Epiphany
Proverbs 17:9
Name: Shosuro NikakoClan: Scorpion
School: Soshi ShugenjaInsight: 1 [143]Honor: 2.5Glory: 1.0Status: 1.0Experience: 40
Traits
Awareness 4
Reflexes 3
Willpower 2
Stamina 2
Intelligence 2
Agility 2
Perception 2
Strength 2
Void 2
Skills
*Calligraphy (Cipher) 1
*Courtier 3
*Etiquette 3
*Lore: Theology 1
*Spellcraft 2
*Stealth 2
*Sincerity 2 (Honesty for 2, Deceit for 2)
Artisan: Painting 1
Empathy 1
Games: Letters 1
Investigation 1
Lore: Bushido 1
Lore: History 1
Lore: Elements 1
Ninjutsu 1
Temptation 1
Intimidation 1
Tea Ceremony 1
Craft: Poison 1
Acting 1
Animal Handling 1
Advantages
Disadvantages
Bad Fortune (-4): Yogo Curse: You are cursed to betray the one you love the most, just as the first Yogo was cursed by Fu Leng himself.
Dependent (-2): Husband and two sons, all who depend on her and her matronage, even from far away.
True Love (-3): Whenever you are in a position where you must choose between love and duty, you must spend a Void Point before you can choose your duty over your lover.
Spells
[*]Earth
[*]Fire
[*]Water
Outfit:
Robes
Wakizashi
Knife
Scroll Satchel
Traveling Pack
--Pet (Pick one!)
--Mask (Describe it!)
--Spare kimono and sandals
--Tea set
--Jewelry (Pick some!)
--Personal seal
--Small hand mirror
--Makeup kit
--Fan
Blowgun
4 koku
4 bu
2 zeni
XP Expenditures
-9 Disadvantages
12 Reflexes 2->3
5 Courtier 1->3
5 Etiquette 1->3
2 Spellcraft 1->2
2 Sincerity 1->2
2 Stealth 1->2
13 Non-School Skills
8 Advantages
Casting Probabilities
The 20 Questions
What clan does your character belong to?
Scorpion.
How would others describe your character’s appearance?
A small, petite woman with thick, black hair swept back but allowed to fall loose in a midnight cascade down her back. Despite the mask worn across her eyes, Nikako's expression is polite, even friendly and her body language is typically welcoming and accommodating. She favors fashionable, tastefully modest clothes and moves swiftly in them with the confidence of a wife responsible for a household rather than the slower, encumbered motions of a maiden.
Is your character a bushi, shugenja, monk, or courtier?
Shugenja of the Soshi Shugenja School
What family does your character belong to?
Shosuro
What is your character’s main motivation?
To serve the Empire by doing what needs to be done. Typically, that means supporting Scorpion Clan plans with her magical skills deployed discreetly and underhandedly as needed. Given her natural poise and her affinity for people, that just as often means conversation, entertaining and engagement with samurai of other Clans. For Nikako, what matters to her is that she uphold her Clan's purpose (even when other individual Scorpions don't). She also wants to see her household and immediate family prosper where possible. In her heart of hearts, Nikako loves her children and wants to give them the best that she can.
Who is the person your character trusts most?
Her father, Shosuro Mizumi, a powerful Shugenja in his own right. While he looks at his daughter's fondness for bushido with concern, he has remained a persistently positive influence for Nikako's entire life. He's reinforced the Clan's purpose with her time and again, but always allowed that dishonorable actions should be in accordance with that purpose, not for the sake of pleasure or amusement. She knows he's less conservative than she is but she also knows he'll always listen to her and not misjudge her motives or loyalty as others might.
What are your character’s greatest strength and weakness?
+ Nikako likes people and has a natural talent at understanding and meeting their needs.
+ She's patient, difficult to provoke, and much more capable of waiting someone out than most people are.
+ Her love of bushido makes her easier to relate to than most Scorpions.
+ Her ability to break bushido's tenets despite that love makes her better at treachery than most think she is.
- She's not especially well-liked by her Scorpion peers, some of whom may doubt her loyalty to the Clan.
