Lion Priestess

## **Overview**

***“When a Chinese emissary returned from a voyage to the court at Shuri Castle, he brought a gift for the king, a necklace decorated with a figurine of a shisa-dog. The king found it charming and wore it underneath his clothes. At the Naha Port bay, the village of Madanbashi was often terrorized by a sea dragon who ate the villagers and destroyed their property. One day, the king was visiting the village, and one of these attacks happened; all the people ran and hid. The local noro had been told in a dream to instruct the king when he visited to stand on the beach and lift up his figurine towards the dragon; she sent the boy, Chiga, to tell him the message. He faced the monster with the figurine held high, and immediately a giant roar sounded all through the village, a roar so deep and powerful that it even shook the dragon. A massive boulder then fell from heaven and crushed the dragon's tail. He couldn't move, and eventually died. This boulder and the dragon's body became covered with plants and surrounded by trees, and can still be seen today. It is the "Gana-mui Woods" near north Dragon Kang. The townspeople built a large stone shisa to protect it from the dragon's spirit and other threats.”- Tales of Legend***

Lion Priestesses in Dragon Kang are the equivalent to a Dragon Monk with much different and arguably more effective usages of their powers and abilities. They to act as harbingers of death and life, but rather than deciding the path of a stray spirit or an evil one, they preform rituals, signs, and even battle arts to transform these souls into pure energy. Leaving behind no trace of good or evil, returning the being into pure mandarins and sending him back to become one with the universe. In essence the Lion Priestesses do not kill anything simply recycles the energy that created the threat or problem they encountered.

They have temples stationed all over Dragon Kang in each one of the four major parts of the land, and in certain misc. areas. They’re entire practice is based off of the Chinese Lion mythology, more so the spirit of one rather than the physical one. Chinese lions are intended to reflect the emotion of the animal as opposed to the reality of the lion. This is in distinct opposition to the traditional English lion which is a lifelike depiction of the animal. The claws, teeth and eyes of the Chinese lion represent power. Few if any muscles are visible in the Chinese lion whereas the English lion shows its power through its life like characteristics rather than through stylized representation like the Chinese lion.

## Origins

Shishi, the first Lion Priestess

Lion Priestesses were invented by one lone woman with the simple name of “Shishi”. She was a former Dragon Monk, or in line to be one. When it was time for her to receive her final test she objected to the ways, opting to deny the four great guardian spirits of their ways of dictating peoples afterlives. While the guardian spirits weren’t happy with her disagreement they could understand her point of view, and that in mind she went off and gave birth to a cycle of born women with the job of opposing the Dragon Monks way by returning spirits to their natural origins of energy. Thus replenishing and giving back to the universe as a whole, this they believe the cosmic energies of the world and universe they live in to be the true home for all spirits. The spirt of the Lion was created to act as a gaurdian not only for the souls of the universe but the royal lineage of the family that bares the power of said guardian spirit. They have exsisted for half of the Dragon Monk lifespan and because they are larger in number they are often regarded as more effective in the nature of their jobs. While their relationship with the four garudian spirits is often depicted as bitter, their line of work is seen as the most efficient and clean, as they have entire temples and family lines connected to their lineage with strength in numbers. To this very day they blend in amongst the crowd of humanity doing their jobs under the cover of the spirit world, a world not all can be or are aware of.

## Characteristics & Physiology

Lion Priestesses are all women. In fact, in every generation of their family, the female will always be first born, and if a boy is born they are not mistreated, but they’re raised to understand the importance of their elder female sibling. The family line all share the similar trait of dark hair, with pale blueish-grey eyes symbolizing that they priestesses do not look at the world as black or white, only one big area of grey. Seeing everything and everyone as the same shade of the universes creation.  The lion in it’s spiritual symbolism is generally associated with a representation of  personal strength. All Lion Priestesses are powerful women, full of self-confidence and personal power. As such, they are the embodiments of the lion spirit leading to qualities of strength, leadership, courage, assertiveness. This serves as a symbolic message of balance and sound judgment. In that the lion i.e the women in this line share the world of both night and day, as the lion bears a message of prudence to us. In other words, the lion asks us to not overdo in certain areas of nature. Rather, keep an even mind and an overall balance in the universe which is a direct reflection of their job description. Lions are also animals who dominate other animals in nature. Remember as an example the expression “the lion, king of the jungle” often giving some of the women a very dominant nature, as opposed to most shy and passive women. A key factor to note is that the Chinese Lion has many enemies, specifically Dragons. As such no self respecting Lion Priestess or their family line prefers the company of a Dragoon, specifically the Xiaofang Family. They have had many squabbles with this family and any dragon for that matter on conflicting onpions on how too do their job, that and they have a distaste for their brutish combative naturel. The same goes for Dragon Monks as Lion Priestesses and Dragon Monks may have similar jobs, but two completely different ways of doing them. The other thinks the other is completely wrong, and oddly enough it was destined to be this way as the Lion Spirit is not meant to conjoin or work with anyone associated wth the four great gaurdian spirits.

