Editing Shih Demon Hunters (section)

==The Origins==
===Yi and the Wan Xian===

The Shih trace their origins and traditions to one man: Wan Kung Yi.  Born into the nobility during the Shang Dynasty, Yi was an [[This Guy|observant and thoughtful young man]] who just happened to be trained and GOOD at bashing in the heads of his enemies.  Eventually his father sent him on a journey to collect taxes, to expose him to the truths of the world and help him mature into the leader that he had the potential to become.

Yi learned the truth alright, more than his father planned too. The young warrior had seen the things that went bump and ''ate'' people in the night, and was horrified to learn that many of these, particularly the Wan Kuei, had massive influence in the world of the living as well.  When he returned and informed his father, he was shamed more to learn that his father already knew all of this, but did nothing.  

Yi called his old man a coward. His father had him kicked out of the household in response, with nothing but his weapons, armor, and a rickety wagon's worth of supplies to his name.

For five years, the increasingly angry and despondent Yi wandered China, sometimes battling but never defeating the ''shen'' that he encountered.  He eventually found a monastery besieged by monstrous ''kumo'', but by this point he was beyond caring. Fully convinced that he would die, he threw himself into battle.

But something happened. Yi did ''not'' die, and while he didn't realize it, [[Mage: The Ascension|Heaven smiled on the warrior]].  The ''kumo'' were beaten back, but Yi himself was one Aggravated damage dice away from dying.  The sages of the monastery found him and nursed him back to health, and as he healed, they talked shop.  From this, Yi eventually saw that his father was right in playing ball with the ''Shen'', as it saved his people.

He stayed with the sages for a year, and in that time learned how the supernatural beings had their place in the natural order, like the opposing seasons.  But if that was the case, if the ''shen'' were as implacable as the seasons, how was he able to best the ''kumo''?  One of the elder monks posited that maybe, MAYBE it was because that because at that moment, because of his goodness and virtue, he became the perfect match to balance their depradations.

Yi stewed on this, then asked his host another question: If he was just one virtuous man, how can he serve as a balance to the supernatural?  The monk told him to find other good people to help him battle the ''shen''.  

Yi asked the old monk one more time. But weren't ''they'' good and virtuous men?

Impressed by this UNO reverse play from Yi, the old sage and his followers agreed to help Yi in his training.

===Shih Rising===

In the decade that followed, Yi and what would become the Shih battled the Shen, and learned from their enemies after every encounter.  [[Hunter: The Vigil|For every one that fell, two willing recruits from survivors of ''shen'' attacks would replace them]], and eventually more temples were established to train these demonhunters.

During this time, Yi met and fell in love with Heng-O, who was distantly related to the river spirits, and through her learned that, hey, not every ''shen'' was a bloodthirsty bastard.  Differentiating which shen was benevolent and which one malevolent was another thing entirely, but these little concerns aside Yi asked Heng-O's dad for her hand in marriage, which the latter consented.  

The marriage would produce three sons and two daughters, all of whom would grow up like dear old dad to be Demon Hunters.

Through all this, the ''shen'' tried to figure out what force was hunting them, to little effect, as even their mortal minions had little info to give regarding these mysterious demonhunters.  The Wan Kuei in particular, with their bloated egos and influence on the Shang court, sent armies to smoke out their enemies, but to no avail.

Eventually even Yi felt homesick, and decided to check on his family.  He and fifty other Shih left their temple, and in a loose caravan of pairs or trios dressed as pilgrims, followed Yi back to his ancestral lands.  Yi walked alone most of the time, but at every stop "pilgrims" passing by would ask him questions, and he in turn would answer them.

You'd think that there would been a slaughter of ''shen'' during this procession, but Yi himself only destroyed seven shen in total, and only because these were either gluttons or killed for the simple joy of killing.  Despite his clemency, his legend grew, and soon disciples of disciples that had spread far from the procession began taking the battle to the ''shen'' directly.  It was at this point that some ''shen'', the Wan Kuei in particular, felt threatened by the Shih's rising power, and decided to work with the Yama Kings (which anyone would tell you is a BAD IDEA) to bring the Shih down before it became an existential threat.

Then Yi arrived home, and found it burned to the ground, his family massacred.  His fathers had finally had enough, and had rebelled, and for his audacity the Wan Kuei brought down the hammer, HARD.  The males had been slaughtered, and the women and children sacrified.  [[Rip and Tear|Yi went mad]], and no ''shen'' within striking distance knew peace.

Of course, no one expected a DRAGON to suddenly intervene, and not just any dragon, but the legendary '''Kung-Kung''', who caused the Great Flood when he knocked down the Pillar of Heaven.  Yi and the dragon spoke for hours, while Yi's followers shook in their boots. Eventually though the dragon flew off, with Yi riding in one of its open claws.

===Ten Suns Over Cathay===

The Wan Kuei of the Shang finally put their plans into action, and enacted a powerful ritual.  Supercharged by the Yama Kings, and powered by the sacrifice of thousands of innocents, nine additional suns rose into the heavens over the lands of the Chou, the horse nomads of the north, and turned those plains into dry and dusty deserts.

The Chou, who were preparing for a showdown with the Shang anyway, saw this as a blatant attack, and finally made war with the Shang.  As man battled man, ''shen'' also battled ''shen'', as having ten shining suns in the sky put a damper on many of their usual activities.  And through all this the Wan Kuei and the Yama Kings revelled in the suffering of everyone else.

Three months of this madness followed.  This culminated in the forces of the Chou finally colliding with the Shang at Anyang, where the Chou general Wu Wang would cut down the bestial Shang emperor in his burning palace.  And high above the chaos of battle, Yi returned riding on Kung Kung's back, storms and rain in the dragon's wake, armed with a bow carved from the Trees of Immortality, and arrows made out of white jade.  

Yi took aim at the unnatural suns, and with each arrow snuffed them out, at the same time placing a curse on the Wan Kuei and their Yama King allies.  Nine arrows were let loose, nine suns disappeared from the sky, and nine curses were placed.  But the cost was high, as each arrow took a decade from Yi's life; by the time he alighted from Kung Kung's back, he looked positively ancient.

Though weakened, he lived to see the end of the war against the ''shen''.  As the people celebrated the ascension of the new emperor Wu Wang, Yi asked his followers close one last time, to follow and learn from his children, and bade them to continue to punish the ''Shen'' that would overstep their stations.  Many swore blood oaths, and Yi used the spilled blood to cast one final curse upon the Wan Kuei before he passed on: the Hungry Dead would never be able to walk under the Sun ever again.

As for the Shih, some would become part of the Chou Dynasty's military for a time, who would grow fat and complacent as the Wan Kuei before them, but a great many others chose to become wanderers, and continued to follow Yi's teachings of only punishing the ''Shen'' who overstepped their bounds.  The former would eventually die out when their fortress at Kun Lun was destroyed by unknown means (some point to the Yama Kings again to being the cause), but the latter see that the Shih spread beyond
China.

===In Modern Nights===

Shih are by their natures lone wolves, and encounters between other Demonhunters extremely rare.  However when two meet the local ''Shen'' start to worry, and if THREE are in an area working together, even the Fierce Peoples start quaking in their boots.

Shih techniques are usually passed down from a master to one or two disciples.  These lessons have changed surprisingly little from Yi's time, and are shoved into their heads over the course of fifteen years of training.  As they say, if it isn't broken, why change it?

Recently younger Shih have began to band together for mutual support and companionship, and while older and more experienced Demonhunters frown on this, this seems to serve practical purpose as they happen in places that are usually ''crawling'' with the Hungry Dead.