Leaf on the Wind
11-12-07, 01:08 AM
Sh33p here, throwing my next character idea out at the wall. Let's see if it goes splat! D:
Name: Rowan Stormwind
Age: 21
Race: Human
Hair Color: White
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 220 lbs.
Occupation: Vagrant, mercenary, fighter-for-hire
Personality: The man called Rowan Stormwind is cocky to a fault, with his arrogance tempered only by his sense of justice. Pride and his sense of right and wrong are, quite literally, Rowan's only true driving forces in life, and the balance between the two is a precarious one at best. He's a sucker for lost causes, brutally honest in the most literal sense, and generally easygoing when not in a fight. He's also known for showing off and improvising strategies out of thin air, among other things. Often described as having a decent enough sense of humor. He generally attempts to fight fair, but only up to a certain point. Among other things, Rowan's a habitual skirtchaser with a love 'em and leave 'em mentality.
Appearance: Topping out at 6'3" and having the actual muscle mass to back it up, Rowan is considerably more impressive looking than your average Nearly Anorexic Fighter-types. His build is that of a lifelong martial artist from a reasonably wealthy background, and his hair is a stark white that's been cut short and swept up and back. Most of the time, Rowan can be seen sporting anything from a light to heavy tan, depending on where he's travelled.
He's often seen slouching and grinning outside of a fight, and carries several different sets of clothes on him, though all are generally colored to some theme of white and black. For what it's worth, he tends to favor a pair of white Akashiman hakama-styled pants in most instances. Day-to-day, he also favors a neatly pressed white jacket with black trim, short in the body and always worn over a shirt of some sort. In most prearranged fights, he wears a half-shirt similar to an eastern monk, leaving the right chest, back and arm completely bare. The left arm is usually bare as well. Noticably, he has two matching scars on the front and back of his right shoulder. He favors a well-used pair of black boots with white details.
Skills:
General Weapons Use: Rowan has experienced a great deal of cross-training with melee weapons, ranging from spiked gauntlets to hammers, swords to spears, and every single knife, axe and chain in between. Unfortunately, he's never once used a bow and arrow, and while he's able to use pretty much anything as a weapon, he's a pure generalist and prefers to fight using his body or chi.
Falling Leaf: Rowan is an adept student of an Akashiman martial art, known locally as Banedo (often translated as Leafer's Way), but better known abroad for the variant he practices: Falling Leaf. It's a style that, in real world terms, loosely resembles an acrobatic Tae Kwan Do with elements of other striking arts. There's a strong, almost excessive focus of using the legs for offense and the hands and arms for defense, use of weapons, or special techniques, though the rule is one chock full of exceptions and flat-out contradictions. It's an art for improvisation and style, best known for its acrobatics and emphasis on the use of chi as an offensive tool. It's been said that a Falling Leaf practitioner can continue a battle even with both arms completely broken, but Rowan hasn't been able to confirm it firsthand...yet.
Falling Leaf Techniques
- General Chi Control: Rowan is able to use his chi control to bolster his strength and endurance by up to 50% more than a normal man in his physical condition.
-- Specific Chi Control - Legs and Feet: As Rowan's offense is mainly focused on his legs, most of his chi control is centered there as well. At present, he's able to increase his running speed by a full 50%, and can jump up to ten feet off the ground from a dead stop.
- Aerial Traction: Thanks to his chi control, Rowan is able to (more or less) jump and run on air. At present, his control is weak and requires constant, rapid leg movement and a good deal of energy to maintain. He can also only run as fast as a normal person while in mid-air, and has trouble properly maneuvering. He can also use this technique to gain greater traction on slick or vertical surfaces, though he still has to keep running in order to avoid falling off a ceiling or wall.
- Bursting Leaf: By building up chi in his feet, shins or knees, Rowan is able to deliver a light explosive attack in the form of kicks or knee strikes. While relatively weak, it's a quick attack that doesn't give much in the way of a 'tell' -- no flashing lights, for the most part. He can use this for jumping as well, on ground or in conjunction with Aerial Traction.
