Rokland Tate

Rokland Tate is the Geomancer of the early 41st Century.
=Unity=
When Erica Pierce, the God–like entity called Mothergod, tried to achieve Unity, a convergence of all the timelines, the Geomancers of two eras gathered the heroes of Earth to stop her in one final decisive battle for all eternity in the Lost Land, a place outside time and reality.
==The Torch Is Passed==
On April 2nd 3988, Ana Kawainui found Rokland "Rokkie" Tate playing inside a virtual sphere and promised him that the reality that awaited him outside was infinitely more fascinating.
When Ana took Rokkie to her home in the Giroux Milespire on Residence Level 47, she revealed that she was a Geomancer, the eyes and ears of the Earth, and that she had chosen him to succeed her. With a smile on her face, Ana gave a dubious Rokkie her axe and said that he was lucky that in those days the procedure of succession involved drawing off less than a pint of his blood instead of ritual mutilation like in ancient times.
With Ana’s guidance, Rokkie shut off his mind and heard the voices of the axe, which told him that she was much older than she appeared, a reveal that he initially believed was a joke, but that once he experienced the fullness of his senses and listened to the whispers that surrounded him, he understood was the truth.
Elated that her hunch that the gift of Geomancy was strong in him proved correct, Ana asked Rokkie if he was still certain that he did not wish to be a Geomancer and warned him that she could not promise that there would be no pain, as pain was the way of life. When Rokkie replied that he did not care and that he wanted to know all there was, Ana said that, even for a Geomancer, that was the endless quest.
When Ana and Rokkie began their walkabout, she took him to the San–Gabriel Haven in the Californian Archipelago, an island of milespires barely inhabited by one hundred thousand San–Gabrielites that she told him worshiped a woman called Erica Pierce, who not even they realized was over two thousand years old. Stunned, Rokkie listened as Ana called Pierce a Sun Demon and said that she was a danger to all existence, and that while they alone could not stop her, there was still time to prepare.
When Ana revealed that Pierce would not begin to alter the universe to make it more to her liking until the year 4001, Rokkie asked her if she could read the future and she told him that a Geomancer of the late 20th Century gained that knowledge and passed it down. Though Rokkie wondered how that Geomancer learned it, Ana told him that it was of little importance and that what mattered was that he find Gilad Anni–Padda, who had been missing for three hundred years and whose skills they needed.
Over the following decade and a half, Rokkie went around the world five times, three without Ana, who passed away, and all that he managed to find were some old weapons secreted away in a stasis locker whose story was very old. On August 4th 4001, as the trail grew cold, Rokkie traveled to the central psycho–probe archives in the Denver sector in the hope that he would find anything there.
When Rokkie walked up to an assistant, the whispers from the walls helped him convince him to let him see the archival memory core, and, shortly after he went inside, its voice told him that Gilad had suffered five successive psycho–probes at regular intervals, which he assumed were necessary given how resilient he was supposed to be. Once he found what he needed, Rokkie continued his quest.
The next day, in the Shasta Island hatcheries, Rokkie found Gilad, who believed that his name was Gillie Pachter, a fish handler. When Rokkie told Gilad that he was psycho–probed and received a new identity, and that his name was Gilad Anni–Padda, a great warrior, Gilad said that he could never hurt anyone. When Rokkie urged Gilad to fight the conditioning, Gilad told him that he did not know what he was talking about and asked him why he was bothering him, but Rokkie insisted that he had to remember.
After Rokkie told Gilad who he was, and that he had met others like him over the centuries, he gave him his axe and asked him if he had seen it before. Though Gilad was unsure at first, somehow the axe felt familiar, like he should know it, and he wondered how that was possible. As Gilad wielded the axe in his hand, the mental conditioning that made him dislike weapons shattered, and his memories of having wielded other weapons, like clubs, blades, guns, and even his bare fists, resurfaced. Enraged, Gilad remembered who he was, and how the North Americans tried to kill his memories and subvert his will just because he did not fit in with their fascist concept of society.
