By Jason C. Marshall (JCMarshall@sympatico.ca) for the Celestial Court.
Gao Feng Ye hopped lightly from boat gunnal to boat gunnal. He was careful not to tip the boats enough to alert their passengers and quiet enough not to alert the flocks of birds many of the families kept.
He finally lept onto the side of a junk, and crawled to its deck. Two men stood waiting.
"Ahh, Feng Ye. What took you so long?" the first asked.
"I was being careful not to disturb the tanka."
"Why? They are but peasants."
Gao Feng Ye shook his head. "True, but the Yu are their protectors and we must not forget that it is they and not us who own the waters of the Court."
The second figure nodded in assent. "He speaks the truth. Even now they watch us, making sure we do not harm to their's and these waters."
The first man looked around. "Where?"
The Gao Feng Ye gestured to the water. "They are in the water, in the air, upon the moonlight. Everywhere the water touches they are."
Yi Shen laughed quietly as she overheard the conversation of the three Jen Pao members below. Mo-sha they might be, but here on the water, her kind, the Yu, were the masters. True, some of what they said was real, but in the water?? She'd sink. She shook her head at his wonder and went on listening.
The power of Aquas had given the newly created Yu a place of honor within their families, aiding fishing boats and sailing vessels in their travels. Their mastery of the waves and of nautical navigation is unparalleled.
The Yu are an old bloodline, some 1300 years in age. They have plied the waters with their families and boats for all this time, learning the ways of the water and befriending the spirits that swim within them.
The Yu actually approached the Dragon Council for admission, instead of being contacted by the Jen Lung. They were rejected, the Jen Lung not believing them to be of any use and afraid that they were allies of the Shu. The Yu were offended by the remark and accusation and so demonstrated their worth by gumming up sea trade for a month. The Jen Lung smiled and admitted them to the Jen Shu, with promises of the time when they would join the Jen Lung. That was 800 years ago.
Over this time the Yu have grown to a sizable group, protecting their people and walking the waters of the islands and Asian seaways. They have seen to have grown content with their lot, not seeking any sort of power over the other kindred of the Court nor interfering with any one bloodline unless members of their mortal families were threatened. In reality they had amassed a great deal of power, that of the open sea and all that travelled it. Any boat that enters the waters of China is ether watched by a Yu or has a member on board acting as a crewmember. The Yu are well aware that they control the waters and that this makes them one of the most powerful of the bloodlines. That they never pushed their way into the Jen Lung with this power is a mystery, though it is known that they demostrated their power briefly to the Shu in late 1850 when a number of secret Shu smuggling operations across the coast were either destroyed or discovered by Jen Lung forces.
It was a member of the Yu that first made contact with a member of the mysterious Shogun te of Nippon. He traveled with his family into the islands and met a member of the Torisawa in the city of Nagasaki, where they took shelter from a massive Tsunami. The Torisawa saw to their needs and then to their safe departure, thus ensuring peaceful relations between two normally hostile groups.
Today the Yu are among one of the more numerous of the asian bloodlines. They have members all up and down the coast of Asia.
"The Yu are a problem. They are headstrong and independent. This sort of independence we frown upon."
Jian: They are merely lap dogs to the Lung. Pity, for once Sun Jian was a mighty leader.
"You stay on the water, where you belong."
Pao Yu: They were there when we first approached the Jen Lung for admittance. They watch us closely, to see if we are with the Jen Lung. "Ahh, the boat people. They have always wandered and ignored our masters. This will soon end."
Kwai Tao: They fell from grace and honor. Now they try to regain that lost honor with trickery and deciet. "You think that no one knows your little secrets."
Men Hu: The courtseans have always been helped us in times of need. We will honor their name.
"The Tanka are a peaceful people with a wealth of knowledge to be cultivated."
Tong Chu: Doom. They are all our doom. "We merely wait for the order to deal with you like all the rest."
Shu: They seek to destroy us.
"What's yours will be ours."
Ch'i chu: They possess great knowledge and a culture different from ours. They are worth befriended.
"The Yu have always been an enigma, until now."
Mui Tsai: We regret that they have suffered so. In time, we will help.
"We need only time."
Camarilla: We have traded with these kindred for ages, indeed it was from them that our creator came. As with the Ch'i chu, perhaps we too, shall aide them when the time comes.
"They claim to be related to us through a bloodline that we do not know of. We must search our past for more information, but still, their aide will not be passed up."
Shogun te: We were the first to come across them. Our people travelled the waters to the kingdom of Nippon, and discovered the Torisawa.
"Old friends and old enemies. They are both. Our merchants traded with them and they with us. We will spare only them in the coming war."
Sabbat: Our progenitors warned us of the clans within this group ages ago, and so, when came, we were prepared.
"Of all the bloodlines of the Celestial Court, the Yu are one of the hardest to learn about."