A/N: Hey guys! So while I wait for feedback on how to proceed with Back in the Day I decided to write a little mockumentary in the vein of Kung Fu A Bird's Eye View, probably my best-named fic XD Now this does serve a purpose. When I first started writing the Stories of Saras, the Jit Kun Crystal was just a magic MacGuffin...it's a bit more complex than that now. When I first started writing 'magic' was really limited to just the Jit Kun. Then I did three things. Read Naruto, read Tournament of Legends (especially the final fight with Danzaburo and Po) and read Silence of the Hare. 'Magic', the vague and slightly innaccurate term I will use to describe the abilities really got to me. So I gave my characters little gimmicks like Li I and Li II being someone and his clone rather than twins. But now that I take my writing more seriously than I should well I gotta explain where all this stuff comes from. And give some kind of hard and fast rules. And that's basically what this fic does. It also serves as a kind of taster-trailer to entice possible readers XD As well as me being a dear and giving you a shit-load of info on my stories-upcoming or otherwise- that's mixed into this encyclopedia of my world.
But I'm not allowed to publish something that is entirely an author's note...
Two black cats, clad in clothes more immaculate than anything they had worn in life, stood floating in the golden hue of the Spirit Realm, looking utterly bored.
"Do we have to do this? I mean it's not like we're getting payed or anything." Said A'waan.
"Just shut, the legal system must be followed blindly!" Replied Azam.
"But unpaid work is illegal!"
"Just. Read. The. Script."
"Nobodies even here!"
"Just do it!"
The cat sighed. "Long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long-"
"That's one too many longs."
"Ago. Before this world were born there were two beings. One were known as Celestials- and so obviously named themselves. And badly! I mean 'celestail'? What is this? My Little Pony?"
"You're not meant to know about My Little Pony!"
"You have a little pony? Get a bigger one. Bigger is better!"
"Size doesn't matter! It's what you do with it!"
"Okay, so they were these godly (so nooooot godly) beings, and there were another class that served them and were known as Demons. They're so obviously the bad guys. Anyways the head Celestial created the world as we know it and died, because godly beings can die apparently (see I said she wasn't godly). Anyways there was a war of succession between two guys. One guys had the Demons the other had the Celestials. The Celestials won and banished the Demons to Demon Mountain! DUN DUN DUUUUUN!"
"I was going to do the sound affects." Grumbled the other cat. "Anyways now not all the demons were sealed and some managed to escape into the Mortal Realm. Thing is about demons, they need a host in order to survive. So they bound themselves to objects or preferably people."
"And now we have our first class of powers!"
Class One: Demon Hosts
An object or animal that holds a demon has no choice but to live with them. While living together in one body a host is gonna get some super cool power-ups from the demon that resides in it.
Examples of Demonic Hosts in the Stories of Saras:
Han and Kang Aru
Kunxiao and Gangjing (formerly Kunxiao and Dajio Daisui)
San and Zuo Huo
Wild Kat and Quan Huo
Koji and Cong Wo
Baijian and the Huos
Denko and Tao
Examples of Demonic Objects:
Drip, blood demon of the White Mask
Live Flame, demon of fire of the jar of living flame
Note there are rare things called Free Demons, who do not need a host or object-what they do need is to feed off of souls so they're really the ones you want to be avoiding most often.
Examples of Free Demons:
Baba Yaga
Yuki Onna
Sometimes a powerful necromancer can summon a demon straight from Demon Mountain and bind them to a mortal form.
Examples of Bound Demons:
Shade
Rarely, if one survives getting their soul plucked out by a Free or Bound Demon they can manifest supernatural powers of their own, these beings are simply put under Yokai.
Examples:
Ryuu
"Awesome! Demons are cool! Well, they're obviously evil and all but they can be awesome too!"
"They're not necessarily evil. But that's irrelevant! Continuing on this vein we have some other interesting stuff. Contracts!"
"Demons sign contracts? No way? Do they steal your soul?"
"Well no. Contracts come in three forms, Black, Green and Gold."
"Black's the best. You just can't beat that colour!"
"They're separated as such based on which Celestial is granting you the Contract. However they are complicated in that they are available in three forms."
Class Two: Contractual Deaths
You know that feeling where you just have a bad day, and then suddenly some guy comes up to you and kills you? Well damn that must be harsh. Now just imagine you wake up in a world of darkness, and there's this big shiny pen and paper. And this nice, soothing voice telling you to sign at the bottom. Do that and you're officially a Contract-colors vary. The contract immediately gives you a Kick (the term used to describe a power-up of some kind) and a Drawback (either a direct side-effect or just fate deciding to piss on you, either way you can't get something for nothing you know).
