Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
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Leingod's Ideas Thread
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Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
For the Nobunaga's Ambition quest, I'm thinking I might just ditch the independent options in favor of being an Oda vassal, since that's what I'm personally most interested in writing. I don't really like restricting the readers' choice in most cases, but I figure it's just as important that the quest be as entertaining as possible to me as the readers, if nothing else than for my motivation.
That said, I don't want to totally ditch player choice in regards to their clan. Maybe something like letting them have a say in the origins and name of their clan? Like:
[] Hayashi
The Hayashi are a clan in Owari that don't really factor much in Nobunaga's rise to power; the only notable member of the clan is Hayashi Hidesada, the head karō ("house elder," a top-ranking adviser to a lord) of Oda Nobuhide's who assisted in Nobunaga's education along with Hirate Masahide. Unlike Masahide, however, Hidesada secretly supported his brother, Oda Nobuyuki, and along with Katsuie Shibata was Nobuyuki's main supporter in his abortive rebellion. Like Katsuie he surrendered and was allowed to live. Hidesada then did nothing of note until 1575, when Nobunaga, in preparation for making Nobutada his successor, assigned Hidesada to be one of Nobutada's retainers. 5 years later, however, he suddenly stripped Hidesada of all rank on suspicion of treason; consensus of opinion is that Nobunaga just felt that Hidesada had outlived his usefulness and wanted to trim down the number of retainers he had to feed and give money/land to. Oh, and he also had a brother who died in Nobuyuki's rebellion. Figure I'll make that brother your dad, making Hidesada your uncle.
The Hayashi are a branch of the Inaba clan of Mino (whose most notable member is Inaba Ittetsu, who is one of the "Mino Three, the three top generals of Mino), and thus claim descent from the Kōno and from there the Emperor Kanmu (736-805). I should note that this doesn't really mean anything; emperors had a lot of kids, and there are a lot of samurai clans that claim descent from this or that emperor. It might help when dealing with court nobles, but those are about the only people who would care much.
This option would be the one that starts out with more in the Oda clan, but has no real notable members outside of Hidesada (and the PC, obviously), and they may be forced by their clan into supporting Nobuyuki over Nobunaga, and may suffer suspicion within the clan because of it (though probably not from Nobunaga himself). This is also the clan that's actually "canon," if anyone cares about that. Your own name will probably contain either "hide" or "sada" in it. Your mother will probably be a daughter of Hirate Masahide, making him your maternal grandfather.
[] Kira
Not exactly made up, the Kira are a very minor branch of the Ashikaga (and thus claim descent from the Minamoto) who settled in Mikawa... and that's the extent of their actual contributions to anything. They're only really "notable" for the fact that the Tokugawa later made them kōke, a rank of fief-less retainers to the shōgun, whose duties mostly consisted of bitch work the shōgun and retainers with actual responsibilities couldn't be bothered to do themselves but were too prestigious to give to random couriers, such as delivering messages to the imperial court, representing the shōgun at rituals in shrines and temples, and so on. The kōke were all from clans that had a high pedigree but no real power, including dispossessed clans like the Takeda. The only Kira of note is Kira Yoshinaka (though his name should actually be read as Yoshihisa), the antagonist of the tale of the 47 Rōnin.
The Kira are native to Mikawa, but given Nobuhide's incursions into western Mikawa, the Kira clan's lack of actual notability, and the common trend of branches of a clan splitting off and going somewhere else, it's not hard to justify a branch of the Kira serving the Oda. This option would have no real notable members aside from the PC at first ("notable members" meaning officers whose best stats are higher than competent, i.e. 60-70 range), but would have some influence within the clan due to their connections with Mikawa and thus their value to Nobuhide and his plans to expand into Mikawa. Your mother will be a daughter of Mizuno Tadamasa, lord of Kariya Castle in western Mikawa, whose other daughter is the mother of Matsudaira Takechiyo, i.e. you're Tokugawa Ieyasu's cousin.
Oh, and the only affect of naming your character Yoshikage is that you'll occasionally complain about wanting to lead a quiet life and have an odd fondness for cats, so don't get your hopes up. Though I might disallow that name anyway to avoid having two prominent Yoshikages (the other being Asakura Yoshikage), though reversing it to Kageyoshi would be fine.
Note that this is also the only option that could become shoguns unless you do what Ieyasu did and fake some connection to the Minamoto.
[] Kanma
The only clan I've totally made up. The Kanma are a branch of the Utsunomiya of Shimotsuke Province, and still live there as Utsunomiya retainers; your great-grandfather was exiled after an attempted rebellion and ended up in Owari, where he became a vassal of first the Shiba (the nominal rulers of Owari) and then the Oda (the actual rulers of Owari). The Kanma are one of the retainers whose loyalties are kind of in flux, with some members serving the Kiyosu-Oda (the nominal rulers of the Oda, who control the Shiba and most of northern Owari) led by Oda Michikatsu and later his adopted son Nobutomo (who is incidentally Nobuhide's brother) and some serving the Nagoya-Oda (who de facto control southern Owari) led by Oda Nobuhide, the "Tiger of Owari." Another example of a clan with such divided loyalties would be the Maeda and the Niwa, both of whom have members serving both factions.
The Kanma have the least influence in the Oda clan, due to their divided loyalties making them harder for either to trust and their relative newness, but also are the only clan with multiple notable officers.
Also, as a branch of the Utsunomiya the Kanma are descended from the Fujiwara, and thus are the only choice that could potentially becomes regents, unless you do what Hideyoshi did and force a Fujiwara to adopt you.
---
Incidentally, while looking for famous weapons and other items it might be possible for the PC to get his hands on, I stumbled on the perfect weapon for the "Fox" option; Kogitsunemaru, a sword whose name means "little fox." It's so named because its maker, the legendary blacksmith Sanjō Munechika, was supposedly assisted in making this sword by the goddess Inari, who is connected to foxes. The sword was owned by the Fujiwara for a long time, but was eventually lost, and although several temples claim to house the sword, none of these claims has been proven.
Also thinking of retainers for if/when the PC becomes prominent enough to get some. Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence includes (because all Koei strategy games need extra characters to unlock) the eight heroes from the old novel Hakkenden, which I might use myself for this purpose.
That said, I don't want to totally ditch player choice in regards to their clan. Maybe something like letting them have a say in the origins and name of their clan? Like:
[] Hayashi
The Hayashi are a clan in Owari that don't really factor much in Nobunaga's rise to power; the only notable member of the clan is Hayashi Hidesada, the head karō ("house elder," a top-ranking adviser to a lord) of Oda Nobuhide's who assisted in Nobunaga's education along with Hirate Masahide. Unlike Masahide, however, Hidesada secretly supported his brother, Oda Nobuyuki, and along with Katsuie Shibata was Nobuyuki's main supporter in his abortive rebellion. Like Katsuie he surrendered and was allowed to live. Hidesada then did nothing of note until 1575, when Nobunaga, in preparation for making Nobutada his successor, assigned Hidesada to be one of Nobutada's retainers. 5 years later, however, he suddenly stripped Hidesada of all rank on suspicion of treason; consensus of opinion is that Nobunaga just felt that Hidesada had outlived his usefulness and wanted to trim down the number of retainers he had to feed and give money/land to. Oh, and he also had a brother who died in Nobuyuki's rebellion. Figure I'll make that brother your dad, making Hidesada your uncle.
The Hayashi are a branch of the Inaba clan of Mino (whose most notable member is Inaba Ittetsu, who is one of the "Mino Three, the three top generals of Mino), and thus claim descent from the Kōno and from there the Emperor Kanmu (736-805). I should note that this doesn't really mean anything; emperors had a lot of kids, and there are a lot of samurai clans that claim descent from this or that emperor. It might help when dealing with court nobles, but those are about the only people who would care much.
This option would be the one that starts out with more in the Oda clan, but has no real notable members outside of Hidesada (and the PC, obviously), and they may be forced by their clan into supporting Nobuyuki over Nobunaga, and may suffer suspicion within the clan because of it (though probably not from Nobunaga himself). This is also the clan that's actually "canon," if anyone cares about that. Your own name will probably contain either "hide" or "sada" in it. Your mother will probably be a daughter of Hirate Masahide, making him your maternal grandfather.
[] Kira
Not exactly made up, the Kira are a very minor branch of the Ashikaga (and thus claim descent from the Minamoto) who settled in Mikawa... and that's the extent of their actual contributions to anything. They're only really "notable" for the fact that the Tokugawa later made them kōke, a rank of fief-less retainers to the shōgun, whose duties mostly consisted of bitch work the shōgun and retainers with actual responsibilities couldn't be bothered to do themselves but were too prestigious to give to random couriers, such as delivering messages to the imperial court, representing the shōgun at rituals in shrines and temples, and so on. The kōke were all from clans that had a high pedigree but no real power, including dispossessed clans like the Takeda. The only Kira of note is Kira Yoshinaka (though his name should actually be read as Yoshihisa), the antagonist of the tale of the 47 Rōnin.
The Kira are native to Mikawa, but given Nobuhide's incursions into western Mikawa, the Kira clan's lack of actual notability, and the common trend of branches of a clan splitting off and going somewhere else, it's not hard to justify a branch of the Kira serving the Oda. This option would have no real notable members aside from the PC at first ("notable members" meaning officers whose best stats are higher than competent, i.e. 60-70 range), but would have some influence within the clan due to their connections with Mikawa and thus their value to Nobuhide and his plans to expand into Mikawa. Your mother will be a daughter of Mizuno Tadamasa, lord of Kariya Castle in western Mikawa, whose other daughter is the mother of Matsudaira Takechiyo, i.e. you're Tokugawa Ieyasu's cousin.
Oh, and the only affect of naming your character Yoshikage is that you'll occasionally complain about wanting to lead a quiet life and have an odd fondness for cats, so don't get your hopes up. Though I might disallow that name anyway to avoid having two prominent Yoshikages (the other being Asakura Yoshikage), though reversing it to Kageyoshi would be fine.
Note that this is also the only option that could become shoguns unless you do what Ieyasu did and fake some connection to the Minamoto.
[] Kanma
The only clan I've totally made up. The Kanma are a branch of the Utsunomiya of Shimotsuke Province, and still live there as Utsunomiya retainers; your great-grandfather was exiled after an attempted rebellion and ended up in Owari, where he became a vassal of first the Shiba (the nominal rulers of Owari) and then the Oda (the actual rulers of Owari). The Kanma are one of the retainers whose loyalties are kind of in flux, with some members serving the Kiyosu-Oda (the nominal rulers of the Oda, who control the Shiba and most of northern Owari) led by Oda Michikatsu and later his adopted son Nobutomo (who is incidentally Nobuhide's brother) and some serving the Nagoya-Oda (who de facto control southern Owari) led by Oda Nobuhide, the "Tiger of Owari." Another example of a clan with such divided loyalties would be the Maeda and the Niwa, both of whom have members serving both factions.
The Kanma have the least influence in the Oda clan, due to their divided loyalties making them harder for either to trust and their relative newness, but also are the only clan with multiple notable officers.
Also, as a branch of the Utsunomiya the Kanma are descended from the Fujiwara, and thus are the only choice that could potentially becomes regents, unless you do what Hideyoshi did and force a Fujiwara to adopt you.
---
Incidentally, while looking for famous weapons and other items it might be possible for the PC to get his hands on, I stumbled on the perfect weapon for the "Fox" option; Kogitsunemaru, a sword whose name means "little fox." It's so named because its maker, the legendary blacksmith Sanjō Munechika, was supposedly assisted in making this sword by the goddess Inari, who is connected to foxes. The sword was owned by the Fujiwara for a long time, but was eventually lost, and although several temples claim to house the sword, none of these claims has been proven.
Also thinking of retainers for if/when the PC becomes prominent enough to get some. Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence includes (because all Koei strategy games need extra characters to unlock) the eight heroes from the old novel Hakkenden, which I might use myself for this purpose.
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EmpirePlayer
Anyone need some chaos?
- Location
- Penang
Eh, inb4 the voters somehow make Nobuyuki's rebellion even more bloodier than it was. But this option is attractive because it justifies the MC having something to prove to the Oda clan.
lol@ JoJo reference. Inb4 Nobunaga decides to install the MC as Shogun. Watch the voterbase react when Oda basically pats the guy on the shoulder and goes "You are Shogun now." I mean, sure, you can't exactly go onto the battlefield as Shogun, but this would make politics the dominating part of the quest. I do hope there is an option where Nobunaga won't make the PC, if they have already proven themselves useful and loyal. Shogun. But yes, quite interesting.
Not that interested in the option, personally. But eh.
But yeah, all three options are interesting.
It's ok on my side, because given how the quest seems to be an exploration of Nobunaga's story given the extent of his involvement even in chargen, it makes sense.
Although are you planning it to be a staggered vote or one giant vote? i.e. Clan Origin first and Character trait second, or both simultaneously?
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Said rebellion will also be a major part of Katsuie's character development.
There's a Kira clan and a guy named Yoshikage; I feel like eventually someone would have gotten the idea anyway.
Well, it's honestly not that likely. Nobunaga has little respect for the position itself, and he only supported Yoshiaki because the Ashikaga were useful in that position for a while; some nobody from Mikawa isn't likely to be as useful, since no one would consider it legitimate until Nobunaga had already kicked everyone's asses anyway.
Staggered. First you decide your clan's origin, then you meet Nobunaga as a child and get your nickname from him (which also decides most of the character's basic traits and appearance).
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Once again, here's the map:
Shimazu Clan: The Shimazu clan are one of the oldest families to survive and even thrive in the Sengoku Jidai; they date back to the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) and are descended from the Seiwa Genji (the branch of the Minamoto clan that became the shōguns), claiming direct relation to Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shōgun, through one of his younger sons, who was named the shugo (provincial governor) of Satsuma Province (#2) the year after Yoritomo was made shōgun.
At their maximum extent, the Shimazu control all of southern Kyūshū (#1-3 and #9) and were very close to taking the rest of the island, until Hideyoshi invaded with the intent to curb their growing power.
Shimazu "Jisshinsai" Tadayoshi: 1493-1568. During Tadayoshi's time, the Shimazu were divided into various branches that were constantly warring with each other. Tadayoshi was born of the marriage of two smaller branches, the Izaku-Shimazu and the Soshū-Shimazu, and eventually came to control both, uniting them. The nominal head of the main family, Shimazu Katsuhisa, was on the losing side of a struggle with Shimazu Sanehisa, head of the Sasshū-Shimazu, and he turned to Tadayoshi for help, which he agreed to give. In 1526 the childless Katsuhisa adopted Tadayoshi's son, Takahisa, and years later in 1539 Tadayoshi defeated Sanehisa once and for all, and the entire Shimazu clan was under Takahisa's control.
Tadayoshi then chose to retire, and Takahisa inherited both the Izaku and Soshū branches as well as the main branch. Tadayoshi became a monk, taking the name Jisshinsai, but he still contributed greatly to the Shimazu: he studied Zen Buddhism, waka poetry and Confucian classics, traded with the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa and the surrounding peninsula; Ryūkyū is very different ethnically and culturally from the rest of Japan, much like Hokkaido) and Ming China, and also was the one who arranged purchases of arquebuses for the Shimazu's use later on. Tadayoshi is perhaps most famous for writing his own version of the Iroha, which is the name of a poem that uses every letter of the Japanese syllabary exactly once; Tadayoshi's version was spread to teach not just the samurai but even commoners to read, and contained moral lessons as well, particularly the importance of unity to ensure prosperity and peace. The Satsuma Domain would thus have one of the highest literacy rates in Edo Japan. The opening line of his poem would continue to influence the Shimazu up to the Meiji Restoration:
"Even if you learn old ways, if you cannot use them as your own, it is meaningless."
Shimazu Takahisa: 1514-1571. He spent much of his reign fighting off erstwhile vassals and their neighbors in Ōsumi Province (#1), the Kimotsuki. He was the first major daimyō to use firearms in battle in 1549, at the Battle of Kajiki, where he defeated a Kimotsuki army supported by rebellious vassals, the Shibuya and their four branch clans.
