Heir of the Mitsumine Clan - Interest and Signup Thread

So, my character absolutely has to have a connection to the heir in their backstory?

That seems extremely limiting. Not to mention, unrealistic.

edited 24th Aug '14 1:33:51 PM by Saturn

Nah the problem is that both Takeshi and Ainori wouldn't know exactly how much influence the branch family have gathered and that they may actively oppose them to stand on top. Takeshi for instance, believes that as long as they are slightly careful and present a strong front they can go to the capital once Ainori gets a little experience and be crowned, not suspecting that there are many plots to stop that from happening. Thus, that surprise could be kept to be revealed in game if most people just made characters directly in the household or around it, however, with so many players going for generals and other influential people within the head leadership of the clan itself, I have to state why that's not possible. It's not that I don't want anyone to have power aside from Ainori, it's just that Ainori doesn't wield as much power right now as people seem to think she does. The people starting up in her village and early allies will, if things go well, make up a new leadership for the Mitsumine. It doesn't mean they all have to be greenhorns and newbies from the remote village, it just means that if you are a general you may either end up opposing Ainori directly and stonewall her or solve all her problems instantly thereby invalidating the inheritance plot.

I do like older and wiser characters, indeed I'd wish some people stuck by them, you just can't be exercising official power that is clanwide as that's over the level we are starting. A village head or lord of a province of the Mitsumine is alright, as if is one part of the clan claiming for Ainori instead of a power the sweeps all of it.

Since the RP sort of orbits around the Heir, it is important to know how you will be linked to their cause.

edited 24th Aug '14 1:35:11 PM by daltar

In that case, could I rewrite my General into a ruler of one of the clan's provinces? Perhaps a retired General who has since been living out his days as a provincial ruler?

Is it impossible to consider them meeting when the RP begins?

I guess it comes down to what Gintarou could get out of allying himself with Ainori - namely, money to pay back his debtors and buy back his daughter's soul, right?

Exactly, and I'm perfectly okay with that. But I don't know if I'm okay with the heir already being in his backstory.

I think it's more along the lines of what brought him to Ainori in the first place. She's an out-of-favor heir in a backwater village, and if Gintarou's been around the Mitsumine lands, he knows that the branch family is the real power in the holdings. He might want to play the long game and get in on the ground floor so Ainori will pay him when she takes power?

Sure kkhohoho! That would work swimmingly. You can make up your own little province and say mostly how it is. The biggest ones have already been accounted for, so you can make a middle to small province which he oversees.

@Saturn: Seeing how Ainori will be spending a lot of her time working on recovering her clan so a chance meeting, while no impossible, may be hard. Just want to know how he will come to her service, what his plans are to meet her and such. Even just saying... say... he plans to present himself as a merchant to Ainori in hopes to support the new regime and gets wealthy of the gamble that she will be successful works.

@Keeper: Your character is approved.

Edited.

@Daltar: Ghiren's been edited accordingly, with notes about the province added in. Hopefully, it all checks out.

Also Daltar, no offense, but given that there's quite a bit information that you've thrown at us that we probably should have known at the beginning of this, is there anything else about the RP and setting that we should know?

Hmmmm only thing left out may be that there are two major ninja clans in the lands. They don't actually hold any political power or are woefully recognized like the other clans, just hidden fortresses and enclaves all around. They are assassins and spies for hire, though usually, the royal clans have contact with only one of them.

The clan's true name are usually unknown, however they present themselves as the Black Spider and the Blood Lotus and rival clans usually hire their spies and intelligence officers from one or the other. So, for instance, the Wolves traditionally employ Blood Lotus, while the Tigers, Black Spiders. However, the ninja clan's true allegiance is to themselves and while trust with your employers is very important, they may take contract from people inside rival clans. These ninja clans train their members in a whole lot arts and traditions. Some are simple muscle and warriors, some clever spies and impersonators, some are sneaky assassins and yet others deal in the supernatural. Depending on the promise of their recruit and the needs of the clan they may introduced to greater secrets and arts of ninjutsu.

However, take into account that not all assassins in the lands are ninjas and despite these two being the biggest clans of them, there are many others hidden among the land.

edited 24th Aug '14 6:18:24 PM by daltar

Thanks. Also, if I may ask, 1)Is my revised Ghiren accepted or not, and 2)Can we use a second character, or are we stuck with just the one?

