Yang
Yang, the opposite of Yin, is the bright, active spark coursing through most living beings. It is Yang that gives Kuei-jin the strength to undertake the Second Breath — but it is also Yang that fuels the vampires' ravenous hunger. In some ways, Yang is the driving force that impels the Kuei-jin to come back and fight on night after night. Without Yang, the Kuei-jin say, they would simply be.., dead.
Although Yang is "positive" energy, this term has slightly different connotations among the undead. Yang Chi is the fuel vampires use to advance their ends — whether these ends are "good" or "evil" depends entirely on the vampire in question. Yang is used when resisting terrifying situations and when taking action.
In contrast with their ghoulish Yin counterparts, vampires with high Yang seem more human. They are the undead who rise from the grave to avenge families, settle old scores or reunite with loved ones. They love walking among the Middle Kingdom's teeming throngs, figuratively and sometimes literally drinking in the energy of the crowds. However, no matter how much Yang a vampire consumes, it is, at best, a parody of life, and stolen life at that. Vampires with high Yang like to pretend to be human, but so it is, exactly — a pretense. When their vampiric natures inevitably come to the fore, their disappointment often prompts frenzies far more vitriolic than the ones of their more phlegmatic cousins.
Using Yang
• Healing — Yang Chi can becombined with the vampire's blood and delivered to others as an elixir of healing. Each point of Yang Chi heals one normal Health Level.
• Lifesight — Just as Cathayans can view Yin's traces, they may also duplicate the wraith ability of Lifesight. By spending one point of Yang, the vampire may attune himself to the life-flows around him for one scene. When two (or more) beings encounter each other, the emotional auras surrounding them "flare" for an instant; vampires who attempt to read this aura (Perception + Empathy, difficulty 9) can gain insight into the true feelings of the observed creatures. Thus, if two rival business magnates chummily greeted each other at a party, an astute Kuei-jin could detect the spark of gloathing and envy that momentarily flared between them. (This power is best reserved for mortals; it is considered a dangerous breach of etiquette to use it upon other shen, though the Kin-jin and other such; barbarians may, of course, be scrutinized at will.)
The vampire may detect overriding emotional passions in mortals. By concentrating on a particular emotion and rolling Perception + Yang (difficulty 9), the vampire may "home in" on that emotion. The range of this power is 20 feet times the vampire's Perception score. Besides its obvious use in hunting (e.g., attuning oneself to lust in order to determine which mortals are easily seduced), Lifesight allows vampires to find vessels with great amounts ,of emotional energy. For each success on the Perception + Yang roll, difficulties of the vampire's hunting rolls are reduced by one.
Finally, the vampire may attempt to detect creatures from the Yang World, including spirits of the sort known to werewolves, as well as other beings from the realms known in the West as the Middle Umbra. To detect such creatures successfully, the vampire must concentrate for three turns and roll Perception + Occult (difficulty of the local Wall + 2). Once seen, spirit creatures remain visible for the duration of the scene (For more information on spirits, see pp. 209-213.) • Wave Nature — Yang is the seat of bravery. The vampire uses his Yang Trait when rolling to resist wave nature.
• Lethargic
•• Active
••• Animated
•••• Passionate
••••• Feverish
•••••• + Inhumanly energetic
