Dust

## Background

Lan Tuyet was born to a pair of farmers in a border village near Hiyokuna. This village was raided and destroyed by an orcish warband, orphaning the child. She became a roving scavenger, stealing whatever she needed from each town she wandered through.

She had several encounters with an injured orc who was eventually labeled with the moniker "Dirt." Dirt provided the bare minimum for Dust to survive in terms of supplies, instead preferring to impart self-defense techniques and his philosophies upon her instead so that she might simply take what she needed herself. With Dirt's guidance, the vagabond became a capable thief and martial artist.

Dirt eventually met his end at the hand of several bounty hunters, several of whom Dust killed in his defense. Though the pair could have escaped by burning the forest to give them a shield, Dirt advised against it, imparting to Dust the wisdom that nothing lasts for ever and that destruction is not evil in and of itself, but should be tempered and only used when appropriate.

Dust took those lessons to heart, but became listless with her mentor's death. She returned to Hiyokuna where she continued to act as a parasite to society until the game began.

During her stay in Hiyokuna, Dust encountered a strange traveler: an anthropomorphic panda driving a caravan. Dust initially planned to steal from the caravan, but the panda noticed her and kindly offered her food as well as a mysterious gift: an ornate platinum egg.

## Season 1, Arc 1 - Monk 3

At the beginning of Season 1, Dust was in her late twenties.

In the first arc, Dust generally played a supportive role, assisting the party in whatever combats they deemed necessary. She did commit herself to facing Toragana who wielded destruction without respect for it, a venture which was also strongly supported by Temür Bolad, who had a personal grudge against her, and Emen Gell, adopted sister to the warlord who had been exiled by her.

Additionally, she aided the party in facing the Order of the Black Scythe, a nationalistic criminal organization associated with demon worship, led by the father of party member Shimazaki Hideki. By defeating the leadership of that order, it was toppled for many generations.

## Season 1, Arc 2 - Monk 6

In the second arc, Dust set out to satisfy her curiosity regarding the egg she possessed, accompanied by Aero Jin-Sae and Malai. In the first arc, she had discovered an ogre, named Konchu, in possession of a similar egg, but seemingly made of glass with fire within. Working on the assumption that the her egg coincided with the Wu Xing element of metal and that Konchu's coincided with fire, then there would be three more eggs to be found in Duniya. It was eventually revealed that they are dragon eggs and confirmed to be derived from the five elements.

Powerful enough that she no longer needed to mooch off of society to sustain herself, she had the liberty to pursue this quest at her leisure. While searching for and claiming the rest of the eggs, she also helped many people across Duniya, including liberating the resident goddess of the Ikh Tsol desert from demonic possession, exterminating a Far Realm incursion into Suuder Uul, and undoing a necrotic curse afflicting an entire region of land.

## Epilogue - Monk 8 and Up

Upon finding the final dragon egg, Dust ended up adopting a small horde of children whose guardian had perished in their defense. Seeing shades of her former self, Dust was determined to play the role of Dirt. While not an ideal guardian at first, she eventually came to be a responsible head of the order, frequently aided by Emen Gell when the latter was not preoccupied with other activities.

As the initial orphans matured into adults and capable warriors, they established themselves as protectors of the five dragon eggs with Dust as their leader. Eventually, Dust passed away peacefully in the company of her students and the eggs she dedicated herself to protect.