Rosalie Chou (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
runawaystory) wrote2016-03-11 08:24 pm
runawaystory) wrote2016-03-11 08:24 pm
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Code of Dishonor: Ran/Sora Background
In his wild youth, Masshuu, Master Medium of Nakamatou's Sun Guard, encountered Oda, a woman who believed spirits were evil and they (and their summoners) should all be destroyed. Somehow, through the prodigious application of alcohol, this turned into a one-night stand.
One year later, Oda showed up on Masshuu's doorstep, deposited a baby girl there, and left them to their devices. Masshuu named the baby Ran.
Masshuu left most of Ran's early childhood supervision to spirits, as he himself had no idea how to raise a child. Still, her early childhood was a happy time. While Masshuu maybe gave her more independence than was strictly wise, their relationship was still on the positive side, especially since Masshuu was less busy with official Sun Guard duties at the time. One of her few positive memories from this time is of when Masshuu took on a day's journey to meet some dragons who inhabited a tree near the Sun Guard monastery, one that had been struck by lightning many times.
Unfortunately, the emergence of her spirit medium abilities in her preteens was when their relationship began to fall apart. Masshuu became increasingly preoccupied with his duties to the Sun Guard, leaving the already wild and independent Ran to herself even more. At the same time, Masshuu began to take an active role in training her spiritual abilities, seeing them as a way for them to truly bond and hoping she would one day succeed him as Master Medium of the Sun Guard. Thus began the tumultuous years of Ran's teenage years, as she and her father clashed repeatedly over her training as a spirit medium. The causes of their continual conflicts were Ran's fear and rejection of her ability to communicate with the dead, Masshuu's increasingly blase attitude toward death and life, and Ran's resentment of Masshuu's sudden attempts to take a more paternal and authoritative role in her life (at least where her spiritual training was involved).
During those years, Ran found solace in communing with the elemental spirits she favored, as well as in the presence of [Riddick]. The swordsmith became a kindly uncle figure to her. It was also during these years that she acquired a distinctive (but mundane) tattoo, a fiery dragon that coiled around her shoulder and her upper arm, trailing just past her elbow. She also acquired some elementalist tattoos from [Claudia], then an apprentice tattooist.
However, a few days after getting her elementalist tattoos at the age of 17, Ran found that her newfound ability to channel chi into flames interacted strangely with her spirit medium abilities. In some solo experimentation with her powers, she accidentally discovered her new ability of Spirit Binding. The dead quickly began hounding her, desperate for a chance to live again. Absolutely terrified of this new power, and of what her father might do if he discovered it, she quickly buried the evidence of her first spirit bindings and ran away from home as soon as she was able.
Upon leaving home, Ran's options were limited. The mainland was walled off, so there was no way for her to leave the peninsula. She couldn't join a pirate crew, where she would see death before her every day. She couldn't go to Nakamiyo either. In that province, she would be conscripted into the Mibugumi, and she would likewise never be able to escape the dead. That left Koroshima and ultimately the Suzuki Rifles. In the rifle corps, Ran found a job that asked no questions of her background and let her spend her days wandering the mountains, far from the restless dead and near the dragons and elementals she so loved. So to Koroshima she went, signing up as a Suzuki rifleman under the assumed name of Sora.
For seven years "Sora" lived quietly, keeping to herself and learning the ways of the mountains. But it couldn't last. The Shogun's challenge means that the tenuous peace Ran has built for herself is endangered on all sides.
If war erupts on the peninsula, the Suzuki Rifles will be deployed straight into the heart of the battlefields Ran has tried so desperately to avoid.
If Koroshima wins the conflict, the same thing will happen, with the added twist of encountering new and terrifying spectres and spirits on foreign lands.
The impending peace summit will undoubtedly draw her father and the Sun Guard out of Nakamatou, straight into the heart of Koroshima, endangering the mountain refuge she's built for herself.
And then there are the dragons, who are agitated by some other, nameless danger in the spiritual realm.