- She's less tolerant of members of other Clans defying bushido than many of their peers would be, complicating relationships with less honorable non-Scorpions looking for an ally as deceitful as they are.
- Her husband and children are incredibly important to her and represent real vulnerabilities for her.
What does your character think of bushido?
Nikako doesn't share her Clan or family's typical disdain of bushido. She admires it, philosophically and personally. There's great attraction in living a happy, fulfilling life within the structure of those virtues. But she also recognizes that those virtues have underpinnings. Temples topple if their foundation is weak or they grow too tall. To follow the analogy, someone has to say 'enough' to the architects or spend time expertly laying a foundation no one will ever see. Like most Scorpions, she embraces Loyalty but finds all tenets of bushido appealing and strives more than most Scorpions to live by them when it's possible. She remains willing to violate those tenets whenever necessary, however, retaining her Clan's pragmatic place and role within the Empire.
What is your character’s opinion of his own clan?
Complex. In many ways, Nikako feels she's more of a classical, traditional Scorpion and that many of her Clan have drifted from the Clan's purpose in modernity. Too many have grown to not only like but revel in their disregard of bushido and in creating unnecessary conflict with other Clans. They delight in manipulation for its own sake, villainy for amusement, and misdirection as its own end. Not Nikako. She retains her Clan's commitment to the tools of deception but strongly believes they should only be employed purposefully. To follow the temple analogy, foundations must be built but are never seen. But foundations are only built to support the temple. Many of her contemporary Scorpions build foundations for the sake of building foundations, not only wasting Clan resources but at times threatening the Clan's ability to influence and course correct the Empire as they should.
She loves what they stand for. She just wishes more of them actually stood for it.
Is your character married?
Nikako has been married for seven years to Doji Chen, a middling courtier and the fifth and youngest son in a family blessed with four older and much more talented sons. Their marriage was initially rocky, especially as Chen resented being sent to a Scorpion household rather than receiving a bride in his. For her part, Nikako expected only difficulty and complication in her spiritual duties as a shugenja, being burdened with a fussy, immature husband. Time together softened and taught them both much, however. Chen came to realize his wife lacked the typical Scorpion scorn for bushido and Nikako discovered he was surprisingly calm, stable and much better at numbers than he was with people. In time, they settled into a comfortable relationship where he ran their household and watched after their two sons, Atsuki (6) and Kage (3), avoiding the pressures of the diplomacy he never liked to begin with. Meanwhile, Nikako was delighted to have first hand access to 'honest' diplomacy and learned much from her husband's training, growing into a surprisingly socially-adept Scorpion shugenja.
Does your character have any prejudices?
She dislikes mustache-twirling villainy, mostly from her exposure to her own Clan. Beyond that, she displays a surprising contempt for dishonorable conduct among the samurai. Other Clans have the ability, the privilege of embracing bushido fully. Those individuals who don't are squandering a blessing she wishes she could receive herself.
To whom does your character owe the most loyalty?
Nikako obeys her Clan and Lord's direction in all things. She shares the common Scorpion perspective that Loyalty is the most important of virtues. That said, the principles of bushido are more important to her (even when she has to defy them) than most people are. Despite herself, Nikako has come to deeply love her husband Chen and their two sons, and there's virtually nothing she wouldn't do for them.
What are your character’s favorite and least favorite things?
+ Bushido
+ Her family, especially her husband and sons.
+ Children.
+ Cute pets.
+ A good, well-composed poem.
+ Books in general (tomes on history or spirit lore especially).
+ Composure, hers and others.
+ A well-delivered retort.
- Dishonorable conduct.
- Rationalizations, especially justification that doesn't meet her standards.
- Horses (smelly things).
Does your character have any recurring mannerisms?
She's fond of raising an eyebrow to express interest or surprise.
She habitually smiles, particularly in agreement.
Her hands tend to be folded when not in use and she's remarkably still, moving only when necessary. When she does move, her motions tend to be swift and precise, without the usual female languidness.
What about your character’s emotions?
