The Serpent Looking To The Skies
| Gender Male |
| Origin East of Ilica, West of Nechon, Next to Aetochi |
'Fang-jie,
your memorial tablet is in your room.'
He put the brush down and closed his eyes.your memorial tablet is in your room.'
Through the latticework seeped the fragrant breeze of the flower garden.
The high mountain wind howled around the walls of his hidden abode.
Where to take stride but toward a sheer, long fall in every direction?
Dozens of feathered courtiers renewed their rustling on the roof as he stepped onto the balcony.
The scent of jasmine incense trailed behind like a sweet farewell.
And then, he leapt towards the morning clouds -
and spread his wings.
Appearance
| Height 5"8 |
| Build lean, acrobatic |
| Hair black |
| Eyes blue |
- A harmonious, youthful beauty; soft golden-ivory skin without a single trace of a wrinkle;
- Almond eyes, light blue, with a darker outer rim around the iris and a pointedness to the look;
- Lips soft and full but not to a degree where they'd come off as puffy;
- Soft jawline and the line of cheeks, flush full of health in rose;
- Long eyelashes with a slight natural valley-shape bend to them;
- Delicate, agile fingers that seem to always settle elegantly when still;
- Soft, smooth, long hair, usually kept up with one of the many ornate pins and clips;
- A touch or two of makeup, eyes lined at the outer corners in black and sometimes red with a precise, confident hand; lips sometimes touched by carmine paper;
- A tiny vertical red line, just above the eyebrows and perfectly in the middle, easy to mistake for a ceremonial marking of some sort;
- More often than not seems impeccably groomed;
- Lean, but strong body with great flexibility and sense of balance, leading every movement, be it an inclination of a cup in a raised hand or a drifting side step, to feel in place, harmonious as if in a rhythm of a dance; A healthy amount of softness to smooth the muscle lines; Some scars that are being faded by medicinal ointments, barely an imperfection save for one;
- An old, torn, fading scar from a past devastating wound that once started at the base of the neck and carved its way down the shoulder; Too large to disappear quickly;
- Has been seen in a few layered sets of clothes in varied weaves of silk, most either brocaded or embroidered;
- Seems to cherish the colors green, blue, purple and black;
- Also has a pair of vambraces and several wide belts, part decorative and part full of secrets;
- Loves silver jewelry, trinkets, hair pins, belt accessories;
- Is particularly fond of the silver full-finger rings shaped like ornamented, thin claws that are worn on the ring and pinky fingers;
Personality
- Introduces himself under a variety of names, frequently used titles 'Scholar Wen (Xiansu)' and 'Master Song (Zheng)', refers to the giant magpie as Moyuan; never seems to use his real name;
- Amiable, polite, sometimes does not translate honorifics;
- Very aware of own beauty, its objectifying downfalls and instrumental uses;
- There is no former secret police;
- Pragmatic;
- Unassuming and often underestimated for looking 'soft';
- Aware of the precarious nature of retirement from prior post;
Skills
CIVIL SKILLS
Proficient with and in.
WEAVING
Below are some of the signature techniques and angles that define Song's style.
His sorceries are ingrained with the martial disciplines and alchemical transmutations.
These are his main avenues.
In degree of ascending feats of power:
Qinggong
And other techniques of the 'light body', rumoured to allow the user balance effortlessly on the edge of the round basket full of stones, moving around it until all but one stone were removed from it.
This technique allows Song to utilize his natural dexterity and supernatural ability to control his balance and even his pressure onto surfaces with unerring precision. This allows him to execute unnaturally high leaps, climb easily, step quietly, and dance with exquisite grace as it almost seems like he can briefly render his body weightless at opportune moments.
Spirit Well
This one is rumored to have had a spirit for a mother - a spirit of a deep lake, trapped within a cavern by a river, but could only hear the echoes of the water moving, see the sky and the green of the trees above, and remain in place. And so, no wonder her son's eyes are blue.
As long as there is a body of still water in a place that he calls home, Song has a much easier time maintaining internal balance. His eyes allow him to see beyond the mundane world via rituals or with uses of focusing incenses or sutras. In places where sorceries reign supreme, where veils are thin or power is accumulated in tremendous proportions, he is likely to perceive the mortal and the invisible world interlaced as a whole. This is bad for his sanity and often confusing for anyone around.
Since his transformation, he is most of the times in company of a pale-eyed raven Jueye, which seems to be of a larger intelligence than a normal bird. Song has devised a ritual which renders him into deep slumber and allows to see through Jueye's eyes.
