Introduction to PSYCHOPOMPS

 PSYCHOPOMPS is a setting that I developed for tabletop role-playing games, a fictional world in which I am able to play with the aesthetics, themes and ideas of my choosing. This blog will serve to document my ideas, collating them in a singular resource I can access. It will also serve as my medium to share this world of mine.

PSYCHOPOMPS is a fantasy, post-apocalyptic setting based on the culture and mythology of South-East Asia. It focuses on ghost hunters, the eponymous psychopomps, as they hunt the monsters and spirits haunting this ruined world. The Cycle of Reincarnation is broken and souls have nowhere to go. Everything that dies will resurrect as a spirit, a product of this stagnancy. Jilted lovers come back as terrible white-faced ghosts, with thick black hair concealing beady, red eyes. A buffalo collapsing under miserable labour, become a bull-spirit, trampling his old owner’s fields and goring his children. There are ways to prevent this, the most widespread being the rites and rituals of the Grave Priests, which establish the tenuous connection needed to send the soul to rest. Exorcised Cities have re-established some means of society and civilisation, each being safe enough that the threat of undead violence is minimal. The invention of the spirit bottle, a device through which an errant soul can be capture, and crucially, converted into spiritual energy, has transformed the spirits from terrifying monsters to exploitable resources. Guilds form in the wake of this, minor corporations seeking to employ foolhardy and dangerous individuals to capitalise on this new source of wealth. The more powerful spirits, possessing their own sentience and intelligence, are worshipped as gods or devils. Some of them contract themselves to the people, giving them a taste of their magical power in exchange for favours and gifts.

 

The Golden Women from the episode "Jibaro" in "Love, Death, Robots".

Thematically, PSYCHOPOMPS borrows a lot from the Cyberpunk genre, which exists in its bustling, overcrowded cities run by corporations and oppressive governments and the neon sprites that light up the signboards for brothels and noodle shops. It exists in the supernatural being yet another capitalistic venture and the government warlocks hunting rogue wizards. It also borrows from the Western, with grizzled veterans riding on thick, salt roads as they head to a village far in the south, hunting a serial killer turned mantis demon. Apart from the Exorcised Cities, most places are lawless and dangerous, at risk of Resurrected or more likely, human violence. It takes inspiration from South-East Asian culture and mythology, equally from Malaysian ghost stories and Buddhist teachings. Despite my upbringing as a Singaporean, I am not an expert on these matters of culture and religion and do not claim to represent any real-life religions or cultures. This is a fantasy setting as much as it draws from the world around me.

Celebrating the Hungry Ghost Festival

The Neon Signs of Hong Kong

This is meant to be a brief introduction to the world of PSYCHOPOMPS and hopefully I will be able to flesh out and illustrate it in more detail in my next few blog posts.