Post by yulan on Apr 7, 2007 15:03:33 GMT -6
Name: Feng Li aka Kuma (Bear)
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Height: 5’ 7”
Nationality: Earth Kingdom
Appearance: Feng Li has the traits of the regular Earth Kingdom citizen: a strong, almost square jaw, tanned skin, leathery palms and soles. Her body is wiry and lithe, and her eyes are a deep emerald hue, shining with perpetual amusement as if she thinks she is superior to most everyone else in terms of combat prowess. Her straight black hair is pulled into a low ponytail, the tip brushing midway down her back. One can find telltale lines of silver amongst the otherwise uniform black strands, informing others that the woman has had a long, stressful life. Upon further inspection, those who are truly observant may notice a certain weariness lingering in her green eyes, clouding their supposed shine like a layer of dust that only grows heavier each day.
Her usual attire consists of a black wushu vest with gold trim along the openings of the sleeves, neck, waist, and on the buttons. Under the vest, Feng Li dons a gray long-sleeve shirt and tucks it into a pair of black pants. The pants are loose and comfortable, and the leg cuffs are also lined with gold trim. Like her fellow Earth Kingdomers, she goes around barefoot, though if the weather gets nasty, she’ll also opt to bring a brown traveling cloak with her. [The vest looks like this. Ignore the pants.]
She carries two short swords on her person, and they are such that both of them fit snugly into the same sheath, which she wears on her left hip. Finally, Feng Li sports an impressive array of scars all over her body, but most of them are hidden by her clothing. The only visible ones are located on her neck and left foot: the one on her neck starts below her right shoulder, on her back, and gently curves upwards, crawling along the side of her neck until it stops, just barely touching her ear. The one on her foot is a simple two-inch vertical line in front of her ankle.
Rank: Member
Profession: Warrior
History:
The mighty woman who holds the name ‘Bear’ in the enigmatic Order of the White Lotus had humble beginnings. Born into a poor peasant family in the heart of the Earth Kingdom as their seventh child and third daughter, she and her family always had to work their souls out just to scrape a living. They owned one of the worst plots of land in the area, and the rocky soil turned over minimal rewards in return for their back-breaking labor. Their farm did not produce enough food to feed them, so her parents borrowed money and bought what they needed from the markets.
However, they fell into debt, each year digging the hole a little deeper, and finally, under threat of having all their belongings confiscated, the little girl’s parents struck a deal with a nearby noble family: they would sell their youngest child as a servant, and the noble house would pay their debt for them. For the parents, this was a wonderful deal because not only were they now granted a clean slate, they had one less mouth to feed. So the youngest daughter, only seven years old at the time, was bought by the prominent house of Wu and given a new name to remind her that she had nothing to do with her old family anymore: Feng Li.
She quickly settled into the role of servant with the other servants’ guidance, and was almost immediately picked out by the Wu family’s eldest daughter as a favorite. Though older than Feng Li by ten years, the pampered teenager loved nothing more than having an adorable servant-child comb her hair or pick her week’s outfit or set aside specific dessert treats from the kitchen before anyone else could eat them. To be honest, it wasn’t a miserable existence, for Feng Li was treated well and had promises of nourishment and shelter, unlike her birth family. But even then, her mind was too imaginative and her personality too vibrant to be satisfied with the monotony of scrubbing floors and washing laundry day in and day out.
Five years passed. One evening, the Wu’s second eldest daughter arrived home from her trip to the northern edge of the Earth Kingdom, escorted by a famous and extremely skilled group of mercenaries hired as bodyguards. The group stayed in the mansion that night as guests, and Mr. Wu held a lavish feast as thanks for protecting his daughter.
While sounds of merriment rang from the dining hall and out through the windows, Feng Li was busy in the back garden, stacking more wine barrels and rolling the empty ones off to be trashed later, when something caught her attention. In the branches of the trees that stood just by the wall, she thought she saw glints of suspicious light flashing every few seconds. It was very odd… and come to think of it, weren’t there supposed to be guards stationed on this side? Where had they gone? Alarmed but mindful to remain calm, she slipped back inside and respectfully notified Mr. Wu.
