W20 - Changing Breeds.pdf

Additionally, they have a somewhat unique take on Allies,Contacts, Kinfolk, and Mentor as described below:• Batsu: Batsu are the Kitsune’s allies, his friends andcohorts who stand by him and assist him when needed.To a werefox, his Batsu defines who he is and what hestands for. This takes the place of the Allies Background,and most Kitsune will have at least three dots in Batsu.• Clan: Rather than having a Kinfolk Background,the Nine-tails have Clan: a group of family, Kin, andfriends who know the truth about the werefoxes andtheir grand purpose. While many members of a Kitsune’sClan are likely to be Kinfolk, others are chosen withgreat care from outside of direct family lines.• Go-en: This is a network of minor contacts theKitsune maintains. Rather than relying on one importantcontact for information, the werefoxes prefer to have severalpossible sources handy for a variety of situations. Kitsunemay make Contacts rolls to find someone to aid them inany given endeavor at a Difficulty of 5, rather than 7.• Sempai: This is the equivalent of Mentor, but aKitsune is just as likely to have a group of hengeyokai aspatrons, as he is to have a single individual. A Sempaican be an aunt or uncle (or both), a Kitsune parent, courtsentai (group) who adopt the Kit as a mascot, or a Gai’nan(a ranking court official in the hengeyokai courts). ASempai may simply assist the Kitsune in reaching herpotential or may be grooming her for a specific task or duty.• Kiko or Iron Rank official; an inexperienced orvery distant sentai•• Koryo or Steel Rank official; a moderatelyaccessible, experienced sentai.••• Reiko or Gold Rank hengeyokai; an influentialcourtier, accessible and quite capable.•••• A Five-tailed Fox; a Gai’nan; a powerful, friendlysentai.••••• A Fox with Six or more tails; Gai’nan to animportant court; a legendary sentai.BreedsKitsune have three breeds: the human-born (kojin),the animal-born (roko), and the metis (shinju).• Kojin: Kojin are human-born Kitsune. Althoughthey may be of mixed blood, they always possess at leastsome Asian ancestry. Most are raised by extended familymembers, due to the loss of one or both parents at birth.Hyperactive as children, kojin grow into slender, clever,and manipulative adults, as might be expected of Foxes.While most shifters remain unaware of their destinyuntil their First Change, kojin know that they are differentbefore they are even able to speak. Even as childrenmost are aloof and self-absorbed, certain that they aremore than they appear to be and equally certain thatKITSUNEBIRTHING PAINSGiving birth to a Kitsune is a supernaturallypainful process, and the otherworldly labor painsare shared empathically by both parents, nomatter how much distance may separate them.So great is the suffering, a kojin or rook kit’snon-Kitsune parent has only a one-in-ten chanceof surviving the experience. There is also a onein-tenchance that the Kitsune parent may die,either instead of, or along with, their mate. Rollthe percentages separately for each parent. Ifboth parents beat the odds, death instead strikesa close friend or family member of the parents,or someone otherwise related to the household.Shinju births are even more dangerous.There is an equal chance of each parent dying,with the possibility of both paying the price forthe birth. Each parent has only a 50% chance ofsurviving the birth. Again, roll the percentagesseparately. If both Kitsune win, the death willstrike a close associate, friend, or family member.If a Kitsune has deigned to mate with anothershapeshifter and a child comes from the union, theoffspring may favor either of the parent’s “normal”lineage (human or animal) but will never be ashifter. There is a fifty percent chance that theKitsune parent will die from the birthing, and athirty percent chance that death will strike the non-Kitsune parent. (Roll separately for each parent.)this is a grand mystery they are meant to uncover. Thisleads to a great curiosity about the world around themand the secrets it might contain.A kojin’s First Change is often traumatic, but theKitsune usually bounces back very quickly. After all, shehas always known she was somehow special and now hasthe proof to justify her arrogance.Beginning Gnosis: 3Starting Gifts: Persuasion, Seduction, Smell of Man• Roko: Roko are fox-born Kitsune. Often, theparent (assuming both do not die when the kit is born)places their vulpine offspring with normal foxes so thekit can be raised in a more natural environment.Many roko experience difficult childhoods eitherdue to having only one parent to care for them (if onedies when they are born) or because numerous predatorshunt foxes (if they are raised by normal foxes).127