Naturally all Lion Priestesses have acute supernatural awareness able to identify any and every supernatural creature (Oni, Demon, Dragoon, etc). In addition to this they can sense these beings presence and even track them long distances. They have a supernatural awareness of their surroundings, giving them enhanced sensory capabilities dealing directly with seeing, viewing, and identifying all forms of life and energy, hidden or otherwise. The lineage of women that preform this are all regarded to have abnormally high spiritual energy, composed of the purest of light and incorruptible presence. They learn and develop sealing, absolving and terraforming the spiritual body in order to recycle it’s latent energy, even being able to absorb that latent energy into their own bodies for replenishment. They are healers by nature but fighters to their core and have a rich lineage of wealth and longevity. They have a different worldview, which is based on the premise that the visible world is pervaded by invisible forces and/or spirits which affect the lives of the living, the elements and nature in general. Thus everything/anything either has or has potential to gain awareness and/or consciousness. Secondly, there are several levels of existence, worlds of the mortals being one of them. Others include the Underworld, where the dead go, and the Upperworld, where great spirits/gods live or as they believe the astral plane of energy or "life force" that connects all living and deceased beings.

Lion Preistesses have both ability and training/knowledge to both perceive the spirits and their effects *and* how to contact and manipulate them, either by bargaining, tricking, or forcing them to abide by the Priestess will. Thus the users main ability is how to contact the spirits and how to send their spirits outside to roam the world or enter other levels of existence, or returning them to an ethereal state. By manipulating the spirit-world & bargaining with the supernatural, they can direct the spirits use of their abilities and powers if need be for their behalf in a vast variety of ways. In fact, there isn't much that a skilled Lion Priestess with patience and right contacts in the spirit world can't do, as long as they are willing to pay the price. Being able to manipulate spirits and/or divine beings to their will can take a toll on the user and ultmately shorten their lifespan even killing them should they make a bad deal or have failed insight.

Lion Priestesses also have high amounts of light spiritual hadou. They cannot be corrupted or possessed by darker spirits, and have natural resistance to corrosive or decaying effects to which they do not ever age, receive earthly illnesses and are self-subtenant, meaning they do not necessarily need to eat or sleep if they do not want to. This is because their bodies are spiritually and physically linked to the mandarins that surround them wherever they choose to go, thus feeding themselves by metabolizing this energy to do near limitless things with their potential power. Speaking of power, all Priestesses can release their powers in combat based methods, or through mediums such as weaponry, special paper seals, chakras, or even charms. They can even preform rituals for higher ranking threats, though they take time and patience to do.

Their finall ability is spirutal reincarnation. The spirt of the Lion Priestessess is neigh indestructible except by extreme means. The Lion Spirts that the worship to grant the women long lasting life and revolving life cycles allowing each one to inherit previous knowledge of the ones before them unlocked in time of course. They can walk the astral planes, traverse the realms to complete their duty and talk to the deceased or passed spirits.

* Sending spirit out:
	+ Astral Projection/Clairvoyance
	+ Psychic Navigation
* Sensing the spirits and their effects:
	+ Astral Vision
	+ Aura Reading
	+ Clairvoyance
	+ Danger Intuition
	+ Death Sense
	+ Ecological Empathy
	+ Power Detection
	+ Supernatural Detection
* Spirit manipulation includes:
	+ Ancestral Evocation
	+ Astral Trapping
	+ Guidance
	+ Mediumship
	+ Possession
	+ Summoning