Sons of Heaven - A Wuxia RP

The Glorious Empire of the Sun and Moon have had and era of peace for more than three hundred years ever since the demon Hei Xing, Slayer of a thousand men and Master of the Heaven-Destroying Golden Fist was sealed away into a tomb, deep in the mountains to the far south.

But now worrying rumors have reached the Capital, the tomb have been opened and Masters of different styles from all over the Empire have been killed. But the most worrisome of them all is that even the Grand Master who was sent to investigate the tomb of Hei Xing have been defeated, but before he died he sent out a telepathic distress call to gather the Sons of Heaven, reincarnations of the ancient heroes who once defeated the demon.

But will they succeed, or will Hei Xing and his armies of lesser demons and men become unstoppable?

This Wuxia style Rp takes place in the Empire of the Sun and Moon which controls an entire continent and is divided into a large number of provinces. Culturally and technology-wise the empire is reminiscent of 17th century China with many influences from nations like Japan and Korea.

The players themselves are the so called Sons of Heaven (even if they are women), heroes that sealed away Hei Xing a long time ago reincarnated and as such ought to be powerful warriors in of themselves and through training can accomplish awesome feats.

• Name:
• Age:
• Gender:
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• Abilities: (Flight, healing, stuff like that)
  • Style: (A name and description of how it works)
    • Special Techniques: (Famous moves your style have and that you know of)
• Gear:
  • Weapon of choice: (Optional)
• Background:

edited 10th Apr '14 2:17:43 PM by clawthewolf

Can one play as a Gaijin?

Sorry, no. The Empire and it's surrounding islands is the only land it's people know of.

Interest

• Name: Wuyuzui Zheng-long
• Age:23
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: Here he is.
• Personality: Hotheaded and impulsive, Zheng (as he prefers to be called) is prone to making important decisions based on instinct rather than on any kind of logic. He has a rigid honor system that he follows to letter, including such things as not intruding on another man's fight unless asked to, being polite to women, and never allowing oneself to show weakness.
• Abilities:
  • Zheng is attuned to two of the Five Elements, Water and Fire, allowing him to generate bursts of superheated steam to accompany his attacks and with effort to create explosions when he strikes an enemy
  • Knows enough Onmyodo to exorcise some lesser spirits and demons as well as creating Ofuda with specific purposes
  • Style: Dragon Style: Focusing mainly on short-range powerful attacks, Dragon style is fluid and has a focus on joint strikes to both cause major damage to the opponent and to inhibit future movements making the battle that much easier. The style has few kicks or jumps focusing mainly on using the hands and arms or a weapon to strike the opponent. The style's fluidity allows for a large amount of force to be built up over rather short distances. The style mainly defends using the forearms or by directly weathering a blow so iron body training is extensively practiced by wielders of this style.
    • Burning Plum Blossoms: This technique makes use of all three of his umbrellas to release innumerable embers in a cloud around him which obscures him from view with the released smoke and will distract enemies within the cloud
    • Tiger Leaps over the Mountain: One of the few leaping moves in Zheng's arsenal, this technique can be used to leap over walls and other obstacles easily to deliver a devastating and unexpected strike from above using a blast of steam from the soles of his feet
    • Courtier Taps his Fan: A quick sweep towards the throat releasing a pressurized stream of steam capable of cutting steel
    • Tsubame Gaeshi: A legendary sword technique that creates an inescapable trap from three lightning quick strikes, due to his inexperience with the technique and shorter weapons, Zheng can only manage two strikes which is escapable by a sufficiently experienced opponent
• Gear:
  • Carries some calligraphy equipment for creating Ofuda
  • The tengu geta he wears have small holes at the bottom of the tooth to allow for his techniques as well as steel reinforcements
  • Carries a small supply of bandages and other basic first aid
  • Weapon of Choice: Three specially reinforced umbrellas named for their colors Hong (Red), Bai (White), and Heise (Black).
• Background: Zheng was raised in a temple nearly from birth but was not identified as a Son of Heaven until may years had passed, therefore the styles he and his previous incarnation used are quite different, his previous incarnation being a user of Mantis Style rather than Dragon. He built his weapons himself and is immensely proud of them . He will defend himself from any insult, oft leading to rather idiotic decisions. He was away from the temple when Hei Xing attacked but his little sister was not. He has sworn a personal oath of vengeance agains the demon and will not stop until he has been defeated, and preferably killed.

edited 11th Apr '14 6:28:23 AM by Gladonost

Accepted

• Name: Shimabukuro Toshiko

• Age: 24

• Gender: Female

• Appearance: Wears a dark blue and black stripped uwagi with a simple grey belt and light grey zuban (pants).

