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Koreanizing the Dresden Files

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lokisdottir:
The discussion in the DF Adventures thread drifted a bit into localizing the Dresden Files for South Korea. Some thoughts on that...

The supernatural heavyweights

Since it appears the powers of supernatural beings are affected by mortal beliefs, a Korean adventure will probably be lighter on the Sidhe and deal with a lot more ghosts/specters/shades. The country's old shamanistic tradition emphasizes the role of the dead, with shamans (ectomancers in Council terms) enlisting the help of their helper spirits for clairvoyance and luck for their clients. Confucianism is another old tradition in which ancestor worship is the primary religious element.

Other traditional supernaturals include dokkebi (shapeshifting spirits who arise from a place or old object like a broom or a tree), mountain/forest spirits who may be in the form of bearded old men or tigers, Taoist lords of the heavens and the underworld, and the "god-beasts" of the elements and the directions including dragon for the East, white tiger for the West and so on.

All of these elements could be given a more modern twist, for instance a resident forest spirit fighting against the razing of his hill for a new apartment complex. A tiger showing up to wreck the proceedings will be a matter of great consternation for the city and the contractors, especially since tigers are extinct in the wild in Korea.

The western mythologies have definitely made inroads, of which the White God is especially prominent given the huge numbers of Christians (both Protestant and Catholic, though Protestantism has more adherents) in the country. A minister, priest, or nun could definitely be an ally (or foe) in any supernatural adventure.


--- Quote from: Bosh on January 26, 2010, 05:01:49 AM ---Also there's plenty of more modern beliefs to draw from like 동학/천도교 and the Heavenly Mother (하나님의교회 세계복음선교협회) wackos.

--- End quote ---

And never forget the Moonies when you're talking wacko. Korea is home to so many minor religions, and some were not some minor--the 동학 or Heavenly Way believers actually started a rebellion. All these religions are great fodder for conspiracies, adventures, and new supernatural weirdness.

The long reach of a long history

Another way a Korean-centered urban adventure is different is that the dominant culture in the country has a history of more than two centuries with the land--a lot, lot more. One of the recent popular dramas, Queen Seon-duk (선덕여왕), was about a queen who ruled almost 1500 years ago. It may be the year 2010 in the Gregorian calendar, but it's the year 4343 by the Dankun calendar, Dankun being (we are told) the son of a heavenly lord (환웅) and Bear-Woman (웅녀) who founded the first nation on the peninsula. (The lord from heaven was probably a member of a Bronze Age culture who married into a local bear-totem tribe, but who knows.)

That long history, the earliest events so long ago that history is indistinguishable from legend, is a gold mine for supernatural adventures. For example: Maybe Bear-Woman was the progenitor of a long line of powerful shamans, mother to daughter, and her latest descendent is... the teenaged daughter of a U.S. serviceman? Or: Pillars of water were seen rising from the Kingsrock (대왕암) or Water Grave (수중릉), final resting place of king Munmu, the monarch who united the Three Koreas in the seventh century. (And you thought the current Two Koreas situation was bad...) Munmu had asked to have his ashes buried there specifically so he could become a dragon and defend the land from Japanese marauders. Is something up with Japan? Are the pillars signs sent by the ancient dragon? And so on.

Korea's more recent cluster@#$! of a history has a lot of good stuff, too:


--- Quote from: Bosh ---I especially want to learn a bit more about Korean Geomancy, especially after reading an historical article about how after their occupation of Korea the Japanese drove iron spikes into several Korean mountains to screw with Korean geomantic energies. Having people be able to do things like that to alter geomantic energies would be a great source of plot hooks and a good reason to get people to travel to strange locations.

