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Five Ghosts
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Started by dockpig,

3,680 posts in this topic

accessndx

accessndx

Posted
Posted

Alright Frank....this is the first negative thing I can honestly say about five ghosts:

 

It's too short! LMAO...but that criticism could be lodged against many comics I suppose. I hate having to wait for more but I've got no choice. I almost would have preferred to have been turned onto the series when it's 10 issues in...this way I wouldn't be starving for more already.

 

But I digress: I've got some questions that need answering...or at least some hinting..

 

We've seen a few panels here and there that show some dark tentacles. They really don't appear to be related to the ghosts, nor do they appear to be related to the spider cult or Zhang Guo (< the guardian of dreams I presume!). There's even been a teaser image of issue #4 out that shows the ghosts trying to consume Fabian with a bunch of these tentacles as well....

 

What's the deal with the tentacles? Seems like some giant evil lovecraftian monster.

 

Also: There are historical notes of "Five Ghosts" on Taoist black magic sorcery as well as in Feng Shui principles:

 

In the old records, Mao Shan Five Ghosts (also known as Five Spirits or Five Ghostly Generals) is known to have 2 groups of 五鬼.

 

The 1st group of 五鬼 (primordial group) is recorded to consist of these 5 spirits:

•Dou Ren (窦仁)

•Li Kai (李凯)

•Zhang Wu (张五)

•Shi Tai (十泰)

•Chu Mian (褚免)

 

Under the 茅山鳳陽派 (Feng Yang Sect), the concept of the Five Spirits are that they are spirit guardians governing the 5 cardinal directions and as named as:

•Central: Yao Bi Song (中央姚碧松)

•North: Lin Jing Zhong (北方林敬忠)

•West: Cai Zi Liang (西方蔡子良)

•South: Zhang Zi Gui (南方张子贵)

•East: Chen Gui Xian (東方陈贵先)

 

Many of the Taoist Black Magic to hex/ disturb/destroy the enemies will summon these 5 ghosts [Yao Bi Song (中央姚碧松),Lin Jing Zhong (北方林敬忠), Cai Zi Liang (西方蔡子良), Zhang Zi Gui (南方张子贵), Chen Gui Xian(東方陈贵先)]. Very often these names will be found written on Black Magic Talismans.

 

In the folklore (民俗学)， the Five Spirits are another group consisting of the 5 colors corresponding to the Five Colors Charm (五色符):

•Black Ghost Xiao Zan (黑面獠牙鬼萧贊)

•White Ghost Guan Qian (玉/花面獠牙鬼管钱)

•Yellow Ghost Chang Yong (黄面獠牙鬼常拥)

•Red Ghost Jin Cai (紅面獠牙鬼晋財)

•Green Ghost Wei De (青面獠牙鬼魏得)

 

Although termed similarly as the Five Spirits, these 2 groups are essentially different in purpose. The 1st group mentioned (primordial group/five cardinal directions) is summoned to perform information seeking/checking and doing tasks without seeking "official permission" from the deities of the 3 realms and the Mao Shan practitioner's 祖师爷。 This is one of the Closed Door Magic Skills (内门术) that is closely guarded and strongly advised not to practise/use. As it is a Closed Door Secret Art (内门术), only disciples who has been inducted into the lineage officially (公入法门) can chant the incantations and invoke the Five Spirits.

 

For the second group of Five Ghosts, they are summoned most frequently by spiritual mediums to assist devotees (民间通灵术) to gain wealth and fulfill requests.

 

As these group of Five Ghosts are not enlightened beings, once a request is being fulfilled, the person who made the request will need to repay back at a certain "price" that usually he/she won't know till "the day is due".

 

Till today, a lot of the unorthodox sects (even those who claimed that they are orthodox) still summon the 2 groups of Five Spirits to assist the devotees in their requests and to make things work in order to gain the trust of the devotees or followers.

 

In Mao Shan Magic Skills (茅山术), there are a few sets of Secret Rituals(法门) to send off or disperse these 2 groups of Five Ghosts away. But once these Secret Rituals(法门) are invoked, the owner of the Five Spirits will receive repercussions in a way that he/she cannot withstand.

 

So, two things stick out to me:

 

1) The fulfilled requests need to be repaid at a certain price and Fabian won't know until the "day is due"?

2) The owner of the five ghosts will receive repercussions in a way that he cannot withstand.

 

Is this in store for Fabian?

 

If I'm right about my assumptions I'm even more pumped for further installments. You've melded ancient Taoist sorcery with otherworldly/extradimensional crystals and put them smack dab in the middle of giant spiders and zombies. How the hell can that be bad?

 

Some of the new panels show Fabian scoping out the caves with the detective ghost in the background....it almost appears as if it's a passive power...whereas sometimes Fabian appears to call upon the powers directly: ie-illuminating torches with the magician. Is that the case? Does the detective pop up whenever something needs to be detected or does Fabian control that?

 

You never see two of the ghosts at the same time, but Fabian does make use of the powers sequentially....is it because he can only be possessed by one at at a time?

 

Obviously I have alot of questions you may not want to answer. But any spoilers you feel like dropping would be appreciated....I'm hungry for more.

Please keep in mind that I'm only attempting to PUMP....PUMP....PUMP up my nonexistent Ebay auctions when answering these inquiries....so anything you could say to drive up those prices I'm unconcerned about would be great. :wink:

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