GRIFIX LORE UPDATE #19 - How many entertainment houses can I fit in one post?

Posted 3 weeks ago :: Last edited 3 weeks ago by MysteriousShine

More like I can't fit all the stuff in one post so it's gonna be split in two. And the first will cover all the entertainment houses :D

Kage no Kaiwa

All things bad should remain in darkness, all things good are never seen.

Name meaning: Shadow Conversations (at least I hope so)

House Mother: ???

"All things bad should remain in darkness,

All things good are never seen."

Kage no Kaiwa is a small entertainment house with no windows. It stands in complete darkness, and grifix aren’t allowed to use names, give advice or judge anybody. Strangers talk to each other about their messed up lives... try to feel like there's more like them, put shame aside cause nobody will know who they are.

But as expected, this is the place where most secrets are found... and as with any entertainment house, secrets are the best income.

All sorts of people go there to confess, talk with random people they can’t see, or be comforted by entertainers (which they must pay). They can touch the entertainers but they can’t see them.

They usually select their entertainers based on their voices.

The emblem of the house represents crows, as they are considered to provide guidance to those inside.

(This references the Three Legged Crow deitiy from japan. I used some ofuda amulets for inspiration for the design. More info HERE)

The Monastery

A weird cult formed around worshipping the Angel yokai from the House of Vanity.

The entertainment house was founded by some very radical entertainers from the House of Vanity, a while ago. They kept on preaching around the house various theories about the angels which got them turned into fallen angels, but they didn’t take it so they left the house along with some of their followers from there. They tried to form a clerics underguild but messed around with the Church of Time and angered the head of the church, which got them banned from ever forming an underguild in the Clerics Guild, meaning they could no longer form a legal religious cult.

They returned to the entertainment district and formed an entertainment guild where they worship the angels.

The House is a fairly wealthy entertainment house, having a building with an inner yard. The entertainers are named either monks (males) or nuns (females).

It is organized similarly to a romanesque abbey: a cloister with an open arcade, a scriptorium where the entertainers write and copy texts, dormitories and such. The main room, which they use to welcome in guests, has the aspect of a small romanesque church. There is usually a choir of entertainers playing religious chants and such in there. They burn incense made of frankincense and myrrh, though often they mix small amount of drugs in the smoke, especially psychedelic ones. Not much though, only enough to convince customers of their cause - they don't want the hallucinations to take over.

The church part is more of a cover-up. They can't be an official religious cult, therefore they must cover up their cause under the activity of a entertainment house. So they must provide music or some sort of entertainment. They use it to convince people who enter to convert to their cause. They are not so much centered around obtaining money - though they do need it to sustain the House. Therefore once converting someone to their cause they often end up convincing that grifix to become their patron and regularly donate money to the Monastery.

Angel Yokai roam the monastery, though mostly they stay in a designated worship room, where the entertainers and guests deemed "worthy" can come and see them, and offer their worship. In order for one to be deemed worthy, they must offer a lot of money to the monastery, or be a regular patron. While the entertainers prefer the angels to stay in there and not show to anybody, they can't do anything if the angels decide to roam around and pop up in random places. They consider them to be divine beings, and places like the Time Church or the House of Vanity Entertainment House practice heresy, not recognizing them for their true importance.

Kitsune Den

The Kitsune Den entertainment house is built around an ancient artifact, named the Fox Stone, which gives entertainers hatched under it’s roof special powers for as long as they reside within the house’s walls. Those hatched inside the house will have set sphirix from birth, all of them being kitsune. Most are born with only one tail, and will gain one if their magic grows stronger. The house mother is the strongest grifix in the house, having nine tails. Entertainers in this house are also born with the sphirix tail trait.

Eggs must spend a few days in the house before hatching in order for the artifact’s magic to sink in. Just hatching there isn’t enough. The house often buys eggs from other entertainment houses when the House Mothers are trying to get rid of them. All members of the house are hatched within the house’s walls and raised there. Those that leave lose their powers - their spirix can not gain any more tails, and they will usually lose all the tail they gained, reverting back to one.

In the Kitsune Den, there are two different ranks Entertainers can be put into based on abilities and heart. Zenko - “good foxes’ and Yako - “field foxes”.

Zenko are the higher ranked grifix that don’t wish to partake in mischievous behaviors, being all high and mighty, thinking they are the most perfect grifix out there. They mainly stay in their rooms or sit and watch the lower ranked entertainers hypnotize the customers with their tails.

Yako are the entertainers. Usually they run around serving tea to the customers, which they hypnotize after with their fabulous tails, dancing around and sometimes putting customers in trances, taking their money or jewelry. When the customers wake up they don’t realize their belongings were taken, never remembering a single thing.

The building of the House is split, having two compartments for each rank, so the Yako can plan their next performances together.

At times the Zenko will perform, but it’s a rare occurrence. If they do perform, their magic makes the watchers go into a super deep trance and the Yako will run around stealing everything they can.

