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''Kindred of the East'' is a spin-off of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' dealing with, well, the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Kindred of the East]]. Asia was always a forbidden land to Western Vampires. Those who went there and were fortunate enough to return would tell stories of the bizarre abilities and practices of the "Cathayans" (Cathay is an archaic name for China). It was almost as if they weren't really Cainite vampires at all but something totally different. They had no idea...

This book was the flagship project of White Wolf's ''Year of the Lotus'' event, which focused on the Asian side of the TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness. ''KOTE'' was intended as an offshoot of ''Vampire'' but the Kuei-Jin, as Eastern vampires are called, share only superficial similarities with the Western variety. Because it introduces several new mechanics and has its own {{Splat}}s, ''KOTE'' is often treated as a standalone game, though some knowledge of ''Vampire'' and ''WraithTheOblivion'' will help.

OurVampiresAreDifferent indeed. Kuei-Jin are humans who died violently and are sent to [[IronicHell Yomi]], from which they escape back into their bodies and must sustain on Chi to survive. At first, they can only obtain chi from human blood and/or flesh, but at higher levels of spiritual enlightenment (read: centuries), they can draw it from a person's breath or even directly from the earth itself. Like Western Vampires, Kuei-Jin are allergic to sunlight, vulnerable to staking, and subject to beastly frenzies of anger or fear. However, they can't embrace: all damned souls have to make their own way out of Hell; and they can't make Ghouls or blood bonds: their curse is theirs to bear alone. As former Wraiths, Kuei-Jin also have to contend with their Shadows and Oblivion (see WraithTheOblivion for details) and strive to Transcend the mortal plane.

The game's new mechanics rework ''Vampire's'' concepts of Virtues and Paths of Enlightenment and ''Wraith's'' concept of dual-mind. There are 5 Virtues to keep track of and the first four are paired off. '''Yin''' and '''Yang''' deal with the type of Chi a Vampire consumes. Yin chi is dead, like from a blood bank, corpse, or another Vampire. Yang chi comes from living targets or Kuei-Jin with an overabundance of Yang chi themselves. Too much of the former turns the Vampire into a shambling zombie while the latter turns her into a raging hedonist who can bear children if not careful. '''Hun''' and '''P'o''' respectively deal with a vampire's higher mind and base instincts. The classic angel on one shoulder, devil on another. The fifth virtue is '''Balance''', as keeping those two sliding scales towards the middle has its own benefits.

Clans and Paths of Enlightenment are both featured here, but ''Vampire'' players will notice that priorities are reversed. Clans are not as important and are mostly geographic. A vampire in Hong Kong will most likely belong to the Quincunx clan the same way a TabletopGame/{{Changeling|TheDreaming}} from Atlanta will be part of the Kingdom of Willows. It's the Dharmic Paths upon which social lines are drawn and the game's splats are based. There are five mainstream Dharmas each based on one of the Virtues:

* '''Thrashing Dragons:''' Yang; Thrill-seekers
* '''Bone Flowers (The Song of Shadow):''' Yin; Necromancers
* '''Resplendent Cranes:''' Hun; Redeemers
* '''Devil Tigers:''' P'o; Sadists
* '''The Thousand Whispers:''' Balance; Travelers

!! In addition to the tropes of Vampire and Wraith, this game also provides examples of:

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The {{Jiangshi}}, the akuma, the Yama Kings and their minions...
* AnatomyOfTheSoul: A Kuei-Jin's soul has two component, the higher moral one called Hun and the lower amoral one called Po. Their torment in Hell have caused their Po to be dominant, and if not restrained, will drive them into becoming evil.
* TheAtoner: Every single Kuei-Jin is like this. They went to Hell for some kind of transgression, and one way or another, managed to return to the land of the living. They believe that this second life is meant to correct their past mistakes. Unfortunately, the philosophies disagree on just ''how'' one is supposed to atone for sins and transcend suffering. Some Kuei-Jin decided to say "[[ScrewThisImOuttaHere fuck it all]]" and become ''akuma'' instead.
* BackgroundMagicField: Chi flow in the world is treated like this, and Kuei-jins feed upon the Chi that conglomerates in mortals.
** Kuei-jins must pay attention to the Chi flow of their lair. Some of them are highly versed in feng-shui, and even [[CutLexLuthorACheck rent out their service to mortal architects (while passing as a mortal)]].
* BloodyMurder: The Blood Shintai discipline.
* BodyHorror: Kuei-jins rot instead of burn under sunlight, and this disfigurement can become permanent if happens thoroughly.
* ChineseVampire: What Kuei-Jin resemble if they have an imbalance of Yin chi. High skill in Bone Shintai allows for the creation of zombie minions.
* CulturalCringe: In-universe, a [[EnemyWithin Po archetype]] makes a Kuei-Jin spits on the Dharma and praise the unrestricted ways of the Cainites (Western vampires). This is treated as a bad thing, if only because it's impossible for a Kuei-Jin to learn Cainite disciplines (and vice versa).
** Zao-Lat (Saluot) figured out how to learn Cathayan Disciplines by training with the Kuei-Jin equivalent of the Buddha (He's an Antediluvian, so good luck pulling this off has a player character). Nobody quite knows how he made it work, and he was eventually exiled from the Middle Kingdom due to being a Canite. Most Cathayans are generally alright with the story, has Saluot actually paid their traditions respect, unlike the "Foreign Devils" who keep coming in and causing trouble.
* DeathByAThousandCuts: And there is a discipline with almost that exact name!
* {{Dhampyr}}: Were first introduced to the World of Darkness through this game. Asian Dhampyrs are the offspring of Yang-imbalanced vampires. They have limited access to Disciplines, but their main power is that they're BornLucky, a spiritual side-effect of their unlikely birth.
* EmotionEater: For a Kuei-Jin, the emotion of the prey is just about as important as the prey's blood.
* EnemyWithin: Po, the amoral lower soul. {{Subverted}}, though: all beings have both Hun and Po, but Kuei-Jin's Po are agitated and out of balance due to their time in Hell. Maintaining balance between Hun and Po is a constant challenge for a Kuei-Jin.
* EvilEye: Using Yin-powered Ghostsight, a Kuei-Jin can determine the weak-spots of a being or object, causing his attack do deal more damage to the target if that attack connects; ala [[{{Tsukihime}} Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]].
* TheFettered: Since the Kuei-Jins must adhere to Dharma if they don't want to become a cannibal ghoul, all Kuei-Jins are TheFettered in one way or another. Yes, even the Devil-Tigers.
* FriendlyLocalChinatown: The larger ones have a healthy number of Kuei-Jin. SanFrancisco in particular is considered neutral ground between Eastern and Western Vampires.
* GratuitousChinese and GratuitousJapanese: Right there in the title. "Kuei" is Chinese for 'demons', while "-jin" is Japanese for 'person'. This is actually pointed out in the corebook itself.
* HeroicWillpower: A Kuei-jin with ridiculously high Hun (higher soul) trait can hold herself from doing actions caused by Po-induced (lower soul) [[UnstoppableRage shadow soul]]. Since most Kuei-Jins are not even self-aware when they are in shadow soul, that's saying something.
* IAmAHumanitarian: Kuei-jin with Dharma 0 must feed from human flesh to gain chi. Eating a corpse nets Yin-aspected Chi, while eating a human alive nets Yang-aspected Chi. {{Squick}}. All Kuei-jin are able to do this, but eating flesh at higher Dharma levels is sloppy at best and downright vulgar at worst.
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Dhampyrs age normally until the reach their physical prime, after which they age at the rate of one year for every five.
* TheHedonist: Any vampire with Yang imbalance will become very lively, and can even sire or bear child if they are careless.
* TheHeretic: There are Heretical Dharma. They aren't bad, ''per se'', but the establishment doesn't like them.
* HollywoodAtlas: The game generally portrays "[[AllAsiansAreAlike The Middle Kingdom]]" as a combination of {{Animeland}}, FarEast, LandOfDragons, ThirtySecondsOverTokyo... basically the place has more in common with a John Woo movie than the real world.
* KissOfTheVampire: {{Averted}}. A Kuei-jin's feeding doesn't induce euphoria in the prey, though it ''will'' induce other kind of emotions. A Kuei-jin who want to avoid Chi imbalance will need to pay attention to those emotions.
* ManOnFire: The Flame Shintai can turn a Kuei-jin into one, while not being harmed by fire. Since Kuei-jins normally take aggravated damage from fire, the practitioners of this discipline are much feared.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Magical kungfu zombie philosophers!
* NuclearNasty: The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki devastated the Chi flow of those cities, and no sane Kuei-Jin will enter said cities willingly. Unfortunately, there are insane Kuei-Jins, and they gain strange powers from the magical radioactive poisoning they contract there. There are probably {{Unfortunate Implication}}s here.
* OneWingedAngel: The various "___ Shintai" disciplines. All of them turns you into a horrid, no-nonsense monstrosity.
* RecycledInSpace: Right there in the title: Kindred [-OF THE EAST!-]
* {{Retcon}}: The first edition of ''Vampire'' included Asian bloodlines that were later retconned into Japanese Kuei-Jin factions.
* SpiritualSuccessor: Thematically, ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' can be seen as a SpiritualSuccessor to ''KindredOfTheEast''. The player character went to a literal {{Hell}} and was tormented by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, escaped to the mundane world as an almost completely changed person, and are now trying to figure out what to do with his or her existence. And the monsters that tortured them want to drag them back to Hell. Also, the emotion of the prey is important to both the Losts and the Kuei-Jins.
** A lot of the concepts and terms are adapted to ''{{Exalted}}''. To name some of them: Hun and Po, Shintai, Scarlet Empress and Ebon Dragon, the dragon lines.
* SpiritWorld: One of the striking differences between Kuei-jins and Cainites is that the SpiritWorld is extremely important for the Kuei-jins, and they will go to great lengths to keep it in a semblance of balance, not unlike [[WerewolvesTheApocalypse Werewolves]].
* SpotlightStealingSquad: Other Asian supernaturals like the [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse Hengeyokai]] and [[HunterTheReckoning Shih]] are defined by their relationship with the Kuei-Jin.
* SupernaturalMartialArts: In addition to learning mundane martial arts such as wushu or aikido, the Kuei-Jins can also learn martial arts tied to their specific condition, called Shintai ("god-body"). Since those martial arts forms require deep understanding of the flow of Chi, the Kuei-Jins who know them are held in high regards.
* ToHellAndBack: That's you, bucko.
* {{Triad}}/{{Yakuza}}: As one can imagine, the Kuei-Jin occupy all levels of organized crime in Asia.
* TheUsualAdversaries: Say what you want about rival clans or courts, but you'll need them when the Yama Kings' minions come running down the streets of your city. And they ''will'' come for you, for you're the escaped convicts of Hell.
* WeirdnessCensor: The {{Masquerade}} isn't enforced as strongly, as {{Muggles}} in Asia are generally more superstitious and ask fewer questions.
** Oddly, ''Clanbook Lasombra'' mentions that Asian people are more prone to forming angry witch-hunting mobs.
*** Its easier to ignore a vampire just hanging out at a bar then it is a vampire actively trying to eat your family. While they may not deal with the average vampire, if the vamp crosses the line, they're pretty much screwed
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