- Blazing Leaf: Performed similarly to the Bursting Leaf, except as a range attack that Rowan can also deliver with his hands or elbows. Blazing Leaf sends out a thick, misty looking surge of white-blue light, which moves at around 90-or-so miles per hour and has similar effects to a generic magic missile -- which is to say it hits the target with a mixture of blunt impact damage (roughly equal to the punch or kick Rowan uses to launch it), while also dealing flameless burn damage (some light to mild burning, but no residual fire to put out). Unlike Bursting Leaf, Blazing Leaf has a few warning signs. Rowan often takes a deep breath beforehand, though he tries to hide it in all sorts of ways. There's also a surge of light around whatever limb he intends to fire it from. Blazing Leaf has no specific form; it simply trails the movement used to cast it (a palm thrust results in a beam, a wide kick results in a crescent). Obviously, the kicking version is more powerful, but the hand version is more accurate.
Weapons Techniques:
- Iaijutsu: Quite literally the only weapon technique in Rowan's arsenal. He learned Iaijutsu as a part of his upbringing, and still practices from time to time as a form of meditation. Rowan's rare use of this art makes him a relatively poor practitioner by most standards; he's got the speed and the ceremony of it down, but his actual technique and accuracy are sorely lacking. Unsurprisingly, his chi control has little bearing on his swordsmanship.
Equipment:
Chokuto: A simple steel sword from Akashima. It has a light blue and white hilt, a gold-colored pommel and matching rectangular handguard with leaves engraved into its corners. The blade is relatively well-polished, ending in a shallow point. The sheath is colored the same light blue as the hilt, with a gold-colored cap at one end and a matching mouthpiece. While Rowan rarely actually uses the thing, he's got too much sentimental value to just get rid of it (even if he does seriously consider it from time to time). Etched into the blade's base are few Akashiman kanji, translating as Leafcutter.
Traveller's Sack: A plain leather sack with a rope to bind it shut. Rowan keeps his clothes and other miscellaneous worldly belongings in here. Incidentally, that doesn't amount to much more than a few changes of clothes and the occasional book or scroll.
History: The son of a Coronian merchant and diplomat, Rowan's parents were dispatched to Akashima shortly after it was reopened to the rest of Corone. Rowan himself was born not long afterward. Unsurprisingly, he grew up in much the same way any relative Noble does: In near luxury, but with a great deal of strictness. Rather than pursue his mother's diplomatic position or his father's business interests, Rowan turned to martial pursuits at an early age.
His reasons for this tend to come at a mile a minute, and he never tells the exact same story twice in a row, but the reality of the situation was quite simple: A girl beat the living hell out of him and what started as a boyish urge to get even somehow morphed into a lifelong pursuit of martial perfection. Needless to say, his parents did not approve. Also needless to say, Rowan didn't care. At the age of fifteen, he permanently left home and joined up with one of Akashima's seemingly innumerable dojos. By hook, crook, or sheer egomania, this path lead him into arena combat.
By the age of seventeen, Rowan had estalbished himself as a lower-tier champion in several Akashiman dojos. He'd killed three opponents, broken the backs of two others, and had an undefeated streak reading like a who's who of Akashima's amateur martial artists. Unfortunately, that's all he was: An amateur, and an arrogant one at that. Shortly after coming of age, at eighteen years old, Rowan was matched up against a professional; a man who, in the actual leagues, was nothing. A nobody. Even Rowan himself doesn't remember the man's name. In fact, all he does remember are two things: It was raining that day, and that had nothing to do with how badly he lost. It was a fight of swords and savagery, and Rowan was beaten to a bloody pulp after being stabbed through his right shoulder.
Needless to say, he fell into a depression. It was only broken when his mentor gave him a simple order: Go forth into the world.
The day after that, Rowan was given his sword. He left Akashima, and though he visits from time to time, he knows he can never go back...and now that he's actually seen the world, Rowan wouldn't have it any other way.