His four sons would complete the tasks of conquering Ōsumi and Higo (#9), and it's mostly through setting them up to establish the Shimazu's power that he's remembered, though he did a lot to spread his father's policies and teachings, so there's that.
Shimazu Yoshihisa: 1533-1611. The eldest of the four famous Shimazu brothers and Takahisa's successor c. 1566; each of the four brothers is incredibly gifted, and specializes particularly in one stat: Yoshihisa's is POL. Though a capable leader in his own right, Yoshihisa's role among his brothers is usually to be the one managing the clan's domain, enriching and strengthening them through means other than warfare, which his more strategic/martial brothers then put to good use to expand the Shimazu's power.
Yoshihisa takes a great deal of pride in Satsuma, whose samurai are famed for their warrior spirit, and in the Shimazu and the teachings passed down to them through his grandfather Jisshinsai. This pride is what allows him and his brothers to carry out their conquest of Kyūshū without fear of failure... but it's also what leads them to believe that they can fight off Hideyoshi's massive invasion of Kyūshū, which ends up costing them almost all of their gains, and eventually causes the deaths of two of his three brothers and estranges him from the third.
Shimazu Yoshihiro: 1535-1619. The second of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four brothers, Yoshihiro has the highest LEA. Yoshihiro and the youngest brother, Iehisa, take up most of the military burden of the clan; of the two, Yoshihiro usually leads the clan's offensives, where Iehisa is usually in charge of defensive campaigns. Yoshihiro is an excellent warrior and strategist as well as a commander, and in 1572 he led just 300 men to victory over the forces of the Itō clan of Hyūga Province, which numbered 3,000; Yoshihiro's victory was so seemingly miraculous that this battle is sometimes called "the Okehazama of Kyūshū." Yoshihiro made a habit of defeating much larger enemies through superior tactics and discipline; in the Imjin War in 1598 he defeated a combined Ming and Joseon army of 37,000 with just 7,000 men.
After the Shimazu's defeat in their failed defiance of Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi realizes that the unity of the Shimazu brothers is their greatest strength, and among other means try to drive a wedge between the brothers by treating Yoshihiro like the clan head rather than Yoshihisa; Yoshihiro rebuffs this treatment every time, but eventually it starts to work and Yoshihisa begins to suspect his own brother. Yoshihiro also has a major role to play at Sekigahara, but I'll get into that at some other point.
Shimazu Toshihisa: 1537-1592. The third of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four brothers, Toshihisa has the highest INT. Where Yoshihisa handles the clan's civil administration, and Yoshihiro and Iehisa handle the tactical part of their military expansion, Toshihisa is in charge of the clan's overall strategy; he decides the clan's overall plans of expansion, weighing situations to try to figure out the best way to expand the Shimazu's power. He's also the one who handles espionage for the Shimazu. All of this means that Toshihisa gets the least glory of the four, but his brothers all recognize how important his strategies are to them.
Along with Iehisa, Toshihisa is one of the two brothers who argues against defying Hideyoshi's attempts at conquest, but is ignored. In the wake of their defeat, he's the one who brokers the terms of the Shimazu surrender, which are much more generous than most would expect (allowing them to retain control of both Satsuma and Ōsumi). However, this is the last service Toshihisa renders; he continues to scheme to get the Shimazu back into power, and eventually Hideyoshi engineers a situation that incriminates Toshihisa, forcing him to commit suicide to protect the clan.
Shimazu Iehisa: 1547-1587. By far the youngest of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four, Iehisa has the highest VAL. Though these roles aren't set in stone, in general Yoshihiro leads the clan's offensives while Iehihisa handles defensive campaigns, though Iehisa is the one who destroys the Ryūzōji at Okinawate. His other famous battle is the Battle of Mimigawa, where Iehisa defends Taka Castle against a massive Ōtomo army until his brothers reinforce him, then comes out to attack the enemy in the rear, dealing them the defeat that ends the Ōtomo's supremacy forever.
An amazing commander, warrior, and tactician, Hideyoshi and his brother Hidenaga make Iehisa the first victim of their attempts to break the Shimazu's unity. They first try to offer land to Iehisa to make him a direct vassal of the Toyotomi (much as they do successfully with the Kobayakawa), but Iehisa refuses. Seeing that he's too loyal to his brothers to turn on them in any way, they make other plans. Iehisa dies the very day after he meets with Hidenaga for diplomatic purposes, supposedly of illness...
Shimazu Jisshinsai: LEA 82, VAL 60, INT 89, POL 93
Shimazu Takahisa: LEA 85, VAL 64, INT 89, POL 87
Shimazu Yoshihisa: LEA 88, VAL 68, INT 90, POL 97
Shimazu Yoshihiro: LEA 97, VAL 94, INT 90, POL 68
Shimazu Toshihisa: LEA 90, VAL 74, INT 97, POL 86
Shimazu Iehisa: LEA 93, VAL 97, INT 90, POL 54
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Ryūzōji Clan: A clan originating in Hizen, they were originally retainers to the powerful Shōni clan. But then Takanobu happened, and at their height the clan controlled five provinces (#6-8 and #10-11). The clan claims descent from the Fujiwara, dating back to 1186.
I've already explained the rise to power of the Bear of Hizen, and also of Nabeshima Naoshige, so I'll just leave their stats.
Ryūzōji Takanobu: LEA 93, VAL 97, INT 78, POL 70
Nabeshima Naoshige: LEA 93, VAL 90, INT 92, POL 91
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Ōtomo clan: A clan whose rise to power dates back to the establishment of the Kamakura Shōgunate, when they were made Shugo of both Bungo and Buzen Provinces (#4 and #5). They would be a powerful voice in Kyūshū for over 400 years. Ōtomo Sōrin brought the clan to the height of its power, adding Chikuzen and Chikugo (#6 and #7) as well as northern lands in Higo (#9) and Hyūga (#3), but their neighbors grew stronger, and dissension within made the Ōtomo vulnerable, eventually leading to them losing power. Hideyoshi propped them up to keep a check on the Shimazu, but after Sōrin's heir was stripped of his position for cowardice, the clan became irrelevant, though they did end up becoming kōke to the Tokugawa.
Ōtomo "Sōrin" Yoshishige: 1530-1587. Yoshishige took over the clan after his father's death in 1550; because his father had plans to disinherit him, rumors of patricide followed Yoshishige for years, eventually leading him to become a Buddhist priest to allay suspicion, which is the source of his name Sōrin. The next year, he supported Sue Harukata's coup against Ōuchi Yoshitaka, on the condition that his brother Haruhide become head of the Ōuchi as Ōuchi Yoshinaga.
For the first 10-15 years of his rule, Yoshishige fought campaign after campaign to cement his hold over his lands and expand them. He was one of the first to make contact with the Portuguese, and in a bid to get his hands on more European goods at better deals, he first supported and then converted to Christianity. This was both good and bad, as Yoshishige actually showed so much favor to the Portuguese (even to the point of persecuting Buddhist temples) that many of his vassals who didn't trust the Europeans began to distrust both them and Yoshishige himself, creating factional dissent among the clan. This was actually one of the major factors that led to their defeat by the ascendant Ryūzōji and Shimazu clans, despite the help of loyal and capable retainers, particularly the Tachibana.
The Tachibana are something I'll cover later, and right now I'll just show their stats.
Ōtomo Sōrin: LEA 86, VAL 76, INT 92, POL 96
Tachibana Dōsetsu: LEA 96, VAL 93, INT 93, POL 64
Takahashi Jōun: LEA 92, VAL 97, INT 80, POL 66
Tachibana Ginchiyo: LEA 93, VAL 95, INT 82, POL 78
Tachibana Muneshige: LEA 92, VAL 96, INT 84, POL 75
Shimazu Clan: The Shimazu clan are one of the oldest families to survive and even thrive in the Sengoku Jidai; they date back to the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) and are descended from the Seiwa Genji (the branch of the Minamoto clan that became the shōguns), claiming direct relation to Minamoto no Yoritomo, the first shōgun, through one of his younger sons, who was named the shugo (provincial governor) of Satsuma Province (#2) the year after Yoritomo was made shōgun.
At their maximum extent, the Shimazu control all of southern Kyūshū (#1-3 and #9) and were very close to taking the rest of the island, until Hideyoshi invaded with the intent to curb their growing power.
Shimazu "Jisshinsai" Tadayoshi: 1493-1568. During Tadayoshi's time, the Shimazu were divided into various branches that were constantly warring with each other. Tadayoshi was born of the marriage of two smaller branches, the Izaku-Shimazu and the Soshū-Shimazu, and eventually came to control both, uniting them. The nominal head of the main family, Shimazu Katsuhisa, was on the losing side of a struggle with Shimazu Sanehisa, head of the Sasshū-Shimazu, and he turned to Tadayoshi for help, which he agreed to give. In 1526 the childless Katsuhisa adopted Tadayoshi's son, Takahisa, and years later in 1539 Tadayoshi defeated Sanehisa once and for all, and the entire Shimazu clan was under Takahisa's control.
Tadayoshi then chose to retire, and Takahisa inherited both the Izaku and Soshū branches as well as the main branch. Tadayoshi became a monk, taking the name Jisshinsai, but he still contributed greatly to the Shimazu: he studied Zen Buddhism, waka poetry and Confucian classics, traded with the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa and the surrounding peninsula; Ryūkyū is very different ethnically and culturally from the rest of Japan, much like Hokkaido) and Ming China, and also was the one who arranged purchases of arquebuses for the Shimazu's use later on. Tadayoshi is perhaps most famous for writing his own version of the Iroha, which is the name of a poem that uses every letter of the Japanese syllabary exactly once; Tadayoshi's version was spread to teach not just the samurai but even commoners to read, and contained moral lessons as well, particularly the importance of unity to ensure prosperity and peace. The Satsuma Domain would thus have one of the highest literacy rates in Edo Japan. The opening line of his poem would continue to influence the Shimazu up to the Meiji Restoration:
"Even if you learn old ways, if you cannot use them as your own, it is meaningless."
Shimazu Takahisa: 1514-1571. He spent much of his reign fighting off erstwhile vassals and their neighbors in Ōsumi Province (#1), the Kimotsuki. He was the first major daimyō to use firearms in battle in 1549, at the Battle of Kajiki, where he defeated a Kimotsuki army supported by rebellious vassals, the Shibuya and their four branch clans.
His four sons would complete the tasks of conquering Ōsumi and Higo (#9), and it's mostly through setting them up to establish the Shimazu's power that he's remembered, though he did a lot to spread his father's policies and teachings, so there's that.
Shimazu Yoshihisa: 1533-1611. The eldest of the four famous Shimazu brothers and Takahisa's successor c. 1566; each of the four brothers is incredibly gifted, and specializes particularly in one stat: Yoshihisa's is POL. Though a capable leader in his own right, Yoshihisa's role among his brothers is usually to be the one managing the clan's domain, enriching and strengthening them through means other than warfare, which his more strategic/martial brothers then put to good use to expand the Shimazu's power.
Yoshihisa takes a great deal of pride in Satsuma, whose samurai are famed for their warrior spirit, and in the Shimazu and the teachings passed down to them through his grandfather Jisshinsai. This pride is what allows him and his brothers to carry out their conquest of Kyūshū without fear of failure... but it's also what leads them to believe that they can fight off Hideyoshi's massive invasion of Kyūshū, which ends up costing them almost all of their gains, and eventually causes the deaths of two of his three brothers and estranges him from the third.
Shimazu Yoshihiro: 1535-1619. The second of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four brothers, Yoshihiro has the highest LEA. Yoshihiro and the youngest brother, Iehisa, take up most of the military burden of the clan; of the two, Yoshihiro usually leads the clan's offensives, where Iehisa is usually in charge of defensive campaigns. Yoshihiro is an excellent warrior and strategist as well as a commander, and in 1572 he led just 300 men to victory over the forces of the Itō clan of Hyūga Province, which numbered 3,000; Yoshihiro's victory was so seemingly miraculous that this battle is sometimes called "the Okehazama of Kyūshū." Yoshihiro made a habit of defeating much larger enemies through superior tactics and discipline; in the Imjin War in 1598 he defeated a combined Ming and Joseon army of 37,000 with just 7,000 men.
After the Shimazu's defeat in their failed defiance of Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi realizes that the unity of the Shimazu brothers is their greatest strength, and among other means try to drive a wedge between the brothers by treating Yoshihiro like the clan head rather than Yoshihisa; Yoshihiro rebuffs this treatment every time, but eventually it starts to work and Yoshihisa begins to suspect his own brother. Yoshihiro also has a major role to play at Sekigahara, but I'll get into that at some other point.
Shimazu Toshihisa: 1537-1592. The third of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four brothers, Toshihisa has the highest INT. Where Yoshihisa handles the clan's civil administration, and Yoshihiro and Iehisa handle the tactical part of their military expansion, Toshihisa is in charge of the clan's overall strategy; he decides the clan's overall plans of expansion, weighing situations to try to figure out the best way to expand the Shimazu's power. He's also the one who handles espionage for the Shimazu. All of this means that Toshihisa gets the least glory of the four, but his brothers all recognize how important his strategies are to them.
Along with Iehisa, Toshihisa is one of the two brothers who argues against defying Hideyoshi's attempts at conquest, but is ignored. In the wake of their defeat, he's the one who brokers the terms of the Shimazu surrender, which are much more generous than most would expect (allowing them to retain control of both Satsuma and Ōsumi). However, this is the last service Toshihisa renders; he continues to scheme to get the Shimazu back into power, and eventually Hideyoshi engineers a situation that incriminates Toshihisa, forcing him to commit suicide to protect the clan.
Shimazu Iehisa: 1547-1587. By far the youngest of the four Shimazu brothers; of the four, Iehisa has the highest VAL. Though these roles aren't set in stone, in general Yoshihiro leads the clan's offensives while Iehihisa handles defensive campaigns, though Iehisa is the one who destroys the Ryūzōji at Okinawate. His other famous battle is the Battle of Mimigawa, where Iehisa defends Taka Castle against a massive Ōtomo army until his brothers reinforce him, then comes out to attack the enemy in the rear, dealing them the defeat that ends the Ōtomo's supremacy forever.
An amazing commander, warrior, and tactician, Hideyoshi and his brother Hidenaga make Iehisa the first victim of their attempts to break the Shimazu's unity. They first try to offer land to Iehisa to make him a direct vassal of the Toyotomi (much as they do successfully with the Kobayakawa), but Iehisa refuses. Seeing that he's too loyal to his brothers to turn on them in any way, they make other plans. Iehisa dies the very day after he meets with Hidenaga for diplomatic purposes, supposedly of illness...
Shimazu Jisshinsai: LEA 82, VAL 60, INT 89, POL 93
Shimazu Takahisa: LEA 85, VAL 64, INT 89, POL 87
Shimazu Yoshihisa: LEA 88, VAL 68, INT 90, POL 97
Shimazu Yoshihiro: LEA 97, VAL 94, INT 90, POL 68
Shimazu Toshihisa: LEA 90, VAL 74, INT 97, POL 86
Shimazu Iehisa: LEA 93, VAL 97, INT 90, POL 54
---
Ryūzōji Clan: A clan originating in Hizen, they were originally retainers to the powerful Shōni clan. But then Takanobu happened, and at their height the clan controlled five provinces (#6-8 and #10-11). The clan claims descent from the Fujiwara, dating back to 1186.
I've already explained the rise to power of the Bear of Hizen, and also of Nabeshima Naoshige, so I'll just leave their stats.
Ryūzōji Takanobu: LEA 93, VAL 97, INT 78, POL 70
Nabeshima Naoshige: LEA 93, VAL 90, INT 92, POL 91
---
Ōtomo clan: A clan whose rise to power dates back to the establishment of the Kamakura Shōgunate, when they were made Shugo of both Bungo and Buzen Provinces (#4 and #5). They would be a powerful voice in Kyūshū for over 400 years. Ōtomo Sōrin brought the clan to the height of its power, adding Chikuzen and Chikugo (#6 and #7) as well as northern lands in Higo (#9) and Hyūga (#3), but their neighbors grew stronger, and dissension within made the Ōtomo vulnerable, eventually leading to them losing power. Hideyoshi propped them up to keep a check on the Shimazu, but after Sōrin's heir was stripped of his position for cowardice, the clan became irrelevant, though they did end up becoming kōke to the Tokugawa.
