Okay, Let's start at ground level here.

When was Tibet sealed?

What sort of seal?

What does it look like from outside now?

next--

Tibetian NPCs. Clearly there's some way out, as evidenced by...brainscan was it?

What sort of powers would they have?

Why is there no mention of buddhism in MITS that I remember, especially with all the emphasis on samurai culture, zen adepts, and ancient mystical traditions?

Finally

Will it ever be unsealed?

And why would Big D have had the "Seal of the Green Gloves" to begin with?

Tibet was sealed shortly after the Awakening, and it was described as a mystic barrier...no idea other than that as to what it looked like. The Tibetans appear to control entry and exit from Tibet.

The individual powers of Tibetans depends on magical aptitude, training, etc. Those monks from Brainscan were physical adepts who displayed an unusual variant of the Deadly Hands power. It is likely Tibet holds other mystical secrets as well.

Buddhism, like Catholicism, is a many-headed Hydra. Samurai and Zen philosophy are characteristic of the Japanese flavor of Buddhism, while Tibet is a mixture of Chinese and Indian Buddhism, with a few other influences here and there. THe heavy monastic tradtion of the region benefits from that.

To answer your question: just as Christianity has no magical tradition associated exclusively with it, neither does Buddhism (that we know of.)

Will it ever be unsealed? Maybe. If Lung wanted to crack that particular shell, I think we'd see some fireworks.

Who knows how DUnkie got the Seal? Hell, we don't know if it's a magical artifact or just a cultural visa.

Just to add, the barrier went up in 2011.

~J

Many of these questions will be answered in Shadows of Asia. And a few new surprises.

Tibet was sealed just after the Awakening. The Seal of the Green Gloves allows for passing in and out of Tibet, but that doesn't mean it's the only way.

Tibet's being covered in Shadows of Asia? Nice. You having a hand in that DE- I remember you had some ideas about the place?

I am involved in it, yep.

There will likely be more that I want to say than will make print, so eventually there will be even more, one way or another.

:: grins :: and here I was thinking I'd made a mistake starting this topic, and instead we get a goodie!

A possibly nuclear Greater Tibet? Oh this should be good.

The Dalai Lama back in charge as a possible theocracy. Hhmm, wonder if he's Awakened? Something like his position and possible ED type of ReNaming ritual to make him head of the group like Cybertech mentioned would be a truely evil idea.

You wouldn't need reNaming for that to happen.

Inazo Aneki, of Renraku.

As for why he has them, my guess is that either he's connected with the people who constructed it, or he's connected with the people who prepared what was needed for its construction in the Fourth World.

~J

The question is...who has them now, because I'm pretty sure they aren't in the hands of Aneki?!?

Presumably either Renraku, the Brainscan runners, Dodger, Ronin, or the remnants of the drone horde.

Edit: that's based on a false assumption, never mind. If Aneki had the seal on him during Brainscan, see above. If not, Renraku or the Tibetans are the most likely, but all bets are off.

~J

I was under the impression it was like a round trip ticket, and the tibetians had it.

There's no evidence to back that assumption.

for that matter, there's nothing that says the barrier around Tibet is two-way. maybe he left them there, not needing them to get out.

Oh, Aneki needed help to get out...they'd barely managed to re-potty train the poor bastard. Whether anyone else needs the Seal of Green Gloves to get out, well, I dunno.