Yanluo

The King and Judge of the Underworld

Domain: Death & Judgment
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Element: Darkness
Relics of Power: Brush and Book of Death

Speak with Yanluo

The People

People

Chinese

Region

China

Period

c. 1600 BC – present

The Chinese deities bring together traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, and folk religion, worshipped for millennia across China. Presided over by the Jade Emperor, they form a vast celestial bureaucracy mirroring the earthly empire. They are honored in temples, at Chinese New Year, and at the altars of homes and ancestors.

Chinese New Year greets the gods with fireworks, dancing lions, and offerings to the Kitchen God, who ascends to heaven to report on the family's conduct. The Dragon Boat Festival honors the poet Qu Yuan, and at Qingming families sweep the tombs and venerate the ancestors.

The Sacred Scrolls

King of the underworld and supreme judge of the dead, Yanluo (the Chinese Yama) rules the realm of Diyu and decides the fate of every soul. He weighs the deeds of life and determines punishments or the next reincarnation. He presides over an infernal tribunal organized like an imperial bureaucracy. As The King and Judge of the Underworld, this deity occupies a position of supreme prestige in the chineses pantheon. Their domains over Death & Judgment reflect ancestral cosmic order maintained across millennia. In classical iconography, they are depicted with an aura of unshakeable majesty and sacred attributes that inspired reverence in emperors and peasants alike. Their influence extended beyond earthly boundaries, governing fates and harmony between the visible and invisible worlds. For ancient devotees, contemplating their essence was to understand the very fundamental forces of nature and human existence.

Sacred Symbols

The book of destiny, the red brush, the infernal throne and the scales of souls

Divine Lineage

Derived from the Hindu-Buddhist Yama; chief of the ten kings of Diyu, the Chinese underworld.

The Legendary Myth

Yanluo keeps a book in which the exact day of each person's death is written, and no mortal can escape his summons.

Legends & Deeds

A celebrated secondary legend preserved in the oral traditions of the chineses recounts the journey when Yanluo intervened directly in the lives of mortals.