Oni Lords were born of Jigoku, the Realm of Evil, in much the same way that the Celestial Heavens of Tengoku gave birth to the Elemental Dragons. [1] Unlike the regular Oni that entered the Mortal Realm of Ningen-do through the portal to Jigoku that was found at the Festering Pit of Fu Leng in the Shadowlands, the Oni Lords had to be summoned directly by a shugenja and freely given a name. When the namer died, the Oni came into its full power, having gained a soul of its own by taking the soul of its summoner. Fu Leng gave his name to the first Oni Lord to walk Rokugan, appropriately known as the First Oni.
Oni Lords were able to create spawn, less powerful copies of themselves. Often, these copies were the creature's only real contact with the rest of Rokugan, while the true Oni Lord remained safe deep in the Shadowlands. Even if the Oni Lord was slain and its mortal form destroyed, its soul was only banished temporarily to Jigoku and was soon able to return after a time renewing its strength by basking in the foulness of the Realm of Evil.
Unlike the Elemental Dragons, the Oni Lords did not have direct representattives among mortals like the Elemental Dragons' Oracles, and chose instead to further their own (usually divergent) goals through the use of their spawn directly in the mortal world rather than relyingn on intermediaries. The two feared Oni Lords of Rokugan known as Yakamo no Oni and The Maw are currently incapable of creating any spawn. [2]
List of Known Oni Lords in Rokugan
There were six creatures known as "Oni Lords", including Kyoso no Oni: [3]
- Akuma no Oni - given name by Isawa Akuma
- First Oni - given name by Fu Leng
- The Maw - given name by Kuni Nikoma
- Shikibu no Oni - given name by Hiruma Shikibu
- Tsuburu no Oni - given name by Kuni Tsuburu
Kyoso no Oni
- Kyoso no Oni - given name by Agasha Kyoso
Kyoso no Oni had been considered during centuries an Oni Lord, but it was discovered in 1170 she was not. Kyoso, because of its ignorance of its own existence, followed the general belief, she was an Oni summoned and touched by Jigoku. Instead she was a Progeny of the Destroyer, created upon the power drew from Kali-Ma, the avatar of Shiva the Destroyer. Agasha Kyoso had used a scroll to summon a malevolent entity, but these scrolls were not created from maho, they had been created in the Ivory Kingdoms by the Cult of Ruhmal. The similar appearance between Kyoso and Kali-Ma was one of the consequences. [4]
References
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