Hu Family

Biodata

Background and History

The family's rise began more than 170 years ago. Its first ancestor was a minor official assigned to the Talisman Suppression Mansion to record the merits and assignments of wandering practitioners. Seeing the growing importance of their skills, he began learning Ghost Walking. The Hu Family later held authority in the Mansion, including the right to wield its mace 780.

Twenty years before Hu Ma's return to the Imperial Capital, the family patriarch separated the Talisman Suppressing lineage from the Qingyuan Hu Family and established a new genealogy. He distributed its estates and wealth, retaining its Mansion position and an empty capital residence, then led relatives and followers to Old Yin Mountain. Powerful pursuers caught up with them on the road 780. The separated line bore a responsibility tied to the Talisman Suppression Mansion that the other Hu relatives had declined; even their ancestral worship became separate 511.

In Great Sheep Village, the Hu household was treated as an outsider clan. Old Woman protected Hu Ma, left him the Talisman Suppression Book, and told him not to disclose the family's identity 35 38. When Green Robe Evil Spirits endangered Ghost Walkers and villagers, Hu Ma used the family's methods without revealing who he was. The Old Tree Stump explained that the Meng Family had engineered the crisis to draw out a Hu descendant 202 206.

Hu Ma later accepted the family's obligations and borrowed its mace to confront the Five Fiend God 350 351. After retrieving the Talisman Suppression Golden Mace, he was acknowledged by the Mountain Lord as the new master of the Talisman Suppressing Hu Family 532. He eventually returned to the Imperial Capital with his father's coffin, paid respects at the ancestral shrine, and heard Old Woman's account of the family's past 777 779 780.

Abilities and Responsibilities

Talisman Suppression

• The Talisman Suppression Book preserves family methods used against evil spirits; Hu Ma employed them to eliminate the Green Robe Evil Spirit 35 209.
• The family's charge is to uphold the boundary between Yin and Yang, suppressing ghosts and evil spirits 532 697.
• The Hu Family is recognized as the ancestral lineage of the Ghost Walkers. The Old Tree Stump considers intervention when Ghost Walkers are endangered a responsibility of its descendants 202.

Possessions and Holdings

• Talisman Suppression Book — passed from Old Woman to Hu Ma; its primary seal is needed for other Inner Sect members seeking a stable path onto the Bridge 35 781.
• Talisman Suppression Golden Mace — the family's token. Its power scatters evil spirits and relieves burdened souls; Hu Ma retrieves it and assumes its charge 351 532.
• Talisman Suppression Mansion — the source of the separated lineage's continuing place among the Ten Clans, despite its losses 512.
• Imperial Capital residence and ancestral shrine — the residence remained locked and tended by one servant during the family's twenty-year absence; its ancestral hall stands among the Ten Clans' shrines 778 779.

Relationships

• Hu Ma — surviving descendant and acknowledged master of the Talisman Suppressing lineage 511 532.
• Old Woman — a Bai Family member who married into the Hu Family and served as its Ghost Walker's Blade; she protected Hu Ma and preserved its legacy 35 781.
• Qingyuan Hu Family — blood relatives who established a separate household and ancestral worship. Some later sought Hu Ma's favor and offered him manpower 511 781.
• Tong Yin Meng Family — rival Ten Clan whose efforts to find a Hu descendant escalated into open conflict with Hu Ma 202 206 697.
• Ghost Walkers — the wider tradition for which the Hu Family is the ancestral lineage 202.