Hua Ping

● "The Phantom"

Hua Mulan

Resistance Leader

China, Rivenspire

Twenty-Eight

Lawful Good

Thirteen Years Ago - Fifteen Years Old - Picture(s):
Present Day - Twenty-Eight Years Old - Picture(s): ● ●

Ping’s androgyny is a hard-won battle, stemming from years of binding chests and a carefully practiced male swagger. Hua Mulan might have suffered the powders and perfumes and all the pageantry that being the daughter of a noble family might have brought with it, but Ping is undoubtedly a ‘he’, passing for boyish rather than effeminate. His voice is of a higher pitch but is ambiguous enough so as to cause few problems, especially with a put-on gravelly tone, and despite slim, willowy foundations, his athleticism shines through with impressive masculinity. After a short stint of close-cropped hair, he has returned to a longer, more flattering style, usually worn in a royal top-knot.

Another contributing factor to Ping successfully passing as a man is his lack of finesse. He has callouses on his hands, many years old, and nails kept short, and rough-textured skin that no proper lady would leave the house without hiding. He wears a single gold hoop earring, like a pirate. Scars mark his body, and as everyone knows in Rivenspire's "most civilised land", women don't have war wounds. They sew and cook and are things to be collected. They don't fight.

Single

● Father: Hua Hu (Deceased)
● Mother: Hua Li (Deceased)
● Brother: Hua Ping (Deceased - Identity Taken)

Ping's current horse is Khan, a grey stallion who has survived just as many battles as he has. Although he is getting old, Ping considers him to be a fellow figurehead of the Resistance and would not entrust his safety to anyone else.

● Comrades: Ling, Yao, Chien Po
● Mentors: Ching Shih, Song Jiang

His country needed a stoic, serious leader, and thus Ping was born. As someone who has gone from (im)perfect noblewoman to good-hearted bandit to militiaman fighting the good fight, it is accurate to say that his character is changeable. That's not to say he's insincere: Ping feels passionately about every cause he joins or starts, be it stealing from the rich, inciting an uprising among peasants or gathering an army under sort-of false pretenses. He carries out each of the duties he's taken on to its natural conclusion, being of the rare ambitious sort in these trying times.

Justice, lawfulness, rightness –– all of these are important to Ping's code. He will continue fighting until nobody opposes these values, even if he takes them to the extreme end of 'an eye for an eye'. Ping has been led to believe, by other members of the people's Resistance, that balance and order will only be restored with the divine right of kings. The true emperor must sit on the throne for China to return to normality. Ping is beginning to believe it when people say he's the rightful Emperor, no matter how false it sometimes feels. He claims to not want power for power's sake but instead considers it a duty, a burden. Maybe he has delusions of grandeur. Maybe he doesn't.

He's innately charming and charismatic enough for the people to support him, and that's all that matters, isn't it?

Ping knows that he will continue to be secretive until the end of time, because if his followers knew of his true identity, he'd be done for. It's not purely for pragmatic reasons that Ping keeps 'Mulan' stuffed away in a locked box inside his heart: he's rather self-conscious, humble, and has a large chip on his shoulder. It's likely why he's so daring; he has something to prove. He's twice the man of any other warrior in China.

Ping does not really remember what it was like to be womanly other than 'uncomfortable'. Too much has happened since then. Femininity has always been stifling to him, and he didn't really understand why until he took on his brother's identity out of necessity. Life as a man suits him better to the point where he now thinks of himself as one, even though his physical form might not be co-operative with the vision in his head. To say that he had gender dysphoria would be accurate, though such a term doesn't exist in Rivenspire. He only knows that the unease he felt and still feels in his own skin was only tamed by changing his outer appearance into the image of masculinity he is today.

Ping is one of the best combatants in all of China, and although much of that comes down to marital prowess and training, a great deal of it comes down to his creative mind and utterly filthy tactics. Blows below the belt, telegraphing certain moves only to deliver a hit from an unexpected angle, and all sorts of other tricks make him a tricky opponent to beat in single combat –– if you even see him, first.

Although not formally trained (who would ever train a girl in the art of war?) Ping is a quick learner and has proved his worth as a general. Decisiveness and the ability to shoulder the consequences of his actions make him a competent decision-maker, but tactics and logic are also in his skill-set. Ping finds it curiously similar to politics, which he did receive tutelage in as Mulan. Out-maneuvering one's opponents to save one's own skin is the goal in both.

Finally comes Ping's prowess as a leader. Charismatic and caring, he doesn't even seem to notice the effect his words and actions have on others until they're pledging their swords and their lives to defend China from the corrupt beast that has taken over it.

Ping is argumentative - always willing to pick a fight even if the other party isn't. He seems to think the world is out to get him at times (which, in fairness, isn't entirely wrong) and is somewhat paranoid as to friends and allies poisoning his food or leaving him. Although he tries to be subtle about it, he really is quite needy at times.

Often, Ping goes to great lengths to hide his biological sex and makes many sacrifices that he wishes he didn't have to make in an effort to preserve it. It is a constant weight upon his mind which takes a psychological toll, especially since he knows that a portion of his army, no matter how large, would leave if they found out. Living up to the masculine ideal while he was taught to be meek and subservient is a struggle, leaving him drained at the end of the day.

Hua Mulan was born into a family second only to the Emperor, as it had been for the entire dynasty, centuries long. Brothers, uncles, and male ancestors were often high-ranking generals and advisors through name alone, while the girls in her family were often 'blessed' with the honor of becoming trophy wives or prized concubines. One of those would have been Mulan's fate, given she was not the only heir. Her brother, Hua Ping, was only two years older than her and had the bright future she envied, even from a young age, though she didn't understand why it bothered her until she was much older.

