Monday 11 March 2013

The Sinister "Devil Doctor", Fu Manchu!


“Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green ... one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present ... Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man.”

–Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu

Arch-villain of a long series of thrilling novels by the British author Sax Rohmer, the ‘Devil Doctor’ is an archetype of the sinister Triad leader and eminently suitable for Keepers to establish as a nemesis for their Investigators. The name ‘Fu Manchu’ gives an indication as to the character’s heritage and has been suggested to actually be a title of honour, meaning ‘the Warlike Manchu’.

In the early novels Fu Manchu works as a subordinate leader in a deadly secret society called the Hsi Fan. As the stories progress, he rises in rank until, ultimately, he rules the tong completely and commits their efforts to the expulsion of the Communists and the reinstatement of the Ch’ing Dynasty. During the Boxer Rebellion, Fu Manchu is tentatively identified as part of the Imperial household and disappeared as the Dowager Empress fled Peking at the lifting of the Siege.

Fu Manchu’s schemes are byzantine and terrifying, slow to unwind but deadly in their effect. He spends much time outside of China plotting to overthrow governments and to destabilize economies. He targets his foes with a bewildering array of subtle weapons - "pythons and hamadryads... fungi and my tiny allies, the bacilli; ... my black spiders" – and regularly recruits such assassins as the Thugs and the Dacoits, along with his own tong minions. Notorious amongst his arsenal are the ‘Zayat Kiss’ and the ‘Flower of Silence’ both of which reveal his dominance over the arts of Chinese alchemy and herbalism. Fu Manchu is supposedly one of very few practitioners to have unlocked the secrets of the life-extending Chinese elixir vitae, as revealed in the ancient texts.

Whether Investigators would encounter the ‘Devil Doctor’ himself in Shanghai is up to their Keeper; however, the insidious presence of the Hsi Fan is a constant threat hanging over the treaty port.

Great things about Fu Manchu!

Fu Manchu’s activities continue well into the Twentieth Century by virtue of the fact that he has cracked the secret of immortality contained in the ancient Chinese alchemical texts. Sax Rohmer’s chronicles of the ‘Devil Doctor’ continue well into the ‘Fifties without a hint that the ‘Warlike Manchu’ might have been slowing down (and this is true of Nayland Smith and Petrie too, but with much less rationale). Keepers who wish to use Fu Manchu as a nemesis for their Investigators should take note of the following details.

Fu Manchu begins as a low grade leader in the Si Fan, in a sub-branch known as the Order of the White Peacock; eventually he breaks free of this organisation and strikes out on his own. By the end of Rohmer’s narrative, he is a powerful figure in his own right, working to depose the Communist control of China and restore the Manchu Dynasty. Some Keepers may choose to describe the Si Fan as a shadowy organisation under the control of Hastur in his avatar as the Emerald Lama (something of which Rohmer may have strongly disapproved) and this is a suitable device to incorporate the Mythos into an otherwise non-Lovecraftian trope.

Fu Manchu’s powers are less magical than they are arcane: Nayland Smith and Petrie spend much time tearing down the mystery of Fu Manchu’s powers and attempting to explain his abilities in prosaic terms. The ‘Devil Doctor’s’ powers consist mainly of an exceedingly puissant type of hypnotism, a broad knowledge of alchemy and chemistry, a solid understanding of biology - especially in regard to poisonous invertebrates and snakes - and a firm knowledge of herbalism. Fu Manchu is no stranger to showmanship either, and enjoys dressing up his mayhem in the classic style of a James Bond villain. Amongst his arsenal are the following treats:

Mimosa Extract – this is a distillation of this plant species which emits a heady and soporific perfume. It is used to render victims unconscious in much the same manner as chloroform. We are told however that the concoction doesn’t have the dangers and after-effects associated with that other drug.

The Lotus Gate – a poison probably distilled from the Black Lotus or the Flower of Silence. Fu Manchu uses it to spare his victims the rigours of his more abominable death traps. He offered it to his own daughter to spare her the full horror of being burnt alive after she betrayed him.

The Porcelain Potion – by means of this admixture, Fu Manchu can place a victim into a frozen state of suspended animation. The victim becomes transfixed, pale and cold, exactly as if they were sculpted from porcelain. This state can be maintained for up to six months.

