"Meridians run through the body like strings on a harp. Hum the right note to a string, and it will vibrate in response."Sheng Qingling
Titles: None, though rumors refer to him as the 'Venom Voice'
Age: 14
Rank: Second Class-equivalent, offensive power wise, but not experience-wise
Allegiance: Recusant Clans (unaffiliated)
Appearance: Qingling appears to be in a perpetual state of poor health, though he tries to cover it up with nice clothes, makeup, and a weak smile. His small frame is dwarfed by the guqin (Chinese zither) that he insists on taking with him everywhere.
Personality: Inexperienced and naive, Qingling seeks stability and approval. Due to his upbringing, Qingling is a skilled actor and tends to lie and keep secrets compulsively. He'll try to get close to whoever he thinks can provide him protection since his life was suddenly pulled out from under him. As a hired musician by trade, all he has known is a sheltered life in some rich mansion, but as a con-artist, all he has known is the endless traveling from one mark to the next. Qingling tries to pretend that he is in control of his situation in order to mask the fear and insecurity of having had a near-death experience and being separated from his parents for the first time in his life.
History: Sheng Yelang, Qingling's father, is a loud, burly, and boisterous man; proud, arrogant, and ill-tempered. A disagreement with a former master led to unsanctioned combat in which Yelang killed his master and fled the punishment of his sect. He never talks about his former sect, though rumor has it that he was a disciple of the Shaolin. His understanding of Buddhist cultivation practices attests to this, but to anyone who knows him, it is obvious that the tenets of celibacy, prohibition from alcohol, and veganism were not for Yelang. Yelang wandered the jianghu as a vagabond and mercenary, and though he remained unaffiliated, he cozied up with various recusant clans and criminal organizations, who were all too eager to hire him for his skill. His combat style is wild and unrestrained, releasing explosive qi through his strikes. This demeanor, coupled with his signature ability, infusing qi into his throat to release a devastating howl, earned him the nickname of 'The Wolf of the West'. His ambition has always been to make a name for himself and to live life to the fullest, even if it meant taking what wasn't his.
Yu Zheng'e, Qingling's mother, is a tall, hard, cruel, and gaunt woman. She comes from a recusant clan, known as the Immortal Tools, that specializes in meridian control, resulting in the hardening of the extremities. Zheng'e's meridian control is so good that she can feign lifelessness and hide her presence, making her the perfect ambush predator. Her attacks involve long arcing swings of her completely straightened arms and legs coming together in a snapping motion like scissor blades, coupled with her signature move of spinning her hardened body longitudinally while grasping an enemy's throat and pulling them into a death spiral where she breaks their neck and spine has earned her the nickname of 'Urban Alligator', especially since she often attacks her enemies unaware. Zheng'e has always been a studious member of her sect, and simply desires to perfect her craft, even if she has to test her brutal techniques on others.
The romance of the predators begins thusly, while under the employ of the Immortal Tools, Sheng Yelang and Yu Zheng'e took a strong liking to one another. He was the cocky bad boy, she was the quiet girl who'd twist your head off. Being a particularly unorthodox sect, the Immortal Tools did not have any qualms about 'not keeping things within the sect', and did not object to Yelang and Zheng'e's relationship. During the war, Yelang and Zheng'e formed a terrifying duo, his attention-grabbing style perfectly complemented her stealth. Despite being a recusant clan, the Immortal Tools were one of the least offensive to the Martial Alliance, so when it came time to form the Iron Concord, the leader of the Immortal Tools readily accepted as it aligned rather well with their isolationist and defensive doctrine. However, the envoy sent by the Martial Alliance was a member of Shaolin who recognized Yelang. To become a part of the Concord, the leader of the Immortal Tools was willing to tentatively end their dealings with Yelang, who would be exiled from their lands. Zheng'e knew full well that this was just a ruse to placate the envoy, and that their leader would go back on his word as soon as the backs of the Martial Alliance were turned, yet Zheng'e joined her now husband in his temporary exile as an opportunity to see the world and to raise their child with whom she was pregnant with in an open and free environment.