Ōtomo "Sōrin" Yoshishige: 1530-1587. Yoshishige took over the clan after his father's death in 1550; because his father had plans to disinherit him, rumors of patricide followed Yoshishige for years, eventually leading him to become a Buddhist priest to allay suspicion, which is the source of his name Sōrin. The next year, he supported Sue Harukata's coup against Ōuchi Yoshitaka, on the condition that his brother Haruhide become head of the Ōuchi as Ōuchi Yoshinaga.
For the first 10-15 years of his rule, Yoshishige fought campaign after campaign to cement his hold over his lands and expand them. He was one of the first to make contact with the Portuguese, and in a bid to get his hands on more European goods at better deals, he first supported and then converted to Christianity. This was both good and bad, as Yoshishige actually showed so much favor to the Portuguese (even to the point of persecuting Buddhist temples) that many of his vassals who didn't trust the Europeans began to distrust both them and Yoshishige himself, creating factional dissent among the clan. This was actually one of the major factors that led to their defeat by the ascendant Ryūzōji and Shimazu clans, despite the help of loyal and capable retainers, particularly the Tachibana.
The Tachibana are something I'll cover later, and right now I'll just show their stats.
Ōtomo Sōrin: LEA 86, VAL 76, INT 92, POL 96
Tachibana Dōsetsu: LEA 96, VAL 93, INT 93, POL 64
Takahashi Jōun: LEA 92, VAL 97, INT 80, POL 66
Tachibana Ginchiyo: LEA 93, VAL 95, INT 82, POL 78
Tachibana Muneshige: LEA 92, VAL 96, INT 84, POL 75
Conduit Quest (InFamous)
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
EDIT: Heavily inspired by the InFamous Jumpchain.
It's unknown how Conduits have reemerged, even more numerous than before. 10 years ago, it was believed that Cole MacGrath had sacrificed all Conduits and potential Conduits in the world to save the rest of the population. Nevertheless, Conduits began to emerge again a few short years ago, though thankfully so far there seem to be no signs of a resurgence of the Ray Sphere Sickness. Every country reacted to the emergence of a superpowered portion of its population differently; some made the shift with a minimum of paranoia and bloodshed.
Others, not so much. In the United States, a massive propaganda push led to Conduits being labeled as "Bio-Terrorists;" an utterly meaningless term designed for the sole purpose of evoking fear, which is exactly what the "Department of Unified Protection," a special government agency tied closely to the military, wanted to do.
Through the propagation of fearmongering propaganda, the DUP seized unprecedented powers and privileges, stripping American citizens of their rights in their mission to seize and arrest proven and suspected "bio-terrorists," locking down entire cities into martial law and imprisoning Conduits without trial or charges, subjecting them to inhumane treatments in their special prison facility, even as they used the fruits of their experimentations to give weaker variants of imprisoned Conduit powers to their troops who held the Conduit gene. That quite a few Conduits truly are the menaces to society they've been painted as, using their incredible gifts for selfish gain and even sadistic cruelty, only made their jobs easier.
Thankfully, the DUP has been destroyed, and at least some of its excesses come to light, though certain elements in the military and government have been doing their best to suppress evidence of their own involvement in the DUP's human rights violations. And even now that the DUP has been disbanded, the United States remains in dire straits. Several major cities remain under martial law or with a substantial military presence, and in many cities, Conduits remain unsafe, which in turn causes many of them to lash out, becoming the very menaces they're hated as. And the cycle continues…
---
You are a Conduit. Perhaps you were one of the few skilled or lucky enough to avoid being captured by the DUP; or perhaps not, and you've spent the last few years suffering a living Hell at the hands of Brooke Augustine. Or maybe you even were part of the DUP, either as a dupe who thought your organization really was doing good or simply in the hope that by working for the DUP you'd be spared its "tender mercies." Or maybe Augustine had something important to you in her grasp; you wouldn't have been the first she used that tactic on.
So… what is your background, roughly speaking?
[] Student
You're a college student working on your Undergraduate's degree. You were lucky enough to avoid any genetic tests that would have revealed your latent Conduit gene, and either lucky or unlucky enough to have recently (very recently) unlocked that latent gene, gaining superhuman abilities.
A very bright kid, in many senses of the word, the "too cool for everything" phase your parents were expecting and dreading throughout your adolescence never manifested; you've got a child's bone-deep certainty that nothing is impossible and that good and bad, while a little muddled sometimes, are not just cute ideas; you've also got some very starry-eyed notions of what your new superpowers mean. To you, they're a chance to live out the dream you've had ever since you first saw movies and cartoons where Superman leapt tall buildings in a single bound and Captain America stood up for the America he believed in, even when his opponent was America itself.
Unfortunately, you've gotten your powers too early to really develop any actual skill with them, and right now you've only got the basics of your unique power nailed down, as well as the stuff that just seems to come standard to Prime (that is, non-artificial) Conduits.
On the other hand, you are a very bright kid, and in your excitement at beginning your life of crime-fighting you've made some very nifty gadgets to help you out. First is the "Hypervisor," a pair of super-hardened glasses with a HUD that can display all kinds of tactical data out in the field. Second is a set of 20 small, unobtrusive tracking devices, with a handheld locator to find them. And finally, a handheld crossbow that can fire specially-made knockout darts you made yourself, which are much safer and more fast-acting than normal tranquilizers. Oh, and it could fire normal bolts, too, if you needed to. Or the tracking devices. Anything that'll fit and is aerodynamic enough, really.
[] Soldier
You don't like to talk about your home life much. Dad was a drunk and a deadbeat, and as far as you're concerned Mom left him 10 years later than she should've. Anyway, proudest day of her life was when you enlisted. While you were getting your check-up, genetic tests revealed latent Conduit genes, which got you an offer to join up with DUP after Basic. To your later regret, you accepted, thinking it would be a great way to protect your country. Once the DUP went bust, you got reassigned; your new job is keeping the peace in one of America's major cities. Hopefully that's really what you'll be doing this time.
It wasn't all bad, your time in the DUP. You weren't all a bunch of bile-spewing murderers, like some try to paint you, now that all the shady sh*t they got up to has come to light. You really did think you were helping both the Conduits and the people. Sometimes, that was even true. You try to draw strength from that, when the things you saw start to weigh down on you. Your new unit are good people; they haven't given you any grief for being a Conduit. Well, they have, but that's hazing, you know the difference by now. Hopefully, away from Augustine and her bullsh*t, you can actually do the job you signed up to do.
You're not a Prime Conduit, the designation for a Conduit who unlocked their own unique powers. You got your power through a Power Transfer Device courtesy of the DUP, which means you essentially got a neutered, cloned version of some other Conduit's power. Most got a weak copy of Augustine's power, but a few got powers from inmates; you might be one of them. Regardless, although you're significantly weaker than a Prime Conduit (though you've heard rumors that there may be ways for even a non-Prime Conduit to grow more powerful), you've received the best training in using it available, in addition to, well, being a trained soldier.
Unless you're in one of the real hotspots, you're not going to be wearing the heavy armor you wore as part of DUP; even if you are, the armor isn't actually yours, and you'll only be wearing it while out on patrol. While you're out of the heavy-duty stuff, you've got some very nifty light body armor to use; covers the torso, arms and legs, kevlar-nomex weave, small and light enough to be worn under your clothes without looking off. Not really enough to stop a shotgun to the chest, but even a non-Prime Conduit is a tough son of a bitch, so it evens out. You've also got your trusty assault rifle, as well as plenty of other guns; you even got certification for a sniper rifle.
[] Prisoner
You were innocent. Plain and simple. Your powers weren't even active when they found you; you didn't even know you had the gene until you submitted to genetic testing as part of a job application. The DUP didn't care. Augustine didn't care, the bitch. You don't have an eidetic memory, but dear God, you will remember that woman for the rest of your life. The things she did to you, to all of you… No one deserves that. Even the truly evil ones that were locked up in there. Whatever Delsin Rowe did to Augustine before he killed her, it wasn't enough. You said as much in court, when you testified about what you and the others went through; got a new ID out of it, courtesy of Witness Protection. Joy.
You weren't really a big anti-government type before. Weren't exactly their biggest fan, but you didn't have any major grievances. Paid your taxes, voted every four years, whatever. Funny what a stint in the Chateau D'If will do to poor Edmond Dantes, isn't it? You took the government's offer of a new life, all right; they haven't even begun to pay you back for what they took from you. Years of your life. Your human dignity. Your ability to sleep without waking up screaming at three in the Goddamn morning. And they're gonna pay you back. You're not sure how you're gonna collect, not sure how far you're willing to go, but by God do you want to find out. And God help any military goon or bigoted f*ck with a gun who thinks he's gonna put you back in the Hell you've finally escaped. You'll die before you go back… and you'll kill before you let them take you.
Funny enough, your powers unlocked in prison, while you were unable to actually use them. You'd think that would make them weak, atrophied, but you're full to bursting with power. It's like it had nothing to do but just build up inside of you all that time; you're pretty sure most Conduits don't have this much juice, definitely not starting out. You'll need to work on actually using them, though; didn't have much chance for that before, obviously.
The house you've got from Witness Protection is nice; very scenic view, but out of the way, very private. Probably full of surveillance devices, but you'll find those soon enough. You've got a few personal effects that didn't get "lost in transit" by the DUP when they arrested you. Nothing too crazy, but your old wingsuit might come in handy; you used to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie. In fact, you swiped some experimental "combat stims" on the way out; apparently they can fabricate a kind of artificial adrenaline. No idea what the side effects are or how to make more, but you're sure you'll find some kind of use for them. Oh, you've also got a gun. Just a handgun, nothing crazy. You're technically an ex-con, and were able to get the thing pretty much as soon as you got here. Sometimes, even you can't help but love this country.
---
[] Seattle
The recent actions and good example of Delsin Rowe and his associates have made Seattle a Mecca for Conduits in the United States; a place where Conduits can live without being ostracized and attacked just for existing. And if a Conduit tries to take advantage of that, well, the police hire their own Conduits now.
Opinion: Friendly Crime: Low Military Presence: Low
[] New Marais
The city's salvation by Cole MacGrath has not been forgotten; locals call him the "Saint of New Marais" completely seriously, and the city is a hotbed for Conduit advocacy. This has caused tension between the locals and the military, sent there to monitor the city's Conduit population.
Opinion: Friendly Crime: Medium Military Presence: Medium
[] Chicago
The DUP's big "success story," Chicago is, if anything worse off than before. The DUP effectively purged the city of all Conduits and then left. While there had been a slight spike in the crime rate due to Conduit criminals, the resulting power vacuum the DUP created has made the situation even more unstable.
Opinion: Mixed Crime: Very High Military Presence: Low
[] Los Angeles
A flashpoint for Conduit-perpetrated crimes, L.A's gang warfare has escalated to the point that the military has been called in to resolve the situation.
Opinion: Mixed Crime: High Military Presence: High
[] Phoenix
Following a major conflict between semi-organized Conduits and an anti-Conduit hate group that ended in hundreds of deaths, the military has effectively occupied the city and begun cracking down in order to get a handle on the situation before it gets completely out of control.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Moderately Low Military Presence: Occupying
[] Houston
A nerve center of the anti-Conduit movement, Conduits in Houston are relentlessly hunted by armed civilian lynch mobs, who are more violent and cruel than the military force, who are actually seen as the lesser of two evils by the Conduits there who haven't been either captured or killed yet.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Moderately High Military Presence: Moderate
[] Empire City
Like New Marais, Empire City takes its nickname for Cole MacGrath very seriously; unfortunately, "Demon of Empire City" isn't quite as flattering as the name used down south. People in Empire City aren't likely to be very kind to Conduits, though fortunately for the Conduits they're more concerned with survival. Even years later, recovery efforts still find bodies beneath the rubble, and looters cause trouble for everyone just trying to scrape by.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Very High Military Presence: Moderate
---
Now here's the most important part: what kind of Conduit powers have you got going on? The vast majority of Conduits have a sort of "elemental" power, though that can be pretty loose (Smoke? Alright, I guess. Neon? Technically that is an element, so fair enough. Video? Now you're just f*cking with me). All their other powers are just an outgrowth of the fundamental idea of that "element." Of course, some other stuff, like teleportation, telekinesis, spewing weird black goop that mind controls people... Yeah. It gets weird sometimes.
[] Element: Water
Nice, hydrokinesis! That's gotta come in handy. Most major cities are on coasts or rivers, after all. And hey, the human body is 70% water or something. Not that you can do anything with that. Well, maybe later, right?
[] Element: Fire
Time to turn up the heat! Some might say pyrokinesis is really only good for lobbing fireballs and lighting matches. Those people are just plain uncreative.
[] Element: Concrete (Soldier only)
Yeah, a lot of DUP guys got this; it belonged to Brooke Augustine and got shared among her attack dogs. Very useful, even in this weakened form.
[] Teleportation
Don't get too excited; the range is pretty short. Right now, you can manage maybe 10 meters at a time, and that's a stretch. On the other hand, you can chain teleportations without getting disoriented or off-balance, making you very hard to pin down and giving you plenty of chances to dish out the pain.
[] Telekinesis
No, you don't have the fine control to just pop vessels in a guy's brain to give him a fatal hemorrhage from a mile away. It's more like having huge, invisible hands with super strength than anything else. Which should be more than enough on its own, really.
[] Adaptation
You know, what doesn't kill you and all that cliche crap. Except for you it's more than a cliche. Your body actually adapts to the dangers you face; for example, if you get shot up a lot you might grow a layer of flexible steel-hard chitin or something weird like that. They're not permanent, though, and you can't call them up consciously.
[] Element: Electricity.
Holy sh*t you have Cole MacGrath's powers. Holy sh*t you have Cole MacGrath's powers! I mean, you're nowhere near as strong as he was at his prime (yet, at least, though it'd be hard to recreate the stuff he went through), but man that is a power that comes with a lot of baggage. Whether it's good or bad kinda depends on you. And your city, of course. But no, nobody in New Marais is gonna call you a saint just because you can short out their TVs.
[] Write-In
Feel free to suggest your own, even canon ones. But no, you can't pick Delsin's. Or Augustine's at full power.
It's unknown how Conduits have reemerged, even more numerous than before. 10 years ago, it was believed that Cole MacGrath had sacrificed all Conduits and potential Conduits in the world to save the rest of the population. Nevertheless, Conduits began to emerge again a few short years ago, though thankfully so far there seem to be no signs of a resurgence of the Ray Sphere Sickness. Every country reacted to the emergence of a superpowered portion of its population differently; some made the shift with a minimum of paranoia and bloodshed.
Others, not so much. In the United States, a massive propaganda push led to Conduits being labeled as "Bio-Terrorists;" an utterly meaningless term designed for the sole purpose of evoking fear, which is exactly what the "Department of Unified Protection," a special government agency tied closely to the military, wanted to do.
Through the propagation of fearmongering propaganda, the DUP seized unprecedented powers and privileges, stripping American citizens of their rights in their mission to seize and arrest proven and suspected "bio-terrorists," locking down entire cities into martial law and imprisoning Conduits without trial or charges, subjecting them to inhumane treatments in their special prison facility, even as they used the fruits of their experimentations to give weaker variants of imprisoned Conduit powers to their troops who held the Conduit gene. That quite a few Conduits truly are the menaces to society they've been painted as, using their incredible gifts for selfish gain and even sadistic cruelty, only made their jobs easier.
Thankfully, the DUP has been destroyed, and at least some of its excesses come to light, though certain elements in the military and government have been doing their best to suppress evidence of their own involvement in the DUP's human rights violations. And even now that the DUP has been disbanded, the United States remains in dire straits. Several major cities remain under martial law or with a substantial military presence, and in many cities, Conduits remain unsafe, which in turn causes many of them to lash out, becoming the very menaces they're hated as. And the cycle continues…
---
You are a Conduit. Perhaps you were one of the few skilled or lucky enough to avoid being captured by the DUP; or perhaps not, and you've spent the last few years suffering a living Hell at the hands of Brooke Augustine. Or maybe you even were part of the DUP, either as a dupe who thought your organization really was doing good or simply in the hope that by working for the DUP you'd be spared its "tender mercies." Or maybe Augustine had something important to you in her grasp; you wouldn't have been the first she used that tactic on.
