. The beast is most 
  notable, however, for its extraordinary running speed.
  A zouwu has the same traits as a horse (Scion: Hero, p. 
  331) but has a Legend of 3, Epic Attributes and Knacks: Epic 
  Strength 1 (Holy Bound) and Epic Dexterity 2 (Lightning 
  Sprinter, doubled). By spending a point of Legend, the 
  beast’s running speed quadruples (instead of the normal 
  doubling from Lightning Sprinter) to about 100 miles per 
  hour. A zouwu can keep this up as long as a horse can gallop. 
  Temperamentally, the zouwu is about equal to a horse as 
  well. Mere mortals perceive the zouwu as a smallish horse, 
  until it spends Legend to reach its full running speed. 
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  The Celestial Bureaucracy managed to steal 
  an additional three thousand figures without the 
  archeologists ever knowing they were there. Each 
  statue imprisons the actual soul of a long-dead 
  soldier. The shen now have a small army of colossi 
  animated by battle-tested ghosts. Gods may grant 
  these warriors to their Scions. A single soldier is a 
  four-dot Follower.
  Terracotta warriors are immensely strong and quite 
  difficult to damage, though they move stiffly. These 
  soldiers can also function as Guides, in that some of 
  them can train Scions in swordsmanship, crossbow 
  archery and other archaic military skills. Terracotta 
  warriors are highly loyal to their assigned superiors, but 
  also can think for themselves.
  As long as a terracotta warrior doesn’t move, 
  only supernatural senses (such as Death Sight or The 
  Unlidded Eye) reveal it as a colossus. A Scion can easily 
  pass off the statue as a reproduction.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5; 
  Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 1; Perception 3,  
  Intelligence 2, Wits 3
  Virtues: Duty 4, Harmony 1, Intellect 1, Valor 3
  Abilities: Academics 1, Animal Ken 2, Athletics 1, 
  Awareness 3, Brawl 3, Command 1, Empathy 1, Integrity 3,  
  Marksmanship 3, Medicine 1, Melee 3, Survival 1, 
  Thrown 1
  Supernatural Powers:
  Epic Attributes: Epic Strength 1 (Crushing Grip), 
  Epic Stamina 1 (Self-Healing)
  Made of Brick: Terracotta warriors do not need to 
  eat, drink or breathe. They ignore the harshest winter 
  chill or the heat of a furnace. Poisoning them works 
  about as well as poisoning a brick. They do chip, but 
  can hold broken-off pieces in place and use their Self-
  Healing to counter Crippling effects. As long as a Scion 
  can recover most of the pieces, a “destroyed” terracotta 
  warrior can be repaired with clay and a kiln to make it 
  good as new; this requires an (Intelligence + Craft) roll 
  at difficulty 3.
  Join Battle: 6
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 5, Damage 4B, Parry DV -, Speed 6
  Unarmed, Heavy: Accuracy 4, Damage 7B, Parry DV 2,  
  Speed 5
  Unarmed, Light: Accuracy 6, Damage 4B, Parry DV 3,  
  Speed 4
  Xiphos: Accuracy 6, Damage 7L, Parry DV 3, Speed 4
  Hankyu: Accuracy 6, Damage 6L, Range 30, Speed 5
  Soak: 1A/4L/6B
  Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 3 Willpower: 7
  Legend: 2 
  Legend Points: 4
  Other Notes: These mechanics represents a 
  basic infantryman trained at both archery and 
  Paper Horse: A Scion can simply keep a zouwu as she 
  would a horse. Shen, however, often keep their zouwu 
  in the form of a scroll of a painted horse. Spending a 
  point of Legend turns the paper figure into the zouwu; 
  another Legend point returns it to paper form. The 
  scroll is a one-dot Relic.
  followers
  horsefaCe and oxhead 
  (followers •••• To •••••, 
  opTional reliC •)
  The Chinese Hells are staffed by demons who 
  resemble brawny men with the heads of horses or oxen. 
  Some accounts say there are only two such demons, 
  named Ma Mien (Horse Face) and Niu T’ou (Ox Head), 
  but that’s ridiculous — two demons couldn’t do all the 
  work for dozens of hells! All the demons answer to the 
  names of Oxhead and Horseface, though. They used 
  to wear tiger-skin loincloths. Nowadays, Yanluo dresses 
  them in spiffy military uniforms. The demons wield 
  large clubs (equal to a Quauhololli) or various Chinese 
  polearms (equal to a trident or naginata, depending on 
  the form – see Scion: Hero, p. 202 for mechanics on 
  all of these). Only a few elite squads train with machine 
  guns and other modern military hardware.
  Now and then, Scions receive a squad of Oxheads 
  and Horsefaces as Followers, but they must file 
  reports on any mission they assign to these demons. 
  The demons’ first loyalty is to Yanluo and the Jade 
  Emperor, however, so they may desert or turn on a 
  master who uses them against the interests of the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy. A Scion typically needs some 
  sort of Relic in order to call the demons, such as 
  properly signed and stamped authorization papers for 
  their use.
  Oxheads and Horsefaces have the traits of an 
  experienced soldier or mercenary (Scion: Hero, 
  p. 283) but have Duty 4, Harmony 1, Intellect 1 
  and Valor 4, making them tremendously brave 
  and dedicated to their jobs and to anyone they are 
  assigned to obey. They are also immortal and can 
  perceive immaterial ghosts (as the Death Senses 
  Boon). These supernatural benefits raise their value 
  as Followers by one dot.
  TerraCoTTa warrior 
  (followers •••• To •••••, 
  opTional guide ••)
  The tomb complex of Qinshihuang yielded some 
  seven thousand terracotta figures of men and horses. 
  Each figure of a soldier has an individualized face, 
  suggesting they are genuine portraits of actual soldiers 
  and officers in the First Emperor’s army. The statues 
  have suffered damage over the millennia, but for 
  effigies buried more than 2,000 years, the preservation 
  is amazing.
  
  23
  melee combat. Instead of a shortsword and bow, it 
  could carry a spear, a crossbow or other weapons. 
  You can also customize the terracotta warrior by 
  adding up to two dots of additional skills: Control 
  (Horse) for a cavalry soldier (not useful unless a 
  divine parent also supplied one of the terracotta 
  horses, but the soldier could train Scions); 
  Command for an officer; Thrown for a slinger or 
  javelineer; and so on.
  guides
  anCesTral ghosTs  
  (guide •••, reliC •)
  The Chinese worship their Gods, but they revere 
  their ancestors. Duty to one’s parents does not end 
  upon death; parents, grandparents and remoter 
  ancestors can wield powerful influence from beyond 
  the grave. Ancestors who receive proper reverence 
  and offerings can bless their descendants, while 
  neglected ancestors can curse them with all manner 
  of bad luck.
  As children of the Gods, Scions potentially outrank 
  the ghosts of their ancestors. That does not excuse 
  them from filial duty. Indeed, a Scion who continues 
  to show due respect to her ancestors after becoming a 
  God sets an example of propriety that other Gods can 
  envy and admire.
  The ghost of an ancestor therefore makes an 
  excellent Guide, as advising (and if necessary, correcting) 
  descendants is proper conduct for a ghost. Naturally, 
  the Gods try to select dead relatives of great virtue 
  and sagacity; failing that, they select ancestors of great 
  cunning and lack of virtue, and offer the post of Guide 
  as a chance to atone for past misdeeds and reduce their 
  punishments in Hell.
  To contact an ancestral Guide, a Scion needs a 
  memorial tablet inscribed with the ancestor’s name, 
  preferably housed in an ornate shrine. To summon the 
  ghost, burn an offering of incense and spend a point 
  of Legend.
  iMMorTals (guide ••• To •••••)
  Chinese legend includes its own versions of 
  nymphs, the alfar and other nature-spirits, with no clear 
  distinctions as to their categories; they are all just lesser 
  shen. The word “immortal” instead refers to a wide 
  variety of partially divinized humans. These immortals 
  perform much of the Celestial Bureaucracy’s scutwork, 
  including service as Guides.
  Earth Gods and City Gods
  Some “immortals” are ghosts of mortals 
  transformed into low-grade spirits as a reward for 
  deeds of surpassing virtue. For instance, a civil servant 
  who kills himself to protest the unjust policies of his 
  superiors might receive appointment as the local City 
  God (Cheng Huang). Other classes of minor spirits 
  include the local Earth Gods (To Di) who report 
  to the region’s City God. A ghost brought into the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy as a lesser immortal (Legend 
  3-5) is typically a three-dot Guide.
  All these Earth Gods and City Gods report to 
  Confucius, who after death became the Earth God 
  for the Chinese state as a whole. Significantly, even 
  though Chinese tradition ranks Confucius as equal 
  to Laozi, the Buddha and even the Jade Emperor, he 
  is still described as kuei (a ghost) rather than shen 
  (a God).
  Xian
  Other immortals are Scions who never received 
  a Visitation but nevertheless became famous sages, 
  heroes and magicians. Through devoted practice of 
  martial arts, asceticism, meditation or occultism, these 
  Scions attained a minor degree of Legend. In life, such 
  legendary mortals are called xian. A living xian is a 
  three-dot Guide.
  After death, the Celestial Bureaucracy transforms 
  xians into lesser shen. Unlike Earth Gods and such 
  ilk, however, divinized xians occasionally continue to 
  gain Legend. A xian posthumously adopted as a shen 
  (Legend 5-7) is typically worth four dots.
  An immortal who achieved true divinity, such as 
  the celebrated Eight Immortals, is worth five dots. Such 
  exalted Guides tend to be Daoist masters of immense 
  enlightenment, as well as Gods: They are notorious 
  for telling Scions what they need to know for their own 
  spiritual advancement, instead of what they want to 
  know to get a job done.
  rules FOr Xian
  You can write up a xian using the same 
  character creation rules as for a heroic 
  Scion, with these modifications: The xian 
  receives only five dots to spend on Epic 
  Attributes and Boons; the only permissible 
  Purviews are the Special Purviews and the 
  Pantheon-Specific Purview of Taiyi; and 
  buying an additional dot of Legend costs 
  10 bonus points instead of 7. They have no 
  favored Epic Attributes or Purviews. Xian 
  gain experience points, but Legend, Epic 
  Attributes, free-standing Knacks and Boons 
  cost double the number of experience 
  points as they do for a Scion.
  In ancient times, xian sometimes became 
  powerful enough to challenge demigods, 
  though they could not actually make the 
  transition as Scions do. Modern times are less 
  friendly to Legend, so a xian cannot raise her 
  Legend above 4.
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  reliCs
  exorCisTiC sword
  Relic ••• or higher (2 Purviews, 1 Unique 
  1-Dot Power)
  Chinese exorcists menace spirits with swords 
  made of peach and plum wood, “cash swords” whose 
  blade consists of coins strung on a loop of wire, or 
  real swords engraved with the stars of the Big Dipper 
  (this last called a Seven Stars Precious Sword). 
  The shen make exorcistic swords that really work. 
  Whatever their form, the sword inflicts damage 
  on ghosts and other dematerialized spirits as if it 
  were a spatha (Scion: Hero p. 202); the wooden or 
  coin-swords do not inflict damage on material foes 
  (except as lightweight truncheons). The sword does 
  not itself enable its possessor to see spirits, but it 
  can serve as a Birthright for channeling the Death 
  and Magic Purviews. (To cast spells, a Scion would 
  use the sword’s point to trace mystic characters in 
  the air.) An exorcistic sword could also carry bonus 
  traits above the spatha template or could permit use 
  of additional Purviews.
  fire-Crow gourd
  Relic ••••• (1 Purview, 1 Unique 4-Dot Power)
  This potent yet 
  unassuming item looks 
  like a bottle made from 
  an ordinary gourd. 
  This bottle, however, 
  holds a spirit called a 
  fire-crow. The gourd’s 
  owner 
  can 
  uncork  
  the bottle and call out 
  the fire-crow to attack 
  his enemies.
  The fire-crow is 
  just a special effect 
  for 
  a 
  flame-based 
  ranged attack that 
  inflicts +4L damage, 
  plus bonus levels of damage equal to the Scion’s 
  Legend (an attack comparable to the Sun •••• 
  Boon, Flare Missile). Each attack by the fire-crow costs 
  a point of Legend. The magical gourd also permits a 
  Scion to wield Fire Boons.
  