Ghiren is now accepted and yes, there is no upper limit in how many characters you may have :) Though it will be handled on a case on case basis.

edited 24th Aug '14 6:56:41 PM by daltar

Thanks. You can expect my nekomata Kunoichi up in just 20-30 minutes.

And here we are.

• Name: Mikoto Kurumaru
• Age: 23
• Gender: Female
• Race: Nekomata
• Appearance: Being a shape-changing youkai, she can change her appearance to any number of humanoid forms, but here's the ones she tends to use most often.This is her natural form. This is how she usually looks; a compromise between her natural form, and a more humanoid one. Aside from those, her 'casual' humanoid form tends to be a young, twenties-something woman dressed in a white kimono decorated with symbols resembling a cat's footprints; her hair is bushy and just barley avoid touching the ground, and her eyes are a bright, almost glowing yellow.
• Powers: Shapechanging: Being a nekomata, Mikoto can change shape between a cat and a human, and can stop at any point in between. She can also change into a variety of human forms, which makes her rather effective when it comes to disguises and espionage.
  • Kitty-Cat: She has all the abilities of a cat, multiplied to match that of a humanoid form. Agility, flexibility, speed, claws, enhanced senses, can land on her feet, greater instincts, etc.
  • Kunoichi: Being trained as a Kunoichi, Mikoto can utilize a variety of skills from her profession. She knows how to sneak, scale walls, use smoke-bombs, poisons, shurikens, daggers, lay traps, etc. She knows how to do it all.
• Personality: Mikoto is naturally incredibly energetic and active, enjoys sunbathing, long-naps, and running around in the nude, (whilst in her natural form, of course,) is somewhat impulsive and, if it weren't for her upbringing, would question just about everything under the sun. However, she was also raised as a Kunoichi, and so she obeys the clan without question. Despite this, Mikoto is rather wily, and has learned how to find loopholes when she can, such as abandoning the current rulers of the Capital to instead serve the heir, which technically still counts as serving the clan. She can also push her natural impulses aside and concentrate on a given task, but as soon as a mission's over, her true personality comes bursting out.
• Possessions: Aside from all of the gear that comes with being a Kunoichi, she carries with her a necklace with a small wooden block shaped like a cat attached to it; the only keepsake she still has from her real parents.
• Backstory: Mikoto was the daughter of a pair of nekomanta, living peacefully in the woods when her parents were shot down by a group of hunters from the Mikoto clan. The hunters had been chasing a rather vicious wolf, and once they'd slain it, they'd found that the wolf had led them to an area of the forest that most humans don't venture off to. They soon came across Mikoto's parents in their natural forms; thinking them to be dangerous beasts, they attacked with both their bows and the element of surprise. Some of the hunters were slain by the nekomata, but in the end, it was the nekomata who lost. As for Mikoto, she was still just a babe; the hunters couldn't bring themselves to harm an innocent child. Instead, they took her back with them to the Capital.
  • There, it was decided that a nekomata, with their shape-changing talents and cat-like abilities, could be most useful if raised properly. She was given to the Kurumaru family, a lowly noble household, until she was old enough, whereupon she was trained extensively as a Kunoichi. When she was 16, she was made a fully operational agent, and has served the clan ever since. However, she was trained not to serve just whoever happens to be ruling in the capital, but to instead serve the rightful ruler, whoever that would be. With that in mind, she's ventured off to find the hieress, to see how best she can serve her. On top of that, she doesn't really care much for the stuck-ups currently ruling the place. Ordinarily, she would have continued to serve them no matter how much she didn't want to, but with news of the heiress coming out of the woodworks, she finally has an excuse to get out of there.
  • Additionally, she was never told the truth of her origin; instead, they fed her a story about her parents abandoning her in the woods, and of the hunters just happening to come across her. She's too loyal to the clan to think otherwise, but if she were to learn the truth, she would have rather conflicting loyalties, to say the least...

In case you haven't guessed, I intend for Mikoto to learn the truth about her parent's deaths at some point. I'm just not exactly sure how to do it.

edited 26th Aug '14 9:34:21 PM by kkhohoho

Daltar,could you take a look at my character profile again, I've modified it recently.

