Bayushi Houten
| Bayushi Houten | |
|---|---|
| |
| A.K.A. | |
| Age | 23 |
| Voice Actor | Troy Baker |
| Relatives | |
| Series | Legend of Five Rings |
| Player | Brandon |
- Name: Bayushi Houten
- Age: 23
- Sex: Male
- Birthday:
- Parents:
- Place of Birth: Ryoko Owari Toshi
- Nationality: Rokugani
- Specialty: Observation and Manipulation
- Hobbies: Playing the koto, ikebane, landscape gardening, Kemari, Mounted Kyujutsu, the art of the insult, the game of
letters, go and Shougi
- Likes: Intrigue, swordplay, banter
- Dislikes: thick, obtuse people
- Favorite Food: Yakitori
- Least Favorite Food: anything with red meat
- Favorite Music: Traditional Japanese music
- Favorite Sport: Kemari
- Most Valuable Possessions: His daisho and a specifc piece of his mask collection
- Level of Education: Bayushi Sword School, Bitter Lies Dojo, Bayushi Courtier School
- Seiyuu/Voice Actor: Troy Baker
- Physical Stats
- Height: 5'8"
- Weight: 157 lbs
- Eyes: Brown
- Hair: Black
- Special: Masked in some way or another at alltimes.
Contents
Appearance
A handsome man with mildly exotic and angular features, looking to be of Japanese descent. Regardless of his mode of dress, he generally sticks to a motif of red or burgandy with ash grey or black. He is also never without some article or another that obscures his face, even if only barely.
Personality
Houten is outwardly friendly, though gives off an air of always having something up his sleeve. He is very decietful to his enemies, but fiercely loyal to his friends and allies. That is not to say he doesn't lie to them, but he doesn't mislead them for personal gain or to take them down a peg.
Background
Houten had a mostly typical Scorpion background. His gempukku (comming of age ceremony) was normal; it was a public party in which most wore no masks. When it came time for him to be spirited away in secret by his sensei. He was asked questions about the invited guests, expected to have taken in enough observations to answer the questions properly. He excelled in this test and began on his way. His keen eye would later make him a clan magistrate and then an Emerald Magistrate. Recently, he discovered that the clan of the Crane's high nobility had been infiltrated by the Kolat, a heretical humanist organization. Knowing he could not allow the Crane to fall for the good of the empire, he killed the Kolat agent and allowed himself to be seen as a villain, hiding behind his position to keep himself safe from vengeance.
Skills
Physical Skills:
- Alertness: Amazing
- Athletics: Good
- Stealth: Amazing
Social Skills:
- Subterfuge: Amazing
- Intimidation: Increidble
- Leadership: Abysmal
- Etiquette: Incredible
- Performance: Very Good
Mental Skills:
- Investigation: Good
- Politics: Very Good
Other Skills:
- Survival: Novice
- Empathy: Very Good
- Animal Ken: Abysmal
Special Abilities
Dark Sword of Bitter Lies: The Dark Sword of Bitter Lies is a style passed down through the Scorpion Clan that relies on incredible luck and mind bending unpredictability. A hallmark of Bitter Lies swordsman is that they tend to survive suicide missions on pure flukes.. repeatedly. They are fierce and incredibly unpredictable in a fight and actually seem to thrive on very bad odds. They are fond of tactics such as suicide charges, able to do them in such a way that the intimidation factor allows them an opening to turn battles around to their favor. In summation, Bitter Lies Swordsman appear to be incredibly lucky, mad or both.
Way of the Scorpion: A basic skillset of all Scorpion swordsmen, but even more so Bitter Lies students, this is the methodology and philosophy of the Scorpion sword. It is about being able to identify weaknesses, disadvantages, advantageous positions and any other way of gaining an upper hand in a fight at a glance. This philosophy also teaches the swordsman to be ever ready and be as good against ambushers as they themselves are as ambushers. The Way of the Scorpion also has social aspects, following the same philosophy of identifying and capitolizing on every advantage that can be found. Scorpions are as dangerous with their words as they are their swords.
Pincers and Tail: The art of feinting is something Scorpion samurai have perfected and it has cost the lives of many of their enemies. They can believably feint an attack with incredible ease.
Strike at the Tail: This is a stance designed to stymie an enemy's ability to move and attack. This includes tricks such as shifting from right handed to left handed suddenly, redirecting attacks mid-swing and throwing elbows, knees and kicks; the point being that attacks from a Strike at the Tail position are tailor made to be stunners and stagger attacks.
Strike From Above, Strike From Below: The swordsman's attacks have become completely natural to him. In this stance, the user is a thing of raw speed, geared towards preemptive strikes and quick kills in between enemy attacks. These may also be used for battlefield assassinations, such as striking down an opponent who is distracted fighting one of his comrades.
The Pincers Hold, the Tail Strikes: Striking an opponent's weakest point is the Scorpion's true path to victory. This is the culmination of the Bayushi style, where the user exploits the identified weaknesses in his enemy, his every strike a kill, or a stun to set up a kill. Blade locks with subtle positioning to give an enemy a false sense of advantage, only to be cut open when they go to push the Scorpion away are an example of this stance's skillset.
Ishiken: Trained and developed in secret, Houten inherited and trained in the mystical arts of Rokugan's elementalist spell casters known as Shugenja with his mother, a former member of the Isawa family. What makes this particular gift unique is that his mother, and himself by extension, are Ishiken, spellcasters capable of calling upon spirits of the fifth element, Void. Void is everything and it is nothing. It is the glue that binds the other four elements together in reality and in people. It is chi. It is chakra. The whole of it's mass is maddening to perceive for most mortals; the Ishiken are the exception to the rule.
