Ao Zailun

## **Appearance**

Ao Zailun’s human form is of a Chinese man in his mid-twenties, generally good-looking but otherwise unremarkable. He’s of around average height, and average slim build, with short dark hair and dark eyes. His dress sense changes to fit any given situation, but he does tend towards wearing white and other light colors. All in all someone you might not take too much notice of, which is very much by design. While he can take other forms—male, female and otherwise—he’s much more likely to just modify his primary shape as needed.

His true form is a lot harder to miss, being a twenty-meter long white dragon. His scales have a slightly pearlescent tone to them and his horns, mane and spin ridges are slightly gold-tinged at the ends. Despite it being his natural form, he very rarely takes it unless he needs to deal with family things or otherwise be extremely impressive. Much more difficult to fit into rooms.

## **Powers**

The grandson of the Dragon King of the West, Ao Zailun shares the abilities of his family. He can shapeshift into just about anything, though he rarely bothers with anything other than human or his true dragon form unless necessary. He also has some control over storms and water and can fly, though the last is easier as a dragon. He’s also, over the years, learned how to hide any trace of what he is, though some powerful supernaturals can still sense edges of it.

## **Talents**

Observation, mimicry, manipulation, and keeping a straight face no matter what bullshit he’s up to. He’s also a surprisingly decent fighter, though he tends to keep it as a last resort if he can’t talk his way out instead.

## **Interests**

Technology, environmentalism and sustainability, travel, anything new and developing. Also anything that will amuse him, though honestly he’s pretty easily amused.

## **History**

Once, the human and spirit world were heavily intertwined and magic was both a common occurrence and a part of daily life. But magic can be capricious and uncontrolled, and many sought to find ways to put it to better use. The human world developed rules and techniques for working with and around it, while the four sons of the King of Dragons ventured out into the world to find their own domains, to manage the regions and keep balance between the natural, human and spirit worlds. Ao Run, the youngest of the four, eventually settled into the Western Sea and attained godhood through worship and acclaim like his brothers, and his family served under him to continue their duty. It was not without difficulties, and one of Ao Run’s sons got into quite a bit of trouble, but on the whole the family was revered and respected (if not considered the slightly eccentric branch).

But the troublesome nature of magic and spirits could not be entirely contained, and eventually the diminishing returns the human world received as they tried to restrict strong and stronger control meant that they began to turn away from the magic instead, looking to other, more structured systems. The spirit world in turn found no interest in changeable human politics, and both realms began folding in on themselves.

By the time Ao Zaliun was born, the youngest in his generation, the Dragon Kings were moving into mutual pact of noninterference in the human world, responding only to increasingly rare direct prayers and entreaties. The human and spirit worlds were dividing enough that those of the spirit world turned their attention almost entirely to their own affairs and the human world found only occasional uses for magic, if they acknowledged its existence at all.

Ao Zailun, however, was not satisfied with only the spirit world. Raised on stories of his uncle’s travels, he found himself feeling caged in remaining only in his grandfather’s domain, and increasingly bored and irritated with the political and family arguments that seemed unending amongst its immortal members. By the time it occurred to anyone that Ao Zailun’s fixation with one of his uncle’s friends might be a problem, it was already far too late; he had very firmly landed on Sun Wukong as role model. Actually meeting the Monkey King only made it worse. At least he was a lot less likely to run impulsively into fights than his mentor.

After that, it was only a matter of time before Ao Zailun grew too frustrated to be contained, and it was with a complete lack of surprise from his immediate family that he eventually managed to talk his way into visiting the human world, ostensibly as a learning experience. And it was, though possibly not the lessons he had lead anyone to believe he was after. He found himself fascinated with the fast-paced and mutable human world, finding it far more unpredictable than the spirit world had ever been. He spent far more time amongst the humans than he did with the spirits, eventually returning to his grandfather’s domain only when absolutely necessary and for as little time as possible.

Instead, Ao Zailun amused himself by wandering the world, stretching out farther and farther from home as the world expanded and then suddenly shrank again. He delighted in watching things change and new technology develop, though not everything was exactly a net positive. When he did feel the need to step in, it was always on a smaller scale, and never anything that could be traced back to him. A few tricks played here and there, a few people made fools of. Wouldn’t do to make too much noise. Ao Zailun has learned how to play it subtle. Isn’t that half the fun?