#jiuweihu

OP: My coworker went full plant-shamer ‘Ew, that thing’s ugly!’

Cnetienzes: Uh, excuse me? This plant is my pride and joy. Fight me.

❄️ Concepts: The Three Friends of Winter ❄️

Fun fact !! Despite appearances, the iconic weapons used by each Sect are based on creatures from Chinese mythology, with some major embellishment

For instance, the Heping Weishi's most iconic weaponry are their swarms of six-legged, four-winged drones, each equipped with deadly-sharp claws empowered with shining Fire qi - the Hundun swarms, feared by all the Sects. It's said that once a Hundun swarm is unleashed, they MUST taste blood or cause chaos, lest they turn on their regiment-master. They draw qi from either their regiment-master or the environment around them, depending on if they’re piloted or unpiloted

In stark contrast, the Eternal Line's most iconic weapons are the Qinglong, or Azure Dragons, giant, meticulously-crafted mechas shaped like twisting, wingless, five-clawed long - Chinese dragons. Known as a symbol of the Imperial authority of the Eternal Line's leadership, who claim descent from Qin Shi Huang himself, the Qinglong are comprised of two parts - the skeleton, and the Cradle. The skeleton itself is a thing of grey metal, every inch of it carved with water radicals at each pressure point. On it's own, it is lifeless, connected to the Cradle through its meridians

The Cradles are shining white cocoons carved with Metal radicals, the better to conduct the Water qi of the Yilong, whose name is derived from the mythological Yu and Ying Lung, and also means "According to the Dragon", The Yilong, the pilot of the Qinglong, seat themselves within the Cradle, at which point acupuncture needles puncture their spines, drawing out yin qi, and with it, Water qi, conducting both inwards and downwards to the hangar. The Metal radicals light up with shining white Metal qi, which then proceeds to start generating dark, cold, Water qi, and back in the hangar, the Qinglong skeletons activate, water wrapping around its body, glowing a dark blue, bringing it to life.

Notably, as Water qi moves inwards, the Qinglong can't breathe water unless piloted by a Yilong with exceptionally potent Fire or Wood qi. Instead, it's claws and teeth are deadly enough to match the threats of the Hundun and the Octafleet

They are also treated as sacred within the Line itself, with acceptance into a Yilong Academy being referred to as "becoming a Renxian", acceptance into the position of a Xiao-Yilong (or Ji-Yilong) being referred to as Dixian, and ascension to the position of Grand General of the Yilong (Jiao-Yilong or Da-Yilong) being referred to as Shenxian

Oddly enough, though the Line are descendants of the very-sexist Qin dynasty, the Qinglong mainly use water qi, water being the most yin of all elements. This means that it needs to draw yin qi from its pilots, yin qi being feminine in nature

This creates an odd dynamic where, despite everyday culture being misogynistic as all fuck, female and feminine-presenting Yilong are not only allowed, they are PREFERRED

At first glance, the Wumu Zhi Ren may seem to lack any ties to traditional Chinese mythology, with their weapon - the flying formation of eight mighty warships, each armed with cannons - known as the Octafleet seemingly having no mythological basis. Each warship is powerful, yes, being manned by two cannons upfront known as the Dragon Fangs, and two at the back called the Twin Flames, all four being able to cycle between blasts of a variety of different types of qi - though they favor Wood qi over all

Notably, these cannons are "radical cannons", looking like long, oversized rods of metal encircled by swirling, glowing rings of radicals - the color of the light directly correspondng to the type of radical powering. On being fired, the radicals swirl together to either form a character or an oversized radical, which shoots out through the rod's tip as a blast of qi

But that's just until you learn that the Grand Admiral of the Wumu Zhi Ren, the one who leads the Commandants of all the ships of the Octafleet, is known as the Jiuweihu, his traditional attire being a black fox mask with golden accents, and a skintight matching black-and-gold hanfu.

The ships are the nine tails of the Admiral's Nine-Tailed Fox. However, one got grounded in a confrontation with the Eternal Line sometime in 1996, leading to it being renamed to the Octafleet. However, the Wumu remember when they used to have nine ships, and to this day refer to the fleet as the Jiudingshao, the nine tails, and hate the Eternal Line for it

The Jiudingshao draw power from the environment around them. Unfortunately, this often leads to unbalanced natural qi, as displayed when the warship Shuilong drew so much qi from the environment around it that it triggered a massive storm, one that was only calmed when a Qinglong exploded in the middle of it, releasing its own qi back into nature and killing its Yilong

This also means that the place where the Jiudingshao are most often docked - the Yellow Mountains - are dry, dusty and grey, almost completely drained of qi by the warships. In fact, most people refer to them as the Pillars of Death because of this

Most of the Jiudingshao dock there temporarily. However, one ship - the flagship Daoren - stands there as a permanent fixture, a floating city above the mountains. This is because Daoren is IMMENSE, easily the size of Chang’an, and houses most of the Wumu Zhi REN’s members and their families in the city on its deck.

This means that, despite its shining hull, bristling with literally THOUSANDS of radical cannons, the Daoren is too valuable to risk in battle, meaning that the Wumu most often fight using lesser tails like the second-class Shuilong, or the third-class Huolong

And as for the Heiyubai, and the Golden Lotus ?

Well, the Heiyubai - a sect devoted to Daoism and the maintenance of balance - are pacifists, as are the Buddhist Golden Lotus, meaning that they use no Sect-wide weaponry

“You gave up one of your tails,” she whispered.

Bonnie couldn’t contain her horror. It was said that severing a tail of a jiuweihu was so painful it could lead to death. “Why would you do that?”

“It was nothing.”

“You’re bleeding.” The spell she used to reduce someone’s pain wasn’t working. He must be in agony, but all she could do was cradle his head in her lap in some semblance of comfort. “It’s not nothing.”

Zhuo Hu reached up and stroked her cheek, wiping her tears away with a gentle brush of his thumb. “I would sacrifice every one of my tails a thousand times over if it meant I would find you again, Bonnie.”

—Zhuo Hu, Jiuweihu

Together, we bleed.

But I won't heal, so

Say you'll always haunt me...

...say you'll always haunt me.

— Ghost / Wildes    

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Shang-Chi #7 (2022): by Gene Luen Yang & Dike Ruan provides the first on-panel appearances of the dijiang ("Morris" from "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings") and the jiuweihu!

Not to mention the first in-depth discussion of the relationship of Shang-Chi's mother to the Xian (the gods of Ta-Lo) and the qilin!