History/Story
History:
Atsusemimaru was born on the island nation of Ning over 5,000 years ago. Not even he remembers the exact year of his birth. Nor does he remember much of his life as a human since it's literally ancient history now. He remembers that he was once a soldier. Not a particularly good one, mind you. He never rose in rank and never managed to overcome his inferiority complex. He was timid for sure which felt to him like cruel irony given his powerful name. He sounded like a samurai, but the reality was that he was just a pathetic weakling who couldn't even get a date.
As unimportant as his life was, Atsusemimaru's death was the single most important moment in his millennia of existence. It began with the Kragol, a plague that seems minor these days as their numbers are tiny, but 5,000 years ago they were a true threat to the human denizens of Ning. A marauding horde of lizardmen savage and primal in nature yet surprisingly intelligent, the war between the humans of Ning and the Kragol lasted for hundreds of years. Both factions fought for control of the land and it was an even battle until about 4,000 years ago when the Ningese finally gained enough of an upper hand to sweep the Kragol down to small refugee tribes in the mountains. At the end of Atsusemimaru's 34 years of life, he was a soldier in the middle of the bloodiest part of the war. The Kragol possessed a weapon that gave them an edge in that era. Shamanistic spirit magic that allowed them to summon the departed ghosts of their fallen soldiers. Every Kragolian that was killed was brought back as a being with greater power and the added benefit of not being able to feel the embrace of death again. To the lizardmen, it was an honor to die in battle as they knew they would be reborn as immortal warriors by their shaman elders. This power was the bane of thousands of human soldiers. And of Atsusemimaru.
In a pivotal battle of the war, Atsusemimaru was sent in along with other low-ranked soldiers like himself. More bait than a platoon, they were destined to die as mere decoys to distract the enemy while the true soldiers regrouped and strategized. Considering his sorry excuse for a life up until then, Atsusemimaru agreed to the plan without protest. If throwing his miserable life away allowed humanity to survive just a little while longer, then it would be the first substantial thing he did for his kind.
It seemed that resolved steeled his will that day. For those who managed to survive the plan would tell of Atsusemimaru's uncharacteristic bravery and ferocity in battle. For the first time in his life, he was a leader, a warrior, and a hero to his fellow soldiers. In te back of his mind as he managed to actually slay some of the fiends, he began to think that he didn't want to die. That maybe if he could actually continue with this frame of mind then he could make something of himself. It was that moment when he found himself stuck with the blade of a katana. It confused him as the Kragol didn't possess the ability to make such a delicate weapon. They all possessed crude axes, swords, and clubs. They barely even managed to learn the art of bowery by that time. Horrified, Atsusemimaru turned around, fearing that maybe it was a lizardman running him through with one of his fallen comrade's weapons. Instead, what he was was far for terrifying.
Behind him stood the faintly translucent visage of a fellow Ningese soldier. A man he had come to call a friend, Hyouryu Mochikabe. His eyes burned with a flame that exuded animosity. Atsusemimaru looked back down at the blade sticking out of his armor and then at a Kragol shaman moving its hands as if controlling the human ghost with puppet strings. The Kragol had learned to dominate the ghosts of their enemies as well.
Before Atsusemimaru could get the thought of making it back to camp to warn his superiors, he was cut down by yet even more fallen comrades. The final thoughts in his head were astonishment at being killed by the ghosts of those he trusted.
Atsusemimaru awoke soon after in a strange place. There was no sun, no moon, no starts, not even a sky. Or at least not a sky he recognized. The land under his feet was flat and white while the "sky" above was of a deep crimson. The stetch of white seemed to go on for miles with nothing but a few other individuals roaming about, seemingly just as confused as he. Another thing he noticed was that he didn't seem to have a body. He felt that he had one. He could feel his feet, legs, arms, hands, head, and torso, but he couldn't see any of them. The closer he go to the figures int he distance, the more he realized that they also didn't possess bodies. Or did they? All they seemed to look like was a burning flame that floated in the air, but he could recognize where their limbs were. He somehow knew what all these people looked like and yet he never actually saw them.
