Yokai in general

I am doing a game called Fallen Origins which is about yokai in general. The aim of the game is to exorcise a 1,000 yokai from humans (with a Plant Person called Misako, a Bunny-Ears Lawyer battle-mage, the battle-mage's draconic daughter and a Mad Oracle Martian Catholic priestess in your main party).

The problem is finding a main motive for the yokai and oni ingame to haunt random human villages on the map. The thousand yokai are lead by an Onryo Queen called Koya who is fixated on the concept of honour. I also need to do more research on oni and yokai which I am having trouble with too.

I'm planning on seperating the haunting spots into four zones: Human Village, Witch Hunt, Modern city and Spirit world. I also need a main motive for Koya to interfere with Misako's party, which we can discuss here.

Also happy Easter to all!

edited 5th Apr '15 7:14:36 PM by sabrina_diamond

The word "yokai" is usually translated as "demon," but as for their true function in folklore, they're basically The Fair Folk. And the Fair Folk are notorious for screwing around with humans on a whim, so it's very logical that a yokai would start interfering with the party either for some imagined/real slight or just for the lulz.

Hmm... I'm looking for a more serious reason because the yokai are led by the Yokai Queen, Koya. Since the team are made of Fire-Forged Friends who are here for an important task, this is going to be fairly tricky... Since Koya has a serious grudge against The Hero, is imitating The Hero's form and is sending yokai after them.

edited 9th Apr '15 4:46:38 AM by sabrina_diamond

As I'd written in your other thread, if you want people to help you, give them details they can work with.

For you what's happening in your story is "obvious". For them it's not, and you need to write about it. They don't automatically know everything they need to know to be able to help you if you don't reveal it to them.

But I don't know why I'm even bothering, since your track record at heeding that advice appears to be nil.

I don't think a yokai would NEED a serious reason. At least not by human standards. Fairies and yokai are often stated to operate on customs foreign to mortals, and a common staple of fairy-oriented tragedy is that humans did something that seemed minor, but ended up making the Fair Folk angry enough to destroy them.

But if you want a more serious reason, go on the animistic side and have the protagonist accidentally damage something dear to the yokai. Some fairies don't care if we accidentally, say, break a tree branch while walking in the forest—we still damaged their tree and that requires punishment.

edited 9th Apr '15 4:21:36 PM by Sharysa