Phoenix Clan - Active Player Backgrounds

[Agasha Shodai]

I got this idea from something I saw in Kyuden Doji where the active players will re-list (and occasionally update) their Backgrounds so that anyone visiting would know the identities of the major players in their clan.

[Isawa Okibi]

I'll go ahead an link the other Phoenix from the main description post:

Shiba Kazuma
rokuganee.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=intro&thread=258&page=3#4038

Isawa Kinen
rokuganee.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=intro&thread=258&page=1#2838

Isawa Okibi
rokuganee.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=intro&thread=258&page=6#12531

[Shiba Kazuma]

(I have modified my character below)

Name: Shiba Kazuma
Age: 35
Height: 5'5"
Build: muscular and fit
Hair: smooth, neatly kept, black in color
Eyes: hazel

Appearance: Kazuma is well kept wearing his light armor with pride. His gauntlets have 5 gems in each of them. The gems are arranged in different patterns on each of the gauntlets. On his waist he carries Ofushikai, the sword of Shiba, and an ornate Wakasashi. His eyes are soothing and calm, but his face shows the sign of battle and his age.

Father: Shiba Kajito
Mother: Shiba Ayame

School: Shiba Bushi

Personality: A kind and caring Samurai who believes that by learning about war he can better reason why peace is the better option. He is traveling the land in order to learn about the art of war from the other clans and to aid those who are in need of help. Though he is peaceful in nature he is not afraid to defend himself or those that are in need of help.

[Agasha Shodai]

OCC: Just a few updates

Name: Void Master Agasha Shodai

Age: 30

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 150 lbs

Hair: Shoulder-length White with a lock of Black over his left eye (permanently changed after a brush with Meido, cannot be changed cosmetically or by magic)

Eyes: Emerald (right) and Gray (left)

Appearance: Agasha Shodai typically wears black or dark red shugenja robes and wears a full daisho as he has trained in the style of the Yamabushi. He carries his paternal grandfather's wakizashi at all times, but he will carry a different katana depending on which part of the Empire his journey takes him to. He has been known to wear light armor that he forged using a blend of techniques learned from the Kaiu, the Tsi, and his own Agasha family.

Family: Agasha Keitaro (father, 52) and Agasha (formerly Isawa) Sakura (mother, 48)

Rank: 9

School: Isawa Shugenja School 4 / Isawa Tensai (Void) / Elemental Guard (Void) 3 / Agasha Shugenja School 1

Affinity/Deficiencies: Void (double affinity), Fire (Neither), Air (Deficient,) Earth (Deficient,) Water (Double deficiency)

History/Personality: Agasha Shodai is a much-travelled man. As a youth, he was one of the top students in the Isawa Shugenja school and was one of the few with the Agasha name to show aptitude for Ishiken-do - Void magic - thanks to the venerable Isawa bloodline his mother has passed to him - indeed, his maternal grandfather was the Master of the Void long before his mother was born.

Shodai's paternal grandfather was a battle-hardened Gunso, who taught his grandson the ways of combat as Bushi understand it and the boy was as entranced by physical combat as he was magical learning. Even in his youth, Shodai was a bit of an odd duck in that while he knew his place in the social order of Rokugan, he was always filled with compassion for his fellow man, regardless of status.

Upon completing his Gempukku, Shodai chose to honor both his grandfathers by securing for himself the priviledge of studying for a summer with the Tamori Yamabushi and learning how to blend his self-taught blade skills with his Isawa Shugenja School training. This would turn out to be only the start of Shodai's travels.

Thanks to his skill at Ishiken-do, Shodai was able to master the art of Teleportation and he can travel the length and breadth of the Empire at will. He has studied and trained with most of the Shugenja and Bushi schools - all in an effort to hone himself in to a better samurai and person. This work, on top of his family's connections within the Phoenix Clan, earned Shodai an invitation to join the Elemental Legion of the Void - the secretive Void Guard that are generally considered to be a rumor by the bulk of the Phoenix Clan and a myth by the Empire at large.

