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About Nakadai
Backstory:
Nakadai has had a hard life. His father was a minor member of the Hida family on his way back home from the wall for a funeral and his mother a geisha he only knew was pregnant when he made his way back. That particular Hida had been married slightly above his station into a Crane family: such a miracle of miracles that even the Hida knew not to allow this indiscretion to be made public. His father never acknowledged him too openly but he was given a no-dachi as a gift, a subtle but permissible allusion to his samurai father. He quickly found himself moving north to avoid the constant trouble he kept finding himself in with local magistrates, and paying for his sake with his considerable strength and skill with his fists and blade. He would watch the samurai moving south to the wall practice their iaijutsu and by imitation became not unskilled at that as well, to the surprise of the occasional samurai who would challenge him for sport. He’s desperately seeking true purpose in life.
20 Qs:
1. WHAT CLAN DOES YOUR CHARACTER BELONG TO? He’s a ronin
2. WHAT FAMILY DOES YOUR CHARACTER BELONG TO? He’s a ronin
3. IS YOUR CHARACTER A BUSHI, A SHUGENJA, OR A COURTIER? He’s almost a quintessential bushi.
4. HOW WOULD OTHERS DESCRIBE YOUR CHARACTER’S APPEARANCE? If they even recognize him they would describe hims as bigger than a horse but otherwise remarkably unremarkable.
5. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S PRIMARY MOTIVATION? He’s been feeling empty with his life as a wanderer with nothing beyond food sake and women to serve as a goal. He wants to find a purpose.
6. WHO IS THE PERSON YOUR CHARACTER TRUSTS MOST IN THE WORLD? The magistrate Takaki once convinced some newly-minted Lions to leave him alone and not harass him by buying them drinks and company. Not only does Nakadai trust him but he’s the only person who can impress him with anything more subtle than a fist to the face without being mocked as effeminate.
7. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S GREATEST STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS? He could wrestle a bear or cut a castle in half but ask him to do almost anything cultural or impractical and he just completely zones out.
8. WHAT DOES YOUR CHARACTER THINK OF BUSHIDO? He thinks very little of Bushido. His father left him and his mother because of it, the samurai who bullied him did so because of it, and he can only rarely do anything back because of it.
9. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S OPINION OF HIS CLAN? He has no clan.
10. IS YOUR CHARACTER MARRIED? No he is not.
11. DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE ANY PREJUDICES? He doesn’t like most samurai bushi but he understands them. He thinks courtiers are effeminate and he is mistrustful of shugenja.
12. TO WHOM DOES YOUR CHARACTER OWE THE MOST LOYALTY? He serves whomever is paying him first and foremost, but can be relied on to help other common people if he doesn’t have to go too far out of his way. He relates to the eta who have to do unpleasant tasks such as torture or tanning; he sees them as kindred spirits to himself.
13. WHAT ARE YOUR CHARACTER’S FAVORITE AND LEAST FAVORITE THINGS? He loves simple pleasures of life: fighting, food and fornicating. He dislikes anything cultured or artistic: he doesn’t understand why someone would sit quietly and meditate or why these stupid courtiers won’t just drink their damned tea.
14. DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE ANY RECURRING MANNERISMS? His voice fluctuates in pitch quite rapidly when he talks, even when not particularly emotional.
15. WHAT ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER’S EMOTIONS? He has the easiest time hiding emotions such as anger and disgust, because such emotions could have gotten him killed by his father’s family or simply other samurai coming to the wall. He shows positive emotions very easily, but the intensity of the emotions he actually feels are inverse to how openly he expresses them.
16. HOW WOULD YOUR CHARACTER HANDLE A SUBORDINATE’S IMPROPER BEHAVIOR? He has never had a subordinate in his life.
17. HOW WOULD YOUR CHARACTER’S PARENTS DESCRIBE HIM? His mother would have described him as hurting and deeply angry, his father would have described him the same as any other ronin: untrustworthy and less-than.
18. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER’S HIGHEST AMBITION? He honestly does not know what he wants to do with his life.
19. HOW RELIGIOUS IS YOUR CHARACTER? He has never seen a kami in person so he only behaves religiously so he won’t get his head cut off.
20. HOW WILL YOUR CHARACTER DIE? Probably either fighting a samurai he meets in the middle of nowhere on a road between the important places after running his mouth one too many times, or dead from drink in a ditch somewhere if things don’t change.
Rings:
Air 3
Reflexes: 2+1=3
Awareness: 2+1=3
Fire
Agility: 2
Intelligence: 2
Water
Strength: 2+1=3
Perception: 2
Earth
Stamina: 2
Willpower: 2
Void 2
Dis/Advantages:
Large (Large Weapon Damage+1k0), Bland (May increase TN to determine Identity or Honor rank by 10), Social Disadvantage: Ronin (Status starts at 0), Obtuse (Cost to increase high skills other than investiagtion or medicine is doubled)
Sun Tao:
Benefit: +1 Reflexes
Technique: The Gaze of Sun Tao – Students of Sun Tao understand the relationship between honor and skill. You may add your Honor Rank to the total of all Iaijutsu Skill Rolls.