--- End quote ---

Yup. In fact, a Korean modern fantasy/horror novel series called 퇴마록 (The Record of Banishing Evil, to provide a clumsy translation) capitalized on that tidbit when it had a KIA (Korean Intelligence Agency) agent tasking the protagonists with finding the spikes. That's just the kind of thing a geomancer would be good at, and could result in a lot of great adventures, a lot of them far from civilization. Also, the Korean War, the decades under military dictators, and the current standoff with North Korea are all sources of enough suffering and fear to pack whole campaigns with. Heck, if the Denarians or the Black Circle want to do a lot of damage worldwide they might find it worth their while to tamper with the North-South situation.

That's all I have time to write for now, but yeah, there's a lot of great stuff out there for supernatural adventures in Korea. Just how different to make a Korean adventure from a Euro-American adventure really is a matter of taste, but there's a whole lot to draw from if desired. The same probably goes for any location or culture, really. An adventure with a Native American bent, for example, would probably look very different from the original Dresden Files even if it took place in or near Chicago. But in the end it's all relatable, and all fun--people are people, no matter where you go or where you come from.

Ihadris:
Wow flash backs to my Religious Traditions of East Asia module in first year. A few character ideas sprung to mind whilst reading through that-

-Dakun's family lines sounds like a fantastic chance for a Were-bear

-True Beleivers for Confucianism? Was it the Moist view that human nature was basically good and that with the right education everyone could better themsevles? Sounds like a teacher with a steadfast faith in something greater than themsevles to me. Perhaps they could help out with the kids that get miseld by your vampire child in your campaign?

Bosh:
Long post is long…

My knowledge of Korean folklore isn't too strong, but I've got a pretty good handle on Seoul itself (I live here dammit ;) ). I'm looking forward to learning a bit more about Korean folklore on this thread (any good reading suggestions lokisdottir?)...


--- Quote ---Since it appears the powers of supernatural beings are affected by mortal beliefs, a Korean adventure will probably be lighter on the Sidhe and deal with a lot more ghosts/specters/shades. The country's old shamanistic tradition emphasizes the role of the dead, with shamans (ectomancers in Council terms) enlisting the help of their helper spirits for clairvoyance and luck for their clients. Confucianism is another old tradition in which ancestor worship is the primary religious element.
--- End quote ---

Right, in Dresden terms lots and lots of Ectomancers. Korean's shamanistic traditions are similar enough to Siberian ones that you could transplant some bits of Siberian (ore even Sami/Lapp) folklore related to shamans pretty seamlessly. There’s also a lot of interesting ways of dealing with ghosts (such as putting up a colander so it’ll get distracted counting the holes).

Also, when it comes to ghost-based supernatural there's a lot of modern pop culture and cinema to draw on such as A Tale of Two Sisters (장화, 홍련). Sumi would make a great NPC.

For Fae you do have 도깨비 (Doggaebi/dokkebi) which you already mentioned and which fit a lot of European fae archetypes pretty well. Nothing fae-like I can think of besides them unless you count the shape-shifting foxes.


--- Quote --- mountain/forest spirits who may be in the form of bearded old men or tigers, Taoist lords of the heavens and the underworld, and the "god-beasts" of the elements and the directions including dragon for the East, white tiger for the West and so on.
--- End quote ---

Don’t know much about these. I know a bit about Chinese Taoism, but not about what form it took in Korea.

Probably having beings/organizations relating to the four directions would be a good substitute for the role of the conflict between the Summer and Winter courts in Dresden.


--- Quote --- The western mythologies have definitely made inroads, of which the White God is especially prominent given the huge numbers of Christians (both Protestant and Catholic, though Protestantism has more adherents) in the country. A minister, priest, or nun could definitely be an ally (or foe) in any supernatural adventure.
--- End quote ---

Korean Christians can be quite aggressive against non-Christian forms of religion. Some of them hold protest marches on Buddha’s birthday holding signs that Buddha is burning in hell, etc. They also had a big burning of Korans after a Korean soldier was beheaded in Iraq which (thankfully) never seemed to hit the international media. I would probably portray a lot of churches being a lot less willing to cooperate with someone like Harry than the local Catholics in the Dresden Files books.