The leader of the mercenaries overheard Feng Li’s report and gathered three of his men to investigate. It was later discovered that members of a rival mercenary group had tracked them here, knocked out the guards, and were preparing to ambush everyone from the garden once the feast had ended, when their senses had hopefully been dulled by rich food and tasty drink. Thanks to Feng Li’s sharp eye, the attack was thwarted.
The leader was impressed by her insight and asked Mr. Wu if he could have her in his group. Since she was just one of many servants he had, Mr. Wu let her go. Truthfully, he didn’t recall that she’d been purchased from a poor peasant couple some years earlier, and only thought of the deal as a fair exchange since the mercenaries did save his home and family from those dastardly shadow assailants who’d incapacitated his guards. Feng Li was welcomed into the mercenary group as a fresh initiate, and though she never thought she’d be suited to a life of fighting, she was quickly proved wrong.
The minute the new girl came back with the dispatched men to their headquarters in Gaoling, the leader’s wife took Feng Li under her wing and started her personal training immediately. Being a master of combat using short swords herself, it wasn’t long before the intelligent and eager servant-turned-warrior became quite good with them as well. Gradually over the course of the next four years, she added a second short sword to her arsenal and experimented with moves of her own, using those taught by her mentor as a base to work from. Additionally, it was during those years that Feng Li and her new caretakers found out she possessed the ability to earthbend. Doubly pleased that he’d picked up this gem of a girl who was quick to learn sword techniques and could be trained as a bender, the mercenary leader honed her earthbending skills himself while his wife continued to instruct her in swordsmanship. In any spare time she had, Feng Li mixed her sword moves and earthbending moves, sometimes even sacrificing sleep just to perfect a wonderful new maneuver she’d been shown that day, or on rare occasions, ‘discovered’ herself.
As a novice in the mercenary band, she performed mostly menial tasks almost identical to those during her servant years: cooking, cleaning, handling the grocery shopping… But when she was sixteen, she was given an opportunity to prove her worth as a full member.
Most of the mercenaries were out on assignment or simply not at HQ, but either way, Feng Li was alone in the place when someone tried to break into their office and steal some important documents. Her duty commanded her to confront the intruder, and she did, diving into battle with both swords flashing, the ground beneath them shaking in tandem with her fury. The man wielded gigantic metal gauntlets whose fingertips had been capped with claws, and for many minutes, he and the wiry dual-swordsgirl danced through the building, exchanging hits. While their ratio of successful blows remained equal, the attacker’s strength was much greater than Feng Li’s, and her stamina was quickly whittled down to almost nothing. Fortunately however, she knew the layout of HQ and her enemy didn’t, and she lasted long enough to deal a lucky killing blow.
Afterwards, a barely conscious but smiling Feng Li greeted her superiors with the body and no less than thirty-four distinct claw marks on her person, which later whitened into souvenir scars. For winning, she was finally accepted as a true member of the mercenary band.
She was convinced that her life’s path was set. Feng Li trained more and more, growing ever closer to her fellow mercenaries, carrying out missions that came to them and enjoying her occupation. Not once did the idea of visiting her first home, her birth home, cross her mind. She was quite happy where she was, and besides, if the rumors were true, that strong and cute young axer who’d joined them not long ago had a crush on her…
Feng Li and the newcomer Hei Zong fell in love and eventually got married. Much like their leader, they worked as a husband-wife team to wreak havoc in battle, ripping through their opponents with ease. All throughout the Earth Kingdom, bandits and rival mercenaries came to fear those two who hailed from Gaoling and fought like a pair of wild bears, knowing only the fierce rhythm of dancing on the edge of death, treating ‘mercy’ like a foreign word whose definition and purpose they did not understand. For a long time, Feng Li was content. Until she was thirty years old, she was content.
In one of their many fights, Hei Zong was felled by the opposing side, and though Feng Li swiftly took the life of the man responsible, he was gone forever, leaving behind a devastated wife and a three-year-old son.
