PrettyFateMachine/SorrowfulWind
Sorrowful Wind, Chosen of Endings
Sorrowful Wind was born and raised in the funeral city of Sijan, the son of a funerist. Since as long as he could remember, he was taught the importance of duty and responsibility for it was his lot in life to speed the journeys of the departed into the world beyond and to ensure their eternal peace. This was good, for it suited the quiet, contemplative boy immensely – the rituals of long dead cultures and the lessons of long dead men provided the opportunities to learn and reflect on the world around him.
It was in his 17th year that he was Chosen by Saturn. Night was falling in Sijan, and his father and uncles were out in the Plains of the Dead cutting back the weeds and brush that had slowly reclaimed the vast mausoleums that surrounded the city – but never returned.
Concerned, and bidden by an unknown need, Wind gathered his things and left to search. They were supposed to have worked the areas near the River of Tears today – that place where long forgotten monuments to ages past where claimed by the passage of time, the oldest having sunk into the soft ground and used as a foundation for newer tributes. Though a fair bit of that area was safe, forgotten ghosts still roamed some of the maze-like corridors of the older tombs, searching for someone to allay their pain with rituals long-passed remembering.
The boy was fearful, but on that day something burned in him that he could not explain; he pressed on regardless of his personal demons, determined to find those men in his family and to return them home safely. He ran, amidst the moonglow and werelights through the Plains and through the River, and yet he found no sign – finally, he stopped at the edge of the Black Chase, that forest and shadowland mother’s used to scare their children into silence. He had come as far as determination and good sense could take him, but as he heard the screams of the father issuing forth from its foreboding embrace, Sorrowful Wind went further still.
He’d found his uncles, beaten and bloodied, strewn across the clearing, in pain but thankfully still alive. In vain, he looked about for his father; it was only when he’d heard the man’s cries of warning that he found him – and came face to face with what did this. A vile shade, a mockery of the enlightened state of unlife he’d witnessed.
It spoke in riddles as it held his father, for it had been promised peace and service once by a man who promised his service in exchange for his life, but that promise was broken now; the man’s blood, his death, would have paid for his mistake and likely have been enough to barter the soul’s eternal rest but that man was long dead. Thus, it came that the sons of his sons would pay the price in his stead – and now, their sons as well.
Shaken, but seeing with a clarity that did not allow him to turn back, Wind volunteered to finish what had been promised. To provide an ending to its pain-filled twilight existence. There was no way the others could have escaped with the injuries they suffered – at least not in time for the shade to return – and so, the deal was struck, for the price of eternal peace outweighed even revenge, a truth only the dead are privy to. Content that the last scion bearing the blood of that first funerist had volunteered his death in exchange for the lives of his family, the spirit lead him back to wear the promise was first made, so that the blood pact could be renewed and completed.
But as it reached out its bony claws to do the deed, and as the boy welcomed this thing, this loss of life that he had so readily bartered away on the demand of some feeling he could not name, the forest was bathed in the light of Saturn as the Maiden of Endings bestowed her blessing on him. And thus did he fulfil his promise to the shade – to end its eternal suffering, but it was not bought with his death as the spirit had erroneously assumed, it was bought with his rebirth.
Other Developments
BURNING LOTUS
Sorrowful Wind enjoyed a certain pedigree, for he inherited his shard from a highly decorated demon-hunter who – unknown to him – was the master of his current Sifu. Assigning him to the tutelage of Soaring Sparrow was intended to help revive whatever latent talents and memories that might have remained with the shard, in the hopes of turning out a similarly dedicated and talented hunter for this troubled age.
The results appear to be effective at first glance: only eighteen years old when he is assigned to the special task force dealing with an overarching threat to Creation, he has accomplished many solo demon-hunting missions with exceptional results. Moreover, he recalls some of the skills and personal variant styles created by his previous incarnation, skills that even Soaring Sparrow might not be versed in. He is singular in his dedication to preserving Creation, and sometimes possesses startling maturity for his age, his experiences in the bureau and in missions notwithstanding.
At the same time, some unconscious memories of his past life flare up from time to time; visions of Malfeas he has no explanation for, unbidden headaches and other symptoms of his condition.
The Elders’ insistence in accelerating the aspects of training they believed to be most essential in bringing out the qualities that were desired for the narrow scope of demon-hunting has cost Wind greatly in the other areas of his development.
In those areas where the memories are applicable, Wind is exemplary; he is impeccably disciplined, and is possessed of a great deal of knowledge on the rights, wrongs and protocols of one serving in Yu-Shan. In missions, he exhibits a mastery of tactical gambits and killing techniques, and holds to a very rigid code of self-conduct, focussing only his personal goal of protecting Creation, regardless of the cost. Hence, his outstanding record of service in the Bureau.
In those areas that were not explicitly developed during his hundred and one days of training, he is more often than not, lacking – after all, he is still only a young man searching for himself. Where he once served in Sijan without having to question the wisdom of the dead, his elders, or his place in the grand scheme of things, he’s now forced into a world he isn’t completely prepared for.
THE CIRCLE
His first challenge was being paired with the Chosen of Secrets Saifa on what has turned out to be a much longer assignment than anticipated; the proverbial Yin to her Yang, they have had many colourful discussions on how to deal with situations. Nonetheless, Wind has grown to respect her despite their disagreements for she alone is the moral centre of the Circle, acting as their conscience and their Devil’s advocate in their schemes, something he would probably never admit to.
His other challenge came in the form of the Solars, the two were assigned to watch over. Though thoroughly suspicious of them at the start, he has found some qualities in them that even someone like him could identify with; Whimsical Lizard, the Twilight, and by his own admission someone with no less blood on his hands, has been his strange but colourful friend since the start of the journey. He is the Circle’s passion and boldness, strongly holding to his own code of behaviour and always advocating decisive action (that usually involves the jangling coat of swords he wears); more than that, perhaps, is his insistence on standing up for his friends in the Circle, regardless of who he has to face to do so.
In the Night Caste, Xiao-Lien, he has found a kindred spirit of sorts for she too is a killer like him, though he kills out of duty, and she out of…a love for it? Though unstable, the assassin in her recognises that their actions must be forced – or held back – out of necessity, making her the Circle’s cunning.
