- Character Profile
- Profile
Rui Canshen
| Age Early twenties |
| Gender Female |
| Origin Aetochi, close and faithful cousin to the Lianzhi family |
| Occupation takes care of domestic silk moths and worms |
The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.
“A Work of Artifice”
-Marge Piercy
“A Work of Artifice”
-Marge Piercy
Appearance
| Height 4'11 |
| Build Spindly and slight |
| Hair White |
| Eyes Gold |
Long white hair that diffuses light trails along the floor after Rui; it’s soft and gentle to the skin, unable to burn even when held to a flame, cold in summer and warm in winter, unable to be cut. Her skin seems to absorb any light that happens to filter through, unblemished and unbothered. Large gold eyes that are considered vacuous and enlightened all at once. Small gold horns sprout from her brow, although to some they look more like mandibles.
Her stature is short and slight from being a sickly baby from the start. Rumor has it that her mother was ill throughout her pregnancy, but Lady Canshen's face immediately regained color when the umbilical cord was cut, despite the hard and early birth of Rui.
Personality
Quiet, soft-spoken, polite, demure, tired.
Despite this, Shamans notice her presence before she walks through the door, even if those with low spirituality hardly notice her at all.
Despite this, Shamans notice her presence before she walks through the door, even if those with low spirituality hardly notice her at all.
Skills
The Canshen family are experts in sericulture, only passing down their knowledge to direct descendants and not letting more than two family members at a time know the secret recipe to the mulberry mash. It is said that a single silkworm belonging to the Canshen family creates a single strand of silk over a mile long.
- Can turn mulberry leaves in a suitable mush for silkworms (from centuries of inbreeding, the worms have weaker jaws now)
- Can help silk moths exit from their cocoons (from centuries of inbreeding, the worms struggle to leave their cocoons on their own because of weak jaws and being unable to secrete a substantial amount of fluid to aid in exiting)
- Can tell female and male silk moths apart, which aids in pairing up mates (from centuries of inbreeding, silk moths can no longer fly and need help to find mates)
- Can extract silk moth eggs without hurting the membrane
- Can extract silk from cocoons with ease, even if it’s a very tedious process, she makes it look easy.
- Rumored to talk to bugs. Some rumors go as far as implying that she can control them.
Art Credit: https://x.com/toratoraji/status/1759947314943217778
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