Sigilistic/STKBackStory
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?
- Back to Sigilistic's page
