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.

History

The history of the organization, mostly notable facts or important events.

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 dismorphism, 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.

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.