The performers always wear their fox masks, which allows them to be sneaky and unrecognizable to the customers. One of the powers granted by the ancient Fox Stone is shapeshifting. All entertainers can use their magic to briefly shift into kitsune that look like their sphirix - it’s more of an illusion though. More powerful members of the House can also shift into other animals, but it takes up a lot of their magic, and they usually have to train a lot to learn a new “shape”, having to master each shape individually. Learning a new shape is usually the first step to gaining a new tail, because the effort will often help grifix raise their magic level. However, the number of shapes learned by a grifix is not linked directly to their number of tails. It is said that the house master is able to shapeshift into any animal out there.

Tsundae's Tale:

There's a story about the origin of the house goes back to the early days of the Empire, back when there were only a few houses in the Entertainment District. The Tale talks of a tall mare named Tsundae who used to be a dancer at one of those Houses. She had a sphirix in the shape of a nine tail Kisune, and the tails of one.

One night, as she was dancing for some customers, she got lost in the music and danced like she never did before, moving her body and her tails like the notes of the music, until she noticed that the music stopped. When she looked around she realized that everyone in the room had fainted, both musicians and customers. Terrified, she ran to her room.

Next day, when she walked down to do her job as usual, the House Mother stopped her. She told her that everyone in the room had been hypnotized by the way her tails moved, and that the customers woke up angry and refused to pay. If it ever happened again, she would be kicked out of the house.

Tsundae did her best to never dance like that again, but for some reason customers started falling asleep at every movement she made, and it was not before long that she got kicked out of the house.

She tried going around the other houses trying to get a job, but they all would faint when she tried to audition and refuse to ever let her in again. It was like that for a few weeks until she walked into a new House where there were no Entertainers - a grifix from the outside was trying to start an Entertainment House, but nobody wanted to get hired by him, so the business was bound to fail. It was like that for months, and everyone avoided the place, rumors even started to spread that he was cursed. But she had no other place left to go, so she walked in for an audition.

Shen Tsundae met him, she was surprised to see he had 7 kitsune tails just like hers. She danced in front of him for the audition, and to her surprise, he hadn’t fainted, he was just marveled by the beauty of her dance. He welcomed her into the house, introducing himself as Shikamaru, and together they decided to only hire other “kitsune”, who could perform her dance and use it for their business.

With Tsundae’s charm, they soon gathered enough entertainers to open the House, and soon it became one of the biggest Entertainment Houses.

Tsundae grew old in the House and became the House Mother. In her last years, she used to sunbathe on a big stone in the house’s inner yard. Legend says she died on that stone one day, but instead of her body remaining breathless there, she turned into a kitsune statue that still lays on that stone up to this day, and her soul provides the grifix born there with their special magical abilities.

This house is regulated by CrystalIzzy77

House of the Yurei

This entertainment house shelters many ghosts and yokai. The entertainers tend to their well being and are careful for them to not cause any troubles. Besides that, it looks like a fairly usual entertainment house and most customers don’t know about the spirits until one walks over them and starts whining about whatever.

The entertainers have shrines for every spirit in the house, where they place small offers so the spirits are happy. The spirits aren’t very powerful, but they can cause trouble for the business when they are upset, because they scare off customers.

Chopirako

Chopirako is the main spirit of the house. Chopirako is the ghost of a grifix which tends to whine all the time but most entertainers just ignore her. If a customer misbehaves and the entertainer cries or is hurt, she will attack the customer, because other grifix’s whines bother her very much, but she may also attack the entertainer for the same reason. It is very important that nobody cries or whines in the house for she will get upset and wreak havoc around the house. She doesn’t like hearing grifix talk, but she can’t stand at all hearing the sound of distress.

Chopirako was the mother of an old entertainment house. The building started to crumble and the customers stopped coming so all the entertainers left, leaving the old mother alone. She kept on living there, mumbling and whining about her fate all the time.
Grifix in the Entertainment District used to say to each other: “take care of your house and fix what is broken, or you will reach the same fate like Chopirako!”.
She lived a long time, and grifix started to think “she is so old, why won’t she die already?” But nobody ever found her dead body.
Nowadays they say Chopirako is still alive, or that her own ghost buried the body, but she has always lived there since anybody can remember.
In reality, she probably died at some point, but because nobody found the body, people kept believing she was there, so the magic in the air manifested at the beginning into a copy of the old mare, then later evolved into the strange being that is known today.
Because her death was never recorded, she is still the owner of the house, but a new mother took over and fixed up the house eventually. Still, the house has gathered many myths and spirits over the time, and apeasing them is much easier than working against them.

Yonaki

Yonaki is a shadowy grifix spirit that sits in corners of the house, usually in unoccupied rooms. It is often curled up in a ball and busy crying, when it is disturbed it will shriek and disappear.

Nopperabō

Nopperabō is a ghost in the shape of a grifix, but it has no face. it sits at one table and doesn't move unless scared off. If someone sits next to it its blank face will slowly morph to match theirs.

Sometimes if havoc is wrecked in the house, all the spirits run off scared and it takes a while for the entertainers to calm them down and take them back to their usual places. Sometimes, scared off by the chaos, TBN will start walking around, going through walls and entering rooms where customers are being entertained and it would morph into the customer's faces terrifying them, only fueling the chaos.

