Scarlet Touches Steel
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[edit] Basic Character Information
Name: Scarlet Touches Steel
Apparent Age: 38
Actual Age: 52
Caste: Chosen of Battles
Concept: Commando
Motivation: Prevent the return of the Deliberative's atrocities
Anima: Bright red glow, like a splash of fresh blood
[edit] Personal Information
[edit] Appearance
Countless skirmishes and battles have left their mark upon the man's features, leaving him heavily scarred and aged even beyond the years imposed upon him during his time as a Gunzosha. Grey is peppered throughout his brown hair and Steel has the look of someone who has spent more of his life on the battlefield than off of it, which could very well be the case. When not preparing for a fight, the Chosen of Battles dresses in a simple military uniform, reminiscent of his days in the Deliberative army, though refitted with the proper insignia and rank.
[edit] History
When the elder Chosen of Battles, Chipped Flint, objected to the proposal of Operation Wyldhand, few among the ruling Solars thought that his protestations were more than empty words of an overcautious advisor. A decade after it was declared a success, their arrogance turned in to blind rage when it was learned that the survivor of the Primordial War had not only used his skill with Astrology to hinder the Operation at every turn, but had gone so far as to raise his hand against agents of the Deliberative itself as they made preparations for the war games and gathered the needed Wyld Energies. All told, when the investigation was complete, the ancient Sidereal had delayed Wyldhand by over seven months.
Brought before the Deliberative's 'justice', the Swordbearer who had battled Behemoths and Demons that few living could even comprehend submitted meekly to his captors, laying down his arms and complying with the restrictions imposed upon him as the show trial where he was to be made an example of began. It was barely a day before he robbed the deliberative of its prize, failing to appear despite the security that had been imposed on him, and by the time a Scale of Exalts and Celestial Lions battered down the doorway to his Celestial residence, all their was to find was the body of the ancient Sidereal, dead from a golden shafted arrow to the eye.
His fellow Sidereals had thought the matter over and collected the young replacement when he was just a babe, to be raised in Yu Shan, but it was not long after the young Sidereal's exaltation that the Deliberative had him siezed. The more ancient and insane elements within it had wanted their spectacle, and would not be denied by anything as trivial as death, or annoying details like that the poor newly exalted Shieldbearer had no idea what it was his precessor had done, let alone what he was being executed for. Fearing that the outraged Solars would not let the matter rest, even then, steps were taken to ensure that Chipped Flint's Essence was 'misplaced' by the Bureau, with no records recording the fact that it ended up in one of the children of a small mortal lineage reknowned for its legacy of military service.
The yound man's aptitude for the art of war was such that when he joined the Deliberative army he easily caught the eye of his Dragon-Blooded superiors, being elevated in to the ranks of the Gunzosha in short order. But the posting was not all it had been made out to be in the stories he had been told by his elders as a boy, the Deliberative's continued slide in to decadance and corruption turning the military's use more and more often from defending against the rampages of errant Raksha and Demons, toward less noble pursuits, such as the brutal suppression of dissidents and other malcontents.
It was then that the fateful moment of his Exaltation came upon him, delayed for a time by his still cautious elders, but finally striking, with the choice of continuing his mission or refraining from battle. While the young Lawgiver that the Gunzosha were being led by lost himself in the fury of battle and madness, putting the lives of mortals in danger, Scarlet Touches Steel abandoned the mission to usher them to safety. This was the moment that his minders within the Five-Score Fellowship had been preparing for, whisking the newly reborn Heaven's Soldier away to safety almost before he had completed his task, and with some resistance, his death suitably faked to avoid the attention of the Deliberative and his commander.
Brought to Yu Shan, his colleagues sheltered the soldier, and explained to him the troubled times that they were facing and the steps that needed to be taken, not to mention the great deal of work that was still required to save Creation. Despite the former loyalties enforced upon him as one of the elite mortals within the army of the Deliberative, the rush of past memories, and the things he had done during his time serving them were enough to bring his dedication in to doubt, and allow him to see the grim necessity of what they had to do, if not like it.