  25
  green dragon  
  CresCenT Blade
  Relic ••••• (1 Purview, 4 Item Enhancements)
  The 
  famed 
  weapon that Jade 
  Emperor 
  Guan 
  Yu wielded as a 
  Scion is a polearm 
  called 
  a 
  guan-
  dao; 
  Westerners 
  sometimes call it 
  the “Chinese hal-
  berd.” Guan Yu’s 
  weapon has +2L 
  damage, 
  +1 
  Accuracy and +1 
  Defense above the 
  naginata template (Scion: Hero, p. 202); it also permits 
  a Scion to use the War Purview. The respect that the 
  Green Dragon Crescent Blade inspires in spirits obedi-
  ent to the Celestial Bureaucracy is balanced by the ha-
  tred it inspires among servants of the Titans and other 
  enemies of the shen.
  spiriT MasTer’s seal
  Relic ••• (3 Birthright Connections)
  A Scion can 
  have a wide va-
  riety of spirits 
  as 
  Creatures, 
  Followers 
  or 
  Guides. A spirit 
  master’s seal en-
  ables the Scion 
  to call spirits no 
  matter what sort 
  of 
  Birthright 
  represents them. 
  The seal consists of a wood or stone cube three inches 
  square, carved with archaic symbols. When the Scion wish-
  es to summon spirits, she writes out an appropriate talisman 
  on colored paper, stamps it with the seal, commands the 
  spirit to appear and spends a point of Legend. The com-
  mand typically ends with a phrase such as, “By imperial or-
  der!” or “Quickly, quickly! In accordance with the statutes 
  and the protocols!” to remind the spirits that the Scion acts 
  with the backing of even higher powers.
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  sCions of The  
  CelesTial BureauCraCy
  The Scions of the Celestial Bureaucracy vary as much as the shen themselves. They can range from government 
  bureaucrats to occult sages to butt-kicking kung fu fighters and master swordsmen. In fact, Scions of the shen tend to 
  combine roles that Westerners find incongruous, such butt-kicking kung fu bureaucrat. Presented here as examples 
  are two Scions of the Celestial Bureaucracy: Zheng Tan, a heroic-level Scion of Nüwa still learning to combine his 
  training as an engineer with nascent divinity and occult power; and Tommy Li, a Scion of Sun Wukong first seen in 
  Scion: Hero (p. 252), now graduated to demigod.
  xireng
  Relic ••••• (1 Purview, 1 Unique 4-Dot Power)
  The legendary “Growing Earth” looks like an ordinary 
  lump of mixed clay and loam, squeezed hard. It performs 
  a limited version of Earth Creation (Scion: God, p. 87): 
  It only creates compacted soil or clay. On the other hand, 
  once a character acquires that Earth Boon, she may use the 
  Xireng to produce unlimited quantities of rammed earth 
  at no Legend cost at all. The Scion can shape the rammed 
  earth as it appears to create simple shapes such as dikes or 
  platforms. Xireng incidentally permits a Scion to channel 
  the Earth Purview, but only works for a character who already knows at least one Earth Boon.
  25
  
  26
  Zheng Tan
  sCion of nüwa
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  Description: Zheng Tan had almost completed his Master’s in electrical 
  engineering at UCLA and looked forward to going home to Taiwan when he 
  received his Visitation from Nüwa. The mender of the sky explained that a 
  minor God in the Ministry of Thunder had taken the place of Tan’s father for 
  a time. Nüwa was adopting him as her foster-son because Tan’s talents lay more 
  in her direction. The Celestial Bureaucracy needed agents and Nüwa hoped 
  Tan would see the value in not letting the Titans destroy the World. He did. 
  The Goddess briefed him on the Overworld War, made a few adjustments to 
  his notebook computer, introduced him to an ancestral spirit and told him 
  that other shen and Scions would be in touch. To them he would be T’ien 
  Sheng, the Lightning Sage.
  Tan quickly figured out that far from being called to fight mighty battles 
  against dread monsters, Nüwa recruited him as tech support for other Scions. 
  A bit later, he found that tech support often meant field work, which was 
  not safe at all. Tan has not settled into a Band, but he’s already assisted 
  several Scions and lesser immortals.
  Although Tan’s nascent powers focus on information, he is also 
  a highly skilled engineer. Given time, he can prepare a battleground 
  with a variety of electrical, incendiary and mechanical death-traps. 
  (His usual strategy is for an ally to lure cultists or titanspawn 
  into a trapped location, while Tan stands ready to throw the 
  switch.) Since the forces of evil do not always obligingly fall for 
  Tan’s schemes or give Tan a chance to learn their goals and 
  weaknesses, he also carries a Glock pistol and has become 
  moderately good at using it. Tan also discovered a talent for 
  Taiyi by approaching the Purview as a scientific study of forces. 
  He has become quite skilled at boosting other Scions’ Boons or 
  countering the Boons of others.
  The Lightning Sage is short, slight and quick, with black hair 
  worn short. He fidgets, rapidly walks back and forth while thinking, 
  and tends to speak in rapid technobabble. (Sometimes he makes 
  it up just to see if anyone can tell the difference.) While he prefers 
  to dress in a suit and tie as befits a serious-minded professional, he 
  dons a gorgeously embroidered silk robe and hat when he must speak to 
  his great-great-great-grandfather, or when dealing with particularly formal 
  and old-fashioned spirits.
  Roleplaying Hints: You exemplify the Celestial Bureaucracy’s tradition 
  of intellect and invention, carried into the twenty-first century. You try 
  to research every situation, using any natural or supernatural sources of 
  information available, from your ancestor to the World Wide Web: The 
  better you know what the bad guys are up to, the better your chance of 
  defeating them and saving the lives of your fellows and innocent bystanders. 
  Most of all, though, you want to prove that technology is the key to defeating 
  the Titans — especially when you encounter Scions of oafish Gods who think 
  it’s all about huge muscles and magic weapons. You carry a gun for occasions 
  when plans don’t work quite right, and might carry 
  pepper spray or a taser for cases where enemies must 
  be captured alive or you must get past people who don’t 
  actually deserve to die.
  
  27
  Birthrights: Nüwa gave the Lightning Sage’s notebook a special chip made from the same paste of five-colored 
  stones she used to mend the sky. It enables Tan to channel Magic, Moon, Mystery and Psychopomp Boons. He casts 
  spells, for instance, by writing calligraphy on the touch-sensitive screen, while Mystery involves a simulated I Ching. 
  Tan doesn’t know any Moon Boons, but Nüwa thinks he might want to learn them someday.
  Nüwa also gave Tan the embroidered robe of an ancestor who was a corrupt court official in the later Manchu 
  dynasty. Said ancestor, Zheng Gongquan, recently completed his sentence in Di Yu and seeks to gain posthumous 
  merit by helping his descendant. Gongquan has the social and political savvy that Tan largely lacks; his advice 
  sometimes prevents Tan from making serious social gaffes. The old ghost also knows a great deal about demons and 
  the Chinese Underworld, though painful experience. To summon Gongquan, Tan must wear his ancestor’s robe 
  and burn an offering of hell-money and gold paper.
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  28
  name
  Player
  attriButes
   academics 
  ooooo
   animal Ken 
  ooooo
   art 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   athletics 
  ooooo
   awareness 
  ooooo
   Brawl 
  ooooo
   Command 
  ooooo
   Control 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
  legend 
  Points  
  –––– ––––
  Calling
  nature
  Pantheon
  god
  Physical
  strength  
  oooooooooo
  dexterity  oooooooooo
  stamina  
  oooooooooo
  social
  Charisma  
  oooooooooo
  manipulation  oooooooooo
  appearance  oooooooooo
  mental
  Perception  oooooooooo
  intelligence  oooooooooo
  Wits  
  oooooooooo
  aBilities
   Craft 
  ooooo
   Craft 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   empathy 
  ooooo
   fortitude 
  ooooo
   integrity 
  ooooo
   investigation 
  ooooo
   larceny 
  ooooo
   marksmanship 
  ooooo
   medicine 
  ooooo
   melee 
  ooooo
   occult 
  ooooo
   Politics 
  ooooo
   Presence 
  ooooo
   science 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   stealth 
  ooooo
   survival 
  ooooo
   thrown 
  ooooo
  Birthrights
   
   
   
  WeaPons
   
   
   
  KnaCKs
   
   
   
  Boons
   
   
   
  o o o o o o 
  o o o o o o
  virtues
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
  legend
  eXPerienCe
   
  h  e  r  o
  WillPoWer
  oooooooooo
  health
   0 
  –1 –1 –2 –2 –4 
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  Tech Support
  The Celestial Bureaucracy
  Visionary
  Nüwa
  Duty
  Harmony
  Intellect
  Valor
  Guide (ancestral ghost) 3, Relic (Notebook 
  Computer — Magic, Moon, Mystery, Psychopomp) 4,  
  Relic (Court Robe) 1
  Five-Cycle Augmentation, Magic 1,  
  Mystery 1, Where Are You?, 
  Yin-Yang Destruction
  Spells: The Unlidded Eye
  9
  1
  4
  5
  Glock: Acc 8, Dmg 3L-P, Rng 20, Clip 15, 
  Speed 4
  Zheng Tan
  Damage Conversion, Know-It-All, 
  Math Genius, Trick Shooter
  2
  2
  Bulletproof Vest
  (Mechanical Engineering)
  (Incendiaries)
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  (Electrical 
  Engineering)
  
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  ToMMy li
  sCion of sun wukong
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  Description: Tommy Li got in trouble a lot on the streets of Hong Kong. 
  His parents were very poor, and his father drank. Tommy became adept at 
  grabbing fruit, fish and other groceries from market stalls and running and 
  climbing away. First one of the Triads noticed his athletic talent and made 
  a lucrative offer; Tommy was sorely tempted but his mother said she would 
  die of shame if he became a gangster. Fortunately, the next person to notice 
  Tommy’s skill was a casting director who needed extras for a chopsocky flick. 
  Tommy found he was very good at pretending to be a martial arts extra. He 
  was so good that the fighting coach took him to see a real martial arts sifu, 
  who took Tommy to his sifu, who was a xian and recognized Tommy as a 
  Scion of great potential power.
  Once word passed up the bureaucratic ladder, Tommy 
  learned that “his Qi was strong” because 20 years before, the 
  Handsome Monkey King took a fancy to his mother and 
  posed as a handsome young actor to enjoy her. Once this 
  came out, Sun Wukong had little choice but to say he 
  meant to father a Scion, Visit his son and tell him to go 
  out, fight the Titans, be a hero, yadda yadda yadda.
  Tommy was less than thrilled to learn he was the 
  bastard son of a monkey, even if the monkey happened 
  to be one of the most famous heroes in Chinese 
  mythology. Still, his new abilities catapulted him from 
  bit player to minor star; and while he didn’t go looking for 
  trouble, it seemed to come looking for him. One thing led to 
  another, and before Tommy knew it he was battling oni in a lost 
  temple to save a fairy princess, and rather enjoying it.
  Tommy thinks he has it pretty good. He’s become a demigod 
  and more powerful than he could have imagined. His divine father 
  turned out to be a fun guy, and Tommy would move Heaven and 
  Earth to help him. Some of the battles against the Titans’ minions 
  were pretty dire but, well, he lived. The greatest crisis of his life, 
  really, was accepting that if he wanted to go further in the movies he 
  needed to learn to act instead of relying on natural charm and mad 
  kung fu talent. His agent tells Tommy that he could become a big 
  star now if only he were more reliable and didn’t keep vanishing 
  for weeks at a time.
  Roleplaying Hints: You take after your father in 
  leaping before you look and seeking forgiveness rather 
  than permission. The Celestial Bureaucracy seems terribly 
  stuffy to you, but the Titans threaten the World and that’s 
  where your family and friends live. You also find that you 
  enjoy standing up to bad guys, rescuing people and saving 
  the day. It’s like the heroes you play on screen, only real! 
  As much as you want to defeat titanspawn, though, 
  you also enjoy show biz. It shouldn’t be a conflict, but 
  doesn’t entertaining people and making them happy 
  matter too?
  