It would only do that when something is wrong, and entertainers would usually try to calm it and get it back to its usual place, especially since the spirit is forgetful and can't return on its own, so unless helped it will continue to wander around spooking customers.

Shadow Cubs

They look like cubs except their bodies are made of a dark smokey aura and they wear white porcelain masks on their faces and a shadowy chain around their right ankle.

When they touch objects, they will temporarily convert those things into shadowy whisps. But those often go back after a while when nobody is looking. If you try to look at them and wait for them to turn back, they never will.

Shadow Cubs do not like light. They will sometimes run around and try to steal things from grifix. You can tell one is near by their giggling.

Besides the few stronger spirits that have grifix-like forms, the house is full of fantastic creatures and hunted objects. In reality, none of the spirits are actual ghosts, they are but magical manifestations of the grifix’s common belief. But both grifix and the spirits don’t know that.

Gitsune's Vows

Gitsnue's Vows is a teahouse where entertainers walk around serving people while wearing Yokai masks, mostly Kitsune and Okami masks but not only. The House revolves around an old legend about a Kitsune who got married to an Okami.

The entertainers usually act like the yokai character they embody - kistune are mischievous, kicking stuff of the table and such. Okami are intimidating and assertive. Tanuki are playful tricksters, pulling pranks on the customers. Koma Inu are protective and majestic. There's many others, but the kitsune and okami are the most popular and most common in the house.

Through the animals they chose, entertainers act like popular character archetypes.

Unlike other entertainment houses, this one is often frequented by grifix who try to get together with someone, because the "yokai" here are considered great matchmakers.

The entertainers here don't really "attend personally" to the customers. Some kitsune might act like they're into it at first before pulling some prank on the customer and laughing in their face, hummiliating them. Strangely, most of those that end up in this situation knowingly, because they're into it.

Secrets of the Labyrinth

Secrets of the Labyrinth is an extremely small entertainment house. The building is practically falling apart, it's full of rotten wood and rusty nails, and crystals. Crystals everywhere. When entering you will pass through an arch covered in wards where a strange sensation will wash over you. Inside the house is in quite poor condition, being lit up only by crystals scattered everywhere and the occasional lamp.

There is no attractions except for a big cage in the middle of the room with a hole in the bottom. It looks like nothing is happening until some grifix will pull the paw of one of the entertainers and slip a coin in their paw. It is then that a bell will ring a mechanism will start to move. Soon a figure will emerge from the hole in the ground: a beautiful grifix, entirely covered in crystals.

"Do a dance!!" the grifix that payed will call. And the crystal grifix will obey. Once the dance is complete, the mechanism activates again and the crystal grifix is pulled back under the floor.

The customers all start to boo. "Bring her back up!!! Where is she gone!!??"

"PAY!!" the entertainer shouts, hitting their fist violently on the cage bars.

Silence falls.

And then another paw reaches out with a coin.

And the bell rings again.

That's how it goes for hours. Once the house is open, the customers can pay for the crystal grifix to do various activities. If nobody else pays for a new activity by the end of the first one, she will go back down in the floor and the assistants will start encouraging people to pay to bring her back up. Then the bell will ring again once one of them pays….

This will happen a few times every day before grifix will get excited and start paying for more activities, making them pile up so she doesn’t go back down… until late at night when the customers start to leave, and all becomes quiet again.

The most excited of customers can pay an exorbitant sum of money to gain a crystal growing from her body. The crystals decorating the house are harvested from her body as well. Some naturally fall of her body, but if needed the owner will order the entertainers to rip them of her body. They are only allowed to touch her when ordered by the owner.

She is usually kept on magic supressing drugs that the owner buys for her diet.

The entertainers aren't allowed in the crystal grifix's room unless they bring her food or help her bath. The owner will watch over them to make sure they don't talk to her or do anything suspicious.

The place has very few entertainers, and usually they're the cheapest, worst kind because the owner of the house doesn't want to pay for good entertainers. After all... he doesn't even need them. Most entertainers do not stay very long if they even get hired. But if they ever leave, their lips are magically sealed so they can never talk about the crystal grifix, no matter how hard they may try.

The entertainers are tasked to take care of the Crystal Grifix (feed, water, etc) and keep the house from completely falling apart. During open hours, they may be atending to the customers, collecting payment from them and serving alcohol cause customers pay more when they're drunk. The ward stands at the door charging for entrance, while the other entertainers go around serving cheap drinks.

History:

There was an individual merchant that was traveling to the underground sometimes to sell stuff to the grifix there. He was very stuck on seeing the Underground City but the underground grifix didn't want to take him there, until he fooled one to take him there. There he met the Crystal grifix, and he thought he could make money off of her. So he promised her all sorts of stuff on the surface and tricked her to come up with him. So she left the underground city with the merchant but the merchant locked her in his house and then took her to the Entertainment District where he bought a house where he locked her up.

He then made it into an Entertainment House where grifix came to stare at the Crystal Grifix who was placed in a cage in a middle, and the crystal grifix was forced to dance and put on a show while they would stare at her like they were some sort of animal in a cage.

AAAAND THAT'S IT FOR NOW!!! That was a lot. See you very soon with more if all goes as planned! :3