tagamantra

[tagamantra]

some astral magick

[tagamantra]

demon capitalist-chakravartins. hell on earth. heaven falling down, down, down.

a swordmaiden. shorn of memory and power. betrayed and tossed down. go. re-attain the power to butcher the gods.

god obliterating vajra. dark fantasy. esoteric wuxia. free web novel. grunge poetic writing style. antimythic. antirealist realism.

[tagamantra]

npcs are called world characters in all swords against heaven ⚔️🌦️ ttRPG and making them follows the exact same procedure as Player Characters. you also Discover the instead of creating/generating them. featuring public domain art from Kawanable Kyōsai's 1890 hyakki yagyo (peep fudo myoo!)

up soon on: http://patreon.com/tagamantra

[tagamantra]

karma engines for sundang langit ttrpg, the most important invention in wandering's world-system, the beginning of the industrial revolution feat. public domain prayer wheel from the PSF archives, since karma engines have prayer wheel furnaces

Text below the cut

The Karma Engine resembles a giant spirit house but with the offering platform replaced with a giant prayer wheel etched with the appropriate offeratory mantras written in Twilight Karitan, a writing system that has no spoken language. Within the prayer wheel is a furnace. There, little gods, weaponsouls, ghosts, sacrificial people, and mantra-mandalas are burned upon samadhi fires. Karma Engines are therefore a joint machinist-monk invention (and indeed, the patenter of the technology is widely agreed to have been Vajra Monk Rakan Jesung, who grew up in a working-class machinist family).

In so doing, their karma is converted into usable energy, often electrical energy or mechanical energy. The study of karma is known as Karmalogy in the world.

The ethics of such an invention was hotly disputed when it was crafted. Vajra Monk Rakan Jesung was always seen as a pariah and an apostate, and as someone who perverted the teachings of the Buddha Gnostics.

But it was wildly useful. In a world mostly influenced by talismanic technology--written script imbued with the Force of a magick-wielder to perform various movements, such as pulling, pulling, moving side to side, and converting--the Karma Engine allowed amazing amounts of energy to be crafted for relatively smaller cost.

More importantly, all it needed was proper maintenance by Monk-Machinists, instead of requiring paid wizards and mystics to create talismans that could fail or short out if the wizard was not good enough. This heralded the industrial age, there was no need for a steam engine with the invention of a nigh infinite source of power through karma.

In Karmalogy, karma is seen as the potential energy of existence and being itself, and many Karmologists posit that the entire current world of Hingsajagra exists because of the Karma of the past world.

When sentient beings are sacrificed to the Karma Engine, this is seen as a painful but purificatory ritual, and is deemed ethical by many world faiths as the being that dies from the Karma Engine's samadhi fires is almost always reborn as a human due to the neutralizing of their karma. Many who have surplus good karma do not go through this, and so the majority of criminals and harmful animals are given to the Karma Engine.

Infrakarmalogists, however, put forth that there are abundant amounts of ambient karma that arises from the world itself, surplus karma that emanates from the deeds of the past world, and this can be used to power karma engines without voluntary suicide.

Magnetitologists have been creating Magnetite Engines, which seek to replace Karma Engines. Magnetite is widely believed to be the infrasubstance, the aggregates of atoms. A level above the smallest quantum, where the material dissolves from perception.

Magnetite arises from places of intense emotion and thoughts, and so it can be mined from worship, war, joy, and other such sites of powerful explosive emotion. Currently magnetite is being used in socialist Hokou and in Selorong. The bourgeoisie that own Karma Engines (many of them non-religious themselves) have become ardent anti-magnetitians, and have begun slander campaigns against them.

Karma Engines have been made quickly efficient. Demons and Ghosts are commonly used as fuel--demons are beings of pure karma that are not destined to be reborn, and ghosts are beings that need light karma to have a better reincarnation.

The Exorcist Industry, though extremely dangerous and highly professional like mercenarism, has become extremely lucrative because of this fact, wherein spirit-binding and spirit-capturing have become in high demand.

Other popular forms of energy are weapon spirits, armor spirits, heirloom spirits, treasure spirits, and the like who wish to tangibly support a family or a bloodline by providing free power for them until their Karma burns off. This tends to last for centuries, as gods and spirits have copious amounts of positive karma owing to them being of the two Higher Paths. Gods are used sometimes to power entire cities.

