Point discrepancies for those of you checking math are because
Sachiko benefitted during chargen from 18XP that y'all are getting as well, so that she's of the same general level.
***
Name: Soshi Sachiko
Clan: Scorpion
School: Soshi Shugenja (+1 Awareness, +1 Perception)
Rank: 1
Insight:142
Glory: 1
Honor: 1.5
Status: 1
Earth: 2 (Stamina 2, Willpower 2)
Water: 3 (Perception 3, Strength 3)
Fire: 2 (Agility 2, Intelligence 2)
Air: 3 (Awareness 3, Reflexes 3)
Void: 2
Skills
Calligraphy (Cipher) 2
Courtier (Manipulation) 2
Etiquette (Sincerity) 3
Meditation 1
Spellcraft (Spell Research)2
Stealth (Spellcasting) 2
Theology 1
Acting (Disguise) 3
Storytelling (Oratory) 2
Spears 2
Lore: Scorpion Clan 2
Spells
Common:
Sense
Commune
Summon
Counterspell
Air:
Secrets on the Wind (Innate Ability)
Yari of Air
Way of Deception
Wind Borne Slumbers
Water:
Reflections of Pan Ku
Path to Inner Peace
Earth:
Earth's Touch
Advantages
Dangerous Beauty (1 point) Soshi Kyoko was a beauty that few could resist, and Sachiko has inherited
her mother's looks even moreso than her sisters. (+2k0 deceit vs. opposite sex)
Voice (3 points): Sachiko's natural skills tend towards speaking, and her voice has been known to
soothe, excite, or dismay those who listen to her stories in equal measure, just as it can deceive those who listen too unwarily. (Free Raise on any roll
involving speaking abilities)
Quick (2 points): Spritely and mischievous, Sachiko's always seemed to be two steps ahead of
anyone chasing the young girl around her family's estate. (+1k0 initiative)
Precise Memory (3 points): Knowledge is worthless if it is not retained, and Sachiko has trained her
own mind for some time to recall even the slightest details of what she has learned.
Higher Purpose (2 points): Sachiko believes some profound revelation lies in the truth behind the
story of Bayushi and Shosuro, as well as why Shosuro vanished after founding her own family of the Soshi. This cause gives Sachiko purpose to shape her
talents.
Blessing of the Elements (4 points): Possessed of the appreciation for subtlety and misdirection,
Sachiko finds the kami of Air more welcoming than any other. (Expend one Void Point as Simple Action for +5 TN to be hit for one minute)
Benten's Blessing (3 points): Sachiko's dedication to the concept of romantic love has gained
the attention of its Fortune, who blessed her with considerable charm and beauty (+1k0 persuasion, +2k0 if person is attracted to her)
Allies (4 points): Sachiko's sister Ryoko married into the Asahina clan of the Crane, but the
sisters were and still are very close. While her husband's family's beliefs prevent her from acting openly, Ryoko would assist her sister secretly as
best she could with the resources she can wield within her husband's lands. (Influence: 2, Devotion: 2)
Disadvantages (10)
Evil Eye: (1 point) Sachiko's eyes are confusing among the superstitions of the Scorpion. Though
her left eye is the green of a woman in whom deceit has no place, her bright blue right eye is a stark contrast. As such, most Scorpion find it difficult to
trust her if they are aware of it.
Fascination: (1 point) Sachiko has always been a bright child, with a thirst for knowledge of the true
history of the Scorpion clan... which has gotten her in trouble with Scorpion outside her family. After all, sometimes the truth is better left buried, or so
other Scorpion would say.
Idealistic: (2 points) Sachiko's views of the Scorpion's duty are unusual, but she holds them
as more than mere guidelines. She is sorely disappointed by the more cynical of her clan (though as a proper Scorpion, she'd never say so out
loud), and finds others who struggle with their clan's social practices and their own views to be kindred spirits, whom she can't help liking at
least a little. (-1 extra rank for every rank of honor lost, but +1 honor gained for every 5 ranks gained)
Dark Secret (5 points) While Sachiko's parentage is unassailable at present, someone with the
right mind for Scorpion intrigue could probably turn the truth of the story to her family's disadvantage. (Obligation Disadvantage to anyone who learns her
secret)
Elemental Imbalance (1 point) While Sachiko's skill with Air and Water is as powerful as expected
of a shugenja of the Soshi, her ties to the Earth are a bit... quirky. She must focus especially much to prevent the spell from causing unexpected... side effects.
