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Post by Matsu Ayaka on Feb 27, 2014 7:14:42 GMT
Character Name: Matsu Ayaka
Clan: Lion
School: Matsu Beserker/Akodo Bushi
Profession: Lion's Pride Rikugunshokan, Governor of Gakka Province, Honorary Abbess of Bishamon Seido
Rings:
Earth: 3 Water: 5 Air: 1 Fire: 4 Void:3
Appearance:
Age: 28 Height: 5'1" Weight: 120 lbs Eyes: Almond Brown Hair: Dark Bronze
Distinctive Marks and Items: She has a small miniature of a castle that she uses as her netsukai
Family: She has a father...somewhere. She was born into the Lion's Pride 9 months after the unit won a particularly difficult battle. These things happen, and she was raised among the children of more standard Matsu families that sought admittance for their children into the Lion's Pride. She was marked by Bishamon as one of his own at age 6, when she shattered a stone pillar to use as a pole to reach a friend drowning in a koi pond. She thinks of Bishamon as her father and Matsu her mother, though she never speaks this aloud.
Spouse: Unmarried (Has sworn an oath to Bishamon that whomever can best her at a feat of strength she will marry)
Attitude/Personality: Friendly, for a Matsu. She has a particular disdain for those that abuse the weak. She has a lust life, enjoying battle, sake, Yoritomo-style sushi (including fugu), and Ikoma storytelling, in that order. She is disarmingly sweet when necessary, but clearly views court life as a battlefield, looking for straight-forward assaults, flank attacks, and staunch allies
History: See Family. Later in life, she rose through determination and honor to command a small detachment of the Lion's Pride. After "cornering" and destroying a force of Ogres larger than her detachment without losing anyone (though a few were maimed), she was given a larger command. Her courage has been tested at every point, and she has never once faltered in her public life. Some say she has in her private life by avoiding marriage, but no one says so to her face.
Distinctions: Aside from those mentioned, she is also a Kensei, although relatively new along that path.
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Post by Hiruma Kenshin on Mar 12, 2014 16:01:37 GMT
Character Name: Hiruma Kenshin
Clan: Crab School: Hiruma Bushi Profession: Yojimbo/Duelist
Rings: Earth: 1 Water: 4 Air: 5 Fire: 3 Void: 3
Distinctions: Yojimbo, Kensai, Renowned Duelist, Feared
Appearance: Tall, slim and lithe, Kenshin has a runner's build. He keeps his shoulder length red hair tied back in a low pony tail. His Kakita ancestor's blood manifests itself in his blue eyes and graceful movements.
Age: 29 Height: 5'11 Weight: 170 Eyes: Blue Hair: Red Distinctive Marks and Items: Red hair
Family: Father: Hiruma Goro(Deceased) Mother: Yasuki Tokio(Deceased) Siblings: None
Attitude/Personality: Hirotomo is a happy man. It shows in all he does. His father would diffuse tense situations with simple laughter, and try to please everyone, and Hirotomo follows suit. He is well known in the lower castes, and is lauded as a hero for his work in educating and advancing the people he rules. It is a mark of great status and envy among the peasants to work directly for Hirotomo, even if the duty is something as simple as fetching tea or washing his sandals.
History: Kenshin was born in 1132 to Hiruma Goro and Yasuki Tokio, a descendant of a Yasuki who joined the Crab during the First Yasuki War and his Kakita bride. Hiruma Goro died during Kuni Yori’s Siege of Hiruma Castle with Tokio committing jigai soon after. Kenshin was taken in and raised by his mother’s Yasuki cousins.
In 1138 a caravan containing Kenshin and his three aunts were ambushed the followers of Yasuki Masashi led by Doji Meihu at the start of the War of Spirits and all members of the caravan were reported as dead. The entire caravan was slain with Kenshin escaping by being covered by his aunt’s bodies. A Disciple of Sun Tao found him and took him on as a student. He leaves his sensei six years later to fight in the War of Spirits to avenge his aunts. After killing both Maihu and Masashi he presents himself to the Crab to claim his birth right and joins the Unbreakable Blade Dojo. Unlike most students, Kenshin focused more on moving fast and striking quickly.