That night, Feng Li staggered into the nearest pub with her swords sheathed at her waist, eyes sickeningly red from crying, her clothes also still red with enemy blood. She was determined to drink her grief away. However, she only got halfway through her first bottle when an old man sitting in the corner invited her over for a friendly game of Pai Sho. The distraught woman figured, what the heck, she’d just lost her husband, and though soundly beating a geezer at Pai Sho would do little to lift her mood, by this point she also didn’t care if she lost and handed over her dignity.
Despite having had a few drinks, Feng Li was not easily swayed by alcohol and still maintained much of her wits while playing with the old man. As they placed tiles around the board, the geezer struck up a conversation with her and began a rather intriguing story about a secret war that had been raging for over a hundred years… Genuinely interested, she asked him for more details even after the game had ended (she got her butt kicked, by the way), and the old man simply smiled and obliged, offering her entry into the Order of the White Lotus.
Hei Zong’s death had jarred her senses, and she thought that a new start was probably best for her and her son. Feng Li waited a week, long enough to convince her mercenary friends that she was entirely too disheartened to continue working with them, and politely resigned from service. She took up residence in a nice one-story house in town and immediately started studying the history of the Order and the Shadow War.
Due to her already terrific skills as a warrior and a bender, Feng Li remained in the lower ranks only long enough to learn the required history and instinctively chose warrior as her profession in the White Lotus. Though her age gave the higher-ups reason to be suspicious of ulterior motives, she backed her loyalty by slaying any target they asked without question and keeping up the appearance of a quietly retired fighter who occasionally did favors outside of Order meetings. Once, they even offered her a position as a High Member, a teacher, but Feng Li only laughed and replied that about the only thing she was good at was fighting, and the only way they’d stuff her behind a desk for the rest of her life was if someone cut off her legs.
She knows that the only fitting end for someone like her is in battle. But before she gets there, she’d like to serve the White Lotus and remove some bender-haters from the mortal coil…
Personality:
The Gardener came to me one day and said, “My lady, my heart aches.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“For many years now, I have cultivated flowers of various shapes and colors, and they all lived in harmony, never complaining, never feeling the need to fight just because their petals were different. My Garden was peaceful. But lately, new flowers that I did not plant have been appearing in my Garden, and they refuse to live side by side with my precious flowers of many colors. These new flowers, these new black flowers, say that my precious red, blue, green, and white flowers are filth and should not be allowed to thrive in my Garden. Each day, I notice that more and more of the soil is taken by these hostile black flowers, more and more of my red, blue, green, and white flowers wither and die. I fear for the future of my diverse Garden. Please, my lady, can you help me?”
I smiled at the Gardener and replied, “Do not worry. I have killed many weeds in my lifetime, and these black flowers are no match for me. I will see to it that they disappear from your Garden forever. That is a promise.”
———
Ever since she joined the Order, Feng Li has felt like a new woman. On the exterior, she’s quite happy to have found a new purpose for living, and as the days go by, she’s convinced that she’ll make it to a better place in the afterlife since she’s sworn herself to ridding the earth of the scum called Galgori. To her, it’s almost a divine calling. All in all, it’s quite the convenient excuse for her to feel good about herself.
And yet, Feng Li knows that the only reason she’s so content is that she was able to leave her old life as a mercenary and enter this new organization where her job isn’t exactly different, just that the targets are of a slightly higher standing. She still has to kill people. She still has to draw her swords and carve patterns of blood with them, pull on practiced masks that betray no emotion while she methodically cleaves through enemies as if assassination is an art form. But the truth is, Feng Li just can’t help herself. She is addicted to fighting, comforted by its sweet lullabies of clashing steel and weeping flesh. Every victory is another bite of ambrosia that lures her deeper into violence’s embrace.
In fact, while Feng Li is usually a pleasant and kind person, once someone has given her justification for summoning her weapons, a darker side of her character creeps out, eager to do battle. She relishes combat in an almost bloodthirsty manner. While this isn’t to say that she wanders about killing random children and old women on the streets like a psycho, once she’s in a fighting mood, you better clear the area or at least pray that her target isn’t you.
