Sigilistic: Here's his backstory

2004-04-02T06:15:15Z

Here's his backstory

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Born a serf in the lands of one of many unscrupulous Calinti nobles,
it was no surprise when the young boy's parents were taken from him
at a tender age, his father in the one of the region's many wars,
his mother from disease. It was no surprise he was taken into
slavery. No surprise that he was to be sold to the Fair Folk in
exchange for gossamer.

It wasn't even a surprise when the slave caravan was ambushed by
bandits and most of it's people put to the sword. The surprise came
when a mysterious traveler, a hermit from a nearby village, appeared
and slaughtered the bandits single-handedly. Too late to save most,
he realized that the only survivor of the raid had been the young
boy. The hermit turned to leave, only to find the young boy facing
him. He turned to go another way, but the tenacious boy moved
again, mutely blocking his path. 3 times the boy sought to follow
after him. An auspicious number. Reluctantly, the hermit made a
choice, and then spoke, offering the boy one as well.

"You may come with me, if you will, to the nearby village. I shall
give you a bag of silver to help you make your way in this dark
world. It is more of a chance than most ever get." The boy
wordlessly pondered the offer. "Or you may come with me to my home,
secluded from the rest of this tumultuous world, and seek to learn
what I would teach you, to better yourself in all ways."

At last the boy spoke. "You have saved me. It is fate that I
follow you, and destiny that I learn your craft." The master had
taken an apprentice.

His name was Master Kensu, a retired Lookshy ranger who had secluded
himself in his rural Hundred Kingdoms home in order to atone for the
bloodshed he had wrought in the service and seek some form of
enlightenment. He found it through cooking. As the young boy, whom
Kensu called Threefold Auspicious Blessing, or Thrice for short,
grew up, Kensu taught him what he knew.

The boy would meditate while balancing on a narrow rock beneath a
waterfall, that he might learn the patience and endurance that a
great chef requires to properly prepare his meals. He would take
the boy out to gaze at the stars, that he might learn the insight
needed to create new recipes. He would train the boy to exercise
his body with a rigorous calisthenics program, that he might prove
fit enough to sample his fare without falling victim to it.

As Thrice grew, he realized that the one thing his master neglected
to teach him was how to wield a sword. As they ate dinner one
night, he asked his master why this was so. What had he done before
secluding himself. Kensu swiftly changed the subject and the boy
found next morning's exercises tiring indeed. Three times the boy,
now in the tenuous state between youth and manhood, asked. Three
times Kensu remained taciturn. Finally, the master relented to
speak.

"Young Thrice, you say I have not taught you to wield a sword, and
yet in everything I've taught you the lesson has been there. Did I
not instill manual dexterity in your hands and arms as I showed you
to slice carrots? Did I not teach you to be aware of surroundings
at all times, lest the soup boil over, the roast burn, or the cake
crumple? The art of the cook and the art of the swordsman are
really one and the same. Mastery of one is impossible without the
other. From this day forth, I shall rename you, for you have
attained a new level of understanding and thus, enlightenment. I
shall call you Steel Chef, for you now understand that mastery of
the fundamental principles of cooking grant mastery of all aspects
of life. When one truly understands how to cook, he also
understands how to fight, how to love, and how to truly live. Now,
let us test your skills..."

Eventually the day came that young Steel Chef became a man, and his
master became old. One day, as he returned home from the nearby
village, Steel Chef was horrified to find his master in bed, drawing
his last breaths. When he implored his master not to leave him,
claiming he had not yet learned all he needed from him, his master
replied:

"You shall spend the rest of your life seeking mastery of the art of
the cook. Such is the way of things. Your path must be traveled
alone, and although friends may join you along the way, the journey
is ultimately yours, and yours alone, to make.

I request but one thing of you my student, my son...

The way of the chef is the way of life, not death. Cooking brings
life and happiness to the people, not misery and pain. Promise me
that, with the skills I've bequeathed to you, that you will never
use them for your own purposes, or those of wicked men. Promise me
you will use your gift to help, never to harm. Promise that you
will never use the techniques I have taught you to bring death. My
hands are bloody, and a lifetime of atonement cannot wash their
stains away. I would that you remain forever ignorant of the agony
of such a fate."

Steel Chef promised, and then wept as his master left him.

Rechristening himself Kensu Steel Chef Knight, in honor of his
master and reflecting his status as a Master of the art, he departed
from the timeless hut in the wildnerness and once more entered the
world of man.

It was in the city of Nexus that he first arrived, where his fate
lay. Among the first thing he did there was reform a small gang of
street thieves who thought him an easy mark. Making quick work of
them with his non-lethal swordsmanship, they quickly agreed to earn
an honest living, helping him find his way around the city and doing
errands for him. Retainer in tow, he was determined to perfect his
art by traveling Creation, challenging other chefs to cook-off
duels. He swiftly went about challenging the personal chef of a
very well-to-do local merchant prince in Nexus, and after insulting
him enough ("I intend to prove to your master that you are an idiot
and your food worthless trash by providing him with a real meal!"),
the challenge was accepted. His opponent was an unscrupulous weasel
of a man named Ebon Blossom. As an incentive, Steel Chef wagered
his master's ancestral blades, masterful works of art, against
Blossom's cutlery, a collection of perfect fae-glass cooking
implements worth a king's ransom. Blossom, bolstered by his ego,
foolishly agreed.