Nikako layers her emotions like armor. On the surface, she projects an affable friendliness that is (usually) genuinely felt. She likes people, after all. Beneath her superficial charm lies the steel of commitment to fulfilling her Clan's objectives and playing to the role they hold in the Empire. Honorable conduct in others pleases her and dishonorable acts can draw enough ire to cool her friendliness with ire. Nikako has a soft spot for children and small animals, eliciting an unfeigned joy that she occasionally has to make an effort to rein in when it's not appropriate. Her husband Chen is the only person routinely able to provoke her to great emotion, whether good or bad; even in her family, her disciplined father made sure his daughter understood the requirement of keeping her cool.
How would you handle a subordinate’s improper behavior?
In accordance with the doctrine of bushido wherever possible.
With Scorpions, it's a teaching opportunity to direct them away from superficial villainy and towards constructive antagonism.
With samurai of other Clans, she'll display ice-sharp disdain in correcting them, as they not only should know better but because proper behavior is allowed to them where it isn't always to her.
With genuine subordinates (peasants, kitchen help, etc.), it's also a teaching opportunity. Nikako believes in bushido and its virtues and takes any opportunity she can to explain and extol its benefits to those who can benefit from it.
Harsh responses are saved for when being harsh is a strategically good choice...and she has a special sore spot for unrepentant hypocrites in the other Clans.
How would your character’s parents describe her?
Dutiful. Obedient. Very sharp. And unfortunately enamored of bushido.
Nikako is the talented daughter of a talented Shugenja, the only child of his to inherit his magical talents. Mizumi, her father, is proud of how she's tempered her passion with pragmatism and she's never disappointed him...but he constantly expects to hear she's gone too far and defied their Clan's purpose someday.
Meanwhile, her mother Hitomi barely notices her, writing Nikako off as her father's daughter. She concentrates instead on Nikako's brothers. Hitomi doesn't especially like Nikako's husband, Doji Chen, and doesn't like how much her daughter seems to be happy with a man of no real worth beyond securing a treaty.
What is your character’s highest ambition?
To bring a proper conservative perspective back to the Scorpion clan. To remind her kin that being the necessary villain must be necessary, not for the sake of sport. Doing that requires excelling in her duties and her ambitions are aimed to prove just how valuable she can be, so she can wield greater influence over the education of the next generation of Scorpions.
The prosperity of her husband and two sons is also significantly important to her. While she'd never admit it out loud, Nikako would likely find a way to justify any action she could take that would give them a better life.
How religious is your character?
As a Shugenja, dealing with the supernatural is her stock in trade. Nikako doesn't view the kami with any particular reverence, however. Studying with the Soshi Shugenja long ago disabused her of any mysticism or awe. She seems the spirit forces of the world as only tangentially interested in humanity and believes more often than not they must be compelled or enticed to intervene. They certainly aren't worth emulating.
Bushido on the other hand...
If you could, what advice would you give your character?
Don't be so eager to show up the superiority of Bushido to your fellow Scorpions. You want the fight a little too much and that attitude won't win you any converts from within your Clan. Don't let yourself get too close to those outside your Clan, who you may frequently find you have more in common with than your kin. That's a recipe for divided loyalties and that only leads to trouble in this world.
School: Soshi ShugenjaInsight: 1 [143]Honor: 2.5Glory: 1.0Status: 1.0Experience: 40
Traits
Awareness 4
Reflexes 3
Willpower 2
Stamina 2
Intelligence 2
Agility 2
Perception 2
Strength 2
Void 2
Skills
*Calligraphy (Cipher) 1
*Courtier 3
*Etiquette 3
*Lore: Theology 1
*Spellcraft 2
*Stealth 2
*Sincerity 2 (Honesty for 2, Deceit for 2)
Artisan: Painting 1
Empathy 1
Games: Letters 1
Investigation 1
Lore: Bushido 1
Lore: History 1
Lore: Elements 1
Ninjutsu 1
Temptation 1
Intimidation 1
Tea Ceremony 1
Craft: Poison 1
Acting 1
Animal Handling 1
Advantages
- Dangerous Beauty (2): +1k0 to the total of all Temptation Skill Rolls made with members of the opposite sex.