Though Gilad wished to punish the ones that stole his mind, Rokkie urged him to help him stop Pierce, whose name Gilad recognized and he was certain he had dealt with before in 1992.
As Rokkie and Gilad headed to San–Gabriel to stop Pierce in Rokkie’s shuttle, the voice that Rokkie heard from the guidance-net Mainbrain said that she was gone along with a large mass of San–Gabriel, which he realized meant that she had made her move and that if they hoped to stop her they needed help. Fortunately, the nav-computers told Rokkie where they could find it.
When Rokkie and Gilad arrived in the Paz Verde wildlife preserve in the South Am peninsula, they found Tohru Nakadai, the 42nd Rai, and his son, Takashi Nakadai, who had barely survived an attempt on their lives after they exiled themselves from the orbital nation of Japan. While Gilad thought that Tohru looked familiar, Rokkie told Tohru that they all had a world to save.
==The Fall of Japan==
Moments after Tohru Nakadai’s shuttle crashed in the South Am peninsula and he crawled from the wreck holding his son, Takashi Nakadai, in his arms, Rokland Tate, the Geomancer, walked out from behind a ridge with Gilad Anni–Padda, the Eternal Warrior, and told him that they had to save the world. When Tohru materialized his energy sword and warned Rokkie that he would take his life to save Takashi’s, Rokkie told him that the last thing he wanted was to put them out of commission, while Gilad said that if they wanted to kill them they would have attacked without warning.
When the whispers from the sword and the shuttle told Rokkie that Tohru was gonna perform Seppuku to save Takashi and that he used his energy to power the engines, Rokkie told Tohru that he was a Geomancer and that they found him using a hyper–range tracking computer once it projected his impact site. After Gilad told Tohru that everyone knew how Japan suffered since it became an artificial moon, the civil war, and how he chose self-exile to bring peace to his homeland, he urged him to forget about taking revenge and told him that nothing that he considered important mattered any more.
When Gilad said that Rokkie knew something was terribly wrong with the world and that the universe, and even time itself, were in danger, Tohru demanded that he tell him why he should listen to him. Though Gilad told him that his family knew his name, Tohru turned his back and said that no one had heard from the Eternal Warrior in centuries and wondered why he should believe him. Suddenly, Gilad threw a dagger at Tohru that hit a wall mere inches from his face and he urged him to look at it.
When Tohru gazed at the dagger, he recognized its markings from the family chronicle and realized that it was part of his ancestor’s collection and belonged to Shinobi Nakadai, the 29th Rai. Gilad told Tohru that Shinobi gave him the knife after he saved his life during the Cyberite rebellion as a token of gratitude and debt, an obligation passed down unpaid for centuries.
When Gilad asked Tohru if he honored his family or shamed it, Tohru bowed down as a sign of respect and agreed to go with him.
While Tohru changed Takashi’s dipper, he told Rokkie and Gilad that if the danger was as great as they said that Magnus could help them, but, while Rokkie was receptive to the idea, Gilad refused to work with Magnus and accused him of helping North Am oppress millions and condoning the psycho-probe. Certain that Magnus had changed, and that he now served the people, Tohru told Gilad that his strength could make a difference and said that all he asked in return was that he trusted him like he had asked him to trust them. Persuaded, Gilad bowed down and told Tohru that if he fought as well as he spoke, they might have a chance.
As Rokkie’s sky-skipper flew over the crumbling ruins of the Barrls gaming arena in North Am’s Goph lev, Gilad reiterated his dislike of recruiting Magnus, but then Rokkie assured him that if he was not part of the equation the outcome would change for the worst. Just then, Tohru looked out the window and saw as Talpa, a rogue freewill robot, lunged against Magnus in the middle of the arena.