So… what is your background, roughly speaking?
[] Student
You're a college student working on your Undergraduate's degree. You were lucky enough to avoid any genetic tests that would have revealed your latent Conduit gene, and either lucky or unlucky enough to have recently (very recently) unlocked that latent gene, gaining superhuman abilities.
A very bright kid, in many senses of the word, the "too cool for everything" phase your parents were expecting and dreading throughout your adolescence never manifested; you've got a child's bone-deep certainty that nothing is impossible and that good and bad, while a little muddled sometimes, are not just cute ideas; you've also got some very starry-eyed notions of what your new superpowers mean. To you, they're a chance to live out the dream you've had ever since you first saw movies and cartoons where Superman leapt tall buildings in a single bound and Captain America stood up for the America he believed in, even when his opponent was America itself.
Unfortunately, you've gotten your powers too early to really develop any actual skill with them, and right now you've only got the basics of your unique power nailed down, as well as the stuff that just seems to come standard to Prime (that is, non-artificial) Conduits.
On the other hand, you are a very bright kid, and in your excitement at beginning your life of crime-fighting you've made some very nifty gadgets to help you out. First is the "Hypervisor," a pair of super-hardened glasses with a HUD that can display all kinds of tactical data out in the field. Second is a set of 20 small, unobtrusive tracking devices, with a handheld locator to find them. And finally, a handheld crossbow that can fire specially-made knockout darts you made yourself, which are much safer and more fast-acting than normal tranquilizers. Oh, and it could fire normal bolts, too, if you needed to. Or the tracking devices. Anything that'll fit and is aerodynamic enough, really.
[] Soldier
You don't like to talk about your home life much. Dad was a drunk and a deadbeat, and as far as you're concerned Mom left him 10 years later than she should've. Anyway, proudest day of her life was when you enlisted. While you were getting your check-up, genetic tests revealed latent Conduit genes, which got you an offer to join up with DUP after Basic. To your later regret, you accepted, thinking it would be a great way to protect your country. Once the DUP went bust, you got reassigned; your new job is keeping the peace in one of America's major cities. Hopefully that's really what you'll be doing this time.
It wasn't all bad, your time in the DUP. You weren't all a bunch of bile-spewing murderers, like some try to paint you, now that all the shady sh*t they got up to has come to light. You really did think you were helping both the Conduits and the people. Sometimes, that was even true. You try to draw strength from that, when the things you saw start to weigh down on you. Your new unit are good people; they haven't given you any grief for being a Conduit. Well, they have, but that's hazing, you know the difference by now. Hopefully, away from Augustine and her bullsh*t, you can actually do the job you signed up to do.
You're not a Prime Conduit, the designation for a Conduit who unlocked their own unique powers. You got your power through a Power Transfer Device courtesy of the DUP, which means you essentially got a neutered, cloned version of some other Conduit's power. Most got a weak copy of Augustine's power, but a few got powers from inmates; you might be one of them. Regardless, although you're significantly weaker than a Prime Conduit (though you've heard rumors that there may be ways for even a non-Prime Conduit to grow more powerful), you've received the best training in using it available, in addition to, well, being a trained soldier.
Unless you're in one of the real hotspots, you're not going to be wearing the heavy armor you wore as part of DUP; even if you are, the armor isn't actually yours, and you'll only be wearing it while out on patrol. While you're out of the heavy-duty stuff, you've got some very nifty light body armor to use; covers the torso, arms and legs, kevlar-nomex weave, small and light enough to be worn under your clothes without looking off. Not really enough to stop a shotgun to the chest, but even a non-Prime Conduit is a tough son of a bitch, so it evens out. You've also got your trusty assault rifle, as well as plenty of other guns; you even got certification for a sniper rifle.
[] Prisoner
You were innocent. Plain and simple. Your powers weren't even active when they found you; you didn't even know you had the gene until you submitted to genetic testing as part of a job application. The DUP didn't care. Augustine didn't care, the bitch. You don't have an eidetic memory, but dear God, you will remember that woman for the rest of your life. The things she did to you, to all of you… No one deserves that. Even the truly evil ones that were locked up in there. Whatever Delsin Rowe did to Augustine before he killed her, it wasn't enough. You said as much in court, when you testified about what you and the others went through; got a new ID out of it, courtesy of Witness Protection. Joy.
You weren't really a big anti-government type before. Weren't exactly their biggest fan, but you didn't have any major grievances. Paid your taxes, voted every four years, whatever. Funny what a stint in the Chateau D'If will do to poor Edmond Dantes, isn't it? You took the government's offer of a new life, all right; they haven't even begun to pay you back for what they took from you. Years of your life. Your human dignity. Your ability to sleep without waking up screaming at three in the Goddamn morning. And they're gonna pay you back. You're not sure how you're gonna collect, not sure how far you're willing to go, but by God do you want to find out. And God help any military goon or bigoted f*ck with a gun who thinks he's gonna put you back in the Hell you've finally escaped. You'll die before you go back… and you'll kill before you let them take you.
Funny enough, your powers unlocked in prison, while you were unable to actually use them. You'd think that would make them weak, atrophied, but you're full to bursting with power. It's like it had nothing to do but just build up inside of you all that time; you're pretty sure most Conduits don't have this much juice, definitely not starting out. You'll need to work on actually using them, though; didn't have much chance for that before, obviously.
The house you've got from Witness Protection is nice; very scenic view, but out of the way, very private. Probably full of surveillance devices, but you'll find those soon enough. You've got a few personal effects that didn't get "lost in transit" by the DUP when they arrested you. Nothing too crazy, but your old wingsuit might come in handy; you used to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie. In fact, you swiped some experimental "combat stims" on the way out; apparently they can fabricate a kind of artificial adrenaline. No idea what the side effects are or how to make more, but you're sure you'll find some kind of use for them. Oh, you've also got a gun. Just a handgun, nothing crazy. You're technically an ex-con, and were able to get the thing pretty much as soon as you got here. Sometimes, even you can't help but love this country.
---
[] Seattle
The recent actions and good example of Delsin Rowe and his associates have made Seattle a Mecca for Conduits in the United States; a place where Conduits can live without being ostracized and attacked just for existing. And if a Conduit tries to take advantage of that, well, the police hire their own Conduits now.
Opinion: Friendly Crime: Low Military Presence: Low
[] New Marais
The city's salvation by Cole MacGrath has not been forgotten; locals call him the "Saint of New Marais" completely seriously, and the city is a hotbed for Conduit advocacy. This has caused tension between the locals and the military, sent there to monitor the city's Conduit population.
Opinion: Friendly Crime: Medium Military Presence: Medium
[] Chicago
The DUP's big "success story," Chicago is, if anything worse off than before. The DUP effectively purged the city of all Conduits and then left. While there had been a slight spike in the crime rate due to Conduit criminals, the resulting power vacuum the DUP created has made the situation even more unstable.
Opinion: Mixed Crime: Very High Military Presence: Low
[] Los Angeles
A flashpoint for Conduit-perpetrated crimes, L.A's gang warfare has escalated to the point that the military has been called in to resolve the situation.
Opinion: Mixed Crime: High Military Presence: High
[] Phoenix
Following a major conflict between semi-organized Conduits and an anti-Conduit hate group that ended in hundreds of deaths, the military has effectively occupied the city and begun cracking down in order to get a handle on the situation before it gets completely out of control.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Moderately Low Military Presence: Occupying
[] Houston
A nerve center of the anti-Conduit movement, Conduits in Houston are relentlessly hunted by armed civilian lynch mobs, who are more violent and cruel than the military force, who are actually seen as the lesser of two evils by the Conduits there who haven't been either captured or killed yet.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Moderately High Military Presence: Moderate
[] Empire City
Like New Marais, Empire City takes its nickname for Cole MacGrath very seriously; unfortunately, "Demon of Empire City" isn't quite as flattering as the name used down south. People in Empire City aren't likely to be very kind to Conduits, though fortunately for the Conduits they're more concerned with survival. Even years later, recovery efforts still find bodies beneath the rubble, and looters cause trouble for everyone just trying to scrape by.
Opinion: Hostile Crime: Very High Military Presence: Moderate
---
Now here's the most important part: what kind of Conduit powers have you got going on? The vast majority of Conduits have a sort of "elemental" power, though that can be pretty loose (Smoke? Alright, I guess. Neon? Technically that is an element, so fair enough. Video? Now you're just f*cking with me). All their other powers are just an outgrowth of the fundamental idea of that "element." Of course, some other stuff, like teleportation, telekinesis, spewing weird black goop that mind controls people... Yeah. It gets weird sometimes.
[] Element: Water
Nice, hydrokinesis! That's gotta come in handy. Most major cities are on coasts or rivers, after all. And hey, the human body is 70% water or something. Not that you can do anything with that. Well, maybe later, right?
[] Element: Fire
Time to turn up the heat! Some might say pyrokinesis is really only good for lobbing fireballs and lighting matches. Those people are just plain uncreative.
[] Element: Concrete (Soldier only)
Yeah, a lot of DUP guys got this; it belonged to Brooke Augustine and got shared among her attack dogs. Very useful, even in this weakened form.
[] Teleportation
Don't get too excited; the range is pretty short. Right now, you can manage maybe 10 meters at a time, and that's a stretch. On the other hand, you can chain teleportations without getting disoriented or off-balance, making you very hard to pin down and giving you plenty of chances to dish out the pain.
[] Telekinesis
No, you don't have the fine control to just pop vessels in a guy's brain to give him a fatal hemorrhage from a mile away. It's more like having huge, invisible hands with super strength than anything else. Which should be more than enough on its own, really.
[] Adaptation
You know, what doesn't kill you and all that cliche crap. Except for you it's more than a cliche. Your body actually adapts to the dangers you face; for example, if you get shot up a lot you might grow a layer of flexible steel-hard chitin or something weird like that. They're not permanent, though, and you can't call them up consciously.
[] Element: Electricity.
Holy sh*t you have Cole MacGrath's powers. Holy sh*t you have Cole MacGrath's powers! I mean, you're nowhere near as strong as he was at his prime (yet, at least, though it'd be hard to recreate the stuff he went through), but man that is a power that comes with a lot of baggage. Whether it's good or bad kinda depends on you. And your city, of course. But no, nobody in New Marais is gonna call you a saint just because you can short out their TVs.
[] Write-In
Feel free to suggest your own, even canon ones. But no, you can't pick Delsin's. Or Augustine's at full power.
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- Location
- Leeds
I think you've lost a without here.
Anyway, never played Infamous but I want you to start writing again so I'll play it.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Soldier options: Before they settled on Brooke Augustine's Concrete, the DUP actually experimented with several different powers to give to their troops. They wanted to give all of them a single powerset to make it easier to train and coordinate them, so it needed to be a mix of visually impressive, easy to train, and versatile. If the Soldier background doesn't have Concrete powers, his options are one of those failed experiments, which made him a "special operative" in a special unit made up of those who were given these "failed" powers (Augustine's motives and goals mean she wouldn't have taken away Conduit powers even if she could, but I'm going with the idea that the DUP does not have technology to actually take away a Conduit's powers, only to give a weaker "copy" to someone who already has an inactive Conduit gene).
Plants: Made people "uneasy," and so was considered a nonviable option. Starting powerset for the Student or the Prisoner is basic attacks with viny tendrils grown from the arms, a grappling hook from the same, and a "grenade" of sorts made by growing a bulb and throwing it, releasing a cloud of pollen that works almost like tear gas. The Soldier gets all of that, as well as the ability to grow viny tendrils from beneath the ground to grab opponents (large and powerful enough to seize hold of an APC, in fact), a poisonous variant of the "tear gas bulb," and the ability to, with enough nearby plant matter, create plant golems.
Adaptation: Organic powersets were considered nonviable for the same reason as plants; for the purposes of the quest, "Adaptation" will be one of those failed organic options. This one probably isn't a great idea for the Soldier, actually, because it's more instinctual and there isn't as much you can gain from experience and training. At first, the adaptations will be more or less random, but as the Conduit is exposed to the same kinds of problems over and over, they have the option to "standardize" a specific adaptation to a given obstacle, enemy, or other stimulus, which will make it stronger and longer-lasting at the cost of giving up the power's unpredictable versatility.
Wire: Proved too difficult to control and was thus deemed nonviable, though that won't be a problem for the Soldier (the Student and Prisoner will have a problem with their wires lashing around and hitting themselves or civilians at first, so it's not an advisable power for them). Starting powerset for the Student or the Prisoner is basic attacks made by lashing out with wires, a grappling hook from the same, and using preexisting wires to bind and restrict enemies. The Soldier can grow barbs on the wire and run them through a current to electrify them, and can launch wires with enough force to pull a Scorpion, impaling an enemy and drawing them to the Soldier. They can also create armor and even a large barrier from wires.
Paper: Soldier only. Paper was deemed nonviable because it didn't give off an air of strength and security. The Soldier can mold and fold paper in ways that would normally require hundreds if not thousands of pounds of force, making seemingly weak, flimsy paper durable enough to be made into armor and projectiles that can be launched with the speed of a bullet and enough force to crack concrete. They can also sharpen the paper to a razor-sharp edge, allowing them to turn their armor into blades that can cut through anything short of reinforced steel, given enough time and paper. The Soldier can also create a few limited constructs of paper; the most useful is a hang-glider. Unlike Celia Penderghast, the Soldier can't take on the attributes of paper or animate their constructs, however.
Glass: Soldier only. Actually a very strong contender with Concrete, but nonviable because it was too difficult to master to make the standard. The Soldier can fire shards of sharp glass as projectiles or drop them as caltrops, and can even make them detonate when they're near a target, exploding into even smaller shards of glass. The Soldier can crush glass into a fine powder and release and control it in a whirlwind of glass dust, with the nearly microscopic bits of glass wreaking utter havoc on anything trapped inside. They can also use hardened glasses like plexiglass as armor or more durable weapons, and can also launch themselves upward on a large protrusion of glass. Finally, they can stick to glass surfaces (kind of like how if you stick two pieces of finely-made glass on top of each other they'll actually stick together a bit) and maneuver on them without difficulty.
Concrete: Soldier only. The Soldier can launch themselves great distances with a pillar of concrete and cover their body in powerful concrete armor. They can fire projectiles, either large concrete rocks or fast-moving discs, or can assemble them into a mobile shield for cover; when something more durable is needed, they can erect a concrete palisade in front of themselves.
---
Student and Prisoner options: The Soldier has much more experience with their powers and thus is much stronger at the start, but as a Prime Conduit, the Student and Prisoner both have much more potential for natural growth.
Teleportation: As they gain more power, the lengths they can teleport and the number of times they can chain a teleport (i.e. teleporting in rapid succession) without running out of steam increase; they start out only to teleport twice in a row before having to wait for a few seconds. As they gain experience their reaction time and the speed of their thoughts become greater and greater, allowing them to take advantage of the instant between teleportations to strike in an instant and teleport away, or use a teleport chain to attack extremely rapidly in a way that would be impossible for a normal person (you know in shonen when a fighter goes so fast they basically attack from every direction at once? Basically that). More power and experience will also let them take people with them when they teleport, allowing them to free hostages or move allies behind enemy lines to attack without warning, or to grab enemies and teleport them somewhere else.
Telekinesis: You know Alden Tate from InFamous 1? Basically at the high end you become that. Alden's telekinesis was powerful and precise enough that he could create and animate a colossal golem out of various wrecked cars and buses and crap, launch entire buses, bring buildings down, etc. At the start, of course, you'll just be picking up heavy objects and launching them at people, or bending stuff like steel girders around people to trap them. You can also use telekinesis to catch yourself from a fall or launch yourself (but even with normal Conduit durability it's going to hurt like hell at first).
Fire: I mean... fire powers. Kinda simple, really. At the low end you're shooting fireballs and firing yourself off like a rocket to get around, at the high levels you're unleashing massive firestorms around yourself and turning into living fire for a few seconds to fly around like Firestorm.
