This is really quick and dirty, but I thought I'd share. I got most all of my info from this wikipedia entry, and personally know almost nothing about Khmer culture, and I wanted to put that right up front. Basically, I wanted an Asian possession tradition, and asked Synner for a recommendation (thanks!) and he pointed me toward this in a general way. If it sucks, blame me not him! Anyways...

Kru Khmae
Combat: Air
Detection: Guidance
Health: Plant
Illusion: Fire
Manipulation: Man
Drain: Charisma+Willpower
Note: Kru Khmae is a Possession Tradition.

There are strong ties in the tradition to herb lore, potions, and magical tattoos, as well as Hindu astrology for divination. Their theology is a mixture of Theraveda Buddhism, Hinduism, and a hedge witch-like shamanism, with ancestor worship.

Good metamagics for the path might be quickening (with magical tattoos), divination, channeling, and sensing. Enchanting has a strong tradition in this path, as well, particularly for healing and spirit-related foci.

Nice, I'd personally write up more on the details/do some research. I feel most of the shamanic religions of Asia lend towards possession rather than materialization myself. My main beef is with Shintoism as it is written up. Primarily, I WANT SHIKIGAMI SERVENTS! (aka, Possession Task Spirits). I Changed around the spirits a bit and ended up with:

Combat: Beast
Detection: Water
Health: Plant
Illusion: Air
Manipulation: Task

Drain: Charisma + Willpower

Also, There was a shamanic Asian possession tradition presented in the book:

Korean Shamanism

Combat: Fire
Detection: Earth
Health: Air
Illusion: Water
Manipulation: Guidance

Drain: Charisma + Willpower

You know, I've flipped through that section about 20 times, and never noticed that they slipped Korean Shamanism into the chapter through the example. I feel kinda dumb at the moment...

It's cool. Playing a Cambodian character could be fun. Those poor people are trained from birth to fight, could make the perfect combat mage.

Shikigami servants are raised by OnmyÅ?ji. It is important to note that only OnmyÅ?ji can summon Shikigami, that's the whole point.

OnmyÅ?dÅ? recognizes five elements, which makes its segregation into five spirit types pretty easy. Their spirits are called shikigami, and indeed there is historical precadent for hem being materialization or possession spirits. Personally, I'd make them into possession spirits so that you would have an excuse to make folded paper bodies for them - because those look awesome. It's totally sweet looking so I say go with it.

Also, you'll want to have the shikigami invoke Shamanic Mask on whatever they possess, so they look like demons, and only turn into paper dolls when disrupted or their services end.

As to the shikigami you have, you've got:

Wood (Plant - Detection)
Water (Water - Combat)
Metal (Guardian - Manipulation)
Earth (Earth - Illusion)
Fire (Fire - Health)

And since it's all pseudo-science and divination, the OnmyÅ?dÅ? resist Drain with Logic. All the stuff about having your spirit leave your body is straight up Astral Projection. Making Shikigami with a portion of your soul who can take many different forms including your own is Ally Creation Metamagic. Geomancy is Geomancy, Divination is Divnation.

So an OnmyÅ?ji is a magician of a Possession Tradition. They aspire to the metamagics of Divination, Geomancy, and Ally Spirit. They use Logic as a Drain stat.

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Edit: Jimmy No, the Jackpoint character is Khmer. He summons a Neak Ta in Street Magic and invokes koo’kchall to perform magical healing in Augmentation. These are trappings of Khmer magic as it happens.

-Frank

I don't mean to take credit for what isn't mine, but the irony of you presenting this is hilarious. My original post and thought behind possession Shinto was exactly that: Onmyoudou. I think yours is better though. My initial thoughts on tradition defined metamagic were the same as well, since the Onmyoudou was primarily for Divination and Geomancy. May not be the most useful for a shadowrunner, but it gives the tradition a much more solid backbone.

I knew that Shikigami were used by Onmyouji, but what amount of crossover has happened between Onmyouji and Shinto? Maybe I just watch too much anime (and read too much manga), but I got the feeling that Shikigami have been somewhat absorbed into Shinto. What's your opinion?

Ya, I was actually thinking mystic adept, get conjuring and counterspelling, and make them a close combat expert.