by Eloy Lasanta (Kindred of the East | Kingdoms of Torment | Resources)
This is the first in a series of Yomi Realms that will be detailed for Kindred of the East. Hopefully, it is interesting as well as usable in your chronicles that feature Yomi and the Yama Kings as antagonists. This hell was inspired by postings by Jiituomas who allowed me to take that idea and run with it. So, here it is. I hope that all of you like it enough for me to do another one. Email me and let me know what you think.
Yama King (Queen): Shao Hai-Xin, the Midwife
Imbalance: Yang
What happens to the soul of a child who is sold into slavery or prostitution? What about a child drowned because they were born female or because of unfair One-Child laws on the books? What about a child that is beat to the brink of death everyday, knowing his or her only escape from their parent would be death? To this day, these questions have gone unanswered, but the fate of the mothers of these children is quite sealed (the fathers are a different story altogether).
The first thing a visitor to this Yomi Realm will notice is several 6-story towers, with blood stained sides and women’s howl coming out of every window. When you venture through these buildings, the floors seem to contain an endless amount of rooms, each with a woman giving birth and a demonic obstetric doctor at the helm. These women repeatedly go through all the worst kinds of labor, including all the discomfort, breech births, lack of medication and extreme pain associable with it. When the hell spawn is born it is brought to the Castle of Blood where the Yama King resides. It is thought that she devours these souls of the children for her sustenance.
If your eyes gaze a bit lower, you will observe a barrage of thin, sickly mothers drenched in their own blood (still bleeding in most cases) thrown out through the main door to these Hospitals from Hell. They most likely will catch a disease and the childbirth wounds will become infected. Other than these additional tortures, the cycle of pregnancy begins again after a brief state of normalcy (lasting the equivalent of 3 days).
There are lines of these sick women, wearing little more than what’s needed to cover their private parts, begging the demons that roam the streets for medication to alleviate the pain. Few of these forsaken souls receive any kind of drug, however, without the enjoyment of demon supplier. Many prizefights take place in the middle of the street between the tattered mothers, for just a taste of morphine or other painkillers.
Throughout the entire pregnancy, the women go through the worst of morning sickness and weakness and must endure the almost constant nag of the smell of blood and unclean bodies that seethes through the air. As well, they are constantly attacked and pushed to the brink of death through beatings and rapings at almost every turn. The immense heat through this realm has a certain discomforting temperature that makes every step on the hot pavement or drop of sweat that much more painful.
This large structure that stands at the top of a very high mountain would appear quite different than its name implies. The Castle of Blood is a large, clean, white tower. It sparkles with a coolness the altitude complements. It is names mostly because of what goes on inside.
The red carpet is rolled out for those demonic messengers who deliver the newborns to the Castle of Blood. When inside, they are presented to the Yama King, who then swallows the child whole. She ingests the child, body and soul. No one except the Twice Born and the messengers is ever allowed here, except for the few mothers who are invited so their child’s soul may take its own revenge.
This hell began as a torturous place reserved for those women who killed their own children. But as time went on, and the Yama Kings’ own battles began to take precedence, more and more additions were made to the rules of being sentence to the Hell of Eternal Childbirth. The souls of those who sold their children began to fall as well, then those who harmed their children in near death situations. Today, even those who loose their children or emotionally scar their children in anyway are subject to the rules of the Midwife. The only way to truly stay out of this dimension is to never have children.
The various demons that serve the Midwife do it for selfish reasons. They love to terrorize, kill, maim, devour and otherwise toy with souls and the Midwife lets them do it. Kumo, Raksha and even Corpse-Tigers frequent this realm and are given free reign, as long as they serve as demonic doctors (with the only duty being to keep the child alive) and not to cross certain borders toward the Castle of Blood. But anyone who is going to torture these women through their fragile state is more than welcomed by the Midwife.
Within the realm, only one demon is truly loyal to Shao Hai-Xin and not just looking for torturous fun, the Twice Born. It is known that the lovely Yama King is the devourer of the spirits that are born from her damned souls, but after consuming so many pure souls, she is also known to give birth as well. This being is a mass of souls, not ever truly knowing themselves for anything except the Midwife’s child and servant. Many are not even given real names, responding to nick names and insulting slurs just the same. They serve as the brute hunting force of the Midwife, taking out unruly demons and tortured souls alike. Hence, although they don’t exhibit great intelligence, their skills of perception are often unmatched by other Yomi minions. Their numbers are small, but their strength is not.