When the merchant prince, a wealthy, not all that bad of a guy named
Tiberius, sampled Steel Chef's fare, the contest was immediately
won. As Blossom stood there, humiliated, Tiberius offered Steel
Chef more than three times Blossom's own salary to work for him.
Steel Chef declined...
"I have not yet finished my journey noble merchant. Until I have
achieved the mastery I desire, the life of palace chef is unsuitable
for me." When the merchant offered to pay him for the exsquisite
meal, Steel Chef countered, "If you truly wish to repay me for the
meal I have given you, then return the gift, a thousandfold, to the
people of your city. Outside your very gates, people starve, your
grace." Chastised and intrigued by this mysterious guest, Tiberius
quickly agreed. As he claimed his prize of Blossom's legendary
cutlery, little did Steel Chef know, Blossom was hatching a plan of
revenge.

Walking home, late that night, Steel Chef's keen senses quickly
detected the assassins who materialized in the darkness all around
him. Nearly a dozen or so. As he braced himself for combat and
advised them to leave, one of the assassin's came forward, claiming
he had a message from his employer, Blossom. "Stay out of Nexus."
And then the assassin cast a vial of hyper-corrosive acid into Steel
Chef's face. His handsome complexion marred from the tip of his
chin to the bridge of his nose, as if he had suffered third degree
burns, something in Steel Chef snapped. As he Exalted, he soundly
trounced the assassins, sending them back (all alive) to Blossom
with a message of his own: "Assassins are the way of cowards. I
await your personal challenge with relish."

Since that day, Steel Chef has transcended mastery of both cooking
and fencing, blending the two together in a style distinctively his
own. He still seeks to travel Creation, seeking enlightenment
through tests of his culinary, and melee, prowess. Along the way,
he does what he can, where he can, to improve the lot of the common
man. He never charges for his meals when serving the poor, and in
fact one day wishes to restore the world to First Age culinary
standards, when all had enough to eat and the food was of masterful
quality.

Naturally, Steel Chef Knight has a nemesis. I thought this
character up yesterday morning when I supposed to be, you know,
working.

During the early part of his travels, Steel Chef learned of a
cooking contest in a Hundred Kingdoms city he was passing through,
rumor had it a formidable cook was in attendance. Naturally, Steel
couldn't resist the challenge. The cook turned out to be a man
wrapped entirely in black silk from head to toe and wearing a thick,
black, hooded, wool robe, calling himself Master Shen. He was a
formidable cook, and it was only by virtue of his Exalted prowess
that Steel Chef won. Afterwards, as he left, Master Shen attacked
him, assaulting him with deadly, familiar, martial prowess. Again
it was only by virtue of his Exaltation that Steel Chef bested his
opponent, driving him off.

3 more times, they've met, 3 seperate tournaments, and Steel Chef
has begun to suspect that Master Shen is an assassin dispatched by
Ebon Blossom. He couldn't be further from the truth.

Master Shen, in life Master Kensu Shen, is the nemissary ghost of
Steel Chef's master. Even as he taught his student to calm his
heart and maintain a temperate demeanor, the fires of inner turmoil
and angst raged within his heart, and when he died, it was little
surprise he awoke in the Underworld. Still, his pride, a trait his
student has also unfortunately inherited, meant that he refused to
see the obvious reason behind his inability to reincarnate.
Confused, he wandered the Underworld for a time, seeking to know
what it was that held him in that nether-existence. Then he
learned...

When Ebon Blossom commited suicide rather than face his master,
following the botched assassination attempt, he was surprised in
death to one day happen upon the student's master in idle
conversation in one of Sijan's many teahouses. As they spoke, Ebon
Blossom lamented that he should die in such shame due to a wretched
Anathema like Steel Chef.

Anathema. When Master Kensu heard those words, a strange, dreadful
purpose set over him. Although it pained him, clearly he had been
prevented from Lethe because he had raised and trained an Anathema,
a Forsaken no less! His pride let him believe that, over the
truth. Although Master Kensu, in life, had been a worldly,
understanding man, even he was victim to the Immaculate brain-
washing of Anathema horror stories. Clearly, he could not...WOULD
not rest until he put right what he had made wrong.

He began to train and, being a wise and skilful man, quickly master
the arts of possession, becoming a potent nemissary. Stealing into
Creation like a thief in the night, he reanimated his body, wrapping
it in black funeral silk and draping it with heavy robes to ward off
the stench of decay. Armed with his body once more, Master Kensu,
taking his given name as a pseudonym, wandered the East, seeking out
his Forsaken student, determined to fix the error he had made.

When Steel Chef learns the awful truth behind his nemesis, will he
be able to bring himself to defeat his old master? Will Kensu Shen
swallow his pride and allow himself to enter Lethe, putting the
demons of his bloody past to sleep? Or will they fight one another
again and again, until finally, in one climactic battle, one is
utterly destroyed, only to have the destroyer be caught in a
dangerous, self-perpetuating spiral of grief and regret?

----

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Sigilistic: Here's his backstory