Here is my take on the Jade Court Vampires. Check it out and let me know what you like, what you dislike, what you think requires changing, etc. I’ve culled down the material, so maybe it is just a matter of clarifying things. Read and enjoy.
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Jade Court Vampires (Jiang Shi)
AKA: The Faceless, Ghosts
The capabilities of the Jiang Shi, or Jade Court Vampires as they are known in the west, are not well known. Of all the vampire courts, the Jade Court remains an enigma. And with good reason. Jade Court Vampires, known as Jiang Shi in Asia, are actually corrupted souls that have no body. Instead, they jump from body to body riding their host until they have no further need for it. No one outside the Court knows which souls inhabit which bodies. They could be anyone. And those who know the truth are truly terrified.
The original Jade Court Vampires were once eight powerful eunuch wizards – advisors to the Emperor of China who secretly plotted to rule. They tricked Yen Lo Wang, the God of Feng-Du (the Fifth Court of Hell), Yen Lo Wang into making a deal granting them immortality. When Yen Lo Wang found out he had been deceived, he cursed them, rending the souls from their bodies and trapping them in jars of the rare black jade (which can only be found in the extremely remote headwaters of the Yellow River and Mekong Rivers in Tibet).
Over time, these wizards found a way to rip a mortal soul from a living host and inhabit the body and the Jade Court Vampire was born.
Because there are so few Jade Court Vampires, they feel vulnerable and therefore have not spread too far afield, instead consolidating power in Asia and the Pacific Rim and biding their time. Their ability to jump bodies and be anyone has allowed the Jade Court to infiltrate and influence high level corporate, financial and political and criminal organizations in their part of the world.
Of the original eight Jiang Shi, only five remain. These Dragons, as they refer to themselves, rule from their stronghold located somewhere in China, but only their most trusted of the Jade Court know where it is. Every member of the Jade Court is supported by mortals organized in cults. These cults safeguard the black jade jars the vampire’s soul must have to exist and even participate in ancient thaumaturgical rituals to create more of their kind. In exchange the Jade Court provides the cultists wealth beyond measure.
What the Jade Court’s agenda ultimately is, is unknown to all except the Dragons.
Creating a Jiang Shi is done using an ancient thaumaturgical ritual that rips the mortals soul out of its body and deposits it into a jar of black jade where it will stay until further rituals are performed to deposit the soul into a host. The soul effectively becomes immortal. The only way to destroy a Jade Court Vampire is to destroy the jar it inhabits.
Needless to say, only the most loyal cultists are chosen to become one of the Jade Court – and the cultist must choose to become a vampire as well.
So it’s easy to see why the Jade Court is so secretive. If anyone finds out their secret, he could find and destroy the vampire. Considering their small numbers, every loss hurts.
Although the Dragons keep a tight rein on things, it hasn't stopped various factions of Jade Court Vampires from infighting and jockeying for power in the supernatural world. Sometimes Jiang Shi are created only to bolster the ranks of one Dragon or another.
STANDARD PERSONALITY AND OUTLOOK
So what is the typical Jade Court Vampire like? Two typical vampires have emerged. The first, often called Ghosts, thrive on new experiences and crave excitement. They enjoy hopping from body to body and typically get bored quickly preferring not to stay in a body for a very long time. They normally choose victims who will not typically be missed.
The second, also known as an Infiltrator, craves the stability of one host body. They take time to learn about their victim to see if the host would be a good match. Once in a body, the vampire learns everything he can about the host’s life so he can better integrate and hide in plain sight.
When a Jiang Shi is required, he can abandon a body and return to the black jade jar.
The Chop: The Jade Court vampires must identify themselves to their kin – which is hard when you’re swapping bodies all the time. To facilitate this, the Jiang Shi tattoo their host body with their Dragon Name as soon as the ritual is complete. This tattoo is placed on the back of the host’s neck.
RUMOURS & IDEAS
Sleepers - it is rumoured that some Jade Court Vampires have had their minds wiped – that they do not remember their vampiric life. That their dark soul has not been placed in a shell, but put into the body of someone with their soul intact. Sometimes, the urges of the Jiang Shi manifest themselves (such as the need to feed on Chi). No one has figured out if these Sleepers even exist nor what the Jade Court would do with them.
Wall of Jade: When a Jiang Shi steals the body of a mortal, the mortals soul is transferred to another jar made of white or green jade (very common forms of jade). If the Jiang Shi ever leaves the host, the mortal’s original soul can be returned. The soul will have no memory of what the body has seen or done, although some mortals once taken by a Jade Court Vampire and returned (a rarity) claim some of their dreams were instead snippets of memories. It is also rumoured that the souls of these mortals are kept in large vaults where there are entire walls of enchanted Green Jade jars. No one has ever found one of these vaults and lived to tell the tale.
Unit 44 (Hong Kong): The Hong Kong police force has long known about the existence of the supernatural. But since most people, even in Hong Kong, deny the existence of the supernatural, only die-hard believers ever enter the department. The Department is called Unit 44 and no officer who wants a normal career ever asks to be transferred to it. The number four in Chinese sounds like the word “death”. Forty-four is double death. Who wants to work in a department with that title on your back?
