Wind and Ice

Playing tips for the Resplendent Cranes.

by Eloy Lasanta (Kindred of the East | Resources)

As a frequent Kindred of the East Storyteller, I have found that among all of my games, none of my players have opted to being a follower of the Way of the Resplendent Crane. It baffles me to no end, because I see them as fountain of creativity, capable of competing with any other Dharma when it comes to the possibilities for concepts. Many would tell me that I am wrong, but listen to what I have to say and then decide for yourself.

Turning Back the Wheel

The Resplendent may be viewed as the cold, calculated rulers of the Middle Kingdom. But their primary, and very noble in my opinion, mission is to turn back the Wheel of Ages. They want to fight against the blight that is corruption and evil in the Middle Kingdom and bring back the glory of the 4th, 3rd, even back to the 2nd Age. So what could be more noble a cause than the restoration of the world? That is what the Cranes are after.

By achieving this goal, the Cranes wish to receive the August Personage of Jade's good graces once again. They wish to emulate the fallen Wan Xian and try not to fall into the pitfalls of being a demon, unlike their Devil-Tiger counterparts. While the Devil-Tigers want to revel in their defilement, the Cranes want to get as far away from it as possible and they use laws and tools to help them along the way.

The Laws

Everything in the world lives by the laws of the universe, the Mandate of Heaven and Hell. The clouds produce rain which waters the plants to grow to feed animals that go on to feed predators and the death of animals contributes to the healthy earth, etc. There is northing that is not touched by the way things are "supposed" to be. The Law.

The Cranes see their existence as another part of the laws of the universe, one that they cannot escape. Other Dharmas look at them strangely, because they surround themselves with rules to help them through their unlife, letting them know what to and what not to do. Many believe this to be foolish on the part of the Cranes, handing their life over to the universe. But if not to the August Personage of Jade, from whom they seek forgiveness, then who. They try to achieve the state of the Superior Man. Someone that teaches by example, who is a great leader and one that shows compassion to others. By following the laws, they seek to reach this and thus will be allowed once more into Heaven's light.

They follow the Eight Lotus Path and the Fivefold way stronger than any other Dharma does. They have more control over themselves than your average Thrashing Dragon. They are just as controlled and have more personality than your average Bone Flower. While the Thousand Whispers travel through a fake life wishing to learn from life, they forget that they are disgraced in the eyes of Heaven. And there are a lot of words that can be said about the Devil-Tigers, and none of them are nice.

The Eight Lotus Path

The Shining Ice Guardians rule themselves and the rest of the Middle Kingdom with rules and laws. The highest of these rules is the Eight Lotus Path. It is the central doctrine of Crane philosophy, is taught to every Crane and is practiced everyday. It is composed of, you guessed it, 8 rules.

1. Recognition of Hope: The Cranes must believe in the hope that they will someday be rid of their Dual Souls and return to their heavenly state as the Wan Xian.
2. Virtuous Existence: Cranes must use meditation and focus to live a life of correctness and obey all the laws of the universe.
3. Nurture: A Crane must nurture all around him to avoid corruption from ever taking root in his world.
4. Purgation of the Wicked: Cranes must be ready to destroy the source of corruption if they cannot be redeemed. Some weeds just must be pruned.
5. Instruction: The Crane must be a diligent student daily, studying doctrines and sutras that allow him to know right from wrong.
6. Law: The Laws of the Universe stand forever true. A Crane must follow these laws to stay pure from corruption.
7. Harmony: The moment before any types of feeling are aroused there is calmness. This is when the soul is most in harmony. A Crane must use this to make good decisions.
8. Transcend the Living World: The final lotus teaches that the corruption and evil that plagues the Middle Kingdom exists in the Spirit Worlds as well. It must be healed on all fronts to turn back the wheel.

The Gallant and the Wicked

Picture the Middle Kingdom as a garden. The Cranes are the gardeners. The pluck the weeds of evil and nurture the seeds of prosperity. By doing so, the purity of their cultivation can choke the weeds' roots from below and block the sun that fuels them from above, leaving all corruption in the Middle Kingdom decimated. Of course, the Scorpion Eaters have their utmost hatred and are their eternal targets for war. And since they are branded akuma in almost all instances, it is easy to justify destroying their heretical kind.