Examples in the Stories of Saras:
Huangse Kongju
Saras Kanbujian Kanbu Shifty
Daitui
Surya
Su
Silence
The Weeper
Miss Kitty
Necromancer
Misty
Aurora
Hikari
"You know the examples are just you listing literally every character right?"
Class Three: Ressurective Contract
Imagine you're dead. Like us. And you've been dead for a good while now, when suddenly-you're not. You have also become a Contract, though you really didn't ask for it. It's basically when you die and another Contract signs for you. You get amnesia of course, because having your soul taken from one place to another gives you a big-ass headache, and you are bound, albeit weakly, to a third Contract.
Examples in the Stories of Saras:
Li II
Han Guan
Suo Daisui
Suijin Daisui
"Is there any way to become a Contract that doesn't involve death? I mean can I just eat some magic food?"
"The world doesn't work like that bro. But there is a final type of Contract."
Class Four: A Doomed Contract
This contract is unique in that it doesn't actually involve the user dying. No the user just has to be the last of his blood, which actually makes it kind of worse. If the Doomed Ceremony is performed, a ceremony in which the last of one's blood is spilt, then the user can gain one of three things, since the contracts are limiting in this regard because the contract itself must be signed before the ceremony can take place. The three possibilities are the Iron Paw, the Strength of a Hundred and Thunder and Lightning.
The Iron Paw grants the user added strength and a speed boost, and if the user reaches maximum potential, the possibility to regrow limbs.
The Strength of a Hundred, gives you exactly what it says on the tin, increasing your strength by a large number with lots of zeroes.
Thunder and Lightning gives the user access to lightning-based attacks and augmentations.
While these powers are impressive, it really depends on who gets to use them, and how far they are willing to experiment. Sorry but Celestials don't give out cute little textbooks.
Iron Paw examples in the Stories of Saras:
Badr Tamod
Temujin
Thunder and Lightning:
Chang Shuimian
Kenji Kamanzuko
Strength of a Hundred:
Duyao
"So far all of the above are powers gained from contact (or contracts) with magical beings. Let's head over to a more subtle form of connection. The Jit Kun Crystal."
"Zzzzzzzzz." Went the other cat. "Zzzzzzzzz."
Class Five: Nian
No, not the mythological thing that comes every new year and eats children-that's just an excuse to wear red once a year and blow shit up. A Nian (at least in this world) is a being born directly out of the Jit Kun Crystal. That part makes no sense due to the crystal's lack of reproductive organs, but I disgress.
Every Nian is born unique, with some kind of strange and potent magical power.
The Examples in the Stories of Saras are as follows:
Naan, Nian of Bone
Mr Rhee, Feral Nian (he was one of the first so you know... a bit loco)
Akatsuki, Nian of San Xing
Sir, Nian of... Cheese
See! This is what I meant by strange! And unique!
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."
"Screw you too!"
Class Six: Jit Kun
While not born directly from the crystal, this community/clan/village thing all get powers from the gem by establishing a connection with one of it's four parts at a young age. Every Jit Kun is different because everyone is different, and the magical properties of the crystal affect different people differently.
The Jit Kun and their gems, in the Stories of Saras:
Saras Kanbujian Kanbu Shifty- Bei
Imp- Bei
Babirasu- Yei
Rove- Yei
Tiobo- Xei
Aang- Xei
Guess Dei's a real Hufflepuff isn't it?
"WAKE UP IT'S YOUR BIT NOW!" Screamed Azam.
"Oh right, well there's a few more things that give powers and they are... um what are they again?"
"YOU ARE USELESS! I CAN'T BELIEVE I BOTHERED WAKING YOU UP!"
"Oh, I remember now!" Said A'waan.
Class Seven: Bloodline Techniques
You know when you're a kid and your family give you cute stuff like toys and cookies to play with and eat respectively? Well imagine if instead of that they gave you some super cool stuff like the following:
Blood Diamond: The ability to go temporarily feral, with a bonus in speed and strength, at the cost of waking up really, really, really tired afterwards. This ability is activated by the ingestion of even a single droplet of blood. So must be really annoying if your nosebleed gets in your mouth. This technique is specific to the Mann family, but has branched out over the years, making tracing it's users quite difficult, since it doesn't necessarily pass down to everyone.