Water: Shooting small but high-pressure jets of water, mimicking Jesus by walking on top of water (or surfing on self-made waves, if you want to get around faster), etc. At the high end, you can unleash huge torrents of water to batter tanks aside and trapping people in bubbles of water (whether you let them breathe is up to you). With skin contact you can control the water in the human body once you're strong enough, though you'll really only use that if you want to torture them by moving around the blood in their body, or are so desperate you want to leech the moisture out and instantly mummify them for a bit of extra "juice."
Electricity: All the powers of Cole MacGrath, basically. Eventually, at least. Grinding on power cables and electric monorail tracks, shooting blasts of lightning, healing with some vaguely-defined bioelectricity thing (which is much better than the explanation of how Delsin heals people with Smoke, Neon, Video and f*cking Concrete powers, which is essentially "because it's series tradition by this point"), electric grenades, etc., etc. Definitely the easiest power to recharge, too.
Plants: Made people "uneasy," and so was considered a nonviable option. Starting powerset for the Student or the Prisoner is basic attacks with viny tendrils grown from the arms, a grappling hook from the same, and a "grenade" of sorts made by growing a bulb and throwing it, releasing a cloud of pollen that works almost like tear gas. The Soldier gets all of that, as well as the ability to grow viny tendrils from beneath the ground to grab opponents (large and powerful enough to seize hold of an APC, in fact), a poisonous variant of the "tear gas bulb," and the ability to, with enough nearby plant matter, create plant golems.
Adaptation: Organic powersets were considered nonviable for the same reason as plants; for the purposes of the quest, "Adaptation" will be one of those failed organic options. This one probably isn't a great idea for the Soldier, actually, because it's more instinctual and there isn't as much you can gain from experience and training. At first, the adaptations will be more or less random, but as the Conduit is exposed to the same kinds of problems over and over, they have the option to "standardize" a specific adaptation to a given obstacle, enemy, or other stimulus, which will make it stronger and longer-lasting at the cost of giving up the power's unpredictable versatility.
Wire: Proved too difficult to control and was thus deemed nonviable, though that won't be a problem for the Soldier (the Student and Prisoner will have a problem with their wires lashing around and hitting themselves or civilians at first, so it's not an advisable power for them). Starting powerset for the Student or the Prisoner is basic attacks made by lashing out with wires, a grappling hook from the same, and using preexisting wires to bind and restrict enemies. The Soldier can grow barbs on the wire and run them through a current to electrify them, and can launch wires with enough force to pull a Scorpion, impaling an enemy and drawing them to the Soldier. They can also create armor and even a large barrier from wires.
Paper: Soldier only. Paper was deemed nonviable because it didn't give off an air of strength and security. The Soldier can mold and fold paper in ways that would normally require hundreds if not thousands of pounds of force, making seemingly weak, flimsy paper durable enough to be made into armor and projectiles that can be launched with the speed of a bullet and enough force to crack concrete. They can also sharpen the paper to a razor-sharp edge, allowing them to turn their armor into blades that can cut through anything short of reinforced steel, given enough time and paper. The Soldier can also create a few limited constructs of paper; the most useful is a hang-glider. Unlike Celia Penderghast, the Soldier can't take on the attributes of paper or animate their constructs, however.
Glass: Soldier only. Actually a very strong contender with Concrete, but nonviable because it was too difficult to master to make the standard. The Soldier can fire shards of sharp glass as projectiles or drop them as caltrops, and can even make them detonate when they're near a target, exploding into even smaller shards of glass. The Soldier can crush glass into a fine powder and release and control it in a whirlwind of glass dust, with the nearly microscopic bits of glass wreaking utter havoc on anything trapped inside. They can also use hardened glasses like plexiglass as armor or more durable weapons, and can also launch themselves upward on a large protrusion of glass. Finally, they can stick to glass surfaces (kind of like how if you stick two pieces of finely-made glass on top of each other they'll actually stick together a bit) and maneuver on them without difficulty.
Concrete: Soldier only. The Soldier can launch themselves great distances with a pillar of concrete and cover their body in powerful concrete armor. They can fire projectiles, either large concrete rocks or fast-moving discs, or can assemble them into a mobile shield for cover; when something more durable is needed, they can erect a concrete palisade in front of themselves.
---
Student and Prisoner options: The Soldier has much more experience with their powers and thus is much stronger at the start, but as a Prime Conduit, the Student and Prisoner both have much more potential for natural growth.
Teleportation: As they gain more power, the lengths they can teleport and the number of times they can chain a teleport (i.e. teleporting in rapid succession) without running out of steam increase; they start out only to teleport twice in a row before having to wait for a few seconds. As they gain experience their reaction time and the speed of their thoughts become greater and greater, allowing them to take advantage of the instant between teleportations to strike in an instant and teleport away, or use a teleport chain to attack extremely rapidly in a way that would be impossible for a normal person (you know in shonen when a fighter goes so fast they basically attack from every direction at once? Basically that). More power and experience will also let them take people with them when they teleport, allowing them to free hostages or move allies behind enemy lines to attack without warning, or to grab enemies and teleport them somewhere else.
Telekinesis: You know Alden Tate from InFamous 1? Basically at the high end you become that. Alden's telekinesis was powerful and precise enough that he could create and animate a colossal golem out of various wrecked cars and buses and crap, launch entire buses, bring buildings down, etc. At the start, of course, you'll just be picking up heavy objects and launching them at people, or bending stuff like steel girders around people to trap them. You can also use telekinesis to catch yourself from a fall or launch yourself (but even with normal Conduit durability it's going to hurt like hell at first).
Fire: I mean... fire powers. Kinda simple, really. At the low end you're shooting fireballs and firing yourself off like a rocket to get around, at the high levels you're unleashing massive firestorms around yourself and turning into living fire for a few seconds to fly around like Firestorm.
Water: Shooting small but high-pressure jets of water, mimicking Jesus by walking on top of water (or surfing on self-made waves, if you want to get around faster), etc. At the high end, you can unleash huge torrents of water to batter tanks aside and trapping people in bubbles of water (whether you let them breathe is up to you). With skin contact you can control the water in the human body once you're strong enough, though you'll really only use that if you want to torture them by moving around the blood in their body, or are so desperate you want to leech the moisture out and instantly mummify them for a bit of extra "juice."
Electricity: All the powers of Cole MacGrath, basically. Eventually, at least. Grinding on power cables and electric monorail tracks, shooting blasts of lightning, healing with some vaguely-defined bioelectricity thing (which is much better than the explanation of how Delsin heals people with Smoke, Neon, Video and f*cking Concrete powers, which is essentially "because it's series tradition by this point"), electric grenades, etc., etc. Definitely the easiest power to recharge, too.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
For anyone interested, there's a Romance of the Three Kingdoms quest that's started up:
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/three-kingdoms-quest.38600/
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/three-kingdoms-quest.38600/
A Strange Red Stone (SU x JJBA Crossover)
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Roughly six thousand years ago, when bronze weapons and tools were the literal cutting edge of technology and city-states of a few thousand souls were the height of civilization, beings from beyond the stars invaded Earth. These "Gems" were intergalactic conquerors with dozens of planets already under the control of their leaders, the Diamonds, and they quickly set about "colonizing" Earth to make it a suitable breeding ground for their kind and an outpost of their interstellar empire, a process that would have seen the planet stripped of all resources useful to them and rendered it uninhabitable by any non-Gem lifeforms.
For the most part, Earth was unremarkable among the planets the Gems had colonized after expanding beyond their Homeworld. One curiosity, though, was a strange kind of gemstone that they had never seen before. As an experiment, one of these stones was used to create a Gem. Though a success, the resulting Gem, with no predefined place or role in the rigid and unbending caste system of Gem society, was left to languish as a glorified curiosity in the court of the Diamond who had ordered her creation.
Spread thinly across the planet, with no larger organizations than city-states and tribes, humanity could offer only scattered resistance. With no greater military power than armor, javelins and axes made of bronze, what resistance they could gather was so feeble to the invaders, with their incredible technology and superhuman physicalities, as to be laughable.*
Even then, though, there were victories. Small, trifling things, Gems killed in ones and twos here and there. This one attacked by a mob thought sufficiently cowed, that one ambushed while out scouting. At most, a small patrol would simply go missing, and rumors would go around of humans wearing shattered gemstones as trophies. Stories began to spread among the lower ranks, of humans who weren't as weak as their brethren, humans with odd powers that allowed them to fight a Gem on almost equal terms. These stories were dismissed by their superiors as mere fancy; even if they had been true, what did it matter? The colonization of Earth proceeded apace; humanity was doomed, strange powers or not. But hope came from an unlikely source.
Her name was Rose Quartz. Having grown to love and cherish all life on the planet Earth, and the freedom and ability to grow and change she believed they represented, she rebelled against her masters. Slowly, other Gems, drawn to her rhetoric of freedom and choice after living in a society of harsh, rigid order, began to come to her side. And though at first she saw them only as helpless beings to be protected, Rose Quartz soon realized that humans would not be content to leave their fate in the hands of any Gem, and so they too began to join her army.
From these renegade "Crystal Gems," humans received incredible tools of war and communication that allowed them to fight and coordinate more effectively than had ever been possible for them, while the Crystal Gems learned the truth of the rumors of humans with powers beyond the norm for their species.
The Ripple. The power of the sun, gathered through the breath and harnessed through ripples of energy throughout the body. An exceedingly rare power, with perhaps 1 in 10,000 humans capable of harnessing its power to any meaningful extent. Combined with the need for most with the potential to have it awakened by another, and it was small wonder that when Rose Quartz first encountered them, humanity's Ripple users numbered less than a hundred. With the Crystal Gems providing means of mass communication and quick travel, these numbers swelled dramatically over the course of the Rebellion, as the "Clan of the Ripple" sought out those with the potential for the Ripple and recruited them. By the Rebellion's end, there more than a thousand of them.** To symbolize their alliance with the Crystal Gems, many Ripple Warriors donned the imagery of stars, either as clothing, body paint, or tattoos. Rumors emerged, saying that the most powerful of all potential Ripple users were those with a star-shaped birthmark...
Even for those without the Ripple, humanity proved their worth in the Rebellion. In a war that dragged on for over 700 years, humanity had a marked advantage in numbers over a race that measured gestation periods in centuries. Though much weaker than Gems, humans were determined to protect their homes and families, and proved far more resilient than the Gems of both sides expected them to be; far from being wiped out by Gems, by the time of the war's end there were more humans than when it had begun. And with technology both borrowed from Gems and invented themselves, humans found ways to level the playing field against the seemingly indomitable Gems.***
Not to say that the Rebellion was in any way easy, or that Homeworld's Gems were the ones always on the defensive. Powerful Quartz soldiers were grown, elite shock troopers that were grown more quickly than other Gems. New and terrible instruments of war and terror were created to destroy rebel Gem and human alike, and it was discovered that the unique Gem created from the strange red stone was of particular value: called Aja stones by the humans, these gems shared a unique relationship with Ripple energy. Once seen as a curiosity, the Aja Gems found purpose in the war, and Homeworld created as many of them as they could from the rare few Aja stones they found.
In the darkest parts of the war, another ancient power was turned to for solace, the dark shadow of the Ripple: the Stone Masks. Already ancient and little understood even by Gems, these strange masks gave humans incredible power, at the cost of a crippling weakness to the light of the sun and the loss of all human morality, lost to a terrible hunger. A threat to human and Gem alike, every time vampires emerged, they turned already chaotic situations into pure bedlam.
Other strange occurrences happened in those chaotic and confusing times, even less well-documented. Humans and Gems alike with completely unique and unaccountable powers...
Finally, though, the Crystal Gems had Homeworld's forces at a disadvantage. More and more Gems were abandoning Homeworld's rigid and oppressive society for the freedom offered by Rose Quartz; those Ajas who defected proved especially painful losses, as not only were they deprived of a powerful weapon, when fighting alongside Ripple Warriors they proved to be some of the greatest threats amongst the Crystal Gems.
Eventually, Homeworld was pushed to a last, desperate measure: Corruption. It was a chaotic and confusing event; even now, few Gems on either side really has any idea of what happened. Homeworld's forces rapidly began evacuating, and then a bright light, a terrible song… When it was over, both the Crystal Gems and Homeworld stragglers were worse than dead, all but those few who were right at hand to be protected by Rose Quartz herself. With but five exceptions, every Gem still on Earth… was no more.
The first few centuries after the war were dark times on Earth. Monsters covered the land, and humanity was in shambles. In those times of darkness, the few Crystal Gems remaining, assisted by the now-powerful Ripple Clan, had to work tirelessly to ensure human survival and prosperity. But once a state of equilibrium was reached and human societies were once more stable and able to protect themselves, Rose Quartz and her remaining followers withdrew from humanity, only emerging to fight the monsters and machines left over by the war when they became a threat to humans. Her hope was that humans would be able to do what they had been doing before Homeworld had invaded; learning and growing without outside interference, both individually and as a species. For the most part, her hopes proved well-founded.****
But Homeworld's forces, and the monsters they left behind, were neither the first nor the only threat humanity would ever face…
---
6,000 years or so after Homeworld first invaded Earth, a child was born of a human and a Gem. That hybrid child was named Steven Quartz Universe. As his mother had given up her form to birth him as a true human-Gem hybrid, Steven was raised by both his human father and the remaining Crystal Gems, and grew into an irrepressibly happy and optimistic young boy. But, just as his mother before him had, Steven would be faced with choices and trials that would decide the fate of worlds…
Good thing he's got you to help him, right? After all, being what you are, you can help him in ways that few others can.
[] Aja, the Red Stone's Gem
The first, "perfect" Red Stone Gem, and card-carrying member of the Crystal Gems. No, really, Steven made you all cards. Originally a servant of Pink Diamond, you defected and joined the Crystal Gems at some point during the Gem War, following Rose Quartz up until she "died" giving birth to Steven, and now you help raise him with Greg and the Crystal Gems.
As a Gem created from an Aja, you're not only stronger, faster and more durable than most Gems (enough that you've taken out your fair share of Quartzes in hand to hand), but you've also got the ability to absorb huge quantities of sunlight (or Ripple Energy) and release them to create incredibly powerful laser blasts, or more short-range bursts of searing energy. Unfortunately, because Gem biology lacks any kind of cardiovascular system, you can't manipulate this energy to produce the incredibly versatile effects of a Ripple User, even though you have a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of the Ripple itself (enough to train potential students, in fact). Well, technically you can shapeshift an approximation for a little while, but do you have any idea how complicated the human cardiovascular system is? Even Amethyst can't keep up a transformation with that much detail for very long.
Back in 1938, some stuff happened that… well, let's just say you started being very adamant about only using the word "automobiles." It wasn't all terrible, though; it was good to see that the new generation of Ripple Warriors were up to the task of protecting humanity. Let's hope little Steven will show that same kind of promise!
[] Jordan/Jocelyn Joestar, the Ripple Warrior
In many universes where Joseph Joestar exists, he has only two children: his daughter, Holly, and his illegitimate son, Higashikata Josuke. But this isn't one of those Universes. Joseph Joestar is your great-grandfather; you don't really have much contact with the rest of your extended family, but your parents both work for the Speedwagon Foundation, so it's hard to say that they're not involved with the family business, at least. Recently, they've been transferred to a major research center in the state of Delmarva. Being only 14, you're kind of obligated to go with them, obviously.
Joseph never forced Ripple training on his children, and Holly showed no real interest in it. Your grandfather did, though, and after he barely survived a vampire attack while on an archaeological dig back in the '60s he became adamant that his own children wouldn't die from neglect in their training. This attitude was passed on to you, and you've been trained rigorously in the Ripple since early childhood. But while you've got a lot of technical skill and a certain creative cunning that your grandpa used to compare to his own father, your actual output of Ripple Energy isn't especially impressive. The power of one's Ripple flows from their determination and will, and quite honestly, you've never really encountered anything worth putting your life on the line for. Not yet, at least.
For some reason, your parents decided that while they were working here you'd all live in some tiny little tourist trap called Beach City. Great.