Atsusemimaru tried asking the other people - if they could be called that - where they were. No one responded. However, he had the feeling they were also attempting to ask the same question in vain.
"Is this the afterlife?" Atsusemimaru wondered. Well if it was, it was one hell fo a boring place. Considering he couldn't speak with any of those around him, the newly dead man embarked on the longest walk of his life. He chose a direction and followed it. For years, he walked in one direction hoping to find something. It helped that his new "body" didn't need anything to sustain it and there was no such thing as weather or any sort fo dangers at all in his new home. He couldn't even tell if it were hot or cold there. In fact, as the years went on, the concept fo temperature faded from his mind. As did many other things. Eventually, the only thing that was left in his mind was the memory of his past life and, most pertinently, his death.
Suddenly, as if responding to his thoughts, a gate rose from the white nothingness below him. The architecture was alien to him, but he recognized it as a gate at least. Standing in front of it was a creature. It looked like a man comprised of dark smoke. Its bale plue eyes burned with the same flame as the ghosts who killed him.
"Boring, isn't it?" its mouthless visage called out to him. It was the first time Atsusemimaru had heard an actual voice in years. Even his own thoughts lost a voice as he had forgotten what his own voice sounded like in his trek. He tried to respond but again no sound came from him.
There was a pause before the creature responded.
"Oh, right. I forgot that you wisps can't speak. Been a while since I was on duty. I'm sure you're curious as to where you are."
Atsusemimaru didn't even try to respond this time, knowing it was futile.
"I'll take your silence as a 'no'. Well, put simply - you're in Purgatory. The space between the living world and the afterlife. Well, one afterlife, anyway."
The wisp once again remained silent. This time, in stunned shock that he wasn't in the afterlife after all.
"Well the word was just now given that you've been denied access to move on. Apparently, your life had little meaning. Even that last bit of heroics wasn't enough to let you in. So you're stuck here."
If Atsusemimau had a face, he would have frowned in despair. Just his luck. Even after death, his life was terrible.
"Don't worry, though." said the figure, "We have a spot for you in Limbo City. I'll even upgrade you. I'll bet you'd like to be able to speak, huh?"
Again, if Atsusemimaru had a head he would nod. He couldn't see the figure's mouth - if it even had one - but he somehow knew it was smiling. It scrawled something down on a scroll and Atsusemimaru's body was suddenly covered in the same dark smoke that surrounded the figure. He opened his eyes for the first time in years, burning with a blue flame. He didn't feel any different, but now he could see the limbs that he felt were there.
"There. Now you're bumped up to a shade. Welcome to Limbo City." the figure opened the gate and behind it was a gigantic metropolis full of impossible architecture that Atsusemimaru couldn't begin to fathom the shape of. He peered around the gate only to see the stretch of white and red again behind it. After a bit of nudging, he stepped inside.
Atsusemimaru's new life as a citizen of Limbo City proved to be far more fortuitous than his life among the living. He actually made friends, started a sort of family - not that shades could have children, but he did take a wife and adopted the ghosts of a pair of children - and even discovered that he now had access to powers similar to the magic of the living world. The power became an addiction of his. He acquired more and more of it, transforming from a shade into a spectre, into a wraith, into a phantom, and then finally into an eidolon. The more he transformed, the higher in social rank he rose. Since there was no form of currency in Limbo City, your rank meant everything. Truly, he had everything.
That was, until he realized that phantoms could become geists if they managed to accumulate the required amount of power. The thought of being among the council of rulers was too good to pass up. However, he didn't realize the cost of gaining such power. The closer he became to attaining geisthood, he farther he drifted form his family and friends. He began to understand why the geists in their towers at the center of the city were so distant from everyone else. At the time, he didn't care. He continued to grow in power. It cost him his family, but he decided that the payoff was worth it.