And so it was that Qingling was born to a pair of the jianghu's notable deviants. It was discovered at a young age that Qingling was blessed with an incredible sense of hearing. Zheng'e was prone to experimentation and, inspired by her husband's wolf howl technique, decided to train Qingling in the art of using sound as a weapon. Here Zheng'e merged different philosophies, starting with Buddhist mantric chanting as the foundation, though she quickly moved into the realm of music. She linked the five notes of the pentatonic scale with the five elements, linked the octave with the eight trigrams and the Buddhist principle of the Noble Eightfold Path, and linked the seven notes of the major scale with the seven chakras. In this way, she tied her son's understanding of sound with his meridians and humors, which followed similar principles as the five elements; and chakras could be construed as the Buddhist concept of meridians. This knowledge allowed Qingling's ability with sound-based martial arts to skyrocket in power, so to further the experiment, Zheng'e brought Qingling out into the streets as a performer and saw how her son's music could affect people in subtle ways.
Given that the family was traveling, they needed a means to support themselves, and though Yelang was fine with committing acts of robbery, Zheng'e wanted to try a more insidious approach. Qingling would play music in a village square, attracting a large crowd, who would shower them with coins. But inevitably, they would catch the ear of a greedy merchant who wanted Qingling's music all to himself. The family would be offered food, lodging and pay, if only they stayed at the merchant's mansion so that he could hear Qingling's songs as he wished. Yelang and Zheng'e would, of course, comply, and during these times, the family would live in the lap of luxury. However, another thought occurred to Zheng'e, who began to train Qingling in the art of hypnotism. By lacing his qi-infused music with subtle suggestions, they could collect greater riches from their patron, even going so far as to have him leave his inheritance for Qingling.
But to cash in on their inheritance, the merchant would have to die. Though the family could murder the merchant easily, it would be too obvious, so Zheng'e decided that a slower approach was necessary. Qingling hadn't yet learned how to kill someone with his music, so Zheng'e gave him some 'help'. She began to slowly poison Qingling with drugs, while manipulating his meridians to throw his qi off-balance. This 'poisoned' qi would flow from Qingling's music and into the merchant, killing him slowly. Eventually, the merchant died, but one does not simply cheat the rich out of their inheritance. The merchant's sons as well as their friends and neighbors felt that it was improper to leave one's inheritance to strangers based on Confucian principles, and did not honor the merchant's will. The magistrate agreed, though he was likely bribed by the sons. Qingling's family were chased out of the household with nothing.
However, by now, Zheng'e had become slightly obsessed with her plan, and she felt that though things didn't work out this time, she could always try again, after they had relocated to a different city that hadn't heard of what they'd done. So the same tactic was attempted a few more times, but each time the rich man's family would sue for the inheritance and win. During their final attempt, rumor had gotten out about a 'venom voiced' child, and concerned parties quickly called up the local exorcists to investigate. The exorcist that arrived was a hero of Wudang and a powerful Taoist. he immediately realized what was happening and recognized Yelang and Zheng'e by their descriptions from the past, and attacked. At this point, Qingling had learned to weaponize his sound, and fired destructive shockwaves of sound from his instrument towards the Taoist. To defend himself, the Taoist leapt behind Qingling and struck a pressure point. Though he had only intended to stun Qingling, who was but a child, Qingling's twisted meridians unraveled from the strike, sending his qi spiraling out of control. It seemed like a fatal blow as blood gushed from Qingling's mouth while he collapsed in a heap, his heart having stopped. Realizing what had transpired, Zheng'e screamed, knowing that her 'training' and scheming had been partially responsible for her son's death. Though shocked by what he had done, the Taoist would not relent until he had brought Yelang and Zheng'e to justice, so Qingling's parents fled from the Taoist's pursuit, filled with rage and vowing to one day avenge their son.
As the Taoist went after the two deviant parents, the merchant's family's hired thugs had to deal with Qingling's body. Without the reverence to give the boy a proper burial, they simply took him out to a nearby forest and dumped his corpse near a creek. Yet Qingling was alive, and still conscious, though his internals were thoroughly messed up. In what seemed like his final moments, Qingling used the hearing that he had been blessed with to listen to the tranquil sounds of nature to find solace from the pain that wracked his body. For a moment, his soul harmonized with his environment. What Qingling didn't know was that for his type of martial arts, resonating with different sounds allowed him to draw energy from his surroundings. Unwittingly, Qingling was repairing some of the damage that had been done to his qi for years. He eventually drew enough energy from the sounds of nature that his heart leapt back into action. Qingling gasped for breath, reborn in a sense, and completely bewildered. For the first time in his life, he was alone in a vast world. Looking to his left, Qingling saw that the thugs had dumped his 'accursed' guqin next to him. Climbing to his feet, Qingling pulled the guqin up by the strap, shouldering it. He took one step, then another. He was still in pain, his meridians still in a precarious state. but he had only one thing in mind, and that was to survive and reunite with his parents, by any means necessary.
