(Whispering Tower)



Age: 27


~ Bowmanship ~
Mostly self-trained, Tagi has spent the better part of his life practicing archery. Finding the practice meditative, he trains his focus into the mechanics, and his Qi into the tips of his arrows. His accuracy and precision hardly waiver through an almost instinctual, yet calculative, mindset as he executes his art.

~ Metalsmithing ~
Tagi makes his living off crafting and dealing fine jewelry, sometimes custom-made and personalized for the buyer. He designs necklaces, bracelets, and the likes, along with statuettes, talismans, amulets, and most other ornaments.
He also enjoys crafting his own arrows, putting extra effort into his arrowheads. Boiling the process and machinations down to a science, he tests their physics along a wide array of variables, such as weight, force, travel path, and impaling pattern.
He imbues his Qi into all his work, believing he leaves traces of whatever his mindset is during construction as a sort of purpose or fortune in the final product.

~ Terrestrial Divining ~
Much like the light of the fire, the flow of water, and the drift of the air, Tagi believes stones and metals to have life of their own. He can feel abnormalities in the earth, particularly that of crystals and metal veins that run beneath it.

~ Geomancy ~
Along the same lines as above, Tagi believes these products of the earth speak to him. He believes the matter of the earth itself is the conduit of the divine itself, manifesting as a medium through which physical beings can communicate. He believes crystals and metals have a type of soul, or intelligence, and that they can relay to him ethereal will.

~ Revelation ~
Often, Tagi receives visions during his sleep and meditations, which he interprets as divine revelation. In odd ways, they correlate to his life and he attributes déjà vu to prophecy fulfilled. Sometimes, they spark new ideas and challenge his thought, but other times he finds himself haunted as he tries to reconcile newly founded internal struggles or piece together seemingly cryptic puzzles.


1 : EARTH
2 : METAL


Tagi has a straight-faced demeanor, while still speaking with a generally welcoming tone. He speaks pretentiously and concisely, but is nonetheless understanding and empathetic with regards to others.

His education has taught him to follow the mantras
"there is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance"
and
"nature knows no good or evil, only balance and imbalance".

Due to his visions, Tagi has adopted a stoic mentality in believing the universe is absolute, but he often pushes it aside in his active life. He is an avid reader in his conquest for scholarship, and a moderate socialite with hopes of expanding his perceptions. He puts thought and care into his efforts regardless, ultimately hoping to reach higher levels of understanding on his quest for self-discovery.


Born to a master calligrapher in the Dragon's Domain, Tagi was fortunate enough to achieve a high level of literacy at a young age. He learned the virtue of discipline and patience through a strict upbringing, honing his finesse in the process. Being forced to construct and style a corpus of characters for hours on end, he developed an expansive vocabulary and began reading texts his family kept around their household. They were mostly spiritual, consisting of religious critiques and meditation guides.

At the age of 14, Tagi was caught stealing ink in his venture to do some writing of his own. His parents exiled him to the Tortoise's Rest to work for his uncle, a miner. He parsed through their handbooks learning how to identify the various gemstones and metals they expounded their efforts into. Here, he gradually became more attune to tracking deposits of these valuables in the cavernous walls of the mountain, on its surface, and in the ground beneath them.

During their free time at these mining encampments, the laborers would practice archery and hold their own competitions with the locals. Although their equipment was lacking and all their training was amateur, it only kept them on their toes as they quickly became accustomed to whatever they could get their hands on. Tagi was allowed to participate in the games of men, and proved himself folly capable of playing at the same level as the adults.

Maybe it was the awe of the mountains, or being surrounded by the fascinating products of the earth, but Tagi became aware of his subconscious connection to crystals and metals. He had always had dreams, but he grew up being told they were normal. During his time at the Tortoise's Rest, they became more vivid and revealed themselves even in his waking hours. They bring him advice, reflection, and sometimes even prophecy, even in the vaguest ways. He struggled to understand them, but submitted to the process of giving time to tell.

By the age of 18, Tagi held enough seniority that he was allowed to keep a small portion of whatever he found at the expense of his own profits. He began fashioning trinkets for himself, as well as idols and various other ornaments. The art and design process fascinated him. He would hand out these pieces as gifts to his fellow workers, and they believed fortune struck them and the spirits guarded them through Tagi's works. He began selling his creations as custom works and used the proceeds to purchase various philosophical texts and mystical treatises, hoping to understand what continued to run through his head. After a while, he gave himself the epithet "Epiphanes" half-jokingly, considering himself a revelator through his craft.