Commonly now are used Mini Karma Engines. These are small generators that can be used to power a house, as long as proper rituals are performed to maintain them and proper karma items are fed to it. Those that do have Karma Engines out in the countryside and probinsyas tend to also have some form of knowledge in Karmamakinas, or have a Monk Machinist living amongst their midst. In the present year of 11,664, monasteries almost always have a group of Monk Machinists at the ready to be able to provide free support for a village, town, or city’s Karma Engine.

[tagamantra]

Wandering's Infraperegrination

The year 11664 is largely parallel to our world's 20th Century, but without the huge advancements into machinery (while industry being important). More importantly, the world is an industrialistic world but industry is forwarded by magick and war. Industrialized magick. Cold War Communist Era Asia.

The world is mostly split into five eras, as reckoned by Shennin scholarship. The modern year is 11,664 of the Lotus Calendar. This puts it at the 243rd Cycle of History.

1 - Peregrination Era (-0 to 1000). The world began much further before this. 0 is the first instance of Writing found in the entire world, somewhere in southwest Shen. The Cradle of Civilization is unfortunately now buried deep into the Anju Tenem Sea. Popular science puts this as a time of hunting-gathering homesteads, or in the terms of Masangwans, Primitive Communism. Then the first Revolution was Agricultural.

1 - The Burgeoning Era (1000s to 4000s) The Agricultural Revolution. The time of Chiefdoms, Warbands, roving eras, Naka Kingdoms, Yakka Kingdoms, Siyukuy Kingdoms, etc. This era ended during The Ultimate Cleave. The great apocalypse that split the Great Southern Continent from the Dakmalan Continent and turned it into a fractured archipelago.

2 - The Esoterica Era (4000s to 6000s). The Ritualist Revolution. Mystics and Wizards ascended to places of importance. The iron-fist rule of the mago-philosophers. Lasted due to the hoarding of esoteric knowledge from the rest of the world. Much of the practices from this time have largely been lost to history due to much of the knowledge being kept by wizards that chose to leave, entangle out of reality, or otherwise leave no traces of themselves behind, causing the infraquantic discoveries of this time to be removed. This era ended when the roving warband classes coalesced into the ruling king classes that fought back and wielded gross violence against the wizards and priests. While infinitely bloody, the kings eventually managed to conquer the very gods due to their access to large amounts of men, smithing, and the direct action of gross violence eventually overpowering the slower, more methodical, and ritual-requirements of subtle magical violence.

3 - The Ancient Era (7000s to 9000s). The Warrior Revolution. The time of Ancient Shen, Ancient Metoma, and Ancient Razru cultures. With the sublation of the magickal classes into priestly and ritualist roles for the knights and kings, this was a time of synthesis where the once-oppressive wizard class became an arm of the ruling aristocrat class. Widely accepted that the end of this era was during the Black Meteor Cataclysm, an ancient Metoman prophecy that came true. A meteor slammed into the earth and shattered the Utter Islands even more, into its modern geography. The truth is more complex: many say that the Black Meteor Cataclysm was orchestrated by affronted wizards working with the non-warrior aristocratic classes, who wanted to rise to power without needing to showcase great displays of performative violence. 

3 - The Classical Era (9,000s-10,000s). The Aristocratic Revolution. A time of great upheaval, but also the rise of classical cultures. The influential Old Razru Empires, the Asitowan Principalities, the Lotus States (filled with the Jing, Rak, Sanun, Si, and Yun ethnic groups, which would eventually coalesce under the Meteorite Emperor to become the Shen people), Utrang kingdoms, the Yagan Kingdom, the Meshiri Kingdom, the Yeung Kingdom, the Natara Kingdom, the Kamitan Communes, the Dakai Tribes, the first few Raga tribes, the Tawun Chiefdoms, and more. It is widely accepted that this time only ended after the victory of Shen and the World Collective against the Devil King Roghan.

4 - The Rebirth Era (10,000s to 11500s). The Industrial Revolution. The Smith-Kings and the Merchant Princes created textile factories, weapon factories, and machine tools. Most significant was the invention of the Karma Engine. Surplus yields across all industries, creating industry, as well as machineway of engineering and architecture. This era is said to have ended with the first Uprisings against Kings, spearheaded by humanitarian sages that arose during the time of increasing industry.