Tenets (A Brief Overview)

1. Follow the Eight Lotus Path: see above.
2. Follow the Fivefold Way: The 5 rules that govern the Kuei-jin's courts and night life in the Middle Kingdom. The Cranes follow them more strictly than any other Dharma, for they must show the example of what the Perfect Man can become. (THE Fivefold Way is found on page 39 of the KoE Core book).
3. When you lose control, make amends. The Demon guides you but does not own you: The P'o gains control sometimes. Any misfortune that it creates must be corrected, for that is the law of the universe.
4. When injustice or corruption appears, correct it to the best of your ability: Just as it states. Corruption is not to be tolerated, but remember that the Cranes idea of justice does not necessarily match that of mortal society.
5. Be generous to the worthy, defend the weak and instruct the young and errant: You must be a teacher as well as a student. You must be a defender as well as an attacker. You must be able and ready to protect all those who require it.
6. When the wicked will not listen to reason, straighten them as you were once straightened: This tenet teaches that the Crane should choose to correct the corruption, at least attempting to turn the tide, before outright destruction is needed. Even the wicked should have the chance to redeem themselves, as they try to do themselves.
7. Defend the ghosts of your family and protect your living relations. Do not let them see you, however - you have become a disgrace to their honor: The Cranes are directed to protect and guide both their living and dead relative. But they do so from the shadows and try to never let their relations know they have fallen from heaven's graces.
8. Maintain your dignity, honor and composure. You are an example of what the Damned can become: Everything you do, even your destruction, should be that of the greatest caliber and done with grace. You do try to become the perfect man.

Suggested Disciplines

• Blood Shintai
• Obligation
• Internalize
• Cultivation
• Tapestry
• Tzu Wei
• Feng Shui

Portraying the Dharma

Yes, the Cranes are the leaders of the Middle Kingdom. Yes, this moves them to making cold, rational decisions instead of emotional ones. This does not mean that they have to be emotionless, stuffy, humorless vampires. The ones that break up all the fun and are not fun to play.

They are very intent on their Dharma, as any good Kuei-jin is. And it does take up every moment of their un-lives to follow the Way of the Resplendent Cranes. But that does not mean that they have no personality outside of the stereotypes of their Dharma. There are Crane Demon Hunters, Ambassadors, Partiers, as well as stuffy bookworms. It is up to Players to find the concept that best suits them in the context of the Dharma.

Suggested Auspicious Occasions

• Nurturing a person to make the right choice
• When a choice you make in the name of justice, hurts you in any way
• If somebody makes a choice, by watching your example
• Healing a Broken Mirror
• Settle Negotiations with Spirits
• Bring a smile to a wretched persons face
• Seeing a butterfly emerge from his cocoon
• Many more can be found on page 62 of DB: Resplendent Cranes

Original Discipline Variants

Osmosis (Level 4 Blood Shintai)

The chi that exists in the blood is the fundamental source of a Kuei-jin's power. There are several ways to get to this power; through the blood is the most common of younger Kuei-jin. But many Cranes see humanity as a gentle child needing only to be helped along its way. So they have found a way to steal the chi from a body, without leaving big gaping holes in the victim's neck. They can, with this discipline technique, take it with but a simple touch.

System: the character rolls Hun + Medicine (difficulty of the victim's willpower), and can take one point of chi (players choice) through the skin per success. This process takes a bit longer than normal (stolen at a rate of 1 chi per 2 turns) and the Kuei-jin must stay in constant contact with the target through the process. This process is also painless, but is not as concealable as through the breath. It can be performed by any Kuei-jin who knows it regardless of Dharma level, but can only be performs on the same person twice before it will start to have no effect. The most remarkable part is that, with the expenditure of 1 willpower point, this process can be done from a number of yards away as equal to your Hun score.

Sense Life/Death (Chi'iu Muh 2, Cultivation 1, Combo Discipline)

Many Ice Guardians find that their Chi Sights are essential to the quest to cleanse the world of corruption. By using Chi'iu Muh to magnify those sights as well as using their knowledge of the P'o soul (Cultivation), some cranes have found ways to develop these sights even further than thought of before and can sense very specific information because of it.

System: This power is a further enhancement of the Chi Sight (Chi'iu Muh 2), and is simply added on to there activation of that power. Although the character must actively state that he is seeking to use Sense Life or Sense Death, for only one of them may be used at one time. It takes one turn to switch life/death sights. This extra cost 6 experience, but the player must find a teacher.

Sense Life: By looking at a mortal or shen, the character will innately sense how heroic the target. The character will know how approximately how long the being has been so and whether or not the current state of the world is bringing them down. If the target has killed many times, it will be known that they did it for a just cause or if they did it because they liked it. By gazing at a female, the character could tell if that woman is pregnant within 72 hours of conception, how far along, the sex of and how many babies she will have. They may also sense automatically any births that may happen within a radius of 1 mile per point of Hun.

Sense Death: By looking at a mortal or shen, the character will know their dark desires (as if using Cultivation), but also they will learn whether they have ever killed anyone. If they liked it, if they plan on doing it again and if they feel any remorse. Even an approximate number of people killed by the target can be given (up to ST). The character can also sense any deaths that could be happening within a radius of 1 mile per point of P'o. One of this power's most useful abilities is to discern whether the target is a Kin-jin.

Conclusion

So, I hope that by reading this, it makes the Shining Ice Guardians seem like less than "Poor Excuses for Ventrue" as i have heard them called before. They are one of my favorite Dharmas to play, as I am into heroism and the struggle to overcome corruption and nurture good in all things. So, email to let me know what you all think. See ya!