Difference between revisions of "Issaru/10000 Shining Orchids"

Early Years

Ten-Thousand Shining Orchids was born in the Necropolis of Thorns. She lost both her mother and father early in childhood, making her and her brother "Blossoming Silent Sky" scavengers of the lowest order. They lived in alleys and slept on refuse, doing whatever they had to in order to survive. Thievery, murder, cannibalism, nothing was too base or forbidden in the struggle to survive. Three nights after Orchids eleventh birthday, she was awakened by the sound of something hard scraping against the stones of the alleyway. Instinct called to her and she rolled away silently, and looked up to see a half-rotten corpse walking toward her. She turned and ran, pausing only long enough to awaken Sky, only to fly headlong into another one of these creatures. She landed face down in the mud, and Sky instantly took to defending his little sister, stabbing the creature with his father's sword "Brilliant Echo" repeatedly and ineffectually. The creature swung out with lethal force at the under-nourished boy, only to be parried by the boy's instinctual skill with the sword. Orchid had risen to her feet by then, and spotted a rusty blade entrenched in the corpse her brother was fighting. She ran at the corpse full force, leapt and grabbed at the sword freeing it from its prison of dead flesh. The dead creature swung its rotting clawed hands at Orchid this time, striking her hard in the leg and leaving a nasty festering wound. Sky used the momentary distraction Orchid provided to swing with all his might, attempting to lop of the creatures' hands. By this time the other corpse had caught up with the duo. Orchid screamed in rage and pain, and swung at this new opponent with a fury surprising for her size and age. She cleaved the monster deeply across the midsection. She knew that blow would have easily felled a man, but was merely an inconvenience to this thing. It grabbed Orchid around the throat and tried to squeeze the life out of her. Sky saw his sister's struggles and charged the corpse, only to have it throw her semi-conscious body at him, knocking him down. The creature lunged at Sky again; Sky just rolled to the side and struck it, backing it away from Orchid. When she tried to rise to her feet, Orchid realized she was too hurt to move effectively. Her leg was mangled and running pus, and her throat was raw and swollen making it hard to breathe or swallow. As she sank into unconsciousness watching her brother fight an impossible battle, she saw a figure glide slowly over to her saying "You have passed my tests pup, both you and your brother. Will you serve?" Without another thought she agreed before giving in to peaceful blackness.

When she woke, she found herself in an elaborate, if a little morbid, bedroom. Inspecting herself she found her wounds bandaged and she was wearing...clean clothes. Clean clothes? With this revelation she bolted for the door in a panic. When she found it was locked, she sank to the floor in desperation. After collecting her thoughts, Orchid arose to inspect the room for something to get rid of her "door problem". She ransacked the room and found several thin hairpins, using them as makeshift lockpicks she went to work on the door frantically. There was a click, and Orchid thought "Freedom! Now, I have to find Sky". She left the room as stealthily as possible, but her escape was thwarted when she ran face first into the abdomen of a large, green man. She lashed out at him angrily, but he just laughed and caught her small fist. Orchid gave in to feelings of impotence and despair, and begged the man through streaking tears to just leave Sky alone and she would serve him. Again the man laughed saying "I will have you both, but do not fear I will do no harm to you". Still feeling helpless Orchid listened to the man, seeing no other option.

Three years passed, and Orchid learned that the man she served was "Ki-Kwan-Shen" a great first age Solar who was laid low by the Contagion. His charge to them was to "re-populate" Thorns (read: enslave travelers who wouldn't be missed from a rather wide patrol radius) with a contingent of other mortals. Sky took to this existence readily, while Orchid covertly resented the taking of her freedom. She took her resentment out on those who resisted during her "repopulation" missions. Sky adored Ki-Kwan-Shen and learned everything he could from the ghost, and Orchid in turn learned all she could from Sky. Ki-Kwan-Shen lavished Sky with gifts and prestige as one of his favored "hounds", turning Orchid even more violent and savage with envy. This set up a strong rivalry between Orchid and Sky which only a year later would turn ugly.

Exaltation

Sky was promoted to Retrieval Leader, which meant no more supervision by others. Orchid saw opportunity even as she chafed under the thought of being under her brother's total command. Months later on a long-range field mission Orchid spotted several riders, who looked like settlers. So, as they had done countless times before, they set an ambush for the hapless travelers. When the ambush was sprung the ambushers got a huge surprise. These settlers were in fact an exceptionally well-armed mercenary team sent to clear out bandits along that particular pass. Sky shouted a curse, and tried to order his command to retreat, but the mercenaries were too fast. In the time it took for the order to leave his lips half of Sky's men were cut down. Most of the rest scattered after seeing what fate had befallen their peers. Enraged, Sky charged his enemies and beheaded two of them in a flurry of swings as he rode past them. Orchid, not to be outdone, charged and stabbed two of the horses causing them to fall on their riders. One of the six mercenaries remaining fired an arrow at Orchid and hit the shoulder of her sword arm in such a way that it partially pinned the corresponding arm to her side. Sky pulled his prize throwing knives, gifts given to him and enchanted by his master, and threw them at the archer. The archer gurgled as the wounds leaked black oily smoke. The sight caused the remaining mercs to shout prayers to the Immaculate order for protection against demons, and they turned in defeat. Orchid looked at the horses left by the mercenaries beheaded by Sky and said "Now's our chance brother, we get to be free!" Sky responded, "NO!!! The Master has been good to us and you dishonor him. If we left what would we do? Nothing! We are human, we are flawed, but the master is perfect!" Orchid looked aghast at what her brother had said. With her voice nothing but a crying whisper she said, "Well brother, I go. May you know happiness." At this, Sky flew into a rage shouting, "My duty as a Retrieval Leader makes it clear that you must be destroyed in the name of the Mask of Winters!" Orchid knew then what was about to transpire. She lifted her sword into a defensive position as Sky charged. The cold morning mist parted as he swung with an almost supernatural force, and Orchid backed away, raising her blade just in time to save herself from being severed in half. Sky's attacks were relentless, and as he was a better swordsman Orchid had no time to put up an offence of her own. Thinking of a way to achieve victory she spotted a pick that was dropped by one of the mercs. Feinting and giving ground Orchid slowly worked her way over to the pick still partially covered in the foliage. Finally backing over it she stomped down on it causing the point to lodge itself firmly in his abdomen. The shock of suddenly being skewered by an unseen weapon caused Sky to drop Brilliant Echo, and fall on his backside. Beginning to glow with a radiance that rivaled the rising sun Orchid grabbed Brilliant Echo and swung, saying "I love you brother, forgive me… Please" and beheaded him neatly.