- Spy Network (6): You have access to an intelligence network that can provide you with a variety of covert information. Once per session if you can contact your spy network you can acquire a piece of useful information which would otherwise be unavailable. The GM has the final say on what you learn, but it will always be something useful to your current endeavors. This Advantage cannot be used in environments where it would be impossible to make contact with your spy network (e.g. wandering the desert, exploring the Shadowlands or the Shinomen Mori, etc).
Disadvantages
Bad Fortune (-4): Yogo Curse: You are cursed to betray the one you love the most, just as the first Yogo was cursed by Fu Leng himself.
Dependent (-2): Husband and two sons, all who depend on her and her matronage, even from far away.
True Love (-3): Whenever you are in a position where you must choose between love and duty, you must spend a Void Point before you can choose your duty over your lover.
Spells
- *Sense
- *Commune
- *Summon
- Air
*Tempest of Air (Knockdown in a cone)
- *Legacy of Kaze-no-Kami (Send messenger bird)
- **Benten's Touch (Buff socialites)
[*]Earth
[*]Fire
*Envious Flames (2k2 Firebolt and spell-disrupter)
- *The Raging Forge (Restore an Ordinary item to perfect condition)
[*]Water
*Path to Inner Peace (Instant Healing, Casting Roll -10)
Outfit:
Robes
Wakizashi
Knife
Scroll Satchel
Traveling Pack
--Pet (Pick one!)
--Mask (Describe it!)
--Spare kimono and sandals
--Tea set
--Jewelry (Pick some!)
--Personal seal
--Small hand mirror
--Makeup kit
--Fan
Blowgun
4 koku
4 bu
2 zeni
XP Expenditures
-9 Disadvantages
12 Reflexes 2->3
5 Courtier 1->3
5 Etiquette 1->3
2 Spellcraft 1->2
2 Sincerity 1->2
2 Stealth 1->2
13 Non-School Skills
8 Advantages
Casting Probabilities
Air: 5k3 (3 Air, 1 Rank, 1 Affinity)
TN 10 - 99%
TN 15 - 93%
TN 20 - 72%
TN 25 - 42%
TN 30 - 24%
Fire/Water/Void: 3k2 (2 Ring, 1 Rank)
TN 10 - 85%
TN 15 - 47%
TN 20 - 21%
TN 25 - 10%
Earth: 2k2 (2 Ring, 1 Rank, -1 Deficiency)
TN 10 - 64%
TN 15 - 28%
TN 20 - 12
TN 10 - 99%
TN 15 - 93%
TN 20 - 72%
TN 25 - 42%
TN 30 - 24%
Fire/Water/Void: 3k2 (2 Ring, 1 Rank)
TN 10 - 85%
TN 15 - 47%
TN 20 - 21%
TN 25 - 10%
Earth: 2k2 (2 Ring, 1 Rank, -1 Deficiency)
TN 10 - 64%
TN 15 - 28%
TN 20 - 12
The 20 Questions
What clan does your character belong to?
Scorpion.
How would others describe your character’s appearance?
A small, petite woman with thick, black hair swept back but allowed to fall loose in a midnight cascade down her back. Despite the mask worn across her eyes, Nikako's expression is polite, even friendly and her body language is typically welcoming and accommodating. She favors fashionable, tastefully modest clothes and moves swiftly in them with the confidence of a wife responsible for a household rather than the slower, encumbered motions of a maiden.
Is your character a bushi, shugenja, monk, or courtier?
Shugenja of the Soshi Shugenja School
What family does your character belong to?
Shosuro
What is your character’s main motivation?
To serve the Empire by doing what needs to be done. Typically, that means supporting Scorpion Clan plans with her magical skills deployed discreetly and underhandedly as needed. Given her natural poise and her affinity for people, that just as often means conversation, entertaining and engagement with samurai of other Clans. For Nikako, what matters to her is that she uphold her Clan's purpose (even when other individual Scorpions don't). She also wants to see her household and immediate family prosper where possible. In her heart of hearts, Nikako loves her children and wants to give them the best that she can.