[] Jordan/Jocelyn Joestar, the Hybrid
You… what happened? You don't remember anything; just… flashes. Images, emotions. Fear, pain, a monster in human form. You woke up screaming, strapped to an operating table, naked, armed guards and scientists everywhere keeping an eye on you, with a 「strange red stone」 stuck into your chest, right over your heart. They started freaking out, shouting, you don't know what. Your head hurt, you couldn't 「remember」anything, and you… panicked.
Somehow, a laser beam fired out from the gemstone on your chest and blew a hole in the building. You ran, blindly, for what must have been hours. Strangely, you're not tired at all. In the confusion, you grabbed a card almost by instinct. It has a picture of you on it; you confirmed it by looking at your reflection in a stream. It had your name on it, too; that's the only reason you even know that much.
By the time you stopped running, you were overlooking a tiny little coastal town. The sign said it was called Beach City. You aren't sure what to do...
---
* No, really, this is the Early Bronze Age. We didn't even domesticate horses until about 3500 B.C., so there weren't even chariots or cavalry. Try to imagine the sheer brass balls of the humans wearing thick cloth with maybe some bronze over it as armor, with a few bronze-headed javelins or a bow and arrow and a bronze axe, attacking a Gem. And those were the well-equipped ones.
** The estimated human population c. 4000 B.C. was about 7,000,000, which doubled over the course of the millennium to about 14,000,000. So assuming the "1 in 10,000" thing Zeppeli says should be taken at face value, that's a total of 700-1,400 potential Ripple Warriors that could have existed in that time period, maximum. When Kars and his posse fought them 4,000 years before this (and dear God does that put things into perspective), the human population was about 5,000,000, BTW.
*** Even accounting for advances due to Gem meddling, you've got the spread of and advances in bronze-making, the domestication of horses (first on the Eurasian steppe, to no one's surprise), sailing ships, etc.
**** Although there's a certain irony (or perhaps appropriateness) to the fact that this was all followed up by the 3rd millennium B.C. Why? Because that's when humans started getting their empire on. The Akkadians brutally conquered Mesopotamia, the pharaohs united Upper and Lower Egypt and began posturing themselves as god-kings, and even neolithic peoples started building great monuments. I can only imagine what Rose thought of all that. She might have thought it was her own peoples' fault for "corrupting" humans. Heh, "corrupting."
For the most part, Earth was unremarkable among the planets the Gems had colonized after expanding beyond their Homeworld. One curiosity, though, was a strange kind of gemstone that they had never seen before. As an experiment, one of these stones was used to create a Gem. Though a success, the resulting Gem, with no predefined place or role in the rigid and unbending caste system of Gem society, was left to languish as a glorified curiosity in the court of the Diamond who had ordered her creation.
Spread thinly across the planet, with no larger organizations than city-states and tribes, humanity could offer only scattered resistance. With no greater military power than armor, javelins and axes made of bronze, what resistance they could gather was so feeble to the invaders, with their incredible technology and superhuman physicalities, as to be laughable.*
Even then, though, there were victories. Small, trifling things, Gems killed in ones and twos here and there. This one attacked by a mob thought sufficiently cowed, that one ambushed while out scouting. At most, a small patrol would simply go missing, and rumors would go around of humans wearing shattered gemstones as trophies. Stories began to spread among the lower ranks, of humans who weren't as weak as their brethren, humans with odd powers that allowed them to fight a Gem on almost equal terms. These stories were dismissed by their superiors as mere fancy; even if they had been true, what did it matter? The colonization of Earth proceeded apace; humanity was doomed, strange powers or not. But hope came from an unlikely source.
Her name was Rose Quartz. Having grown to love and cherish all life on the planet Earth, and the freedom and ability to grow and change she believed they represented, she rebelled against her masters. Slowly, other Gems, drawn to her rhetoric of freedom and choice after living in a society of harsh, rigid order, began to come to her side. And though at first she saw them only as helpless beings to be protected, Rose Quartz soon realized that humans would not be content to leave their fate in the hands of any Gem, and so they too began to join her army.
From these renegade "Crystal Gems," humans received incredible tools of war and communication that allowed them to fight and coordinate more effectively than had ever been possible for them, while the Crystal Gems learned the truth of the rumors of humans with powers beyond the norm for their species.
The Ripple. The power of the sun, gathered through the breath and harnessed through ripples of energy throughout the body. An exceedingly rare power, with perhaps 1 in 10,000 humans capable of harnessing its power to any meaningful extent. Combined with the need for most with the potential to have it awakened by another, and it was small wonder that when Rose Quartz first encountered them, humanity's Ripple users numbered less than a hundred. With the Crystal Gems providing means of mass communication and quick travel, these numbers swelled dramatically over the course of the Rebellion, as the "Clan of the Ripple" sought out those with the potential for the Ripple and recruited them. By the Rebellion's end, there more than a thousand of them.** To symbolize their alliance with the Crystal Gems, many Ripple Warriors donned the imagery of stars, either as clothing, body paint, or tattoos. Rumors emerged, saying that the most powerful of all potential Ripple users were those with a star-shaped birthmark...
Even for those without the Ripple, humanity proved their worth in the Rebellion. In a war that dragged on for over 700 years, humanity had a marked advantage in numbers over a race that measured gestation periods in centuries. Though much weaker than Gems, humans were determined to protect their homes and families, and proved far more resilient than the Gems of both sides expected them to be; far from being wiped out by Gems, by the time of the war's end there were more humans than when it had begun. And with technology both borrowed from Gems and invented themselves, humans found ways to level the playing field against the seemingly indomitable Gems.***
Not to say that the Rebellion was in any way easy, or that Homeworld's Gems were the ones always on the defensive. Powerful Quartz soldiers were grown, elite shock troopers that were grown more quickly than other Gems. New and terrible instruments of war and terror were created to destroy rebel Gem and human alike, and it was discovered that the unique Gem created from the strange red stone was of particular value: called Aja stones by the humans, these gems shared a unique relationship with Ripple energy. Once seen as a curiosity, the Aja Gems found purpose in the war, and Homeworld created as many of them as they could from the rare few Aja stones they found.
In the darkest parts of the war, another ancient power was turned to for solace, the dark shadow of the Ripple: the Stone Masks. Already ancient and little understood even by Gems, these strange masks gave humans incredible power, at the cost of a crippling weakness to the light of the sun and the loss of all human morality, lost to a terrible hunger. A threat to human and Gem alike, every time vampires emerged, they turned already chaotic situations into pure bedlam.
Other strange occurrences happened in those chaotic and confusing times, even less well-documented. Humans and Gems alike with completely unique and unaccountable powers...
Finally, though, the Crystal Gems had Homeworld's forces at a disadvantage. More and more Gems were abandoning Homeworld's rigid and oppressive society for the freedom offered by Rose Quartz; those Ajas who defected proved especially painful losses, as not only were they deprived of a powerful weapon, when fighting alongside Ripple Warriors they proved to be some of the greatest threats amongst the Crystal Gems.
Eventually, Homeworld was pushed to a last, desperate measure: Corruption. It was a chaotic and confusing event; even now, few Gems on either side really has any idea of what happened. Homeworld's forces rapidly began evacuating, and then a bright light, a terrible song… When it was over, both the Crystal Gems and Homeworld stragglers were worse than dead, all but those few who were right at hand to be protected by Rose Quartz herself. With but five exceptions, every Gem still on Earth… was no more.
The first few centuries after the war were dark times on Earth. Monsters covered the land, and humanity was in shambles. In those times of darkness, the few Crystal Gems remaining, assisted by the now-powerful Ripple Clan, had to work tirelessly to ensure human survival and prosperity. But once a state of equilibrium was reached and human societies were once more stable and able to protect themselves, Rose Quartz and her remaining followers withdrew from humanity, only emerging to fight the monsters and machines left over by the war when they became a threat to humans. Her hope was that humans would be able to do what they had been doing before Homeworld had invaded; learning and growing without outside interference, both individually and as a species. For the most part, her hopes proved well-founded.****
But Homeworld's forces, and the monsters they left behind, were neither the first nor the only threat humanity would ever face…
---
6,000 years or so after Homeworld first invaded Earth, a child was born of a human and a Gem. That hybrid child was named Steven Quartz Universe. As his mother had given up her form to birth him as a true human-Gem hybrid, Steven was raised by both his human father and the remaining Crystal Gems, and grew into an irrepressibly happy and optimistic young boy. But, just as his mother before him had, Steven would be faced with choices and trials that would decide the fate of worlds…
Good thing he's got you to help him, right? After all, being what you are, you can help him in ways that few others can.
[] Aja, the Red Stone's Gem
The first, "perfect" Red Stone Gem, and card-carrying member of the Crystal Gems. No, really, Steven made you all cards. Originally a servant of Pink Diamond, you defected and joined the Crystal Gems at some point during the Gem War, following Rose Quartz up until she "died" giving birth to Steven, and now you help raise him with Greg and the Crystal Gems.
As a Gem created from an Aja, you're not only stronger, faster and more durable than most Gems (enough that you've taken out your fair share of Quartzes in hand to hand), but you've also got the ability to absorb huge quantities of sunlight (or Ripple Energy) and release them to create incredibly powerful laser blasts, or more short-range bursts of searing energy. Unfortunately, because Gem biology lacks any kind of cardiovascular system, you can't manipulate this energy to produce the incredibly versatile effects of a Ripple User, even though you have a virtually encyclopedic knowledge of the Ripple itself (enough to train potential students, in fact). Well, technically you can shapeshift an approximation for a little while, but do you have any idea how complicated the human cardiovascular system is? Even Amethyst can't keep up a transformation with that much detail for very long.
Back in 1938, some stuff happened that… well, let's just say you started being very adamant about only using the word "automobiles." It wasn't all terrible, though; it was good to see that the new generation of Ripple Warriors were up to the task of protecting humanity. Let's hope little Steven will show that same kind of promise!
[] Jordan/Jocelyn Joestar, the Ripple Warrior
In many universes where Joseph Joestar exists, he has only two children: his daughter, Holly, and his illegitimate son, Higashikata Josuke. But this isn't one of those Universes. Joseph Joestar is your great-grandfather; you don't really have much contact with the rest of your extended family, but your parents both work for the Speedwagon Foundation, so it's hard to say that they're not involved with the family business, at least. Recently, they've been transferred to a major research center in the state of Delmarva. Being only 14, you're kind of obligated to go with them, obviously.
Joseph never forced Ripple training on his children, and Holly showed no real interest in it. Your grandfather did, though, and after he barely survived a vampire attack while on an archaeological dig back in the '60s he became adamant that his own children wouldn't die from neglect in their training. This attitude was passed on to you, and you've been trained rigorously in the Ripple since early childhood. But while you've got a lot of technical skill and a certain creative cunning that your grandpa used to compare to his own father, your actual output of Ripple Energy isn't especially impressive. The power of one's Ripple flows from their determination and will, and quite honestly, you've never really encountered anything worth putting your life on the line for. Not yet, at least.
For some reason, your parents decided that while they were working here you'd all live in some tiny little tourist trap called Beach City. Great.
[] Jordan/Jocelyn Joestar, the Hybrid
You… what happened? You don't remember anything; just… flashes. Images, emotions. Fear, pain, a monster in human form. You woke up screaming, strapped to an operating table, naked, armed guards and scientists everywhere keeping an eye on you, with a 「strange red stone」 stuck into your chest, right over your heart. They started freaking out, shouting, you don't know what. Your head hurt, you couldn't 「remember」anything, and you… panicked.
Somehow, a laser beam fired out from the gemstone on your chest and blew a hole in the building. You ran, blindly, for what must have been hours. Strangely, you're not tired at all. In the confusion, you grabbed a card almost by instinct. It has a picture of you on it; you confirmed it by looking at your reflection in a stream. It had your name on it, too; that's the only reason you even know that much.
By the time you stopped running, you were overlooking a tiny little coastal town. The sign said it was called Beach City. You aren't sure what to do...
---
* No, really, this is the Early Bronze Age. We didn't even domesticate horses until about 3500 B.C., so there weren't even chariots or cavalry. Try to imagine the sheer brass balls of the humans wearing thick cloth with maybe some bronze over it as armor, with a few bronze-headed javelins or a bow and arrow and a bronze axe, attacking a Gem. And those were the well-equipped ones.
** The estimated human population c. 4000 B.C. was about 7,000,000, which doubled over the course of the millennium to about 14,000,000. So assuming the "1 in 10,000" thing Zeppeli says should be taken at face value, that's a total of 700-1,400 potential Ripple Warriors that could have existed in that time period, maximum. When Kars and his posse fought them 4,000 years before this (and dear God does that put things into perspective), the human population was about 5,000,000, BTW.
*** Even accounting for advances due to Gem meddling, you've got the spread of and advances in bronze-making, the domestication of horses (first on the Eurasian steppe, to no one's surprise), sailing ships, etc.
**** Although there's a certain irony (or perhaps appropriateness) to the fact that this was all followed up by the 3rd millennium B.C. Why? Because that's when humans started getting their empire on. The Akkadians brutally conquered Mesopotamia, the pharaohs united Upper and Lower Egypt and began posturing themselves as god-kings, and even neolithic peoples started building great monuments. I can only imagine what Rose thought of all that. She might have thought it was her own peoples' fault for "corrupting" humans. Heh, "corrupting."
Last edited:
- Location
- Leeds
I don't know much about either setting, wheres this going to be heading?
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Laughter, tears, adorableness, complex character drama and beautiful interpersonal relationships, high-stakes action, FABULOUS POSING, a sh*t-ton of musical references, weird and creative powers, and so on. More helpfully:
Steven Universe: At it's heart, a very heartwarming and optimistic coming of age story, with underlying themes and messages of acceptance, not putting people on pedestals, your parents are human too and have their own hangups, etc. Also lots of wonderful characters, spectacular visuals, gut-wrenching moments, references galore, and a wonderful sense of fun to balance it all out.
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Fabulous shonen awesomeness that's basically about dudes with weird superpowers duking it out in extremely creative and often very brutal ways, with protagonists who suffer and struggle the whole way through against overwhelming odds without backing down despite mounting losses. Also lots of really weird, "out there" stuff, characters with really strange quirks, FABULOUS POSING, music references galore, and a great spirit of heroism overcoming adversity to keep the grim parts from getting to be too much.
Basically, it's going to be leaning with the optimism, character drama, and fun of Steven Universe, but with a lot of the action and strangeness of JJBA injected into it, and some of the darker elements of both to keep things tense.
- Location
- Leeds
Sounds like fun.
EmpirePlayer
Anyone need some chaos?
- Location
- Penang
Right, this reminds me of a terrible Jojoke I heard once.
"Lisa Lisa got hit by Kars in 1938."
Terrible jokes aside, eh, the premise sounds interesting, but still holding out a torch for RoTK/Sengoku Quest.
So I'm guessing the Piller men don't exist/where wiped out by someone else in this continuity?
I can't imagine the homeworld would let a civilization of being that strong just go about there own business if they were around.
I can't imagine the homeworld would let a civilization of being that strong just go about there own business if they were around.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
As hinted in the paragraph that @EmpirePlayer quoted a bit of, they absolutely do exist, and went after Aja herself (her gemstone being the perfect Red Stone). Thing is, Homeworld never discovered them because the Pillar Men had already been dormant for 4,000 years by the time the Gems showed up.
- Location
- In my Lair, on my Hoard
I got Permission from Leingod to post this here - a write up of RWBY's Jaune Arc in the Shen Zhou setting of Legends of the Wulin.
LEGENDS OF THE WULIN - JAUNE ARC
Name: Shi Huang (Jaune Arc)
Concept: Wandering Swordsman of Justice
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Warrior
Destiny: 20 (Free: 0)
Entanglement: 16
Cultivation: 29 total (8/12 completion) {4/13, 37 total, if you include knowledge of Sword-Heart Skill and Storm of Swords from Sword Spirit Loresheet)
Chi: 12 Normal {13 if Sword Spirit Loresheet applies to Cultivation}
Joss: Chivalrous 2, Malicious 1
Chi Threshold: 12
Unarmored - 12/24/36
Armored - 17/34/51 (Light)
Skills:
Confidence +5, Hardiness +10, Might +5, Perform +10, Survival +5, Tactics +10, Wu Wei +5 (Sense Chi)
Virtues:
Benevolence 3, Force 4, Honor 3, Loyalty 2, Righteousness 3
Ferocity 1, Individualism 3, Obsession 1, Revenge 3, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Eight Legends (Golden Flash [5], Legendary Force [5])
Internal Style: Jade Spirit Sword (Sword-Heaven [1], Soaring Phoenix [2], Blade of Infinity Strokes [3], Scything Moonlight Cut [4])
Formless Techniques: None
Combat:
Speed +10, Footwork +10, Strike +15, Block +15, Damage +10, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Crocea Mors, the "Yellow Death" - Sword (jian)
Sword-Heart Skill - Sword/Unarmed {Main, using Yellow Death}
-- +5 Speed
-- +5 Footwork
-- +5 Strike
-- +5 Block
--You may Flood one die from the River while you make the attack. If you do and cause a Rippling roll, any Chi Aura used to protect against this damage costs 2 Chi points per die to purchase.