5 - The Modern Era (11500s to 12500s). The Bourgeois Revolution. The merchant princes and machine-capitalists seized the means of production and operated from there, hiring and putting laborers to work them. The power of these engines and the strength of free market trade caused even gods (see: Hri Vaizzan the God of Merchantry), spirits, and monsters (yakshas, anjuras, uki, etc.) to be subsumed into the labor force. It is widely believed that this era ended with the overthrow of the monarchies that ruled for 2500 years, represented the most with the First Apocalypse with the consummation of the Heavenly Shennin Kingdom spearheaded by the Invincible Blade Princess the Empress of the Universe. On the Fire Dog Year 11512 Kafeng Masagwa and the Knights of the World set to motion the First World Revolution that shattered all bourgeois and aristocrat rule. It was not to last.

6 - The Revolutionary Era (11500s to 11607s). The Proletarian Revolution? With the power of factories, the proletariat of the world fought to consolidate power, but with Kafeng Masagwa's death and growing distrust in the Knights, the world alliance shattered into nation-states. The nation states fought separately for national liberation, explosive uprisings filled the 100 Year Revolution. This caused unprecedented global bloodshed and violence. Wars that ended all wars. Separated into nations, they were easily cowed and beaten into "Peace" through the concerted efforts of the International Bourgeoisie, headed by the Universal Capitalists and the Trillionaires of the Trichiliocosm, which would quickly vanish as they appealed to the people. In the guise of a successful revolution, the revolutionary efforts were cowed. This era ended with the rising of the efforts of the Second World Knights Coalition who tried and failed to bind the people together in the face of unprecedented genocide. This was the Second World Revolution, which failed. In the second tick of the Wheel of Violence, capitalism had won.

7 - The End Of The World (11608 to modern day). The End of the World. The bloodshed of the revolutionary era ended the world. The international bourgeoisie, headed now by the Central Yavinian Guild of the Ressen-Nalenji Empire, penetrates the world and seeks to join it together under the guise of "After The End" where the world must rise. The revolutionaries have been defeated and stamped down, the majority of the people, tired of war, do not want any more revolutions. Communism and Revolution is seen with contempt, as "mountaineers" and "foresters." As banditry and piracy. As detrimental to human progress. Will you prove them wrong? Or finish the job? You know it deep in your heart that there's only one way for the new world to be born.

[tagamantra]

Recollections and Revision: On Buddhas And Bodhisattvas In Wandering

As I settle down on the design for Sundang Langit (now about to be named All Swords Against Heaven), I return finally to God Obliterating Vajra to begin the Third Book: now titled THE ULTRA MYSTIC. As I do, I went back and reread a bit of the book, and visited discrepancies in the lore I wrote outside of GOV with the lore I've written in GOV.

World-Creation is an interesting beast, especially if you've been working on something for a long time. Officially, I've been working on Wandering for around a year. It arose from disparate drafts, notes, and excerpts of writing a world I've always wanted to write--an action horror dark fantasy wuxia--but never could, as it fit none of my projects. The only time I ever got the courage to calcify it finally was when I took refuge in the Triple Gems of the Buddha, Dharma, and the Sangha. Particularly, in the esoteric lineage of the Vajrayana.

I long agonized over what to call the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of Wandering. At first I settled on "Awoken" and "Saviors" but I felt those to be too... milquetoast. I decided, fuck it: and changed all of that to just Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Dharma and the like. I applied real life dharma teachings and revelations to the book, as I indirectly wanted to spread knowledge of the Dharma through the serial.

When I took on Samaya Vows during my first Empowerment, I wavered on this artistic choice. What if I misrepresent the Dharma? I am not a Lama, Guru, or Khenpo: I have no authority, and no university-level training in the ways of Tantra. I am using it as a way to build a fantasy world: is this something I want to leave behind? I knew, inevitably, that the work will be taken the wrong way. And in doing so I will have misrepresented the Dharma, and broken my vows.

Additionally, by using the terms in such esoteric ways, I risked the problem of self-fetishizing, self-orientalizing, and self-exoticizing my Dharma and culture. I package them in digestible chunks to be more easily able to join the Neoliberal Milieu. That's what they want: new, alien, foreign, exotic terms to be able to cannibalize, pacify, or capitalize on. I did not want to give the Neoliberal World Order such a victory.

