User:Raweno

My current character is a Crane Clane Ji-Samurai named Daidoji Kosike of Akiyama,

History of character: During a minor squabble with a lord of the Daidoiji family, corrupt Crab Lord Yasuki Hadi was slain in a duel, twice. Because Lord Yasuki had fought in the shadowlands, he had acquired low-level taint mutations. Rather than have them removed, he nurtured them and learned to combine the fell powers taint granted with his Iajutsu. To hide his shameful secret, he took to wearing a mask. When Daidoji Bashou of Akiyama, a respected middle-aged Bushi, challenged Lord Yasuki to a duel of equals over a dispute that had grown until war was threatened, Yasuki first sent his eldest son, Yasuki Moritomo, wearing a mask and set of armor just like his father’s, to first weaken the Daidoji samurai. During that duel, Daidoji Bashou was victorious, albeit at the cost of his left arm. Only after Hadi’s dishonorable ploy had been revealed did the tainted Lord enter the battle. Bashou’s Fury was incomparable, and, after several minutes of desperate fighting, having taken a lethal stroke to his right chest, he dealt a crippling blow. Lord Yasuki, lying half-alive on the ground, yielded straight away. After Bashou had turned his back, Hadi committed a vile act by striking from behind. Lord Hadi’s own archers gave him a coward’s death.

Daidoji Bashou of Akiyama would have died from his wounds had a skilled Vanara shaman not been present. After the account of the duels had been signed, and those Bushi who had helped Hadi with his treachery had committed seppuku, the witnesses dispersed. The only loose end remaining was the second son of Lord Yasuki, then just a swaddled infant. Bashou of Akiyama possessed a kind heart, and took the child into his house, naming him Daidoji Kosuke of Akiyama.

Kosuke was raised in the way of any Akiyama Samurai, receiving training from several Bushi and one Inkyo -his now crippled father, Akiyama Bashou. He also received formal tutorage under Yibaba, the mysterious Vanaran shaman who saved Bashou’s life after his battle with Hadi the detestable. Kosuke got along so well with his adopted Father and brother that most people who didn’t know Bashou very well assumed that Kosuke was his own son. Sometime after his elder brother Daidoji Tsuru of Akiyama celebrated his Gempuku, about a year before Kosuke’s own Gempuku, Tsuru lost his ancestral Daisho, and was forced to use the swords prepared for his brother to try to regain his Daisho and his honor. A while later, a messenger came bearing Tsuru’s death poem and claiming to have been his Kashi-nin. The messenger also returned Kosuke’s wakazashi, the only weapon left of his Daisho. A powerful Maho-Bujin had taken both of Tsuru’s Daishos, the first after Tsuru had rode to a camp of bandits with a detachment of men on an unsuccessful mission to free travel to the Crab lands, and the second after Tsuru tried in vain to reclaim his first Daisho, leaving him only his wakazashi to commit Seppuku.

Kosuke’s first adventure began as a search for a suitable weapon for his Gempuku ceremony, and transformed into a race to save his friend and teacher, Yibaba. It was during this quest that Kosuke first met the lesser spirit fox, Jizo. Kosuke finally found the weapon Yibaba told him to seek in the hands of a nameless Ronin. The Ronin had held off committing Seppuku after a Fortune told him to meet his Kashi-nin in a clearing at the boundaries of Crane and Crab lands. There he found Kosuke. After a special duel, wakazashi to wakazashi, Kosuke accepted the honorable Ronin’s Katana, and agreed to aid him in Hara-kiri. Later, with these experiences shaping his blade-work, Kosuke won four duels in the Gempuku competition, and looked to be a strong candidate for Topaz Champion. But that year’s Gempuku was interrupted by a coup of young participants. Kosuke bravely took an arrow in defense of Doji Kurohito, the Crane champion and preside of the ceremony. It was only after the battle that Kosuke learned that the traitors had killed several high-ranking Bushi, Generals, and Inkyo of several clans, including Daidoji Bashou of Akiyama. Kosuke and Jizo gave furious chase to the rouges with a number of other samurai from various clans. During the battle against the Ronin, Kosuke befriended a Unicorn Samurai, Moto Gai. After Bashou’s funeral, Kosuke was asked by his lord, Daidoji Koori, join Gai in an attempt to guard Gai’s lord, Moto Chaozhu on the now perilous journey back into unicorn lands. After a few battles with young Ronin from several clans, all of whom appeared to be a part of the same conspiracy, Kosuke, Jizo and Gai arrived in the Unicorn lands.