Attributes of the Group
Texto
Having developed the above background, core beliefs, and focus for the Children of the White Wolf, the GM now brings the group to life by developing some representative attributes for it.
A Group of Believers
The GM doesn’t envision this group being particularly antagonistic toward the PCs and therefore decides that it won’t have a militant character, which really wouldn’t fit the “flavor” of the group anyway. It is not a large group, which conforms to its also being a relatively local religious group filling a particular niche role. The Children of the White Wolf will, therefore, consist of about two dozen people.
The GM further decides that the group is open to both samurai and commoners and that six of its members are samurai: five bushi and a shugenja. Together with the rōnin Moriko, this should represent a challenge for the PCs should they somehow end up in open conflict with the group. For convenience, the GM decides to use NPC profiles from the core rulebook for these characters:
The bushi use the Loyal Bushi profile, on page 312.
The shugenja uses the Scholarly Shugenja profile, on page 314.
Moriko is represented by the Skillful Rōnin profile (page 316) modified by the Spiritualist template (page 311), with the Friendly Spirit
(Earth) [Scholar; Spiritual] advantage and the Fanaticism (Fire) [Social; Mental] disadvantage.
The remainder of the members are represented by the Humble Peasant profile, on page 313.
This allows the GM to scale both the combat and intrigue conflict ranks of the religious group as necessary, by having more or fewer of the group members (and, therefore, a variable total conflict rank) present in the event of a confrontation with the PCs.
A Set of Practices and a Place of Worship
The GM decides that the Children of the White Wolf meet and conduct their observances in the Isawa Mori, in several clearings and forest glades in the vicinity of where Moriko first saw the guardian wolf spirit. These are within a short walk of Moriko’s cabin and the small communal settlement that has formed around it. The group members conduct their worshipful practices on nights of the new moon, when the forest is darkest, and they believe, the walls that separate the Spirit Realms from the Realm of Mortals are the weakest. Their rites and rituals, which are intended to both venerate the guardian wolf spirit and encourage it to appear to them, are essentially the same each time they worship, but they incorporate some variation in detail to reflect the changing seasons.
Mechanically, the GM decides that the group is capable of performing the Cleansing Rite, Commune with the Spirits, Divination, and Threshold Barrier rituals (see pages 212–213 of the core rulebook), believing this gives the group an interesting suite of effects it can produce through its practice of worship. These rituals also stand to make the group very useful to the PCs.
Religious Paraphernalia
The GM decides that a religious group such as the Children of the White Wolf, given its naturalistic nature, would not be especially materialistic; any paraphernalia is, therefore, likely to be nature based. Seeing an opportunity to emphasize the strangeness of the group and to heighten the PCs’ suspicion and wariness of it, the GM decides that its most important artifact is a large wolf skull, which Moriko claims to have found near her cabin shortly after settling in the forest. The skull features prominently during the group’s religious practices and observances. Given the general Rokugani distaste for the handling of dead bodies, and the natural tendency to associate skulls with concepts such as death and evil, the GM feels that this will tend to make the PCs distrustful—at least initially—of the group. Coming to understand and accept the group and its practices, as well as the help the group can provide them—or not doing so!— is an important part of the dramatic tension the GM envisions for this part of their story.
The GM further decides that the wolf’s skull can be used, once per game session, to cast the Courage of Seven Thunders Earth invocation (see page 197 of the core rulebook). Together with the above rituals, this should be sufficient to convince the PCs that the group has some spiritual “reality” to it. The GM nonetheless decides to portray this in an ambiguous way, to keep the PCs guessing about the group’s true nature and to maintain the resulting tension for as long as possible.
Place in Society
The GM decides that the Children of the White Wolf are not particularly heretical or blasphemous: they are not promoting forbidden beliefs, such as veneration of Jigoku, nor are they attempting to attack or undermine the Empire’s mainstream religions (and they may be both Shinseist and Fortunist in their broader beliefs). Instead, they place what most Rokugani would see as an unusual emphasis on the relationship between the Mortal Realm and Chikushō-dō, believing that should this relationship not be maintained and nurtured, the resulting great die-off of animals would seriously harm the Empire. Accordingly, in a way similar to a Cult of Lord Moon, the Children of the White Wolf are odd, but not actually conducting illegal practices.
Still, being odd is sufficient to subject the group to unwanted scrutiny, because the Imperial authorities view such eccentric groups as potential breeding grounds for more sinister and dangerous beliefs. The group is, therefore, generally secretive, something that is helped by their meeting in remote wilderness locations on moonless nights. At the same time, the GM decides that the Phoenix Clan would seek to remain aware of the activities of such a cultish group within its borders. An Asako Inquisitor therefore maintains a careful watch on the Children of the White Wolf.
This gives the GM another opportunity to create interesting story elements related to the group. For instance, the Inquisitor could question the PCs about their involvement with the group, seek their aid in monitoring it, or even request their assistance in eliminating it. This last option could force the PCs to make a difficult decision if they consider the Children of the White Wolf to be their allies: they would have a choice between their duty to the Phoenix Clan—the legitimate custodian of the Isawa Mori—and their desire to preserve a group they consider useful and may even have become fond of!
