Editing Exalted Versus World of Darkness (section)

===The Chosen and [[Kindred of the East|the Hungry Dead]]===

In the same way that the Kindred haunt the nights of the Western world, the Wan Kuei stalk Asia's night.  Degenerate descendants of fallen heroes from the Age of Legends, they clothe themselves with a veneer of civility and enlightenment that otherwise hides the fact that, at the end of the day, they need to feed off the living to continue existing. Despite their corrupted and diminished state, the Wan Kuei believe that they are the only legitimate inheritors of that bygone age. With the return of the Exalted however, they will soon find out that they are very ''very'' wrong.

There are a few things to keep in mind during encounters between the Exalted and the Hungry Dead:

* Whenever an effect that would normally compare against a Virtue that a Wan Kuei would have targets an Exalted, use Willpower instead. If it measures against Dharma, use the Essence rank equivalency instead.

* Dhampyr/Half-Dammned are capable of Exalting!  Doing so removes any of the Disciplines they learned, and any ''joss''-manipulation they used to have though,

* Exalted are extremely nourishing as far as Chi goes. When the hungry dead feed on an Exalt, they gain a point of Chi as normal per health level of damage done ''and'' a point of Essence... Which has various effects depending on the type of Chosen involved:

** Solar blood causes a level of aggravated damage per point of Chi they ''try'' to drain. For every Essence drained, they gain two points of Yang Chi... which THEN causes all the Yang Chi in the vampire's body to violently ignite; roll their current Yang Chi points as aggravated damage dice. Each successful die burns away a point of Yang Chi. This "ignition" cycle continues every round the Wan Kuei drains more Essence from the Solar. 

** Lunar blood grants two points of Yang Chi per Essence stolen.

** Sidereal blood gives one point of '''Yugen''' per Essence point drained. This is enough reason for Sidereals to avoid getting drained by the Hungry Dead at all costs.

** Abyssal blood gives two points of Yin Chi per Essence drained.  On the flipside, if an Abyssal tries to drain a Wan Kuei gains a point of Essence for every Yin Chi drained, but Yang Chi doesn't do much for them.

* Due to being able to purchase the Totem Background, Exalted can ''technically'' have the Nushi background as well (as they're functionally the same). While this means that an Exalt ''may'' join a ''wu'', legally no Court [[Mandarin]] in their right mind would do so, plus Exalted won't be included in a ''guanxi'' anyway.

* Recently-dead Exalted from Asia may experience Second Breath if the Chosen in question meets all the usual criteria -- steeped in Vice, a violent death, and a strong Will for their souls to fight free of Yomi Wan.  However due to the Dragon-blooded families need for secrecy, they try to make sure that this '''doesn't''' happen to any of their scions, leading to a lot of elaborate funeral traditions. If the Exalt doesn't stay dead in spite of all of this, all available Dragon-blooded Exalts in the area are mustered to hunt the new vampire down before the local Courts get to it.

Solars and the Hungry Dead are just a recipe for trouble waiting to happen, as the Solars are everything that the Wan Xian had been.  However as they lack the long history that the hungry dead have accumulated, never mind that their great power seems to have been given by Heaven easily instead of having been earned after centuries of suffering and virtue (or vice), it's considered an insult of the highest order that the [[Mandarin]]s or [[Ancestor_(KoTE)|Ancestor]]s can't ignore.  For their part, the moment the Solars see just how deeply-imbedded the Hungry Dead are in local crime and finance, never mind all the casualties they leave over the course of their pursuit of "enlightenment", they're liable to react with vast amounts of explosions and gunfire that will likely leave a Scarlet Screen in ruins and a good chunk of a Court experiencing Final Death.

Lunars and the Hungry Dead aren't much better, as in general, the Wan Kuei are arrogant, dismissive, and cruel, which won't endear them any to the average Lunar.  And while the Lunars ''outwardly'' resemble the Ferocious People of the Beast Courts, they exist outside the diplomatic checks and balances that the ''shen'' have with the hungry dead.  The moment a Wan Kuei even tries something against a Lunar, violence is guaranteed to happen.

Sidereals find that the Hungry Dead are deeply entwined with the turning of the Wheel of Ages and the coming of the Sixth Age, though it's unclear if they're causing it or trying to prevent it. Probably both.  Regardless, everything tells the Sidereals to use extreme caution when dealing with the Wan Kuei, as neither have realized that the Sidereals are filled with the heady and heavily addictive ''yugen'' (aka liquid enlightenment). It's going to be very bad night indeed when someone discovers ''that'' little wrinkle.

Abyssals and the Hungry Dead get along in the same way Solars do with the Wan Kuei. In other words, badly, and not helped by the fact that they're just a much more efficient type of predator muscling into the same niche that the Wan Kuei already occupy, and this can't be allowed. That said, many younger hungry dead might be drawn to the dark charisma of an Abyssal, forming gangs or cults of personality around one as they're so edgy it goes over and becomes ''so cool'' instead.

Infernals and the Hungry Dead won't get along at all (sense a pattern with Solar-derivatives here?), as they're fledgling Yama Kings-to-be who if powerful enough can ''create their own hell-realms'', the latter of which almost all Wan Kuei have had to escape from.  As possible claimants to the to-be-abandoned Throne of Heaven, they're the main opponent of the more virtuous hungry dead, and will be opposed the moment their existence is known.  At the same time however, more corrupted Wan Kuei and wannabe akuma may be convinced to join an Infernal's service, and their power and knowledge will be very welcome additions to the forces an Exalt can use in their campaign against the ''other'' Yama Kings. 

The Dragon-blooded families of Asia have tried to play the long game, and have tried as best as they could manage to maintain a very low profile, even among the ''shen'', and pass themselves off as eccentric sorcerers or perhaps descendants of priests and minor spirits. However due to their vested interests in the Dragon Nests, the families have a long and rather uncomfortable history with the Wan Kuei.  This is not helped by the inherent hubris of the hungry dead, particularly those who are part of the Quincunx, who believe themselves to be the successors of the Wan Xian, and will respond with violence at even the hint that they're ''not'' the only remaining remnant of the Age of Legends still around.  The Dragon-blooded families are ready to respond in kind, but if the issue can be settled with just quietly disposing one snooty vampire, then it's fine. If the forces of a whole Court gets alerted in the process though, then the Dragon-blooded family may have no choice but to abandon their Dragon Nest and flee the country for several decades.  

That said, if a Dragon-blooded family can avoid the notice of the local Courts, it's possible to be good neighbors, at least.  They've worked with [[Song of the Shadows|Bone Flowers]] before, and as long as they're not trying to get into Tibet (in which case, they're then very VERY dead Bone Flowers), and even rented bakemono from local [[Howl of the Devil Tiger|Devil Tigers]] when they needed extra disposable bodies to throw at a bigger threat.