Editing Shih Demon Hunters (section)

==Becoming a Demonhunter==

What does one give to take revenge?  For the Shih, the answer is often ''everything''.  

Regular [[Hunter: The Reckoning|Hunters]] often have regular, mundane lives outside the Hunt.  Shih don't, and often have to resort to thievery to support themselves.  They will not only take cash from the wallets of the ''Shen'', but even their ''victims'' if they're too dead to care.  Being a [[Murderhobo]] is a lifestyle choice here, and diplomacy and good manners are for other people.

Shih don't actively seek out recruits. Often what happens is that they offer to help a victim of a ''shen's'' depradation with vengeance.  Those who somehow want to have an active part in said vengeance, and are not put off by the harsh truths that the Shih give as retorts, more often than not become Shih disciples.

When a Shih becomes a mentor, they will quickly dispel a disciple's illusions; their life is hard AND dangerous, their enemies many and deadly, and often they'll live day to day on handouts, but hey. Vengeance, right?

Fun fact: half of prospective Shih recruits are orphans, often kids of ''shen'' victims.

===Body and Soul of Steel===

Needless to say, molding an iron will is one of the first things that a Shih tries to do with their students.  This is ''very'' important, when most of what the Shih face can cause panic on demand.  Meditation and old-fashioned exposure to the causes of fear help with this, though the mentor tries to make sure that their students are never in direct harms way during  "training" missions.

It is also during this period where a mentor tries to channel a student's strong and often irrational anger against the ''Shen'' into something decidely less suicidal.  No Leeroy Jenkinses allowed here, otherwise they wash out VERY quickly, and any Shih master is quick to wash their hands of students who don't get with the program.

Once the anger issues had been ironed out, a Shih trainee must then learn how to cultivate their Chi, as your average mortal has much fewer internal Chi reserves to draw upon compared to the most bottom-rung Kuei-jin (who could always just drink blood from someone for an easy Chi top-up).  Once mastered however, this allows the Shih the ability to do almost superhuman feats, like move faster or hit harder, up to being able to tank attacks that would normally kill them... And sometimes, even return the favor.

Parallel to this is the physical training involved, which is in a word, harsh.  Shih masters will put their students through the grinder, to prepare their bodies against what the ''shen'' could do.  After the fifteen year Shih training period, the average "graduate" will be a mess of scars and wounds, but will also be ripped as hell and as tough as titanium, with fists that can punch through solid brick.   

===Those Who Fight Monsters===

There is a cost to all this of course, and let's just say that the average Shih won't be a well-adjusted person.  Knowing the truth of the World of Darkness will eventually wear at a person's psyche and humanity, despite all the mental training.  The average Shih won't be honorable or even noble, and most will be embittered husks of men and women who sacrificed a lot for little to nothing in return from an ignorant world.  

The physical toll will be more obvious, as a Demon Hunter might be in their twenties, the prime of their lives, and yet look twice their age.  The overuse of their more esoteric abilities gradually eat into their vitality, and will outright KILL a Shih if they're not careful.

Then there are the more unspoken dangers.  The more a Shih's soul gets worn out and jaded, and the more humanity they lose in the process, the more it gets weighed down by this darkness (more commonly known as P'o).  If and when they finally meet their ends, all this accumulated angst might cause the dead Shih to return as the very thing they fought against:  [[Wraith: The Oblivion|a gaki]], or worse, turn them into a [[Kindred of the East|Wan Kuei]] themselves as their P'o claws its way out of Hell.

Thus each Shih walks on the razor's edge of damnation. But that's just the World of Darkness for you.