The Zayat Kiss – This is the bite of a rare and deadly centipede (Scolopendra zayatii) cultivated by Fu Manchu. The bite leaves an ugly red welt on the skin, similar to a lipstick kiss. The centipede can target its victim by means of the application of a particular perfume endemic to the orchids of the creature’s homeland.

Hamadryads – This is an archaic term for cobras of all types. Fu Manchu specialises in the cultivation and use of the King Cobra, the largest of the genus Elapidae.

Things not so good about Fu Manchu...

After reading a selection of these works, the reader almost invariably begins to ask why did Sax Rohmer bother making Fu Manchu Chinese? It’s obvious that Rohmer knows a lot about India and Burma and almost equally obvious that he knows little about China or its inhabitants. The books are littered with Kali-worshipping Thugs and Dacoits, Burmese executioners, kris-wielding Orientals of indeterminate origin and Egyptian slave girl temptresses; however, there is little to pin anything down as quintessentially Chinese.

Of course, we must understand that Rohmer was simply tapping into a broad vein of xenophobia prevalent amongst his readers. At the time of his earliest novels, England was alive with tales of white slavery and urban black witchcraft, neither of which could be definitively substantiated by the authorities. Rohmer’s fans had grown up with salacious stories such as Richard Marsh’s The Beetle, Stoker’s Dracula and Meadows-Taylor’s Confessions Of A Thug and were thus primed for just the type of mish-mashed pastiche of everything Oriental that Rohmer was ready to write. Rohmer was tossing everything into the mix; he wasn’t the least bit concerned with accuracy (which makes it kind of odd that he takes such pains to get the Latin names of plants and animals correct).

This bigoted kind of depiction is nothing new to readers of Lovecraft, whose distinct horror of ‘the Italian’ and ‘the Jew’ crops up repeatedly in his tales. As we read this source material for our games, we necessarily edit out these views from our enjoyment, as we do with similar negative slurs in, say, an Agatha Christie thriller. In just such a fashion it is possible to read the Fu Manchu canon and to pick and choose what is useful and what can be discarded. It is well to remember also that Rohmer’s own attitudes towards his characters softened over time and the racist tone drops away almost completely in the later novels.

The only other thing which may cause a momentary pause with these books is the sense of melodrama which sometimes crosses the line into the realm of high camp. Many scenes end with Fu Manchu’s minions throwing (poisoned) knives or darts as they flee into foggy back alleys: these always miss their intended target – usually Nayland Smith – by an inch or so. It happens so regularly as to beg the question as to why the Devil Doctor doesn’t just hire a professional sniper. Dr Petrie is often so barely sketched that he comes off as a non-existent cipher; Fu Manchu is always merely suggested, or described at one remove, but invariably seems more realistic than Nayland Smith, with his swag of abnormal tics and camp mannerisms. Interestingly, Rohmer’s throw-away characters are the most sympathetic and realistically drawn – whether they be the Devil Doctor’s Machiavellian daughter, Fah Lo Suee, or a low-ranking constable making a grim discovery while walking his rounds – but they are correspondingly the least capable or effective participants in the stories.

So, caveat emptor is the advice for anyone thinking of treading this path. These tales are pulpy, moody, noir-ish and sensational, but they are in no way ‘high art’, neither are they an accurate depiction of Chinese lifestyle, fashion or mores. There is a lot to be taken from them in the sense of plot details, atmosphere and drama; however the reader is warned to sift carefully...

*****

‘The Flower of Silence’ (Jatropha curcas, var.)

‘Lost’ plate from the Dictionnaire Iconographique des Orchidées by Cogniaux and Goossens, Belgium 1896 - 1907

“...On the bed a man lay writhing...His eyes seemed starting from their sockets as he lay upon his back uttering inarticulate sounds and plucking with skinny fingers at his lips...He continued to babble, rolling his eyes from side to side hideously...and now, with his index finger, pointed to his mouth.

‘He has lost the power of speech!’ whispered Smith.”

-Sax Rohmer, The Si Fan Mysteries (1917)

Attempts to propagate the Black Lotus outside the area of the Plateau of Leng have generally met with no success outside of Tcho-tcho circles. However, the attempts have given rise to a variety of unlooked-for successes. The Flower of Silence is a hybrid generated from attempts to graft the ‘Lotus onto the poisonous ‘Physic Nut’, or tubatuba bush, of the Philippines which grows in arid soil and can reach up to 5 metres (15 feet) in height.

