Luden the Taiotoshi

PK Statistics

PK Gank-O-Meter

Immortal Comments

Role

Chapter 1

As usual, instructions were minimal. Go abroad, learn what you can, and
remember what you have been taught. I was bundled into a crate, put onto a wagon, thence
to a ship, having been told to make my escape after 12 days. Only the ascetic disciplines
of my ancestors kept me alive for those cruel days. When I did escape, I found myself on the docks
of Seantryn Modan with no way or knowledge of the means to return my former home. I would not put
it past my father to pay a ships captain to travel in a circle, and thus I have no knowledge of
that place lies. Nor do I need it. Within me is all of the first home I need, and it continues to advise me.

From Seantryn Modan, one of the busiest harbors in Thera, it was easy enough to find
work to support myself, just another slim teenager lugging barrels around the docks
of Seantryn and Hamsah.

I was shocked and appalled by what I saw. Evil, greed, corruption, and brutal gratuitous
violence flourished like maggots on a manure pile. It was a few years before my
conclusions became firm, but I realized that the darkness I was trained to identify and expunge
was tainting and infecting all of Thera. Everything must be purged in priority
of its offensiveness until only the Beautiful remains, wherever it lies. To sweep across
the land and rid it of it all its tainted darkness was my fondest wish, and such desires
were swiftly converted to action. After my nocturnal activities were noticed, I won a
place at the Assassins Guild, and a sponsorship to the Academy soon followed.


Never, in the training that followed, so different in tone from the happy and trusting days
of my youth, did I forget my new purpose. I had been trained from birth to identify
and root out the taint of darkness, and I resolved to sweep the world in a cleansing fire
until only the rightness of the Beautiful remained. In this crusade I respected the lessons
of guile bequeathed to me, for a lesser evil may be used to combat a greater one,
until it is time again to root out the lesser as the greatest remaining.

In time, I grew to conclude that the greatest of evils was human arrogance and recklessness
and its magnification by the dalliance into natural forces mortals call magic.
Keeping my convictions at heart, I passed my apprenticeship and began my wanderings.

Role

Chapter 2

Passion. It creates us, it guides us, it rules us.
It is teacher, it is master. It shelters us, and strengthens us.
It is wisdom, it is victory, it is humility, it is discipline.
Passion is life. We are our passions, for as long as we rise above
the dust we return to. And now, the end of my lifes journey, as I
think back to those halcyon days of youth spent in my fathers dojo,
where I found an introduction to my first and greatest love,
it is passion I remember. I find comfort and serenity that this first,
greatest cause, was never betrayed.

Every day, I was shaken roughly awake long before dawn. Immediately,
I set to practicing the basic ki-flow disciplines, graduating into
full solo martial practice. After dawn, I was responsible for the
care and maintenance of both the Dojo and the ancillary farm we used
to maintain our subsistence. In the late afternoon, regardless of
whatever emergency threatened our meager food supply, it was time
for Practice. I was trained, drilled, and instructed until the
small hours of the morning, at which time I had just time enough to
administer to my injuries, perhaps pen or study a few scrolls, and
catch an hour or two of sleep before the next day. I have never been
happier in my life.

There were few words exchanged, and those used were almost entirely
related to instruction. For the most part, I learned by observation,
and reaction to challenge. I was insulated from whatever community
was nearby, and I do not regret the loss of a normal life. In the Art
I found beauty, in my father I found instruction and gruff
encouragement, and my days were full of the energy of newness.

Of history little was said. I had access to the rare story passed on
my father, and had read a restricted selection, a few handfuls, of his
vast library of scrolls. I knew that I was of a ancient line
dedicated to secrets, and the expectations for my performance were
very high, and that if I survived I was one day expected to pass on
my wisdom to the next in my line. Of my mother, nothing was ever said.

I do not know, really, in my gleeful single minded focus, which
precise lack of explanation I resented the most. It is only with
perspective of additional years I realized my fathers desire was
to bequeath to the future the best of the past without being
trapped by its darknesses.

My father was a man given to action, not words. For a long time,
I believed he was not given to introspection either. Now, with the
advantage of years, I realize that behind his gruff authoritarianism
leavened with the occasional sly joke was a wellspring of deep insight
into not only himself but those around him. I do not think I will
ever know the extent of his vision, now, but in the void of facts
I can believe that his unusual wisdom extended to the place of
himself and others in the larger world, as well.

Edges

Timeline

Skill List

Skill List