-- You can Focus on Breath using only a single die from your initiative roll, instead of needing a set
Loresheets:
Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons [1]
- Gain Wu Wei Specialty: Sense Chi at no cost
Heaven Sword Alliance [5]
- Heaven Sword Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Eight Legends, Graceful Crane and Ultimate Dragon.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Heaven Sword Alliance, you probably have Jade Spirit Sword as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques rather than one of each level.
- Sword Spirit's Lineage [10] Your martial or blood lineage ties you directly to the line of succession of Sword Spirits. Maybe you are the current Spirit's stellar pupil, or the last living descendant of a previous one
-- You have Status 5 ("Successor of the Sword Spirit!") within the Heaven Sword Alliance. This counts as Status 3 in
the rest of the Wulin.
-- You learn the Storm of Swords technique at no cost.
-- You learn the Sword-Heart Skill technique at no cost.
-- You gain a Minor Hyperactivity (Action Bonus) to be applied as a "Laughs at" modifier to any style that has swords as its preferred weapon. You gain this bonus as long as you behave as if your main reason for fighting is the pure joy of the fight itself and regard your opponent as a kindred spirit instead of an enemy.
Secret Arts:
Combat Conditions
The Secret Art of Battle
Extraordinary Warrior Techniques
Curses and Influences
Extraordinary Daoist Techniques
Disadvantages:
Liar, Cheat and Fraud - Gain 1 Destiny at the end of a session in which your lack of real experience hinders you or are thusly hindered by the falsities of your charade.
Conditions:
The Sword Spirit's Principle (Fire Passion, Minor Hyperactivity) The thirst for the Sword Spirit's limitless skill and technique drives Shi Huang forward! The Sword Spirit was a wanderer who found his Dao on the path of life, so too must Shi Huang, in order to meet his ancestor's standard. There is joy in the blade, joy in battle, joy in self-improvement! Any attempt to further himself must be taken, and all enemies are just means to further mastery and prove your worth! Whenever Shi Huang relies upon the Sword-Heart and bears in heart the Dao of the Blade, he benefits from a Minor Action Bonus, perhaps even a Breath bonus. All hail the successor of Sword Spirit!
Notes:
This isn't a perfect conversion, but a decent idea that takes the basic idea of Jaune Arc of RWBY and translates him into a xia of Legends of the Wulin: the errant inheritor of the Sword Spirit's lineage - something which affords him great status, but just adds to his naievete about the outside world. So he hides as just another blade from the Heaven Sword Alliance, in an attempt to gain a name for himself other than the Sword Spirit's successor. Funnily enough, his "Seven Sisters" aren't all blood related, but are successors to the styles of the Seven Heavenly Blades, and thus "sisters" of Jaune's in the Alliance.
This is an attempt at a playable conversion straight out of char-gen - to get a more accurate to canon!RWBY conversion, make Crocea Mors a Special Weapon (Saber/Sword fits Jaune's cruciform sword well), give Jaune Medium Armor, and state that he hasn't "mastered" his External Techniques, while adding Iron Body as a secondary Internal Style with techniques up to Leading Ox Through River (or Eternal Temple's God-Armor if you feel like it), and some Formless Techniques relating to Toughness and other defensive ends. Maybe swap-out Scything Moonlight Cut for Tenfold Steel Guard, or drop the level 4's entirely. Adding in a couple of the other Jade Spirit Sword techniques wouldn't be inappropriate. The more the Internal Kung Fu, the better Jaune's Cultivation and Chi reserves and Chi Threshold, so that fits canon pretty well. Add in a few of the Secret Arts like Spring Follows Winter Technique, Quality Evaluation Technique, and Unassailable Battle Saint Technique. Sadly, there really isn't much that could cover Jaune's use of the Shield as LotW doesn't really do shields, and armor is ridiculously uncommon as well... No idea what any Cho Deviations Jaune might pick up would be, either.
In canon!RWBY, Jaune makes plenty use out of the Earth Combat Approach and Fire/Earth Combat Conditions, though he was using Wood (poorly) early on, but LotW!Jaune also benefits from the approach of Fire which synergizes excellently with the Jade Spirit Sword abilities ~ Especially if one can get him a Passion or Inspiration Hyperactivity with which to work with.
Jaune should also build up plenty of Entanglement with Beacon Academy (a Loresheet obtained for free, if one follows canon), and tangentially with Vale (again, probably free), as well as the members of Teams JNPR (Juniper), RWBY (Ruby), and CRDL (Cardinal). His Entanglement with JNPR is at the highest as their leader and to represent his close relationship with his partner Pyrrha Nikos, as well as with brother-and-sister-in-arms Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. He also has Entanglement with the members of his sister team RWBY (Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, mostly), as well as a rivalry with team CRDL (Cardin Winchester in particular). He has some entanglement with Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch, the latter of which he has more with on account of her personal desire for him to not-die-in-combat.
LEGENDS OF THE WULIN - JAUNE ARC
Name: Shi Huang (Jaune Arc)
Concept: Wandering Swordsman of Justice
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Warrior
Destiny: 20 (Free: 0)
Entanglement: 16
Cultivation: 29 total (8/12 completion) {4/13, 37 total, if you include knowledge of Sword-Heart Skill and Storm of Swords from Sword Spirit Loresheet)
Chi: 12 Normal {13 if Sword Spirit Loresheet applies to Cultivation}
Joss: Chivalrous 2, Malicious 1
Chi Threshold: 12
Unarmored - 12/24/36
Armored - 17/34/51 (Light)
Skills:
Confidence +5, Hardiness +10, Might +5, Perform +10, Survival +5, Tactics +10, Wu Wei +5 (Sense Chi)
Virtues:
Benevolence 3, Force 4, Honor 3, Loyalty 2, Righteousness 3
Ferocity 1, Individualism 3, Obsession 1, Revenge 3, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Eight Legends (Golden Flash [5], Legendary Force [5])
Internal Style: Jade Spirit Sword (Sword-Heaven [1], Soaring Phoenix [2], Blade of Infinity Strokes [3], Scything Moonlight Cut [4])
Formless Techniques: None
Combat:
Speed +10, Footwork +10, Strike +15, Block +15, Damage +10, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Crocea Mors, the "Yellow Death" - Sword (jian)
Sword-Heart Skill - Sword/Unarmed {Main, using Yellow Death}
-- +5 Speed
-- +5 Footwork
-- +5 Strike
-- +5 Block
--You may Flood one die from the River while you make the attack. If you do and cause a Rippling roll, any Chi Aura used to protect against this damage costs 2 Chi points per die to purchase.
-- You can Focus on Breath using only a single die from your initiative roll, instead of needing a set
Loresheets:
Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons [1]
- Gain Wu Wei Specialty: Sense Chi at no cost
Heaven Sword Alliance [5]
- Heaven Sword Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Eight Legends, Graceful Crane and Ultimate Dragon.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Heaven Sword Alliance, you probably have Jade Spirit Sword as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques rather than one of each level.
- Sword Spirit's Lineage [10] Your martial or blood lineage ties you directly to the line of succession of Sword Spirits. Maybe you are the current Spirit's stellar pupil, or the last living descendant of a previous one
-- You have Status 5 ("Successor of the Sword Spirit!") within the Heaven Sword Alliance. This counts as Status 3 in
the rest of the Wulin.
-- You learn the Storm of Swords technique at no cost.
-- You learn the Sword-Heart Skill technique at no cost.
-- You gain a Minor Hyperactivity (Action Bonus) to be applied as a "Laughs at" modifier to any style that has swords as its preferred weapon. You gain this bonus as long as you behave as if your main reason for fighting is the pure joy of the fight itself and regard your opponent as a kindred spirit instead of an enemy.
Secret Arts:
Combat Conditions
The Secret Art of Battle
Extraordinary Warrior Techniques
Curses and Influences
Extraordinary Daoist Techniques
Disadvantages:
Liar, Cheat and Fraud - Gain 1 Destiny at the end of a session in which your lack of real experience hinders you or are thusly hindered by the falsities of your charade.
Conditions:
The Sword Spirit's Principle (Fire Passion, Minor Hyperactivity) The thirst for the Sword Spirit's limitless skill and technique drives Shi Huang forward! The Sword Spirit was a wanderer who found his Dao on the path of life, so too must Shi Huang, in order to meet his ancestor's standard. There is joy in the blade, joy in battle, joy in self-improvement! Any attempt to further himself must be taken, and all enemies are just means to further mastery and prove your worth! Whenever Shi Huang relies upon the Sword-Heart and bears in heart the Dao of the Blade, he benefits from a Minor Action Bonus, perhaps even a Breath bonus. All hail the successor of Sword Spirit!
Notes:
This isn't a perfect conversion, but a decent idea that takes the basic idea of Jaune Arc of RWBY and translates him into a xia of Legends of the Wulin: the errant inheritor of the Sword Spirit's lineage - something which affords him great status, but just adds to his naievete about the outside world. So he hides as just another blade from the Heaven Sword Alliance, in an attempt to gain a name for himself other than the Sword Spirit's successor. Funnily enough, his "Seven Sisters" aren't all blood related, but are successors to the styles of the Seven Heavenly Blades, and thus "sisters" of Jaune's in the Alliance.
This is an attempt at a playable conversion straight out of char-gen - to get a more accurate to canon!RWBY conversion, make Crocea Mors a Special Weapon (Saber/Sword fits Jaune's cruciform sword well), give Jaune Medium Armor, and state that he hasn't "mastered" his External Techniques, while adding Iron Body as a secondary Internal Style with techniques up to Leading Ox Through River (or Eternal Temple's God-Armor if you feel like it), and some Formless Techniques relating to Toughness and other defensive ends. Maybe swap-out Scything Moonlight Cut for Tenfold Steel Guard, or drop the level 4's entirely. Adding in a couple of the other Jade Spirit Sword techniques wouldn't be inappropriate. The more the Internal Kung Fu, the better Jaune's Cultivation and Chi reserves and Chi Threshold, so that fits canon pretty well. Add in a few of the Secret Arts like Spring Follows Winter Technique, Quality Evaluation Technique, and Unassailable Battle Saint Technique. Sadly, there really isn't much that could cover Jaune's use of the Shield as LotW doesn't really do shields, and armor is ridiculously uncommon as well... No idea what any Cho Deviations Jaune might pick up would be, either.
In canon!RWBY, Jaune makes plenty use out of the Earth Combat Approach and Fire/Earth Combat Conditions, though he was using Wood (poorly) early on, but LotW!Jaune also benefits from the approach of Fire which synergizes excellently with the Jade Spirit Sword abilities ~ Especially if one can get him a Passion or Inspiration Hyperactivity with which to work with.
Jaune should also build up plenty of Entanglement with Beacon Academy (a Loresheet obtained for free, if one follows canon), and tangentially with Vale (again, probably free), as well as the members of Teams JNPR (Juniper), RWBY (Ruby), and CRDL (Cardinal). His Entanglement with JNPR is at the highest as their leader and to represent his close relationship with his partner Pyrrha Nikos, as well as with brother-and-sister-in-arms Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. He also has Entanglement with the members of his sister team RWBY (Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee, mostly), as well as a rivalry with team CRDL (Cardin Winchester in particular). He has some entanglement with Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch, the latter of which he has more with on account of her personal desire for him to not-die-in-combat.
Last edited:
- Location
- In my Lair, on my Hoard
And another one, this time Ruby Rose of Legends of the Wulin
Legends of the Wulin - Ruby Rose
Name: Ruby Rose
Concept: Little Red Do-Gooder With A Scythe
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Warrior
Destiny: 23 (Free: 0)
Entanglement: 15
Cultivation: 30 total (9/12 completion)
Chi: 12 Normal
Joss: Chivalrous 3, Malicious 0
Chi Threshold:
Unarmored - 12/24/36
Armored - 17/34/51 (Light)
Skills:
Awareness +5, Crafting +10 (Weapons), Finesse +10, Hardiness -- (Focus on Breath), Inspire +5, Politics +5, Ride +5, Tactics +5
Virtues:
Benevolence 4, Force 3, Honor 3, Loyalty 2, Righteousness 4
Ferocity 1, Individualism 2, Obsession 1, Revenge 2, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Storm God's Fury (Storm Burst [5], Tempest Step [4])
Internal Style: Nine Sun Birds (Cry of the Golden Crow [1], Dipping Crow [2], Hou Yi's Arrows [2], Flight of the Golden Crow [3], Supreme Burst of Speed [4])
Formless Techniques: None
Combat:
Speed +15, Footwork +5, Strike +10, Damage +10, Block +0, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Crescent Rose - Massive/Spear
-- +5 Damage
-- If an attack with a Massive weapon is described in such a
way that it is best Dodged instead of Blocked, the penalty
to Block is -10 instead of -5.
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make the
attack to ignore the target's armor on any resulting Rippling roll.
-- You may Flood one die from the River to extend an attack into an adjacent zone.
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make a Block. If you do, you may exploit your weapon's superior reach. For this defense you Laugh at your opponent and do not Fear him, unless he can claim a similar long reach (such as from using a spear or a ranged weapon).
Loresheets:
Eagle Talons [5]
- Status 3 (Member of the Eagle Talons) [3]
- Eagle Talon Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Ravenous Wings, Bone-Fed Wolf Fang or Shadow Catching.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Eagle Talons, you probably have Nine Sun Birds as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques rather than one of each level.
Mohism [3]
The Jiang Hu
- Fortune 2: Once per session, upon arriving in a new location, you may declare to have basic knowledge
of the local Jiang Hu underground, including important organizations and who's in charge. This includes Wulin factions
Wulin
- Involvement 2: Ruby's fate is tied with her half-sister, Yang Xiao Long (this doubles as a Familiar relationship Entanglement)
Secret Arts:
Combat Conditions
The Secret Art of Battle
Extraordinary Warrior Techniques
Passions and Inspirations
Extraordinary Courtier Techniques
Disadvantages:
Very Young Girl - Gain 1 extra Destiny in a session where your youth and naivete make trouble for you.
Conditions:
Rose Blossoms Brilliantly on the Battlefield (Minor Fire Combat Condition, Interval 1 Chapter) A brilliant flower of the the battlefield, Ruby blossoms when in the midst of combat, petals scattering like embers. Finding joy in the racing speed and thrill of battle, Ruby's prodigal skill is on display for all to witness. So long as Ruby acts with explosive action and rapid movements with stylish flourishes, she has a +5 Action Bonus as her skill blossoms brilliantly.
Notes:
This is Ruby Rose, Xia of the Jianghu. Her desire is to one day become a great hero like her mother, and strives to be the best person she can - and somehow ended up signing with the Eagle Talons escort service because she figured caravan guards and body-guards were somehow a really good way to help people. But she'll soon learn that the Eagle Talons are rather... mercenary for her Mohist sensibilities, and will likely have a crisis of duty: does she follow her heart and help everyone she can, or obey the rules of the Eagle Talons?
In essence, all you really need to do to make this Ruby Rose more canon, would be to change up her Lore-Sheets (and add something that'd give her complete access to Nine Sun Birds), while at the same time figuring out how to make Cresent Rose a sniper-rifle as well. Also, Ruby would quickly pick up Secret Arts (Spring Follows Winter, Unassailable Battle Saint, and Instant Inspiration Technique)and further master Storm God's Fury and Nine Sun Birds because they fit her combat style to a Tee - really bloody fast, and hits really bloody hard. Similarly, add all the relevant Entanglement for her Family, Beacon Academy, Teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as purchasing the Silver Eyes Transcendent Technique, but don't tell Ruby about how the Silver Eyes stuff works till she gets more Entanglement relating to it.
