Brightfires/IvoryCraneExp
Gracious Ivory Crane ("Just call me Crane. Everyone does.")
Caste: Eclipse
Game: Stalker's 'Orichalcum Legion'
Concept: Spirit Court Ambassador
Nature: Visionary
Anima: Feathers, Feathers, and More Feathers.
Picture: http:/IvoryCraneWeb.jpg
Str 2
Dex 3
Stm 2
Chr 5
Man 3
App 3
Per 3
Int 4
Wts 2
Ride 1
Bureaucracy 4 (Celestial Bureaucracy +3)
Linguistics 2 (Native: High Realm, Old Realm - High Heavenly, Riverspeak)
Socialize 5 (+3 "Fitting In")
Performance 5 (+2 Oratory)
Presence 5 (+2 Social Grace)
Lore 5 (+3 Spirits)
Occult 5 (+3 Spirits)
Awareness 5 (+3 Social Situations)
Dodge 3
Melee 3
Compassion 3
Conviction 2
Temperance 2
Valor 2
Flaw: Compassion
Break: Heart of Tears
Willpower 6
Essence 3
Backgrounds:
Artifact 3 (Dire Lance: 'Herron's Feather', Silken Armor, Hearthstone Amulet)
Influence 2 (Spirit Courts - Bureau of Seasons)
Backing 5 (Spirit Courts)
Salary 2
Familiar 2 (Small songbird- Orchid)
Mentor 3 (Shogun-Regent Ghataru of the Bureau of Seasons)
Manse 4 (Celestial: Seacalm Gemstone 4, Terr: Gem of Grace 3, Terr: Stone of Shelter 1)
Mertis & Flaws:
Past Lives 3
Throwback 3
These are linked in concept. His shard (White Crane on Still Water) has a Caregiver nature that borders on Martyrdom. It's pushy about past associations, and the Past Lives shard flashes are its way of going on about what *it* thinks he should be doing with their current incarnation. That agenda includes a few lovely things like finding the reincarnation of its First Age gal (She's a Terrestrial Dynast and a student at the Heptagram) and the new incarnations of its Circle, never trusting another so-called Sidereal "friend", and putting back together the agreements it was working on in the spirit courts at the time of its last rather melodramatic demise. Obviously, Crane and... well... Crane... don't always see eye-to-eye.
Charms:
Mastery of Small Manners
Welcome Guest Method
Graceful Courtier Attitude
Wise-Eyed Courtier Technique
Graceful Deflection Technique
Distracting Banter Method
Motive Discerning Technique
Masterful Dissimulation Method
Harmonious Presence Meditation
Listener-Swaying Argument
Spirit-Cutting Attack
Spirit-Detecting Glance
His Artifact:
Herron's Feather is an ornate and rather wicked-looking short qiang (horseman's spear) of pale wood and white jade. Obviously antique, and covered with a motif of feathers and long-necked birds it would be easy to assume that it had belonged to White Crane in the past. It didn't. Herron's Feather belonged to Matsujonoryu, and was passed down through her terrestrial family line (The patrician family that Ivory Crane was born into-) to the present day... Eventually White Crane may allow Ivory Crane to remember the broad-bladed spear's origin (It was his gift to Ryu when she and her brother agreed to become his yojimbo-), but it hasn't happened yet.
General Background:
Crane, Tanamuri Lir, is originally from the Blessed Isle... a little town called Skybound Water that
grew up around the ruins of a First Age temple complex. Renowned for the
medicinal properties of its hot springs, Skybound was exceptionally popular
with Dynastic idlers, and Crane's family (patricians themselves, though
associated loosely with the Sesus-) owned a hotel popular with the courtly set.
He grew up learning the social niceties and constant balancing act of survival
among the mannered when you're not really one of them. It's a game he's very
good at.
He left the Realm right after his Exaltation in an effort to avoid the Wyld
Hunt and to spare his family the trouble of being associated with "one of
those Anathema-people". It really wouldn't have been good for business.