• Personality: Toshiko is quiet and imaginative, not inclined to pick fights or be unnecessarily goaded to quibble but very quick to finish them. She generally keeps a detached view of problems, seeking pragmatic and logical solutions where possible though admittedly a touch blunt with others, sometimes seeming disrespectful. Toshiko seeks to achieve deeper understanding and skill through self-reflection and vigorous training but is somewhat dismissive of more Ki based arts.

• Abilities: Possesses no powers beyond what her life-long physical training has brought her. However this focus has given her greater fluidity, intensity and athletic prowess so as to make her a match for any warrior on the battlefield, some even saying she moves like a spirit of water itself.

o Style: Way of the Empty Hand: This style focuses on the use of ones own body, and that of their opponent, to achieve quick and efficient victory. The style favors direct, fluid movements in rapid succession - parrying and simultaneously striking opponents, continuously advancing and moving around or inside their defences. Kicks, gouging and all manner of… less honourable moves are accepted and often preferred by practitioners, pragmatism and economy of movement being essential.

Special Techniques

 Endless Waterfall: Toshiko begins with feigned or testing attacks, gradually and subtly advancing on the opponent as the power and intention of the strikes increase. Soon she places herself within or beside the guard, finishing with a lunging takedown.

 The Drawn Trap: The opponent is allowed to advance and strike, often baited by the dropping of guard, which Toshiko quickly side steps with a parry. The contacting arm then traps the offending limb, finishing by striking now exposes vulnerabilities and/or a foot sweep.

 Reaping the Field: This involves the use of a kuwa, a hoe-like weapon used by her people, against armed opponents too dangerous to be dealt with by fists alone. The weapon is used to thrust and slash at the enemy, aiming to twist and pull away at weapons and legs to disarm or disorientate the opponent before dealing more serious blows.

 Flight of the Swallow: This technique uses dynamic, flowing alternation of high and low attacks to destabilize an opponent before a final leaping strike. Toshiko assails vital points at the head and below belt level, pinning hands after attacking one level to gain better access to the other.

• Gear: A few basic supplies for travel, a small container of tea leaves, a plain ‘kuwa’.

o Weapon of choice: None; will resort to using her kuwa if the situation calls for it.

• Background: Shimabukuro Toshiko was born on a small island somewhat isolated from the remainder of The Empire of the Sun and Moon, its populace largely concentrated in a few fishing villages. However those on the island were also firm believers in the pursuit of a stronger mind through stronger body, one of the few to practice the ‘Way of the Empty Hand’. She was the only daughter of a fisherman and master of this style, her mother dying early in her life before she could bring any brothers. Toshiko’s father put it upon himself to teach his daughter his fighting wisdom and found she excelled at it beyond what he could have predicted. She soon found a passion for it, learning from what she had heard of other styles across the waters. The young woman only became aware of her status as a ‘Son of Heaven’ upon the Grand Master’s death message, leaving her village to find the Capital.

((Probably needs a little more proof-reading/refining))