During the Second Yasuki War Kenshin was fighting near his commander’s location when a group of Crane soldiers led by a kenshinzen broke through the Crab lines and headed straight towards the Crab commander. Kenshin appeared before the group and was able to defeat each Crane soldier with a single stroke before engaging the kenshinzen in a duel. The duel lasted only two breaths before the Crane died with a look of shock in his face. Seeing his effectiveness against the Crane and knowing that the Crane would have sent kenshinzen against the other commanders, the Crab commander ordered Kenshin to go after all deployed kenshinzen. Often appearing just in the nick of time, Kenshin was able to neutralize the duelists sent to destabilize the Crab command structure. By the end of the Second Yasuki War Kenshin was known by his reputation as a skilled duelist.
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Post by Ibara on Apr 12, 2014 1:53:52 GMT
Character Name: Ibara
Clan: Ronin (formerly Crane) School: Kakita Duelist Profession: Yojimbo
Rings:
Earth: 3 Water: 3 Air: 5 Fire: 4 Void: 2
Glory: pending Distinctions: pending
Appearance:
Ibara is taller than average for a Rokugani woman, with an athletic build and features that are striking in their intensity. She has the grace and beauty of a predatory feline rather than the cultured sensuality of a courtier. Her hair is long, but it is usually tied back to keep it out of her way. She cleans up well for court, although her style looses little of it's predatory edginess in such situations, her hair usually done up in some sort of elaborate, asymetrical style that compliments her general look and attitude. She generally dresses in black, with accenting colors varying depending on her whim at the time. She is rarely seen without her nodachi, and never without her katana. A tattoo of a rose vine, complete with thorns, winds its way up her left arm from hand to shoulder. Age: 24 Height: 5'10"
Weight: 160
Eyes: blue
Hair: black Distinctive Marks and Items: She has several faded, well healed scars on her, particularly her arms, from past duels and battles. Most are hard to notice unless you get close to her and the lighting is right. It seems that very few of them were deep cuts.
Family: officially none, she has disavowed her familial ties to the Crane clan.
Spouse: none, although at times those who don't know better would suspect Moshi Yoru to be her husband.
Attitude/Personality: Ibara is seldom intentionally rude, but she is very direct and has no problem speaking her mind. She tends to have a dry wit that will reveal itself seemingly at random, but in general has a very no-nonsense, serious demeanor. She rarely loses her temper, preferring to control and use her anger rather than letting it control and use her, but she does not suffer insults or disrespect lightly. More than one such instance has ended in a duel, but only if the other party continues to be disrespectful.
History: Ibara began life as Kakita Bara (meaning rose). Her mother wanted her to become a musician as she had, but from a young age Bara displayed more interest and aptitude with a katana than with a biwa or her father's abilities as a courtier. After repeatedly showing no interest or dedication to the paths her parents had chosen for her, they reluctantly enrolled her in the duelist academy at age 8. She excelled, quickly making up for lost time with her talent and enthusiasm. At 14, she began to supplement her training with instruction in kenjitsu from guest senseis from the Lion and Crab clans, where she gained a love for the nodachi. At 16, she was accepted as an honorary student at the Shiba bushi school in Phoenix lands as a sort of cultural exchange student, an opportunity that her father arranged for her. She spent six months there learning how to fight alongside shugenja, but unlike her time in Lion and Crab lands her unfortunate habit of being bluntly honest and speaking her mind made her time with the Phoenix difficult. This embarrassed her father a great deal after the effort he had put into arranging this experience for her. She was further hampered socially by the fact that she fights left handed, something that is traditionally frowned upon and which led to animosity with many of her fellow students, who felt that she was somehow "cheating" by not holding to kenjitsu tradition. Bara found the tactical advantages of being a lefty more important than making friends and refused to change.
