“The nightmares have not gotten past them either.”
A Thunder immortal of The Mortal Realm
1 known connection · an open question
The Door God, left panel: the Tang general Yuchi Jingde, black-faced and fierce, who stood guard outside Emperor Taizong's bedroom door all night to keep the nightmares away — and has been standing on every door in China ever since, painted in New Year reds. He and Qin Shubao have not moved in 1,400 years. The nightmares have not gotten past them either.
He is glaring from the left door panel right now, black face fierce in the New Year reds, while a nightmare considers the threshold and thinks better of it. It always thinks better of it.
One New Year the painters will come with their brushes, and the doors will open, and there will be nothing left to guard against — and Yuchi Gong will step down from the panel, stretch for the first time in fourteen centuries, and walk through the door he guarded. Qin Shubao will hold it open for him.
“Every door in China carries the New Year prints — black face, pale face, the threshold guarded. Every door but one, in a village no one will name: bare wood, no print, never repainted. The door gods checked it themselves. No demon has ever tried that door. None of them will say why not. Yuchi Gong glares at it when he passes. The door does not glare back.”
One door in the village has no door-god print. No demon has ever tried it.
They started human. Mostly. The Monkey King, the sea goddess Mazu, Guan Yu and his long beard, the Kitchen God filing his annual report — and the First Emperor’s clay guardian, who has stood his two-thousand-year watch without blinking.
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“the old ones say: the gem cannot be polished without friction — thunder only strikes what stands tall enough to be noticed.”
