This is a male or female monk from the Sakyapa sect. The Sakyapa sect’s teachings can be traced back to a lineage which was originally derived from celestial beings. The Sakyapa were the leading sect in Tibet at the time of the Mongol invasion and Kublai Khan named them the official rulers of Tibet. They were known for ruling the country a little too strictly, using sorcery to enforce their will. Their reputation became so bad that the reformed Yellow Hat sect overthrew them, convincing the Mongols and the people of Tibet that they should be in charge.
The Sakyapa emphasize logic and scholastics more than the other Red Hat sects. They use Tantras, but only after a long period of study in logic.
Young monks have many choices. They can study a wide variety of subjects, including advanced Buddhist practice. They can leave the monastery, traveling around the country. They can study at various colleges and monasteries and with various lone teachers. Whatever skills they have they can use to 7, Medicine 6, Scholarship 4, Sorcery 10, Tantra 9, Travel 9, Weathermaking 11, Western Knowledge 13.
Money- 750 Srang + 50 per month.
Starting Karma- PC starts with +10 to current KMA.
Suggested Skills- Abidharma, Indifference, Literacy, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Teaching, Tibetan History.
Suggested Equipment- Boots, Monk’s Robes, Pen & Ink, Iron Pencase.
Suggested Reading- Monastic Life (p.10), Buddhism (p.33), Buddhism: Sakyapa (p.36), Tantra (p.38).
In Brief- Male or female monk from a Buddhist sect that stresses logic and the tantra.
Savage
Growing on steep mountain sides in deep Himalayan ravines are lush rainforests. Living in these rainforests are several small groups of people. Tibetans consider these people “savages”
because they are not part of Tibetan culture. Tibetans have little contact with them and when they do it is with Tibetan-speaking representatives of the tribes. Chinese and Western anthropologists have never been able to study these peoples.
The PC is a representative of one of these tribes. The PC has been taught Tibetan and sent to trade with Tibetans. The PC’s goal is to obtain things that their people do not have the technology to make, like metal tools. Since they have little to trade with, some savages hire themselves out as mercenaries.
The savages’ religion is a simple form of shamanism, similar to old Bön. It may even have some deities and rituals in common with old Bön. They worship the migyu (p.54) as powerful spirits of nature. They have no belief in enlightenment. They have few sexual taboos. They wear very little clothing for most of the year: loincloths for men, grass skirts for women. Both sexes wear their hair long. Men bind their hair above their forehead with a piece of bamboo or a wild boar tusk. Both sexes wear heavy iron earrings.
Savages live by simple hunting and gathering. Men are the primary hunters. They use bows and poisoned arrows to bring down monkeys and other animals. Women spend most of their time gathering plants, making crafts and taking
care of encampments.
They have no currency and only value precious metals as a means to trade with Tibetans. They barter amongst themselves. They have no written language but cut circles and crosses in bamboo as
reminders of deals they have made.
These groups live in a simple tribal structure, with roving groups headed by a dominant leader (usually a male). Any person from one of these groups who can prove himself or herself a superior leader can become the head of a tribe.
Special Equipment- Free Long Bow with 20 arrows, Arrow Poison, Bamboo Wrist Guards.
Skills
Free Skills: Archery (1), Wilderness Survival (1), Foreign Language: Tibetan (1).
Skill Costs: Combat 5, Crafts 9, Divination 8, Exorcism 9, Folk Knowledge 7, Medicine 9, Scholarship 20, Sorcery 17, Tantra 20, Travel 9, Weathermaking 12, Western Knowledge 25.
Money- 500 Srang + 10 per month.
Suggested Skills- Climbing, Prowling, Knife, Mountain Climbing, Swimming, Tracking.
Suggested Equipment- Leather Armor, Knife.
Suggested Reading- Ecology (p.53), Travel Dangers: Hunters (p.180), Travel Dangers: Wild Animals (p.180).
character creation
084
In Brief- Primitive hunter and warrior from secluded rainforest valleys at the foot of the Himalayas.
character class
085
Sorcerer
In ancient times, skilled sorcerers could brag about their powers publicly. Sorcerers would rule their communities by fear. Anyone who displeased them would have an illness or demon sent to attack them. They could extort money, goods and services from anyone except other sorcerers. In addition, powerful people would pay them to attack their enemies. Rich and powerful people would have a staff of sorcerers that constantly did battle with the sorcerers of competitors.