They are however, never allowed in the Middle Kingdom directly, kept as domain servitors instead. The Midwife fears their betrayal if they were to find out above the splendors of the world above. So, very rarely are they found outside of this Yomi Realm, which is to the detriment of Shao Hai-Xin’s rise to the Demon Emperor Throne.
Physical: Strength 7, Dexterity 5, Stamina 6
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2
Mental: Perception 4, Intelligence 1, Wits 2
Talents: Alertness 5, Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Dodge 2, Intimidation 5
Skills: Animal Ken 4, Etiquette 1, Melee 4, Survival 3
Knowledges: Investigation 4, Occult 1
Disciplines: Black Wind 4, Potence 4, Fortitude 4
Backgrounds: Allies 1, Resources 1
Hun: 3, P’o: 8, Yin: 5, Yang: 5, Willpower: 7
Body Levels: -0(x7)/-1(x4)/-2(x3)/-5/Incapacitated
Quote: “You must’ve done something really bad to have me come after you.”
Image: These hideous beings stand from 9 to 12 feet tall and all have dark skin that reflects the blackness of their hearts. They have multiple faces all over their body which never number less than 6. This not only adds to their gruesome appearance, but also to their ability to hunt and track as they can look in every direction at once. Their bodies have huge rippling muscles, with slightly longer arms (resembling an ape in their structure). They rarely wear anything more than a loin cloth, since their normal skin can soak any kind of damage you can through at it.
Possessions: They wield little except a strong weapon to protect yourself and keen eye for tracking those that your mother wants dead.
Roleplaying Hints: You are very much still a child in your mind. You serve your mother without question, yet you always wonder what else there is in the world. But that could just be one of your minds, for you are a melding of several minds, the minds that were devoured by the Midwife. So, while one mind is thinking one thing, the other is thinking something else. There is always one mind that is prominent, but they must still listen to all of them. You are a killer and all minds will agree that slaughter is the best fun there is, especially if it is the P’o soul that gave birth you that particular mind.
Storyteller Notes: The Twice Born usually carry weapons that do Strength + 2 Aggravated damage and can use their full Stamina + Fortitude to soak all kinds of damage. They are, however, low in intelligence and very gullible. All Subterfuge rolls are -1 difficulty on them. If you are not a direct target of the Midwife’s wrath then you have little to fear as long as you don’t say the wrong thing.
Hai-Xin did not begin her journey as a Yama King. She was not created by heaven and is by no means a minion of the August Personage of Jade. She is not a victim, yet her mission had its roots in honor.
She grew up near the end of the 4th Age in a small nameless village in the Hebei Province, which eventually became Qinhuangdao. She was diagnosed as infertile at the age of 16, after several failed attempts at conceiving, which led to her daily beating at the hands of her husband. He so wanted to have kids. She gazed out at the unfair world through bruised eyes, seeing the other women who would drown their first-born if they were not male. She saw the children who were sold to European merchants to become slaves and prostitutes and she wept for those souls. Her daily beatings finally became too much for her to bear and she gave into the pain, finally letting herself die and pass into the Yomi Realm.
As a simple P’o soul, she began to exist among the other demons and evil spirits, and deemed herself the protector of these children. She was stole enough great power from other demons and minions of Yomi to become an avenging spirit, deemed “the Midwife” and killing thousands of those unfit mothers throughout the years. The arrival of the westerners did not help things much; it actually made them worse.
Hai-Xin became greedy, wanting to kill those who even looked at a child in a harmful way, which led to many different kinds of exorcist being called to vanquish her. To evade their power, she retreated to a small realm in the Yomi Realm. It was a small, insignificant plot between two of the other realms. Instead of actively killing those women herself, the Midwife began waiting for their eventual death and then summoning their souls to her small domain, which continued to grow after the years.
She found that she could grow more powerful through the devouring of a part of the woman’s essence, devouring the P’o soul while having it still around to produce more energy. A stroke of genius came when she decided to spontaneously impregnate the women as they entered and after every subsequent birth. After devouring these souls, which allowed her to continue living, she was able to finally conceive her first child, a Twice Born.
The Twice Born fought back every attack on the Hell, protecting what Hai-Xin had created and still do till this day. She used to take care of their every wish, any of the mothers they wished to kill was their's and they had their relative freedom as long as they did as they were told in times of emergency. However, the ongoing battle between the Yama Kings has driven her to have more and more children, making them objects instead of her loved ones. In her current mind, they are simply soldiers that can be used to win the few wars worth fighting. Does child neglect make her just as guilty as the souls she tortures? Even if it does, she is the one in charge and things don’t look even close to changing anytime soon.
