Master Yao

Master Yao is something of an apocryphal figure in Dabgach – many claim that a relative or friend met with the master and learned some essential truth of the world. These tales focus on a huffing, fidgety, bearded old man with sharp eyes who seems forgetful (and claims to have forgotten his personal name) and chatters away on all sorts of trivial matters. He is however a master of magic, able to talk to animals and able to produce food from thin air.



Master Yao is believed to live in a sheltered hut in the foothills of the Golden Crane Mountains near Trao Le; the interior is sparsely furnished – the main features appear to be no more than a battered old kettle, a low desk with brushes, pots of red ink and small pieces of yellow papers for creating talismans. His system of magic teaches that everything one sees, hears and touches is an illusion, created by one’s own mind. He argues that one should think of oneself as a character in a story created by one’s imagination and thus able to be manipulated. The chants, paper talismans and gestures used in magic are mere window dressing.



Master Yao was the guardian of the golden Sacred Sword of Tsui, bane to all demons, until he passed it on to the revolutionary Suiyuan who was undertaking a quest to restore justice to the land.