Nowadays, with a reformed Buddhist sect ruling the country, such open sorcery is rare. Sorcerers must seek teachers, study and ply their trade in secret. If the community discovers someone is a sorcerer, they may be banished or shunned. Local lamas may even bind a sorcerer to an oath not to use his or her powers. In the remote countryside, known sorcerers may be subject to mob violence.
Sorcerers typically learn their trade by paying another sorcerer large sums for training. There are also some rare books that describe the secret rituals of sorcery.
Bad karma is a sorcerer’s medium and so the sorcerer must travel all over Tibet in search of items with bad karma in them. Rituals require things like the bones of murder victims or dirt from a haunted cemetery.
Most sorcerers have some cover occupation: farmer, nomad, merchant, doctor, etc. Some even join monasteries, though they must carefully avoid contact with lamas powerful enough to discern their true natures.
They are seldom skilled in their legitimate occupation, but use sorcery to ensure that they are successful.
There are three kinds of sorcerers: “petty” sorcerers, extortionists and sorcerers for hire.
“Petty” sorcerers destroy personal enemies and competitors and use love magic to gain the sexual partners they desire. Most sorcerers start as this type, and many never go past it.
Extortionists single out victims, give the victims a display of their powers, and threaten to kill the victim if the victim does not quietly pay extortion money.
Sorcerers for hire travel around the country, secretly contacting and offering their services to people. If sorcerers put in a word, through discrete contacts, potential clients will be able to seek the sorcerers out.
Clients pay sorcerers to destroy enemies, help with seduction or fight off other sorcerers the clients believe are after them.
Skills
Skill Costs: Combat 12, Crafts 8, Divination 8, Exorcism 6, Folk Knowledge 6, Medicine 7, Scholarship 13, Sorcery 5, Tantra 18, Travel 8,
Weathermaking 9, Western Knowledge 20.
Money- 1500 Srang + 60 per week.
Special Equipment- PC starts with items from the Sorcerous Components Table on p.103 (choose 7).
Starting Karma- PC starts with -10 to current KMA.
Suggested Skills- Bird Control, Butchery, Disease Sorcery, Love Magic, Poisons, Prowling, Simple Curses, Thread Crosses, Weather Sorcery.
Suggested Equipment- Boots, Chuba (Fine), Hat (Fox-Skin), Knife, Sorcerer’s Hat, Sorcerer’s Robes.
Suggested Reading- Metaphysical Beings: Personal Gods (p.24), Metaphysical Beings: Malevolent Spirits (p.24), Protection (p.26), Medicine (p.29), Sorcery Skills (p.103).
In Brief- Using knowledge of malevolent magical rituals for pay and for personal gain.
Milarepa, Good Sorcerers and Evil PCs
In Buddhism there is no “good” or “evil.” There are only obsessions, addictions, habits and attachments which cause people to cause suffering. Some cause suffering primarily to others, some cause suffering primarily to themselves. The nature of karma is such that suffering will spread: those who try to hurt themselves will end up hurting others, and those who try to hurt others will end up hurting themselves. The logical thing to do, then, is to avoid causing any suffering.
People who do cause suffering are either ignorant of the fact that they are hurting themselves, or they are ruled by emotions which drive them to actions they know are unwise.
The great Buddhist saint Milarepa was once a sorcerer. As a child, his father died and his property was entrusted to his uncle. His uncle was cruel and abused Milarepa and his mother. His mother sent Milarepa to become a sorcerer.
When Milarepa returned he destroyed his uncle’s life and killed several members of the uncle’s family. However, Milarepa did not find contentment in revenge, instead he felt sorrow. Milarepa wandered on, looking for answers. He ran in to the great teacher Marpa, founder of the Kagyupa sect and became Marpa’s most famous student.
Sorcerers are people who, at some point, set out to learn to hurt people by magic. Every sorcerer has spent some time making a living by hurting people or threatening to hurt people. However, a sorcerer can be a likeable character. Here are some possibilities:
-A sorcerer who comes from a family of sorcerers. The PC is only now starting to consider that he or she might have other possible paths in life.
-Like Milarepa, the PC has been driven in to sorcery by hatred and a lust for revenge. The PC knows he or she is gaining bad karma but is too full of hatred to care.
-The PC is addicted to opium or in deep debt and the only way he or she can make enough money is through sorcery.
-The PC is the servant of a rich and powerful aristocrat, one of a staff of sorcerers. The PC’s employer will not allow the PC to stop practicing sorcery.
A sorcerer PC can make the decision to stop using sorcery in the first minute of gameplay and never use sorcery again. The only consequence would be a sudden loss of income.