25: Global Sorcery Traditions

Introduction

While Jujutsu Kaisen focuses on Japan, cursed energy is not unique to it. Negative emotions are universal, and thus, curses arise wherever humanity exists. What differs is how cultures have historically responded. In Japan, sorcerers systematized their arts into jujutsu, fusing Shinto, Buddhist, and Onmyōdō influences. Elsewhere, traditions adapted curses and exorcism into their own spiritual frameworks. Understanding global sorcery reveals that Japan is only one theater in a worldwide struggle. This codex explores how cursed energy manifests across civilizations, how traditions evolved, and how they intersect in the modern age.

China: Heirs of Taoist Sorcery

China holds the deepest ties to jujutsu’s roots. Taoist metaphysics, alchemy, and soul refinement produced early experiments in curse manipulation. Kenjaku himself conducted forbidden rituals in China, exploiting its sorcerous history to fuel modern schemes.

Chinese sorcery emphasizes:

  • Qi and Flow: Balancing life force and cursed energy, treating CE as corruption of natural Qi.

  • Talismans and Paper Seals: Advanced binding and sealing arts, far more intricate than Japan’s.

  • Body Cultivation: Rituals to fortify vessels, allowing them to host powerful souls longer.

  • Immortality Pursuits: Obsession with preserving souls, producing vessels and hybrids akin to Death Paintings.

Chinese traditions lean toward ritualism and refinement, producing disciplined curse manipulators and experts in sealing. Their sorcerers often function as exorcist-priests, seen as spiritual authorities rather than secret warriors.

Europe: Witchcraft and Relics

In Europe, cursed energy was framed through witchcraft, Christianity, and folklore. Sorcerers hid among mystics, inquisitors, and alchemists, often hunted or exalted depending on era.

European traditions emphasize:

  • Relics and Artefacts: Churches and orders forged cursed tools infused with faith and fear. Some survive in hidden vaults as holy or forbidden weapons.

  • Hexcraft: Lineages of witches wield curses as both weapon and shield, often binding them into objects or charms.

  • Blood Pacts: Binding Vows tied to oaths before gods or demons, with penalties sanctified by ritual.

  • Guild Structures: Sorcery treated like guilds or covens, fractured but politically entrenched.

Europe’s sorcery is marked by conflict between ecclesiastical suppression and underground persistence, producing traditions that lean heavily on cursed objects and vows.

Africa: Ancestral Sorcery

African traditions treat curses as extensions of ancestral wrath or imbalance with nature. Sorcerers are seen less as secretive fighters and more as spiritual mediators, protecting communities from both physical and metaphysical harm.

African sorcery emphasizes:

  • Ancestor Bonds: Spirits of the dead can serve as tethers, guardians, or even become cursed beings if dishonored.

  • Natural Disasters: Fears of drought, famine, or storms give rise to elemental curses.

  • Totemic Curses: Spirits shaped like animals, often worshiped or feared as deities.

  • Communal Exorcism: Rituals involve villages or groups channeling collective CE to banish curses.

This creates sorcerers whose strength lies not in individual might but in tethering themselves to ancestral lines or communities, mirroring Yuta’s bond with Rika on a cultural scale.

Middle East and India: Divine Intersections

In regions shaped by rich mythologies, sorcery evolved around beings like djinn, asuras, or rakshasas — entities feared as divine yet dangerous. Curses were often indistinguishable from demons or divine punishments.

These traditions emphasize:

  • Binding and Bargaining: Sorcerers strike vows with spiritual entities, gaining cursed techniques in exchange for service or sacrifice.

  • Sacred Geometry: Rituals carved into architecture or deserts, turning spaces into vast barriers.

  • Mantras and Chants: Vocalized cursed energy akin to Cursed Speech, refined through ancient practices.

  • Hybrid Beings: Myths of half-divine sorcerers may stem from vessels carrying celestial spirits, similar to Hana Kurusu and the Angel.

Sorcery here intertwines with faith, producing blurred lines between exorcism, worship, and manipulation.

The Americas: Shamanism and Urban Fear

In pre-Columbian cultures, curses were framed through shamanic traditions. Sorcerers communed with spirits, nature, and death to control curses. In modern contexts, however, urbanization has shifted cursed energy toward anxieties of modern life: poverty, violence, industrial accidents.

American sorcery emphasizes:

  • Spirit Communion: Shamans tethered souls of ancestors, animals, or guardians as allies.

  • Totem Objects: Cursed tools crafted from bones, feathers, or carved idols.

  • Urban Curses: Skyscrapers, factories, and subways now generate curses tied to isolation, pollution, or systemic fear.

  • Hybridization: American sorcerers often merge global traditions, reflecting immigrant communities.

This makes American sorcery eclectic but unstable, blending ancient practices with modern fears.

Global Exchange and Modern Age

In the present era, sorcerers across cultures are increasingly aware of each other. The Culling Game proved that Japan is not isolated; sorcerers from China and beyond entered freely, wielding techniques foreign to Japanese understanding. Modern technology and travel accelerate this exchange, though secrecy remains paramount.

This global dimension allows for narrative expansion: international tournaments, alliances between clans across nations, or wars sparked by cursed object smuggling. Sorcerers now face not only local threats but global ones — rival schools, competing traditions, and ancient curses rising from forgotten lands.

Narrative Applications

For your game, global sorcery expands the canvas:

  • International Missions: Players are sent abroad to stop a curse born of foreign fears.

  • Cultural Clashes: Japanese sorcerers confront unfamiliar traditions that defy their logic.

  • Relic Wars: Rival factions compete for cursed tools hidden in ancient tombs, temples, or churches.

  • Culling Game Echoes: Survivors of Kenjaku’s global schemes continue to interact with Japan.

  • Player Diversity: PCs may hail from other traditions, their techniques flavored by culture.

Closing Thought

Cursed energy is universal, but sorcery is cultural. Each civilization confronted curses through its own myths, rituals, and fears, producing diverse traditions of exorcism, sealing, and survival. Japan’s jujutsu is only one branch of a vast, global tree. By incorporating international sorcery into your game, you expand the stage from local battles to worldwide conflicts, ensuring that the war against curses feels as boundless as humanity’s fears themselves.