Body Enhancements:Enhanced Hearing - Qingling was born with enhanced hearing, able to pick out a pin drop on a different floor of a busy inn, hearing sounds outside of normal human range, and even navigating in total darkness via echolocation. This coupled with a basic ability to sense qi makes it incredibly hard to hide from Qingling as one would need to not only suppress their qi, but also mute any bodily functions that make sound, such as a heartbeat.
Vocal Mimic - Qingling has trained his vocal cords to be able to mimic not only other people's voices, but also various sounds.
Equipment:Guqin - The guqin is Qingling's instrument of choice, a gift from his parents.
Cultivation Base:Zheng'e drew inspiration from Eastern and Western philosophy to develop Qingling's technique without fully understanding how they worked. The foundation is mantra, the resonant hum that allows one to harmonize with the universe. Sound is a relatively low form of energy, one could even consider it waste energy, and drawing power from it is almost impossible. Through resonating with the sound, instead of taking energy from it, the practitioner becomes one with it, and the energy from this harmonization is greater than merely the sum of its parts. Understanding the different aspects of the various sounds in nature, one can create a 'symphony' with one's qi. Following the principles of Taoism and internal alchemy, one can draw upon these aspects to balance, heal, and augment one's meridians. This requires mediation and contemplation in natural environments where there is a plethora of sounds that one can focus on at different intervals; animal sounds, plant sounds, water sounds, etc. While meditation is possible in urban environments, city life renders humans imbalanced, and the sounds they make and the qi they produce are of poor quality. A practitioner can also make their own sounds during meditation; Buddhist monks strike the wooden fish and chant Om as part of their practice, but the practitioner must know what they are lacking in order to choose the right sound. The beauty of this form of cultivation is that it can be done in a group, as more voices in harmony add to the process.
However, Qingling was trained by two parents who believed that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Following the Immortal Tools' philosophy, Zheng'e used risky shortcuts to power when raising her son, manipulating his meridians and feeding him pills to turn his qi into a poisonous weapon. Though reckless, this was not done out of cruelty or maliciousness, but out of a sincere desire to make Qingling stronger. This coupled with her own ignorance of the depths of sound-based martial arts and the foundations she borrowed from, means that Qingling does not know how to cultivate himself and will remain in poor health until he figures it out.
Techniques:Sharps and Flats - Qingling strums the guqin forcefully, infusing his qi into a sonic blast in the direction of his arm. Different notes can produce blunt, forceful blasts, or slicing waves. The attacks can be spread out in a wide cone or concentrated into a single corridor.
Meridian Resonance - Qingling can play music to attack an opponent's meridian's directly. Though his qi enters primarily through the meridians of the ears, he can combine this technique with his sonic blasts to strike at pressure points on other parts of the body. This can be used to interfere with an opponent's internal energy, but it can also be used to supplement or boost an ally. However, Qingling's understanding of meridians is at the novice level, so he mostly just injects his own messed up qi into the opponent. While this technique can be used for hypnotism, hypnosis is subtle and weak, and any practitioner of the martial arts will not only be able to detect it, but will be able to 'block' the weak, hypnotic qi. Even against non-practitioners, hypnotic suggestion requires chronic application over weeks and months to truly take effect.
Sounding - Every object has a frequency at which it will shatter. By listening intently to the sound an object makes on impact under three different circumstances, Qingling is able to triangulate this frequency.
Shatter - Once Qingling knows an object's resonant frequency, he is able to replicate it using his guqin. If the object is within hearing range, it will shatter if Qingling holds the note for a long enough period of time. The period of time that the note needs to be held depends on the quality of the object.
The Irish Tree
NoriWasHere
Izurich
mattmanganon
Ojiro Mashirao
Gisk
Xaltwind
Psyker Landshark
Danyel