When he turned 21, Tagi was called to the home of a prominent business family in the Kirin's Realm after one had discovered an intricately designed dragon statuette in a high-end jewelry store. Over the course of 12 months, he was commissioned to construct all the jewelry and ornaments for a particularly grandiose wedding between their son and the daughter of a regionally renowned musician. The wedding went off without absolutely no problems, and both sides attributed such fortune to the powers of Tagi's work.

After this and a handsome payoff, Tagi opened up his own jewelry shop, working relentlessly with a staff not allowed to touch the material between its delivery and completion. In his free time, he continued reading, meditating through archery and traditional means, and orchestrating designs. He is convinced the divine speaks to him in all hours of the day, and that he is able to actively tap into their energy through the crystals and metals he handles regularly. When one comes into his shop, one can expect thorough philosophical preaching, with glimmers of pretentious prophesying.


~ Custom-Woven Tunic ~
Brown, with the interior lined with gold and silver threading.

~ Full-Body Wrappings ~
Protecting his skin and lungs from the gases and harmful particles that permeate his workspace.

~ Custom Axe/Pickaxe ~
Forged during his time in the mines of various alloys he felt to be most ideal and suitable for resistance.

~ Composite Bow ~
Gifted by a benefactor.

~ Large Leather Quiver ~
Gifted by a benefactor.
Capacity for 30 of his hand-made arrows.

| : [ Appearance ] : |

Age: 19

| : [ Abilities ] : |

~ Water Augury ~
The spirits that inhabit rivers, lakes, and seas are always communing with one another, even across vast swaths of open land. Through this, Fei Lan too can commune with the myriad water spirits and if they are willing to offer up their senses, she can perceive the world as they do.
By offering her Qi to these spirits, she can view remote locations as long as both she and her desired location are in contact with water. The nearby water source must also be large enough to house a spirit, such as a small pond, well, or prodigious puddle.
In addition, neither clouds, mist, fog, heavy rain, snow, or any standing body of water can hinder her senses. By invoking the nature of her Qi and using it to enhance her senses, she maintains a supernatural connection to the water around her allowing her to navigate unimpeded and locate other creatures in the area. She experiences the world through the water, seeing and feeling it as if she were there herself. The range is limited to only a small area though.

~ Eyes of the Storm ~
Nature leaves subtle hints in the slow meandering of clouds and the whistling of the wind. There's a distinct pattern in the way weather forms and moves which Fei Lan is attuned with. She can perceive these subtleties and accurately divine the weather for the next couple of days.

~ Water Purification ~
By combining water and aether energies, Fei Lan can purify water of poison, disease, or filth. However, the cleansing is limited to only small bodies of water such as wells, ponds, and brooks.

~ Unyielding Vigor ~
The abundance of Aether element caged inside her small body allows her to continue moving, when others would collapse from exhaustion. She is preternaturally athletic and can subsist on her own Qi instead of natural physical energy. She can run and swim for hours, scarcely needs any rest, and is active throughout most of the day and night, needing only to nap lightly for a few hours to cleanse any fatigue.

| : [ Affinity ] : |

Water - Primary
Aether - Secondary

| : [ Personality ] : |

A bit bull-headed and willful at times, but Fei Lan is usually gentle and easy-going like the lazy rivers around where she grew up. She does everything at her own pace and in her own time. Sometimes she's seen as being air-headed for paying little mind to how she trouble's others with her behavior, but this belies her sharp wit and lifelong pursuit of fun-filled mischief.

| : [ History ] : |

| : [ Equipment ] : |

~ Medicine Pouch ~
filled with dried herbs, as well as small containers of unguents, salves, and healing balms

~ Hanfu-styled traditional dress ~

~ Small pieces of jewelry ~
Each of piece is used to entice a particular kind of water spirit, some prefer crystals, other metal or ceramic

~ Sacred Gourd ~
filled with purified water and a large copper bowl for divination rituals

~ An heirloom pendant made from a shard of a large pearl; supposedly, its a remnant of a Dragon's sacred pearl of wisdom.

| : [ Other ] : |

Despite her affinity for Aether, her skill in it is low and every technique she's learned about controlling it thus far has been self-taught.