After returning home from Phoenix lands, Bara learned that her parents had arranged for her to be married to a young Otomo man. Her father had been trying to find a suitor for her with little success, and when the Otomo family approached him with the offer to have his daughter marry into an Imperial family, he paid little heed to the fact that the boy had been passed over three times by other potential wives due to his arrogance and spoiled nature. Bara disliked him immediately upon meeting him, and as the night of their engagement party drew on, they became more antagonistic towards each other, he by insulting her intelligence and the "deformity" or her being left handed, her by telling him exactly what she thought of his immaturity and self centeredness. This came to a head over dinner, when he offhandedly referred to her as "the rudest Crane he had ever seen" and implied that he would have no concerns about her virginity, as no one would desire to bed such a woman. She replied directly to him, in front of the entire party, that a man who was too cowardly to pick up a katana for himself should not be so picky about the qualities of his wife.
Enraged, the young man called for his champion and challenged Bara to a duel so that she would "learn her place". Bara wordlessly responded, killing the champion before his katana had cleared its sheath in an iaijitsu duel. Then, in front of both families and her senseis, she challenged him to duel her himself, demanding that he either face her or prove her right about his cowardice. Not wanting to disgrace his family by showing fear, he foolishly accepted. Bara knew she could kill him easily, but rather than do so she decided to spare his life in the hope that he would learn his lesson and perhaps some humility. Her iaijitsu strike cut deeply into the muscle and tendons of the boy's right forearm as he drew and carried through to carve a fine line into the left side of his chin. According to the rules of the duel she had won, but the spoiled Otomo waited for her to turn her back to him and attacked her again, screaming in anger as he did so. Bara's second stroke stopped his advance cold - taking him across the throat as she spun and drew, spraying his family with his blood, and dropping his corpse across the table of food.
The social and political ramifications were severe. Not only had she insulted and then killed her suitor, turning a celebratory event into a disaster, but the spray of blood that hit the Otomo parents was taken as a grave insult, giving their political rivals an excuse to accuse them of being unclean. They demanded retribution, and Bara's father, furious at his daughter's repeated failures to "act in a proper fashion", declared her a disgrace to the family and ordered her seppuku. Unwilling to accept blame and end her life over the hypocrisy of being faulted for a legitimate duel and then defending herself from a dishonorable attack, she instead renounced her ties to the Crane clan, disowned her parents, and walked out of the party a ronin. Before she left, she dared the Otomo to come seeking their revenge, asking them if their son's cowardice and lack of honor were family traits.
Before she left Crane lands, her senseis approached her. All three agreed that she had responded correctly and honorably, but that nothing could be done to change her circumstances. All they could do for her was wish her well and present her with her engagement gifts. From her Crab sensei, she received a pair of Kaiu made kote, (armored bracers) to protect her arms during a duel and prevent a faster opponent from removing her sword hand. From the Lion, she received a nodachi with a tanto in the other end of the sheath, and from her Crane sensei she received permission to take her prized Kakita blade with her into her new life, as well as a new name - Ibara (Thorn).
Ibara left Crane lands and made her way as a wanderer, taking odd jobs and dealing with the occasional assassin or duelist sent her way by the Otomo family. Three years after becoming ronin, she met Moshi Yoru. She was working at a geisha house in Mantis lands - as protection, not entertainment - when an underworld war broke out. Yoru had come out on top and was visiting his newly acquired business when the leftovers of the yakusa he had eliminated tried to kill him and burn the building down. He was greatly impressed by the way Ibara handled herself during the altercation, particularly that she knew the best way to fight beside a shugenja to maximize both of their abilities. After the fight ended, he approached her and told her that he felt she was wasting her considerable talent, and after pointing out his obvious need for a yojimbo, he offered her the position. Since then, the two have become close friends and are rarely seen apart, Ibara being one to take her duty of yojimbo very seriously. Over times she has also come to serve as his confidant, as she is one of the few people Yoru seems comfortable opening up to.
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