Ishiyama Kenji

History

Ishiyama is a noble family in the city of Saishu. The family was part of the original settlers that helped build the colony, and were granted land for their assistance with the settlement. When the Kuchiku Rebellion happened, the family became prominent due to all the refugees that flooded Saishu. Now the family leases out their land to tenant farmers, in effect becoming their lords.

Kenji was born to the previous Lord Ishiyama Akihito with one of his concubines. He has an older brother and two elder sisters, being the youngest of his siblings. His mother died of complications during childbirth, and was kept a secret from Kenji through much of his chlidhood, with the wife of Lord Ishiyama acting as his mother.

In his youth, Kenji had a curious spirit. He would go into the farming community, and lead other children in his "expeditions" into the nearby woods. There, they built a secret base where they would play mock war games. Kenji was naturally charismatic, and many of the children followed him around willingly.

The situation of his birth came to light at the deathbed of the elder Lord Ishiyama, when he confided in Kenji, at that time only 12, about his circumstances. His father also bestowed him a family heirloom, a sword he said was closely tied to his birth mother. At the time, Kenji was too distraught by his father's impending death to think too much about either the sword or the mother he never knew.

After his father's death, Kenji's elder brother, Hikaru became Lord Ishiyama. It was decided that Kenji was to be sent to the city's temple of Shizuru to train upon his 13th birthday. Six years would pass away from his home as he trained in the teachings of Shizuru and in sword skills, his mentor a retired swordmaster from the Kuchiku Rebellion. He applied himself well, although his training was not without distractions. Several priestesses of Shizuru were charmed by his youthful vigor and disarming good looks, and an argument came up as to who would teach him religious studies. In the end the argument was settled by an older male priest, who took on the job himself, denying all the priestesses. But that did not stop them from trying to slip into his room at night for some "private lessons". It became such a problem that the monks had to set sohei guards at Kenji's door at night for months.

This upbringing made Kenji more "worldly". When he left to returned home after completing his training, he began seeking the attentions of the court ladies in Saishu, who lavished such attentions onto him. Word of this reached his elder brother, and deciding that the family does not need any scandals, he sent Kenji away with a sum of money, to "learn about the world".

## Heritage

Shortly after arriving in Haven, Kenji's skin started becoming a hue of purple. At first this caused him to fear it was an affliction of some kind, but after several days speaking with various people, he found out that the cause is most likely because he has a drow parent.  He also noticed that people are not as freaked out by his purple skin as he himself was, and is now more comfortable with himself. He heard a rumor that Rike has a large half elf population, and went there hoping to find a half drow elf there to learn more. In Rike, he met a dubious older man named Skol, who after haggling with him, brought him to a tenement building and left him there. The person in the building was a local crime boss who wanted the blood of a drow to gain powers. His crew ambushed Kenji. Being surrounded, outnumbered and alone, under this stress, Kenji's drowblood powers manifested. With its help and the grace of Shizuru, he was able to defeat the criminals, with the last one running away swearing revenge when his comrades were all slain.

## Apprenticeship

Upon return to Haven, Kenji decides he will take a safer path to learn more about his heritage. The only other clue he had is the katana supposedly left to him from his mother. He decides he will learn the katana's construction to see if that will provide any clues. At the market in Haven, he meets Eilynn Silvertide at one of her shops. She recruits him to join the White Pearl Trade Company as an apprentice bladesmith to further his goals.

After many months of learning and working at blade smithing, he was able to deconstruct the blade and remake it. The heirloom now sits as a mantle piece at his home (which has changed several times). As a result of this though, he has become a master blade smith, and have made weapons for many people who came specifically to him for his craftsmanship.

Kenji sees bladesmithing as a pastime that he enjoys. The hard work at the forge gives him focus, and is an escape from the problems of the world he faces. He spends all of his spare time at the forge these days, and seeks to perfect a craft that he knows will never be perfected. He experiments making blades from different materials, and his focus now allows him to imbue blades he works on with mystical powers.

## The First World

On one of his adventures with his friend Rafael, he met with the fey queen Asea of the spring court. Enchanted by her charms and seeing their pacifist ways, he decided to pledge his service to aid them. He spent time and several forays into the first world to track down what the unseelie fey were doing and why they were harming children as well as the seelie fey. Upon learning there is a ritual some unseelie were trying to conduct, he was granted Queen Asea's favor, becoming her champion so he can fight for her court.

On one of his trips to the first world, Kenji meets the seelie gathlain Arryn and recruited her help to deal with the unseelie ritual. Shortly after the tooth fairy king informed Lady Asea that the children under his care were kidnapped by some unseelie fey. Asea contacted Kenji who came to the first world with Arryn to look for the children. In a withered and dark grove he finds each of the four children with one of four unseelie fey creatures. With the help of Arryn he was able to rescue the children, and find the unseelie fey that was trying to attain eternal life using the life force of the grove and the children as fuel. After a long battle, the two defeat the evil fey and return life to the grove. The children agreed to return with Kenji and live with him at the Sanctuary dojo.

