Perfected Lotus is an archetypal wandering martial artist. He is a self-sufficient man, proficient in all forms of combat. He is both athletic and hardy, able to dodge blows, or simply absorb them with no apparent effect. Perfected Lotus is certainly striking in social situations, but he comes across to most as arrogant, unlikeable and stubborn. That said, he has been living on the Blessed Isle for his entire life, and has not failed to pick up the elegant and intricate systems of wordless expression so popular among the Dynasts. Although he is reasonably virtuous, few would describe him as a hero.
He looks a lot like Furious Ming from the computer game Jade Empire.
Until recently, I was a sifu on the Blessed Isle. Not one of the Dragons' graced, of course; just a patrician - but a respected one nonetheless. I had a small school on the trail up a mountain in the hills near Lord's Crossing. The Black Leopard School. A lot of the local kids went there - young ones, mostly, who wanted to get a headstart on an officer's position in the legions, or even to train themselves towards acceptance in the Immaculate Order. There were a few older students too, although they often struggled to recognise my superior ability because of my relative youth. My sifu, a powerful but overly generous old man, had run the school before me, and on his passing I, as his most capable student, inherited it.
It was a good living in many ways. With my sifu gone, there was scant opportunity to learn, but I followed other local notables and fought legionnaires where possible to keep myself in training. Besides, the patricians and the Dynasts paid well to have some discipline beaten into their brat offspring - and a few of them really were potential candidates for the Order. I insisted on training those ones myself. And such a one, it came to my notice, was Peleps Fushima.
Naturally, all the Dragon-Blooded offspring were taught at bigger schools, but Fushima was nonetheless quite a remarkable fighter. He fought better than several adult Blooded I have seen, despite his youth and his lack of Exaltation. He was quick to learn, and quicker to fight, springing into action at a moment's notice, catching many of his opponents and dispatching them with his first strike. He rose through the school swiftly and it was not long before I invited him to train with me personally.
"So," I greeted him when he entered my dojo, an hour before sunrise, "you want to become a yet more capable fighter, I see. A wise choice."
"Yes, sifu," he answered, "I want to join the Immaculate Order and become a great leader of the Wyld Hunt, like my great-grandfather; ridding the world of the foul Anathema and their ilk. The harder I train, the closer I hope to come to earning the Dragons' Blessing, and thus my place in the Order."
We fought for an hour, neither of us tiring, always testing the other's defences. He fought well, though he could not break my control. At one moment, I threw him back; he twisted to land on his feet, regarding me as he paused to consider his next attack.
"This is good, Fushima. But remember you are not fighting your fellow students now. You are waiting for me to make a mistake of my own accord - and I will not. When you face a capable fighter rather than a simple brawler, you must force the error yourself - or better yet, be able to defeat them without one. Force them into a situation from which they cannot defend all angles, no matter how perfect their fighting. Flow around, and yet batter against, your opponent - like the water you embody. This is how you will please Dana'ad."
He bowed to me, and launched himself fists-first towards my head. In that instant I saw his Exaltation; his arms were waves rearing above me, while his leg was a vicious undercurrent to sweep me off my feet. His eyes gleamed the black of the deep while his teeth sprayed with the foam atop the crest of a wave. It was an awesome sight to behold; and in that moment before my face hit the floor, I knew the might of a Dragon's blessing.
I rolled to my feet, forming a block with my hands as I leapt backwards. I saw the joy in his face, the disbelief that finally his dream was becoming reality. I smiled at him, extended one hand and beckoned him onward. He grinned widely, and leapt again, this time for my midriff. I somersaulted over him, but he flowed back towards me as the sea flows back from the soaked shore. He caught me full in the back, and I was down again. Then he seized my arms, and I knew he would lock them into place behind my back, and I would be helpless. The closest I have come to defeat.
But then, as the first ray of dawn broke through the dojo's window, it filled the hall with an unearthly bright light. Suddenly I was surrounded by a burning aura of gold - and what is more, I was no longer pinned to the floor, but standing some paces back from Fushima, seeing the elation in his eyes turn to fury.
