Will/Tian
Name: Tianyu
Alias: Dragon
Caste: Night
Nature: Savant (Architect)
Attributes
Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4
Charisma 3, Manipulation 5, Appearance 3
Perception 5, Intelligence 5, Wits 5
Abilities
Caste Abilities: Athletics 5, Awareness 5, Dodge 5, Larceny 5, Stealth 5
Favored Abilities: Brawl 5, Bureaucracy 5, Investigation 5, Lore 5, Thrown 5
Other Abilities: Linguistics 3, Sail 1, Socialize 3
Specialties: Linguistics (Riverspeak; Forest-tongue, Flametongue, Guild Cant, High Realm, Low Realm, Old Realm)
Backgrounds
Artifact 5 - Justice, an orichalcum smashfist taken half-forged into battle against four behemoth generals in the First Age. It absorbed their Wyld-essences and transmuted them into gems, granting the smashfist incredible power. When the Dragon died, the gems scattered to the four directions. It still retains an echo of their might.
Backing (Guild) 2 - Tian is a newly appointed merchant within the Guild and has taken advantage of his status to start a massive caravan across the southern Inland Sea to further increase his standing.
Contacts 5 - Tian's agent network stretches far and wide across the Eastern and Southern Thresholds. Henpin, a Guild functionary in the South, is one of his known contacts.
Henchmen 2 - Jade and Lily, twin sisters and Tian's adopted siblings. Jade is a silent warrior while Lily is gentler and more accustomed to social situations. Tian usually sends them off as his representatives, so that he can be in multiple places at once.
Influence 3 - Tian has numerous contacts and agents within the East's power architecture, granting him quite a bit of influence in that direction. He is currently expanding his shadow operation to the South.
Resources 3 - While he has access to his Circle's incredible jade reserve for most things, he retains a fair amount of personal wealth hidden in numerous caches around the East and South.
Merits: Ambidextrous II, Innocuous, Tactical Instincts
Flaws: Throwback V
Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 5 (Using People +3), Temperance 3 (Resisting Anger +2), Valor 3
Willpower: 8
Essence: 3 (Personal 17, Peripheral 42, Committed 5)
Charms
Tian knows almost every Charm available to him from the Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Bureaucracy, Dodge, Investigation, Larceny, Stealth, and Thrown trees. He knows several of the knowledge-based Lore Charms and a few writing Linguistics Charms as well.
Combos
Tian has four Combos as his disposal. The Resplendent Berserker Stance augments his melee ability, increasing his strength and speed. The Hurricane Warrior Stance grants accuracy and swiftness to his ranged attacks. The Stalwart Centurion Stance is purely defensive, allowing him to ward off and defend against his foes. The Infinite Vengeance Stance is the most unusual of his techniques, as its focus is defense through offense, using multiple counterattacks. Each Combo corresponds to one of the four behemoths within his gauntlet's gems, and their image replaces his anima's when used.
Attacks
Justice (Smashfist, Orichalcum): Initiative +0 (+10), Attack +2 (12), Damage +5L (9L), Defense +4 (14), Rate 8
Throwing Knives: Initiative +3 (+13) Attack +0 (10), Damage +2L (6L), Range 15, Rate 3
Unarmed Strike (Fists and Feet): Initiative -2 (+8), Attack +1 (11), Damage +2B (6B), Defense +1 (11), Rate 4
Gear
Justice
Throwing Knives
Quality Breastplate
Smoked-Glass Spectacles
Dodge: 13
Soak: 6B/6L
Health Levels: -0x1, -1x2, -2x2, -4x1, I
Anima Powers:
Inherent Excellence - Noon at Midnight Display: Can spend two motes per instance of Essence expenditure to mute the resulting anima display.
Supreme Power - Unbroken Twig Step: Can spend five motes to increase the difficulty to perceive the user by half the Night's permanent Essence, rounded up.
Divine Privilege - Thrice-Bound Agents of the Gods Underground: No servant of Heaven may knowingly ask a Night Caste to reveal any information about themselves or their actions, unless they are the Night's immediate superior or the Night allows it.
Backstory
Tianyu was found on an island off the coast of Thorns by two married cultists. They believed that Creation and reality were evil, and attempted to pass on this belief to Tian and their two later acquisitions, Jade and Lily. The children were cloistered within their foster parents' home, never to see the sky or the real world. They only knew each other and the education their parents allowed them.
Their parents were executed for their heretical behavior. The children, now teenagers, were left locked within their house with only a small supply of food and water. This allowed them to survive for nearly three weeks. When it ran out, Tian was forced to search for an escape route and ended up digging through a wall and the soft soil behind it. He emerged into a nightmare.
He and his sisters were completely unprepared for the civilized world. Only through Tian's perserverence and hard work did they survive in the city. With an unheard-of eagerness to work and learn, the three siblings matured rapidly. Tian himself became a public figure, known for his wise counsel and knack for procuring what needed to be found, gaining him respect despite his youth. Eventually, his network of favors and assistance grew into a full-fledged cartel, as more and more of the downtrodden pledged their support to him.
This led him into conflict with the Salt and Stone Syndicate, the reigning criminal empire on the island. In a climactic battle, Tian personally killed the syndicate's leader, Papa Pearl.. and Exalted into the Night Caste. Despite his newfound divinity, the threat of the Wyld Hunt and the local unrest following the Syndicate's death forced him to relocate to a more hospitable environment. Within a year of his departure, the Mask of Winters took Thorns and the nearby island, plunging both into the shadows.
In Nexus, Tian re-established his organization, eschewing public notoriety in favor of secret influence and power. His cartel shifted its focus from drugs and goods to information, the most potent commodity in the East. Soon, he found himself in a position to expand outward. Taking only his sisters and a few resources, he journeyed to the South to bolster his fledgling network there and take steps towards his ultimate goal: control of the Guild. This led him to Solace and, ultimately, adventure.