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Celestial Realms · Chapter 3: Power of Worship › Building a Religious Group › Attributes of the Group · p. 124 p. 125 p. 126
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Having developed the above background, core beliefs, and focus for the Children of the White Wolf, the GM now brings the group to life by developing some representative attributes for it.
A Group of Believers
The GM doesn’t envision this group being particularly antagonistic toward the PCs and therefore decides that it won’t have a militant character, which really wouldn’t fit the “flavor” of the group anyway. It is not a large group, which conforms to its also being a relatively local religious group filling a particular niche role. The Children of the White Wolf will, therefore, consist of about two dozen people.
The GM further decides that the group is open to both samurai and commoners and that six of its members are samurai: five bushi and a shugenja. Together with the rōnin Moriko, this should represent a challenge for the PCs should they somehow end up in open conflict with the group. For convenience, the GM decides to use NPC profiles from the core rulebook for these characters:
The bushi use the Loyal Bushi profile, on page 312.
The shugenja uses the Scholarly Shugenja profile, on page 314.
Moriko is represented by the Skillful Rōnin profile (page 316) modified by the Spiritualist template (page 311), with the Friendly Spirit
(Earth) [Scholar; Spiritual] advantage and the Fanaticism (Fire) [Social; Mental] disadvantage.
The remainder of the members are represented by the Humble Peasant profile, on page 313.
This allows the GM to scale both the combat and intrigue conflict ranks of the religious group as necessary, by having more or fewer of the group members (and, therefore, a variable total conflict rank) present in the event of a confrontation with the PCs.
A Set of Practices and a Place of Worship
The GM decides that the Children of the White Wolf meet and conduct their observances in the Isawa Mori, in several clearings and forest glades in the vicinity of where Moriko first saw the guardian wolf spirit. These are within a short walk of Moriko’s cabin and the small communal settlement that has formed around it. The group members conduct their worshipful practices on nights of the new moon, when the forest is darkest, and they believe, the walls that separate the Spirit Realms from the Realm of Mortals are the weakest. Their rites and rituals, which are intended to both venerate the guardian wolf spirit and encourage it to appear to them, are essentially the same each time they worship, but they incorporate some variation in detail to reflect the changing seasons.
Mechanically, the GM decides that the group is capable of performing the Cleansing Rite, Commune with the Spirits, Divination, and Threshold Barrier rituals (see pages 212–213 of the core rulebook), believing this gives the group an interesting suite of effects it can produce through its practice of worship. These rituals also stand to make the group very useful to the PCs.
Religious Paraphernalia
The GM decides that a religious group such as the Children of the White Wolf, given its naturalistic nature, would not be especially materialistic; any paraphernalia is, therefore, likely to be nature based. Seeing an opportunity to emphasize the strangeness of the group and to heighten the PCs’ suspicion and wariness of it, the GM decides that its most important artifact is a large wolf skull, which Moriko claims to have found near her cabin shortly after settling in the forest. The skull features prominently during the group’s religious practices and observances. Given the general Rokugani distaste for the handling of dead bodies, and the natural tendency to associate skulls with concepts such as death and evil, the GM feels that this will tend to make the PCs distrustful—at least initially—of the group. Coming to understand and accept the group and its practices, as well as the help the group can provide them—or not doing so!— is an important part of the dramatic tension the GM envisions for this part of their story.
The GM further decides that the wolf’s skull can be used, once per game session, to cast the Courage of Seven Thunders Earth invocation (see page 197 of the core rulebook). Together with the above rituals, this should be sufficient to convince the PCs that the group has some spiritual “reality” to it. The GM nonetheless decides to portray this in an ambiguous way, to keep the PCs guessing about the group’s true nature and to maintain the resulting tension for as long as possible.
Place in Society
The GM decides that the Children of the White Wolf are not particularly heretical or blasphemous: they are not promoting forbidden beliefs, such as veneration of Jigoku, nor are they attempting to attack or undermine the Empire’s mainstream religions (and they may be both Shinseist and Fortunist in their broader beliefs). Instead, they place what most Rokugani would see as an unusual emphasis on the relationship between the Mortal Realm and Chikushō-dō, believing that should this relationship not be maintained and nurtured, the resulting great die-off of animals would seriously harm the Empire. Accordingly, in a way similar to a Cult of Lord Moon, the Children of the White Wolf are odd, but not actually conducting illegal practices.
Still, being odd is sufficient to subject the group to unwanted scrutiny, because the Imperial authorities view such eccentric groups as potential breeding grounds for more sinister and dangerous beliefs. The group is, therefore, generally secretive, something that is helped by their meeting in remote wilderness locations on moonless nights. At the same time, the GM decides that the Phoenix Clan would seek to remain aware of the activities of such a cultish group within its borders. An Asako Inquisitor therefore maintains a careful watch on the Children of the White Wolf.
This gives the GM another opportunity to create interesting story elements related to the group. For instance, the Inquisitor could question the PCs about their involvement with the group, seek their aid in monitoring it, or even request their assistance in eliminating it. This last option could force the PCs to make a difficult decision if they consider the Children of the White Wolf to be their allies: they would have a choice between their duty to the Phoenix Clan—the legitimate custodian of the Isawa Mori—and their desire to preserve a group they consider useful and may even have become fond of!