NAME NOTES
Ran (蘭; orchid): Similar to Rosalie with the first letter and the single flower meaning.
Sora (空 or 昊; sky): Anagram of the first four letters of Rosalie. Picked for freedom, mountains, open skies, etc.
One year later, Oda showed up on Masshuu's doorstep, deposited a baby girl there, and left them to their devices. Masshuu named the baby Ran.
Masshuu left most of Ran's early childhood supervision to spirits, as he himself had no idea how to raise a child. Still, her early childhood was a happy time. While Masshuu maybe gave her more independence than was strictly wise, their relationship was still on the positive side, especially since Masshuu was less busy with official Sun Guard duties at the time. One of her few positive memories from this time is of when Masshuu took on a day's journey to meet some dragons who inhabited a tree near the Sun Guard monastery, one that had been struck by lightning many times.
Unfortunately, the emergence of her spirit medium abilities in her preteens was when their relationship began to fall apart. Masshuu became increasingly preoccupied with his duties to the Sun Guard, leaving the already wild and independent Ran to herself even more. At the same time, Masshuu began to take an active role in training her spiritual abilities, seeing them as a way for them to truly bond and hoping she would one day succeed him as Master Medium of the Sun Guard. Thus began the tumultuous years of Ran's teenage years, as she and her father clashed repeatedly over her training as a spirit medium. The causes of their continual conflicts were Ran's fear and rejection of her ability to communicate with the dead, Masshuu's increasingly blase attitude toward death and life, and Ran's resentment of Masshuu's sudden attempts to take a more paternal and authoritative role in her life (at least where her spiritual training was involved).
During those years, Ran found solace in communing with the elemental spirits she favored, as well as in the presence of [Riddick]. The swordsmith became a kindly uncle figure to her. It was also during these years that she acquired a distinctive (but mundane) tattoo, a fiery dragon that coiled around her shoulder and her upper arm, trailing just past her elbow. She also acquired some elementalist tattoos from [Claudia], then an apprentice tattooist.
However, a few days after getting her elementalist tattoos at the age of 17, Ran found that her newfound ability to channel chi into flames interacted strangely with her spirit medium abilities. In some solo experimentation with her powers, she accidentally discovered her new ability of Spirit Binding. The dead quickly began hounding her, desperate for a chance to live again. Absolutely terrified of this new power, and of what her father might do if he discovered it, she quickly buried the evidence of her first spirit bindings and ran away from home as soon as she was able.
Upon leaving home, Ran's options were limited. The mainland was walled off, so there was no way for her to leave the peninsula. She couldn't join a pirate crew, where she would see death before her every day. She couldn't go to Nakamiyo either. In that province, she would be conscripted into the Mibugumi, and she would likewise never be able to escape the dead. That left Koroshima and ultimately the Suzuki Rifles. In the rifle corps, Ran found a job that asked no questions of her background and let her spend her days wandering the mountains, far from the restless dead and near the dragons and elementals she so loved. So to Koroshima she went, signing up as a Suzuki rifleman under the assumed name of Sora.
For seven years "Sora" lived quietly, keeping to herself and learning the ways of the mountains. But it couldn't last. The Shogun's challenge means that the tenuous peace Ran has built for herself is endangered on all sides.
If war erupts on the peninsula, the Suzuki Rifles will be deployed straight into the heart of the battlefields Ran has tried so desperately to avoid.
If Koroshima wins the conflict, the same thing will happen, with the added twist of encountering new and terrifying spectres and spirits on foreign lands.
The impending peace summit will undoubtedly draw her father and the Sun Guard out of Nakamatou, straight into the heart of Koroshima, endangering the mountain refuge she's built for herself.
And then there are the dragons, who are agitated by some other, nameless danger in the spiritual realm.
NAME NOTES
Ran (蘭; orchid): Similar to Rosalie with the first letter and the single flower meaning.
Sora (空 or 昊; sky): Anagram of the first four letters of Rosalie. Picked for freedom, mountains, open skies, etc.