Yin and Yang Puppets

The yin and yang puppets stand a grade above the village kind. Their bodies are complete and their craft finer; the yin are light and supple and land almost without a sound, the yang heavy and solid enough that one blow tells you what you are facing. Every joint and balance point has been retuned until the limbs move at angles no living body allows.

Most of the memory, feeling and humanity of the minds put inside them was stripped away, leaving only what kills best. Pain was taken from the yang; hesitation was cut out of the yin. A puppet never tires and the mind within can never sleep, so it can do nothing but turn its hatred of captivity over and over.

The makers wanted each one to believe it was born a weapon. When villagers saw sword-and-shield puppets fighting Maskwalkers with brass blades, they called it a miracle of the Lady. The miracle was staged.

• Yin Puppet: A woman's body that bends at angles no living spine allows, her joints moving as though drawn by strings, a beat ahead of any living turn, the killing blow landing where you are not looking.
• Yang Puppet: A man's body, cracked all over and still not breaking, unable to feel pain and unwilling to give ground.
• Yang Puppet (Upper Half): A defective cast that drags itself on its arms, almost flat to the ground and up in a single instant, skittering low and then springing — no better than a mad dog now.
• Yang Puppet (Lower Half): No torso and no head, only waist and legs, and still it kicks, tramples and charges; what drives it is the instinct to keep existing.
• Puppet Spearman: A spear and a round brass shield, joints tuned for hard attack and steady guard; when the shield goes, he fights on with the spear. With no face to show anger, all the fury goes into the point.
• Swordshield Puppet: Brass sword and round shield, quickest of all at reading an opening — turn the blow aside, answer at once, and the combination keeps changing. The villagers once knelt to such puppets as a miracle, never knowing the miracle had been arranged for them.

Know which body you are facing before you commit. The yin is fast and light and wants your flank; the yang is slow and hard, and trading blows with it is a gift.

For the two shield-bearers, the shield is the root of everything. Break it before you change your line, because once it shatters the counter never comes. The two ruined halves are the worst of the lot, since nothing is left in them that can hesitate; and they will not tire, so a drawn-out fight ends with you on the ground.