User Guide

DOA world
The secret to living life in this manner can be summed up in one word: "shi-
nobi." Their very existence and purpose required that each Shinobi be able
endure circumstances that would otherwise be impossible to accept. The weak
who were willing to abandon this endurance were considered a threat to the
shinobi tribe, and were often killed on the spot. This iron-clad unity was the
rule of blood that allowed the shinobi tribe to carry forth its tradition.
Hagakure is the beauty of samurai philosophy, but the Ninja viewed life and
death more in fundamental terms. In light of this severity, even a samurai is
merely a part of the general population. This structure allowed the shinobi to
exist independently in small numbers yet be considered the strongest of the
strong.
The shinobi tribes lived in hidden villages in the mountains, participating in
power struggles without ever being a part of them.
What is interesting is the ties between the shinobi and Tengu.
The origin of the shinobi is thought to lie in a force of mountaineers who
would not submit to the will of a centralized government (see "What is a
‘Tengu’?"). The shinobi technologies and beliefs, which are passed down
through the ranks and generations, are notably similar to the personality train-
ing practices and physical training philosophies of the yamabushi, who are con-
sidered to be the closest people to the mythical tribes of mountain beasts
known as tengu.
Yamabushi were mountain priests who worshipped the tengu. They were
obsessed with the God-like power of the tengu, and trained their minds, bod-
ies and souls by running through the mountains in order to obtain that power.
Generally, though, they couldn’t hope to attain as much power as the tengu.
Of course, the yamabushi weren’t members of the tengu tribe, and their physi-
cal limits were no different than those of other Japanese people. However, on
rare occasions a member of the yamabushi tribe would produce a tengu; a man
with tengu-like powers and an amazing capacity for education and strategy.
It is known that the shinobi and yamabushi are hard to tell apart. In fact,
there is a tendency to consider them as being one and the same. Since both
groups of people maintained secrecy, there are no existing historical records
depicting the relationship between the two. But certain evidence points in that
direction.
Ninjutsu strongly emphasizes the technology employed by the tengu, and is
therefore an interesting subject in and of itself. For example, the Ninpo "Izuna
Otoshi," which is displayed in a fantasy-like manner in this game, is actually
derived from the laws of Izuna pioneered by the great Tengu, Saburo Iizuna.
Therefore, Ninjutsu is feared and held as being superior to all other forms of
martial arts.
* SOG: Special Operations Group. A military SOG is quite different from a non-
military SOG, since it’s related to the military and often supercedes the law, and
is of utmost secrecy. For example, in terrorist situations the military SOG priori-
tizes the destruction of the terrorists over saving the lives of the hostages. A
nonmilitary SOG, on the other hand, is usually a part of the police or similar
agency and under all circumstances must obey the law. Their priority is to save
the lives of the innocent.
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