Editing Kensei (section)

===Religion and Magic===
In 1e magic only existed when using Omnyouiji and Creatures. As of 2e it is officially a fantasy setting. 
====Religion====
* '''Shinto, The Ways Of The Gods'''
Shinto is the original faith of Hymukai. 
According to Shinto, all things have an intelligent spirit. There is a spirit of each rock in your garden, each turnip that grows in it, each insect that lands on it. There is a complex pantheon of responsibility and strength for each object as well. The spirit of your garden is in charge of the spirit of the biggest turnip in it who in turn is in charge of all the lesser turnips, the spirit of gardens in general controls them both as well as the spirit of all turnips, all four must answer to the spirit of the region you live in, and the spirit of agriculture controls them all with respects towards the spirits of the earth and sun. Far from the occasional ghost, spirit, or monster seen in other mythologies, Shinto spirits outnumber the living in the world and humankind has its place within the hierarchy as well. The farmer must not insult spirits of his turnips as they are his fellow workers of the earth, the spirit of the garden is his equal, the spirit of gardens and turnips are his superiors, and the spirit of agriculture is as important as his local lord. 

The strongest spirits dwell in a parallel realm called Shinkai, and are called '''Kami'''. 
Ancestors are also important in Shinto, as they are the connection between the living and the world of spirits. Without any friendly deceased, the world of the living cannot interact with the Shinkai and as such it is important to stay on good terms with a dead person who may have become friends with a spirit you may want to interact with by honoring their memory and invoking it whenever possible. 

Shinto priests and Shamans can communicate with all kinds of spirits and Kami with proper rituals, the right words, the correct offerings, the precise movements, the required clothing and adornments, and the right location all at specific times. The true name of spirits, which gives a connection to their power, is secret and known only by priests honorable enough not to abuse the privilege. By entering into trances, they commune with intermediary ancestors who can pass messages onto spirits. 
Shamans fall into three groups; Miko are nuns, Geki are monks, and Shinshoku o Kanushi (both genders) are Shamans powerful enough to call directly on Kami themselves and receive their words in return. 

Every clan who worship Shinto regardless of their social standing or caste maintains a shrine to an ancestor who has become a Kami, and regardless of relationship with the living family it is VERY bad luck to offend their patron. You can wipe out every man, woman, and child in their lineage without too much trouble from the spirit world, but if you mess up their family graveyard or shrine then you are FUCKED in ways comparable to interacting with the Fey in western fantasy settings. 

Small shrines to local spirits of things like roads, rivers, a local animal species, and so on can be found almost anywhere, sometimes forgotten and sometimes well-used stops that double as shelters for weary travelers. Many small villages revolve around shrines, having little else to offer besides services pilgrims are willing to pay for.

Even Hymukai who convert to other faiths rarely abandon their Shinto beliefs. The faith is fairly adaptable, and although priests of the One God may frown on praying to the first to bear their surname or the spirit of a river that feeds their irrigation, those traditions will remain.

* '''Batsudo, The Way Of The Buda'''
Batsudo (not-Buddhism) was established in Terai by a man named Sakyamuni (AKA not-Siddhartha Gautama) who abandoned the wealth and pleasures offered by the Shankya dynasty of Licham in order to understand the suffering of the poor and unlucky. He achieved Nirvana/Enlightenment, then sought out a way to pass the teachings onto others in Licham and Angma. 
Batsudo Sutra (texts and teachings) claim that through sacrifice and contemplation one can enter a Buda state, a level of understanding and freedom from earthly troubles while still alive. Only in this state is one Arhat, or of worthiness and true nobility. 

Only when the teachings reached the Celestial Empire and Baejke (not-Thailand) did they come to Hymukai through merchants. One of the Tennos saw value in the faith and decreed that Batsudo monks would formally enter the Sohei caste with newly built temples. The Shinto were initially displeased, although as the common folk would visit both kinds of temples and adhere to both faiths the two blended over time. Like its mate faith, Batsudo often merges with any new faiths that come to Hymukai as both have come to represent culture as much as religion. 

Generally, Batsudo is unpopular with the Otokodate as its scorn of wealth holds little appeal to them. By contrast, Buke who lose devotion to their warrior lifestyles, sometimes due to age or war-weariness, find the abandonment of need for wealth and power to be spiritually fulfilling. 

