Shou Hsing

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Shou Hsing is the Chinese Power of longevity and the arbiter of life spans. He possesses a set of tablets upon which he has inscribed the date of everyone’s death. As these dates are written in stone, they are supposedly immutable. However, the god has been known to “juggle the writing” and change the dates favorably for those who treat him especially well.

In his true form, Shou Hsing is an aged man with a pure white beard and eyebrows. He has an enormous, egg-shaped bald head. Shou Hsing usually supports himself with a large, rough stick, and carries a P’an T’ao — one of the peaches of immortality — in his free hand.

The god's Realm, The Orchard of Immortality, is located in Ysgard. There, he takes turns watching over the fruit of immortality with Idun of the Norse Pantheon. Shou Hsing watches over the peaches claimed by the Celestial Bureaucracy, while Idun watches the golden apples of the Norse. Shou Hsing wanders the realm when his turn at guardianship is done, but Idun rarely leaves her estates.

Source: Legends & Lore (2nd ed.), On Hallowed Ground, Warriors of Heaven, Planes of Chaos (The Book of Chaos, page 107)

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