Huisheng

There’s a great manga called Kengan Ashura, which is about a secret underground fighting organization that governs the Japanese economy and the tournament to determine its next leader. That manga has a less great sequel called Kengan Omega, which is about a lot of things yet simultaneously almost nothing.

There is however a concept in Omega which I think is worth stealing: the technique of “huisheng”, translated: "resurrection". How's it work? See below (read right to left):

So: nothing too fancy. One part autobiography to one part hypnotism, and you've got your mock-reincarnation.

 

When you think about the typical path to immortality in D&D, chances are you think about liches. I don't mind liches, the formula is simple & resilient, the imagery striking - ancient walking corpse, immense magical power, solve the puzzle of their phylactery or their return is inevitable.

HOWEVER

I think the lich-concept is deep, yet narrow - well-adapted to its niche as the dungeon boss monster, yet inflexible outside that niche, like a shark dumped into the desert.

Huisheng is broader, and for the moment shallower, but we'll work on that. It doesn't require magic, or metaphysics of souls, only some suspension of disbelief of how manipulable the human mind is - because of this it can be slotted into any genre, and fit into any character archetype. With huisheng not only wizards can be immortal, but warriors and rogues and regular-ass dudes. In Kengan Omega, the guys who use it are a clan of superhuman assassins. Its functional simplicity also lends itself to both players and DMs thinking of applications and twists to it, e.g.:

• Can a fictional person be huisheng'd into a real person?
• Can multiple huisheng's personas exist in the same person?
• How might the huisheng process interact with technology? Could you hide its indoctrination in a podcast or other media?
• Must there necessarily be a takeover of the connector by the speaker's persona? Could there be a more equitable or backseat guide relationship?
  

 Consider as well the plots and the moral or dramatic complications that could be hung on such a hook:

• The heir of a martial arts school that practices huisheng has run away. Will you return them for the favour of a centuries-old martial arts master? Is there a way to psychically prepare the heir so that they capture the master's persona instead of being overcome by it, to preserve their techniques without the oppressive legacy?
• A royal advisor, carrying the persona of a great philosopher from generations back, has held off on passing down that persona to their own student for too long, and now suffers from senility. Will you retrieve the lost writings of that philosopher to patch up the holes in their persona, and perhaps selectively edit them to ensure the huisheng creates someone allied with your goals?
• A noble family has practiced huisheng since its inception, the father passing the persona of their forefathers to their firstborn son. This generation's firstborn died in a hunting accident, the second is a drunken embarrassment, and with no clear successor the children squabble for the persona and the title and property that come with it, or to set up a rival to be destroyed by inheriting it. They're all looking to hire deniable agents.

I hope this concept is as inspiring to others as it is to me. The next time you need an immortal NPC, consider making them a pseudo-living oral tradition instead of an undead bloodsucker or whatever else.