The Flower is peloric and has three stamens, two of which function as normal sexual organs; the third hardens into a hollow thorn, hidden within the petals and which constantly drips with the sap of the plant. This liquid is highly toxic (POT 18) and can be administered intravenously if the Flower is roughly handled. The sap can also be fatal if it comes into contact with the skin, by bruising the petals or stems of the Flower. The toxin is destroyed if it comes into contact with a sufficiently hot liquid.

The sap or oil of the hybrid plant contains a powerful neurotoxin that paralyses its victims in short order. Initial signs of poisoning include a slow failure of motor control and an inability to speak; within minutes this process spreads to include basic motor functions, such as breathing and heartbeat, and the victim soon succumbs. Within some Buddhist locales where use of the Flower is prevalent, it is believed that saying the words ‘Sâkya Mûni’ (another name for the Buddha) will negate the effects of the Flower; in actual fact, these words – or any form of tongue-twister - are simply a test to see if the subject is poisoned or not. There is no known antidote for this toxin.

*****

Centipede, Giant (Scolopendra gigantea)

The ‘Peruvian Giant Yellow-leg Centipede’ or ‘Amazonian Giant Centipede’ is the largest member of the genus Scolopendra capable of reaching lengths of up to 30 cms (12 inches). They originate from the northern and western areas of South America as well as the islands of Trinidad and Jamaica. They are highly carnivorous, capable of eating lizards, frogs, mice and bats. A giant centipede can completely disembowel a mouse in just a few minutes. They share territories with tarantulas, with which they compete savagely, eating them when they defeat them in combat. Females of the species are highly protective of their young and will aggressively attack to defend their nests

The giant centipede has a body composed of 21 to 23 chitinous segments, coppery red or maroon in colour, each with its own pair of yellow legs. They can move incredibly quickly even through dense undergrowth. Their front two legs have evolved into venom-injecting claws called forcipules with which they can grip onto and poison their victims. The poison is extremely potent (POT 6), containing acetylcholine, histamine and serotonin and causes severe swelling, chills, fever and weakness. It is toxic to humans, however bites are rarely fatal due to the relatively low amount of venom delivered in a single bite. Giant centipedes should be handled very carefully as trace amounts of venom can cause a poisonous allergic reaction (20%) if it comes in contact with the handler’s skin.

Giant centipedes live in cool dark places, preferring vegetation in which to hide. They usually attack with surprise as they are small enough to be rarely noticed in the undergrowth (roll Spot Hidden to detect). Giant centipedes can easily be killed by stepping on them or swatting them with a stick or some other handy implement. A successful attack always kills a giant centipede.

Centipede, Giant Burmese (Scolopendra zayatii)

“It was an insect, full six inches long, and of a vivid venomous red colour! It had something of the appearance of a great ant, with its long, quivering antennae and its febrile, horrible vitality; but it was proportionately longer of body and smaller of head, and had numerous rapidly moving legs. In short, it was a giant centipede, apparently of the scolopendra group, but of a form quite new to me.”

-Sax Rohmer, The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu (1913)

Like other types of giant centipede, the Giant Burmese Centipede is aggressive and dwells in the damp undergrowth of dense rainforests. It is readily identified by its vivid red colouring and larger antennae. Like Scolopendra gigantea, it is capable of reaching lengths of up to a foot long.

S. zayatii is much more venomous than its South American counterpart, stemming largely from its more aggressive nature. It has larger forcipules and tends to hold on tenaciously to anything it bites: those bitten must pit their CON against a POT 10 poison on the Resistance Table. The bite mark of S. zayatii leaves a vicious red weal on the victim, rather resembling the impression of a lipstick kiss. The Giant Burmese Centipede is attracted to the perfumes of certain pale green orchids which predominate in its nesting areas; individuals will home in on this perfume from great distances. Certain unscrupulous tribespeople have been known to cultivate both the orchids and the centipedes in tandem, in order to assassinate unwanted enemies. Washing with a dilute solution of ammonia will completely remove the traces of the perfume.

Like other giant centipedes, a successful hit upon S. zayatii will always kill it.


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