Wushu Skidoo

"Her mask falls away, revealing... nothing." The poet howls and lunges, but the creature parries with one of her clawed hands and rips the weapon free, then unleashes a spin kick that sends him flying back towards the theater. Somehow, he lands on his feet. "His fists fall like rain; relentless, punishing." He springs forward like a tiger and delivers a series of lightning strikes to her pressure points. The beast staggers, then falls back towards the cameraman; she drags her assailant with her, then kicks him over her head.

A blur of motion, the sound of broken glass. Gunfire. Voices barking commands. An inhuman roar that fades into the distance. "Sir. Miss. Do you need medical attention?" The cameraman replies in the negative. "Please, hand over the camera and come with me."

Wushu Skidoo returns to the exotic shores of India to put a new face on some good, old-fashioned monster-hunting. If you missed my previous visits to the subcontinent, the most pertinent is Tulpa: Born in Chains. For even more source material, see two articles from my previous column: Bodhisattva and Untouchable.

Rakshasa

Hindu texts portray the Rakshasa as demons, cannibals, and sorcerers. All these things are truth, but none are the whole truth. The long road to enlightenment is lined with many wondrous powers. Yogis teach their students to ignore them as distractions, but the Rakshasa revel in them. They gave up the search for enlightenment long, long ago. They exchanged their humanity for immortality.

Even in the time of the Mahabharata, the Rakshasa were an ancient and degenerate race. Their bodies, while physically powerful, are so spiritually corrupt that they contaminate everything around them. Their long, twisted nails are literally poisonous. After just a few days, a Rakshasa's lair becomes fetid: animals flee, plants wither, water becomes brackish and foul. To avoid detection, they must either live in isolation (deep in India's untamed jungles and high in the Himalayas) or hide in places that are already rank: cemeteries, landfills, sewers, etc.

Rakshasas are extremely dangerous opponents. If their inhuman strength and speed aren't enough, they can fall back on their psychic gifts. Unlike a true yogi, whose powers come from perceiving Truth, Rakshasa are masters of deception. They can cloud unenlightened minds, make their victims see and hear whatever they desire. Rakshasa lure their prey with lies and fell them with poison. They are serpents more than men.

The Demon of Manikarnika - This Rakshasa prowls the cremation ghats of Varanasi, preying on pilgrims and the grieving. Most of the time, it makes itself appear to others as a stray dog; this allows it to get very close to unsuspecting victims. Only when it's about to strike does it reveal itself in all its terrible glory.

The Beautiful Beast - Arrogant and vain, this Rakshasa hides in plain site. It walks the streets of India's biggest cities, wrapped in the illusory skin of a beautiful woman. It seduces wealthy bachelors, takes over their homes, and keeps them locked up while it spends their money. Then, once its corruption has ruined the place, it devours them.

Shiva's Dancers

The first people to fight back against the Rakshasa (and win) were wandering martial artists from the southern kingdoms. Special training made them a match for most Rakshasas in personal combat, and their mental discipline made them resistant, if not immune, to Rakshasa illusions. They called themselves "Dancers," in honor of Lord Shiva.

Today, the Dance continues. Dancers hunt their quarry in the jungle and the mountains, through back alleys and nightclubs, in slums and skyscrapers. They still use their traditional weapons, like the coiled sword and the tiger claw, eschewing firearms as more trouble then they're worth. Their mission is to destroy each and every vile Rakshasa on the face of the earth, by any means necessary.

Sadly, this approach has not won them many friends. Their counterparts in the Four Arms (see below) view them as a threat to public safety. The Vaishnavites call them "Howlers" and do their best to keep them out of "their" cities. However, the Dancers' frequent contact with corrupt souls has always branded them as outcasts, untouchables. They live as beggars and street performers, waging personal wars for personal reasons.

Chamunda, Demon Slayer - This psychotic Dancer styles herself after Kali, the Hindu goddess who got drunk on the blood of her demonic enemies and danced herself into a frenzy on the battlefield. Chamunda loves violence for its own sake and goes out of her way to pick fights. The only thing separating her from the things she hunts is a thin veneer of moral justification.

Kavin, Warrior-Poet - Having embraced the duality of all things, this master martial artist finds beauty in violence. In fact, he is known for his habit of reciting poetry while he flies through the air, kicking street thugs in the face. He owns only three things, aside from his clothes: a begging bowl, a drum, and this trusty katar.

The Four Arms of Vishnu

The seeds of a different approach to fighting the Rakshasa were planted during the reign of the Mughals, when muslim bureaucrats mingled with Hindu mystics. Under the British Raj, the nascent organization spread its roots across the entire subcontinent, but it only bore real fruit after 1947, when India won its independence and the Sudarshana was born.

For almost fifty years, this secret organization united heads of state, holy men, and military commanders against the Rakshasa... and the Dancers. Unlike their "howling" counterparts, the Sudarshana's primary mission was protecting social order. They feared public panic even more than they feared the Rakshasa, which often put them in the position of having to clean up the Howlers' messes.

During the 1990's, the Sudarshana expanded and reorganized. It's more media-savvy members renamed it "The Four Arms of Vishnu." (Apparently, even secret societies need to grow their brand.) In decreasing order of prestige and power, the Four Arms are...

The Conch (Panchajanya) - These Brahma holy men are both the organization's leadership and its arcane expertise. The Enlightened are skilled at seeing through Rakshasa illusions and their phenomenal self-control allows them to hold their own in combat.

The Chakra (Sudarshana) - This was the core of the organization during the British Raj. Now, they have operatives in every government agency in India. Their specialties: surveillance, infiltration, and assassination.

The Lotus (Padma) - These machiavellian men-in-black turned a secret society into a shadow government. Now, they pull the strings of power to keep the populace blissfully ignorant of the covert war raging in their midst.

The Mace (Kaumodaki) - "Encounter specialists" are elite police units trained to hunt down India's most dangerous criminals. For the last ten years, they've also been taking down violent Rakshasa, courtesy of well-placed Lotus puppeteers.

When the Chakra identifies a Rakshasa, the Conch assembles an "encounter team" from 1-2 members of each branch. This cross-functional team is responsible for neutralizing their target in a way that causes minimal disruption to the public. They are also responsible for the immediate cover-up: eliminating evidence, silencing witnesses, etc.

Pick Me Ups

An encounter team needs a Howler's help to track a pack of particularly bloodthirsty Rakshasa through the slums of Mumbai. Their modus operandi is to fake a crime that inflames religious or class tensions, then feed off the random victims of the ensuing violence. If the encounter team isn't careful, they'll have a riot to contain, not to mention a pack of demons and one maniacal Howler.

A pair of revenge-driven Dancers are tearing their way through the holy city of Varansi. Their quarry hides at the center of a new-age cult whose members lurk in every stratum of society. As if a false god and its minions weren't enough, the Dancers must also deal with Lotus and Chakra agents who want to shut them down. The chase reaches its climax high atop a statue-encrusted Hindu temple!

Tired of playing defense, one Rakshasa has set out to turn its hunters against each other by impersonating a Dancer and causing a lot of very public chaos. The Four Arms have responded with a crackdown to end all crackdowns, and now Howlers are coming out the woodwork to seek retribution.

Next Up: Zen psychologists, clockwork swordsmen, & kung-fu scientists!