How do Oni manifest?

[Mark Hoover 330]

So I just did a dive through these boards and found a couple threads that suggest that the disembodied spirits of Oni manifest by infusing themselves into the flesh of a sinful mortal. However, in the bestiary it sounds like Oni will themselves into a new, material body so they can enjoy sin for themselves. Do we know which one it is?

If it's the "possess a mortal" type, what happens to the person being "ridden?" Like, if someone is particularly vile and attracts an Oni into them, but then some aspect of the mortal consciousness remains after the Oni takes over, can the mortal side come out? Can they be freed? Bear in mind, I haven't read through Occult Adventures so maybe all of this is covered elsewhere.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Bumping for one last try. If not I suppose I'll just make it up.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Don't know how Golarion-verse handles it but you can always steal from L5R:

Oni are nameless spirits of corruption that are summoned by mortal mages and given the name of a mortal, usually the caster but if you are really good and can trick other people, someone else's. The oni is at first weak and under the owner's control but will grow in power until it eclipses the owner and consumes the name and the person. The oni is then free and can spread its misery around. Some can spawn lesser versions of themselves. Sometimes you can summon existing oni; this is a bad idea, but not as bad as giving one your name.

Technically someone whose name has been consumed by an oni can be freed of this in certain very obscure and rare circumstances which involved powerful magic and ties to how they became an oni in the first place (I didn't like this story but it is canon).

[Andostre]

Mark, over in the Off-Topic Discussions forum near the bottom of the main forum listing, James Jacobs regularly replies to questions in a thread called ">>Ask *James Jacobs* ALL your Questions Here!<<"

That seems like a good place to get a Golarion-specific answer.

[Today is a good day to... halp]

In the 1st adventure of PF1e Jade Regent, there was an article on Oni that suggested that they were former Kami spirits who had fallen into evil. The article also suggests that they manifest their own physical forms by themselves though. The other versions might be home-brewed ones or ones from a different game system/setting/other media [like anime]?

[Mark Hoover 330]

@ Jim HALP-ert… see, now that's what the SRD says in the fluff under the entry for Oni! Basically that Oni, as disembodied spirits, were once Kami that failed in their duties and turned to evil. Now they manifest forms for themselves.

So if I want to write a homebrewed, level 1 adventure with the plot being a sinful humanoid trying to create the conditions necessary for an Oni to manifest, it's not that the spirit needs to inhabit the humanoid's body but rather that the disembodied Oni needs to have the conditions met for it to feel good about making it's OWN body.