Who is the person your character trusts most?
Her father, Shosuro Mizumi, a powerful Shugenja in his own right. While he looks at his daughter's fondness for bushido with concern, he has remained a persistently positive influence for Nikako's entire life. He's reinforced the Clan's purpose with her time and again, but always allowed that dishonorable actions should be in accordance with that purpose, not for the sake of pleasure or amusement. She knows he's less conservative than she is but she also knows he'll always listen to her and not misjudge her motives or loyalty as others might.
What are your character’s greatest strength and weakness?
+ Nikako likes people and has a natural talent at understanding and meeting their needs.
+ She's patient, difficult to provoke, and much more capable of waiting someone out than most people are.
+ Her love of bushido makes her easier to relate to than most Scorpions.
+ Her ability to break bushido's tenets despite that love makes her better at treachery than most think she is.
- She's not especially well-liked by her Scorpion peers, some of whom may doubt her loyalty to the Clan.
- She's less tolerant of members of other Clans defying bushido than many of their peers would be, complicating relationships with less honorable non-Scorpions looking for an ally as deceitful as they are.
- Her husband and children are incredibly important to her and represent real vulnerabilities for her.
What does your character think of bushido?
Nikako doesn't share her Clan or family's typical disdain of bushido. She admires it, philosophically and personally. There's great attraction in living a happy, fulfilling life within the structure of those virtues. But she also recognizes that those virtues have underpinnings. Temples topple if their foundation is weak or they grow too tall. To follow the analogy, someone has to say 'enough' to the architects or spend time expertly laying a foundation no one will ever see. Like most Scorpions, she embraces Loyalty but finds all tenets of bushido appealing and strives more than most Scorpions to live by them when it's possible. She remains willing to violate those tenets whenever necessary, however, retaining her Clan's pragmatic place and role within the Empire.
What is your character’s opinion of his own clan?
Complex. In many ways, Nikako feels she's more of a classical, traditional Scorpion and that many of her Clan have drifted from the Clan's purpose in modernity. Too many have grown to not only like but revel in their disregard of bushido and in creating unnecessary conflict with other Clans. They delight in manipulation for its own sake, villainy for amusement, and misdirection as its own end. Not Nikako. She retains her Clan's commitment to the tools of deception but strongly believes they should only be employed purposefully. To follow the temple analogy, foundations must be built but are never seen. But foundations are only built to support the temple. Many of her contemporary Scorpions build foundations for the sake of building foundations, not only wasting Clan resources but at times threatening the Clan's ability to influence and course correct the Empire as they should.
She loves what they stand for. She just wishes more of them actually stood for it.
Is your character married?
Nikako has been married for seven years to Doji Chen, a middling courtier and the fifth and youngest son in a family blessed with four older and much more talented sons. Their marriage was initially rocky, especially as Chen resented being sent to a Scorpion household rather than receiving a bride in his. For her part, Nikako expected only difficulty and complication in her spiritual duties as a shugenja, being burdened with a fussy, immature husband. Time together softened and taught them both much, however. Chen came to realize his wife lacked the typical Scorpion scorn for bushido and Nikako discovered he was surprisingly calm, stable and much better at numbers than he was with people. In time, they settled into a comfortable relationship where he ran their household and watched after their two sons, Atsuki (6) and Kage (3), avoiding the pressures of the diplomacy he never liked to begin with. Meanwhile, Nikako was delighted to have first hand access to 'honest' diplomacy and learned much from her husband's training, growing into a surprisingly socially-adept Scorpion shugenja.
Does your character have any prejudices?
She dislikes mustache-twirling villainy, mostly from her exposure to her own Clan. Beyond that, she displays a surprising contempt for dishonorable conduct among the samurai. Other Clans have the ability, the privilege of embracing bushido fully. Those individuals who don't are squandering a blessing she wishes she could receive herself.
To whom does your character owe the most loyalty?
Nikako obeys her Clan and Lord's direction in all things. She shares the common Scorpion perspective that Loyalty is the most important of virtues. That said, the principles of bushido are more important to her (even when she has to defy them) than most people are. Despite herself, Nikako has come to deeply love her husband Chen and their two sons, and there's virtually nothing she wouldn't do for them.