Batsudo teaches the world is currently in a 10,000 year long state of Dharmic decline which makes it difficult to achieve Enlightenment.

tl;dr using WIS as your dumpstat makes you lose at life

* '''Onmyodo'''
The native faith of the Celestial Kingdom, written as the Daodejing (Book of the Path and the Power) by the philosopher Laozi. Onmyodo (AKA not-Taoism) is based on the idea that everything is made of an energy called Tao (or Dao) which comes in two forms, the positive and negative Onmyo as the Hymukai call it, or the Yin and Yang as the Celestial Kingdom knows it. It centers around the idea freedom and power are attained by balance of the two forces. 
A man named Zuang Zi (AKA not-Zhuangzi) expanded on the idea in his own texts called The Interior Chapters which advised on how to balance the forces, including using alchemy (in real life, this is the basis for Chinese herbal remedies and acupuncture). 

All science, all magic, all matter, all energy, everything comes down to positive and negative energy reacting and seeking balance before and after said reaction. 

Yin is passive. It is feminine, reacts strongly to the moon, darkness, the cold, is liquid, is introspective, and within living things is a big part of blood. 
Yang is active, masculine, reacts to the sun, is extroverted, is warm and more fire than matter, and in living things is concentrated in Ki, which can be summed up as the spiritual equivalent to blood. 

Nothing can exist made up of only one of the two forces, and out of harmony or in a turbulent state nothing good can come of anything. 

Yin and Yang form the five elements, the seasons, colors, emotions, everything. Endless winter is as bad as only feeling happiness without sadness, as a man without a sensitive side, every blue house needs some red somewhere, and so on. 

Onmyodo followers are wizards and scientists, the former mixing this belief with others to control Kami or the forces that affect humans. The magic users are called Onmyouiji. The scientists are alchemists.

tl;dr being True Neutral and drinking mercury can make you a wizard

* '''Shugendo'''
Shugendo is the mix of all the faiths of Hymukai into one belief. The followers are called Shugendo as well, or Shugenja, or Yamabushi No-Gyoia (those who sleep below the mountain) for their usual locations. 
They are hermits who dedicate themselves wholly to the spiritual, revealing themselves slowly to those individuals outside their training sites that they believe are likely to join them at the cost of all worldly ties and belongings. The teachings of Shugendo are called the Shugen. 

After years of suffering and sacrifice, even the abandonment of the very emotions tied to their pursuit of moral purity (due to desire in any form not being morally pure) along with education in everything from astronomy to psychology to medicine and herbalism, they surpass humanity and overcome all sin or debt from this life or their past lives by feeling the punishments due with humility. At this point, they are a being who is virtually a Kami contained in a mortal shell. 
The highest ranked Shugendo commune with Kami directly, are in the state of Buda and can actually influence the greater universe, and while meditating alone their soul departs their body to live as an animal in the forest while they sit in unmoving contemplation that can last for days, weeks, or more. 

The Shugendo primarily work for the betterment of mankind in various ways as they see fit.

tl;dr epic level Cleric/Druid Lawful Good murderhobos

====Forms of Magic====
* '''Kototama: The Power of Words'''
Kototama is the ability to cause magical effects using the spoken word or sounds. Those trained in this art are called Kototage. Kotomuke is the working of the magic, and the specific spells are Jumon. 
All religions use Kototama, and even martial artists use them to a degree. 
Kototama can be used to control minor spirits called Shikigami. 

* '''Kuj-In: Seals of the Nine Syllables'''
Kuj-In combines the essence of Kototama as mantra hymns with hand gestures called Mudra. Kuj-In is primarily used by Shinto, Buda, and Ninjas. 
Kuj-In invoke the protector forces of the world in odd numbers, or evil if used in even. If the gestures are made in the air they affect the user, if the hand gesture is used on other things (like with ink and paper to draw a spell scroll) they can affect others. The act of performing the gesture is called Kuji-Kiri. Using the right hand is called Takotai and the resulting energy receives, using the left is called Kongokai and emits energy. The gestures are made quickly or slowly based on what Kototama is used. 

The actual effect of Kuj-In is explained by creating a hole or vacuum in the spirit world which causes a shift in Yin and/or Yang. 

* '''O-Fuda: Kanji Magic'''
O-Fuda is similar to Kuj-In in that it is a written magic, although no particular gesture or vocalization is needed. 
O-Fuda involves invoking a Kami by writing their name on something. If used in construction, the Kami then may protect the occupants of the building as they see fit. 
The other use of O-Fuda is making a charm bag called a Omamori which blesses the bearer and can be used to exorcize spirits by placing it in the mouth of the victim or inside the object which is possessed. 