edited 13th Apr '14 3:26:54 AM by Lt.BGob

• Name: Rao Jai, The Drill King
• Age: 25
• Gender: M
• Appearance: Rao Jai dresses in light, movement-freeing armor, with a red lacquered mask with the right eye covered. He is athletic, but not bulky; his hands, especially, are extremely delicate and smooth. He has dark skin and aristocratic features under his mask, marred by a disfiguring scar down his right eye. None of his armor has any defining color or theme to it, and each piece has a different insignia on it—trophies from conquest. His Awls sit in paired sheathes on his arms, legs, and hips.
• Personality: While Rao is seemingly very menacing, this is entirely due to extremely poor decision-making on his part. He's actually very passive and compliant, trying to do everything he can to make as many people as possible happy with him. In fact, his dream job is stay-at-home dad, protecting the house and getting to just raise a good family. Unfortunately, he ends up coming off as domineering and dramatic, primarily because he's been doing that for three years now. One thing he understands more than anything is that the biggest part of being a king is that you have to know when your people can take care of themselves—hence why he is a large advocate for a weapon and a trained combatant in every home. He has no qualms with leaving his people to go on this quest.
• Abilities:
  • Rao's training has given him the power to induce rotational momentum on an object with a touch. He can't seem to affect objects more than about 15 pounds, but below this weight he can either have objects circle his body in a sort of orbit, or cause an object to spin on an internal axis, turning it into a drill or saw.
  • Style: The Way of the Cyclone sees the power of a tornado, a cyclone, the power of spinning, and seeks to weaponize that. One of the most unique parts of this style is that its originator was not originally actually a warrior, but an engineer, who saw the amount of damage one could cause with the power of rotational momentum, and sought to master its secrets. This came to a final actualization into The Way of the Cyclone, which uses both mundane rotation-based attacks and actual supernatural induction of rotational momentum.
    • Journey Around The Sun!(你為什麼把這種)—Rao initiates a grapple with a charging opponent and uses himself as an axis to spin an opponent around, slingshotting them with their own momentum.
    • Forbidden Wagon Wheel!(小的孩子)—A reference to the wagon wheels that one emperor once banned, this technique is a vertical variation of Journey Around The Sun that is used to stop vertical attacks with a throw.
    • Whirlpool That Swallows All!(迪伊海)—Rao initiates a whirling punch whose damage comes not from the actual blow, but from the massive updraft such massive spin generates, like an enormous rotary fan, launching his enemies into the air.
    • The Perfect Spiral!(從鋼球運行實際被盜)—The ultimate spinning force, but one hard to create. Normally, it takes far too much force and precision to do a directly spiraling attack, as it requires constant maintenance of the angle of the rotation, and will eventually burn itself out due to imperfections of rotation, but this rotation is the mathematically-derived perfect spin. Using a special ratio found only by watching a spiral through Sacred Rectangles crafted at the Monastery of the Cyclone, Rao can pierce through next to anything with his awls from an infinitely-tightening rotation. This tires the hell out of him, however, and requires he be looking at his rectangle, and is therefore primarily just used for inaccurate displays of brute force—makes for a good siege breaker, though.
    • Steel Awl Run!(在馬同性戀者)—A technique invented by Rao to utilize his weapon of choice, the user places awls, wagon axles, or any other cylindrical object beneath their feet and induces a rotation into them, gaining massive mobility as long as the object they're riding can withstand the abuse.
• Gear: His armor and the tools to maintain it, food, water, a pair of Sacred Rectangles, and a first aid kit.
  • Weapon of choice: Awls of various sizes, which are really just sharpened spikes of metal, sometimes with grooves spiralling down their length. Not even a handle, as Rao prefers to use them like drills, inducing a spin in order to give his punches a lethal edge.
• Background: Rao's father was a warlord who dropped him off at a monastery, a real piece of work according to the monks. His father was none other than the King of Stabbing, a warlord who ruled a modest dozen or so acres of land and wanted a good successor. However, the warlord lacked a lot of foresight or prudence, and elected to just drop Rao off at the nearest monastery, the Monastery of the Cyclone. They taught Rao the virtues of precision and order, and otherwise made Rao into everything a Bandit King or whatever shouldn't be. When he finally inherited the throne from a letter sent to the monastery packaged with his father's old armor, he wasn't sure what to do. Thus began The Drill King's 3 years of reigning, dominated by the creation of a council of elected officials, relegation of most of his own power and responsibility to that council, and finally a massive sigh of relief as Rao could stop playing at being some sort of epic supervillain upon receiving a message from the Grand Master—anything to stop wearing capes and speaking menacing about TRADE AGREEMENTS and A MINIMUM WAGE.

edited 16th Apr '14 3:31:16 PM by Taco