Upon completion of his time with the Void Guard, Agasha Shodai chose to resume his personal studies with the Agasha Shugenja School rather than returning to the Isawa School. Since that time, Shodai has focused on two of his true passions - developing new spells and teaching others. He has begun writing his own Tao which attempts to bridge the various aspects of his own personality and skills - and, at the same time, - provide a useful learning tool that may help others in finding what role they will play in Destiny's grand design.

Shodai's Tao can be found at rokuganee.proboards.com/index.cgi....play&thread=459

Following a rather unexpected turn of events, Agasha Shodai has just been elevated to the seat of the Phoenix Clan's Void Master and the Voice of the Elemental Council. This success has allowed his maternal grandfather's spirit to return to Yomi; his onus completed.

He is currently betrothed to Kakita Mitsouko - the Kakita Family Daimyo and Kenshinzen, whom he shares a Kharmic Tie with from their last incarnation which was over two hundred years ago - but the initial battles of the War for the Throne came during the one month wait that is customary in Rokugani culture. He was among the first of the Phoenix Clan to swear fealty to Hantei XL and has been working tirelessly to prepare his normally pacifistic clan for war, which has, unfortunately, taken far longer than he personally would have liked.

The Phoenix will soon march... And Agasha Shodai will lead from the front.

~*~

Advantages (Beginning): Ishiken-do, Void Versatility, Precise Memory, Paragon of Compassion, Touch of the Spirit Realms (Yume-do), Clear Thinker, Balanced, Irreproachible

Disadvantages (Beginning): Bad Fortune (Evil Eye), Haunted (Ojiisan Isawa, his maternal Grandfather), Lost Love (Ojiisan Agasha, his paternal grandfather,) Compulsion (Tea Ceremony,) Idealistic

--

Advantages (Current): Ishiken-do, Precise Memory, Paragon of Compassion, Touch of the Spirit Realms (Yume-do), Enlightened, Friend of the Brotherhood, Friend of the Elements (Fire), Sage, Kharmic Tie (Kakita Mitsouko), Clear Thinker, Balanced, Irreproachible

Disadvantages (Current): Bad Fortune (Evil Eye), Cursed By The Realm (Meido), Ascetic, Lost Love (Ojiisan Agasha, his paternal grandfather,) Compulsion (Tea Ceremony,) Idealistic

[Isawa Kaji]

Name: Isawa Kaji
Age: 17
Height: 5'8"
Build: Average
Hair: Jet Black
Eyes: Dark Brown

School: Isawa Shugenja • Air

Appearance/History:
Isawa Kaji is an adaptable person, capable of changing his style or approach to suit whatever needs are required. Empathic to thoughts and feelings make it easier to adjust to particular situations. This is a blessing provided by an attunement to air. One week Kaji may be clean shaven in a smart kimono, then the next week dressed in dirty magistrate robes, disheveled hair with stubble on his face. It's good to keep people guessing.

Regardless of his attire, or occasion, Kaji usually wields a wide smile. This is his poker face and, aided with boyish looks, helps catch many people unaware. Few make the same mistake of underestimating him a second time. At some point he is hopeful of finding an attractive Crane or Scorpion wife, ideally someone who would be capable of both challenging and supporting him. However, after numerous trips to both lands, he has failed to find the right person yet.

The lessons of his Sensei have made the young Isawa who he is today. Some actions require long processes of consideration to cater all available details, others demand the immediate evocation of everything a Shugenja can master. The latter is more often the case for those who hunt any trained in the dark magical arts of the Shadowlands. Kaji frequently struggles to bite his tongue, or reflect on matters, before acting.

Story:
Isawa Kaji's somber shadow slumped across a table opposite the ornate fireplace. He cursed his brash nature, and although this was not the course he wanted in life, it was difficult not to shrug off concerns that this was all just a little too soon. Four years of dedicated training in this area was hardly impressive but, with determination and a force of will rarely seen, he had managed to secure a job as an Inquisitor.