* '''Onmyodo: The Way of Yin and Yang'''
The central ideas of Taoism, applied by Onmyouiji. It consists of all magical practices and all disciplines of science mixed in the pursuit of balance and the intentional alteration of reality. Onmyouiji rarely share their discoveries with written text, preferring apprenticeships to pass on their craft. 

Becoming pure, only a step below divinity, and mastery of energy are the two main pursuits of Onmyodo. The main reward to skilled Onmyouiji is entering the state of Kenki, which allows them to perceive and interact with both the mortal world and the Shinkai at the same time. They can then banish or summon beings between the two at will, being something more than even an ancestor Kami. Shikigami are inherently loyal to those in Kenki, and Daimyo are always seeking their services to protect them from spirits and advise them. 
Most Onmyouiji are aligned with the spirits of order, although rare ones exist who sought to become one with the darker sides of the spirit world and curse their foes. 

====Reality====
The bulk of creation exists in three regions connected by celestial bridges and gates. 

* '''The Celestial Plane: Ama'''
The ideal world, perfect in every way and full of waterfalls with hundreds of regions with each suited in different ways to provide for every desire regardless of what the desires of that being are, each created when a being becomes a Kami and ascends to it. Those who are the Kami's chosen servants, the Tennin (male)/Tennyo (female), inhabit their celestial lord's land. 

There is a physical bridge somewhere in the material plane, called Niji, that leads the living to it although it is guarded by celestial entities. 

* '''The Intermediate Plane: Kuni'''
The mortal world, with Hymukai at its heart. Its...pretty good, but its imperfections compared to the Ama cause a small portion of the misery that befalls mankind. It exists in the same space as the Shinkai, which is the spiritual half of the world (the Yang to Earth's Yin) with places in both serving as gateways by virtue of the two forces evenly mixing there as opposed to sitting side by side (imagine an oil sitting on top of a thicker liquid, with those places being where the two have mixed into a solution). Those mixed places are often difficult to reach and amazing to behold, although many lesser spirits inhabit them which tend not to be as friendly as one would want. For those who have seen Spirited Away, those places would be the abandoned theme park.

* '''The Underworld: Yomi'''
The souls of the dead cross the Sanzu river, a hidden underground river between the Kuni and Yomi. On the other side they are judged for their spiritual debt and actions across all their lives. Those who have lived normally and are in the misdemeanor range of karma are sent back to the Kuni to be born again. Those who have lived amazingly pure lives, free from any sin or debt, ascend to Ama and become Kami. Some beings who preexisting Kami vouch for are also allowed to enter the Ama, usually as a Tennin/Tennyo. The spirit known as Datsue-Ba undresses the soul while his companion Keneo throws the clothes to a branch next to the river. Souls who are nervous can actually gauge how badly they have done by how Keneo does this.
Souls then cross the river to meet a spirit named Emma-O who is master of the cycle of reincarnation and the judge of Kuni lives. 

Those found wanting are sent to Nakara, a kind of spiritual prison full of hunger where they will suffer until their debt is within a range they could feasibly pay off back in the Kuni, and they are sent back to Earth afterwards to do just that.

The exceptionally wicked, who's sins are unforgivable, are turned into a Shura spirit and either sent to Nakara as a warden or Jigoku, a place where all Demons are imprisoned. 

Not all beings must cross the Sanzu and face judgement. Beings who attain divinity in life like Onmyouiji or Yamabushi No-Gyoia simply travel to Ami on their own power. Beings who suffered far more than their spiritual debt required are unable to leave the Kuni and usually become spirits who only know torment and live to pass that suffering onto others. Those tortured souls are called Shiryo, Onryo, and Goryo.

====Reincarnation and the Wheel of Dharma====
The Wheel of Dharma is the cycle of reincarnation that occurs between the Yomi and Kuni, with Emma-O being the master of the process. There are six possible paths that Emma-O may send a soul. Samsara is the name of the actual process of rebirth after judgement. 

* '''Jigoku-Do''' is the worst possible punishment, where a soul is sent to Jigoku where they languish in every possible kind of misery and never know any form of relief or rest. Here they stay and suffer unless some unbelievably merciful Kami decides to take up their case and work to reform them.

* '''Gaki-Do''' is the path where a soul is sent to Nakara. Here, ten kings judge them and mete out different forms of suffering to equal the luxuries they over-indulged in during life. Once the soul is punished adequately they are given a drink which makes the soul forget its suffering and pleasures, effectively striking both off the record.

