Oni
| Oni | |
|---|---|
| |
| Also Known As | The Rankai Ogres, the Horned Ones. |
| Organization Type | Ogre Nation |
| Leadership | |
| Membership | |
| Associated With | Rankai Lands, Tengu, Kappa, Kitsune |
| Related To | Ogres |
Depictions of oni vary widely but usually portray them as hideous, gigantic ogre-like creatures with sharp claws, wild hair, and two long horns growing from their heads. They are humanoid for the most part, but occasionally, they are shown with unnatural features such as odd numbers of eyes or extra fingers and toes. Their skin may be any number of colors, but red and blue are particularly common. They are often depicted wearing tiger-skin loincloths and carrying iron clubs called kanabō (金棒?). This image leads to the expression "oni with an iron club" (鬼に金棒 oni-ni-kanabō?), that is, to be invincible or undefeatable.
Contents
Purpose
Oni are some of the most dangerous creatures in the world, and what's more terrifying, is that they have no 'domain' per se. Anywhere one goes, there is a definite risk of encountering an Oni. Due to their incredible strength and generally limited intelligence, Ogres tend to be able to survive anywhere, and prey upon anything that comes their way. Oni do not have a cultural history or a particular natural 'enemy', but are the terrors of every race due to their incredible physical capacities. On average, an Oni is at least able to use a tiger as a pet cat and a dire wolf as a dog. Their hides are raw and rough like worn leather, and the wounds inflicted by humanoid-sized weapons are generally negligeable. Some Oni fight with whatever crude weapon they get their hands on, though many prefer their Iron Clubs, and if possibly, most Oni learn how to fight with actual weapons.
Most Oni are solitary predators, or opportunists. An important thing to note is that Oni are extreme omnivores. They will eat literally anything, but they genuinely prefer living prey, including humanoids. Any Oni can survive on vegetables (or trees), but they will always choose meat over greens, and will always choose raw, still fresh (or alive) meat over prepared meat. This means that many of them are anthropophagic.
Oni are generally brutes. They tend to live alone or in family units. Most of the more intelligent Oni assemble as a tribe, but their numbers are small, due to most problems in Oni society being settled by who is left standing after the argument. However, encampments made around a cave or a battlefield is the closest to a Ogre-kind social structure. Whatever hierarchy exists in Ogre-kind tends to be survival of the fittest, or whoever is alive and bigger than the others. Only when intelligence dawns on a particularly powerful Ogre do they get much-needed leadership, with a clever brute at the head of the pack.
Oni will instinctively listen to their Mages. Oni Mages are born, usually from other Oni Mages, but occasionally from regular Oni stock, and are viewed as a blessing. These Oni are dangerously intelligent, and have a natural aptitude for magic. They are able to craft spells and even have their own version of spellbooks and runecraft. By and large, an Oni Mage would be considered a genius through any standard, and Oni understand this, allowing them to take charge of their groups and following them. It's hard to tell if this is instinctive or learned, but Oni will always follow an Oni Mage so long as he doesn't turn on them.
They are directly related to the Ogres of the Largias Continent, and the rare travelers who have met both can confirm this. They share similar stature, size, odd sexual dimorphism, and their general aggressive nature, as well as he hints of a magical origin with the presence of their power mages. A more scientifically minded individual would think that one race emigrated to the other continent and made their power base there. The fact is that Oni and Ogres are the exact same creature, but the ones from Rankai have bred with the various creatures from there, and have become modified by it, as well as by the more spiritual nature of the magics in the Rankai Lands.
Oni was all by and large more clever than their Ogre cousins. While many Ogres are essentially rock-eating stupid, the truly idiotic Oni are more savage and beast-like, unable to actually have coherent thoughts and functioning purely as an animal would, and animals are instinctual, with Oni being no different. Those Oni with intelligence, which is a far superior number to that of the Ogres' members with intellect, are actually closer to the average of the Humans. They are clever and devious enough to get by, are known to use traps and some basic strategies, and the only reason not more of them are assembling under a higher power is because they are considerably more aggressive, to the core, than their Ogre cousins. This also explains their lack of strategy. Why practice tactics and traps when a single Oni can often destroy a caravan of samurai on his own?
By the same token, Oni Mages are rarer, and more often than not female. This leads to many Oni tribes being led by one or many females, who use powerful spiritual magics instead of the more common elemental and metamagic abilities of their Ogre cousins. It is far more likely to encounter Oni which take pride in their fighting skill over their actual strength, with a focus on discipline and combat, which most in the Rankai Lands take as par for the course. Perhaps being fought ff by Samurai and having to deal with oddly specific spirits have forced the Oni to become more devoted to their skills. Alternately, maybe their higher intelligence makes them more likely than Ogres to give a damn about not getting killed.
Racial Traits
Superhuman Strength: As mentioned above, Oni are incredibly strong. Well beyond the range of any other humanoid, and it shows. They have been known to tear even the strongest of Youkai apart with their bare hands, and are reputed to launch boulders at their opponents without the benefits of catapults. Most creatures short of elephants and rhinoceroses cannot match an Oni in battle.