  30
  Birthrights: Sun Wukong first gave his son a piece of his own size-changing staff, the Ru Yi Jin Gu Bang, 
  which became a complete staff in turn. Not only does Tommy’s staff function as an indestructible bo staff, it 
  also allows him to channel Sky and War Boons and can grow and shrink up to 100% per dot of its wielder’s 
  Legend (so Tommy can make it six times longer and/or thicker, or one-sixth its normal size).
  On a cord around his neck, Tommy wears a shard of the stone egg from which the Handsome Monkey King 
  hatched; this enables him to channel Chaos Boons. To celebrate his son becoming a demigod, Sun Wukong 
  scrounged around the back of his closet and found three more minor Relics to add to the necklace: A pit from 
  one of the Peaches of Immortality (for Health); a Reginnaglar, or sacred nail from a Norse temple (Guardian; 
  it came from a temple of Thor); and a little Egyptian cameo of a baboon (originally a Relic of Thoth, for the 
  Animal Purview). The latter two items are (of course) stolen; members of the Aesir and Pesedjet might not like 
  their repurposing to the Celestial Bureaucracy. Tommy doesn’t have any Boons for these Purviews but what 
  the heck, he might want to learn them someday.
  Sun Wukong also gave his son a Qilin (the same Creature that the Amatsukami mispronounce as Kirin; 
  see Scion: Hero, p. 326). Tommy has endless trouble moving this mythical beast about the World without 
  people realizing that it shouldn’t exist. He gets no help whatsoever from his agent Denning Quan, whom he 
  hasn’t told about the whole Scion thing; but Tommy’s developed a small Internet fan club that’s willing to try 
  answering whatever strange question he puts to them, and thus functions as a one-dot Guide.
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  Player
  attriButes
   academics 
  ooooo
   animal Ken 
  ooooo
   art 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   athletics 
  ooooo
   awareness 
  ooooo
   Brawl 
  ooooo
   Command 
  ooooo
   Control 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
  Calling
  nature
  Pantheon
  god
  Physical
  strength  
  oooooooooo
  dexterity  oooooooooo
  stamina  
  oooooooooo
  social
  Charisma  
  oooooooooo
  manipulation  oooooooooo
  appearance  oooooooooo
  mental
  Perception  oooooooooo
  intelligence  oooooooooo
  Wits  
  oooooooooo
  aBilities
   Craft 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   empathy 
  ooooo
   fortitude 
  ooooo
   integrity 
  ooooo
   investigation 
  ooooo
   larceny 
  ooooo
   marksmanship 
  ooooo
   medicine 
  ooooo
   melee 
  ooooo
   occult 
  ooooo
   Politics 
  ooooo
   Presence 
  ooooo
   science 
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
    
  ooooo
   stealth 
  ooooo
   survival 
  ooooo
   thrown 
  ooooo
  Birthrights
   
   
   
  WeaPons
   
   
   
  KnaCKs
   
   
   
  Boons
   
   
   
  oooooo 
  oooooo
  virtues
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
   
  ooooo
  legend
  eXPerienCe
   
  d e m i g o d
  WillPoWer
  oooooooooo
  health
   0 
  0  0 
  0 
  0 –4 
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  Wuxia Hero
  The Celestial Bureaucracy
  Rogue
  Sun Wukong
  Harmony
  Intellect
  Loyalty
  Valor  
  Creature (Qilin) 5, Guide (Fan Club) 1,  
  Relic (Ru Yi Jin Gu Bang — Sky, War) 4, 
  Relic (Stone Shard — Chaos) 1, Relic (Peach Pit 
  — Health) 1, Relic (Reginnaglar — Guardian) 1,  
  Relic (Cameo — Animal) 1
  Battle Cry, Five-Cycle Augmentation, 
  Hornet’s Nest, Paralyzing Confusion, 
  Sky’s Grace, Warrior Ideal (Martial 
  Arts Hero)
  4
  10
  12
  Ru Yi Jin Gu Bang: Acc 12, Dmg 8B,  
  Parry DV 6, Sp 6
  Tommy Li
  Armor Crusher, Cat’s Grace, Divine Balance, Divine 
  Fortitude, Divine Rampage, Holy Bound, Holy Fortitude, 
  Holy Rampage, Inner Furnace, Knockback Attack, 
  Lightning Sprinter, Monkey Climber, Never Say Die, 
  Omnidexterity, Rabbit Reflexes, Self-Healing
  None
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  36
  legend Points
  (Acting)
  (Car)
  
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  After decades of slow, careful excavation, Chinese 
  archeologists found about 7,000 terracotta figures — 
  each one apparently an individual portrait of a real 
  soldier — plus complete metal chariots, intact weapons, 
  tombs for the First Emperor’s nobles and a complex of 
  offices for the Emperor’s bureaucrats in the afterlife. 
  Legend says the emperor’s own tomb, buried under a 
  nearby hill, contains a relief map of China with rivers, 
  lakes and seas of mercury, jewels set in the ceiling as a 
  map of the stars, crossbow traps to kill grave robbers, 
  and treasures to beggar the imagination. Archeologists 
  have not yet dug into the tomb, but chemical analysis 
  of the huge grave-mound’s soil shows elevated levels 
  of mercury.
  The shen know that the souls of Qinshihuang’s 
  soldiers sleep in their clay effigies, ready to bring them 
  to life at their Emperor’s command. The Celestial 
  Bureaucracy also used Death and Guardian Boons 
  to place powerful wards around Qinshihuang’s tomb, 
  to make sure that day never comes. Qinshihuang 
  reached too far, tried to become an immortal God, 
  broke China to his will without regard for his own 
  duty or cosmic harmony and burned every book 
  he could find so the people would know nothing 
  except what he told them. He now rules a private 
  Underworld realm, a perfect copy of China where 
  mercury rivers flow beneath unchanging stars. He is 
  all alone, emperor of no one.
  Nevertheless, Gods who visit the museum built 
  around the Terracotta Army can imbibe the Legend 
  that clings to the First Emperor’s tomb. The Celestial 
  Bureaucracy also collected 3,000 of the clay warriors 
  before the archeologists found them, and awakened 
  them to serve Heaven. See pp. 22-23 for a description of 
  these skilled warrior colossi.
  Terra inCogniTa: penglai
  Chinese legends mention three fabulous floating 
  islands inhabited by millions of immortals. (Originally 
  there were five islands, but two of them sank because of 
  a Titan’s wicked deeds.) Some legends placed the islands 
  in a gigantic, otherworldly ocean to the east. Explorers 
  and later scholars thought the three magic islands of 
  Penglai, Fengzhang and Yingzhou were just fanciful 
  versions of Japan or Taiwan.
  In Penglai City, on the coast of Shandong province, 
  people say their town is the source of the myth and 
  even point to a scenic location in the city where the 
  famous Eight Immortals landed. On some days, you 
  can see the three islands out in the sea, though skeptics 
  say they are mirages.
  The Celestial Bureaucracy possesses enormous 
  swaths of otherworldly real estate. Not only does it rule 
  sprawling and complex realms in the Overworld and 
  Underworld, it took over mystic locations associated 
  with China’s lesser ethnic groups. Gods, their Scions 
  and other creatures of Legend also created their own 
  locations in various Worlds.
  The cosmology of Chinese myth changed repeatedly 
  over the millennia, as the pantheon itself changed, mortals 
  adopted new ideas and celestial commissions evaluated 
  those doctrines for their utility. Daoism, Confucianism 
  and Buddhism all left their imprint on the otherworlds of 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy. Until the escape of the Titans, 
  the Gods believed they would never again make major 
  changes. Oh, they might update their supernaturally-
  simulated technology so the offices communicated by 
  telephone, fax or email instead of courier-spirits, but the 
  procedures and traditions were set.
  Then the Titans escaped and smashed the sprawling 
  Chinese Underworld into separate realms. One realm, at 
  least, needs significant repair. The Jade Emperor speaks of 
  a thorough review of procedures, the better to deal with 
  the current crisis. Guan Yu always refers back to classical 
  precedents when he wants to do something new, but 
  still…. Some Gods uneasily wonder how far any reform 
  might go, once ancient traditions — and comfortable 
  bureaucratic sinecures — come under scrutiny.
  Describing all the sub-realms, terra incognita and 
  strange locations would fill an entire book. In fact, it 
  does: The Shanhaijing, or Classic of Mountains and Seas, 
  briefly mentions many of the legendary places in and 
  beyond ancient China. The Shanhaijing is millennia 
  out of date, though. The Celestial Bureaucracy 
  commissions a new edition every few centuries, but 
  keeps it from mortals.
  plaCes of legend
  sTrange loCaTion: The 
  qinshihuang neCropolis
  In 1974, peasants digging a well near the ancient 
  Chinese capital of Xi’an dug into long-forgotten 
  pits holding thousands of pottery figures of soldiers 
  and horses. They discovered the tomb complex of 
  Qinshihuang, the first historical emperor of China. 
  Many despots ruled wider empires and some had 
  bloodier reigns, but no tyrant ever shaped a culture so 
  completely as did Qinshihuang. The Chinese people do 
  not love their First Emperor, but they know he matters 
  in a way that very few people have mattered more than 
  2,000 years after their death.
  CosMology
  
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  Almost needless to say, the skeptics are wrong and the 
  fabled islands really exist among the other islands in the 
  Straight of Bohai. They are too supernatural to exist in the 
  World, but creatures of Legend can come and go. When 
  they do, the islands become visible for a few minutes. 
  Unwary mortals might pass to Penglai at that time. Their 
  boat’s disappearance from the ordinary World explains 
  the legend that the islands are surrounded by “weak 
  water” on which nothing will float.
  The myths do exaggerate the size of the fabled islands: 
  None of the mountainous islands are more than a few 
  miles across. They are beautiful places, though, adorned 
  with ever-blooming flowers and magical trees such as 
  the Pearly-Garnet Tree, whose original stock came from 
  Kunlun. All the animals on the islands are pure white. 
  The fruit and seeds of the magical plants render the 
  inhabitants immortal, or at least unaging. (Treat the Pearly-
  Garnet Tree fruit, for instance, as equal to the Golden 
  Apples of Youth; see p. 111 of Scion: Demigod.) They are 
  all sages or actual lesser immortals and live in pavilions 
  of gold and jade. Gods of the Celestial Bureaucracy visit 
  regularly, since the highest peak of the mountainous 
  islands holds an axis mundi to the pantheon’s Overworld 
  realm. The inhabitants are a bit suspicious of visitors 
  from the World, though, since the Amatsukami invaded 
  and occupied the islands during World War Two.
  TouChsTone:  
  The greaTer wall
  Everyone knows about the Great Wall of China. You 
  can’t actually see it from the moon (it’s far too narrow), 
  but it is beyond a doubt the most immense feat of 
  construction in recorded history. Historians argue how 
  well it succeeded at discouraging barbarian invasions, 
  and some revisionists suggest the First Emperor built it 
  from pure superstition, to block evil spiritual influences 
  from the north. Later dynasties expanded and upgraded 
  the wall, however, and posted soldiers — not what you’d 
  expect for a work of magic and imperial folly.
  Indeed, fortified cross-country walls have a long and 
  successful history at keeping enemies out or disgruntled 
  populations in. Hadrian’s Wall kept the early Scots out 
  of Roman Britain, while other Roman walls guarded 
  other frontiers. More recently, the Berlin Wall kept 
  East Germans from escaping. Botswana built a barbed-
  wire fence across its border to keep out hundreds of 
  thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing their country’s 
  economic collapse.
  All these walls and fences connect to the Greater 
  Wall in the Overworld. The Wall is the archetypal barrier 
  between civilization and barbarism (however its builders 
  may define those concepts). Creatures of Legend merely 
  need to touch one of the famous border-walls or fences 
  in the World, past or present, and spend a point of 
  Legend to reach the Greater Wall in the Overworld.
  The Greater Wall looks like its oldest, largest and 
  most famous analogue in the World, the Great Wall 
  of China, though even more impressive: 30 feet high 
  and 20 feet wide, all solid masonry, with 40-foot high 
  square towers every five miles. The barbed wire along 
  the parapet is a new touch. The local terrain resembles 
  wherever the traveler came from; by walking along 
  the Greater Wall for an hour and concentrating on a 
  location in the World, a traveler can reach a section of 
  