(Roll vs. Willpower vs. TN of 15 to succeed in casting any Earth element spell. If failed, spell misfires in way dictated by GM)
Heritage
Artist's Touch: +1 rank to Acting and Storytelling
Soshi Shugenja School
Soshi's Whisper: Gain a free Raise when casting Secrets On The Wind, Reflective Pool, and Essence
of Air, as well as a free Raise on Stealth roll when attempting to cast a spell unnoticed. Secrets on the Wind as an innate ability.
Equipment
Wakizashi
Tanto
Kimono
Sandals
Scroll Satchel
Traveling pack
7 koku
Appearance:
Sachiko is a somewhat tall (5'7") but slight (120ish pounds, but she'd never admit specifics) woman of striking appearance. Her shugenja kimono is
cut tastefully but in such a way as to flatter her appearance, bearing the mon of the Soshi family and decorated in the black and crimson of her clan. Long
black hair flows over her shoulders in an elaborate braid while her face is concealed behind an intricately worked mask in the shape of the Scorpion mon. But
true to form, the mask is more than first glance would reveal it to be. With the tail draped over her head to hold her hair, the scorpion's legs frame her
mismatched green and blue eyes, and the pincers coming together to form a permanent cheshire grin, the entire seemingly obvious representation of a Scorpion
also forms the grinning face of an oni worthy of a kabuki actor. Between this impressive mask and her own natural gifts, Sachiko is memorable to anyone who
sees her.
"But little frog," said the Scorpion "I can swim."
However, in Sachiko's satchel is another change of clothes, waiting for the time when her masters
observing her declare her ready. They are plain black robes and a wide brimmed straw hat, a Scorpion mon, and a simple mask of black and red. These are the
garments of a wandering shugenja of the Scorpion clan who claims no family and no home, but whom all the Soshi lands know of, tasked by his lord to walk their
lands and assist the common people. This is, of course, the truth....from a certain point of view. In truth, there have been many such shugenja, both calming
the populace and patrolling for potential rebellion or unrest. They are the feelers of the Soshi's information network, for many a peasant or samurai will
confess to a shugenja what he would never admit to another of his own profession, and the legends springing up about the Wandering Shugenja portray him as the
peak of trustworthiness from his many deeds of un-Scorpion-like charity and generosity. Sachiko is but the latest tasked with this, and while her gender is
wrong for the legends, once her skills with deception and disguise are suitably prepared, she knows that the masters of the Dojo of the Unseen Eye will call
upon her to take up the mantle like so many others.
Personality:
Sachiko is, in many ways, both an archetypical and atypical Scorpion. Deception was her breastmilk and
influence her daily bread. Yet compared to some divisions of the Scorpion who emphasize cold logic over other, more emotional fields, Sachiko does not believe
that all actions driven by emotion are inherently weak compared to the Scorpion. The stories she heard from her mother growing up have influenced the path of
her education, and Sachiko learned very early that understanding how best to use an opponent's emotions begins from knowing what it is like to experience
them. Similarly, she retains her clan's obsession with loyalty and duty, but her definitions of what "fulfilling one's duty" entails might be
a bit more dynamic than some Scorpion elders would prefer... ..if they ever found out, that is. The first lesson that Sachiko learned from her mother is that to
deceive one's enemies, one must be able to deceive one's allies as well, and Sachiko has remained seen as the ideal Scorpion operative in any
environment, despite her unusual views.
In person, Sachiko lives up both to her birth name (meanng "happy child") and her
father's nickname for her (the scorpion's smile), being a pleasant, friendly, and overall enthusiastic young woman. Her voice tells that if her mask
weren't smiling, she would be anyway, and her quick wit and jokes lack the typical venom of the usual Scorpion proverbs, and she's even a bit of a
romantic, in keeping with her branch of the Soshi family's views on their clan's immortal founder. All in all, she's the epitome of the Scorpion
when throwing a party, just all the time, making her fairly friendly and amiable to be about... if you trust her. But one can't help but notice a glint of
sincerity in her bearing that most Scorpion lack. As if for all her clever words, she lets the truth out more often.