Natural Armor: Between their incredibly thick skin and ridiculous musculature, Oni are able to take blows from just about anything and shrug it off. Short swords and smaller weapons, often including arrows, are essentially meaningless in a battle with Oni, and unless aimed at their eye, any other projectile will bounce off with minimal damage. Even stronger weapons can only barely affect them, at least compared to smaller humans. Even their 'fat' is violently resilient, and they heal naturally very well.
Violent Aggression: Oni are savage and bestial. Most can talk, at least to each other, but they are, overwhelmingly, unintelligent. They can barely grasp higher concepts, and base the entirety of their 'culture' on sheer strength. Their reaction to almost anything is to try to break it.
Extreme Omnivore: Oni can eat anything. They are preferably carnivores when they can, but they are also herbivores if meat isn't around. They rarely cook their meats. They usually eat it raw, and the bone, too. Oni can, and will, eat other sentient beings, and even smaller Ogres if they need to.
Sexual Dimorphism: Ogres exist all over the world. Most in Rankai look like brutish, massive humanoids, but Lady Oni look far more humanoid, even attractive, to humans, but are, at the core, the same beasts as the other Ogres. Another trait from this is that any child born from an Oni parent is an Oni, whatever the other species is.
Magical Species: Oni are born of magic. That is why some of them are born incredibly intelligent and gifted with natural magic that makes all but the Sages of the world green with envy. They are going to be the leaders of their kind, and everyone in the race will instinctively follow them. This applies to their females, as well. Those born as Mages are smarter and more powerful than others.
Oni Types
Oni are generally speaking rather simple creatures. Most live in the mountains, hunt and scavenge for food, and are brutal warriors through and through. Strength is their way of life, and they form tribes only because there's strength in numbers. Despite all of this, they are not EXCEPTIONALLY territorial towards one another, but will not tolerate any non-Oni in their lands without a fight. They are wide spread, but all of them operate under the same basic rules, befitting of a magical species.
Savage Oni
Ostensibly part of the larger race, Savage Oni are exactly that. Not gifted with intelligence, they are instead basically animals. Their skills are hunting and tracking, their reactions more like a tiger in the wild than a civilized species. They are phenomenally dangerous regardless.
Savage Oni in the rain.
Savage Oni, mixed from different youkai.
An Oni.
Oni
The majority of the race are brutish warriors, using their strength of arms and ridiculous resilience to get by. All Oni to a degree are fighters, able to pick up arms or just use their arms to fight, and are gifted with a brutal, animalistic savagery, controlled by actual intellect.
Various Oni.
Oni fighting a warrior, soon to die.
Oni Fighter.
Oni Fighter.
Oni Fighter.
Oni Fighter.
Oni Fighter.
Oni Fighter.
Lady Oni.
Lady Oni.
Lady Oni.
Lady Oni.
Oni Warriors
From Oni which learn high end martial arts, to Oni who emulate the Samurai of the Rankai Lands, Oni Fighters are incredibly powerful and usually take positions of leadership among their tribes, due to their skills and magical acumen, which is focused in their ability to fight. As mentioned before, Oni in Rankai are closer to the spiritual nature of the land than the Ogres' Metamagical nature, and this allows them to access their innate magics through their martial skills.
Oni Samurai.
Oni Samurai.
Oni Samurai.
Oni Warrior.
Oni Warrior.
Oni Warrior.
Oni Warrior.
Oni Warrior.
Oni Mages
Exclusively female. Oni mages are all called Lady Oni, and are phenomenally intelligent and powerful. While they lack the actual physical might of their male counterparts (both Ogre mages and generally male Oni), Oni Mages were able to harness spirits and elemental magic with ease, mixing Largias Magic with the spiritual affinities of the Rankai Lands, making them incredibly dangerous spell casters, especially since even being silenced or unable to move did not prevent them from calling upon their magics, as if it were like breathing to them.
An Oni Mage.
An Oni Mage.
An Oni Mage.
An Oni Mage.
An Oni Mage.
An Oni Mage.
Oni Warlord
The most powerful of the Oni, these are naturally gifted warriors AND incredibly strong, born with rock-like muscles and steel-like skin. They are incredibly larger and stronger than their counterparts, can naturally access their magics like Oni Warriors, and can command authority better than Oni Mages. They still defer to them, but if the Oni Mages are akin to Daimyo, then Oni Warlord are like the Shogun.
Oni Warlord.
Half-Oni
Generally half-human, and always the product of rape, Half-Oni are basically Oni with human-like features. They are generally born from Lady Oni (as human women SELDOM survive mating with an Oni), and have the softer features of the females, whether male or female. They are otherwise entirely like Oni, and are not treated differently, nor are they particularly 'nicer' or more humane. They share the Oni aggression and savagery, but none of the Half-Oni are evil Savage Oni or Oni Mages.
Half-Oni Warrior.
Half-Oni Warrior.
Known Members
A list of noteworthy people in the organization's history and present as well as their role.
Trivia
Bullet points (use the asterisk) of facts about the organization, this section is fully optional. If there is no trivia, don't put in this section.