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  the Greater Wall that connects to another Touchstone. 
  For instance, a Scion could start in the mountains of 
  China, walk along the top of the Greater Wall until she 
  reached desert, and return to the World at a section of 
  Mexican border fence.
  Alternatively, the visitor can concentrate on the 
  other side of the Greater Wall and walk an hour to the 
  primal outlands of ultimate barbarism: the Titan-realms. 
  Terra, Muspelheim and most other Titan-realms can be 
  reached using the Greater Wall, but the trip is one way. 
  Once you jump off into the storms of Ehekatoyaatl or 
  the sun-blasted wastes of Akhetaten, you can’t return 
  to the Greater Wall. Visitors cannot reach Hundun, 
  though, for the Titan of Chaos has not physically 
  impinged on any Godrealms: Some dangers just can’t 
  be walled away.
  The 
  Celestial 
  Bureaucracy 
  garrisoned 
  the 
  Greater Wall for centuries. Representatives of other 
  pantheons who wanted to use the Greater Wall for 
  rapid transit about the World had to pay a hefty 
  fee for travel papers (or, more usually, bribe local 
  guards for those permits). Since the escape of the 
  Titans, security has tightened a great deal and the 
  Bureaucracy no longer grants travel permits without 
  a request signed by a pantheon’s ruling God. Other 
  pantheons are distinctly unhappy that the Bureaucracy 
  has thousands of armed lesser immortals within an 
  hour’s walk of their turf in the World, but at present 
  they can do nothing about it.
  underworld: di yu
  The oldest Chinese conception of the Underworld 
  was of a dark, subterranean counterpart to the 
  mortal World. As the Celestial Bureaucracy absorbed 
  the pantheons of conquered cultures, it merged 
  their ghost-countries into their own. Much later, 
  Buddhism added notions of reward, punishment 
  and reincarnation. The Celestial Bureaucracy gladly 
  reorganized its Underworld to fit Buddhist notions. 
  Not only did the Gods not want to risk losing souls 
  to the imported faith, Legalist and more hard-
  core Confucian Gods liked the idea of thoroughly 
  examining souls, recording their deeds in minute detail 
  and assigning suitable rewards and punishments. The 
  Underworld became even more bureaucratized than 
  the pantheon’s Godrealm.
  Some Gods decried the newfangled practice of 
  reincarnation: Ancestral souls should stay available for 
  worship forever, because that was tradition. However, the 
  Jade Emperor and his advisors pointed out that after 
  some millennia their Underworld was full to bursting. 
  Population forecasts suggested the Underworld would 
  eventually gain ghosts faster than it could expand to 
  hold them. Anyway, few spirits were remembered and 
  revered more than a few centuries, so clearing them out 
  would not deprive their descendants.
  The Underworld was once called Huang Quan, or 
  Yellow Springs — a name imitated by the Japanese Gods. 
  After the reorganization, the Celestial Bureaucracy’s 
  Underworld became Di Yu, the Earth Prison. Spirits that 
  still had descendants to offer reverence to them could stay 
  in the old ghost-countries as long as they wanted, but others 
  received a limit of three generations. After that (with a few 
  special exceptions) they had to reincarnate. Before anything 
  else, however, the dead would be judged — and punished, if 
  their sins were sufficiently severe. No ghost would leave the 
  Earth Prison until it paid in full for its misdeeds in life, and 
  then it would receive a new existence based on those deeds.
  The system of penance and reincarnation slowed 
  the growth of the Underworld’s population. At the 
  last census, Di Yu held 9.2 billion ghosts. Over the 
  millennia, there have been a lot of dead Chinese.
  When the Titans escaped, Di Yu cracked along the 
  sutures between the primeval ghost-countries. The First, 
  Fourth and Fifth Courts float isolated in the dimensional 
  chaos of the Underworld; the Second and Third, Sixth, 
  Seventh and Eighth, and Ninth and Tenth Court drift as 
  blocs that remain connected for now. At least a billion souls 
  were lost outright to oblivion, and an unknown number 
  escaped to haunt the mortal World as unauthorized ghosts. 
  The Gods’ servants work double shifts to recover them. 
  Attacks from diverse Titans, however, leave the pantheon 
  little time and resources to work on rebuilding Di Yu.
  The shen are also uncomfortably aware that most of 
  Di Yu’s staff consists of demons. The Gods feel sure of 
  the loyalty of the Oxheads and Horsefaces, but not the 
  rest. On top of all their other problems, the Gods need 
  to spy on their own minions.
  The Ten CourTs
  Di Yu consists of 10 immense caverns, each one big 
  enough to hold a good-sized country. Each cavern holds a 
  complex of offices and prisons built on a design of concentric 
  or variously-divided rectangles, just like a classical Chinese city 
  in the mortal World. These are the Courts that examine the 
  dead and administer their rewards or punishments. Despite 
  the vast size of the caverns, the passages from one Court to 
  another are short enough that a person could walk the entire 
  series in a few hours, if she had the proper travel permits.
  The First Court is Di Yu’s reception area. Since it receives 
  all the dead, it requires the largest offices. Indeed, its halls 
  form an entire city devoted to judging the dead called Fengdu. 
  Demons herd the dead into lines based on their status and 
  occupation in life, and upper-class people naturally receive 
  quicker service than common folk. Since “service” means 
  assignment to torture, though, no one in the lower-class lines 
  finds this too unfair. So far, the First Court’s administration 
  stubbornly refuses to update its categories, so demons wait 
  at the doorways for noblemen and other classes now defunct 
  in modern Taiwan, the People’s Republic and the Chinese 
  Diaspora, while clerks try to work out the proper categories 
  for software engineers and other new occupations.
  
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  Once a soul signs in and receives a case number, she 
  goes to the Office of Past Lives to stand before the Mirror 
  of Recollection. This huge enchanted mirror reflects 
  the person’s past, including previous incarnations, and 
  reveals any meritorious deeds and unexpiated sins. Clerks 
  record everything. Demon magistrates examine the record 
  of sins and send the soul to the appropriate Court and 
  prison, or hell, for punishment. Some hells punish very 
  specific offenses; others punish general wickedness. If the 
  person’s merits exceed her faults, she can go to the Tenth 
  Court for immediate reincarnation, or linger in the first 
  cavern-realm as an ancestral spirit. The First Court keeps 
  a file on every soul that passes through, going back at least 
  15 centuries, and by examining past lives it has spotty 
  coverage back to the Zhou Dynasty.
  Fengdu also contains one rather special hell of its 
  own. This hell, called Bu Jing Suo, exists to punish 
  priests, monks, nuns and other religious professionals 
  who did not perform rituals for which they were paid, 
  or who performed them in a careless fashion. Bu Jing 
  Suo consists of an immense, cold, drafty and pitch-
  black hall where the sinners must copy the appropriate 
  holy scriptures. Their only light comes from a tiny lamp 
  whose wick is a single thread.
  The Titans’ escape broke the First Court’s cavern 
  from the rest. Since they cannot receive their proper 
  punishment, the clerks try to find them lodgings with 
  ghosts who dwell in the rest of the cavern. Ancestral 
  spirits possess nothing except what their descendants 
  send them as burnt offerings. The Celestial Bureaucracy 
  wills it that burnt models of objects become the real items 
  in Di Yu, so ghosts with reverent descendants can have 
  nice homes, automobiles, wide-screen plasma TVs and 
  other amenities. However, these items only exist in Di 
  Yu, have no supernatural powers (aside from the fact that 
  they exist and function) and disappear if mortals cease to 
  revere the ghost.
  The Second through Eighth Courts each hold a large 
  central prison and 16 smaller prison-hells for specific 
  offenses. Punishments typically involve various forms of 
  wounding, up to sawing in half or complete dismemberment, 
  though every conceivable means of causing pain is used 
  somewhere in Di Yu. All the punishments in these Courts, 
  however, are finite. A sentence may take centuries to 
  complete, but it does end, and then the soul can move on 
  to the Tenth Court — or could. The caverns of these Courts 
  are inhabited by ghosts that completed their sentence but 
  still have ancestors who honor them.
  The Ninth Court is the most feared, for it alone 
  was permanent — and unjust. Once it received the 
  souls of suicides and people who died too soon, no 
  matter what the cause. Most particularly, it received 
  the souls of people who had no descendants to 
  honor them with offerings, or who died in ways that 
  prevented a proper funeral. These were the hungry 
  ghosts, condemned more often than not for mere bad 
  luck. These unfortunate souls were simply sent out into 
  the cavern’s dreary expanse to… do nothing. However, 
  the Court also includes hells for the sinners who 
  committed the ultimate crime of serving the Titans: 
  the spectres (Scion: Hero, pp. 292-293).
  The Tenth Court holds the Office of Reincarnation. 
  First, the demonic clerks and magistrates determine what 
  new life a person should receive, based on her deeds in 
  her previous lives. Virtuous people can be reborn into 
  wealthy or otherwise privileged circumstances. 
  People who led mean-spirited, wicked lives are 
  reborn in poor or otherwise unfortunate circumstances, 
  as animals or even as demons to stay in Di Yu. They pass 
  to the cottage of Granny Meng (she refuses to permit 
  any updating of her facility) where this lesser God feeds 
  them the Broth of Oblivion that wipes away memories 
  of the previous life and existence in Di Yu. At last, the 
  amnesiac soul marches into the vast, spinning Wheel 
  of Reincarnation that whirls it back to the World and 
  a new body.
  The dismemberment of Di Yu interrupted the cycle 
  of punishment and reincarnation. The only souls that 
  could reach the Tenth Court weren’t supposed to; the 
  souls that should have entered the Wheel were stranded 
  in other fragments of the Underworld. The war against 
  the Titans seldom leaves time for psychopomp Gods to 
  ferry convoys of souls from the other fragments to the 
  Tenth Court.
  What’s worse, the cataclysmic escape of the Titans 
  broke the lesser prisons of the spectres. Hordes of the 
  damned now lay siege to the Tenth Court. If they can 
  seize the Office of Reincarnation, they can be born into 
  the World in whatever lives they want — from newly-
  born nemean beasts to the children of tycoons and 
  government officials — with full knowledge of their past 
  lives and their worshipful service to the Titans. The 
  Celestial Bureaucracy believes this is the worst thing 
  that could happen to the World, short of nuclear war 
  or an assault on humanity by the Titans themselves. 
  The Tenth Court is now one of the main battle-fronts 
  in the war against the Titans. The shen send all the 
  warriors they can spare; but the Titans send increasingly 
  powerful minions of their own, as they become aware of 
  the Tenth Court’s strategic importance.
  And what of the hungry ghosts in the Ninth Court? 
  Yanluo would like to rescind their eternal sentence and 
  send them through the Wheel. Never mind assigning 
  special incarnations; let Fate itself choose new lives 
  for them. The Jade Emperor, however, forbids this. 
  Guan Yu judges that the risk is too great of spectres 
  posing as hungry ghosts to infiltrate the Tenth Court. 
  Yanluo counters that the spectres already recruit 
  resentful hungry ghosts by promising them escape: If 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy does not show them mercy, 
  the hungry ghosts shall multiply the spectres’ numbers 
  a hundredfold.
  
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  The yaMa kings
  Yanluo has nine lesser death-Gods as assistants. 
  Together they are called the 10 Yama Kings, the supreme 
  tribunal of Di Yu. Each of them oversees one of the Courts. 
  For a time, Yanluo was in eclipse and demoted to running 
  the Fifth Court, but Guan Yu promoted him once more to 
  the First Court and overall leadership of the Yama Kings.
  Each of the Yama Kings looks much like Yanluo himself, 
  a Chinese man with ebon skin, dressed in magnificent robes 
  of pitch black or stark white, depending on the Yama King’s 
  mood. There’s some turnover among Yama Kings, but the 
  current roster consists of Chu Jiang, Song Di, Wu Guan, Qin 
  Guang, Bian Cheng, Tai Shan and Ping Deng; they all bear 
  the honorific “Wang” after their names. Du Shi Wang, king 
  of the Ninth Court, was destroyed in the eruption of the 
  spectres and has not yet been replaced. They are all Gods with 
  Legends of 10 or 11; Yanluo adopts any Scions they sire.
  passages
  If they are not held for punishment, ghosts move 
  easily and frequently between Di Yu and the mortal 
  World. If fact, they are expected to visit their living 
  descendants and reward their filial piety or punish any 
  lack thereof. A grave can act as a passage for the ghost of 
  the person buried there, and not for anyone else.
  samPle hells
  It has been truly said: The Chinese have a lot of hells. These are only a few examples.
  Heart-Gouging Prison: People who were stubborn, jealous, bigoted, cruel, treacherous, lewd or 
  otherwise had lawless hearts have their chest split open and heart removed.
  Ordure Pool: Prostitutes, pimps, smugglers, swindlers, womanizers, gangsters and their bodyguards, 
  defaulters and deliberate bankrupts, bribed officials and crooked building contractors all wallow neck-
  deep in pits of dung.
  Prison of Boiling Water: Thieves and robbers have their hands nailed to wooden frames and splashed 
  with boiling water. If they cry out, they are beaten with rattan canes.
  Prison of Forced Drinking of Medicine: Medical quacks must drink pails of disgusting potions.
  Prison of Red-Hot Bricks: A whole building made of red-hot brick, for glory-seekers, exploiters of 
  others’ misfortune and sycophants who worship the rich and despise the poor. The worse their sins, the 
  hotter the bricks they must walk upon.
  Prison of Scooped Eyes: Peeping Toms, readers of pornography, proud people who “looked down on” 
  other folk, students who cheat by looking at others’ examination papers and other sinners with “dirty eyes” 
  are strapped to posts and have their eyes gouged out with iron forks and replaced three times daily.
  Small Prison for Amputating Limbs: Reserved for robbers and killers.
  Small Prison of Barbed Netting, Locusts and Leeches: Corrupt officials and extortionists crawl 
  between two layers of barbed-wire netting while leeches and locusts feed on their blood and brains.
  Small Prison for Reckless Drivers of Motor Vehicles: A new prison. People who kill others through 
  reckless driving must pull cartloads of bricks, barefoot, over sharp stones.
  A-Bi Diyu, the Hell of No Escape: The Ninth Court’s prison for spectres, both those who served the 
  Titans in life and those corrupted after death. They are cast into a pitch-black, labyrinthine cave full of 
  sharp spikes and hot mud… or were, before the breakout.
  The living have greater difficulty passing between Worlds. 
  A few graves — typically tombs of aristocrats or great generals 
  — may become general passages, and Scions can use them 
  if they have some way to physically enter the tomb. Such 
  special graves can be located by searching for legends about 
  masses of ghosts erupting from the tomb, perhaps to fight 
  armies of other ghosts. Tales also describe voices being heard 
  around such graves, and eerie glows resembling blue fire.
  If necessary, a Scion of the Celestial Bureaucracy can 
  make a passage by having herself coffined and buried with full 
  traditional rites. When a demon-bailiff from Di Yu comes to 
  collect her soul, she must overpower it or bribe it to conduct 
  her bodily into the Underworld, while spending a point of 
  Legend to make this possible. Note, however, that this process 
  does not enable the Scion to return at will: For that, she must 
  find a pre-existing passage out. Failing that, if she can reach the 
  Tenth Court she can grab the Wheel of Reincarnation and 
  jump through it, to appear in a random location somewhere 
  in the World, next to a just-born infant to whom she shall be 
  forever Fatebound at a strength of at least 4.
  Legend speaks of other permanent passages. Somewhere in 
  Sichuan, for instance, is a well that leads directly to Di Yu. Local 
  priests used to have the townsfolk throw large sums of paper 
  money down the well, until a brave mandarin descended and 
  learned from Guan Yu himself that this was not necessary.
  