## News from Home

A miko from the temple of Tsukiyo arrived in Haven, and was seeking Kenji out at the White Pearl Guildhall. Her name is Murasaki Aoi, and she bore a pack full of letters for him and Dogoro. Apparently she was a messenger sent by the Ishiyama family, and she brought some very good news with her. Hikaru's wife is expecting her first child, and Kenji will become an uncle sometime this summer. It might be time for him to make a trip back him. Aoi was initially very skeptical that Kenji was who he was because he had changed since she last met him, he was unsure when she met him, but he did meet a lot of people in court so its certainly possibly. After he assured her who he was she became kind of strange. He did find out she had nowhere to go, so he changed his accommodation to a large suite instead of the inn so she had a place to stay. He had been meaning to do this since Dogoro joined him in the city, two grown men living in an inn room was not always convenient. The very first thing Murasaki-san did was to dismiss all the maids, and instead insisted on doing the housework herself. Dogoro decided to help, and there is still a male chef left in the house, which was fortunate, as Murasaki-san tried to cook for them on the first morning on the 1st of Desnus, causing both Kenji and Dogoro to be sick for an entire day. After that, she promised to just do the cleaning and leave the cooking to the chef.

In the month of Lamashan AC 2000, Kenji returned to Saishu with Dogoro and Aoi. They spent time celebrating Hikaru's first born's one month celebration. During the trip, Kenji agreed to bring the daughter of a local blacksmith back to Haven with him, only to find afterwards she is a Chishiki princess. Also, Tsuchimikado Hucel-Ge who was in Haven all this time was actually a surviving Chishiki, the Dragon Prince. Unfortunately, the dragon prince surrendered to the Daughters of Death to protect his people from a trap laid by the oni. Kenji must now act quickly to both save the dragon prince and protect Chloe Chishiki from the oni, as they will surely come for her as well.

During the final Egronian push to defeat the Pale King, Kenji organized a rescue mission to rescue Tsuchimikado, but was foiled by the early return of the Daughters of Death who fled the Pale King's side and left him to die. They were in no mood for battle after suffering from the fiery breathe of an undead Firebrand, and simply escaped with the dragon prince using magic back to Hekai. Kenji now chases the Oni all the way to Shengming de Yaolan.

## Shengming de Yaolan

Joining one of the Egronian expeditions, Kenji traveled to Sheng (short for Shengming de Yaolan). Upon arrival though, he found out the entire population of Saishu has also made the voyage. They stand ready to contest the Kuchiku. Since then, he has been working to bolster the new city of Jiyu in preparation of the Oni Emperor's inevitable onslaught. He has contacted the local Kami to grant their blessing onto Jiyu, and has traveled to the ancestral lands of the Ishiyama clan in his brother's stead to gain the ancestral blessing of their clan spirits. There he met a strange old man who never introduced himself, but took Kenji to the ancestral shrine of the Ishiyama clan, a giant stone statue of a Kirin who seems so lifelike, that Kenji imagined he had a conversation with it, or perhaps he did. He was given visions of different futures at the shrine and asked to choose what he would do, and apparently passed a test of character. The kirins protecting the shrine and the lands appeared before him and took him back to Jiyu, proclaiming their support for the Chishiki in the name of the Ishiyama clan.

Kenji advised the Geralds to have closer ties with Jiyu, and support them in the coming war.  But the Egronian royals, having just finished fighting in one long war, was hesitant to throw themselves into another one.  As hitsuzen tend to work, Kenji, unsatisfied with the state of affairs in Sanctuary, meets Lady Hana Chishiki when she visited to finalize a trade agreement with the citystate.  After a short talk with the Chishiki royal, Kenji resigns his position in Sanctuary and joins the Imperial Dynasty of Reistara.  He worked as the Marshall of Reistara, traveling through the kingdom with Kahn, his purple-maned kirin companion, to organize its defense.

## New World

After the end of the Chishiki-Kuchiku war, Kenji returned to Jiyu to dig out the remains of his family, and had Aoi resurrect them. He was angry at the fact that he did not see the deception of Kestilian Kuchiku, whom he knew as Mango, but more importantly, he sees the heartbreak of the Shengese people. Too many have died in this war, and those left behind are haunted by its shadow. He returned to Reistara and petitioned Queen Hana to fund an expedition to seek a new home for the Shengese people, away from the shadow of the last war. He also commissioned an airship, the 'Yukikaze' to explore and find new land to settle. After a two year search, he founded the settlement of Ginkuto on the continent of Erias, and established the republic of Ohanakoku Shengese People's Protectorate. The premise of the republic is to find a peaceful future for the Shengese people, but as fate would have it, a series of new threats appeared on Erias. First, the jungles hosted a cult of Apollyon, their diseased addled minds think that the world should be infected with their lord's afflictions. Then across the mountain range, a sidhier kingdom was destroyed by someone who called himself the Scarlet King. These new threats are not the type that can be reasoned with, or appeased with diplomacy. Kenji also sees the sidhier as fey brethren, and as a fey knight, their protection is his responsibility.