Though the journey was very difficult (For some reason nothing seemed to go
quite right... His horse ran away, wagon wheels broke, he missed the first ship
he was supposed to sail aboard... It was a traveler's nightmare- Almost as if Fate was
trying to prevent him from leaving. ^_^), he did eventually manage to make his way to the
Threshold.
His spirit associations have all come along since his Exaltation, and he
doesn't quite understand them yet... Spirits just seem to like him. Some claim
that they remember him, and a few times he has met beings that he's seen in one
of those weird visions he has... They tell him that he used to be some kind of
ambassador to the spirit courts. He's not quite sure he believes that, and
being able to see disembodied Small Gods floating around has definitely taken
some getting used to. Having them come to him to help settle problems with
humans has been even stranger.
He met Ganelon in Gem, and remained with the Dawn caste swordsman after their mission there turned into a disaster... He's gotten good at talking his friend out of trouble. Except in Nexus. That situation proved to be a little more difficult than he'd expected.
Along the way, he's rediscovered a fair bit about his past, including the location of Kyoden Cloudfall, his First Age "country house", and the current where-abouts of Matsujonoryu's reincarnation. He hasn't quite figured out how to approach that topic yet... and for the moment he's mostly content just to get the occasional bit of gossip from Coils of Silk or the playful zephir named Indra regarding the young Dynast http:/DragonsDaughterWeb.jpg and her friends. He knows that eventually he's going to have to work up the nerve to approach her, but other issues just keep getting in the way.
After the battle with the deathlords and their army, the wind spirits recommended Crane to Shogun-Regent Ghataru of the Bureau of Seasons as a possible candidate for reclaiming that division of the Heavenly bureaucracy. Crane was surprised to find himself summoned to Yu Shan by a god he'd never met, but handled the situation well enough to impress the divinity. Much to the dismay of the Bronze Faction, he became Ghataru's apprentice soon after, and was given an official position in the bureaucracy. By virtue of that position, he was also given control of the Celestial manse Whirlwind's Eye... the traditional heavenly residence of the Solar members of the Bureau in the First Age.
Officially sanctioned and salaried resident of the City of Cities or not, Crane isn't entirely comfortable in Yu Shan... His distrust of Sidereals (of all Factions-) makes the prospect of crossing paths with them so often more than a little frightening, and the Bronze members of the Capitol Convention have made it abundantly clear that should he move against them, they have no qualms against using certain Heptagram students as leverage. Being a member of the Bureau of Nature offers some protection against outright assassination by the operatives of the Bureau of Destiny, but for the moment, he's still trying to keep a reasonably low profile in Heaven... if only for Kareyeru's sake.
General Description:
About 25 and on the short side of average, with fair hair and golden-hued hazel eyes.
Speaks with an obvious Realm accent.
Having Fun with Crane, Traditional Splatbook Style
Crane speaks for himself-
“Good afternoo- Oh… It’s you again.”
“I really don’t know what more I can do for you. The stone burrowers are most
unhappy about that new cellar, and are adamant in their opposition. You know
how stubborn the children of Earth can be when they’ve made up their minds...
No, I don’t think that offering them more wine-…”
[sighs] “Alright, alright… Come inside and we’ll discuss it over tea. There’s
no sense in arguing the point standing on the landing… You must forgive the
humble nature of these lodgings, I’m afraid. I travel so frequently that it
makes little sense to maintain a proper household.”
“Ah… Yes. The bird’s song is quite beautiful, isn’t it? It’s species? I’m not
entirely sure. I found Orchid in the midst of a flock of caged rice birds that
were destined for skewers in the market. How so colorful a creature was
mistaken for a common rice bird I’ll never know, but the seller seemed quite
amused when I insisted on having the entire lot live instead of roasted. I
opened the cage and I let them all go. But this one stayed. A curious thing…
but the world is full of curiosities these days.”