Name: Rowan Stormwind
Age: 21
Race: Human
Hair Color: White
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 220 lbs.
Occupation: Vagrant, mercenary, fighter-for-hire
Personality: The man called Rowan Stormwind is cocky to a fault, with his arrogance tempered only by his sense of justice. Pride and his sense of right and wrong are, quite literally, Rowan's only true driving forces in life, and the balance between the two is a precarious one at best. He's a sucker for lost causes, brutally honest in the most literal sense, and generally easygoing when not in a fight. He's also known for showing off and improvising strategies out of thin air, among other things. Often described as having a decent enough sense of humor. He generally attempts to fight fair, but only up to a certain point. Among other things, Rowan's a habitual skirtchaser with a love 'em and leave 'em mentality.
Appearance: Topping out at 6'3" and having the actual muscle mass to back it up, Rowan is considerably more impressive looking than your average Nearly Anorexic Fighter-types. His build is that of a lifelong martial artist from a reasonably wealthy background, and his hair is a stark white that's been cut short and swept up and back. Most of the time, Rowan can be seen sporting anything from a light to heavy tan, depending on where he's travelled.
He's often seen slouching and grinning outside of a fight, and carries several different sets of clothes on him, though all are generally colored to some theme of white and black. For what it's worth, he tends to favor a pair of white Akashiman hakama-styled pants in most instances. Day-to-day, he also favors a neatly pressed white jacket with black trim, short in the body and always worn over a shirt of some sort. In most prearranged fights, he wears a half-shirt similar to an eastern monk, leaving the right chest, back and arm completely bare. The left arm is usually bare as well. Noticably, he has two matching scars on the front and back of his right shoulder. He favors a well-used pair of black boots with white details.
Skills:
General Weapons Use: Rowan has experienced a great deal of cross-training with melee weapons, ranging from spiked gauntlets to hammers, swords to spears, and every single knife, axe and chain in between. Unfortunately, he's never once used a bow and arrow, and while he's able to use pretty much anything as a weapon, he's a pure generalist and prefers to fight using his body or chi.
Falling Leaf: Rowan is an adept student of an Akashiman martial art, known locally as Banedo (often translated as Leafer's Way), but better known abroad for the variant he practices: Falling Leaf. It's a style that, in real world terms, loosely resembles an acrobatic Tae Kwan Do with elements of other striking arts. There's a strong, almost excessive focus of using the legs for offense and the hands and arms for defense, use of weapons, or special techniques, though the rule is one chock full of exceptions and flat-out contradictions. It's an art for improvisation and style, best known for its acrobatics and emphasis on the use of chi as an offensive tool. It's been said that a Falling Leaf practitioner can continue a battle even with both arms completely broken, but Rowan hasn't been able to confirm it firsthand...yet.
Falling Leaf Techniques
- General Chi Control: Rowan is able to use his chi control to bolster his strength and endurance by up to 50% more than a normal man in his physical condition.
-- Specific Chi Control - Legs and Feet: As Rowan's offense is mainly focused on his legs, most of his chi control is centered there as well. At present, he's able to increase his running speed by a full 50%, and can jump up to ten feet off the ground from a dead stop.
- Aerial Traction: Thanks to his chi control, Rowan is able to (more or less) jump and run on air. At present, his control is weak and requires constant, rapid leg movement and a good deal of energy to maintain. He can also only run as fast as a normal person while in mid-air, and has trouble properly maneuvering. He can also use this technique to gain greater traction on slick or vertical surfaces, though he still has to keep running in order to avoid falling off a ceiling or wall.
- Bursting Leaf: By building up chi in his feet, shins or knees, Rowan is able to deliver a light explosive attack in the form of kicks or knee strikes. While relatively weak, it's a quick attack that doesn't give much in the way of a 'tell' -- no flashing lights, for the most part. He can use this for jumping as well, on ground or in conjunction with Aerial Traction.