The moment Atsusemimaru became a geist will forever be etched into his memory. He, to this day, remembers the feeling of the surge of power in his body. The moment his new heart began to beat in his chest. Each beat shook him tot he core. Each thump like being hit by a battering ram. It hurt like nothing before, but it soon subsided after an explosion of power erupted from his body that demolished the building he stood in. When he managed to get up again, the building reforming around him, he looked at his new face in a mirror. Now six eyes burned on his mouthless visage and his hands were gigantic and bony. Each finger the length of a blade and and thin as a stick. Across his body burned etchings and runes the same color as his eyes and his legs ceased to exist; instead replaced by a billowing mass of smoke. It was a shocking transformation, but the power Atsusemimaru felt was unmistakable.
Millennia passed after Atsusemimaru joined the ranks of the Geists. He found that he had become a Geist of Souls, the first of his kind. He continued to rise in power, his appetite still not sated. He eventually rise to being among the five strongest in all of Limbo City. However, Atsusemimaru realized something by then. He spent a day in the city, trying to reflect on how far he'd come. When he floated past his old home, he saw his ex-wife and kids still there. They looked upon his new form and turned their gaze back to what they were doing. He knew they recognized him, but they didn't want anything to do with them. What had he been doing with his life? He had all this power, this influence, but he lost what truly made him happy in the first place.
Atsusemimaru had to make it right. He decided to be the one geist that wasn't distant. The one geist that didn't spend all of his time in his tower. However, all he found was that the people of his city didn't want a thing to do with him. That was except for one shade. His name was Hyouryu. The man who unwittingly killed him thousands of years ago. The two sat down and spoke. Hyouryu was mortified for what happened, but Atsusemimaru didn't care. What was past was past and he had no control of his own actions anyway. If anything, he felt that he should thank him. If not for his death, Atsusemimaru wouldn't have become what he is today. He invited Hyouryu to come to the Geist Quarter. Despite the protest from his fellow geists, they could not do anything to stop him.
Atsusemimaru had a plan. And he needed someone to watch over him. Someone who wasn't one of the other haughty geists who wouldn't "dirty" their hands with those who didn't share their level of power.
Atsusemimaru and Hyouryu began working on his plan. Being a Geist of Souls, he had the power to create life. In theory, anyway. It had never been done before, but the scrolls he read mentioned it would work if said geist had accumulated enough power. He figured he had. He was going to use that power to make a vessel for him to experience the living world once more. Atsusemimaru felt that if he could come back to the wold of the living then he could learn how to change the society in Limbo City. What he remembered of the living world was that people were generally willing to at least interact with those "below" them and the rulers served the people. A lot may have changed in 5,000 years, but he wanted to learn and experience it. His reasons were also somewhat selfish. Given his new experiences of being more than he was in life, he wanted a second chance.
Hyouryu never questioned the plan. He understood why his friend wanted to do it. However, the geists thought him foolish to want to return to the living world when he had attained so much there. Atsusemimaru ignored them and went through with the plan. The two worked together and one night in Limbo City, he did it.
The creation fo the body nearly destroyed Atsusemimaru, but it was a success. In the living world, an impossibly thin man fell naked fromt he sky into a lake. Hyouryu wished his friend luck and Atsusemimaru used the rest of his power to travel to the living world and possess the body.
Atsusemimaru spent a year in the body, honing his powers so he could use them in it. It was like he was a shade again, but he didn't mind being so weak. Somehow, power didn't fuel him anymore. He was serving a much nobler goal now. He eventually gained the power to summon Hyouryu into the living world, however.
Back in Purgatory, his feat has gained him both fame and infamy. The first denizen of Limbo City to create flesh. His colleagues are in awe of his feat, but also feel him to be a fool for trying it in the first place. It doesn't matter to him. Atsusemimaru, or "Twiggy" as he is known to some now, is too busy getting ready to change his city forever.
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RP Sample: (Coming Soon!)
