Wu Feng

The Wu Feng are part of the Wu T'ian Dynasties in China. They are alleged to the forces of Yang and show this by their own Path of Hekau, Feng Tan.

General View
F rom their vantage as advisors to the August Personage of Jade, the Eight Immortals have watched the passage of Ages with sorrow. The depredations of corrupt shen and demonic minions of the Yama Kings have ravaged the faith of the people and consumed the sacred wellsprings of the Middle Kingdom. Petty shadow wars over blood and jade have seen the beast-changers, the once-proud hengeyokai, fading away to extinction while gibbering hordes of bakemono goblins run unopposed. Spirits cry feebly from behind the wall cleaving the worlds, their duties as members of the Celestial Bureaucracy all but forgotten in their pain and confusion. And the vampires -- wretched remnants of fallen heroes -- pretend enlightenment with stolen breath, while Lightning People pledge their power and souls to godless machines. The world bleeds and weeps, and heaven bleeds with it. Divided according to the timeless duality of Yin and Yang, each incarnation of the Wu T'ian has an important role in the greater mission of the Eight Immortals. As heaven's ministers have learned through experience, Ages have no set time limit. Their epochs are defined by cataclysm rather than calendar. Wu Feng exist to fulfill two objectives: The lengthening of the present age and the shortening of the next. They achieve the former by driving out Yomi-spawned infestations and by healing the spiritual and physical blights of the world to remove the footholds of corruption. When the next Age finally comes, the Wu Feng will work to shorten it by waging a persistent guerrilla war against the Demon Emperor. They'll be the thorn in the foot, the singular force of righteousness in an unrighteous world. They'll cure the plagues bred in the Thousand Hells and shine as bright beacons of hope and heroism to the enslaved people of the Middle Kingdom. But all that is in the distant future, hopefully. Now is what matters. Forestalling the rise of evil is most assuredly task enough for the present.

Culture
Infused with a living spirit of yang, Wu Feng are generally passionate, warm, and outgoing. They draw their name from the Scarlet Phoenix (sometimes known as the Scarlet Queen), the goddess who personifies the force of yang. She is life, and all life derives from her. The Family of the Phoenix gives homage to the Scarlet Queen by living and respecting life. It's for this reason that Wu Feng value their healers more than their warriors. Warriors are a sad necessity of the twilight years, but it's those who give life and restore life who understand the true power and purpose of their being. Wu Feng almost always make Respect for All Life their first precept.

Forced to embrace the foul paradox of warring to protect peace, the Wu Feng nonetheless fight with a determination and zeal that frightens their enemies. In their hearts lives the righteous fire that sears the demons' flesh, together with the benevolent warmth of a summer day. They embody activity and motion, but motion directed and focused toward their noble purpose. If they must, they send the twisted souls of their enemies back to Yomi in a veritable whirlwind of speed and power. Yet regardless of their competence, Wu Feng avoid fights where they can. Violence is always a last resort. Turning a monster from the sinful path is far preferable to destroying it.

In addition to their role as healers and warriors, Wu Fen also serve as ambassadors and peacemakers. War is the fertile breeding ground for hate and desperation, two of the most powerful tools in the arsenal of hell. While shen battle one another for trinkets of jade, the Yama Kings poison hearts on all sides, playing every end against the middle so that only hell wins. More than breaking up a few fights, however, emissaries of the Wu Feng recruit other noble shen -- supernatural beings -- to their cause, from the ferocious hengeyokai shape shifters to the hidden godlings of the hsien. Life is precious, too precious to be wasted I pointless infighting and bickering. Peace brings hope, hope brings healing, healing brings life. In all of these things, hell is defeated.

Third Life
For those destined to walk the path of the Phoenix,the Elixir of Eternal Life burns from within like an all-consuming fire. Though painful, death comes mercifully quickly. The candidate's prepared soul spends only moments in the Yang Realm before his jin shen arrives as a golden Phoenix to open a portal to the Gate of Heaven. As a rule, Wu Feng disciples fall into two broad categories: Yang-rich mortals reborn into the path of the Scarlet Phoenix to further deepen their understanding, and yin-heavy souls who abandon their reserve to embrace a life of passion. While members of the former category find their new existence challenging only insofar as death and rebirth are challenging, mortals who undergo a dramatic shift in personality find their entire existence altered. Everything seems brighter, more vividly alive. Death feels distant, pushed to the realm of abstraction by the Phoenix Child's immortality. Passion seems to flow everywhere, leaping from heart to heart in invisible waves of color. Rebirth is a wonderful mind-blowing experience. Mortals find themselves naturally drawn to the vitality and enthusiasm radiating from Wu Feng. There's something indescribably uplifting about the Family of the Phoenix, a joy that can't be confined to one soul. This attractiveness means that Wu Feng gather mortal friends wherever they go, which can make it difficult for them to abide by the precept of solitary Heart. Within mortal society, Wu Feng often assume roles as healers or teachers, though not necessarily in obvious or ostentatious ways. A Phoenix Child might be a doctor, but it's just as likely that he's the helpful nurse who secretly ensures the miraculous recovery of emergency room patients (while letting the "real" doctor take the credit). A teacher could be a true school teacher or perhaps a bartender or humble fisherman.

Purpose
The Vibrant or Vital Self, yang is the principle of motion, warmth, and vitality. Through their understanding of yang, Wu Feng can perceive the flow of passion and life around them and energize their bodies to accelerate healing. Phoenix Children can use Insight at any time, even in spirit form, and they may draw on their reserves of Lifeforce to heal wounds. Each point spent heals one level of lethal damage or two levels of bashing damage. As long as they spend no more than one Lifeforce per turn on healing, Wu Feng can reflexively regenerate while performing other tasks or even while unconscious. Wu Feng can heal only their own bodies in this manner. As the chosen o the Eight Immortals, Wu T'ian must obey the mandates of heaven. Should an immortal willingly deviate from her assigned task or refuse to return to heaven after completing a mission, she immediately loses her ability to recover Lifeforce at sunrise or from the Blessing of Heaven and begins losing her remaining Lifeforce at the rate of one point per day. Once an errant Wu T'ian runs out of Lifeforce, she suffers one health level of aggravated damage each day until she dies and materializes at the Gate of Heaven to explain her unrighteous actions (and possibly lose Quest). Wayward immortals can halt their deterioration at any time by resuming their task, although lost Lifeforce and health levels must be regained normally. Additionally, the abundant yang energies infusing the Phoenix Children prevent them from using Deathsight.