Sachiko makes no secret that she is of the Scorpion clan, with all that entails, and is often fond of
noting the various ways she could be deceiving those she's speaking to. In a way, she is honest about her dishonesty, mostly because few actually expect a
Scorpion to come out and say they're tricking you... .but are they really?
Background:
Sachiko traces a lot of her quirks back to her parents, who were hardly regular Scorpions themselves.
Her mother, Kyoko, was a high ranking member of the Soshi, but her love, Hanzo, was of no noble blood at all, leaving the two without any true way to be
together without a tragic end. However, Kyoko was a cunning Scorpion and had studied her father's teachings well. Even at as young an age as she was, she
had rolled up a considerable number of favors and blackmail of her own, and she put them to use, creating a false history for her beloved as a member of the
Shosuro family, inwardly chuckling at the grand joke of claiming Hanzo's nobility in a family founded by the same source as was rumored to be the founder
of their own. The deception worked, and Hanzo and Kyoko were wed with great celebration.
Years later, Kyoko suggested to her father that their first daughter be married off to cement an
alliance with a branch of the Asahina Crane, and the elder Scorpion agreed, seeing the benefit in such a proposal, and the Asahina representatives were
suitably swayed by the obvious love and care seen between Hanza and Kyoko to agree to the idea, feeling that perhaps these Scorpion were different. It was only
once the engagement was announced and celebrated that Kyoko revealed to her father the deception of her own marriage. Trapped between the public declaration of
his granddaughter's engagement and the sizable dishonor and insult that would result if such a thing were to become public, Kyoko's father acknowledged
her skillful maneuver and agreed that the couple would not be touched, not a day before a courtier from the Shosuro family attempted to use the information to
his advantage.
To this day, the Soshi have benefited from the shugenja knowledge shared between themselves and the
Asahina, allowing the pacifistic Asahina to believe they are preventing conflict with the Soshi by nonviolent means while gaining the secrets to press their
mastery of Air and Water even further among the Soshi's prized shugenja. Though she wears the white and powder blue of a Crane, Ryoko herself retained much
fame among her family in the Scorpion for her mastery of illusions learned from her husband's family.
Sachiko grew up with this story as one of the lessons about her clan: what one may see as weakness can
be turned to strength, for nothing is as it seems. If it were not for her mother deciding to marry her father, would she have honed her skills at deception so
well? And love is not a weakness, but a double-edged sword: only by being able to trust her husband to play his part for years allowed the gambit to pay off.
But it did, and reaped unexpected benefits for the Scorpion clan that could not have been obtained through other means.
As she grew older, Sachiko took this lesson to heart, and found it reinforced in the history of her clan which she studied so dutifully. Bayushi and Shosuro
were very much in love, and Sachiko saw it as a demonstration of love as well as duty that drove Shosuro to join the Thunders....and to swear that she would
return alive. The supposed death of Shosuro, and the legends in her family that the legendary Soshi was the woman herself, as well as Bayushi's
disappearance after Soshi vanished convinced the somewhat idealistic Sachiko that the two were, somehow, together, and that something important was contained
in the mysteries surrounding the tale.
This quest and her duties afterwards as a wandering shugenja shaped Sachiko's opinions of the duties of the Scorpion Clan. While they were certainly to
protect the Empire, it did no good if they were hated for no reason. The Scorpion parables were to demonstrate the folly of the other clans, not only so the
Scorpion would inevitably win, but so that their brother clans would learn from their mistakes, making the Empire as a whole a greater thing. The path of the
Scorpion was not to elevate themselves as first above all others, but to elevate the whole by forcing the other clans out of their complacency in their
methods. The irony of this opinion being held by a member of a clan rigidly defined by what best benefits itself was not lost on Sachiko, and so while she
dutifully fulfilled her lessons and became the shugenja that she was expected to be, she looked forward to using her travels to uplift those she comes into
contact with, that the Empire as a whole may slowly prosper.
And so Sachiko wanders, helping others in the name of the Scorpion while seeking knowledge of the tale of the lovers who founded her clan, certain that this
knowledge will help the Empire she is sworn to serve to prosper. But some secrets were kept secret for a reason...