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Face Claim: Aikuro Mikisugi - Kill la Kill
History:
Atsusemimaru was born on the island nation of Ning over 5,000 years ago. Not even he remembers the exact year of his birth. Nor does he remember much of his life as a human since it's literally ancient history now. He remembers that he was once a soldier. Not a particularly good one, mind you. He never rose in rank and never managed to overcome his inferiority complex. He was timid for sure which felt to him like cruel irony given his powerful name. He sounded like a samurai, but the reality was that he was just a pathetic weakling who couldn't even get a date.
As unimportant as his life was, Atsusemimaru's death was the single most important moment in his millennia of existence. It began with the Kragol, a plague that seems minor these days as their numbers are tiny, but 5,000 years ago they were a true threat to the human denizens of Ning. A marauding horde of lizardmen savage and primal in nature yet surprisingly intelligent, the war between the humans of Ning and the Kragol lasted for hundreds of years. Both factions fought for control of the land and it was an even battle until about 4,000 years ago when the Ningese finally gained enough of an upper hand to sweep the Kragol down to small refugee tribes in the mountains. At the end of Atsusemimaru's 34 years of life, he was a soldier in the middle of the bloodiest part of the war. The Kragol possessed a weapon that gave them an edge in that era. Shamanistic spirit magic that allowed them to summon the departed ghosts of their fallen soldiers. Every Kragolian that was killed was brought back as a being with greater power and the added benefit of not being able to feel the embrace of death again. To the lizardmen, it was an honor to die in battle as they knew they would be reborn as immortal warriors by their shaman elders. This power was the bane of thousands of human soldiers. And of Atsusemimaru.
In a pivotal battle of the war, Atsusemimaru was sent in along with other low-ranked soldiers like himself. More bait than a platoon, they were destined to die as mere decoys to distract the enemy while the true soldiers regrouped and strategized. Considering his sorry excuse for a life up until then, Atsusemimaru agreed to the plan without protest. If throwing his miserable life away allowed humanity to survive just a little while longer, then it would be the first substantial thing he did for his kind.
It seemed that resolved steeled his will that day. For those who managed to survive the plan would tell of Atsusemimaru's uncharacteristic bravery and ferocity in battle. For the first time in his life, he was a leader, a warrior, and a hero to his fellow soldiers. In te back of his mind as he managed to actually slay some of the fiends, he began to think that he didn't want to die. That maybe if he could actually continue with this frame of mind then he could make something of himself. It was that moment when he found himself stuck with the blade of a katana. It confused him as the Kragol didn't possess the ability to make such a delicate weapon. They all possessed crude axes, swords, and clubs. They barely even managed to learn the art of bowery by that time. Horrified, Atsusemimaru turned around, fearing that maybe it was a lizardman running him through with one of his fallen comrade's weapons. Instead, what he was was far for terrifying.
Behind him stood the faintly translucent visage of a fellow Ningese soldier. A man he had come to call a friend, Hyouryu Mochikabe. His eyes burned with a flame that exuded animosity. Atsusemimaru looked back down at the blade sticking out of his armor and then at a Kragol shaman moving its hands as if controlling the human ghost with puppet strings. The Kragol had learned to dominate the ghosts of their enemies as well.
Before Atsusemimaru could get the thought of making it back to camp to warn his superiors, he was cut down by yet even more fallen comrades. The final thoughts in his head were astonishment at being killed by the ghosts of those he trusted.
Atsusemimaru awoke soon after in a strange place. There was no sun, no moon, no starts, not even a sky. Or at least not a sky he recognized. The land under his feet was flat and white while the "sky" above was of a deep crimson. The stetch of white seemed to go on for miles with nothing but a few other individuals roaming about, seemingly just as confused as he. Another thing he noticed was that he didn't seem to have a body. He felt that he had one. He could feel his feet, legs, arms, hands, head, and torso, but he couldn't see any of them. The closer he go to the figures int he distance, the more he realized that they also didn't possess bodies. Or did they? All they seemed to look like was a burning flame that floated in the air, but he could recognize where their limbs were. He somehow knew what all these people looked like and yet he never actually saw them.
