The Fourth Age marked great changes for the various shen of the Middle Kingdom.
Overview[]
The Kuei-jin and Hsien recall this age as the Fourth Age of the Great Cycle or the Age of Beautiful Sadness. It marks the beginning of Kuei-jin's curse and transformation from warriors of Heaven into demonic creatures originating in Yomi. To the Little Gods, it was the beginning of their exile from Heaven after the August Personage banned them for their involvement in the insurrection of the Wan Xian. The Hengeyokai speak of the Age of Testing, where the treacherous Wan Xian set the Fera against each other in an event remembered as the War of Shame. The Chi'n Ta remember that various different factions of willworkers sprang from this time period, and that they often clashed, as seen in conflicts like the Himalaya War or the Dragon River War. During this conflicts, Yi, the Excellent Archer and his followers appeared, who founded an order that would later exist as the Shih, dedicated to hunt rogue shen.
Human history begins during this period, and the Kuei-jin trace their vulnerability to sunlight to this time (the Chou Dynasty, specifically). According to scholars, the Fourth Age begins approximately around 900 BCE and ends around 1250-1349 CE (according to the counting of the Kuei-jin) or 1735 CE (according to the counting of the Akashic Brotherhood).
References[]
- KOTE: Kindred of the East Rulebook, p. 14, 44-45
- WTA: Hengeyokai: Shapeshifters of the East, p. 28-29
- MTAs: Dragons of the East, p. 42-44
- CTD: Land of Eight Million Dreams, p. 24-27
- WOD: World of Darkness: Blood & Silk, p. 107