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."
Sachiko benefitted during chargen from 18XP that y'all are getting as well, so that she's of the same general level.
***
Name: Soshi Sachiko
Clan: Scorpion
School: Soshi Shugenja (+1 Awareness, +1 Perception)
Rank: 1
Insight:142
Glory: 1
Honor: 1.5
Status: 1
Earth: 2 (Stamina 2, Willpower 2)
Water: 3 (Perception 3, Strength 3)
Fire: 2 (Agility 2, Intelligence 2)
Air: 3 (Awareness 3, Reflexes 3)
Void: 2
Skills
Calligraphy (Cipher) 2
Courtier (Manipulation) 2
Etiquette (Sincerity) 3
Meditation 1
Spellcraft (Spell Research)2
Stealth (Spellcasting) 2
Theology 1
Acting (Disguise) 3
Storytelling (Oratory) 2
Spears 2
Lore: Scorpion Clan 2
Spells
Common:
Sense
Commune
Summon
Counterspell
Air:
Secrets on the Wind (Innate Ability)
Yari of Air
Way of Deception
Wind Borne Slumbers
Water:
Reflections of Pan Ku
Path to Inner Peace
Earth:
Earth's Touch
Advantages
Dangerous Beauty (1 point) Soshi Kyoko was a beauty that few could resist, and Sachiko has inherited
her mother's looks even moreso than her sisters. (+2k0 deceit vs. opposite sex)
Voice (3 points): Sachiko's natural skills tend towards speaking, and her voice has been known to
soothe, excite, or dismay those who listen to her stories in equal measure, just as it can deceive those who listen too unwarily. (Free Raise on any roll
involving speaking abilities)
Quick (2 points): Spritely and mischievous, Sachiko's always seemed to be two steps ahead of
anyone chasing the young girl around her family's estate. (+1k0 initiative)
Precise Memory (3 points): Knowledge is worthless if it is not retained, and Sachiko has trained her
own mind for some time to recall even the slightest details of what she has learned.
Higher Purpose (2 points): Sachiko believes some profound revelation lies in the truth behind the
story of Bayushi and Shosuro, as well as why Shosuro vanished after founding her own family of the Soshi. This cause gives Sachiko purpose to shape her
talents.
Blessing of the Elements (4 points): Possessed of the appreciation for subtlety and misdirection,
Sachiko finds the kami of Air more welcoming than any other. (Expend one Void Point as Simple Action for +5 TN to be hit for one minute)
Benten's Blessing (3 points): Sachiko's dedication to the concept of romantic love has gained
the attention of its Fortune, who blessed her with considerable charm and beauty (+1k0 persuasion, +2k0 if person is attracted to her)
Allies (4 points): Sachiko's sister Ryoko married into the Asahina clan of the Crane, but the
sisters were and still are very close. While her husband's family's beliefs prevent her from acting openly, Ryoko would assist her sister secretly as
best she could with the resources she can wield within her husband's lands. (Influence: 2, Devotion: 2)
Disadvantages (10)
Evil Eye: (1 point) Sachiko's eyes are confusing among the superstitions of the Scorpion. Though
her left eye is the green of a woman in whom deceit has no place, her bright blue right eye is a stark contrast. As such, most Scorpion find it difficult to
trust her if they are aware of it.
Fascination: (1 point) Sachiko has always been a bright child, with a thirst for knowledge of the true
history of the Scorpion clan... which has gotten her in trouble with Scorpion outside her family. After all, sometimes the truth is better left buried, or so
other Scorpion would say.
Idealistic: (2 points) Sachiko's views of the Scorpion's duty are unusual, but she holds them
as more than mere guidelines. She is sorely disappointed by the more cynical of her clan (though as a proper Scorpion, she'd never say so out
loud), and finds others who struggle with their clan's social practices and their own views to be kindred spirits, whom she can't help liking at
least a little. (-1 extra rank for every rank of honor lost, but +1 honor gained for every 5 ranks gained)
Dark Secret (5 points) While Sachiko's parentage is unassailable at present, someone with the
right mind for Scorpion intrigue could probably turn the truth of the story to her family's disadvantage. (Obligation Disadvantage to anyone who learns her
secret)
Elemental Imbalance (1 point) While Sachiko's skill with Air and Water is as powerful as expected
of a shugenja of the Soshi, her ties to the Earth are a bit... quirky. She must focus especially much to prevent the spell from causing unexpected... side effects.