Kaji allowed a brief smile to pass across his face. No-one would argue that his seemingly innate ability to immolate Mako-Tsukai was not impressive, however, inexperience in this particular aspect of magic could have fatal conclusions. A slight delay at the wrong time and a slow putrid death could follow. Tonight this concerning fact had reserved a place at the very forefront of Kaji's mind. Luckily some fine saki seemed to ease the worry.

[Shiba Gunichi]

Name: Shiba Gunichi
School: Shiba Bushi
Age: 30
Hair: Black, worn shoulder-length
Eyes: Hazel, pronounced crow's feet.
Physical appearance:
Shiba Gunichi is a lean, unassuming man of average height, with sharp, well-defined features and vaguely vulpine cast to his face. He goes clean-shaven, and moves with the elegant grace of a superbly conditioned athlete.

His expression these days is often grim, and those who know him well claim that he smiles, on average, once each decade.

His sartorial sense is decidedly lacking- the amount of time Gunichi has spent in the remotest corners of the Phoenix lands has done little to polish his sense of fashion. He favors well-worn clothing, little better than what a peasant would wear, but comfortable and functional. His armor, notable for the dark shade of red used in the lacquer, is fairly lightweight, and his helmet is a simple metal jingasa with the mon of the Phoenix in orange worn to the front. His daisho, in contrast to his generally rough appearance, is exquisitely clean and well-maintained.

Biography to Date
Gunichi's early years were fairly unremarkable. While his gempukku fell in time for a Topaz Championship, he was not selected to represent the Phoenix in any capacity- his iaijutsu skills were sub-par, and he was notably lacking courtly graces.

However, he had an agile mind and a gift for unconventional tactics.

As poor duelists make poor yojimbo, for the most part, Gunichi was packed off to a remote castle near the coast where he moldered in obscurity, occasionally taking to the sea to battle the pathetic excuses for pirates that passed through when not immersed in esoteric lore in the rather scattershot library of the castle.

The slow times came to an end when the Empire erupted in civil war. While Gunichi is generally apolitical, he followed his Clan into support of the Hantei, a decision that has started to trouble him of late. Sent to aid the Emerald Champion at Crossroads Castle, he came into his own.

His iaijutsu may have been mid-tier at best, his social skills may have been questionable, but his kenjutsu and small-unit tactics were well-honed, and he won a fair amount of personal glory in the battle.

He also found himself troubled by doubts. While nowhere near the pacifist of Phoenix stereotype, he had great respect for the samurai of the Lion Clan, men and women whom he faced in honorable battle, and helped to defeat. After executing some looters at Crossroads Castle, he received special orders to go to the Dragon army besieging the Castle of the Swift Sword as a courier. Arriving at an inopportune moment, Gunichi found himself embroiled in yet another assault, and once again, fighting the samurai of the Lion Clan.

As the situation grew more desperate, he thought of fighting his way clear and trying to bring word of the Dragon's plight to the army of the Emerald Champion. He needn't have bothered.

The Dragon unleashed a hellish barrage of alchemical fire, reducing the storied Castle of the Swift Sword to molten slag, along with the overwhelming majority of its defenders.

The Dragon's fiery assault had left nothing worth defending or holding, and the retreat of the Shogun's army impressed Gunichi less than the smell of burning human flesh. As he surveyed the ruined heap and the charred remnants of honorable foes who had defended their home to the last, the Phoenix samurai began wondering if anything was worth such total destruction.

Immediate Family
Father- Shiba Okura (deceased- Slain in an honorable duel with a Kenshinzen.)
Mother- Shiba (formerly Agasha) Mariko (retired to a monastery as 'Yukio")
Older Brother- Shiba Tsumaru (married to a former Lion, currently posted to the Imperial Court)
Younger Brother- Shiba Gondo (deceased- died in battle against the Yobanjin at Mountain Watch Keep)