Both Jigoku-Do and Gaki-do involve the soul transforming into a Shura, which is a demonic form. Souls who rebel and refuse to show the humility they deserve often rise up in defiance of the celestial order and become all but certain to bask in their evil ways while suffering eternally. 

* '''Shikusho-Do''' is the state where a soul is transformed into an animal. As animals have less potential for devilish behavior, this forms a kind of rehabilitation process between Gaki-Do and the states of the Kuni world. 

* '''Ashura-Do''' is the path of demigods. Beings who reject the system travel this path. The wicked ones become Shura, and hide in the frozen northlands of the Kuni called Meru where they are ruled by kings called Shurendra. Those who remain good but simply desire to cease the pursuit of godliness become powerful spirits within the Kuni, and instead become the patron spirits of various things. In the previously mentioned metaphor involving the spirits of gardens, rocks, and turnips, those who choose the Ashura-Do are the bulk of those spirits. 

* '''Nin-Do''' is the path of human life. This stage, the lives of you and everyone you know, is not so much a punishment as it is a test to whether they are fit to ascend higher. If you imagine the Ashura-Do as being in the blue-collar workforce, then Nin-Do is college. You can snort crack and bang hookers until you wind up homeless in the back alley then in prison, or you can work hard and study until you pull six digits and spend every other week on the golf course. Or just take a liberal arts course and wind up flipping burgers with the other Ashura-Do. Your choice.

* '''Ten-Do''' is the final state, where you have achieved success and made something of yourself by becoming a Kami or Tennin/Tennyo. But that's not the end of the story, as you can overindulge or make bad decisions, and while not a mortal you CAN still die like one. If you die, Emma-O will judge you again and you may not do as well as you did before. Kami who drinkandfightanddrinkandfightanddrinkandfight then drink and fight some more before slipping and breaking their neck may end up reborn as an ant to work off their debt. 

====Supernatural Beings====

* Kami
Kami are beings at the height of existence. They are extremely powerful, and most dwell in the Ama although some remain in the Shinkai or Yomi to go about their work. Most other cultures would call them gods and demigods, although as Kami are technically beings living and dying in a way similar to mortals they are somewhat below that rank.

* Tennin/Tennyo
Tennin and Tennyo are similar to Kami, although they did not get into Ama by virtue of their...well, virtue. Rather they were vouched for by a Kami, although within the politics of the Ama they are on equal footing to their Kami fellows. Usually they act as the servants to a Kami. 
Tennin and Tennyo split their time between leisure pursuits, such as art and music, and martial pursuits as they are the primary soldiers in the wars between the wicked spirits and the Kami.

* Yokai
Yokai are Kami who have fallen into corruption, either through overindulgence or wicked acts brought about by pride. Some are just Kami who are forgotten by humans which causes them to lose hope or a sense of purpose in their existence. As they continue to lose their purity they are forced to leave Ama and inhabit the Kuni. Not all Yokai are evil however, and many simply take up an immortal life as a mortal. They can take on any form, and if you meet a talking animal or something with very strange proportions it may be a Yokai. Those Yokai who continue their wicked behavior become extremely powerful beings, and would be the villain of your average "hero VS monster" story.

* Shura
Shura are either the descendants of Iraki, the aunt of Hikari, or are souls currently assigned to punishment. They are demonic beings with wicked, twisted forms based on their behavior and sins (or the descendants of Iraki who are just born that way). Many serve out their time suffering to ascend the Wheel of Dharma, while others (usually warmongers and the power hungry) rebel and form into groups to attack mortals or the Kami. 

* Yurei
Yurei come in two varieties; the souls of the wicked who are tormented by their unnatural sins, and the souls of the suffering who cannot leave the world as they are too burdened by its miseries. They are spirits, usually bound to a specific location or group of people, who cause the same type of suffering they endured or committed to others and although they will actively pursue those responsible for their state they don't stop there and will continue to attack any beings. Most ghost stories involve Yurei spirits. For reference on Yurei, see The Ring, The Grudge, and play Fatal Frame. 

* Gaki
Gaki are souls who suffered from extreme need in life, and their name literally means "hungry spirits". Their form is twisted to their need, with emaciated skeletal frames with large, bloated bellies full of acid and gasses and large eyes always searching for more. They have no scruples, and will even eat their still-living relatives as their first meals before setting out for more. Like Yurei they are bound to the Kuni by their suffering, although for a select few this is a punishment bestowed to them by spirits for being wasteful in life.