Tsunetomo
About My Character
Background
In the early days, the dead were left to rot in fields where they died. When civilizations arose, Vardama showed the people how to sooth the lost souls and bury them. Since then, always some are taking care for the dead. No matter which culture, someone buries the dead. Be it the lowliest, or the highest. Someone plays the chords on Vardama's Harp and buries the dead.
The story of one of those begins where is little need for a grave in the earth, as they live close to the sky. But even proud Egalrin eventually die, and so at least one or two in an Aerie follow the ways of Vardama. Some as they chose to, others as destiny picked them. The story we are to tell here is about one of the later.
Hatched as the last of a nest, Tsunetomo seemed not to be the strongest or fastest in his early years and neither did he seem to deal too well with his siblings and instead thinking about the world like an airhead. His father, a revered ranger, shunned him for his lack of confidence and thinking attitude and it was only on the behalf of his mother, that the misfit was given into the hands of the Vardamite who did care for the graves of the Aerie instead of being tossed out of the nest as early as 8.
The chord who was to take care of the quiet youngster had never been kind to anyone, but always been devoted to its service. At first the young seemed to be outright ignored, but after a week or so, in which he barely even moved beside when he needed to do so to eat the food that was prepared for him, the old monk had decided, that he seemed not to be a complete waste. Deep thinking was a good sign to make a potential monk.
Still, before great deeds there need to be proper training, and the life of a monk is not an easy one. From the day the chord had decided to train the young Tsunetomo in the ways, he did not allow him ever to slack down, forcing him to shape his body as much as grinding at his soul by dictating what he shall think and meditate about while locking him out of the usual society.
The years passed and the young turned a teen, still tucked under the wings of the old chord. Like a rough stone had revealed to hold a precious gemstone, his body had been toughened and the mind ironed. However in the eyes of his master he was still dull and unrefined, and whenever Tsunetomo was noticed to let concentration down even a bit, he found himself in the need to defend against a barrage of attacks of him. But even then came the day when the old chord decided that young Tsunetomo had to part ways with him and learn under a different master in the small Steep Cliff Monastery
The long glide from his Aerie to the small monastery lead young Tsunetomo further away from home then he ever had been before with every clap of his wing, but the thoughtful child had become a hardened young man with a healthy body and a determined mind, which not even the opposing wind could stop him from reaching the windy caves of the brotherhood.
More years passed in which the rough jewel got cut and polished, the training of Tsunetomo perfected and hammered into his muscles like his very essence. But even in the solitude of a monastery, war never changes. The mournful cries of the souls untended reached the monks eventually, and when they had decided to send one of their own to handle the matter, the call came to Tsunetomo, to go out and sooth the dead without rest.
Look
Tall the Egalrin stands with its wide shoulders, the white feathers covering the eagle neck and head to the yellow beak. Sharp predatory eyes gleam yellow in the light and the strong wings prove that the specimen might still be young, but on the way to his best years. The muscular frame is covered in a simple long tunic from light grey linen, which falls from the shoulders down to the knees where the feathers change to the strong talons. Around the midriff he wears a thin spidersilk rope as a belt, having it wound around the body several times. At the left side there is a pair of arm long sticks pushed into it.
Roleplay Hooks
- Chord on the Harp
- As a Monk of Vardama, Tsunetomo has a serious dislike for undead and unburied people
- What's the War about?!
- War never changes, but its waves ruffled the feathers in the mountaintops, so Tsunetomo was sent to investigate...