User blog comment:ProfDraco2/I! HAVE! RETURNED!/@comment-31772644-20171005184023

I'd like to pitch a theory that I discussed with Garr some months back (sorry we haven't talked much lately. I have free time now) about a class of Japanese yokai called Tsukumogami. Even if you're not familiar with the name, you'll know at least one example of them.

The Japanese believe that an object that has survived long enough becomes imbued with its own sentience, becoming a living thing. Many of these yokai we know of thanks to a 18th century scholar named Toriyama Sekien. He illustrated a several compendiums of yokai from myths and folklore, and one of his works was the Hyakki Tsurazure Bukuro (potentially translated as "A Horde of Haunted Housewares") which is believed to be made up of mostly tsykumogami.

Experts speculate that many of these are Sekien's own creations, as they aren't mentioned anywhere else. Here's my take. We know that Japan is one of the few empires to never have hosted a Warehouse. That doesn't mean that it didn't have artifacts. What if Sekien, in his duties as a scholar, collected and stored away possessed objects that the average person couldn't explain. A sort of regional Warehouse agent working on his own agenda simply out of curiosity. Perhaps even a custodian for items other people brought to him.

Not knowing about the nature of artifacts, he would assume them to be some sort of spirit-possessed entity. Naturally he'd include them in his records, perhaps not to entertain, but as an inventory catalogue. These artifacts may never have found their way into a Warehouse and could still be in Japan, sealed away in a shrine or temple.

Decifering what they are and what they might do, as well as where they're hidden, could be an interesting side project for some of the agents, using only his books as reference.