Crinja

Crinjas are practitioners of Crinjutsu, a combination of stealth, martial arts, and magic. A major philosophical element of the teachings is "freedom from shame". The Crinja Way believes that because shame is used to control a person, if you completely accept yourself, an enemy loses this power over you due to a lack of shame [1]. That said, a minority of crinjas will utilize this concept

Silvamaru and the Way of the Crinja
The Way of the Crinja is a semi-religious philosophy founded by the first-generation ninja master Silvamaru. He was, by all accounts, a very tacky individual whose mere presence inspired second-hand embarrassment in nearly all who saw him. He wore bright colors, mixed patterns, fishnets, a spiked collar, his hair was rainbow colored, his left eye was black and red, his right eye was pale white, he spoke in an exaggerated accent of unknown origin, and no matter how much he bathed he always smelt strongly of citrus. And on top of all that, his personality was big, loud, boisterous, blunt, and prone to misreading social situations [3].

Silvamaru found great difficulty in finding friends due to him inadvertently annoying a lot of people. And when people DID sort of accept him it was always with the expectation that he had to “tone it down a little”. For the first ten years of his time in Trashlandia, he slowly began dressing more conventionally, faking a softer voice in a more “normal” accent, dying his hair black, and trying in vain to suppress his pervasively citrusy odor [3].

Living like this caused Silvamaru great anguish over time, to the point that he began contemplating taking his own life. According to legend, he decided one day to throw himself off of a great sea-cliff which is now known as Dousatsu no Gake, or Insight Cliff. It is said that after he fell into the sea, Trashlandia Herself fished him out of the water and resuscitated him. The sea water washed the black dye from his hair revealing it’s rainbow colors again. Once he was awake, Trashlandia stayed with him for a time and talked to him about his troubles. She told him that he should not feel ashamed of himself, and that the ones who ought to be the most ashamed are the ones who made him feel that he had to be another person to gain acceptance. She then brought him to the home of a doctor, explained the situation, and taxed the doctor with looking out for Silvamaru’s mental health [3].

Eventually, after a long period of self-reflection and working on his mental health, Silvamaru made the startling discovery that the emotion of Cringe could be used as a source of magical power. He then developed his own technique and philosophy for wielding this power effectively. This power made him a powerful solo-combatant and surprisingly subtle infiltration expert. He named this power Crinjutsu. He primarily used his newfound power in service of defending his village from brigands, warlords, and other outside threats [3].

As he grew older and his body could no longer keep up with his demanding job, he retired from ninja work and began instructing several disciples in the art of Crinjutsu. Eventually he committed his teachings to writing in a huge scroll called “Way of the Crinja” [3].

The first chapters of Way of the Crinja are dedicated purely to the philosophy of Crinjutsu. He writes that one cannot truly master the Crinja Way without first accepting yourself, accepting others, and riding one’s self of selfish pride. Only then can one master the magical techniques of Crinjutsu, as well as reach true joy and peace [3].

The first precept of the Crinja Way is "They who cringe are already dead" [2].

This philosophy is now held widely by the majority of people who live among the islands of Trashlandia’s eastern seas [3].

Crinja Culture
A mastery of Crinjutsu is seen as proof of one’s moral character, thus all leaders, from the Grand Kage to the Cheif of the smallest village, are expected to display skill in Crinjutsu to even be considered for office [3].

Since acceptance is the highest virtue of a Crinja, the people brought up in Crinja culture are exceedingly individualistic in personal expression, yet also United under their common belief system. The Crinja tolerate nearly anything, except of course for intolerance, which they are quick to stamp out on sight. They tend to be suspicious of those who do not adhere to Crinja ideals, and although they respect Trashlandia as a kind and moral person worthy of respect, they do not worship her as a goddess. In fact they often distrust those who DO worship her [3].

The majority of Crinja are descended from abandoned ninja-OCs or anime-OCs of various kinds. Most (but not all) are humanoid, and speak a dialect of Trashlandic that incorporates many Japanese words, idioms, and honorifics. Their clothing styles run the gambit from purely practical to completely ridiculous [3]. The advantage to donning tackier clothing is that when opponents cringe, they inadvertently make the Crinjas magic stronger. Daily training allows them to hone their ability to reject their self-loathing [2]. They are tolerant of all things except intolerance, as doing so would be selfdestructive [4]. The majority of them will call out bad behavior and expect others and themselves to take criticism gracefully [5].

Interpretations of the Crinja Way
The majority of Crinjas interpret the idea of freedom from shame allowing for more freedom for self expression, as shame not being a useful emotion and if something wrong is done, one is to do better next time without guilt since, guilt doesn't fix anything, but some crinja use this concept to defend their existing prejudices [5].