Atsusemimaru tried asking the other people - if they could be called that - where they were. No one responded. However, he had the feeling they were also attempting to ask the same question in vain.
"Is this the afterlife?" Atsusemimaru wondered. Well if it was, it was one hell fo a boring place. Considering he couldn't speak with any of those around him, the newly dead man embarked on the longest walk of his life. He chose a direction and followed it. For years, he walked in one direction hoping to find something. It helped that his new "body" didn't need anything to sustain it and there was no such thing as weather or any sort fo dangers at all in his new home. He couldn't even tell if it were hot or cold there. In fact, as the years went on, the concept fo temperature faded from his mind. As did many other things. Eventually, the only thing that was left in his mind was the memory of his past life and, most pertinently, his death.
Suddenly, as if responding to his thoughts, a gate rose from the white nothingness below him. The architecture was alien to him, but he recognized it as a gate at least. Standing in front of it was a creature. It looked like a man comprised of dark smoke. Its bale plue eyes burned with the same flame as the ghosts who killed him.
"Boring, isn't it?" its mouthless visage called out to him. It was the first time Atsusemimaru had heard an actual voice in years. Even his own thoughts lost a voice as he had forgotten what his own voice sounded like in his trek. He tried to respond but again no sound came from him.
There was a pause before the creature responded.
"Oh, right. I forgot that you wisps can't speak. Been a while since I was on duty. I'm sure you're curious as to where you are."
Atsusemimaru didn't even try to respond this time, knowing it was futile.
"I'll take your silence as a 'no'. Well, put simply - you're in Purgatory. The space between the living world and the afterlife. Well, one afterlife, anyway."
The wisp once again remained silent. This time, in stunned shock that he wasn't in the afterlife after all.
"Well the word was just now given that you've been denied access to move on. Apparently, your life had little meaning. Even that last bit of heroics wasn't enough to let you in. So you're stuck here."
If Atsusemimau had a face, he would have frowned in despair. Just his luck. Even after death, his life was terrible.
"Don't worry, though." said the figure, "We have a spot for you in Limbo City. I'll even upgrade you. I'll bet you'd like to be able to speak, huh?"
Again, if Atsusemimaru had a head he would nod. He couldn't see the figure's mouth - if it even had one - but he somehow knew it was smiling. It scrawled something down on a scroll and Atsusemimaru's body was suddenly covered in the same dark smoke that surrounded the figure. He opened his eyes for the first time in years, burning with a blue flame. He didn't feel any different, but now he could see the limbs that he felt were there.
"There. Now you're bumped up to a shade. Welcome to Limbo City." the figure opened the gate and behind it was a gigantic metropolis full of impossible architecture that Atsusemimaru couldn't begin to fathom the shape of. He peered around the gate only to see the stretch of white and red again behind it. After a bit of nudging, he stepped inside.
Atsusemimaru's new life as a citizen of Limbo City proved to be far more fortuitous than his life among the living. He actually made friends, started a sort of family - not that shades could have children, but he did take a wife and adopted the ghosts of a pair of children - and even discovered that he now had access to powers similar to the magic of the living world. The power became an addiction of his. He acquired more and more of it, transforming from a shade into a spectre, into a wraith, into a phantom, and then finally into an eidolon. The more he transformed, the higher in social rank he rose. Since there was no form of currency in Limbo City, your rank meant everything. Truly, he had everything.
That was, until he realized that phantoms could become geists if they managed to accumulate the required amount of power. The thought of being among the council of rulers was too good to pass up. However, he didn't realize the cost of gaining such power. The closer he became to attaining geisthood, he farther he drifted form his family and friends. He began to understand why the geists in their towers at the center of the city were so distant from everyone else. At the time, he didn't care. He continued to grow in power. It cost him his family, but he decided that the payoff was worth it.