Users:
Saras Kanbujian Kanbu Shifty (his name crops up a lot doesn't it?)
Li Hong Mann
Kuufu
Eye of Amethyst: The magical eye of the Wo clan that manifests itself in the form of one particularly large, round eye and a normal one, It can penetrate through walls of thick steel both with it's amazing ability to see through walls and it's uncanny ability to shoot lasers. It can also construct walls, pillars and spines out of Amethyst-hence it's name. Extremely advanced users can even make their constructions invisible to the average eye. Like the Blood Diamond, it is not guaranteed to pass down to all descendants, but is more concentrated, being possessed by only one family.
Users:
Mr Wo
Unknown
Mental Feather: A kind of tactile telekinesis possessed by one line of Chongqing dogs that differs in every generation. The specifics of it are unknown, as are most of it's history.
Users:
Mulaohu
Reef
The Magic of the Sun: Tanuki, Kitsune and the elusive marten clan of Ichigo Island, are all gifted with natural illusion magic that varies depending on the users skill and development. Some few of these kind are also gifted with a connection to plants and nature that allows them to control them to some extent.
Examples of Tanuki:
Danzaburo Danaki
Pulsar
Examples of Kitsune:
Zora
Zorari
Tobi Fuan
Zorori
Examples of the Ichigo Island Marten Clan:
Higo
"There are Celestials and there are Demons, and there's a third group of magical space-beings that don't quite fit into either category... mostly because we don't actually know where they come from."
Class Eight: The Gifted
This happens when you go through something really, really damaging-like walking in on your mum's shower (though it's most often a moment of grief instead of shock)- that's so horrifying that some beings known as the Lonesome Ones saw and decided 'heck let's give these guys a break'. These vary wildly but there are three major types:
Mouths: Gifts that influence the minds and emotions of others around them. By far the rarest of the three types.
Examples in the Stories of Saras:
...The Soothsayer? Didn't see that coming but it kind of makes sense seeing as she can give visions of the future to others.
Hands: Gifts that somehow enhance the body or physical capacity of those Gifted with them. Like enhanced strength, speed, healing, the ability to "turn off" one's pain capacity, etc. The most common type:
Examples in the Stories of Saras:
Lang and the Hand of Chaos, which lets him feel no pain!
Cin Lin, who has Enhanced Healing that was surprisingly not shown yet...
Eyes: Second rarest of the bunch. Eyes have Gifts that somehow enhance either their senses or the ability to use them. Despite varying wildly, almost all of these Gifts are referred to as the Eye's "Sight."
Examples in the Stories of Saras:
Yue's Sight, which lets her see a few second into the future at will
"There, happy? I gave the audience a lot of exposition. Now what do you want?"
"Well I'm going to nap for now. Explain some less 'natural' ways of getting 'magical' powers please. I think that's next anyways."
Class Nine: Potions
A potion is in short a magical infusion of ingredients that vary from common herbs and rotten apples, to pure chi and bits of flesh. These come in two branches, those that permenantly alter the users constitution (Splice Potions) and those that temporarily enhance the user (Buff Potions). Note that a potion does not necessarily have to be a liquid substance.
Splice Potions and their 'Victims/Users:
Xueye, Advanced Blood Potion
Hemomancer, Basic Blood Potion
Flower, Stink Potion
Ba, Growth Potion
Wugu, Echo Potion
Suijin, Venom Potion
The Thing, Potion of Living Rage
Wong, Potion of Living Rage
Black Benji, Four Hearts Potion, Metal Potion, Magnet Potion
Reidak Tor Pre Viszla III, Sensory Perception (Accidental development)
Boar, Potion of Living Rage
Kicks, Stink Potion
Arms, Four Hearts Potion
Alpha, Absorption Potion
Rikuaoshi, Skin-Changer Potion
Cupid, Love Potion
Toka, Phoenix Potion
Alena, Sun and Moon Potion
Suya, Blossom Potion
Buff Potions and their Users:
Badr Tamod, Chi Pellet
Viccori the Alchemist, Assorted Potions of his own creation
"Finally! Now that we're done here we can go and have a nap!"
"You were asleep the whole time anyways! And we still have one bit left!"
"You mean I was asleep until you woke me up!"
Class Ten: Secret Techniques
Over the years there have been a few practitioners of Chi that have managed to create techniques both incredibly difficult to pull off, but so cool it looks just like magic!