Song's sway over and affinity for other corvids is tangential, and doesn't awaken in them any higher-than-animal intelligence.
Maintaining Balance
Ever since his youth, gongzi has not changed much. His features never hardened, nor his voice hoarsened. And yet, more often than not he was the first to know of any malignant disturbances.
(note: some references to wuxing-type five element interaction; as per usual, very tangential;
this is just a flavor of how a character culturally understands 'magic theory')
Song's physical and spiritual parts exist in a very fragile balance, and tilting to either extreme not only has devastating drawbacks but also may affect his personality. He has only himself to blame, and has to maintain balance through meditation, medication and touching grass.
For ease of reference, duality will be described as yin and yang.
Both are neutral, neither good nor bad, and essential for nature to exist.
yang-alignment is male, active, hot, physical, impulsive, of the physical world;
yin-alignment is female, passive, cold, spiritual, lying in wait, of the spirit world.
Song's Core is 'Wood'.
In the Creative Cycle, Water nurtures Wood, and Wood fuels Fire.
He can shift his qi to resonate with Water, a yin element, which enhances his abilities as seer and weaver, and grants him better longevity/durability against poisons.
However, it disregulates the Fire attunement, and as such, the bird half becomes harder to control in transformation (slow, gorey and painful), as well as makes Song more vulnerable to physical wounds.
Diminished Fire qi will also open the gateway to less control over perception, and may cause hallucinations or attract the unbidden attention of spirits.
If he chooses to resonate with Fire, his bird-form transformation is brief and control of it may even allow for minor weaving, qigong comes naturally and spirits tend to look at him more favorably.
He is also much less affected by physical wounds, diseases and cold.
However, the disregulated Water qi will dull his ability to see hidden, his fingernails will start growing strong and pale, claw-like; diminished Water focus will make it harder to control or suppress more carnal urges.
Due to having to maintain the balance, he is hypersensitive and can experience physical turmoil in places where sorceries went out of control or were corrupted, in other words, where qi flows out of balance and out of prescribed paths.
Xiandao: Moon on His Wings
He wore the qing color, and though most would see it as a mark of bright spring-like youth and beauty, one educated in the nature of Master Song knew that the colors of Jades were to be met with agitation. Word was on the streets that he could command birds to spy for him, and dealt in poisons, and even that, at night, he would summon a great winged kuei to travel far and fast on its wings.
Song's magnum opus.
Song's pursuit of the path of immortality led to him becoming a shapeshifter.
He was lucky to be powerful enough to stabilize that power,
and luckier still to remain in control of it.
He can obtain a form of an enormous, monstrous corvid with sharp talons and a deadly long beak -
yang-balanced form will resemble a magpie, with white feathers and an iridescent green sheen on the black ones;
yin-balanced form will resemble a crow, feathers so black they practically absorb light, and unnaturally quiet in its movements.
Any form has his distinct shade and pattern of blue eyes, and is capable of faultering speech and mimicking sounds.
In bird form, he attracts corvids and has a limited unconscious sway over them. He is also somewhat susceptible to sorceries that would target a bird spirit in any form, including human.
The transformation varies in length, but is extremely painful, and while the bird body recovers almost instantly, the human body is often rendered weak by the strain of it. There are also instances where transformation occurs without Song's control.
Bird form is much more vulnerable to bloodlust and cruel urges, and has a less disciplined weakness for all things silver and most things shiny.
Proficient with and in.
- bows, straight swords, daggers, needles, blowguns, garrotes;
- rituals, music (guqin, erhu), horseback archery, calligraphy (poetry), painting;
- bird rearing and training (seems to have affinity in general, but vast majority corvids);
- medicinal alchemy, both poisons and remedies
former commonly as pills, brews/teas, ointments, incense;
latter commonly as liquid drops, infused bugs (gu), or thick weapon coatings; - dancing and acrobatics;
- swimming, diving;
- strangely enough, brocade;
WEAVING
Below are some of the signature techniques and angles that define Song's style.
His sorceries are ingrained with the martial disciplines and alchemical transmutations.
These are his main avenues.
In degree of ascending feats of power:
Qinggong
And other techniques of the 'light body', rumoured to allow the user balance effortlessly on the edge of the round basket full of stones, moving around it until all but one stone were removed from it.