Korea has a higher percentage of Christians than any Asian country besides the Philippines. The Protestants tend to be a bit more educated and urban and have been a real force in the reigning South Korean establishment since the founding of the country (universities founded by Protestant missionaries have been very popular in Korea since they were the only alternative to dealing with the Japanese system during occupation so a lot of the elite were Protestant-educated and sympathetic to Protestantism even if not Protestant themselves). Catholics tend to be a bit poorer and more rural than the Protestants and were much more sympathetic to the pro-Democracy movement during the military dictatorship.

There are a number of strange homebrewed versions of Christianity of which the Moonies are the most famous. They can get pretty creepy.


--- Quote --- That long history, the earliest events so long ago that history is indistinguishable from legend, is a gold mine for supernatural adventures. For example: Maybe Bear-Woman was the progenitor of a long line of powerful shamans, mother to daughter, and her latest descendent is... the teenaged daughter of a U.S. serviceman? Or: Pillars of water were seen rising from the Kingsrock (대왕암) or Water Grave (수중릉), final resting place of king Munmu, the monarch who united the Three Koreas in the seventh century. (And you thought the current Two Koreas situation was bad...) Munmu had asked to have his ashes buried there specifically so he could become a dragon and defend the land from Japanese marauders. Is something up with Japan? Are the pillars signs sent by the ancient dragon? And so on.
--- End quote ---

At good stuff. There’s a lot of reminders of history around but it isn’t as visible as in Europe since Korea traditionally built with wood instead of stone. There’s also a lot of interesting local myths like on the east coast in southern Kangwon there is a place with hundreds and hundreds of giant carved penises (they’re still making them and trying to turn it into a tourist attraction) since a long time ago a woman was engaged to a local fisherman and always stood out on a rock to watch him come home, so when there was a big storm both of them drowned. Then she came back as a ghost that was damn angry that it had died a virgin.

That also reminds me that with Korean last names there’s separate lineages for most Korean family names. You could attach supernatural significance to some of the lineages. For example my wife’s family name (허) is composed of seven different lineages/clans.


--- Quote --- capitalized on that tidbit when it had a KIA (Korean Intelligence Agency) agent tasking the protagonists with finding the spikes.
--- End quote ---

I would love to hear more about this, sounds like great adventure fodder.


--- Quote --- True Beleivers for Confucianism? Was it the Moist view that human nature was basically good and that with the right education everyone could better themsevles? Sounds like a teacher with a steadfast faith in something greater than themsevles to me.
--- End quote ---

The Mohists are a very interesting bunch but they were VERY anti-Confucian (there’s a great passage that is nothing but spittle-flecked ravings on how degenerate Confucians are) and I don’t think they ever got to Korea.

As for Confucianism, it was probably stronger in Korea than anywhere (arguably even China) in its heyday and is still a very strong influence in the culture but since studying Confucian texts was the job of the elite and the old elite has been displaced there is almost nothing left (aside from a few schools) of organized Confucianism.

Another thing that works well for Korea is you can get out from under Western stereotypes about China and Japan while still being able to introduce plenty of Chinese and Japanese things without ninjas and whatnot taking over the whole setting

For Koreanized Dresden I think what’s just as important as the specific supernatural critters is the overall feel. A lot of Western Urban Fantasy, like I said in the other thread, seems to be set amidst Detroit-style urban decay, with a lot of the supernatural critters representing various aspects of urban decay. For example in Dresden it often feels like the city is coming apart at the seams.

That whole vibe doesn’t fit in Seoul at all so a different feeling is really called for. In Urban Fantasy the bad guys generally feed off of or represent various social problems/the, so I’d probably go with:

-The dysfunctional education system. Anyone who’s taught both elementary-age and middle school-age Korean kids can see a real start difference. The elementary school kids are full of energy while the middle school ones often look like zombies that have had all the life sucked out of them. I had one 7th grader in a history class I taught who came down with an ulcer. Not so much the kidnapping of children that you hear about a good bit in the Dresden books (which feeds into more American fears, although there have been a series of gruesome murder/kidnappings in the news) but the using and feeding off of children.