No Mind: In this trance-like state, Houten's focus on the battle and ability to shut out distractions is uncanny. All things that are not a direct threat to him are beyond his notice in this state (including allies). While in this state of high perception, his attacks are more quicker and more precise and his reactions are faster and can still be done from more unfavorable positions. This state can only be held for a few minutes; Void spirits are enigmatic on their best day and he cannot long-term commune with them. Repeated uses in a day are possible but ill advised, even a trained mind can be baffled or broken by the swirling patterns of energy. Outwardly, the whites of his eyes go an inky black and his irises softly glow gold (gold light and inky blackness being two visual representations of Void energies) and he exudes a level of calm that is unnerving.
Touch of Void: The Void is a difficult thing to perceive, even for one trained in doing so. This ability focuses into a single unarmed strike, which ever so briefly exposes the target to the full brunt of the Void, in this technique through their body. If the strike lands solid and true, the shock of the strange empty energy will disrupt and dishevel the target's Chi, causing short term difficulties in spell casting or use of other abilities. Essentially a stunner geared towards interrupting specials and throwing the enemy's focus. While this technique is simple and instantaneous it is still quite taxing on the mind to overuse the Void so caution is to be exercised.
Touch the Nothingness: A very similar attack to Touch the Void, but this acts as a burst of magic that attacks the target's vision. The dazzling array of chaos is enough to render most targets temporarily baffled, unable to process any of what they have just seen. It has no deeply adverse effects on targets per se (though to some, peering into the void even for this instance can be maddening), but it makes a good setup for attacks of opportunity or escapes. As usual, caution must be exercised in how often one taps into the Void.
Poisons: Houten is superbly trained in the manufacture, identification, application and curing of numerous holistic poisons, crafted from various plants and animals. Luckily for him, most of the plants and animals in Rokugan seem to be the same as on Earth.
A Knife in the Dark: Bayushi warriors are taught to be stealthy when they need to be, their ability to cast aside their own personal honor to accomplish the greater task making them effective assassins, though this is not something that they speak of.
Kyujutsu: Is a talented archer, both on foot and mounted.
Powers & Merits
Honeyed Tongue (2 pts)
Soothing Voice (2 pts)
Culture Knack (3 pts)
Clear Sighted (3 pts)
Unique Items
Fire Maple Mempo: An ash grey mempo with red lining that marks him as a practiced user of the Dark Sword of Bitter Lies. Does not usually wear this mask in public.
Symbol of the Emerald Magistrate: This small jade orb with the mon of the Emerald Champion etched into one side and the mon of the Scorpion clan etched into the other.
Shinjitsu: Shinjitsu appeared as a rather ordinary weapon. Its tsuba was silvery and perfectly round with a design of radial lines that formed a sun-like pattern inside a black disk on both sides of it. The hilt was wrapped with a layer of red silk, partly hidden by a woven strands of black silk. The sword was a normal katana in the hands of anyone other than a Scorpion. If the wielder was a Scorpion he could activate the Fire Kami bound into the sword, causing the blade to go white hot, and/or burst into magical flame.
Items Of Note
Masks: Houten has a small collection of masks and is NEVER seen without one of them on. THat is not to say nobody has seen his face; his masks vary in location and ammount of coverage.
Armor: A finely crafted suit of armor, "gifted" to him by a Shiba armor smith.
Wakizashi: While the katana he carries is not of his ancestral daisho set, the wakizashi is; it belonged to his grandfather.
Old Yumi: An old, well tended yumi (shortbow) with an assortment of arrows.
Weaknesses & Flaws
Group Emnity (2 pt) The Crane Clan dislikes him horridly, and if not for his position, warriors of the Crane would kill him on sight.
Noteriety (3 pt) He is well known for applying Scorpion thought to his duties of enforcing the Empire's law with brutal efficiency. There are of course rumors of torture and blackmail to get his intel and testimonies but none would ever dare make these accusations outloud.
Twisted Mentoring (1 pt) He is as dedicated a Baysuhi as there ever was. As such he was taught the classic tenants of pragmaticism, dishonesty and deception and accepts those things happily as part of who he is.
Sadist (1 pt) He enjoys his work a little too much from time to time.
Dark Secret: Poisons (1 pt, only applicable in Rokugan) Use and knowledge of poisons is a major taboo in samurai society.
Dark Secret: Knife in the Dark (1 pt) No Samurai would ever admit to being able to act as an assassin.
Wakizashi: The Wakizashi is the symbol of a samurai's ultimate duty, and the blade with which they take their own life if they fail in that duty. As such, they can never be without it under any circumstances.
Masks: His clan's own internal code denotes that he cannot be seen without his mask outside of very particular situations and very strennous degrees of trust. In certain circumstances, this can be used against him; stripping him of his mask would shame him greatly.
Fealty: Scorpions take their oathes of fealty and their personal promises of loyalty incredibly seriously and would die before any of these bonds would be broken. THis is non negotiable. If he cannot escape a situation that would force him to become a traitor to those whom he has sworn his loyalty, he will attempt to kill himself.
Is.. Very very willing to lie, cheat and steal to do whatever he's set out to do. He firmly believes that the ends justifies the means and that his personal honor means little in the long run of completing his sworn duty. His view of Bushido is quite skewed, and this can rub others who follow this code the wrong way. The exception of this is the tenant of Loyalty; his clan and by extension, himself are PARTICULARLY unforgiving of betrayal in any form.
NPC(s) to go with char
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