Verbally, Feng Li has pledged her energies to the well-being of her son, but she realizes that as long as she wields her swords, she cannot fulfill this vow. How can a mother truly devote herself to her son if she walks out of the house knowing that every step she takes could be her last? How can a mother be a good role model if she tucks her son in at night and then sneaks out to commit murder? She wishes she could discard her warrior self, but for now, she’ll simply have to live with guilty weight on her shoulders.
As most long-term warriors tend to do, Feng Li has developed her own brand of morals and abides by them quite zealously. First of all, she will not fight those who are incapable of defending themselves (this can be broadly interpreted, and she does adjust her own rule to fit the circumstances if necessary). Second, retreat is acceptable, but there is no excuse for leaving a battle if she must sacrifice her honor to do so. A life by itself is worthless—it is what you do with your life that gives it value, and she’d rather die a proud warrior than live without spine.
Other Info:
Feng Li is known as Kuma, meaning ‘bear’. The nickname purposely throws off enemies, as hearing such a title brings to mind some hulky monster of a man who fights with his bare fists or some huge bludgeoning weapon. No one expects Kuma to refer to a wiry, lithe woman carrying a pair of short swords.
The short swords that she wields are kodachi, sharp on one side and about two and a half feet in length including both blade and handle. She is highly skilled in armed combat, unarmed combat, and earthbending, and while she can use each style separately, she is also capable of smoothly integrating them together into a singular fighting style.
Like a true hypocrite, Feng Li has not told her son about her position in the White Lotus, and furthermore has already decided that even if by some odd chance he finds out, there is no way in hell she is going to let him join. While she might be resigned to death by the sword, she would much prefer if he died in his sleep or something else absurdly peaceful like that.
Even to this day, Feng Li doesn’t remember what her real name from her parents is, but doesn’t consider it worth the energy to figure out. Apparently, her family didn’t want her, so what’s the point in trying?
[Character Development post linked here.]
Age: 37
Gender: Female
Height: 5’ 7”
Nationality: Earth Kingdom
Appearance: Feng Li has the traits of the regular Earth Kingdom citizen: a strong, almost square jaw, tanned skin, leathery palms and soles. Her body is wiry and lithe, and her eyes are a deep emerald hue, shining with perpetual amusement as if she thinks she is superior to most everyone else in terms of combat prowess. Her straight black hair is pulled into a low ponytail, the tip brushing midway down her back. One can find telltale lines of silver amongst the otherwise uniform black strands, informing others that the woman has had a long, stressful life. Upon further inspection, those who are truly observant may notice a certain weariness lingering in her green eyes, clouding their supposed shine like a layer of dust that only grows heavier each day.
Her usual attire consists of a black wushu vest with gold trim along the openings of the sleeves, neck, waist, and on the buttons. Under the vest, Feng Li dons a gray long-sleeve shirt and tucks it into a pair of black pants. The pants are loose and comfortable, and the leg cuffs are also lined with gold trim. Like her fellow Earth Kingdomers, she goes around barefoot, though if the weather gets nasty, she’ll also opt to bring a brown traveling cloak with her. [The vest looks like this. Ignore the pants.]
She carries two short swords on her person, and they are such that both of them fit snugly into the same sheath, which she wears on her left hip. Finally, Feng Li sports an impressive array of scars all over her body, but most of them are hidden by her clothing. The only visible ones are located on her neck and left foot: the one on her neck starts below her right shoulder, on her back, and gently curves upwards, crawling along the side of her neck until it stops, just barely touching her ear. The one on her foot is a simple two-inch vertical line in front of her ankle.
Rank: Member
Profession: Warrior
History:
The mighty woman who holds the name ‘Bear’ in the enigmatic Order of the White Lotus had humble beginnings. Born into a poor peasant family in the heart of the Earth Kingdom as their seventh child and third daughter, she and her family always had to work their souls out just to scrape a living. They owned one of the worst plots of land in the area, and the rocky soil turned over minimal rewards in return for their back-breaking labor. Their farm did not produce enough food to feed them, so her parents borrowed money and bought what they needed from the markets.