Likewise, she has no formal training in any martial arts, but with the help of her village's elders, instead developed her natural born talent for manipulating Qi to make up for it. She knows few self-defense techniques, but can often outrun any would-be pursuer.

An Xing

Age: 24

Appearance:
Abilities:
Formless sword dance
A martial art based around an ancient form of a sword dance practiced during some celebrations and holidays by small pockets of traveling groups of female entertainers. Since those ancient times, the martial art has evolved into a full fledged style, but few are allowed to learn it for it requires a talent for the sword and the flexibility to allow for the art’s gracious and nimble movements. Fast, unpredictable and deadly, those are the traits of those who practice this style.

Metal Qi body and flow.
An Xing’s trained ability to manipulate the flow of her own Qi and infuse it into her body and sword, using her primary element’s traits to enchant her own body’s resistance to blows and her weapon’s sharpness and durability. As long as she holds a weapon, it will not be in need of sharpening.

Of rust and erosion.
Given enough time, An Xing can infuse her Qi external metal items and turn the once sturdy metal into fragile substance that would crumble under even a simple pressure. Depending on the metal and the area in need of affecting, the time needed can greatly increase.

Spring after Fall
Using her secondary element, An Xing has created her own little ability to quickly regenerate damage with forcing Aether Qi to her injured body parts. This takes away her ability to use any other type of Qi related ability while she’s doing it and tires her body. Best suited for use during meditation

The Siren song of coin.
Being born into the family of merchants, An Xing learned the art of trade since a young age. She can haggle for prices, decide on the right values for items and overall act like one of the countless shrewd merchants out there, gaining maximum profits for her products and services.

Affinity (Primary/Secondary): Metal and Aether

Personality: An Xing is a very bright person, her smile is wide and charming, perfect for drawing in customers while at work as a merchant or to simply be nice towards her friends. She enjoys to haggle and to trade. An Xing also loves to discover new and interesting things such as foods, arts, weapons and so on. Everything as long as it’s something she has not seen it before. Thus she also has a habit of collecting small trinkets. Her favorite being a pair of two palm sized statuettes, depicting two dancing sisters.

History: An Xing was born in a very well off merchant family from the Kirin’s Realm. Her father was a prominent merchant and a martial artist since he was young. Her mother was a member of a traveling all female troupe of entertainers. The women were hired to attend and entertain a big feast at one of the bigger tea houses within the Realm.

An Xing’s father fell in love with her mother from first sight. At first it came as a rather shock and surprise to both his family and friends when he decided to marry a simple commoner woman, a dancer no less! Still in his family currently it was him who ran the business and made the money so no one could really oppose him. Following that on the very next year they married and 2 years later An Xing was born.

When she was about 5 years old, An Xing expressed interest to study martial arts. Her father was not that great of a fan of the idea though. While she married a commoner woman for love, he was also an extremely doting parent reaching almost to insanity levels. He would never allow his cute daughter to touch a weapon or to harm her skin! Luckily her mother was on the opposite opinion. As a long life practitioner of the Formless Sword Dance style, she had a long talk with her husband. Eventually 3 days later, after An Xing’s mother lost an arm and her father lost a leg in the ‘talks’, a decision was reached that An Xing would study martial arts.

In the following years, An Xing’s days were filled with studies for etiquette, economy, martial arts and other useful for a noblewoman skills. When An Xing was 18, her family faced a crisis once more. Her father wanted her to marry an old nobleman to secure his daughter’s future, whole her mother wanted her to join a traveling troupe and see the world.

Once more her parents decided to settle the problem on the field of battle. In the end An Xing’s decision was easy… she had to do whatever she decide from that point onwards because both her parents killed each other in their stupid duel. She joined the traveling troupe for a little while, before she left and started to travel the world as a merchant, searching for curios from all over.

Equipment:
Blue fang- a one handed curved longsword. The metal on this blade appears to be blue due an incident during it’s forging where the smith’s assistant dropped some kind of chemical dust on the blade and the reaction with the heat of forge turned the blade blue. Otherwise nothing else is special about this sword.

Clothes- As depicted in the two pictures, depending on which she’s wearing at the moment.

Leather backpack- a big backpack made from sturdy leather, to allow her to carry safely all her trinket collection, the other items she sells, her spare set of clothing and her provisions.

Other: