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Hulijing



Hulijing are shape-shifting foxes. Similar in many ways to Kitsune, although there are enough racial differences to classify them as separate beings.

Firstly, whilst both male and female kitsune exist, in their true form Hulijing are always female.

Secondly, whilst a kitsune takes human form that is the same gender as their true form, a Hulijing can appear as either male or female and although they can assume ANY humanoid form at will they cannot mimic an actual living person.

At first, at age 50, they can adopt a single human form, that of a beautiful woman, but as they age they learn more and more until by a century they're capable masters of sensory deception.  The one difficulty they have is with their tails.  It takes concentration to keep the tails hidden when in non-fox forms, and that concentration can be disrupted by extreme situations or by simple fatigue: in an ideal set of circumstances the tails will come back in about four or five hours.  To this end they tend to favour clothing that can be used to hide the tails: baggy trousers for male forms, or long jackets to cover, and female forms tend to favour long, flowing skirts.

Hulijing begin with 1 tail. Every 100 years they grow another tail, with every tail giving them a power boost. They grow a maximum of 9 tails, and at 1,000 years old they'd become a celestial fox and ascend to the heavens. Hulijing are considered adults at 50 due to that being the required age to have a Human form.

Hulijing elders (9 tailed) can also adopt the form of a spectral (nine-tailed) fox which acts in many ways like a ghost: insubstantial, glowing, able to fly.  A fox in this form can only physically interact with other spectral beings or items.  To interact with normal matter they have to shift back into physical form (fox or otherwise).

As magical beings, most Hulijing develop specific magical abilities as they age, having an affinity for learning the subject. They may develop one special magical ability for every 100 years of growth. The nature of which can be decided between player and GM.

Hulijing are imperfect shape shifters. There's always clues, even in the most consummately perfect of shiftings, that give away a Hulijing.  Most people won't spot them except as perhaps slight oddities: slightly pointed ears, say, or irises too big for the eyes, or just a certain wildness of mannerism and form.  Those in the know, however, will know they're dealing with something non-human and, if familiar with Chinese legends, might even guess as to the nature of the being.  (And then, of course, there's also the nine fox tails which Hulijing have a DEVIL of a time keeping suppressed for any length of time.)

Hulijing are terrible at cooperation.  Not with humans.  They're great at that.  (It's how they procreate after all!)  With each other.  There is NO sense of racial solidarity and, in fact, Hulijing in the territory of another may find themselves in a passive-aggressive fight with someone viewing them as an invader.

Vanity is also a huge problem among Hulijing.  Like cats and curiosity, foxes and vanity go hand in hand.