Totem Warriors of
the Ife
African Totem Warriors and The Demon Masks
African Totem Warriors and The Demon Masks
for
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game
Main Unisystem PageThe African Totem Warriors
Ancient History:
Long ago in the land now known as Nigeria a plague of the undead ravaged the Kingdom of Ife. The people were beset by a group of powerful demons known as Ovu Mobani “the Evil Eye”, who raised armies of the dead to conquer the land. The Ife people fought back but every one of their warriors that died became a soldier of the enemy.
All seemed lost until finally the remaining Shamans among the Ife called upon the Spirits for help and bound the Spirits of mighty animals to their six finest warriors. These Totem Warriors fought the Ovu Mobani and their undead horde and eventually defeated them.
But the power of the Ovu Mobani could not be destroyed or banished. So the Shamans sought to contain their evil power in seven specially prepared Spirit Masks. The ritual was successful and the Ovu Mobani were bound to the masks. These Demon Masks were placed in a secret shrine warded against the power of the Ovu Mobani.
The Totem Warriors took an oath to guard the masks and combat the other unnatural forces of the night that might threaten the Ife people. So began the tradition of the Ife Totem Warriors and their power was passed down through the generations.
Recent History:
In recent times however an unscrupulous mystical antiques dealer learned of the Ovu Mobani Masks and the location of the shrine from a disgruntled Ife Shaman. He ambushed the shrine with a team of heavily armed mercenaries, killed all to Ife Shamans and Totem Warriors, and stole the masks from their warded shrine to sell on the Black Market. He managed to sell all of them off to private collectors, except for one that ended up sold off to a Southern California art gallery of all places.
Now that the Ovu Mobani are free of their guardians they have begun to use their powers to take form and live once more. The simplest way the demons have to do that is to raise the dead and call for them to put on the mask, and then take possession of the corpse (just like the rules in Monster Smackdown p.120). But the masks were mostly sold to those in the mystical know and were warded or put on as soon as they were taken out of their warded crates. But Joyce didn’t know to do this, which lead to the Night of the Living Dead-fest in Sunnydale.
The other Ovu Mobani masks have called to their various owners to put them on. Whispering to them, offering them power in return for their freedom. Since most of the collectors who bought the masks were power-hungry, low moral fiber types anyway; the offer of demonic power wasn’t too hard a sell. So now the greatest fears of the Ife Tribe have come true the Demons are free once more to set their armies of the dead against humanity.
The Totem Warriors of the Ife Series:
Luckily one of the Ife Shamans escaped the massacre, a man named Olujimi. He is one of the last Shamans of the Ife Tribe that still knows the rituals of the Totem Warriors and about the Ovu Mobani. He has come to America to track down the masks. His hope was to either take the masks back or to destroy the demons. When he discovered that the demons had bound themselves to men and are now free, he knew the Totem Warriors must be called fight the menace of the Evil Eye.
Though he would have preferred to use members of his own tribe, he has settled on using locals. He divined the best candidates in this foreign land and using the sacred rituals has bound the Animal Spirits to them to make them the new Ife Totem Warriors. He has also charged them with the sacred mission to destroy the Ovu Mobani.