This technique allows Song to utilize his natural dexterity and supernatural ability to control his balance and even his pressure onto surfaces with unerring precision. This allows him to execute unnaturally high leaps, climb easily, step quietly, and dance with exquisite grace as it almost seems like he can briefly render his body weightless at opportune moments.
Spirit Well
This one is rumored to have had a spirit for a mother - a spirit of a deep lake, trapped within a cavern by a river, but could only hear the echoes of the water moving, see the sky and the green of the trees above, and remain in place. And so, no wonder her son's eyes are blue.
As long as there is a body of still water in a place that he calls home, Song has a much easier time maintaining internal balance. His eyes allow him to see beyond the mundane world via rituals or with uses of focusing incenses or sutras. In places where sorceries reign supreme, where veils are thin or power is accumulated in tremendous proportions, he is likely to perceive the mortal and the invisible world interlaced as a whole. This is bad for his sanity and often confusing for anyone around.
Since his transformation, he is most of the times in company of a pale-eyed raven Jueye, which seems to be of a larger intelligence than a normal bird. Song has devised a ritual which renders him into deep slumber and allows to see through Jueye's eyes.
Song's sway over and affinity for other corvids is tangential, and doesn't awaken in them any higher-than-animal intelligence.
Maintaining Balance
Ever since his youth, gongzi has not changed much. His features never hardened, nor his voice hoarsened. And yet, more often than not he was the first to know of any malignant disturbances.
(note: some references to wuxing-type five element interaction; as per usual, very tangential;
this is just a flavor of how a character culturally understands 'magic theory')
Song's physical and spiritual parts exist in a very fragile balance, and tilting to either extreme not only has devastating drawbacks but also may affect his personality. He has only himself to blame, and has to maintain balance through meditation, medication and touching grass.
For ease of reference, duality will be described as yin and yang.
Both are neutral, neither good nor bad, and essential for nature to exist.
yang-alignment is male, active, hot, physical, impulsive, of the physical world;
yin-alignment is female, passive, cold, spiritual, lying in wait, of the spirit world.
Song's Core is 'Wood'.
In the Creative Cycle, Water nurtures Wood, and Wood fuels Fire.
He can shift his qi to resonate with Water, a yin element, which enhances his abilities as seer and weaver, and grants him better longevity/durability against poisons.
However, it disregulates the Fire attunement, and as such, the bird half becomes harder to control in transformation (slow, gorey and painful), as well as makes Song more vulnerable to physical wounds.
Diminished Fire qi will also open the gateway to less control over perception, and may cause hallucinations or attract the unbidden attention of spirits.
If he chooses to resonate with Fire, his bird-form transformation is brief and control of it may even allow for minor weaving, qigong comes naturally and spirits tend to look at him more favorably.
He is also much less affected by physical wounds, diseases and cold.
However, the disregulated Water qi will dull his ability to see hidden, his fingernails will start growing strong and pale, claw-like; diminished Water focus will make it harder to control or suppress more carnal urges.
Due to having to maintain the balance, he is hypersensitive and can experience physical turmoil in places where sorceries went out of control or were corrupted, in other words, where qi flows out of balance and out of prescribed paths.
Xiandao: Moon on His Wings
He wore the qing color, and though most would see it as a mark of bright spring-like youth and beauty, one educated in the nature of Master Song knew that the colors of Jades were to be met with agitation. Word was on the streets that he could command birds to spy for him, and dealt in poisons, and even that, at night, he would summon a great winged kuei to travel far and fast on its wings.
Song's magnum opus.
Song's pursuit of the path of immortality led to him becoming a shapeshifter.
He was lucky to be powerful enough to stabilize that power,
and luckier still to remain in control of it.
He can obtain a form of an enormous, monstrous corvid with sharp talons and a deadly long beak -
yang-balanced form will resemble a magpie, with white feathers and an iridescent green sheen on the black ones;
yin-balanced form will resemble a crow, feathers so black they practically absorb light, and unnaturally quiet in its movements.
Any form has his distinct shade and pattern of blue eyes, and is capable of faultering speech and mimicking sounds.
In bird form, he attracts corvids and has a limited unconscious sway over them. He is also somewhat susceptible to sorceries that would target a bird spirit in any form, including human.
The transformation varies in length, but is extremely painful, and while the bird body recovers almost instantly, the human body is often rendered weak by the strain of it. There are also instances where transformation occurs without Song's control.
Bird form is much more vulnerable to bloodlust and cruel urges, and has a less disciplined weakness for all things silver and most things shiny.