• Name: Yasu(first name) Minami(surname)
• Gender: female
• Age: 22
• Species: human
• Appearance: Standing at 6'1 tall. Her tanned body is athletic but she has flat chest and small butt. Her long black hair was cut into a himecut due to the fact that it is easy to cut and maintained and can be easily modified. She wears any sorts of clothing, depends on the occasion.
• Personality: She's generally a very chilled, friendly person who loves the outdoors and family centred, mostly anything she does was for her own personal entertainment and/or for her family, and a bit selfish outside of family and official matters. Very disciplined during her training though, for she knew that there are things to learn to allow her to unlock her full potential.
• Skills and Abilities: She's still learning the art of ninjutsu, though there are a few disciplines she's notable in. From lowest to highest proficiency:
  • Throwing Weapons/Kusarigama: She prefers ranged combat rather than melee, so this two are her comfort zones.
  • Disguise and Impersonation: Due to her ambiguous voice, she has a much easier time pretending to be a male and female.
  • geography (Yeah, ninjutsu included the study of geography): This is more of her liking of hiking and camping in the beautiful landscape of the Mitsumine and her eagerness to learn it.
  • stealth/getaway: She likes it because of the adrenaline rush from both hiding and running away from the enemy
• Possessions of Note: A kusarigama and several shurikens, as well as possessing several outfits for her disguise.
• Backstory:
  • Yasu was born in a ninja family, working for The Blood Lotus clan closely for generations. Yasu started learning the art of ninjutsu at an age of 12 by her retired parents, as per traditions. Her parents were very strict with Yasu during training, always nitpicking at every move. Outside of training, however, they are a really nice, caring parents, even if they have some rough times. Her father frequently took her out on hiking/camping expeditions and her mother taught her how to be a good wife, like cooking. Even though Yasu prefers the outdoorsmanship of her father than the feminine activities, she appreciated both of them equally and, as a result, have a strong sense of family duties, though not necessarily for her province or even her clan. She have not done any real ninja mission yet but she's eager to do it after her ninja training is over, though her availability are ultimately to be determined by the heir.

edited 24th Aug '14 9:25:24 PM by sgtpendulum

Still open space or looking for any roles in particular?

Never seen anything about the Sign-ups being closed

Signups should still be open, yeah, but that's not for us to say.

The only question is: what's the ETA for the first post?

Basette: Approved.

Saturn: Approved.

Sgt Pendulum: Minami is approved and we'll handwave that either Takeshi or goodisgood's character hired her from the Blood Lotus as a bodyguard and spy depending on whenever goodisgood reworks their character a bit.

kkhohoho: Mikoto is approved, we really may need that retired spymaster to have him handle all our ninjas!

First post is either today or tomorrow.

edited 26th Aug '14 1:59:42 PM by daltar

Thanks. Also, are you going to put up a list in the first post of this thread listing all of the accepted characters and players? I think it'd be rather helpful in letting everyone keep track of just who else is in the game.

edited 26th Aug '14 3:48:08 PM by kkhohoho

Will do when I get first post up.

And we're up! Game has started.

• RP
• Discussion

Name: Yasuchika Saigyou /Tamamo-no-Mae

Age: 34

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Appearance: Yasuchika dresses in a fashion stereotypical of traveling Japanese Buddhist monks. Her outfit includes a black koromo robe with a plain purple kesa, straw sandals with white socks, and a straw takuhatsugasa (hat). While she keeps her black straight hair long, the thing is usually unkempt and oily to the touch. Despite the time she spends traveling out doors, her skin is pale to the point of looking sickly. Her lean diet shows in her physique and dark bags have formed under her eyes due to lack of sleep. Those spiritually inclined may see will-o-wisps about her.

Personality: As a monk, Yasuchika has learned to give up earthly desires and always remain level headed. While she can come off as stoic, she is none the less compassionate and caring. She is a pacifist and seeks to help anyone she can. While before she has been able to remain in control of spirits she has allowed into her body, the recent influx in number has proven too much for her and her mind is starting to unravel. This, along with her taken to drinking, may make her come off as erratic at times. The spirits possessing her body may make her give way to fits of random cries, laughter, or incoherent ramblings. These spirits have forgotten all they were in life, and carry with them only the sorrow and hate they felt in death.

• Tamamo-no-Mae: Tamamo-no-Mae is the only spirit possessing Yasuchika who has retained their identity and is beginning to rival Yasuchika for control. She is a malicious fox spirit and her time with Yasuchika has done little to change that. She is cruel, cunning, sadistic, and selfish.

Skills and Abilities: Yasuchika abilities tend to deal with things of a supernatural or spiritual nature, particularly with exorcisms. She does know some martial arts, but these are of a purely meditative nature and can be used only to help with evasion. Tamamo-no-Mae cannot use any of the abilities she had as a youkai since being sealed in Yasuchika.

