Mao Jingai (The Mountain)
From Familia Niveum
Return to: Lords of the Heavenly Court
Duke of Stone, Realm's Heart
"Mao Jingai, "the Mountain"
The Mountain is a large man with faded, weathered skin of a greyish complexion. He looks to be in his forties, though this is just a matter of appearance. He stands huge at 6' 6", generally towering over those around him. In fact, it is impossible not to notice him (see restrictions).
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Personal Code
Jingai follows the Code of Heaven, as he is told his predecessor did before him.
Miraculous Abilities
- Aspect 1
- 5 Permanent Miracle Points
- Domain 4
- 5 Permanent Miracle Points
- Realm 2
- 5 Permanent Miracle Points
- Spirit 0
- 5 Permanent Miracle Points
Gifts
Durant
Jingai has the Durant Gift, retaining much of his stone self.
Eternal
Jingai has been granted the Eternal Gift by the peaches of immortality.
Terrible Curse of Stone
(Expanded Petrify with a look) Jingai possesses the terrifying ability to change anything to stone with a glance. Only those rare beings that possess and Auctoritas as safe. Often he will use this as punishment for those that have offended the court or him, turning the offender into a piece of stone art. He has some control over the stone form they take, which may resemble a perfect statue of the object or person, or may be a large rock which only resembles the former object in faint outline.
Limits
Limits are handicaps under which the Noble operates; but in adversity there is power, and limits grant extra miracle points.
None
Restrictions
Restrictions are much like limits, but less universally problematic; they grant extra miracle points only when they become a major problem.
Can't Swim
The Mountain is quite incapable of floating upon water. Attempting to swim will send him sinking to the bottom like Stone. This is a restriction of Attribute; +1MP when appropriate.
Drinks Only Water
The Mountain cannot drink any liquid other than pure, uncontaminated water. All other liquids are anathema to him. This is a restriction of Attribute; +1MP when appropriate.
Incapable of Hiding
The Mountain cannot hide or properly conceal himself. SOmething about the metaphysical mountain that still looms within him draws the eye and makes spotting him child's play, no matter what his efforts at concealment. This is a restriction of Spirit; +1MP when appropriate.
Ceremonial Executioner
The Mountain is required to function as the chancel's executioner when a judgement of death is rendered. This involves much elaborate ceremony and decoration, but cannot be avoided. Fortunately sentences of death are rare, restitution being prefered, and non-important prisoners are held for execution in batches. This is a restriction of Realm; +1MP when appropriate.
Virtue
Unperturbable Upon no occasion can the Mountain ever be induced to show excitement, anxiety, or concern through tone of voice or manner. As the mountain spirit he was born from, he is virtually immoveable in a metaphysical sense. This is not to say he will never be influenced by such emotions, but when he is he will never show it. At most he might calmly state, "This is quite terrifying."
Bonds
Not naturally a creature of strong emotion, Jingai has many weak bonds rather than few strong ones.
- His Anchor, Kong Zheli – 4 pts
- A folk tale told regarding the nobility and strength of stone, still popular and retold in many forms – 2 pts
- A copper-plated marble statue of Chairman Mao that was once designed by an artist while visiting his slopes, currently in a city park in Beijing – 2 pts
- The Strawberry Chain, a bracelet inlaid with quartz stones once gathered from his slopes. Though it would be safer to gather it to him, his pride demands it remain in human hands, where it may be admired. – 4 pts
- The red-veined arrow petal flower, a rare breed of mountain flower which once grew near his slopes; (He cultivates several in his own flower garden.) – 2 pts
- Chang Kai, the last human to climb him before his transformation. Kai is currently a resident of the Jade courts, plucked from his home in prosaic reality and brought to live in the world of the supernatural. He has no idea why he is favored as he is by Jingai, but has been apprenticed as a court scribe since no one will allow him to go home. – 2 pts
- Valley View Ceramics, a high-tech venture technology firm based in California, exploring the use of ceramic and stone components in cutting-edge electronics and machinery. Though not at all important to Jingai _before_ becoming a Noble, his Estate is so much a part of him that he has become enraptured with this link to its future. – 2 pts
- His "friendly" rivalry with the Power of Metal, which provides occupation for them both 2pts
Personality
History
Jingai is a relative newcomer to the Familia, having been created by the August Personage of Jade a little under five years ago. His predecessor did not have a noble death in battle, but turned her head to the side and refused to eat any more peaches of immortality. So, tormented by some secret sorrow, the former Sovereign of Stone perished quietly. Some say (not very loudly) that she had discovered some terrible secret of the Jade Emperor’s and so left his service in the only way open to her.
Perhaps it was distress over human shortcomings that led the Imperator to select the next host of his soul shard, for he chose not a human being or animal, but the spirit of an entire mountain. Molded by a jade miracle, the Mountain took human shape and needs. There is a part of him that hates the Emperor for thrusting this new existence upon him, but it is not in a Mountain’s nature to offer complaint. A Mountain endures.
A new appreciation for beauty has led him to embrace the Code of Heaven.
The Mountain does maintain the human identity of Mao Jingai in the prosaic world, though not very well. Set up for him by the Cammora, he uses it to travel and to experience being human. He is experimenting with many human concepts, though he is unsure whether he likes any of them. Inside the Chancel, though, he will often prefer solitude. He has requested that those who know him call him Jingai to aid in immersing himself in humanity.
Anchors
Kong Zheli
Zheli is a geologist in her late twenties. Jingai has already made her famous and wealthy in the mineral extraction industry for her uncanny "instinct" for where deposits are, though she is also viewed as flighty and unreliable for the way she constantly dances about the globe, abandoning jobs at her seeming whim. (In fact, Jingai does not hesitate to pull her away from whatever she's working on her his own needs.)
Zheli's virtue is that she is cosmopolitan, able to blend in with a wide variety of cultures and peoples. Her flaw is that she is uncharismatic and poor at persuading people. (And in addition, she has a biting and sarcastic tongue in her head when she chooses to lay into someone, which she will often do.)
Zheli both hates and loves Jingai, for he constantly destroys her life… but at the same time he offers such uncanny insight into her profession, the only thing she really cares about. She hears Jingai only when he speaks in her head, for he never visits her in person. Having only one Anchor, he tries to keep her as his "ace in the hole" as much as possible, and he would not bring her near the Chancel unless dire circumstances dictated.
Jingai loves her, in his mountain way.