However, they fell into debt, each year digging the hole a little deeper, and finally, under threat of having all their belongings confiscated, the little girl’s parents struck a deal with a nearby noble family: they would sell their youngest child as a servant, and the noble house would pay their debt for them. For the parents, this was a wonderful deal because not only were they now granted a clean slate, they had one less mouth to feed. So the youngest daughter, only seven years old at the time, was bought by the prominent house of Wu and given a new name to remind her that she had nothing to do with her old family anymore: Feng Li.
She quickly settled into the role of servant with the other servants’ guidance, and was almost immediately picked out by the Wu family’s eldest daughter as a favorite. Though older than Feng Li by ten years, the pampered teenager loved nothing more than having an adorable servant-child comb her hair or pick her week’s outfit or set aside specific dessert treats from the kitchen before anyone else could eat them. To be honest, it wasn’t a miserable existence, for Feng Li was treated well and had promises of nourishment and shelter, unlike her birth family. But even then, her mind was too imaginative and her personality too vibrant to be satisfied with the monotony of scrubbing floors and washing laundry day in and day out.
Five years passed. One evening, the Wu’s second eldest daughter arrived home from her trip to the northern edge of the Earth Kingdom, escorted by a famous and extremely skilled group of mercenaries hired as bodyguards. The group stayed in the mansion that night as guests, and Mr. Wu held a lavish feast as thanks for protecting his daughter.
While sounds of merriment rang from the dining hall and out through the windows, Feng Li was busy in the back garden, stacking more wine barrels and rolling the empty ones off to be trashed later, when something caught her attention. In the branches of the trees that stood just by the wall, she thought she saw glints of suspicious light flashing every few seconds. It was very odd… and come to think of it, weren’t there supposed to be guards stationed on this side? Where had they gone? Alarmed but mindful to remain calm, she slipped back inside and respectfully notified Mr. Wu.
The leader of the mercenaries overheard Feng Li’s report and gathered three of his men to investigate. It was later discovered that members of a rival mercenary group had tracked them here, knocked out the guards, and were preparing to ambush everyone from the garden once the feast had ended, when their senses had hopefully been dulled by rich food and tasty drink. Thanks to Feng Li’s sharp eye, the attack was thwarted.
The leader was impressed by her insight and asked Mr. Wu if he could have her in his group. Since she was just one of many servants he had, Mr. Wu let her go. Truthfully, he didn’t recall that she’d been purchased from a poor peasant couple some years earlier, and only thought of the deal as a fair exchange since the mercenaries did save his home and family from those dastardly shadow assailants who’d incapacitated his guards. Feng Li was welcomed into the mercenary group as a fresh initiate, and though she never thought she’d be suited to a life of fighting, she was quickly proved wrong.
The minute the new girl came back with the dispatched men to their headquarters in Gaoling, the leader’s wife took Feng Li under her wing and started her personal training immediately. Being a master of combat using short swords herself, it wasn’t long before the intelligent and eager servant-turned-warrior became quite good with them as well. Gradually over the course of the next four years, she added a second short sword to her arsenal and experimented with moves of her own, using those taught by her mentor as a base to work from. Additionally, it was during those years that Feng Li and her new caretakers found out she possessed the ability to earthbend. Doubly pleased that he’d picked up this gem of a girl who was quick to learn sword techniques and could be trained as a bender, the mercenary leader honed her earthbending skills himself while his wife continued to instruct her in swordsmanship. In any spare time she had, Feng Li mixed her sword moves and earthbending moves, sometimes even sacrificing sleep just to perfect a wonderful new maneuver she’d been shown that day, or on rare occasions, ‘discovered’ herself.
As a novice in the mercenary band, she performed mostly menial tasks almost identical to those during her servant years: cooking, cleaning, handling the grocery shopping… But when she was sixteen, she was given an opportunity to prove her worth as a full member.