What are your character’s favorite and least favorite things?
+ Bushido
+ Her family, especially her husband and sons.
+ Children.
+ Cute pets.
+ A good, well-composed poem.
+ Books in general (tomes on history or spirit lore especially).
+ Composure, hers and others.
+ A well-delivered retort.
- Dishonorable conduct.
- Rationalizations, especially justification that doesn't meet her standards.
- Horses (smelly things).
Does your character have any recurring mannerisms?
She's fond of raising an eyebrow to express interest or surprise.
She habitually smiles, particularly in agreement.
Her hands tend to be folded when not in use and she's remarkably still, moving only when necessary. When she does move, her motions tend to be swift and precise, without the usual female languidness.
What about your character’s emotions?
Nikako layers her emotions like armor. On the surface, she projects an affable friendliness that is (usually) genuinely felt. She likes people, after all. Beneath her superficial charm lies the steel of commitment to fulfilling her Clan's objectives and playing to the role they hold in the Empire. Honorable conduct in others pleases her and dishonorable acts can draw enough ire to cool her friendliness with ire. Nikako has a soft spot for children and small animals, eliciting an unfeigned joy that she occasionally has to make an effort to rein in when it's not appropriate. Her husband Chen is the only person routinely able to provoke her to great emotion, whether good or bad; even in her family, her disciplined father made sure his daughter understood the requirement of keeping her cool.
How would you handle a subordinate’s improper behavior?
In accordance with the doctrine of bushido wherever possible.
With Scorpions, it's a teaching opportunity to direct them away from superficial villainy and towards constructive antagonism.
With samurai of other Clans, she'll display ice-sharp disdain in correcting them, as they not only should know better but because proper behavior is allowed to them where it isn't always to her.
With genuine subordinates (peasants, kitchen help, etc.), it's also a teaching opportunity. Nikako believes in bushido and its virtues and takes any opportunity she can to explain and extol its benefits to those who can benefit from it.
Harsh responses are saved for when being harsh is a strategically good choice...and she has a special sore spot for unrepentant hypocrites in the other Clans.
How would your character’s parents describe her?
Dutiful. Obedient. Very sharp. And unfortunately enamored of bushido.
Nikako is the talented daughter of a talented Shugenja, the only child of his to inherit his magical talents. Mizumi, her father, is proud of how she's tempered her passion with pragmatism and she's never disappointed him...but he constantly expects to hear she's gone too far and defied their Clan's purpose someday.
Meanwhile, her mother Hitomi barely notices her, writing Nikako off as her father's daughter. She concentrates instead on Nikako's brothers. Hitomi doesn't especially like Nikako's husband, Doji Chen, and doesn't like how much her daughter seems to be happy with a man of no real worth beyond securing a treaty.
What is your character’s highest ambition?
To bring a proper conservative perspective back to the Scorpion clan. To remind her kin that being the necessary villain must be necessary, not for the sake of sport. Doing that requires excelling in her duties and her ambitions are aimed to prove just how valuable she can be, so she can wield greater influence over the education of the next generation of Scorpions.
The prosperity of her husband and two sons is also significantly important to her. While she'd never admit it out loud, Nikako would likely find a way to justify any action she could take that would give them a better life.
How religious is your character?
As a Shugenja, dealing with the supernatural is her stock in trade. Nikako doesn't view the kami with any particular reverence, however. Studying with the Soshi Shugenja long ago disabused her of any mysticism or awe. She seems the spirit forces of the world as only tangentially interested in humanity and believes more often than not they must be compelled or enticed to intervene. They certainly aren't worth emulating.
Bushido on the other hand...
If you could, what advice would you give your character?
Don't be so eager to show up the superiority of Bushido to your fellow Scorpions. You want the fight a little too much and that attitude won't win you any converts from within your Clan. Don't let yourself get too close to those outside your Clan, who you may frequently find you have more in common with than your kin. That's a recipe for divided loyalties and that only leads to trouble in this world.
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