-The massive power of the Chaebol conglomerates: Great conspiracy fodder there. Especially how much they’ve married each other that the big Chaebol families are half-way into turning into a caste. Arrogant members of the Chaebol founding families with a thousand connections who dabble in What Humans Should Not Do are perfect villains.

-Alienation: even in one of the biggest cities in the world you get a lot of lonely people. Koreans tend to be a lot closer to their old school/army buddies and there’s a lot of forced socialization at work but if they don’t like being forced to do shots with your boss and you don’t have a circle of old school and army buddies a lot of Koreans end up pretty damn lonely since a lot of the avenues by which Americans meet new people don’t really exist so much here (for example in most Korean bars it is very unusual to EVER talk to anyone except the people you came with). People living cramped little lives with a crappy job and living in a kosiwon (tiny rent-a-dorm rooms) would be stock NPCs.

-Foreign workers getting screwed over: the Thai/Pakistani/Iranian/Cambodian/Philippino/Chinese/Indonesian etc. people working in a lot of the factories around Seoul (Suwon, Anyang, etc.) tend to get screwed over pretty hard and are not integrated into Korean society at all.

-Incompetent cops: in every Korean movie I’ve ever seen the cops have been bumbling fools at best. A lot of that is just the movies, but the local cops really abused their power under the dictatorship and they got a lot of their muscle taken away in the 90’s. They really don’t have enough power to do anything like keep a lid on supernatural issues.

-Korea has some of the best internet infrastructure in the world and there are Cyber Cafes EVERYWHERE. I’d probably have a lot more net-based plotlines than Dresden has (which puts wizards at a severe disadvantage). With the prevalence of the internet I think that the creepy crawlies couldn’t hope to keep information about them off the internet, so their best bet would be to counter information about them on the web with vast floods of misinformation rather than ignoring it or trying to shut it down. That means websites that have videos posted of real vampire attacks, but also hundreds of faked videos as well. Its up to the PCs to figure out which is which…

-The city never sleeps. There’s waaaaay more people up an about on random weekdays at 3 AM than in any American city. This militates against “everyone around here knows better to go out at night” plotlines. Of course there’s plenty of creepy crawlies to do when the night is full of people…

Generally more of a feeling of “human culture and its leaders are being corrupted from within and changing into something that is very wrong even as it keeps the cheery mask screwed on tight” than “humans are herd animals being fed on by predators and the predation is ripping human society apart” that you get a lot in Dresden.

tonpa:
Extremely inspiring reading, thank you guys for sharing!

Could you think to materialize a pdf Dresden add-on for Korean mystical background? Would be nice for globetrotting campaign background to have few places to focus, maybe something like Seoul - San Francisco - Baltimore - München - (Some tiny tiny place in Finland :D )... One can hope. :)

Thanks again

Cheers

-Tonpa

Bosh:

--- Quote ---Could you think to materialize a pdf Dresden add-on for Korean mystical background? Would be nice for globetrotting campaign background to have few places to focus, maybe something like Seoul - San Francisco - Baltimore - München - (Some tiny tiny place in Finland  )... One can hope.
--- End quote ---
I'm sure we can slap something together, I could post my campaign notes at least when summer comes.

Basically to better express what I meant at the end of the last post, Seoul gives me more of a:


--- Quote ---I see all this potential, and I see it squandered. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables — slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won't. We're slowly learning that fact.
--- End quote ---
vibe

and less of a:


--- Quote ---“Last year in the U.S. alone more than nine hundred thousand people were reported missing and not found. You can check with the FBI. That’s out of about three hundred million, total population. That breaks down to about one person in three hundred and twenty-five vanishing. Every year. Maybe it’s a coincidence but it’s almost the same loss ratio experienced by herd animals on the African savanna to large predators.”
--- End quote ---
vibe

But with no fight clubs ;) and with not much in the way of a counter-culture, just a lot of quiet neurotic desperation in which dark things lurk...

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