Oni

The Devil Fighters

The Oni are towering, red or grey skinned muscular beings of horn and fury, yet also of passion and loyalty. They thrive in tight-knit clans, building their society around food, family, and the joy of combat. To outsiders, Oni ways may seem barbaric: their laughter is loud, their celebrations chaotic, their fights sudden and explosive. Yet at the heart of it lies devotion—to kin, to community, and to the strength found in struggle.

Oni believe that life is meant to be lived fiercely. They wield massive hammers, clubs, or axes, and in battle they are forces of nature—unstoppable, proud, and fearless. Dying in a glorious battle against a worthy foe is their greatest honor, for such deaths carry their spirits to join the ancestors in eternal revels. Their tempers may be short, but their forgiveness is swift, and their loyalty once earned is unshakable.

They reside in Akumatani Village, a settlement hidden in the enchanted woods bordering the steppe. The air there smells of smoked meats, sake, and wildflowers. Bright banners flutter above painted huts, drums echo in the central plaza, and the evenings glow with lantern-light as Oni dance, feast, and test their might in contests of strength. To live among Oni is to be embraced by noise, fire, and laughter—a celebration of life itself.

Oni & Okami: A Rivalry of Kinship

Though different as night and day, Oni and Okami share a bond woven of rivalry and mutual respect. Festivals often see the two peoples competing in contests of strength, endurance, and wit, their quarrels dissolving into shared feasts beneath the open sky. While skirmishes are not uncommon—particularly when pride flares—their enmity never festers into war. Each knows that the other is essential to the balance of the steppe, and both recognize their joint duty to protect the sacred Kirin that roam it.

Thus the Kirin Steppe is more than a land of beauty—it is a living testament to the coexistence of passion and patience, chaos and order. Oni and Okami alike see themselves not merely as its inhabitants, but as its guardians, bound together by the blessings of the gods and the hoofbeats of the eternal Kirin.