Saint Bin the Crippled

Bin was a Saint of The Way. He came from the Sjün clan, though from a branch within the Lung Empire. He was a descendant of Saint Wu, and also of Saint Rangju.

## History

### Early Life

Sjün Bin grew up in the Lung Empire, and was fostered by the Pang family of the Ngam'bruk clan. He was close to the family's scion, Pang Juan, and they were both taught by the same scholar. Bin's behaviour in class was used as an example to the others. When they finished, Bin went to a monastery to become a monk and further his education while Juan became a government official.

### Betrayal and Defection to Wei

After he finished his education, Bin also became a government official, serving as Juan's subordinate. Juan recognised that Bin was better at the job than he was and realised that Bin would be promoted to his superior. To prevent this, Juan had Bin accused of treason and faked all the evidence required for the conviction. Bin was sentenced to death, but Juan realised Bin could still be useful to him, and pleaded with the Emperor for Bin's life, successfully getting his sentence reduced to a facial tattoo marking him as a criminal and getting his legs cut off at the knees, as well as Juan, as Bin's foster brother, being granted custody of him. Juan tried getting Bin to write down his ideas on philosophy, which Juan planned to hand to the emperor as his own work to get great fame, and then to murder Bin afterwards so nobody could claim they weren't his own ideas. Bin realised this and pretended to be insane. Juan didn't believe he was mad, so he put him in a pigsty to see how he'd behave. Bin acted like a pig, completely debasing himself to the point that after a couple of months Juan believed that Bin had truly gone mad.

Eventually, Juan was hosting a festival with a number of foreign diplomats in attendance. Bin managed to get in contact with the ambassadors from the Kingdom of Wei, who helped him escape and took him to their homeland. There, he stayed with one of the ambassadors who saved him, a man named Xian Qi, who recommended his service to the king. The king was hesitant at first, but when Bin helped Qi win lots of money while gambling with the king, the king offered Bin the rank of general of one of his armies. Bin refused, saying that since he couldn't ride a horse without his legs, he would only end up demoralising his own men if he tried. Seeing this problem, the king instead appointed Qi to the rank of general, with Bin serving as his second in command and as his strategist.

### Wars against Pang Juan

An army of the Lung Empire, led by Juan, invaded the Kingdom of Longua, which was allied to Wei. Qi and Bin were sent to relieve their ally, so they marched on Qinlong. Juan and his army were then recalled to Qinlong to relieve the siege. While they were on the way to Qinlong, Bin laid an ambush which resulted in Juan's army being decimated.

A few years later, Juan's forces journeyed to the Manian Empire to help their ally in an attempt to cross the Vulcan Mountains and conquer Yemas. Bin and Qi went with their army to deal with Juan once and for all. They fought a number of battles against the combined Lung-Manian force. At the urging of Bin, Qi had their army suffer a number of superficial defeats, while they made efforts to disguise their number of soldiers. Through the controlled use of cooking fires, with fewer fires after each battle, they were able to trick Juan into thinking their losses were significantly greater than they actually were. This made Juan overconfident and reckless. Bin and Qi managed to get their smaller, more mobile force into the Vulcan Mountains first, and continued their skirmishing tactics.

### Battle of Aris' Pass

Eventually, when Bin decided that Juan was in a suitable mental state, he laid one final ambush. He found a tree in a clearing and carved onto it, taking advantage of the nature of darkvision only granting sight in shades of grey to make the writing impossible to read without an actual light. He wrote in Lung "Pang Juan dies beneath this tree". Juan and his army had to pass through a dangerous valley before reaching this clearing on their journey through the mountains, and were very relieved when they got through unmolested as they believed that valley was the only place left on their journey where Bin's "insignificant numbers" would have a chance against them. Juan noticed that something was written on the tree, and lit a torch to investigate. The lighting of the torch was the signal chosen by Bin for the start of the ambush. As soon as Juan read the message, a volley of arrows was fired, instantly wiping out most of the Lung-Manian army. Juan, after having multiple arrows embed themselves in him and seeing most of his army annihilated, realised the extent of his mistake and slit his own throat. After the Wei army charged in to mop up the survivors, only a Manian prince was left alive. This prince had led the army alongside Juan, and Qi ransomed him back to his father, Emperor Manus II Faatus, for an exorbitant sum.

### Later Life

Bin and Qi soon returned to Wei, which was now seeing peace at the end of its Golden Age. Some time later, Bin got involved with the wrong politicians, which was starting to cause problems in his personal life. He then made the decision to retire and became a hermit. As a hermit, he taught his approach to The Way to others, using episodes from his life to highlight his teachings. When he eventually died, he was made a Saint of The Way by King of Wei.

## Legends

Like many of the Saints of The Way, there are a number of legends associated with Pang Juan.

One legend claims that, during his later life as a hermit, he journeyed to the pits in search of Pang Juan's soul. Once he found Juan's soul, he is said to have turned him into a fiend and enslaved him for all eternity.

## Teachings

Saint Bin's teachings focus on the following ideas:

* Do things on your own terms and don't do what you are unsuited for.
* Be suitably prepared for the future: make sure you are undefeatable before going into action.
* Exploit the weaknesses of those who stand against you instead of relying merely on brute force.
* Make the most of what you have available to you.
* Proper organisation is important.

His teachings are generally based on those of his ancestor, Saint Wu, but those of Saint Bin are considered to improve on some of the shortfalls in the previous ideas.