"You!", he cried, "You are one of them!", and his scream of rage was near deafening as he launched himself at me again.
However, an age-old determination stirred in me, and as I recognised the attack taught by my master to countless students, I brought my hand up to meet his foot. Unthinking, I caught it. The weight of a thousand years' suffering, I felt, coursed through my mind and body, and in my anger I snapped my hand forward, whipping the boy's body by his foot. A wave passed along his spine, as along a child's skipping rope when she flicks it along the floor.
I dropped his limp body and stared in horror and confusion. Was I truly Anathema? Had I just killed a Dragon Blood? And a child, at that?
It was no time to stare, however, and I quickly came to my senses. My golden aura died down as I packed the boy's body into an empty weapons case. I fetched my few possessions from my room behind the dojo, and slung them in a bag onto my back. Fortunately I had patrician friends who would assist me in my escape - though of course I could not tell them why. Four days later, I was on a ship headed South out of Arjuf, a Realm trade boat headed to the great peninsula North of An Teng. I had buried the boy in a mountaintop cairn, high enough and far enough from Lord's Crossing that I hoped he would not be found - at least not soon. If the boy's family did not know he had Exalted then they would hopefully be less likely to chase me. Perhaps they might not even assume he was dead.
And as for that family... I asked him when he entered my dojo, "Your great-grandfather, you say? And who is he?"
A name I recognised, now to my horror. "His name is Peleps Deled".
Dawn Caste Solar
Motivation: Become the greatest Martial Artist in History
Intimacies: Honour; The Martial Arts World
Strength 3; Dexterity 5; Stamina 3
Charisma 4; Manipulation 1; Appearance 4
Perception 2; Intelligence 2; Wits 3
*Archery 2 (1xp); *Martial Arts 5 (+2 when face is at stake) (3bp); *Thrown 2 (1xp); *War 3 (1bp)
*Integrity 3 (1bp); *Presence 3 (+2 Unspoken Expression) (2bp);
*Resistance 4 (1bp); Survival 1
Lore 2 (2xp)
*Athletics 5 (2bp); Awareness 3; *Dodge 4 (1bp)
Linguistics 3
Compassion 2 (3xp)
Conviction 3
Temperance 2
Valour 3
Willpower 6
Essence 3 (16xp); Personal 15; Peripheral 38
Committed Ess: 4 + 4 + 6 (Bracers, STF, Inf MA Mastery) = 14
Contacts 3 (The Realm's Patrician Class)
Face 2
Artifact 2 (Orichalcum hearthstone bracers)
Artifact 2 (Seed of a Thousand Flowers) (2bp)
Artifact 5 (Seven Weapons' Thunder) (Award)
Artifact 2 (Plasma Tongue Repeater) (Award)
Ally 2 (Cynis Myrade) (Award)
Charms:
1st Martial Arts Excellency
Infinite Martial Arts Mastery (8xp)
Fists of Iron (4xp)
Sledgehammer Fist Punch (4xp)
Dragon Coil Technique (4xp)
Solar Hero Form (4xp)
Heaven Thunder Hammer (4xp)
Hammer On Iron Technique (4xp)
Thunderclap Rush Attack (8xp)
Swallowing The Perfected Lotus (8xp)
Golden Exhalation x 4 (8xp)
Durability of Oak Meditation
Iron Skin Concentration
Body-Mending Meditation
2nd Integrity Excellency
2nd Presence Excellency
2nd Awareness Excellency
2nd Athletics Excellency
Lightning Speed
Racing Hare Method (8xp)
Shadow Over Water
Seven Shadow Evasion (8xp).
Combos:
LIGHTNING STRIKE (2bp): 1st MA Ex, Thunderclap Rush Attack
FURIOUS THUNDERSTORM ATTACK (8xp): As above + Hammer On Iron Technique
Primary Virtue: Valour
Limit Break: Foolhardy Contempt
Limit : 4
XP
Spent: 103
Unspent: 7
