From Changeling Venue

Seeming	Ogre Gristlegrinder
Court	Winter Court
Freehold
Player	Alexander J Skrabut

Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Associations & Associates 4 Rumors 5 Wanted Ties 6 OOC Info

Overview

Alias(es): Dan Ling Wei Ying Xiong, Akayama Yuudai, "Big Hero", "Red Mountain"
Real Name: Dan Xiong, according to his driver's license
Location: North Shore, eastern Massachusetts
Age: Mid Thirties?
Seeming: Ogre
Kith: Gristlegrinder
Court: Winter
Mantle: Winter ••••, Summer Goodwill •, North Goodwill •
Title: Laoshi, Sensei, Yaoguai
Entitlement:
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Pride
Concept:

• Pre-Arcadia: Born in Kyoto. Stolen from a community outside pre-westernized Beijing (circa 1930, pending approval)
  
• Durance: Gladiator, House Guard
  
• Post-Arcadia: Emerges in 1987. Arrives in Boston around 1990. Establishes himself as a sort of Lost liberator and martial arts instructor. The Dragon.
  

Mask: An man of ambiguous Asian descent with a round, pleasant face and impressive physical stature.
Mien: A red-faced Eastern demon with yellow eyes and wild hair and a tooth-filled maw. Snow, from light snowflakes to driving blizzard, follows in his wake. Sometimes the snow has an ashen quality to it. Mystical Chinese kanji decorate his arms in the form of tattoos.
Character Livejournal: http://runechronicles.livejournal.com/

History

The Japanese have a saying: 親に似ぬ子は鬼の子. oya-ni ninu ko-wa oni-no ko. A child that does not resemble its parents is the child of an oni.

According to my driver's license, my name is Dan Xiong, but I have other names that mean more. In Mandarin, my name is "Dan Ling Wei Ying Xiong". The Japanese would call me "Akayama Yuudai". Those who offer respect call me laoshi, xuan sheng, or sensei. Those who would hate call me yaoguai, demon, or worse.

Yuudai means "Big Hero". I do not live up to my name; I am big, but I am not a hero.

My father, Japanese. My mother, Chinese. Married under an unlucky star. They fled Kyoto to the mainland after their families' scorn became too much to bear. They lost their first-born son to demons collecting a price of blood. After seven generations the debt was to be paid, and infant Ichiro was no more, gone with the predations of the god of Death's minions. A creation, a replica, was left in my place.

Emma-O. Yanluo Wang. Yama. The name is all the same: my captor; my Keeper.

I was taken to the land of the dead, where Yanluo Wang was to be my new lord. I grew tall, and strong. I bested demons of ice and fire with my bare hands, and when I bore a naginata I was deadlier still. But part of me was still longing for the land of the living. I wished to return to my father and my mother. I prayed to the Golden Buddha for a relief of my suffering, and the only answer was to release my craving for freedom and to fulfill my kharma. So I served Yanluo Wang in his palace of gold and pearls, willingly, without desire. In time I grew to love killing. I embraced my kharma and no longer wanted what was denied me. I removed my heart, plunged it into the deepest fire of Hell, and then froze it solid in the ice of death.

Then something happened. Yanluo Wang's palace was broken by a great sundering; vicious oni and angry yurei were pitted against each other in an epic battle. I felt the craving again, like a hunger in the pit of your stomach that no amount of flesh could sate.

I fled.

I found a path back to the living world. Beijing and Kyoto were vastly different; the land had changed, and the science had changed. I took great pains to disguise myself, and find my family, but many years had passed. I found my parents, who were old, and poor, but worst of all disappointed and heartbroken that their son -- their Ichiro -- did nothing to save them from their squalor and dishonor.

My Fetch, Ichiro no oni - who was called Yuudai - was wealthy and an owner of many things and employer of many people. His business place was filled with relics of the old age, like Emma-O's palace. I found him, and he knew who I was. He thanked me for my life.

I told him that I had come home to reclaim my life.

He laughed.

I took a naginata from the wall and cut off his head.

I laughed.

Then, I fled again.

Since then, I have been fleeing from place to place. Fleeing the allies of Yuudai no oni. Fleeing the allies of Yanluo Wang. I live in plain sight, gathering the snow around me so that I might be as still and unseen as the winter hare. The winter snow is strong in this place called Boston, and the Hedge remains near, so my kharma can be realized. I must assist the Lost in breaking free of their chains, so that their new natures - their new kharma - can be realized. I can give them the knowledge I bring with me from the underworld. I can teach them yin and yang, sword and fist.

There are those like me, who flee the Others that would kill them, or enslave them, or worse. Every so often I must break my Seeming and return to the Hedge and the world of the Others so that Lost can be brought back to the living world. But even among them, I am a monster. I am oni; I am yaoguai; I am demon.

Associations & Associates

Dargo - "My king, lost to the stillness of Winter by the hand of Wicked Autumn. I will miss you, my friend."

Isadora - "She is everything opposite of me. I have much to learn from her example."

Saga - "A caged tiger paces, and a freed tiger seeks revenge."

Suicide King - "Yoda said it best: Fear to anger, anger to hate, hate to suffering. King has done these things with one swift betrayal. And now we remember."

Green Man - "His breed of fear is that of patience during an autumn storm."

Stephan Glamourdust - "One word: Ferrets."

Tanith - "We must find her golden ball for her to chase."

Ox - "Like the mountain; wise, and with simple needs."

Penelope Mal - "Xiao Gou has found her yin, and has yet to find her yang."

Lilium - "She who is drowned is not troubled by the rain."

Benares - "One cannot tame the wind without it ceasing to be."

Miya - "Xiao Gui must learn to crawl before she can walk."

Dwight - "I must obtain many bonsai trees."

Rumors

(Feel free to post factual, false, or downright funny rumors about Dan here. I reserve the right to edit and/or outright remove rumors I don't want displayed here.)

Wanted Ties

Former/Current Students of the martial arts, linguistics, Chinese and Japanese history and mythology

Motley focused on common survival and extraction of other Lost from the Others

Entitlement focused on an Asian empire's court structure

Allies and Friends - those that Dan would go out of his way to help again, be it out of Oath, price paid, or pure devotion

Former/Current Lovers - heterosexual, preferably of an Asian or sub-Asian mythological mein. Also, would not be opposed to an arranged, loveless marriage

Former/Current War Companions - those that Dan has fought alongside

Enemies and Adversaries - use your imagination!

OOC Info

Name: Alexander J Skrabut
Region: North East
Domain: MA-003-D: Shattered Antiquities