Hayashi Hanzo's page

Hanzo will grow into my take on what a ‘golden age’ (Momoyama Period) samurai kensai/sword-saint should be. Mechanically, it will be a lot of Samurai (Poet Warrior), with a few levels of Monk (Weapon Adept). To make it work properly, I’ll be dipping a toe into Cleric. So, Hanzo will become a Samurai and a devout lay priest of Shizuru, the Empress of Heaven. Not that he expects to convert many in Avistan. He’ll be more of a ‘lead by example’ not by proselytizing sort. And his dedication to Shizuru is reflected in his traits (Inspired by Shizuru) and his code of ethics (Order of the Warrior).

I’ll be drawing on both common conceptions of samurai along with historical facts to (hopefully) make a really interesting character with a lot of depth who is also an effective melee combatant.

In terms of the campaign traits… many of them could work and I’m flexible on which I would use to avoid overlap with other players. My initial pick is Friend of the Family with the idea that their families are next door neighbors and Old Niska died around the same time as Hanzo’s father, creating a bond of sympathy between him and Koya. The promise he made to Niska to watch over Koya would be strong as steel since he is an Order of the Warrior samurai. So, when Koya wants to take this trip, Hanzo will be obligated to go along… and it will give him a chance to visit his familial homeland which would also be a huge draw for him. Their relationship would be complicated from Hanzo’s point of view. There would be aspects of parent/child but it would be presumptuous for him to act as if they were family (given the importance of bloodlines to the Tian). So, I think he would feel as if she was an elder aunt and would treat her with utmost respect as his senior… but he’d have a hard time expressing affections that would be too ‘familiar’ by Tian standards.

If that trait doesn’t work or conflicts with another player… I can just as easily go with Childhood Crush on Ameiko as they are both Minkaian, share some cultural ties but are also the ‘odd men out’ among all the Avistani folks. I have no problems with RP romances. Foster Child could also work. I’d just need to have Hanzo’s father die earlier than I planned. Even Caravan Guard could be used without a great deal of effort.

As Hanzo is technically a masterless samurai, it’s possible that he could ‘adopt’ Ameiko as his liege lord (whether he tells her or not), which could make for some fun RP especially if she is very Avistani in her thinking while he is a bit more Tian in his views on these matters.

Politics in Tian Xia are subtle… until they become very bloody. At such a moment in Minkai, nearly two decades ago, a grizzled bushi – Hayashi Haru – turned monk after the death of his wife, decided life was more important than honor… or rather, his infant son’s life was more important than his own honor. He couldn’t see his entire line end due to the changing fortunes of daimyos. He’d lost Midori to disease the year before. That was enough. So, he bundled up his son and ran… far and fast. Two years later, Haru and his (now) toddler had crossed the Crown of the World and settled down to a quiet life in Sandpoint. There were even a few other Tian in town, which Haru took as an auspicious sign.

Haru raised his son on stories of refined samurai, the glories of Minkai, lofty Tian Gods, the nobility of their culture, the impressive Hayashi family history, and the importance of honor. Truths, half-truths, and fiction were well mixed and impossible to sort out. Perhaps Haru convinced himself it was all true. The most fanciful tale was that there was dragon’s blood in all Hayashi veins which made them fierce warriors. Hanzo couldn’t speak to the ‘ferocity’ part of the tale but he did have remarkable vision atypical for humans (Trait: Blood of Dragons – low light vision).

Hanzo was raised to believe they were of noble samurai stock (they weren’t) and he should act accordingly. As a dutiful son, he did so… somehow taking his father’s practical warfare experiences, religious studies, and tales of samurai high arts and fusing them into his own brand of warrior (Samurai – Warrior-Poet, multiclass into Monk).

As he matured Hanzo longed for adventure and to prove himself a samurai. He would have accompanied Ameiko when she went adventuring (Rise of the Runelords) but his father forbade it. Hanzo chafed at the restriction but he was duty-bound to obey. And maybe that would have been his life, forever waiting for a chance to prove himself… but the dual tragedy of Haru’s and Niska’s deaths and the pledge he’d made to the older woman changed the course of his life irrevocably.