• Exorcism: Yasuchika can manipulate the boundary between the physical and supernatural world in a number of ways. The most obvious is to exorcise a supernatural creature to outside the physical realm so they cannot interfere in the affairs of mortals. She can also do the opposite and anchor a spirit to the physical realm so they can not run away. She can create barriers which can protect against the supernatural, but this requires having a kami or other spiritual being serve to maintain that barrier or manipulating the natural ki of a land.
• Spirit Binding: Yasuchika can bind a creatures spirit to another object. This is usually used to bind a wayward spirit to either herself or a wooden effigy so they cannot hurt any one as she properly deals with them
• See the unseen: Yasuchika is spiritually inclined and can see and hear the supernatural world.
• Where three youkai gather...: While Tamamo-no-Mae may have lost her powers, she does still keep a ear in the youkai community via gossiping youkai. While most of this is simply tales of what sort of trick a youkai played on a human or what princess from the moon is a neet, one can still learn some interesting things. She once used these social networks to advertise a catch she had made.

Possessions of Note: A Shakujo, 108 prayer beads, "sacred" sake, a cleansing bell, and wooden effigies.

Bio: Yasuchika was an orphan left in the care of a temple. She had spent her early life within confines of the temple learning to achieve inner peace. When she reached of age, she became a traveling monk seeking to help those she came across, particularly wayward spirits. While many priest would be satisfied with merely exorcising or out right destroying these spirits, Yasuchika took a different approach. She would bind these spirits to her own body then make a pilgrimage to a sacred spring which would wash away worldly concerns. There she would meditate in its waters so the spirits may achieve nirvana through her, allowing the spirits of the dead to move on or malicious spirits to reform their ways.

Tamamo-no-Mae was a malicious fox spirit of some renown. She had an adept ability to spirit away persons considered a delicacy by other youkai, such as virgins, children, priests, and noblemen. She would then barter off these poor captured individuals to other youkai to be eaten. It was while she was masquerading as housemaid to a nobleman that her mark had accidentally seen her true nature. He sought out aid from all nearby priests and monks to destroy this wicked youkai. With so many against her, Tamamo-no-Mae found that escape was impossible. Knowing that the others would see her dead, she appeared before Yasuchika seeking asylum. The monk agreed and bound the evil spirit to her body. The other priests criticized Yasuchika for this decision, and the noblemen even almost had her executed for this, but Yasuchika maintains that this was the proper course of action. The others' fears may not be groundless however, as Tamamo-no-Mae has refused to be purified by Yasuchika time and time again. But little has come of this and she has remained with Yasuchika for years without incident, that is until the corruption of the sacred spring.

A woman, upon losing her family to disease, had made the pilgrimage to the sacred spring which washes away worldly concerns. But upon coming to the spring she had come to fear that the spring would wash away her memories of her family as well. Unable to live with the sorrow of her lost family, but unwilling to give up their memory, she choose drown her self in its waters. The waters became soaked with her misery, and the spring became a beacon for lost souls. When Yasuchika made her usual visit to the spring, she had found that several pitiful spirits had taken up residence there, soaking their sorrows in the water. Yasuchika would not be deterred, she began meditating in the spring, binding the many spirits gathered to her in hopes of helping them. But these many spirits proved too much and overwhelmed Yasuchika's mind. With the spring no longer able to help, it was all she can do to merely contain the spirits. Even with this, Yasuchika has continued on her usual journey, wandering the land to help those she can, even if unable to help herself. Upon Tamamo-no-Mae's suggestion, Yasuchika has taken to drinking sake to help calm the flurry of spirits currently residing in her body. As for Tamamo-no-Mae her self, she has found that she has been able to express more freedom with the dissolving of Yasuchika's will. It is through Tamamo-no-Mae's influence that they find themselves in the village of the heir. While Yasuchika seeks to help anyone regardless of status, Tamamo-no-Mae seems intent on becoming the heir's personal bodyguard against the supernatural. Such a rare and noble blood line surely must be sought after by many hungry youkai, and Tamamo-no-Mae wants Yasuchika there to help.

(There we go, possessed drunken monk. Was half tempted to go with many personalities, but simply having Tamamo-no-Mae as a split personality is probably much. Let me know if there is anything I should change or clarify, and I will make a post in the rp if/after I get accepted)