The moment Atsusemimaru became a geist will forever be etched into his memory. He, to this day, remembers the feeling of the surge of power in his body. The moment his new heart began to beat in his chest. Each beat shook him tot he core. Each thump like being hit by a battering ram. It hurt like nothing before, but it soon subsided after an explosion of power erupted from his body that demolished the building he stood in. When he managed to get up again, the building reforming around him, he looked at his new face in a mirror. Now six eyes burned on his mouthless visage and his hands were gigantic and bony. Each finger the length of a blade and and thin as a stick. Across his body burned etchings and runes the same color as his eyes and his legs ceased to exist; instead replaced by a billowing mass of smoke. It was a shocking transformation, but the power Atsusemimaru felt was unmistakable.
Millennia passed after Atsusemimaru joined the ranks of the Geists. He found that he had become a Geist of Souls, the first of his kind. He continued to rise in power, his appetite still not sated. He eventually rise to being among the five strongest in all of Limbo City. However, Atsusemimaru realized something by then. He spent a day in the city, trying to reflect on how far he'd come. When he floated past his old home, he saw his ex-wife and kids still there. They looked upon his new form and turned their gaze back to what they were doing. He knew they recognized him, but they didn't want anything to do with them. What had he been doing with his life? He had all this power, this influence, but he lost what truly made him happy in the first place.
Atsusemimaru had to make it right. He decided to be the one geist that wasn't distant. The one geist that didn't spend all of his time in his tower. However, all he found was that the people of his city didn't want a thing to do with him. That was except for one shade. His name was Hyouryu. The man who unwittingly killed him thousands of years ago. The two sat down and spoke. Hyouryu was mortified for what happened, but Atsusemimaru didn't care. What was past was past and he had no control of his own actions anyway. If anything, he felt that he should thank him. If not for his death, Atsusemimaru wouldn't have become what he is today. He invited Hyouryu to come to the Geist Quarter. Despite the protest from his fellow geists, they could not do anything to stop him.
Atsusemimaru had a plan. And he needed someone to watch over him. Someone who wasn't one of the other haughty geists who wouldn't "dirty" their hands with those who didn't share their level of power.
Atsusemimaru and Hyouryu began working on his plan. Being a Geist of Souls, he had the power to create life. In theory, anyway. It had never been done before, but the scrolls he read mentioned it would work if said geist had accumulated enough power. He figured he had. He was going to use that power to make a vessel for him to experience the living world once more. Atsusemimaru felt that if he could come back to the wold of the living then he could learn how to change the society in Limbo City. What he remembered of the living world was that people were generally willing to at least interact with those "below" them and the rulers served the people. A lot may have changed in 5,000 years, but he wanted to learn and experience it. His reasons were also somewhat selfish. Given his new experiences of being more than he was in life, he wanted a second chance.
Hyouryu never questioned the plan. He understood why his friend wanted to do it. However, the geists thought him foolish to want to return to the living world when he had attained so much there. Atsusemimaru ignored them and went through with the plan. The two worked together and one night in Limbo City, he did it.
The creation fo the body nearly destroyed Atsusemimaru, but it was a success. In the living world, an impossibly thin man fell naked fromt he sky into a lake. Hyouryu wished his friend luck and Atsusemimaru used the rest of his power to travel to the living world and possess the body.
Atsusemimaru spent a year in the body, honing his powers so he could use them in it. It was like he was a shade again, but he didn't mind being so weak. Somehow, power didn't fuel him anymore. He was serving a much nobler goal now. He eventually gained the power to summon Hyouryu into the living world, however.
Back in Purgatory, his feat has gained him both fame and infamy. The first denizen of Limbo City to create flesh. His colleagues are in awe of his feat, but also feel him to be a fool for trying it in the first place. It doesn't matter to him. Atsusemimaru, or "Twiggy" as he is known to some now, is too busy getting ready to change his city forever.
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RP Sample: (Coming Soon!)
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Face Claim: Aikuro Mikisugi - Kill la Kill