[laughs] “Mind the lance. A crude object to have in one's front room, I must
admit... Doesn’t it look ferocious? Oh, don’t worry. I don’t really know how to
use it… It’s just an antique. It belonged to an ancestor of mine who was a
member of the Legions, as I recall… Quite the family hero in her time, I’m told. I only keep
it to discourage certain of my less savory neighbors. This isn’t the finest of
neighborhoods, I'm sorry to say... Though it looks like it might have been very
grand once, long ago. It could be again with a little work.”
“Now… about those stone burrowers under your tavern-“
Song of a Perfect Orchid… youngest son of Fallahana, Goddess of the
Songbirds of the East and Chee-ree-kett, a black-throated crimson warbler…
discusses his companion Gracious Ivory Crane
“Curious about my young friend, are you? Well, that’s not surprising… Curiosity
is what you magpies are all about…”
“He’s a descent fellow for someone without feathers. ‘Not the most grounded or
realistic egg in the nest, and a little slow to take a hint sometimes, but-
[ruffles feathers]… You know how it is with this new generation of Sun
Followers. All sound and fury and idealism to go out and change the world… It’s
charming, really... Just as long as you don’t stand too close or end up in
their path.”
“He had some trouble accepting the Spirit business at first, but he’s learning.
That’s a good thing, if you ask me… The courts used to be a lot less messy from
what I’ve heard, and there’s going to be trouble soon if somebody doesn't step
up and start talking some sense back into them. I think Crane here, and the
other ones like him, may be just the people to do it. 'Maidens know somebody
needs to and it's not going to be those Dragon-Bloods.”
“I’ll be right there with him, of course... 'Nearly got myself cooked as an
afternoon snack trying to get this gig, so I'm not going anywhere... Because,
like I said, Crane’s not the most down-to-earth person I know. He’s an idealist
and he assumes that everyone else is too. There are too many beings in Creation
that'll take advantage of that, so the kid needs all the help he can get.”
Coils of Silk, a minor goddess of the Department of Serenity's Heavenly Division of Courtly Love
in charge of the Arrangement of Destined Reunions, has her say on Crane… both
Past and Present
“Crane has always been… How can I put this?... A difficult case. The other
shards’ reunions with their proper mates were reasonably simple to arrange. But
him? Ha!... Nothing about Crane is ever simple. Ever!… Do you have any *idea*
what we had to go through to make sure that the right soul was reincarnated at
the right time, in the right place, with the proper breeding and elemental
Exaltation? It's not as easy as simply shuffling shards when you're talking
Terrestrials, my dear... It took a nightmare of petitions and paperwork the
likes of which my department hasn’t seen in… oh… a thousand years. And what
does HE do? Does he take the hints we practically dropped on his pretty little
head like a summer rain? Oh no… Of course not. HE picks up his silly little
spear and his silly little bird and runs to the Threshold! Meanwhile the poor
girl has herself hidden away at that nasty Heptagram with those... people.”
[sighs]
“At least there seems to be something of the old one left in him, and *that
one* remembers what’s what... He always was a favorite with the Division, even
though he was murder on our workload... Very bright, that White Crane on Still
Water, and so sweet-natured... He would have appreciated the trials that we had
to go through and the strings that we had to pull to make this work… But the
younger one? Gracious Ivory? Don’t get me started… He has a lot to learn if he
wants to live up to the last Crane we knew.”
Crane Remembers… A Dream of Sky-Bound Water
Being a A First-Age Vignette to Introduce the Circumstances of White Crane’s Demise and His Supporting Cast
Ivory Crane speaks.
"I sometimes see things that I don’t understand. Great battles and the
courts of the gods. Cities razed to the ground only to be rebuilt in white
marble and magic… It’s all very strange. Most of these things I see only once.
But there’s one vision that stays, and I’ve had it many times. It’s a gentle
enough dream. There are no flames or scenes of war… but it's no less a
nightmare. Its cruelty just lies elsewhere.
"I'll try to explain… I know that I'm not making much sense.