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  The south of Kwangsi Province holds two passes through 
  the mountains that were both once called Ghost Gate Pass. 
  Later scholars said this was just superstitious confusion 
  because the word “kuei” can mean either “ghost” or “cassia 
  tree” and really, these were just the Cassia Gate Passes. The 
  skeptical scholars were wrong, of course: They really are gates 
  to the Underworld, available to anyone with Legend (though 
  they only work at night). China holds several other uncanny 
  locations that can lead to the Underworld as well.
  Mortals — even Scions — are not supposed to visit the 
  Underworld, though. Visitors may be detained indefinitely, 
  judged and punished by the Courts unless they can present 
  authorization papers from a Celestial office, or come up with 
  a damn good bluff or bribe. Imperial censors and other high 
  officials of the mortal Chinese Empire also had the right to 
  visit the Underworld on inspection tours and similar business. 
  The governments of both the People’s Republic and Taiwan 
  both inherited this privilege, but do not know of it (yet).
  godrealM: Tian
  The Celestial Bureaucracy occupies an expansive and 
  intricate realm in the Overworld, with many divisions and 
  subrealms. Overall, its name is simply Tian, “Heaven,” the 
  realm of the sky and celestial bodies. Some division of Tian are 
  so large and important, however, that mortals often imagine 
  them as completely separate or alternative Godrealms.
  At first glance, Tian itself looks like an idealized version of 
  China. Rivers flow through fertile fields and between forested 
  hills and mountains. All manner of birds and beasts live in 
  Tian as well as the Gods and lesser immortals themselves.
  A closer look, however, reveals the Godrealm’s 
  celestial character. Jewels form the gravel in the river-
  beds. The largest river flows with stars instead of water; 
  mortals know it as the Milky Way. The birds sing in 
  harmony with orchestral precision. Delicate perfume 
  scents the air. The flowers, grass and trees are made of 
  ivory, gold, lapis lazuli or other precious substances. 
  Phoenixes, unicorns and other mythic creatures roam 
  freely, while dragons sport in the rivers and among 
  the clouds. Many creatures have human faces or other 
  strange fusions of different human and animal features.
  The cities of Tian correspond with the stars in the Big 
  and Little Dippers. Heaven’s capital corresponds to the 
  Pole Star. These cities consist entirely of palace-temples 
  built of cinnamon and sandalwood, precious metals and 
  gems. Here dwell the Gods and the spirits who assist 
  them in the Celestial Bureaucracy. Like the Forbidden 
  City of Beijing or earlier imperial compounds, each city 
  of Heaven is built on a plan of concentric rectangles. 
  The Jade Emperor’s palace, called the Purple Forbidden 
  Enclosure of Heaven, occupies the center of the pole-star 
  capital, the city of Tian Shu, or Celestial Pivot.
  kunlun MounTain
  All this celestial magnificence occupies the top of a 
  mountain called Kunlun. To reach Tian from elsewhere in 
  the Overworld, one must pass a mountain range of fire, then 
  a black river that circles Kunlun’s base. This river Ruoshui, 
  the Weak Water, lacks buoyancy: It will not float so much 
  as a feather, so anyone who tries to swim across will drown. 
  The base of Kunlun is 800 li (248 miles) square, and the 
  mountain rises higher than non-divine eyes could see.
  Kunlun rises in three tiers, each with wonders of 
  its own. The lowest tier, Liangfeng Shan (Cool Wind 
  Mountain) is quite wild, rugged and forested. The 
  Cinnabar River flows through the crags and caverns of 
  this level; its water staves off death, no matter how sick or 
  gravely injured the imbiber may be. Pincao Grass makes 
  those who eat it happy and forgetful of their troubles. 
  Anyone who eats the wood of the waterproof Shatang 
  Tree will never sink in water. Magical white cranes guard 
  a special grass that can restore life to the dead, if brewed 
  into a tea and fed to the corpse within an hour after 
  death. Each face of Liangfeng Shan, in turn, is its own 
  subrealm, with its own axis mundi to the mortal World.
  Various half-divine creatures live on this tier. These 
  include the beast Tulou, who looks like a sheep with four 
  horns and eats human beings; Qinyuan, a bee the size of a 
  mandarin duck, with a deadly sting; six-headed birds; and 
  mundane-seeming snakes and panthers. Many sages rendered 
  immortal by the Gods live on Liangfeng, too, dwelling in 
  alabaster caves or graceful pavilions of jade while they perfect 
  their understanding of the Dao. The God called Immortal 
  Grandfather of the South Pole oversees this level of Kunlun.
  The second tier, Xuanpu (Suspended Garden) holds 
  even greater wonders. Here grow trees of jade and pearl, 
  and Xiwangmu’s peach trees of immortality; the God herself 
  acts as this tier’s chatelaine. A magical grain called Muhe 
  (Tree Grain) also grows here, on stalks 40 feet tall and five 
  handspans wide. For meat, the lesser immortals who live on 
  Xuanpu have Shirou (Seeing Flesh), a substance shaped like 
  a cow’s liver with two eyes. No matter how much Shirou 
  is eaten, it grows back instantly. Despite Shirou’s somewhat 
  disturbing appearance, it is the finest of meats. Many terraces 
  and gazebos overlook the mountain slopes, each one offering 
  a view more beautiful and magnificent than the last.
  At Kunlun’s summit is a wall of jade, with nine 
  wells and nine gates, all guarded simultaneously by the 
  God-beast Kaiming (Enlightenment), who resembles 
  an immense tiger with nine tails and nine heads with 
  human faces. Beyond the gates lies the third tier: the 
  expanses of Heaven, as wide as the World itself.
  suBrealMs
  Tian experiences seasons and weather just like 
  those in the mortal World. It also has its own sun and 
  moon. These, however, are at once subrealms and living 
  creatures. During the night, the sun of Tian turns into a 
  three-legged crow that perches on the branch of a giant 
  cinnamon tree at the eastern limit of Heaven. To reach 
  the sun-realm, however, one must fly up into the sky of 
  Tian and ask the luminous crow for permission to enter.
  The sun-realm is an ever-luminous world of gold, fire 
  and shining jewels. Here trees of burning gold grow beside 
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  lakes of ruby, diamond and topaz, or rivers of liquid fire. 
  The God Houyi rules this subrealm from a magnificent 
  golden palace he designed and built himself.
  The moon-realm is a world of shadows, ice and silver, 
  with forests of cinnamon trees and pools of liquid crystal 
  and pearl. The God Chang’e, wife of Houyi, rules this 
  subrealm. Her chief companion is a rabbit who prepares 
  the Elixir of Immortality.
  axes Mundi
  The axis mundi of Tian is the Purple Forbidden 
  Enclosure of Heaven itself. Occupying the center of Tian, in 
  the topmost level of Kunlun, it is by definition the highest 
  point imaginable. The Purple Forbidden Enclosure connects 
  to the World at the Forbidden City in Beijing and analogous 
  structures (or their ruins) in previous imperial capitals such 
  as Xi’an and Kaifeng. The Mandate of Heaven demands 
  a link between the Emperor of Heaven and his mortal 
  counterpart. The Purple Forbidden Enclosure also connects 
  to the First Court of the Yama Kings, in the Underworld.
  Finally, a God with Wind’s Grace (or otherwise able 
  to fly) can reach the Purple Forbidden Enclosure by flying 
  at top speed toward the star Polaris. After an hour of 
  flight, the God reaches the final access point to Heaven. 
  The Jade Emperor can break the connections between 
  the Purple Forbidden Enclosure and the mortal capitals, 
  but not the connection to the Pole Star.
  Mount Kunlun has its own axes mundi. Chinese 
  tradition speaks of five sacred mountains within China 
  itself and four sacred mountains “beyond the seas” 
  (meaning beyond the mortal World), one each to the 
  north, south, east and west. These, however, are all simply 
  the four faces of Kunlun. These four faces each connect to 
  a sacred mountain on Earth, just one at a time, temporarily 
  turning the peaks into lesser axes mundi. The western face 
  of Kunlun now connects permanently to the highest peak 
  of the Kunlun range in central Asia — trapped by the Fateful 
  link of the shared name. The eastern face permanently 
  connects to the highest peak of Penglai. The other two 
  faces’ connections are still mobile, their terminals in the 
  World set by the Immortal Grandfather of the South Pole.
  To qualify as a “sacred mountain,” a peak must carry a 
  temple to the Celestial Bureaucracy. Usually, the Immortal 
  Grandfather connects Kunlun to Mao Shan, Tai Shan, 
  Wu-Tang Shan or other traditional sacred peaks in China. 
  As the Chinese Diaspora spreads and grows, however, the 
  shen work to build temples on sacred mountains around 
  the World (no matter who they were sacred to before). Some 
  shen grumble that they’d rather have axes mundi to cities 
  around the World, but the pantheon could not change the 
  laws that govern Kunlun’s axes mundi without razing their 
  entire Godrealm and rebuilding it from scratch.
  As Gods create subrealms within Tian, however, they 
  also forge whatever axes mundi they please. Chang’e, for 
  instance, defines her lunar realm’s axis mundi as an event 
  rather than a place: Anywhere that people celebrate her holy 
  day, the full moon of the eighth lunar month, Gods can 
  pass between her subrealm’s largest cassia tree and any of 
  the open-air altars raised in her honor. Since Tian includes 
  many more subrealms than can be described here, shen have 
  many options for travel between the World and Overworld, 
  though they probably need another deity’s permission.
  The shen also face one additional restriction 
  unknown to other pantheons: paperwork. Leaving 
  Heaven by axis mundi without the proper authorization 
  from the Office of Celestial Travel in Tian Shu is a mild 
  offense, punishable by fines of 10 points of Legend. Gods 
  who enter Tian by any of its axis mundi must also report 
  promptly to the same office, or face similar punishment. 
  This is, after all, the Celestial Bureaucracy….
  since the siege — nibbled tO death by ducks
  Hundun, the Titan who long has been the Celestial Bureaucracy’s special foe, does not manifest physically 
  in Tian. Other Titans claimed beachheads, however, and the shen know they received help from Hundun’s 
  old front-man Chiyou (see pp. 44-45). A horde of Soku-no-Kumi’s creatures erupted from the dark place in 
  the star-river that corresponds to the Coal Sack, and was beaten back with some difficulty. A cave in Kunlun 
  became Crom Cruach’s chalk and disgorged a swarm of nemean vermin. Akhetaten’s seraphim tried to 
  capture the three-legged sun-crow and kidnap that entire subrealm. Two sacred mountain terra incognitae 
  have been destroyed outright. No single attack has posed a major threat to the Celestial Bureaucracy, but 
  the war-Gods recognize them as mere probes designed to test the pantheon’s defenses.
  Greater danger may come from the pantheon’s own attempts to stay on a war footing. Guan Yu declared 
  a state of emergency when the Titans escaped, but as years pass with no major attack, Gods grumble and 
  return to their normal projects and ways of doing things. Other Gods want to take the offensive and attack 
  the Titans themselves. Some Gods want to gather allies among other pantheons; others remain isolationist. 
  Guan Yu does his best to keep the pantheon united, but he knows that divine factions now organize their 
  own war plans — and those plans must eventually collide. When that happens, Hundun has its opening to 
  throw the pantheon into chaos. Already, overstressed shen accuse each other of being pawns of Hundun, 
  adding to the tension. Guan Yu needs some clear mission for the shen to rally around, so the pantheon can 
  exploit its huge numbers and organizational talents — and the Titans won’t give him one.
  
