Yaoguai

Yaoguai

(Creature)

Rare

Medium

Humanoid

Yaoguai

Level

Varies

Adjective

Yaoguai

Images of yaoguai

Source: Tian Xia Character Guide, pg(s). 82–87

This article covers the Pathfinder Second Edition ancestry. For the Pathfinder First Edition magical beast, which has significantly different properties and canon information, see yaoguai (legacy creature).

See also: tsukumogami, leshy, poppet, awakened animal, and yokai

Yaoguai are an ancestry of objects or creatures who, through magic or other supernatural means, have cultivated their own transformation into a sapient humanoid form. Yaoguai can look wildly different from each other, but most have similar abilities.

Appearance

Almost anything can become a yaoguai, and its true form retains elements of their pre-awakened form. For instance, a yaoguai formed from an animal might retain its ears, or one formed from an object might have skin resembling its material. Yaoguai are born into adulthood, but their true form can resemble any age.

Most yaoguai can innately transform into a form resembling a more mundane example of a humanoid ancestry common in their home region. The form is typically of the same age and body type as the yaoguai's natural form. This transformation is indefinite unless the yaoguai is rendered unconscious for longer than one hour, or until one minute passes after the yaoguai's death. Most yaoguai meticulously train this innate ability, with some going further to hide all of their pre-awakened traits or to create more varied humanoid disguises.

Yaoguai can also learn how to temporarily transform back into something similar to their original form, whether for combat utility, stealth, or escape.

Abilities

Yaoguai have varying powers depending on the circumstances of their creation. For instance, a yaoguai formed from an animal more easily gains the respect of animals and can run like one; while a yaoguai formed from an aspect of nature attunes to the natural order and is granted elemental powers related to its origins. These benefits might only be available when the yaoguai is in their natural form.

Ecology

Most yaoguai begin life as simple animals, plants, fungi, or celestials, or were inanimate objects or aspects of nature before awakening. Long-term exposure to ambient energies infuse these original forms, often over millennia, until spontaneously gaining sapience and shapeshifting powers. This can often be accomplished through active cultivation, and while cultivators are already rare in Tian Xia, even fewer non-humanoids cultivate enough qi to transform into powerful yaoguai.

Exceptional transformations into yaoguai can occur over shorter periods. Some extraplanar beings or humanoids can become yaoguai through ritual magic, arcane mishaps, or unusual circumstances. For example, Bao Ting was suddenly awakened by the influx of Hao Jin's sorcerous energies when she was resurrected.

Many believe the power of the sun and moonlight are responsible for awakening most yaoguai. A village's beliefs about an object can itself manifest the object into a yaoguai. Prolonged and growing exposure to a haunt or wild essences have also awakened yaoguai.

Yaoguai can also be formed from celestials who escaped their plane or were punished with banishment in a mortal body. These celestial-born yaoguai retain only vague memories and limited powers of their past form.

Most yaoguai are born as adults, and the strongest of their kind can have lifespans of several thousands of years, comparable to dragons, if not becoming agelessly immortal.

Habitat and society

It is wrong to believe that yaoguai are wicked by nature, especially those yaoguai that live with humanoids or seek to transcend. They can be just as heroic as any other adventurer in Tian Xia.

Yaoguai society is broadly divided into three groups. The first group consists of homogenous communities of yaoguai. The second group regularly takes stints in non-yaoguai societies and the third group lives within non-yaoguai settlements full-time, albeit in disguise.

Some yaoguai form enclaves of the same origins or species, helping them all to grow, though some such groups adopt hedonistic tendencies. They often share homes and create a familial structure, with older members acting as parental or elder sibling figures. However, in some cases, a master–student or a ruler–subject structure forms in other groups where there is a larger power disparity. Those from established yaoguai communities tend to be more pragmatic, with only a few being reckless tricksters.

Yaoguai, without a strong sense of community, are instead focused on self-cultivation in a bid to transcend their origin in order to maybe join society and experience new freedoms.

The second type of group are often tricksters in their communities, sometimes by finishing other's tasks for them or by punishing local despots. Most groups of this kind know they should never push a prank too far for the sake of their survival. Still, powerful entities are willing to sponsor evil yaoguai, encouraging them to indulge in robbery or to attack settlements. These outliers are why yaoguai bounty hunting is a profitable industry in Tian Xia, and yaoguai of the second group keep a low profile. This is also why yaoguai who live in others’ settlements live alone or limit the numbers they live with to three at most.

