Moryo Oni (Basic Lore)

Moryo Oni (CR 10)
True Chaotic - Medium - Monstrous Humanoid
No matter how many or how few Gods you believe to exist, the truth of the matter is that spread across all possible realities there are Gods uncountable. Since Gods have a much higher order of perception than mere mortals, they have worked, over the eons, to form a structure, a Celestial Cascade, with the multitude of deities able to interact with one another and their worshipers in a way that allows the greatest harmony. Perhaps not in your world, (or maybe it is!) but somewhere, a small portion of the Celestial Cascade became more highly organized than most, and became known as the Celestial Bureaucracy. The Celestial Bureaucracy is vast beyond reckoning, even though it is a small portion of the Cascade, and is probably the single largest Deific structure in existence. As a result, the servants and minions of the Celestial Bureaucracy can be found in almost every world, even ones that have never heard of the Bureaucracy, or even the Cascade! These servants and minions are known as the Oni. They are a large collection of humanoid beings, empowered with Celestial might. And that is the end of their similarities. Oni come in all colors, with variable faces and features, variable numbers of limbs, and with widely varying degrees of autonomy and kindness. Some Oni are quite benevolent, while others would cause a Demon to cower in fear from their awfulness. It should be mentioned that Oni are not exactly evil, but they are also emphatically not good, and they are very very alien compared to most other creatures. It is rare indeed to meet an Oni who has your best interests in mind, and even if they do, Oni are remarkably changeable and fractious creatures, and are likely to turn on you in a heartbeat, purely on a whim. The Moryo Oni is the least of the commonly encountered Oni. They are tall, strongly built creatures with skin of various shades and features that are quite mutable. Some Moryo Oni are loyal to the Celestial Bureaucracy, while many others have 'drifted' and are now free agents, doing as they will in whatever worlds they find themselves in. Moryo Oni are always wilderness spirits, associated with trees and rivers, with mountains and deep crevices. If encountered in a dungeon or civilized venue, they will always have a certain wild air to them, disheveled hair or roaming eyes or clothing and gear decorated in natural scenes. Oni are beloved by deities and are masters of the Art Of Balance, and will be unpredictable at the best of times. In all cases, they have a wild and violent streak that makes them dangerous, so approach with care!