  39
  anTagonisTs
  + Integrity) roll. If a character has Courage or Valor, add 
  the higher Virtue rating to the dice pool, without need 
  to channel Willpower through the Virtue.
  Virtue Sense: With a successful roll of (Perception + 
  Investigation), a qiongqi can tell if a person believes she 
  tells truth or lies, or if a person or creature has at least 
  one dot in a Dark Virtue.
  Join Battle: 9
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 6, Damage 6B, Parry DV —, Speed 6,  
  Piercing
  Bite: Accuracy 6, Damage 7L, Parry DV —, Speed 6
  Claw: Accuracy 7, Damage 6L, Parry DV 3, Speed 4
  Soak: 0A/3L/6B
  Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 4 Willpower: 6
  Legend: 2 
  Legend Points: 4
  Trophy: A qiongqi’s quills are its trophy. When 
  slain, the qiongqi quickly disappears from its sheer 
  improbability, but leaves behind a number of steel-hard 
  quills equal to its remaining Willpower points. By inserting 
  one of these quills at a special acupuncture point, one can 
  render a person incapable of lying or, using a different 
  point, incapable of telling the truth. This effect lasts for 
  one minute, after which the quill evaporates. While some 
  knowledgeable shen already know the special acupuncture 
  points, a character can deduce them through a roll of 
  (Intelligence + lowest of Medicine or Occult). Mortals 
  cannot resist the qiongqi’s quill. Scions and other people 
  of Legend can resist the quill’s power by spending one 
  point each of Willpower and Legend.
  Other Notes: Servants of the Titans might receive a 
  qiongqi as an ally. As a Birthright, it functions as four-
  dot Creature.
  lesser iMMorTal: 
  Chinese dragons 
  (guide •••• or •••••)
  In addition to Gods, Scions, ghosts and lesser 
  immortals, the Celestial Bureaucracy includes a great 
  many dragons, whom they call Lóng. Unlike the 
  vicious, fire-breathing dragons in the myths of Western 
  barbarians, the Chinese know dragons as intelligent and 
  cultured creatures, though they are sometimes careless 
  or with violent tempers. Chinese dragons also dwell in 
  water, whether rivers, lakes, under the sea or high in 
  the clouds. The greatest dragons are so powerful they 
  are Gods in their own right. Even the least powerful 
  dragon, however, can equal the might of a demigod.
  The Celestial Bureaucracy encounters many strange 
  creatures of Legend. Some of them work for the Gods 
  themselves. Others serve the Titans. Both sorts are 
  potentially dangerous to unwary Scions.
  ChiMera: qiongqi 
  (CreaTure ••••)
  This creature’s name means “thoroughly odd,” and it 
  deserves the epithet. This bizarre spawn of Terra has an 
  eagle’s wings and a tiger’s body, but covered with quills like 
  a hedgehog with a mane of longer quills running down its 
  neck. It is thoroughly malevolent: the qiongqi prefers to 
  kill the virtuous, but it may present slain animals as gifts 
  to wicked and disruptive people. It also hunts people who 
  have long hair (though it readily kills anyone or anything 
  weaker than itself, if it gets the chance). No one knows 
  why it starts at the nose when it eats its victims.
  Not only is the qiongqi as strong and lethal a hunter 
  as a tiger, it can fly and stoop like an eagle. Anyone who 
  attacks it by hand gets pierced by its coating of quills. Like 
  a tiger, it has a load and intimidating roar. It cannot speak, 
  but has greater intelligence than any mere beast. Strangest 
  of all, the qiongqi can sense who is in the right of a dispute, 
  or at least who is telling the truth, as a way to pick whom 
  it attacks first. As part of this power, it can detect fellow 
  servants of the Titans. The qiongqi does what it can to 
  help them and to harm the decent folk of mortal society.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 3, Stamina 6; 
  Charisma 2, Manipulation 4, Appearance 1; Perception 4,  
  Intelligence 2, Wits 4
  Virtues: Ambition 1, Malice 3, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 2
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 4, Brawl 3 (Swoop 
  to Attack +3), Fortitude 4, Integrity 3, Investigation 3, 
  Presence 3, Stealth 4, Survival 3
  Supernatural Powers:
  Flight: A qiongqi can fly at three times its normal 
  movement rate in combat, or up to 50 miles per hour 
  out of combat.
  Quills: Anyone who succeeds at an unarmed attack 
  against the qiongqi suffers one die of Piercing lethal 
  damage from the creature’s quills, unless the character 
  has at least 2L soak from armor, or 4L intrinsic soak. (The 
  quills are supernaturally sharp, it’s part of the creature’s 
  legendary nature.) Also, anyone whom the qiongqi 
  grapples suffers this damage with each of the creature’s 
  actions, unless the character has the requisite defense.
  Tiger’s Roar: The first time a qiongqi roars, people 
  who can hear it may hesitate from fear and animals run 
  away. Each character’s next action is delayed by one tick 
  due to this hesitation unless her player succeeds at a (Wits 
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  The Chinese describe their dragons by the Nine 
  Resemblances: horns like a stag’s, head like a camel’s, 
  eyes like a demon’s (or a rabbit’s), ears like a cow’s, neck 
  like a snake’s, belly like a clam’s, scales like a carp’s, 
  the soles of its feet like those of a tiger and claws like 
  an eagle’s. They are colored black, blue, green, red or 
  yellow. A dragon has from three to five claws on its feet, 
  representing their age, power and rank in the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy. A dragon’s voice has the ringing tones of 
  a gong.
  The tatsu found on pp. 234-235 of Scion: Demigod 
  can adequately represent a lóng who could become a 
  four-dot Guide. Instead of acid breath, however, the 
  lóng has all the Sky and Water Boons from one to five 
  dots. Some dragons can also take human form.
  additiOnal dragOns
  The lóng themselves exist in many variant 
  breeds 
  and 
  forms. 
  Notable 
  examples 
  include:
  Dragon Horse: Fuxi found the eight 
  trigrams of the I Ching on the back of a 
  creature resembling a horse’s body with a 
  dragon’s head and scales.
  Dragon Kings: Ao Chin, Ao Jun, Ao Kuang 
  and Ao Shun live in palace of crystal and pearl 
  at the bottom of the sea. They regulate the 
  oceans, and the shen count them as Gods. The 
  four Dragon Kings feel considerable rivalry 
  with Ryujin, the Amatsukami’s dragon king.
  Fu-Tsiang-Lung: A dragon who guards 
  precious metal ores and treasures.
  P’an Lung: An earth-dragon, unable to fly.
  Shien Lung: The imperial dragon, bearing 
  scales of all five colors and five claws on its 
  feet. It directs wind and rain and protects 
  imperial dynasties. Only the Son of Heaven 
  and members of his court can wear the image 
  of the imperial dragon.
  Tian Lóng: The celestial dragon that 
  supports the palaces of the gods, when this 
  becomes necessary.
  Ti Lung: A celestial water dragon that lives 
  in the clouds during springtime and under the 
  sea in autumn. It guards rivers and streams.
  Ying Lóng: The only dragon with wings is 
  millennia old and controlled the weather for 
  Huang Di during his battle with Chiyou.
  Yu Lóng: The carp dragon, which has the 
  head and fins of a fish.
  lesser iMMorTal:  
  The whiTe snake
  The White Snake is one of China’s best-known 
  legends. The opera about her has been performed 
  around the world. The legend tells how a white 
  serpent (already a supernatural creature, as shown 
  by its color) practiced austerities to gain further 
  magical powers, including the power to take the 
  form of a beautiful woman. As Madame White, 
  she married a young scholar… and the versions 
  of the story diverge. They range from a version in 
  which she takes her true form and kills him, to the 
  opera in which she is a loyal wife but her husband 
  freaks out when he learns the truth; a Buddhist 
  abbot forestalls any attempt at reconciliation 
  by imprisoning her for centuries beneath an 
  enchanted pagoda.
  The White Snake tried to be good. This lesser 
  immortal wanted to earn a place in the Celestial 
  Bureaucracy by showing she could be a person, not 
  a supernatural predator. She even invaded Mount 
  Kunlun for a magic herb to save her husband’s life. 
  It was all for nothing. She’s now free again, however, 
  and mad as hell. The White Snake does not serve the 
  Titans, but she’s willing to work with their servitors 
  for the sake of revenge on the Celestial Bureaucracy. It 
  is not completely inconceivable that a Scion could ease 
  her anger at the pantheon, but it would be incredibly 
  difficult. In the White Snake’s case, Loyalty acts in 
  a manner quite distinct from Duty: She can go to 
  amazing lengths for the sake of friends and lovers, but 
  cares little for social obligations. Her campaign against 
  the Celestial Bureaucracy, indeed, is driven by her 
  high Loyalty.
  This lesser immortal possesses formidable powers. 
  She has great proficiency at Taiyi, magic and the Illusion 
  Purview. As a divine spirit untainted by mortality, 
  the White Snake can use axes mundi to enter the 
  Overworld. She is a mastermind rather than a front-
  line combatant, though. She takes false identities to spy 
  on the pantheon, sabotage their efforts or arrange the 
  deaths of Scions or lesser immortals. In human form, 
  the White Snake appears as a beautiful young Chinese 
  woman dressed in the height of fashion. Drinking wine 
  mixed with realgar, however, sickens her and forces her 
  to resume her true form as a python-sized snake with 
  pure white scales.
  Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 7, Stamina 6; 
  Charisma 6, Manipulation 7, Appearance 5; Perception 6,  
  Intelligence 5, Wits 6
  Virtues: Duty 1, Harmony 2, Intellect 4, Loyalty 4
  Abilities: Academics 4, Animal Ken 2, Art (Couture 
  and Personal Grooming) 4, Athletics 3, Awareness 5, 
  Brawl 3, Command 3, Empathy 3, Fortitude 4, Integrity 5,  
  Investigation 4, Larceny 3, Marksmanship 2, Medicine 5,  
  