Steel would prefer to forget as much of what happened during the Ururpation as possible, the near unprecedented violence unleashed in the battle stressing even to an experienced warrior such as him. And if asked as to the role he played, the Shieldbearer would simply answer that he had coordinated several key strikes upon the Deliberative army's support network and command structure, preferring not to think further of the assassinations of several officers he had known before his Exaltation.
Once the grisly work of the Usurpation in the past, however, Scarlet Touches Steel did not get the reprieve from violence that he would have preferred, quickly turning his attention towards pursuing the newly establish God Kings and other rebellious elements of the old regime that refused to lay down arms and go quietly in to the night that was ordained for them. He turned his eyes outward, to the Threshold, content to let others deal with the messy business of policing the isle with whatever forms of 'justice' were found to be suitable, seeing the maddened ancients as clearly the greater threat to be combatted.
The Chosen of Battles seemed at the most content leading forays to sabotage and stymie the efforts of the God Kings to lay siege to the Blessed Isle, harassing their forces and destroying valuable supplies and munitions in an effort to delay them, while exhaustion would claim him when he finally returned home, many times with less soldiers than he had taken with him, much to his dismay. That all changed with the emergence of the Night Terror and the growing threat of the rebellion and their suicidal fanatics within Meru. Scarlet Touches Steel, conditioned and predisposed thanks to so many fights against the forces of the ancient Solars, sees the hand of the God Kings at work.
Only they could inspire such insane devotion in mortals, and only one of the older Solars could prove to be such a dangerous and elusive threat. As he turns his eyes toward the threat, it seems he will not get any respite from combat even in the safety of the Regime's heart, and the fight of the rebellion enters a more dangerous stage.
[edit] Attributes
Physical: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 1
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3
[edit] Abilities
[edit] Journeys
(f)Resistance: 2
Ride: 0
Sail: 0
Survival: 3
Thrown: 0
[edit] Serenity
Craft: 0
Dodge: 2
Linguistics: 1
(f)Performance: 3 (3 bp)
Socialize: 1
[edit] Battles
Archery: 1
Athletics: 3
Melee: 5 (2 bp)
Presence: 3 (1 bp)
War: 4 (+1 Guerilla Warfare, +1 Small Unit Tactics) (2 bp)
[edit] Secrets
Investigation: 0
Larceny: 0
Lore: 3
Occult: 2
Stealth: 3
[edit] Endings
(f)Awareness: 4 (2 bp)
Bureaucracy: 2
Integrity: 2 (5 XP)
Martial Arts: 2
(f)Medicine: 2 (4 XP)
[edit] Advantages
[edit] Backgrounds
Backing (Night Sky Regime): 3
Arsenal: 3
Command: 2
Wealth: 1
Manse: 1 (Ever-Open Eye, OC page 104)
Manse: 3 (Crystal of Legendary Leadership)
Artifact: 5 (Celestial Battle Armour) (5 bp)
[edit] Willpower, Virtues, and Intimacies
Willpower: 7
Compassion: 2 (3 XP), Conviction: 3, Temperence: 3, Valour: 4 (3 bp)
Intimacies: Common Soldiers, Gunzosha
[edit] Health and Essence
Essence: 3
Personal: 13
Peripheral: 37
Committed:
Health: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap
[edit] Charms
Ox-Body Technique x2 (18 XP)
Burn Life
Harmony of Blows
Impeding the Flow
Serenity in Blood
Orchestration of Mirrored Fates
Auspicious Recruitment Drive
Training Mandate of Auspicious Battle
Predestined Triumph Practice
Prior Warning
Expected Pain
Perfection in Life
Defence of Shining Joy
[edit] Colleges
The Shield: 2, The Spear: 2, The Captain: 2, The Sword: 1