Most of the mercenaries were out on assignment or simply not at HQ, but either way, Feng Li was alone in the place when someone tried to break into their office and steal some important documents. Her duty commanded her to confront the intruder, and she did, diving into battle with both swords flashing, the ground beneath them shaking in tandem with her fury. The man wielded gigantic metal gauntlets whose fingertips had been capped with claws, and for many minutes, he and the wiry dual-swordsgirl danced through the building, exchanging hits. While their ratio of successful blows remained equal, the attacker’s strength was much greater than Feng Li’s, and her stamina was quickly whittled down to almost nothing. Fortunately however, she knew the layout of HQ and her enemy didn’t, and she lasted long enough to deal a lucky killing blow.
Afterwards, a barely conscious but smiling Feng Li greeted her superiors with the body and no less than thirty-four distinct claw marks on her person, which later whitened into souvenir scars. For winning, she was finally accepted as a true member of the mercenary band.
She was convinced that her life’s path was set. Feng Li trained more and more, growing ever closer to her fellow mercenaries, carrying out missions that came to them and enjoying her occupation. Not once did the idea of visiting her first home, her birth home, cross her mind. She was quite happy where she was, and besides, if the rumors were true, that strong and cute young axer who’d joined them not long ago had a crush on her…
Feng Li and the newcomer Hei Zong fell in love and eventually got married. Much like their leader, they worked as a husband-wife team to wreak havoc in battle, ripping through their opponents with ease. All throughout the Earth Kingdom, bandits and rival mercenaries came to fear those two who hailed from Gaoling and fought like a pair of wild bears, knowing only the fierce rhythm of dancing on the edge of death, treating ‘mercy’ like a foreign word whose definition and purpose they did not understand. For a long time, Feng Li was content. Until she was thirty years old, she was content.
In one of their many fights, Hei Zong was felled by the opposing side, and though Feng Li swiftly took the life of the man responsible, he was gone forever, leaving behind a devastated wife and a three-year-old son.
That night, Feng Li staggered into the nearest pub with her swords sheathed at her waist, eyes sickeningly red from crying, her clothes also still red with enemy blood. She was determined to drink her grief away. However, she only got halfway through her first bottle when an old man sitting in the corner invited her over for a friendly game of Pai Sho. The distraught woman figured, what the heck, she’d just lost her husband, and though soundly beating a geezer at Pai Sho would do little to lift her mood, by this point she also didn’t care if she lost and handed over her dignity.
Despite having had a few drinks, Feng Li was not easily swayed by alcohol and still maintained much of her wits while playing with the old man. As they placed tiles around the board, the geezer struck up a conversation with her and began a rather intriguing story about a secret war that had been raging for over a hundred years… Genuinely interested, she asked him for more details even after the game had ended (she got her butt kicked, by the way), and the old man simply smiled and obliged, offering her entry into the Order of the White Lotus.
Hei Zong’s death had jarred her senses, and she thought that a new start was probably best for her and her son. Feng Li waited a week, long enough to convince her mercenary friends that she was entirely too disheartened to continue working with them, and politely resigned from service. She took up residence in a nice one-story house in town and immediately started studying the history of the Order and the Shadow War.
Due to her already terrific skills as a warrior and a bender, Feng Li remained in the lower ranks only long enough to learn the required history and instinctively chose warrior as her profession in the White Lotus. Though her age gave the higher-ups reason to be suspicious of ulterior motives, she backed her loyalty by slaying any target they asked without question and keeping up the appearance of a quietly retired fighter who occasionally did favors outside of Order meetings. Once, they even offered her a position as a High Member, a teacher, but Feng Li only laughed and replied that about the only thing she was good at was fighting, and the only way they’d stuff her behind a desk for the rest of her life was if someone cut off her legs.