## Appearance

Kenji is a handsome Sheng male, tall and slender, with angular facial features. HIs skin color is a light purple, unless covered by a glamer. His appearance is almost otherworldly by Sheng standards, and might be attributed to his mother, whom the rumors say is not of Sheng descent. He wears his straight hair long and loose, well past his shoulders, and dresses in fine silks, dyed black, with simple but artful trimmings. He usually wears a silk blindfold to cover his eyes as the orbs of his eyes are missing.

## Personality

Although Kenji still enjoys the attention of the opposite sex, and says what they want to hear to gain that attention, he has settled down with Ruby.  He has been made aware of his habit, and consciously attempts to rein himself in. His experiences in Shengming has left a mark on him, and he is now less trusting of others and has also developed a sense of self doubt for not being able to do more to save his people.   He is still a forthright person and cares for the plight of the downtrodden, and will speak people's ear off to try to convince them to do good.  He also leads in this by example, protecting the weak, upholding the laws of the righteous.  He now takes his responsibilities as a leader seriously, and does not take unnecessary risks as he did in his youth.  He has learned that one's worth is not tied to one appearance, although he is still very conscious of his own appearance.

Before leaving Reistara, Kenji penned the Scrolls of the Five Elements. A set of five scrolls that describes his philosophy in swordsmanship. It also applies to how he views life and how it should be lived.

## Friends

Dogoro: A childhood friend that the family had retained as a household servant. Dogoro now travels with the young master.

Liennah Thividian: Liennah was the one who provided him the clues of the drow heritage, but she also scares him, and he thinks she is easily angered and a dangerous person to anger, so he tip toes around her now.

Eilynn Silvertide: Runs the White Pearl Trade Company (WPTC), she was Kenji's ex-boss, and he also considers her an ally and helper who provided him a way to move forward with his quest to learn more of his heritage.

Eric Torigus: Friend from the Twin Dragon, where Kenji stayed for several months before moving to the White Pearl Inn.

Ruby Magnolia: An arcane caster and pickpocket that Kenji befriended. She is his steady girlfriend, and has followed him to Shengming de Yaolan.

Scharp Thompson: An ally who can be relied upon. Kenji finds him eccentric, but nonetheless trustworthy.

Ruuska Torrengust: Originally a customer who came to him for an oversized sword, and then again when he wanted a blade made of special materials, he convinced the orc paladin to donate his sword materials to a fairy who needed it to protect his home. They are close allies.

Ashelia Saint Claire and Juliette Saint Claire: The Saint Claire sisters have been friends with him since he opened his first dojo in Haven. Since then they would just show up randomly at his dojo. Ashelia in particular is smart and seem to be very concerning about Kenji's well being.

Queen Asea: A nymph fey queen who has granted her favor to Kenji. He visits her in the First World whenever he can pull himself from his work.

Theo, Peni, Dino and Sosara: Children who were living in the first world, he visited them whenever he went to the first world and brought them gifts, usually in the form of comforts from their original world. After being rescued from the unseelie fey, they are now living with Kenji in Ginkuto.

Arryn: A seelie gathlian whom Kenji met in the first world. He recruits her to join the Sanctuary settlement, convincing Eilynn to make her the councilor. She helps Kenji defeat the evil fey who was attempting to use the children as energy to attain immortality.

Queen Hana Chishiki: She is an example for those affect by the war to follow. She rose above her family and her birth and became a leader that supports and protect her people, instead of throwing away her life for petty revenge like Mango did.

Bahl: An amarian noble with a chip on his shoulder. They have fought side by side on many occasions, and he supports this young man's growth. He feels that Bahl will rise above that which holds him back and become a beacon for people to follow, and uses every chance he can to advise him to choose the path of the righteous.

## Enemies

Scarlet King: He sees the Scarlet King as someone who poses a threat to his people in Ohanakoku that cannot be reasoned with. He has yet to face him, but prepares for the day when he will need to do so.

Unseelie Fey: Being a seelie champion of the spring court of Queen Asea, he keeps a vigilant eye on any unseelie activity both here and in the first world.

## Aspirations

He is working to build a safe haven and a peaceful future for the Shengese people, away from their past.

He always keeps an eye on the affairs of the fey.

He seeks to perfect the craft of bladesmithing, although he knows that there will always be room for improvement.

He wants to learn more about his drow heritage, who his mother was, and such.