Though, even now out of char-gen, Ruby's a bloody combat monster: Nine Sun Birds coupled with a High Speed External Kung Fu like Storm God's Fury means Ruby is almost always assured to go first in a round, allowing her to make Waves and Marvels that are almost impossible to Break before they complete since no one can beat her Initiative. With a plethora of buffs and debuffs and movement available from these Waves, she can hammer into her enemies with the fury of her war-scythe to incredible effect. Her only main weakness is that she's got terrible breath and anyone who can weather her assaults or negate her speed can take control of the fight's momentum and turn the tables on her.
Legends of the Wulin - Ruby Rose
Name: Ruby Rose
Concept: Little Red Do-Gooder With A Scythe
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Warrior
Destiny: 23 (Free: 0)
Entanglement: 15
Cultivation: 30 total (9/12 completion)
Chi: 12 Normal
Joss: Chivalrous 3, Malicious 0
Chi Threshold:
Unarmored - 12/24/36
Armored - 17/34/51 (Light)
Skills:
Awareness +5, Crafting +10 (Weapons), Finesse +10, Hardiness -- (Focus on Breath), Inspire +5, Politics +5, Ride +5, Tactics +5
Virtues:
Benevolence 4, Force 3, Honor 3, Loyalty 2, Righteousness 4
Ferocity 1, Individualism 2, Obsession 1, Revenge 2, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Storm God's Fury (Storm Burst [5], Tempest Step [4])
Internal Style: Nine Sun Birds (Cry of the Golden Crow [1], Dipping Crow [2], Hou Yi's Arrows [2], Flight of the Golden Crow [3], Supreme Burst of Speed [4])
Formless Techniques: None
Combat:
Speed +15, Footwork +5, Strike +10, Damage +10, Block +0, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Crescent Rose - Massive/Spear
-- +5 Damage
-- If an attack with a Massive weapon is described in such a
way that it is best Dodged instead of Blocked, the penalty
to Block is -10 instead of -5.
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make the
attack to ignore the target's armor on any resulting Rippling roll.
-- You may Flood one die from the River to extend an attack into an adjacent zone.
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make a Block. If you do, you may exploit your weapon's superior reach. For this defense you Laugh at your opponent and do not Fear him, unless he can claim a similar long reach (such as from using a spear or a ranged weapon).
Loresheets:
Eagle Talons [5]
- Status 3 (Member of the Eagle Talons) [3]
- Eagle Talon Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Ravenous Wings, Bone-Fed Wolf Fang or Shadow Catching.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Eagle Talons, you probably have Nine Sun Birds as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques rather than one of each level.
Mohism [3]
The Jiang Hu
- Fortune 2: Once per session, upon arriving in a new location, you may declare to have basic knowledge
of the local Jiang Hu underground, including important organizations and who's in charge. This includes Wulin factions
Wulin
- Involvement 2: Ruby's fate is tied with her half-sister, Yang Xiao Long (this doubles as a Familiar relationship Entanglement)
Secret Arts:
Combat Conditions
The Secret Art of Battle
Extraordinary Warrior Techniques
Passions and Inspirations
Extraordinary Courtier Techniques
Disadvantages:
Very Young Girl - Gain 1 extra Destiny in a session where your youth and naivete make trouble for you.
Conditions:
Rose Blossoms Brilliantly on the Battlefield (Minor Fire Combat Condition, Interval 1 Chapter) A brilliant flower of the the battlefield, Ruby blossoms when in the midst of combat, petals scattering like embers. Finding joy in the racing speed and thrill of battle, Ruby's prodigal skill is on display for all to witness. So long as Ruby acts with explosive action and rapid movements with stylish flourishes, she has a +5 Action Bonus as her skill blossoms brilliantly.
Notes:
This is Ruby Rose, Xia of the Jianghu. Her desire is to one day become a great hero like her mother, and strives to be the best person she can - and somehow ended up signing with the Eagle Talons escort service because she figured caravan guards and body-guards were somehow a really good way to help people. But she'll soon learn that the Eagle Talons are rather... mercenary for her Mohist sensibilities, and will likely have a crisis of duty: does she follow her heart and help everyone she can, or obey the rules of the Eagle Talons?
In essence, all you really need to do to make this Ruby Rose more canon, would be to change up her Lore-Sheets (and add something that'd give her complete access to Nine Sun Birds), while at the same time figuring out how to make Cresent Rose a sniper-rifle as well. Also, Ruby would quickly pick up Secret Arts (Spring Follows Winter, Unassailable Battle Saint, and Instant Inspiration Technique)and further master Storm God's Fury and Nine Sun Birds because they fit her combat style to a Tee - really bloody fast, and hits really bloody hard. Similarly, add all the relevant Entanglement for her Family, Beacon Academy, Teams RWBY and JNPR, as well as purchasing the Silver Eyes Transcendent Technique, but don't tell Ruby about how the Silver Eyes stuff works till she gets more Entanglement relating to it.
Though, even now out of char-gen, Ruby's a bloody combat monster: Nine Sun Birds coupled with a High Speed External Kung Fu like Storm God's Fury means Ruby is almost always assured to go first in a round, allowing her to make Waves and Marvels that are almost impossible to Break before they complete since no one can beat her Initiative. With a plethora of buffs and debuffs and movement available from these Waves, she can hammer into her enemies with the fury of her war-scythe to incredible effect. Her only main weakness is that she's got terrible breath and anyone who can weather her assaults or negate her speed can take control of the fight's momentum and turn the tables on her.
Last edited:
- Location
- Leeds
- Location
- In my Lair, on my Hoard
Eh, it was the first thing that came to mind. Concepts can change as one sees fit, but it paints a reasonably broad picture that makes it clear what she's like... also, Scythes aren't really common in Wuxia, so saying she's "little" and "red" and "has a scythe" is pretty distinctive. And given she's got the Mohist loresheet, "do-gooder" fits her personality/ideals pretty well.
- Location
- Leeds
And you don't mention the Little Red Riding Hood pun?
- Location
- In my Lair, on my Hoard
I thought that went without saying.
- Location
- In my Lair, on my Hoard
And now for LotW's Weiss...
Legends of the Wulin - Weiss Schnee
Name: Yun Baixue (Weiss Schnee)
Concept: Princess of the Yun Clan
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Courtier
Destiny: 21
Entanglement: 13 (2 Free)
Cultivation: 13 Normal (3/11 completion), 18 Water (3/5 completion), 31 Total
Chi: 11 Normal, 3 Water (Cold, like ice, Yun Baixue does not quickly make friends nor allow positive emotions to show easily)
Joss: Chivalrous 1, Malicious 2
Chi Threshold: 14
Unarmored - 14/28/42
Armored - 19/38/57 (Light)
Skills:
Confidence +10, Finesse +5, Inspire +10, Learning +5, Perform +5 (Singing), Politics +5, Wu Wei +5 (Social Perception)
Virtues:
Benevolence 2, Force 3, Honor 3, Loyalty 3, Righteousness 3
Ferocity 1, Individualism 3, Obsession 2, Revenge 2, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Graceful Crane (Educating Wings [5])
Internal Style: Ice Sutra (Moment of Cold [1], Ice Cracking the Willow [2], Frozen Shadow [3], Mantra of Winter [3])
Formless Techniques: Water Splitting Stone [2]
Combat:
Speed +5, Footwork +15, Strike +10, Damage +0, Block +10, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Myrtenaster - Sword
-- +5 Strike
-- +5 Block
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make the attack. If you do and cause a Rippling roll, any Chi Aura used to protect against this damage costs 2 Chi points per die to purchase.
Loresheets:
The Yun Clan [5]
- Yun Clan Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Storm God´s Fury, Divine Pattern Long-Strokes, or Blossom Harvest.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Yun Clan, you probably have Ice Sutra as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques, rather than one of each level.
- Snow Leopard [5]
-- Status 4 ("Snow Leopard's Ward") within the Yun Clan, Status 2 among the rest of the Wulin
-- Being regarded as important by the master of the Yun Clan grants you +5 as a modifier to social rolls when acting to increase the influence of the Yun in the outside world, or to defend their independence. You must be uncompromising and even ruthless in your dealings in order to apply this modifier (which counts as a Minor Hyperactivity).
-- At least one other person holds the same Destiny, and they do not take kindly to having to share Snow Leopard's attentions. They strive to oppose you and make your life more difficult, either as rivals or bloody-handed enemies. [-3]
The Jin Dynasty [3]
-- Status 3: Yun Baixue is tied to the Jin Empire by blood and marriage - her mother is an Imperial princess who was married to Snow Leopard. [3]
Secret Arts:
Story of the Self
The Secret Arts of Intrigue
Passions and Inspirations
Controlling Passions
- Inflaming and Soothing Passions
- Quick Work [3]
Extraordinary Courtier Techniques
- Auspicious Navigation of Courts Technique [3]
Curses and Influences
Extraordinary Daoist Techniques
Disadvantages:
Ice Princess - Gain 1 Destiny whenever your elitism or stand-offish attitude causes you trouble.
Conditions:
Honoring the Yun Family Name (Water Inspiration, Minor Elemental Cultivation Hyperactivity) The Yun Family's honor has been called into question, as of late, in regards to the cruel decisions of Snow Leopard. This is unacceptable, the Yun Family is more than just Snow Leopard, and Yun Baixue will be sure to correct anyone who thinks otherwise! She gains Water Chi whenever she fulfills the Yun Family's duties and does so honorably.
Notes:
Yun Baixue, the Weiss Schnee of the Legends of the Wulin, is a Princess of the Yun Clan. The younger of the two sisters, Yun Baixue is half-sister to Snow Leopard's canon sons, Xiaolan and Xifeng, given Baixue's mother was an imperial princess married to Snow Leopard to preserve diplomatic ties with the Yun Clan to the North of Shen Zhou. Currently, Yun Baixue has traveled South beyond the lands of her clan, in order to distance herself from her father's increasing instability (due to the corrupt of the Glacier Heart Style that Snow Leopard practices).
Also, bloody hell, Elemental Styles are really useful for Cultivation early on. Compared to my first builds with Jaune and Ruby, Weiss already clocked in with loads of Cultivation, and the highest Threshold of the three. Just goes to show how much Secret Artists benefit from all their stuff, as well as how quick it is to gain Elemental Cultivation.
To preserve the more canon!Weiss, add on the Entanglements to Atlas, the SDC, Beacon, Teams RWBY and JNPR (with more leaning towards an exasperation with Jaune), and increased relationships with her sister, Winter. Add on a bunch of Ice Sutra and Formless techniques, while also pulling on Courtier and Daoist Techniques - getting the ability to inflict Curses and Influences, then buying Quick Work is essential to making Weiss a spell-caster, as well as ensuring she cultivates as a result of that study.
Legends of the Wulin - Weiss Schnee
Name: Yun Baixue (Weiss Schnee)
Concept: Princess of the Yun Clan
Rank: 4th
Archetype: Courtier
Destiny: 21
Entanglement: 13 (2 Free)
Cultivation: 13 Normal (3/11 completion), 18 Water (3/5 completion), 31 Total
Chi: 11 Normal, 3 Water (Cold, like ice, Yun Baixue does not quickly make friends nor allow positive emotions to show easily)
Joss: Chivalrous 1, Malicious 2
Chi Threshold: 14
Unarmored - 14/28/42
Armored - 19/38/57 (Light)
Skills:
Confidence +10, Finesse +5, Inspire +10, Learning +5, Perform +5 (Singing), Politics +5, Wu Wei +5 (Social Perception)
Virtues:
Benevolence 2, Force 3, Honor 3, Loyalty 3, Righteousness 3
Ferocity 1, Individualism 3, Obsession 2, Revenge 2, Ruthlessness 1
External Style: Graceful Crane (Educating Wings [5])
Internal Style: Ice Sutra (Moment of Cold [1], Ice Cracking the Willow [2], Frozen Shadow [3], Mantra of Winter [3])
Formless Techniques: Water Splitting Stone [2]
Combat:
Speed +5, Footwork +15, Strike +10, Damage +0, Block +10, Toughness +5
Weapons:
Myrtenaster - Sword
-- +5 Strike
-- +5 Block
-- You may Flood one die from the River while you make the attack. If you do and cause a Rippling roll, any Chi Aura used to protect against this damage costs 2 Chi points per die to purchase.
Loresheets:
The Yun Clan [5]
- Yun Clan Kung Fu
-- You get a one-time -2 Destiny discount when purchasing one of the following as a secondary External Style: Storm God´s Fury, Divine Pattern Long-Strokes, or Blossom Harvest.
-- Technique: If you are a member of the Yun Clan, you probably have Ice Sutra as your primary Internal Style. You can learn all of its techniques, rather than one of each level.
- Snow Leopard [5]
-- Status 4 ("Snow Leopard's Ward") within the Yun Clan, Status 2 among the rest of the Wulin
-- Being regarded as important by the master of the Yun Clan grants you +5 as a modifier to social rolls when acting to increase the influence of the Yun in the outside world, or to defend their independence. You must be uncompromising and even ruthless in your dealings in order to apply this modifier (which counts as a Minor Hyperactivity).
-- At least one other person holds the same Destiny, and they do not take kindly to having to share Snow Leopard's attentions. They strive to oppose you and make your life more difficult, either as rivals or bloody-handed enemies. [-3]
The Jin Dynasty [3]
-- Status 3: Yun Baixue is tied to the Jin Empire by blood and marriage - her mother is an Imperial princess who was married to Snow Leopard. [3]
Secret Arts:
Story of the Self
The Secret Arts of Intrigue
Passions and Inspirations
Controlling Passions
- Inflaming and Soothing Passions
- Quick Work [3]
Extraordinary Courtier Techniques
- Auspicious Navigation of Courts Technique [3]
Curses and Influences
Extraordinary Daoist Techniques
Disadvantages:
Ice Princess - Gain 1 Destiny whenever your elitism or stand-offish attitude causes you trouble.
Conditions:
Honoring the Yun Family Name (Water Inspiration, Minor Elemental Cultivation Hyperactivity) The Yun Family's honor has been called into question, as of late, in regards to the cruel decisions of Snow Leopard. This is unacceptable, the Yun Family is more than just Snow Leopard, and Yun Baixue will be sure to correct anyone who thinks otherwise! She gains Water Chi whenever she fulfills the Yun Family's duties and does so honorably.
Notes:
Yun Baixue, the Weiss Schnee of the Legends of the Wulin, is a Princess of the Yun Clan. The younger of the two sisters, Yun Baixue is half-sister to Snow Leopard's canon sons, Xiaolan and Xifeng, given Baixue's mother was an imperial princess married to Snow Leopard to preserve diplomatic ties with the Yun Clan to the North of Shen Zhou. Currently, Yun Baixue has traveled South beyond the lands of her clan, in order to distance herself from her father's increasing instability (due to the corrupt of the Glacier Heart Style that Snow Leopard practices).
Also, bloody hell, Elemental Styles are really useful for Cultivation early on. Compared to my first builds with Jaune and Ruby, Weiss already clocked in with loads of Cultivation, and the highest Threshold of the three. Just goes to show how much Secret Artists benefit from all their stuff, as well as how quick it is to gain Elemental Cultivation.
To preserve the more canon!Weiss, add on the Entanglements to Atlas, the SDC, Beacon, Teams RWBY and JNPR (with more leaning towards an exasperation with Jaune), and increased relationships with her sister, Winter. Add on a bunch of Ice Sutra and Formless techniques, while also pulling on Courtier and Daoist Techniques - getting the ability to inflict Curses and Influences, then buying Quick Work is essential to making Weiss a spell-caster, as well as ensuring she cultivates as a result of that study.
- Location
- Leeds
Alright, I'll admit its better than I first thought it was.I thought that went without saying.
Damn Weiss was really farming this in the first season.
Leingod
Immaculate Blooming Lotus
Truly, Weiss is the most terrifying kind of player: a munchkin who's learned how to roleplay to get what she wants.