To save Magnus, Gilad landed the sky-skipper on top of Talpa and buried him beneath the stands. Though Magnus urged Tohru to help him dig Talpa up to ensure that they had defeated him, Tohru told him that there was no time and that his companions told him that the world, and even existence itself, was at stake. While Magnus wished to stay and stop Talpa from continuing his killing spree, Tohru urged him to weight those lives against a universe and he agreed to go with him as long as he could return once the danger was over.
Before they embarked on their journey, Tohru - at Rokkie’s suggestion and with Magnus’ help - left Takashi in Felina’s orphanage.
When Rokkie, Magnus, Gilad, and Tohru arrived at the mouth of a cave, Magnus told them that he had been there and then he recited a series of words that Willow Talltrees had taught him to open the portal to the Lost Land. When nothing happened, Gilad told Magnus that the words he uttered where nothing more than ancient Amerind stew recipe, while Rokkie said that passage to the Lost Land was a state of mind and that if they wanted to get there bad enough it would happen.
 
Just then, Rokkie said that, though he wished to go with them since he would do anything to save the planet, there was already a Geomancer on the battlefield and their contributions would be redundant. As he took his leave, Rokkie told the others that he might be able to find others who could help more, and that if he did he would send them along, but until then his heart was with them.
==The Walking Dead==
Following the fall of Japan on the Indian Ocean, Rokland Tate found Rentaro Nakadai on the exterior surface of the wrecked host body along with countless other survivors, and after a brief misunderstanding, he asked him if he was Tohru Nakadai’s father and told him that he was there to give him something.
After Kazuyo Nakadai killed Isao Seko, the councilor who sabotaged Tohru Nakadai’s shuttle, Makiko Minashi, Koji Yama, and the Ninjatrons arrived in a shuttle and Makiko told Kazuyo that she was impressed and a little surprised she killed him because he was the best chance for Humanists rule. As Makiko pulled out a weapon that she intended to shoot Kazuyo with, Rentaro Nakadai rushed towards them and said that their fight was stupid given their situation. When Kazuyo told Rentaro to stay away and that she had nothing to live for, Rentaro signaled Rokkie, who walked up to her with Takashi.
Elated to see Takashi, Kazuyo believed that Isao was wrong when he said that he killed him and Tohru, but, to her dismay, Rokkie told her that Tohru gave his life in a struggle to save existence, and because of him the battle was won and he would he honored forever.
Surrounded by the Ninjatrons and with Koji at her side, Makiko told Kazuyo to leave Japan with her family and memories and keep both alive. With Takashi in her arms, Kazuyo said that there had been enough fighting, and told Makiko that, just like Japan would endure, so would they. As Kazuyo walked into the sunset with Takashi and Rentaro, she said that it was time to let the healing begin.
=The Malev War=
In 4002, a year after the fall of Japan and the death of Tohru Nakadai, the Malev Empire invades the Earth.
==The Last Rai==
On April 10th 4002, Rokland Tate took Takao Konishi, an Archie that the Earth guided him to, inside the Japan crash site to search for the hidden vault where Grandmother, the freewill caretaker of Japan, hid the Blood of Heroes, the nanite-enhanced plasma that once cursed through Angelo Mortalli, the legendary hero known as Bloodshot. As Rokland urged Takao to be strong, as, no matter how bad Japan’s situation seemed there were darker times ahead for the Earth, Takao doubted that he knew where the chamber was, but Rokland assured him that the walls told him where to go.
A day later, when they reached the vault, Rokland told Takao to slice open his wrists to decrease the volume of his blood so that the pressure would not rupture his arteries after he injected himself with the blood. Though Takao initially hesitated, he trusted Rokland and bravely sliced his wrists. After Rokland placed the container that held the blood over Takao’s chest and injected him with it, within minutes, the blood healed his wrists and Takao heard it speak to him. When Takao asked Rokland what he had become, the Geomancer told him that he was the last Rai, the protector of the future.
Category: Rai
Category: Characters