For inspiration, I returned to my grounds. Works of art like Elden Ring, Dark Souls, Clark Ashton Smith, Kill 6 Billion Demons, Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy XII and Tactics. There, though not directly referencing or using the name of the Buddha, or Buddhahood, they effectively relayed tenets that were Dharma-adjacent. Some became more interested in the Dharma due to realizations from their time with these works.

I decided, then, to follow their path. I am presenting a Second World: though the Buddhas might reveal themselves in every World out of boundless compassion, they might not be known as Buddhas, as that word has a different baggage in the greater English-Speaking Milieu.

So I return to words that the English readers must grapple with and turn them upon their head. This is a Fantasy-Realist world, after all. There will be no single word for "Buddha", no single word for "Enlightenment", no single word for "Bodhisattva", though there will be some words that will be more common.

So far, I've replaced Buddha with Enlightened, Sage, Awakened, Dissolved, Ceased, and Arisen, Revolution Achiever.

Bodhisattva as Savior, Martyr, Liberator, Revolution Achiever.

Arhats with Saints.

Sapi I've converted to Force. To denote the dynamic, smokeless liquid-flame that burgeons from sentient beings. A composite of Will and Consciousness, the Mindstream aflame.

Nihawa I've converted to Spirit. The psychic winds that run through all beings, even objects, even localities, as all things have winds.

These words are translated not to appease English Readers, nor to make easier their understanding. But rather, it is to invoke a particular feeling, a particular passion, within someone. To convey the mood and vibe of the setting in the littlest of words possible requires words that are bundled and ripe with meaning. And so I use these.

Any other counter arguments against these I will ignore, as I have a particular direction I wish to go with Wandering. The terms Buddha, Bodhisattva, and Arhat will still be used, but as titles and names, not as metaphysical concepts, though in truth is there any difference when all things are Void?

Until all beings are free.

[tagamantra]

character sheet for all swords against heaven.

all swords against heaven character sheet. inspired by the likes of daoist diagrams. buddhist chakra charts. madmen eschatonic scribblings.

[tagamantra]

the mystic history.

for all swords against heaven. esoteric dark fantasy wuxia roleplaying in wandering. the remains of a ruined heaven.

[tagamantra]

for all swords against heaven. esoteric dark fantasy role playing. the opening spiels.

[tagamantra]

for all swords against heaven. esoteric dark fantasy role playing. the opening spiels.

[tagamantra]

for all swords against heaven. esoteric dark fantasy role playing. the opening spiels.

[tagamantra]

Hi, I bought Gubat Banwa in a charity bundle a while back but the download page on itch.io is gone. I saw several other folks asking on the new GB page about access to their old copies so I thought I'd ask here: how do I access the game pdf please? God-Obliterating Vajra has very much decided what my upcoming 4e game is going to be like...

Hey! The old GB itch website should have the old PDFs up there, I just reuploaded them~

I am building a different, more esoterica focused TTRPG system that's based off of God Obliterating Vajra's world though called SUNDANG LANGIT, which I'm releasing on Patreon soon! I plan to make the Rules Manual free for everyone too!

[tagamantra]

Book 1 of god obliterating varja is now officially on storygraph if anyone wants to track their progress!

thank you!!! everyone go gettem

[tagamantra]

sundang langit core rules in revised form in a new writing style ive been developing and refining through my poetry

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Hi! Is it okay if I add God Obliterating Vajra to Storygraph or would you prefer to do it yourself? (it's a reading tracker like goodreads but not owned by amazon.) I wanted to log my progress as I read it but it's not in the database yet. I wanted to add it but wanted your input first

yeah for sure go ahead! idk storygraph but i'd love to see it on there

[tagamantra]

sundang langit core rules in revised form in a new writing style ive been developing and refining through my poetry

[tagamantra]

Hi! Is it okay if I add God Obliterating Vajra to Storygraph or would you prefer to do it yourself? (it's a reading tracker like goodreads but not owned by amazon.) I wanted to log my progress as I read it but it's not in the database yet. I wanted to add it but wanted your input first

yeah for sure go ahead! idk storygraph but i'd love to see it on there