KOE is Kindred of the East
In American terms...
Vampires of Asia, things that have died, embraced hell, and run to escape.
You came from Hell. Now you're a walking corpse who must steel the chi from others to survive. You can't look upon the light of the sun or you begin to rot. Heaven has turned its eye from you. This gives you certain advantages and disadvantages.
First of all, you know there are other supernaturals out there. You call them shen. Unlike a vampire, you don't have to buy garou lore to know that there's werewolves out there. You know it for a fact. You know it because your teacher told you. You know there are other things out there too, like hsien, kumo, kitsune and chin'ta. You know because your master told you. And why do you believe your master? Because you went to hell, and have been given undeniable proof that there's some heavy shit out there. There are no atheists among the kuei-jin.
The disadvantage is that now you're a walking corpse who must steel the chi from others to survive. A lot of the shen out there don't like you because of that particular fact. In fact, some of them may try to kill you if they think they can get away with it. Good luck. Have a nice day.
In story terms...
DHARMA - Your path to heaven
All things have a purpose under Heaven.
All things.
The wise man. The nurse. The tortureer. The demon. The maggot. The vampire.
All things have a purpose. Most are wise enough to know what that purpose is. Kuei-jin, however, must learn their place under Heaven before they can assume the true powers of their office.
A Dharma is not a path to power or a roadmap of enlightenment; consider it, instead, to be a series of auspicious stones, a trail of bent grass-blades marking the way of ones who went before. Each vampire must find her own path; a Dharma merely tells a vampire where to start looking, not where to find each and every step. The search is part of the larger journey.
The Western concept of sin and redemption, so vital to the Kindred's sense of Humanity, is fairly alien to most Kuei-jin. That's not to say the Eastern vampires don't see things as right or wrong; rather, they regard themselves as above those concepts. By virtue of what they are, vampires are fundamentally unclean. Still, they serve some purpose under Heaven. Unlike her Western counterpart, a Kuei-jin doesn't feel guilty about what she is. Instead, she takes a more Zen view of things: "I am an unclean thing. Yet I exist. Because I exist, there must be some place under Heaven for me." A Dharma helps guide her to that purpose.
Changing Dharma
The choice doesn't have to be permanent. Most Kuei-jin start down one path, then abandon it in favor of other destinies. Sometimes, they even return to their original purpose. Immortality offers a greater range of choices than any mortal lifetime, and those choices are never as obvious as they might seem.
* Devil Tiger
Beast. Judge, jury and executioner all in one, the Devil Tiger makes sure the wheel of ages turn, by force preferably.
* Resplendent Crane
Control. We are our honor,
* Bone Flower
Death.
* Thrashing Dragon
Life.
* Thousand Whispers
Only by leading many different lives can we learn how to set ourselves free.
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