- Blazing Leaf: Performed similarly to the Bursting Leaf, except as a range attack that Rowan can also deliver with his hands or elbows. Blazing Leaf sends out a thick, misty looking surge of white-blue light, which moves at around 90-or-so miles per hour and has similar effects to a generic magic missile -- which is to say it hits the target with a mixture of blunt impact damage (roughly equal to the punch or kick Rowan uses to launch it), while also dealing flameless burn damage (some light to mild burning, but no residual fire to put out). Unlike Bursting Leaf, Blazing Leaf has a few warning signs. Rowan often takes a deep breath beforehand, though he tries to hide it in all sorts of ways. There's also a surge of light around whatever limb he intends to fire it from. Blazing Leaf has no specific form; it simply trails the movement used to cast it (a palm thrust results in a beam, a wide kick results in a crescent). Obviously, the kicking version is more powerful, but the hand version is more accurate.
Weapons Techniques:
- Iaijutsu: Quite literally the only weapon technique in Rowan's arsenal. He learned Iaijutsu as a part of his upbringing, and still practices from time to time as a form of meditation. Rowan's rare use of this art makes him a relatively poor practitioner by most standards; he's got the speed and the ceremony of it down, but his actual technique and accuracy are sorely lacking. Unsurprisingly, his chi control has little bearing on his swordsmanship.
Equipment:
Chokuto: A simple steel sword from Akashima. It has a light blue and white hilt, a gold-colored pommel and matching rectangular handguard with leaves engraved into its corners. The blade is relatively well-polished, ending in a shallow point. The sheath is colored the same light blue as the hilt, with a gold-colored cap at one end and a matching mouthpiece. While Rowan rarely actually uses the thing, he's got too much sentimental value to just get rid of it (even if he does seriously consider it from time to time). Etched into the blade's base are few Akashiman kanji, translating as Leafcutter.
Traveller's Sack: A plain leather sack with a rope to bind it shut. Rowan keeps his clothes and other miscellaneous worldly belongings in here. Incidentally, that doesn't amount to much more than a few changes of clothes and the occasional book or scroll.
History: The son of a Coronian merchant and diplomat, Rowan's parents were dispatched to Akashima shortly after it was reopened to the rest of Corone. Rowan himself was born not long afterward. Unsurprisingly, he grew up in much the same way any relative Noble does: In near luxury, but with a great deal of strictness. Rather than pursue his mother's diplomatic position or his father's business interests, Rowan turned to martial pursuits at an early age.
His reasons for this tend to come at a mile a minute, and he never tells the exact same story twice in a row, but the reality of the situation was quite simple: A girl beat the living hell out of him and what started as a boyish urge to get even somehow morphed into a lifelong pursuit of martial perfection. Needless to say, his parents did not approve. Also needless to say, Rowan didn't care. At the age of fifteen, he permanently left home and joined up with one of Akashima's seemingly innumerable dojos. By hook, crook, or sheer egomania, this path lead him into arena combat.
By the age of seventeen, Rowan had estalbished himself as a lower-tier champion in several Akashiman dojos. He'd killed three opponents, broken the backs of two others, and had an undefeated streak reading like a who's who of Akashima's amateur martial artists. Unfortunately, that's all he was: An amateur, and an arrogant one at that. Shortly after coming of age, at eighteen years old, Rowan was matched up against a professional; a man who, in the actual leagues, was nothing. A nobody. Even Rowan himself doesn't remember the man's name. In fact, all he does remember are two things: It was raining that day, and that had nothing to do with how badly he lost. It was a fight of swords and savagery, and Rowan was beaten to a bloody pulp after being stabbed through his right shoulder.
Needless to say, he fell into a depression. It was only broken when his mentor gave him a simple order: Go forth into the world.
The day after that, Rowan was given his sword. He left Akashima, and though he visits from time to time, he knows he can never go back...and now that he's actually seen the world, Rowan wouldn't have it any other way.