She knows that the only fitting end for someone like her is in battle. But before she gets there, she’d like to serve the White Lotus and remove some bender-haters from the mortal coil…
Personality:
The Gardener came to me one day and said, “My lady, my heart aches.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“For many years now, I have cultivated flowers of various shapes and colors, and they all lived in harmony, never complaining, never feeling the need to fight just because their petals were different. My Garden was peaceful. But lately, new flowers that I did not plant have been appearing in my Garden, and they refuse to live side by side with my precious flowers of many colors. These new flowers, these new black flowers, say that my precious red, blue, green, and white flowers are filth and should not be allowed to thrive in my Garden. Each day, I notice that more and more of the soil is taken by these hostile black flowers, more and more of my red, blue, green, and white flowers wither and die. I fear for the future of my diverse Garden. Please, my lady, can you help me?”
I smiled at the Gardener and replied, “Do not worry. I have killed many weeds in my lifetime, and these black flowers are no match for me. I will see to it that they disappear from your Garden forever. That is a promise.”
———
Ever since she joined the Order, Feng Li has felt like a new woman. On the exterior, she’s quite happy to have found a new purpose for living, and as the days go by, she’s convinced that she’ll make it to a better place in the afterlife since she’s sworn herself to ridding the earth of the scum called Galgori. To her, it’s almost a divine calling. All in all, it’s quite the convenient excuse for her to feel good about herself.
And yet, Feng Li knows that the only reason she’s so content is that she was able to leave her old life as a mercenary and enter this new organization where her job isn’t exactly different, just that the targets are of a slightly higher standing. She still has to kill people. She still has to draw her swords and carve patterns of blood with them, pull on practiced masks that betray no emotion while she methodically cleaves through enemies as if assassination is an art form. But the truth is, Feng Li just can’t help herself. She is addicted to fighting, comforted by its sweet lullabies of clashing steel and weeping flesh. Every victory is another bite of ambrosia that lures her deeper into violence’s embrace.
In fact, while Feng Li is usually a pleasant and kind person, once someone has given her justification for summoning her weapons, a darker side of her character creeps out, eager to do battle. She relishes combat in an almost bloodthirsty manner. While this isn’t to say that she wanders about killing random children and old women on the streets like a psycho, once she’s in a fighting mood, you better clear the area or at least pray that her target isn’t you.
Verbally, Feng Li has pledged her energies to the well-being of her son, but she realizes that as long as she wields her swords, she cannot fulfill this vow. How can a mother truly devote herself to her son if she walks out of the house knowing that every step she takes could be her last? How can a mother be a good role model if she tucks her son in at night and then sneaks out to commit murder? She wishes she could discard her warrior self, but for now, she’ll simply have to live with guilty weight on her shoulders.
As most long-term warriors tend to do, Feng Li has developed her own brand of morals and abides by them quite zealously. First of all, she will not fight those who are incapable of defending themselves (this can be broadly interpreted, and she does adjust her own rule to fit the circumstances if necessary). Second, retreat is acceptable, but there is no excuse for leaving a battle if she must sacrifice her honor to do so. A life by itself is worthless—it is what you do with your life that gives it value, and she’d rather die a proud warrior than live without spine.
Other Info:
Feng Li is known as Kuma, meaning ‘bear’. The nickname purposely throws off enemies, as hearing such a title brings to mind some hulky monster of a man who fights with his bare fists or some huge bludgeoning weapon. No one expects Kuma to refer to a wiry, lithe woman carrying a pair of short swords.
The short swords that she wields are kodachi, sharp on one side and about two and a half feet in length including both blade and handle. She is highly skilled in armed combat, unarmed combat, and earthbending, and while she can use each style separately, she is also capable of smoothly integrating them together into a singular fighting style.
Like a true hypocrite, Feng Li has not told her son about her position in the White Lotus, and furthermore has already decided that even if by some odd chance he finds out, there is no way in hell she is going to let him join. While she might be resigned to death by the sword, she would much prefer if he died in his sleep or something else absurdly peaceful like that.
Even to this day, Feng Li doesn’t remember what her real name from her parents is, but doesn’t consider it worth the energy to figure out. Apparently, her family didn’t want her, so what’s the point in trying?
[Character Development post linked here.]