(Roll vs. Willpower vs. TN of 15 to succeed in casting any Earth element spell. If failed, spell misfires in way dictated by GM)
Heritage
Artist's Touch: +1 rank to Acting and Storytelling
Soshi Shugenja School
Soshi's Whisper: Gain a free Raise when casting Secrets On The Wind, Reflective Pool, and Essence
of Air, as well as a free Raise on Stealth roll when attempting to cast a spell unnoticed. Secrets on the Wind as an innate ability.
Equipment
Wakizashi
Tanto
Kimono
Sandals
Scroll Satchel
Traveling pack
7 koku
Appearance:
Sachiko is a somewhat tall (5'7") but slight (120ish pounds, but she'd never admit specifics) woman of striking appearance. Her shugenja kimono is
cut tastefully but in such a way as to flatter her appearance, bearing the mon of the Soshi family and decorated in the black and crimson of her clan. Long
black hair flows over her shoulders in an elaborate braid while her face is concealed behind an intricately worked mask in the shape of the Scorpion mon. But
true to form, the mask is more than first glance would reveal it to be. With the tail draped over her head to hold her hair, the scorpion's legs frame her
mismatched green and blue eyes, and the pincers coming together to form a permanent cheshire grin, the entire seemingly obvious representation of a Scorpion
also forms the grinning face of an oni worthy of a kabuki actor. Between this impressive mask and her own natural gifts, Sachiko is memorable to anyone who
sees her.
"But little frog," said the Scorpion "I can swim."
However, in Sachiko's satchel is another change of clothes, waiting for the time when her masters
observing her declare her ready. They are plain black robes and a wide brimmed straw hat, a Scorpion mon, and a simple mask of black and red. These are the
garments of a wandering shugenja of the Scorpion clan who claims no family and no home, but whom all the Soshi lands know of, tasked by his lord to walk their
lands and assist the common people. This is, of course, the truth....from a certain point of view. In truth, there have been many such shugenja, both calming
the populace and patrolling for potential rebellion or unrest. They are the feelers of the Soshi's information network, for many a peasant or samurai will
confess to a shugenja what he would never admit to another of his own profession, and the legends springing up about the Wandering Shugenja portray him as the
peak of trustworthiness from his many deeds of un-Scorpion-like charity and generosity. Sachiko is but the latest tasked with this, and while her gender is
wrong for the legends, once her skills with deception and disguise are suitably prepared, she knows that the masters of the Dojo of the Unseen Eye will call
upon her to take up the mantle like so many others.
Personality:
Sachiko is, in many ways, both an archetypical and atypical Scorpion. Deception was her breastmilk and
influence her daily bread. Yet compared to some divisions of the Scorpion who emphasize cold logic over other, more emotional fields, Sachiko does not believe
that all actions driven by emotion are inherently weak compared to the Scorpion. The stories she heard from her mother growing up have influenced the path of
her education, and Sachiko learned very early that understanding how best to use an opponent's emotions begins from knowing what it is like to experience
them. Similarly, she retains her clan's obsession with loyalty and duty, but her definitions of what "fulfilling one's duty" entails might be
a bit more dynamic than some Scorpion elders would prefer... ..if they ever found out, that is. The first lesson that Sachiko learned from her mother is that to
deceive one's enemies, one must be able to deceive one's allies as well, and Sachiko has remained seen as the ideal Scorpion operative in any
environment, despite her unusual views.
In person, Sachiko lives up both to her birth name (meanng "happy child") and her
father's nickname for her (the scorpion's smile), being a pleasant, friendly, and overall enthusiastic young woman. Her voice tells that if her mask
weren't smiling, she would be anyway, and her quick wit and jokes lack the typical venom of the usual Scorpion proverbs, and she's even a bit of a
romantic, in keeping with her branch of the Soshi family's views on their clan's immortal founder. All in all, she's the epitome of the Scorpion
when throwing a party, just all the time, making her fairly friendly and amiable to be about... if you trust her. But one can't help but notice a glint of
sincerity in her bearing that most Scorpion lack. As if for all her clever words, she lets the truth out more often.