Scroll Sealing: The ability to seal an object into a scroll, uses may vary, but commonly used to carry weapons otherwise too big to carry or store. Cannot store food or people.
Users in the Stories of Saras:
Mulaohu
Tianqi
Duplication Technique: The ability to create an identical duplicate of yourself (or several depending on how good you are). Not difficult to learn, but rare since Kung Fu schools don't generally teach it as it's considered a 'hack'.
Users in the Stories of Saras:
Li I
Daitui
Chang Shuimian
Mung
Blood Seals: A technique that allows the user to bind a person to an object, through the use of Blood-painted Calligraphy. If advanced enough, the user can enchant an object to seal someone on contact.
Users:
Chang Shuimian
Shan
The Sealed:
The Deathworm
Wu Xing
Live Flame
Mr Singh
Hardening: This technique allows the user to course chi through their body in order to make their skin or clothing virtually impenetrable to both chi and physical attacks.
Users:
Han
Shengwu
Stones
Chi Spin: A technique invented by it's sole user, that wraps the user in a bubble of their chi. This can be used both defensively to protect from deadly attacks, or offensively by spinning towards an opponent.
User and inventor: Jiao'ao
The Wu Vortex: A secret technique that does not require chi, but depends upon the users having complete oneness of mind to deploy. The users (for there must be multiple) join tails and then rapidly spin towards an opponent for devastating attacks.
Users:
Su Wu
Wing Wu
Wan Wu
The Wuxi Finger Hold: A technique invented by the legendary Master Wuxi in the Third Dynasty, that sends it's victim directly to the Spirit Realm. It can also function as a kind of portal to that realm.
Users:
Po Ping
Aura Mastery: The mastery of one's exterior bodily energy, allowing the user to create weapons, defenses, or whole environments of pure energy.
Users:
Aurora
Cat
Gifting: The basic chi usage of gifting someone chi, to either help heal wounds, bring back a sour flower, or stop your friend from becoming a jade zombie.
Users: Basically everyone in the Valley of Peace can do this Technique by the end of KFP 3
Speed Techniques: Exactly what it says on the tin- a specific technique that enhance the users speed. There are three that may or may not be related to each other but all three are extremely similar. In order of publishing:
Fleetfoot: The 'first' technique that allowed users to move faster than normal. No users in the Stories of Saras.
Undying Will: The crudest one. It allows the user a temporary buff of speed by opening up all of one's nerve points and letting chi travel through your body faster than normal. This leads to your nervous system glowing white-which is quite creepy, and leaves you exhausted after cancelling the technique.
Users:
Ji Rou
Kenji Kamanzuko
Speed Demon: A more advanced form of Undying Will that negates the need to glow white and doesn't leave you exhausted, but it only lasts for a significantly shorter period of time.
There's also the Death Touch, a technique used by Yang Chao, but we live in the Spirit Realm okay, give us a break, it's not like we know how it works or anything. What we do know, however, is that it can cause death, or drainage of life essence at merely a touch. We'll classify it as a Secret Technique for now, but that may change if we ever find out how it works/ it's source of power.
"And we're done! That's all folks so get the hell outta here!"
"Hey! Don't chase off our audience! More may be added to this if for some reason more techniques/characters are added to the Stories of Saras-"
"GOODBYE!"
And with that, the Spirit Realm went black.
"Woah, the Spirit Realm has a light switch?"
"No...you turned off the story."
"Oh...cool!"
Footnote: And I have broken the fourth wall several hundred times over but who cares. Like your host says if more techniques/characters are added (I have ZERO plans for a SYOC, but for some reason people send me stuff anyways XD) than this story will be updated/tweaked.
The whole of Class: Eight is property of Mind Jack, of the things listed they belong to several other authors:
TheDragonSaver
Alex the Owl
Mind Jack
Berserker88
kajjynegna
Supreme Divine Alpha Cat 1237
You know who you are guys and you know who you own, and you should know I'm too lazy to list everything XD
Now it looks like I've spoiled a lot of things, and I kind of have and kind of haven't. While I have given you a lot of information it's hidden behind well... more information and I haven't explained several other things... still I trust the more perceptive of you will manage to spot the details, or some of them :P
So yeah, this fic really won't get in the way of anything, it's more of a 'Update While Written Into Corner' fic.
I may do another chapter on magical objects, but that's probably not for a while (or not until I get stuck on my other stories)