"Though I grew up not a stone's throw from its walls, I never set foot
within the ruins of the temple at Skybound Water until after I became… what I
am now. I was never drawn to explore it as others had, and so it came as
something of a surprise when I felt a great urge to go there before I departed
from my home. Perhaps I shouldn't have listened to that instinct. I wonder now,
if I hadn’t… would I still know what happened there? Perhaps not.
"What I saw when I crossed into that place was not the old foundation and
silted pond that remains, but a vision of what Skybound had once been. The red
gate was whole. The temple stood proudly. The lake before it was still, and
clear, and many lotus flowers grew there... The temple lawn was green, and
there was a stone lantern, and an old willow tree. It was very beautiful.
"In the dream I walk through the gate, every time, and I stop at the tree.
I lean against it, and I watch a woman as she moves beside the water. Watching
her is like watching the sun rise. She wears the silks of a high-born of the
five dragon’s Chosen… though how I know that, I can't guess. Her braids are
midnight blue and fall to the hem of her robes, and her eyes are the color of
the summer sky. She smiles at me as she dances... with a zephyr coiled around her, laughing.
"On the grass nearby two others sit… a young man with the same blue eyes
as the dancer, so much alike that I know they must be brother and sister. He’s
laughing as he watches her, singing the song that she dances to. The other is
older… wilder somehow… with unkempt hair and a scarred face that makes him look
very fierce. But he smiles too, and when he does there’s great affection in it.
"As I wait, a third comes forward… bright-faced and little more than a
girl, with fine, unreadable eyes that shine with stars. She too smiles and
turns to watch the dance.
"I love these people who stand in the temple garden with me. They're the
center of the world, the sun and the moon, and I think to myself that I want to
be with them forever… To stand and to watch that dancer and her wind spirit
until Creation ends. But the third speaks to me and she says that the temple
keeper and some small god are waiting… and that she and I must go, and leave
the others here.
"And I always do. I always turn away from them and I always go with her…
and in that one act lies the great cruelty of the dream. I know that it will be
the last time that I see them... Because the bright faced girl and the old
priest betrayed the one that I was at Skybound Water on that day, and he never
returned to the temple garden to see the end of the dance.
"...And it's a fate that I can do nothing to alter.
"The earth spirit Shard of Onyx has told me that after the destruction of
the one that I was, the scarred man, whose name was Heart of the Moon,
destroyed the temple in his rage and so was cursed. I don’t know what became of
the dancer or her brother... or the bright-faced girl. The spirits have never
told me."
Player's Notes:
The observer, of course, was Lirion Kyra (White Crane)... The present Crane's last
incarnation.
The dancer was Matsujonoryu (Her name means "Dragon's Daughter" and
that's how I usually reference her). She's the one whose reincarnation is
currently resident at the Heptagram... Bronze-faction Central. She was (and
is-), a very talented spiritmaster. You’ll find her elsewhere on the wiki. Her name
is Tepet Kareyeru.
The wild n' scruffy one was a wolf Lunar named Heart of the Moon... He has the
distinction of being the last member standing of this little opera's cast.
Alas, he got his furry butt cursed for destroying that temple and its keeper
(An unlucky water aspect named Mirror of the Maidens, who happened to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time-). 'No clue what his latest incarnation is up to
these days, or if he wandered off into the Wyld, or what.
The brother was Kokaya (Falling Arrow). Just for fun, he may or may not also have a
reincarnation running around somewhere. Like his sister, he was Dragon-Blooded.
She was an Air aspect, he was Wood. They served as Crane's guard when he
traveled. As the name implies, Arrow was an archer. Dragon was a martial artist with a talent for spears.
The young girl was Kooroji-Neru (Iron Cricket). She's the advisor who turned what's left of
White Crane completely against the entire batch of Sidereals. She was a Chosen
of Serenity, if you can believe it. No clue what she's up to these days either,
but you can find her First Age write-up elsewhere on the wiki.
His actual Solar circle remains undefined. These people mentioned in the garden
dream were just his friends and traveling companions... though all of them were
very important to him for one reason or another. Dragon (who was White Crane's True Love) and Moon (who was his Lunar partner through many incarnations) in particular.