Mulan only played along with sewing and cooking and ceremonial rites for so long. She liked playing for hours with the boys in the village, accidentally scraping her knees when falling out of trees and muddying up her much-hated dresses. She stole her brother's clothes on several occasions, and snuck out to smack the air with his training swords until he noticed. He made a pledge to her: whatever he would learn from his tutors, he'd try to teach to her. As it turned out, Ping was hopeless with blades, but he could recite archery lessons well enough. The 'perfect' daughter could shoot deer by the time she turned twelve, though the mere thought of it would have scandalised her mother.

Not all was well in their idyllic nation. China was under attack, and she knew that as soon as her brother came of age he would have to go to war. She herself would likely be married off to some all-important general, as the matchmaking had already begun by the time she turned fourteen. It was only shortly after that when the Hordes attacked: barbarian invaders from the north, a collection of petty kings, nomadic, that called themselves Mongols. They were cursed with dark magic from overseas, allowing for warriors which didn't feel pain when they were stabbed in the chest or burned with hot oil. They would keep moving until their bodies were destroyed.

The empire was taken over, the emperor usurped, and most of the military vanquished.

It took some time for the spread of the takeover to reach Mulan's family, by which point they were already preparing to leave. On the day that the Hua compound was razed to the ground, Mulan and her brother were told to run for the coastline and get on a ship: The Tempest. It would take them out of there to live and fight another day. With the hordes pressing in, they fled through the forests, only to be caught by passing scouts. In the resulting chase, Hua Ping was mortally injured, and unable to move from a debilitating arrow wound, he told Mulan to go on without him.

The ship waited until dawn for other survivors, of which none made it to the coastline, before departing. It was only then that she realised they were a pirate ship, bought and paid for. The Tempest's Captain was not in full control over his boat - he was from an armada of ships belonging to the Pirate-Queen Ching Shih. They were known as wokou. The plan was originally that Hua Mulan would be taken to a port in the far south where she would marry a general, while Hua Ping would work aboard Shih's ship while in training. With her brother dead, and at her own request to not be taken to her doom, Mulan was allowed to stay as a deckswab only, so long as she was useful.

And she was useful. The Pirate-Queen took a liking to her, especially interested in her eschewing of femininity. Mulan learned much as her apprentice –– how to sail, how to fight, how to barter –– but most importantly of all she was given the advice that would change her life from this point on: 'If you feel like a boy, why don't you become one?'

When the waters grew too dangerous for Ching Shih's monopoly on the seas to continue, they intended to move out to Tortuga, to safety. Now as Ping, he was offered a permanent position aboard, but fidelity to his country had always been an important trait of his. It was time to retake China from the pretend king Shan Yu, but with no allies and no wealth, it would prove impossible.

While living a nomadic life, travelling through the marshes in the east, Ping came upon an opportunity to do good. The bandit Song Jiang was rousing up the peasants by stealing from the tyrannical overlords who charged them unfair taxes and took whatever, or whoever, they wanted. Ping became one of his 'merry men', and spent a good few years in the furthest reaches of the empire becoming a folk hero himself. Using his impressive combat training from Ching Shih and the pirates and even a few tricks learned from Song Jiang, he became The Phantom. With a white mask and two swords, Ping snuck into numerous bases and compounds to free prisoners and assassinate minor Mongol leaders. All in all, it only produced results on a small scale, and in the short term. Cutting off one head of the hydra simply didn't cut it, as two more would grow.

The path Ping walked changed (for better of worse) when the empire's dogs sniffed out his background and publicised it, mistaking him officially as Hua Ping. Because of his family's former position, and the now broken dynasty of the previous emperor, any survivor from the Huas would have some shaky though convincing claim to China –– if they could usurp the tyrant on the throne. Several groups were already fighting back against the oppressive power of the now-settled Mongol hordes. His identity gave him something of a mythical status; the lost son, thought dead but now returned for vengeance. Ping joined the Resistance with the false story that it was his sister to die in the forest while trying to make her escape, solidifying his stolen identity once and for all.

Presently he leads guerilla ambushes against the False Emperor's men and secures supply lines and villages for their cause; an active field presence. Ping leads alongside other powerful representatives who each have their own specialty and advice. Some of them are even from far-off foreign lands but still willing to help retake China. It is not the right time to strike directly at the heart of the problem; however, without some supernatural intervention or guidance, it is beginning to seem like there will never be a better time.

Ping is not innately magical. He does not need to be, coming from the school of technique trumping raw power. With that being said, the Hua family does possess one trait exclusively in the male lineage which Ping inherited: an indomitable spirit. Spell effects which alter the mind are shrugged off by him, and against great pain (real or illusionary) he can persist through sheer power of will, often not even feeling pain at all until the battle is over.

Ping is talented with numerous weapons, as his travels have often involved impromptu battles in which he would have to fight with whatever came into his possession first. In particular, he is good with the staff or any weapon shaped like it (broken spear hafts); swords, either one-handed or dual-wielded; and the bow and arrow. Finally, his body is a weapon itself, and his throws and blows and jabs are often suspiciously hard-hitting for someone so unassuming.

Ping is the subject of several bounties, some of which are valid throughout all of Rivenspire. The first is as a self-admitted (albeit former) member of Ching Shih's armada. The second is for association with Song Jiang under the alias of "The Phantom", primarily for mischief and stealing from the rich and giving to the poor though also for the later deaths associated with the mysterious bandit. And finally, his highest bounty is signed by the Emperor himself: Hua Ping - dead or alive - treason.