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  Melee 2, Occult 5, Politics 2, Presence 4, Stealth 3, 
  Survival 1
  Birthrights: Follower 5 (Greenie), Relic 2 (Sage’s 
  Brush — Illusion, Magic), Relic 2 (Sacred Yarrow Stalks 
  — Mystery, Prophecy)
  Supernatural Powers:
  Boons: Magic 7, Five-Cycle Augmentation, Yin-Yang 
  Destruction, Five-Cycle Conjunction, Eight Trigram 
  Transformation, Living Hexagram Metamorphosis, 
  Resurrection Anchor, Prophecy 4, Mystery 4, Subtle 
  Knife, Stolen Face, Fool’s Gold, Dreamcraft, Fantastic 
  Vistas, Hidden name, Loaned Identity, Animal 
  Communication (Snake), Animal Command (Snake).
  Epic Attributes: Epic Dexterity 5 (all Knacks in 
  Hero, Divine Balance, Escape Artist), Epic Stamina 
  4 (Holy Fortitude, Regeneration, Self-Healing, Skin-
  Shedding), Epic Charisma 5 (all Knacks in Hero, 
  Boys Will Be Boys, Crowd Control, Unimpeachable 
  Reference), Epic Manipulation 7 (all Knacks in Hero 
  and Demigod), Epic Appearance 5 (all Knacks in 
  Hero and Demigod, A Visage Great and Terrible), 
  Epic Perception 5 (all Knacks in Hero, Environmental 
  Awareness, Subliminal Warning), Epic Intelligence 3 
  (Know-It-All, Language Mastery, Perfect Memory), Epic 
  Wits 6 (all Knacks from Hero, Instant Assessment, 
  Monkey in the Middle).
  Shapeshifting: At will, the White Snake can resume 
  her animal form. In this form, she retains all her 
  Attributes and Epic Attributes, but the only Boons she 
  can use are her intrinsic Animal Boons. On the other 
  hand, her bite is venomous (use Titanspawn Venom; 
  Scion: Hero, p. 182).
  Spells: All spells from Hero and Demigod, Bound 
  Spirit, Legendary Surge, Measured Foe, Meddlesome 
  Fates, Transient Visitation, Tugging Heartstrings (see 
  “The Manifestations of Ichor,” p. 38).
  Join Battle: 11
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 10, Damage 4B, Parry DV —, Speed 6,  
  Piercing
  Unarmed, Heavy: Accuracy 9, Damage 7B, Parry DV 15,  
  Speed 5
  Unarmed, Light: Accuracy 11, Damage 4B, Parry DV 17, 
  Speed 4
  Bite: Accuracy 11, Damage 6L, Parry DV —, Speed 5
  Soak: 4A/11L/14B
  Health Levels: -0 x 13/Incap
  Dodge DV: 20 Willpower: 8
  Legend: 8 
  Legend Points: 64
  Other Notes: The White Snake’s two Relics are a 
  calligraphy brush once used by the legendary Taoist master 
  Chang Dao-Ling and a box of yarrow stalks for casting the 
  I Ching divination in its most traditional form. She does 
  not need a Birthright to use her two Animal Boons, as 
  they are implicit in her being a snake-spirit.
  The White Snake’s Follower is her maidservant 
  Greenie, another supernatural snake that can take the 
  form of a beautiful Chinese woman. Greenie has a 
  Legend of 6 and all the White Serpent’s Epic Physical 
  Attributes and Epic Wits, with full Knacks, but has no 
  Boons except for Animal Communication and Animal 
  Command. Her base Attributes are all one less than the 
  White Snake’s. Greenie also lacks the White Snake’s 
  intellectual Abilities, but has Brawl and Melee 4 — she’s 
  a superb martial artist and fencer.
  Minion: deMons
  Enormous numbers of demons inhabit the 
  realms of Chinese mythology. Most of them have 
  only descriptive titles, such as Jade Zither Demon or 
  Nine-Headed Pheasant Demon. Most demons look 
  humanoid, albeit possibly with unusual numbers of 
  arms or heads. However, they have brightly hued skin, 
  prominent fangs, claws and possibly horns, bone spurs 
  or tails. Their powers are too diverse to list.
  Origins of demons are similarly diverse. Many 
  demons started as titanspawn, and quite a few of 
  them serve the Titans still. Others began as gods 
  or lesser immortals of China’s ethnic minorities, 
  either forced into the Celestial Bureaucracy’s service 
  or still fighting against it. (Most of these turned 
  to the Titans long ago.) Finally, persistent sinners 
  whom all the tortures of Di Yu cannot reform may 
  be transformed into demons so that at least their 
  incorrigibly violent impulses find a proper outlet in 
  the service of Heaven.
  The basic, low-power demonic minion has 
  a Legend of 3. To write one up, start with the 
  Experienced Soldier (Scion: Hero, p. 283). Add 
  four dots of Epic Physical Attributes (with Knacks) 
  and the one- and two-dot Boons from an All-Purpose 
  Purview. Specialist demons may have a higher 
  Legend or other powers; for instance, a Superior 
  Clerk Demon from Di Yu might have two dots 
  of Epic Intelligence with Knacks such as Perfect 
  Memory and Language Mastery. Demons of greater 
  power can have higher Legend and additional Epic 
  Attributes, Knacks and Boons.
  Demons that serve the Titans follow Dark Virtues. 
  Demons that serve the Celestial Bureaucracy have 
  mixed Virtues: typically, Rapacity and Malice combined 
  with Order and Courage. They lack the finer moral 
  sensibilities for Duty and Valor, and so are restricted 
  to mere obedience and battle-fury — and their grosser, 
  brutal appetites frequently overwhelm them if they lack 
  firm oversight by the shen.
  undead: qing-shi
  The “corpse-spectre” (also called ch’ing-shih, 
  kianghshi, etc.) is the Chinese vampire. These undead 
  can look human; some may wear ornate robes or 
  simple funeral shrouds. This is merely a disguise, 
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  though. When a qing-shi uses its Titan-derived 
  powers, it becomes a green-skinned, faintly luminous, 
  corpse-horror with a mouthful of fangs and long white 
  hairs on its body. Qing-shi range from nearly mindless 
  killers who never think to look human to subtle and 
  sophisticated predators who move easily through the 
  most refined mortal society.
  To the basic undead template described on p. 257 
  of Scion: Demigod, the qing-shi adds a deadly, freezing 
  breath. This has the same lethal effect as the touch of 
  the yuki-onna (Scion: Demigod, pp. 289-290), but acts 
  at a two-yard range. To strike a target with its breath, 
  the qing-shi’s player must succeed with a (Dexterity + 
  Marksmanship) attack roll. Individual qing-shi may 
  develop additional powers, such as flight or turning 
  into a wolf or a ball of glowing vapor. Qing-shi often 
  tear victims limb from limb and gorge on the blood and 
  flesh; many corpse-spectres also feel a mad lust and rape 
  before they kill.
  Qing-shi cannot cross running water or a line of iron 
  filings, red peas or rice. Salt dissolves a qing-shi’s flesh, 
  to the point that a handful of salt thrown on a qing-shi 
  inflicts a level of aggravated damage.
  TiTan: hundun — Chaos
  AKA: Adharma, the Elder Chaos, the Void Heart 
  of Infinity
  Over the millennia, the Celestial Bureaucracy has 
  faced and fought many Titans. Their greatest battle 
  came when Gonggong broke the sky: The Gods fought 
  the Black Dragon of Soku-no-Kumi, the floods of the 
  Drowned Road, the monstrous beasts of Terra and 
  the fires of Muspelheim all at once — and won. The 
  Chinese Gods do not fear these Titans. But who gave 
  Gonggong, formerly a minor God, the power to rend 
  Pangu’s handiwork and open the way to these Titans’ 
  forces? Only Hundun, whom the shen call the first 
  Titan, the blind lord of the chaos from whence all 
  things came, and who seeks to draw all things back 
  into its formless abyss.
  The Gods themselves can explain Hundun only 
  through metaphor. Some Gods describe Hundun 
  as a faceless giant, blind, deaf and mute, fumbling 
  at the walls of reality in search of a crack with which 
  to tear them apart. Others call Hundun a black, 
  storm-tossed ocean without a shore. Such poetic 
  fancies fail to capture the truth of Hundun, whose 
  defining feature is its lack of defining features. 
  There is one way to see Hundun directly, though: 
  Ask a God of Chaos to become The Void. That 
  mind-shattering view into everything and nothing 
  is a window on Hundun.
  To the extent that Hundun wants anything, it 
  wants to unmake Pangu’s creation. The sages of Heaven 
  believe Hundun even wants to unmake the other Titans, 
  though it may help them enter the shaped Worlds 
  as a way to weaken the Gods. After all, most Titans 
  define themselves quite narrowly: Akhetaten is Light, 
  Ehekatoyaatl is Air and so on, with minimal admixture 
  of other elements and principles. Hundun is all of these, 
  and none. The only powers that seem beyond the reach 
  of Hundun and its servants are Prophecy for asserting 
  an inevitable progression of time and causality; Justice 
  for asserting a moral and social order; and Guardian for 
  asserting a trustworthy connection between oneself and 
  other creatures.
  Other 
  pantheons 
  find 
  Titans 
  physically 
  encroaching on their Godrealms, absorbing their 
  substance while giants and monsters emerge from 
  the Titan’s body to attack them. The Celestial 
  Bureaucracy face only minor threats of this sort. It 
  doesn’t matter. Hundun doesn’t operate that way. 
  The Elder Chaos gibbers in the Gods’ dreams and 
  whispers in their hearts when they argue. Hundun is 
  the mad impulse, the word you wish you hadn’t said, 
  the desire you barely dare to acknowledge. Without 
  words, the Titan speaks to the angry, the obsessive 
  and everyone who hates the World for being itself 
  instead of an extension of their will. Hundun 
  promises Gods and Scions that they can make the 
  World a mirror that reflects only themselves.
  That’s a big temptation for a God. Wielding such 
  power, it can be hard to accept that you still need 
  to get along with other Gods. But… what if you had 
  truly ultimate power? No more rules to follow, no 
  more fear of consequences, no more crap from other 
  Gods. Just submit to Hundun, become its vessel and 
  break the World.
  Favored Purviews: Chaos, Darkness, Illusion, 
  Psychopomp, Water. Note that the Illusion Purview 
  appears in Scion: Ragnarök. If you do not have that 
  book, ignore this Purview. Also, while Hundun’s proxies 
  must favor at least one of these Purviews, they can favor 
  other Purviews as well.
  Banned Purviews: Guardian, Justice, Prophecy
  
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  the chaOtic temPlate
  The titanspawn created by Hundun itself usually manifest surrounded by clouds, rains of blood, 
  sand or other substances, or swarms of insects. This cloud has a radius in yards equal to the creature’s 
  Legend. Any solid-seeming core is merely a denser clot of this substance; only the creature’s eyes are 
  truly solid. As such, Hundun’s creatures can be difficult to damage. No attack on the creature’s body, 
  however powerful, can deal more than a single level of damage after soak. If the creature normally 
  would have taken enough damage to kill it outright, it instead dissolves into the surrounding cloud, to 
  coalesce again (down one level of damage) five ticks later.
  Attacks on the creature’s eyes deal full damage. The eyes, however, possess a higher DV than the 
  creature itself: Do not halve the (Dexterity + Athletics + Legend) total used to calculate Dodge DV 
  before adding any bonus from Epic Dexterity. Chaotic creatures have no Parry DV because they are 
  not solid enough to deflect an attack.
  Their less-than-solid nature enables chaotic creatures to pass through tiny openings, such as under a door 
  or through a screen or air vent: A barrier must be air-tight to keep out a chaotic creature. These creatures are 
  immune to any Chaos Boon wielded by any creature whose Legend does not exceed its own. 
  On the other hand, a chaotic creature’s Legend is considered two less than its true value against 
  Guardian or Justice Boons. What’s more, such Boons briefly force a chaotic creature into solidity. 
  When a chaotic creature becomes the target of a Guardian or Justice Boon, the creature’s player resists 
  the dice roll associated with that Boon using a (Willpower + Integrity + Legend) roll for the creature 
  (and remember the reduction in effective Legend). If the attacker’s player wins the contest, the chaotic 
  creature becomes solid for five ticks per net success of the attacker. The creature can no longer pass 
  through small openings, and any attack upon it inflicts the normal quantity of damage.
  Finally, the actions of chaotic creatures are immune to Prophecy unless the creature becomes 
  Fatebound in some way. No one can foretell the actions of Hundun’s emanations or predict when the 
  Titan may empower a God as its avatar by proxy.
  proMinenT feaTures
  Strictly speaking, Hundun has no features. It has 
  no size, no shape, no distinction between “here” and 
  “there.” It is light and dark, wet and dry, roused to 
  furious motion and utterly static and unchanging.
  Perceiving such a paradox of Being and 
  Nothingness crushes mortal minds in an instant. 
  Gods find it difficult to comprehend as well. If any 
  creature finds itself within Hundun, it becomes 
  subject to the madness of chaos: The creature’s player 
  rolls (Willpower + Integrity + Legend) for every scene. 
  The player needs successes equal to a randomly chosen 
  Virtue, or the character suffers the Virtue Extremity 
  condition of that Virtue and loses two Willpower 
  points. When the character loses all his Willpower 
  points, he loses his sense of self and dissolves into the 
  Void Heart of Infinity, gone forever (though Hundun 
  may send out a black calamity or other chaotic creature 
  in his outward form).
  Visitors to Hundun tend to project their own 
  thoughts onto the Elder Chaos, though. Hundun 
  mirrors their thoughts, building fantasy-realms 
  based on the visitor’s desires, fears and obsessions 
  — including a Scion’s Virtues. These imaginary 
  worlds make no more sense than dreams usually 
  do, and act to prod a Scion’s Virtues. For instance, 
  Tommy Li might find himself on a mad movie set 
  with a film crew of monkeys made of broken glass, 
  being attacked by mortal friends and relatives armed 
  with fish, who insist that he sing show tunes – but 
  he doesn’t have a mouth. A player needs at least 8 
  successes on the (Willpower + Integrity + Legend) roll 
  to resist creating such a dreamworld… not that this 
  makes any difference whether or not a Scion suffers 
  a Virtue Extremity.
  Escaping from Hundun involves forcing stable 
  form and definition on its chaotic non-substance. 
  This means deliberately shaping a dream world and 
  holding it stable. Doing this calls for the same roll as 
  resisting Virtue Extremity or absorption in a dream 
  world shaped by Hundun, again at difficulty 8. By 
  sheer strength of will, the character imagines a portal 
  or passage to someplace else and forces Hundun to 
  accept this reality. Then the character spends a point 
  of Legend to traverse this passage — but he should 
  expect the Elder Chaos to send a celestial dog or at 
  least a few black calamities along with him, just for the 
  chance to project a bit of its reality-deranging power 
  into the shaped Worlds.
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  passages
  To find Hundun, journey into the furthest reaches 
  of Mythspace until you are completely lost and no 
  forms remain to guide your travel. Or, have a God 
  become The Void and jump through him into the 
  Elder Chaos.
  Of the other Titans, Ehekatoyaatl, Soku-no-
  Kumi and the Drowned Road have the most affinity 
  for Hundun. When the whispers and dreams of the 
  Drowned Road become meaningless babble, where the 
  storms of Ehekatoyaatl knot in such tight confusion 
  that there’s no telling lightning from hail, when 
  you travel so long in the utter darkness of Soku-no-
  Kumi that you can no longer tell if you are awake or 
  sleepwalking — then, you are near Hundun. Any Titan-
  realm, however, might develop a passage to Hundun 
  in a place that the Greater Titan itself has forgotten 
  about. For instance, the Titan avatar Aten never thinks 
  about the darkness beneath his palace of mirrors, the 
  one place in Akhetaten where his boundless radiance 
  does not penetrate.
  Chiyou
  Hundun never emanates a true avatar: The 
  Titan of Chaos does not create defined, unique 
  individuals. Instead, Hundun infuses its power 
  into willing Gods. Such proxies wield the power of 
  avatars, but they lack an intimate, Fateful connection 
  to Hundun. Killing one of these proxies does not 
  alter the nature of Hundun itself, or the World. A 
  captured proxy cannot be used to bind Hundun by 
  magic. Indeed, the Celestial Bureaucracy believes 
  that Hundun cannot be bound: To bind something, 
  you must define it. By definition, the Elder Chaos 
  cannot be defined.
  Of the various Gods to whom Hundun gave 
  power, Gonggong caused the most damage but the 
  arch-rebel Chiyou became the most persistent. The 
  war between Chiyou and Huang Di raged across 
  China and involved numerous Gods on both sides. In 
  the end, the Yellow Emperor executed Chiyou. The 
  arch-rebel came back, though, and caused trouble on 
  several occasions.
  Long ago, Chiyou introduced metal weapons 
  and armor to China. At first, the shen thought 
  these were a useful gift for humanity, since they 
  helped civilized folk to defeat wild beasts and 
  barbarians. In his pride, however, Chiyou sought 
  to conquer both Heaven and Earth. His weapons 
  made him mighty; he sought to become Almighty, 
  and rule by force instead of by right conduct and 
  right understanding.
  
  45
  The arch-rebel still tries to make himself supreme 
  by destroying the harmony of Worlds, Gods and 
  mortals. Chiyou leads uprisings of damned souls in 
  Di Yu, and barbarian invasions in the mortal World. 
  He causes natural disasters and civil wars. Though a 
  mighty warrior, his power to rouse the rabble may be 
  just as dangerous, and he is cunning enough to hide 
  his power in mortal or immortal guises, much like the 
  Gods themselves. Worst of all, Chiyou readily works 
  with avatars, spawn and minions of other Titans. If 
  anyone can persuade two Titans to coordinate assaults 
  on the Celestial Bureaucracy, it’s Chiyou. The shen fear 
  this possibility almost as much as Hundun inspiring 
  another civil war between the Gods themselves.
  In his traditional form (it is arguable whether such 
  a disciple of the Elder Chaos still has a true form), 
  Chiyou appears as a tall, powerfully-built man with the 
  hooves and head of an ox, four eyes and six arms. He 
  wears bronze armor and a fearsome helmet adorned 
  with an aureole of blades. He may take any other form 
  he pleases, but reverts to this ox-headed form when 
  he decides the time is right to declare his power and 
  terrify the Gods.
  Chiyou has a base dice pool of 22 for all actions. He 
  favors Physical Attributes.
  Virtues: Ambition 4, Malice 3, Rapacity 3, Zealotry 4
  Supernatural Powers:
  Avatars: The General, The Void
  Boons: Every one- to eight-dot Boon from every 
  Purview except Guardian, Justice and Prophecy, which 
  are forbidden to Chiyou. The arch-rebel also has all 
  Boons from the Chaos, War and Taiyi Purviews.
  Epic Attributes: Epic Physical Attributes at the 
  10-dot level (with all appropriate Knacks). All 
  other Epic Attributes at the eight-dot level (with all 
  appropriate Knacks).
  Forge Birthright: Chiyou crafts powerful Birthright 
  weapons and armor in mere hours, though he needs at 
  least a small quantity of legendary raw materials such 
  as demon blood, a dragon pearl or lunar cassia-bark. 
  For a single point of Legend, he can craft a Relic rated 
  up to four dots. With a few days, 10 points of Legend 
  and extraordinary legendary material (such as the body 
  of a lesser God or one of the peaches of immortality), 
  Chiyou can forge five-dot Relics. Chiyou gives out such 
  Relics as bribes, but they also carry curses that cause 
  murder, chaos, madness and (one way or another) 
  harm to Gods or the World.
  Resurrection: As a Titan avatar, Chiyou does 
  not actually have Ultimate Stamina. Since he has 
  complete mastery of Taiyi, however, he achieves much 
  the same effect.
  Shapeshifting: Chiyou can take any more-or-less 
  humanoid form, including forms with different 
  numbers of arms or heads, at no Legend cost. He can 
  also manifest with a reduced Legend as if he had three 
  dots in the Avatar Birthright, though this reduces his 
  base dice pool (it stays at twice his Legend), while his 
  Epic Physical Attributes cannot exceed his (Legend 
  -1) and his Epic Mental and Social Attributes cannot 
  exceed his (Legend -2).
  Join Battle: 22
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 22, Damage 12L, Parry DV -, Speed 6
  Unarmed, heavy: Accuracy 21, Damage 15L, Parry DV 56,  
  Speed 5
  Unarmed, Light: Accuracy 23, Damage 12L, Parry DV 
  58, Speed 4
  Sword of Murder: Accuracy 26, Damage 18L, Parry 
  DV 58, Speed 4
  Soak: 10A/52L/57B
  Health Levels: -0 x 52/Incap
  Dodge DV: 57 Willpower: 9
  Legend: 11 
  Legend Points: 121
  Other Notes: Though of classical Chinese styling, 
  Chiyou’s sword is identical to Tyrfing (Scion: Hero, pp. 
  167-168), including the curse that once drawn, it must be 
  used to kill. Anyone who draws the sword (except Chiyou 
  himself) temporarily has three dots of Malice that drive 
  him to kill someone before he sheaths the blade again. 
  It’s a good example of the sort of Relic Chiyou would 
  give away. Chiyou does not bother wearing real armor: 
  The armor he seems to wear is actually formed of ichor, 
  just like his body.
  revisiOnist histOry
  The official story of Chiyou’s rebellion 
  might not be completely truthful. The San 
  Miao people of southern China claim Chiyou 
  as their divine ancestor and patron. Quite 
  possibly, Chiyou was never a member of the 
  Celestial Bureaucracy at all, but a God of a 
  rival pantheon, making the war between 
  Huang Di and Chiyou an imperial conquest 
  that paralleled the conquest of the San Miao 
  by the Han ethnic group that now dominates 
  China. The Celestial Bureaucracy does not like 
  to admit that China’s other ethnic groups ever 
  had Gods of their own; and the shen accept 
  that every administration, mortal or divine, 
  tweaks its official histories to justify its rule.
  No matter how the war began, though, 
  Chiyou sought help from the Elder Chaos 
  and became the Titan’s proxy. Whatever 
  motives once drove this God, he now seeks 
  to cast all Worlds and realms into chaos 
  and destruction.
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  BlaCk CalaMiTy
  The black calamity, or hoh sheng, is one of 
  Hundun’s lesser emissaries into shaped reality. 
  Chinese tradition holds that the hoh sheng appears 
  when the Emperor is unrighteous. To prevent further 
  manifestation, the Emperor must confess his faults in 
  the Temple of Heaven, reduce taxes and order a purge 
  of corrupt officials. Actually, the black calamity doesn’t 
  specifically need a bad Emperor to enter the World: 
  Any misrule, in which leaders neglect their Duty with 
  a resulting collapse of social Harmony can open the 
  way for a hoh sheng.
  A hoh sheng manifests in a rain of black peas or sand, 
  and leaves surfaces spattered with rotted blood. The 
  core of the creature looks like a human or comparably 
  sized dog, cat or other animal, though legend speaks of 
  black calamities appearing in the form of snakes that 
  rolled about like hoops. Whatever its form, the creature 
  is flat black except for its golden eyes. A black calamity 
  inflicts wounds with a mere touch; these wounds are 
  painless, but slow to heal (aggravated damage). A black 
  calamity prefers to enter homes at night to kill one or 
  two sleepers while leaving other people unharmed. They 
  seem to have some sense of which victim’s death can 
  most disrupt the family, preferring beloved children and 
  respected elders.
  Fortunately for humanity, the black calamity suffers 
  a terrible weakness to salt. A single handful of salt cast 
  at the creature inflicts lethal, Piercing damage equal to a 
  Light Unarmed attack. A quart or more acts as a Heavy 
  Unarmed attack that deals Piercing lethal damage, 
  and such attacks bypass the black calamity’s chaotic 
  template. A slain black calamity vanishes with a crack 
  like a gunshot, leaving only smears of stale blood and a 
  single golden eye.
  Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4; 
  Charisma 4, Manipulation 1, Appearance 3; Perception 2,  
  Intelligence 2, Wits 4
  Virtues: Ambition 1, Malice 4, Rapacity 2, Zealotry 2
  Abilities: Athletics 3, Awareness 3, Brawl 4, Empathy 2,  
  Fortitude 4, Integrity 1, Investigation 1, Larceny 3, 
  Presence 3, Stealth 4
  Supernatural Powers:
  Boons: Hornet’s Nest, Sky’s Grace
  Chaotic Nature: Black calamities possess the chaotic 
  template (see “The Chaotic Template” sidebar, p. 43).
  Epic Attributes: Epic Dexterity 1 (Lightning Sprinter), 
  Epic Stamina 2 (Self-Healing, Solipsistic Well-Being), 
  Epic Appearance 1 (Lasting Impression; negative)
  Join Battle: 7
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 8, Damage 2A, Parry DV -, Speed 6
  Unarmed, Heavy: Accuracy 7, Damage 5A, Parry DV -,  
  Speed 5
  Unarmed, Light: Accuracy 9, Damage 2A, Parry DV -,  
  Speed 4
  Soak: 2A/4/6B
  Health Levels: -0/-0/-0/-0/-0/-4/Incap
  Dodge DV: 7 (eyes 12) Willpower: 6
  Legend: 3 
  Legend Points: 9
  Trophy: A black calamity’s trophy is its eye. The 
  eye protects its bearer from Chaos Boons wielded 
  by any creature whose Legend does not exceed the 
  bearer’s own. The eye grants this protection three 
  times (once for every dot of Legend the black 
  calamity possessed), then dissolves into putrid blood 
  and black sand.
  CelesTial dog
  This mighty spawn of Hundun manifests as a lean 
  and menacing, vaguely canine but ox-sized shape of 
  dense yellowish vapor with pitch-black eyes. A thin 
  cloud of faint, yellow-green radiance surrounds it 
  for a 45-yard radius, and at night the celestial dog is 
  visible for miles. The cloud around the titanspawn 
  smells faintly of rot, while the creature itself reeks of 
  decay. Just coming near a celestial dog exposes mortals 
  and Gods alike to sickness of both mind and body. 
  Celestial dogs exist to spread madness and destruction; 
  they learn from their surroundings how and where 
  they can cause the most damage.
  Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 8, Stamina 8; 
  Charisma 6, Manipulation 1, Appearance 6; Perception 5,  
  Intelligence 2, Wits 5
  Virtues: Ambition 2, Malice 4, Rapacity 4, Zealotry 4
  Abilities: Athletics 4, Awareness 5, Brawl 4, Craft 5,  
  Integrity 3, Investigation 4, Occult 5, Presence 3, Science 5,  
  Survival 2
  Supernatural Powers:
  Boons: All Chaos Boons from one to seven dots; all 
  negative Health Boons from one to seven dots. These 
  are innate powers for the celestial dog.
  Chaotic Nature: Celestial dogs carry the chaotic 
  template (see the sidebar on p. 43).
  Dissolving Touch: A celestial dog’s attacks deal 
  aggravated damage.
  Entropic Aura: A celestial dog’s mere presence 
  dissolves matter, mind and soul. When a character 
  enters the celestial dog’s radiant aura, her player 
  rolls (lowest Virtue + Integrity) at difficulty 3. Failure 
  means the character loses half her Stamina and Epic 
  Stamina (with appropriate alteration to health levels), 
  half her Willpower points and half her Legend points. 
  A character who exhausts her Willpower points in 
  the aura goes mad as if affected by Crawling Chaos 
  (Chaos •••••).
  Epic Attributes: Epic Dexterity 3 (Cat’s Grace, Lightning 
  Sprinter, Monkey Climber), Epic Stamina 5 (Damage 
  
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  Conversion, Divine Damage Conversion, Regeneration, 
  Self-Healing, Solipsistic Well-Being), Epic Charisma 1 
  (Pied Piper), Epic Appearance 3 (Center of Attention, 
  Inescapable Vision, Lasting Impression), Epic Perception 
  4 (Predatory Focus, Spatial Attunement, Supernal Hunter, 
  Telescopic Senses), Epic Intelligence 1 (Telepathy)
  Join Battle: 10
  Attacks:
  Clinch: Accuracy 12, Damage 6A, Parry DV -, Speed 6
  Bite: Accuracy 11, Damage 9A, Parry DV -, Speed 5
  Paw: Accuracy 13, Damage 6A, Parry DV 11, Speed 4
  Soak: 5A/15L/19B
  Health Levels: -0 x 17/Incap
  Dodge DV: 14 (eyes 24) Willpower: 8
  Legend: 8 
  Legend Points: 64
  Trophy: A celestial dog’s trophy is the howl it emits 
  when it dies. That howl lodges in the mind of one of its 
  killers (whoever has the fewest Willpower points at the 
  time, or randomly in case of a tie). Its presence strips the 
  character of another Willpower point that she cannot 
  regain until she uses the howl. Any time thereafter, the 
  character can release the howl from her own throat, 
  with the same effect as Instant Riot (Chaos ••••• 
  ••). The howl then vanishes from her mind.
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SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Scion (storyteller) [multi]/1st Edition/Scion Companion - Part 3 - Celestial Bureaucracy.pdf