Orchid looked into the cold morning sky with golden light cascading around her, and she saw more mercenaries coming over the rise. This was a much bigger force, and seemed unimpressed by the previous groups rout. Orchid assessed the situation and decided to run into the forest to evade her pursuers until she saw him, a slender dark man surrounded by roiling flames. When she saw this new adversary, Orchids fear and logic were replaced with a unreasoning rage and hate. She turned to meet her newest opponent with hate blazing in her eyes; and a flare of light erupted from her sending the "normal" mercs scattering or cowering where they stood. The Dragon Blood stood his ground only saying "You pay for my admittance into the Realm, Anathema" and swung his large black sword at her head. Orchid backed away from the sword with an ease that shocked even her, not that her opponent was impressed or impeded in any way. He just smiled and swung again and again faster than the eye could hope to perceive, but to no avail as Brilliant Echo caught every blow even before Orchid knew she was being attacked. Frustrated, the Dragon Blood hurled his might into one attack whose force stripped the soil from the ground while surrounding his blade in primal fire. Orchid in turn thought "O.K. We both die this day." and struck out with Brilliant Echo whose edge had turned into liquid light with golden serpents erupting in countless numbers from the hilt. The Dragon Blooded looked in dismay as the previously non-existent "serpent" parried his blow as Orchids own struck true piercing the Exalts chest and exiting his back.

Devastated by the loss of her brother Sky, Orchid wandered creation doing odd-jobs or banditry when needed. She was no longer able to rest peacefully as she constantly had nightmares about her slaying Sky, her horrid life in Thorns, and her constant loneliness. She also learned that her former master knew of her escape, and was looking for her. Knowing that this would not be a pleasant meeting, Orchid left for Nexus. She hitched a ride from a small merchant ship, and headed out unsure of what would come next. Five days from Nexus, river pirates attacked her and the crew of the boat. Orchid fought bravely, but the pirates saw a losing battle and scuttled the merchant boat. Orchid was swept beneath the waves and upon awakening she found herself before a large building...Under the water? She noticed that this building had a bubble of air around it, so she walked to the edge, stuck her hand out, and felt water. Seeing no other recourse she walked into the building. The interior was unlike anything she had ever seen. It was a long tube with crystals of various sizes forming platforms that floated all over this large "room". She stayed here for three days learning its name "Hidden Winds of the Maker" from the air elemental servants of the building. She also learned that they and the building had been waiting for one like her for some time, as she was one of the Solar exalted. The Elementals explained the Usurpation, and the Deliberative. Finally she was shown the Hearthstone, a Windhands Gem, it resided in a niche in the very top of Hidden Winds of the Maker. Orchid was soon running out of rations, and she asked the Elementals if they knew of a way to the surface. The elementals laughed, and answered in unison "yes", but then asked Orchid why she would want to return. Her only response was to point at a small icon of the Unconquered Sun and say "Because I must". One of the Elementals smiled and walked forth to introduce himself. "I am Winds of Truth. I was put here to see that one of your kind was worthy to reclaim this place. You have passed the test my child". He presented her the hearthstone, and showed her the way to the surface.

Upon Reaching the surface Orchid was disoriented. She had no idea where she was, or how she could get to Nexus. Lacking any other choice she wandered for three days. On the beginning of the fourth she heard sounds of combat. Orchid ran to investigate, and found three travelers beset by the walking dead. With the shame of her past guiding her decision, she flew at the undead with unbridled fury. The battle was furious although lost in a blur of anger. Only one thing stood out in her mind as she engaged the demons of her past. Orchids "helpless travelers" were giving as good as they got, then one of the males started glowing. After the battle Orchid decided to follow these "helpless travelers". The glowing one was a middle aged man of Western decent of middling height with brown hair with a greying streak and very kind brown eyes named Gilean. The other male was a tall dark muscular lad looking no older than sixteen years old was called Lupin V (I didn't make the name blame the player). The woman, who was a very exotic, very voluptuous, very half dressed, Easterner even smaller than Orchid (at least vertically) was Seraph. She learned, after they decided that they could use her sword arm, that they were seeking a ruin that was reported to be in the area. Seeing an opportunity to relieve her self of her impoverished state, Orchid agreed to follow this strange grouping of Anathema...