Sachiko makes no secret that she is of the Scorpion clan, with all that entails, and is often fond of
noting the various ways she could be deceiving those she's speaking to. In a way, she is honest about her dishonesty, mostly because few actually expect a
Scorpion to come out and say they're tricking you... .but are they really?
Background:
Sachiko traces a lot of her quirks back to her parents, who were hardly regular Scorpions themselves.
Her mother, Kyoko, was a high ranking member of the Soshi, but her love, Hanzo, was of no noble blood at all, leaving the two without any true way to be
together without a tragic end. However, Kyoko was a cunning Scorpion and had studied her father's teachings well. Even at as young an age as she was, she
had rolled up a considerable number of favors and blackmail of her own, and she put them to use, creating a false history for her beloved as a member of the
Shosuro family, inwardly chuckling at the grand joke of claiming Hanzo's nobility in a family founded by the same source as was rumored to be the founder
of their own. The deception worked, and Hanzo and Kyoko were wed with great celebration.
Years later, Kyoko suggested to her father that their first daughter be married off to cement an
alliance with a branch of the Asahina Crane, and the elder Scorpion agreed, seeing the benefit in such a proposal, and the Asahina representatives were
suitably swayed by the obvious love and care seen between Hanza and Kyoko to agree to the idea, feeling that perhaps these Scorpion were different. It was only
once the engagement was announced and celebrated that Kyoko revealed to her father the deception of her own marriage. Trapped between the public declaration of
his granddaughter's engagement and the sizable dishonor and insult that would result if such a thing were to become public, Kyoko's father acknowledged
her skillful maneuver and agreed that the couple would not be touched, not a day before a courtier from the Shosuro family attempted to use the information to
his advantage.
To this day, the Soshi have benefited from the shugenja knowledge shared between themselves and the
Asahina, allowing the pacifistic Asahina to believe they are preventing conflict with the Soshi by nonviolent means while gaining the secrets to press their
mastery of Air and Water even further among the Soshi's prized shugenja. Though she wears the white and powder blue of a Crane, Ryoko herself retained much
fame among her family in the Scorpion for her mastery of illusions learned from her husband's family.
Sachiko grew up with this story as one of the lessons about her clan: what one may see as weakness can
be turned to strength, for nothing is as it seems. If it were not for her mother deciding to marry her father, would she have honed her skills at deception so
well? And love is not a weakness, but a double-edged sword: only by being able to trust her husband to play his part for years allowed the gambit to pay off.
But it did, and reaped unexpected benefits for the Scorpion clan that could not have been obtained through other means.
As she grew older, Sachiko took this lesson to heart, and found it reinforced in the history of her clan which she studied so dutifully. Bayushi and Shosuro
were very much in love, and Sachiko saw it as a demonstration of love as well as duty that drove Shosuro to join the Thunders....and to swear that she would
return alive. The supposed death of Shosuro, and the legends in her family that the legendary Soshi was the woman herself, as well as Bayushi's
disappearance after Soshi vanished convinced the somewhat idealistic Sachiko that the two were, somehow, together, and that something important was contained
in the mysteries surrounding the tale.
This quest and her duties afterwards as a wandering shugenja shaped Sachiko's opinions of the duties of the Scorpion Clan. While they were certainly to
protect the Empire, it did no good if they were hated for no reason. The Scorpion parables were to demonstrate the folly of the other clans, not only so the
Scorpion would inevitably win, but so that their brother clans would learn from their mistakes, making the Empire as a whole a greater thing. The path of the
Scorpion was not to elevate themselves as first above all others, but to elevate the whole by forcing the other clans out of their complacency in their
methods. The irony of this opinion being held by a member of a clan rigidly defined by what best benefits itself was not lost on Sachiko, and so while she
dutifully fulfilled her lessons and became the shugenja that she was expected to be, she looked forward to using her travels to uplift those she comes into
contact with, that the Empire as a whole may slowly prosper.
And so Sachiko wanders, helping others in the name of the Scorpion while seeking knowledge of the tale of the lovers who founded her clan, certain that this
knowledge will help the Empire she is sworn to serve to prosper. But some secrets were kept secret for a reason...
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."