Mei Kāh

## **History:**

Born in a village located in the Forest of Spirits near Hongal, Ryoko Tabane enjoyed a modest, spiritual life among other Kitsune in her village. Or so her family would attest, for Ryoko was not a spiritual person. She felt no connection to the spirits beyond that which her bloodline afforded her. She took to her abilities slowly – taking far longer to alter the world around her compared to the other students that attended her family dojo. In fact, she often fell short of the great expectations her family had set for her. She instead found solace in an unlikely source: technology.

Inspired by the chance encounter with a traveling merchant's mechanical marvels, Ryoko decided to invest her time and effort into learning the ways of the tinkerers, creating mechanized creation of her own in secret from her family. Believing her hard work was on the same caliber of other mechanists of the world, Ryoko set out on an adventure to tour Absalom, a city where all kinds of races congregated: this was the perfect stage to study other inventions up close, as well as show off her self-taught skills.

Using her human persona of Mei Kāh, Ryoko had traveled the Path of Aganhei to the city of Kalsgard where she was met by Tala Kemalu, a Tian-La from her dojo with instructions to return her to the village. Arguing that they were half-way to Absalom, Mei pleaded with Tala Kemalu until he allowed her to continue, accompanying her until such time that they returned home. From Kalsgard they ventured together down through Magnimar, and passed Corentyn where she boarded her final ship - bound for Absalom.

## **Personality:**

Ryoko is often reserved, erring on the side of caution as to not expose her Kitsune lineage whenever possible. She is calm and collected, with the poise of a businesswoman of high stature. However, much like one feels after wearing a business suit all day, Ryoko tires of her cautious nature, eagerly anticipating the moment in which she can put on the mask of Mei Kāh, her technological persona.

As Mei, she is thrilled by technology and is seldom able to contain her excitement. Every cog, every screw; tiny pieces working together in unison as part of a much larger machine – the thought is exhilarating to her! Although she prefers to solve her problems peacefully through the use of her inventions, Mei cannot help but become restless at the thought of testing her creations in active combat scenarios.

Regardless of her form, Ryoko is good at heart, and only seeks personal gain to further her hobby. When she can afford it, she will do everything in her power to help those around her – one of the many lessons taught to her by her family is the importance of community and generosity.

## **Goals:**

Although a fledgling at her craft, Mei takes great pride in her work (sometimes to a fault). While able to admit her own shortcomings in the face of much more impressive creations, Mei does not see these differences in skill to be a failing on her part but rather an opportunity to expand her mind to the myriad of potential inventions just waiting to be discovered.  She strives to close the disparity and, one day, become the leading technocrat that sets the standard for said divergence among mechanists.

In her travels to Absalom, Mei has seen many creations from all manner of races – each with their own take on solving the problems of their respective societies. From this, she has taken upon herself to improve upon the various designs she has come across: from small, personal tools, to load-bearing golems, to large transportation machines – Mei dreams of tinkering with every aspect of technology.