Solitary yaoguai may have a few associates who live far from them. Yaoguai that spend formative years alone or with a tiny group of compatriots tend to be impulsive unless they follow a cultivation school or a philosophy that disfavours it.

Many yaoguai have the desire to grow stronger and improve their abilities, eventually becoming something more than their origins. Former animals and plants may wish to become fully humanoid or integrate with humanity. Former objects and aspects of nature usually want respect and people to treasure them. Banished celestials desire power as a yaoguai or to return to their original form. Some yaoguai born of extraplanar or humanoid origins may feel that becoming a yaoguai is a divine punishment for misdeeds and may take a long journey of atonement or discovery in the hopes of changing back. In contrast, others embrace this change and seek to master it, maybe this transformation being what they desire.

Some yaoguai are easily influenced by peers and environments, and their opinions change more rapidly and effortlessly than those of other ancestries.

Yaoguai that spontaneously come into being usually name themselves, often in a cheeky hint to their true form. Others gain their names as nicknames from others in reference to an ability, physical trait, event, or deed they have accomplished. This naming convention feels like a trap for many yaoguai as it highlights their yaoguai nature more then being a person. Receiving a name that is uniquely theirs rather than emphasizing being a yaoguai is considered an honor more valuable than titles or wealth by many. For some others, the desire to restore a lost or disgraced name is an equivalent aspiration.

Interaction with other creatures

Being in service of powerful magical creatures in order to impart some of that energy into their eggs, kobolds in Tian Xia, often associate with many creatures including yaoguai. Sprites in Tian Xia are often confused with yaoguai, which means their treatment is different by town and region depending on the community's knowledge of yaoguai. Yaoguai who seek power for themselves perceive selfless yakshas as fools.

History

Since powerful yaoguai can live for thousands or years or more, rumors have long suggested that yaoguai had once ruled most of Tian Xia in the past. During the Age of Monsters in northern Tian Xia, yaoguai warlords and upstarts battled for power in duels and wars that could last for a month. At the same time, along the center of the continent, celestials warred with the qlippoth until winning and guarding the last Outer Rifts portal in the region that would eventually become Tianjing.

Later, at the beginning of the Age of Dragons, Shizuru sent her sky dragon herald Shinonome to gather as many imperial dragons as possible to the Solar Zenith Peaks. There the deity showed them the future devastation of the land if the yaoguai continued to wage war, and also announced that her designated inheritors of the land—humans—would arrive in 10,000 years. She tasked the dragons with preparing the lands in anticipation of humanity, and also with guarding them for another 10,000 years after their arrival.

Though stunned, the dragons agreed and enlisted celestial allies to help kill or seal away the yaoguai lords. The survivors of these battles swore binding oaths to hunt any yaoguai who misbehaved. While waiting for the arrival of humans, some dragons founded their own empires out of impatience or entitlement as caretakers, including many ancestries such as yaoguai. These empires eventually descended into endless wars between draconic rulers and influencers that lasted until Earthfall in -2793 IC.

There are tales in Tian Xia about masters learning mystic and martial arts from animals. Some scholars dismiss these tales by suggesting such figures are powerful beings disguising themselves as animals, the existence of animal-born yaoguai, and of other remarkable creatures such as the five-color mantis, effectively counter such claims.

Religion

Because the light of the sun and moon is believed to awaken most yaoguai, many yaoguai enclaves worship Shizuru and Tsukiyo, deities of the sun and moon. Qi Zhong is worshiped as the deity who guided Sun Wukong, the first yaoguai who ascended to divinity. Despite the Monkey King's widespread knowledge among yaoguai, he is not popularly worshiped as a deity.

Many yaoguai live by edicts to discover their own name, leave good impressions, and seek ways to cultivate their own power and transcend their nature. Common anathema among yaoguai include accepting the limitations placed on them, defying the law of their enclave, or dismissing an opportunity for growth.

On Golarion

Yaoguai live in notable numbers in Chu Ye, where the oni shogun Tsuneni markets the nation in part as a tourist destination for yaoguai adventurers who want to obtain and spend wealth. Other nations with significant yaoguai populations include Goka, Kwanlai, Quain, Shenmen, and Songbai.

References

Paizo featured yaoguai as an ancestry in Tian Xia Character Guide.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.

External links

• Yaoguai (real-world mythological creature) on Wikipedia