Category talk:Yokai

Yokai cat on non-spirits

@User:Laclale, why are tengu and kitsune in Category:Yokai? Is there a source indicating they're yokai in the setting? Or is this a real-world categorization being misapplied as a canon categorization?

In a real-world context, kitsune and tengu are considered yokai because they're supernatural beings. In the Pathfinder campaign setting, kitsune and tengu are natural mortal beings, and the categorization has a different meaning explicitly tied to supernatural beings, particularly spirits.

We can't blindly map real-world Japanese cultural concepts to campaign-setting Minkaian concepts because of differences like this, so I removed that assertion from the category page.

cf. King of the Mountain pg. 40:

“

Though Syndara intentionally sought out powerful demons and spirits to join his tournament, many lesser creatures were simply caught up in the forests and towns he stole from the Material Plane. Trapped in what was effectively an interdimensional prison, the orphaned lesser creatures banded together to form their own unusual, but functioning, society. They call themselves yokai, a Minatan word used throughout Tian Xia to collectively refer to a myriad of supernatural entities.

”

For example, there are tengu in the Night Parade because they are corporeal spirits, or daitengus, or something else that's explicitly supernatural. -Oznogon (talk) 18:48, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Noppera-bo is creature without spirit trait, but considered as Yokai, as written in sidebar.--Laclale (talk) 22:09, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

I didn't call out noppera-bo because The Summer That Never Was explicitly connects them to yokai, even tenuously. Pg. 85:

“

There are many theories on the origins of noppera-bos—from tanuki whose change shape ability went wrong, to humanoids who were warped by curses, to naturally spawning yokai.

”

That doesn't help me understand why tengu and kitsune are now categorized as yokai. If there's a similar citation, we should include it in their articles. Otherwise, we shouldn't suggest they're in-setting yokai. -Oznogon (talk) 22:15, 23 November 2023 (UTC)

Per discussion on Discord, we'll revisit when Tian Xia World Guide and Tian Xia Character Guide are out. I'll Laclale removed the category from tengu and kitsune pending a citation affirming it. -Oznogon (talk) 22:40, 23 November 2023 (UTC)