Bayushi Shinkaze - Scorpion Shugenja

• Basic concept
• Name - What's in a name?  Usually too much if it's my character
• Background - so much fiction it needs its own page
• Crunching the numbers - spending the points to create him
• Stats - his skills, spells, etc.
• Character Progression
• Experience Points
• Spells
• Honor
• Glory
• Physical Description
• Shinkaze unmasked! - I created a likeness with Interquest's Faces 3.0

Basic Concept

The Samurai that founded the Great Clan of Scorpion made a promise to the first Emperor, his brother Hantei.  Hantei asked Bayushi to take care of the dirty work, to include espionage, which was looked down upon in the Bushido code.  In brief, he was to do the low and dishonorable tasks necessary for the survival of the Empire.  Bayushi promised himself and his line to this task - "I will be your villain, Hantei." [From Way of the Scorpion]  In execution, the clan is something along the lines of the CIA or mafia, depending on who you are dealing with and why.  They are still a clan of Samurai, but they place Loyalty above all else, including honor, glory, etc.

So, Shinkaze's basic value system would be along these lines.  He wants to uphold Bayushi's Promise, hold Loyalty in the highest regard, and try to be as honorable a samurai as possible along the way.  He will have worked as a yoriki (policeman) as a young adult, and learned respect for the common people.  There will also be a hint of the martial nature of his family in his respect for Bushi and their ways, i.e. he will not have a condescending, "Shugenja are cooler than everyone", attitude.

I hope to make him something of a hybrid between a Soshi Shugenja and a Bayushi Bushi, as much as the experience points allow, that is.  The general concept is to combine the mysterious aloofness of a wizard, the philosophical nature of a priest, the conciseness of action and thought of a detective, the skills of a spy/infiltrator, and the courage of a warrior.  His morality would be quite flexible in pursuit of his ideals, but I imagine it to be a little less easy to bend than the average Scorpion's.

This character was created for Lars Ericson's L5R campaign at Rice University.
 

Name

So, my choice finally narrowed down to "Spirit wind", but the same characters meant "Divine wind", which is "kamikaze".  Ironically, Legend of the Five Rings calls spirit "kami", so it seemed very appropriate, but using that name would probably not have the effect I desired, so I chose the alternate name for the "spirit" character, "shin".  Hence "Shinkaze".

His childhood name and the names of his parents were chosen before I bought the Kanji book, so they were just Japanese syllables tossed together:

Childhood name - Makado
Dad - Takane
Mom - Tsukuno
Uncle - Ishime
Mentor - Sine
Mentor's Yojimbo (bodyguard) - Muyashi
Yoriki he worked with - Kenji
Kitsu Bushi he killed - Iijima
Brother of Iijima (sworn enemy) - Gato

My siblings' names were determined late in the game, so they were lavished the attention of Kanji character names:

Eldest, Brother - Goushi ("strong bull")
Second Eldest, Brother - Kamishi ("divine arrow")
Third Eldest, Sister - Shokukoro ("sensual heart")

I also needed some pseudonyms for Shinkaze to use on the trail:

Hokosha - "pedestrian"
Shinen - "deep and distant profundity"
 

Crunching the Numbers

• Starting with 25 points, I took 10 points in disadvantages.  I felt I had to take Dark Secret for Shinkaze to be a good Scorpion <grin>.  I followed up with a Sworn Enemy (Lion Bushi, same rank) that would be related to my dark secret. Finally, I took Obligation (minor): Hida.  I planned to tie it all into something to do with the irrefutably evil Maho Tsukai or "blood magic", and decided that the Dark Secret would be the arranged murder of some Lion Bushi, which would be tied to a pact with a Maho practitioner.  The Sworn Enemy would be the Lion Bushi's brother and a shugenja.  The murder would be explained away as the Bushi having a pact with the Maho person.  It would occur in Crab clan lands, and Shinkaze/Makado would ostensibly be on the legitimate mission to track down and take out the Maho threat.  The minor obligation would be a favor to the Crab clan for providing yoriki to help track down the Maho user.
• 35 points left.  He gets +1 Agility from his family and +1 Awareness from his Soshi training. I decided to give him the highest possible (starting) Air ring to make him as skilled as possible in the magic form his school specializes in.  So I spent 24 points buying him Reflexes 4 and Awareness 4, giving him an Air ring of 4.
• 11 points left.  Being a Soshi Shugenja gave him Calligraphy, Courtier or Etiquette, Meditation, Sincerity, Shintao, and any 2 other high skills.  I chose Etiquette, Shugenja Lore, and Mizugusuri (potion making skill).
• I spent 3 points on Crafty, an advantage that gives him basic ability in all low skills.
• I wanted to have him possess a tolerance for Sake and poison.  There were no such disadvantages in the game, so I talked to the GM and finally got it down to 1 point per substance.  Still pretty pricey, but worth it to see my concept realized.
• That left 6 points. I raised his Sincerity to 3 with 2 points, with the feeling that it was the most important non-combat skill he cold possess.
• I wanted him to be skilled in an unarmed combat style that had non-lethal techniques because I am a big fan of having characters with unarmed combat ability and it made sense for a good yoriki (policeman) to have that.  So I bought Kaze-do 2, leaving me with 2 points.
• I bought Spellcraft 1, leaving me with 1 point.  With the rationale that Crafty only reflected a knack with low skills and the background I constructed called for real skill in it, I spent the last point on Poison 1.
• This left a couple of skills from his background not purchased, but after some lamentation, the GM mentioned that such holes would be filled with a few points given during an intro session for the character.  So that completed him.
• In the intro session, he was given Sleight of Hand 1, Investigation 1, and two potions.

Stats

Character Progression

• Experience Points
• Spells
• Honor
• Glory

Experience Points

• Void raised to 3

• Heraldry 1
• Iaijutsu 1
• Kenjutsu 1
• Medicine 1
• Yarijutsu 1

• Raised Intelligence to 3 (this brought up Fire Ring to 3 as well)
• Bard 1
• Courtier 1
• Lore: Shadowlands 1
• Lore: Shugenja 2

Spells

• Rank 1: Sense, Summon, Commune, Counterspell, Command the Mind, False Tongue, Way of Deception, Path to Inner Peace, Forget
• Scroll received as reward for returning Tekini's equipment and scrolls: Know the Mind
• Rank 2: Yari of Air, Tempest of Air, Fire from Within

Honor 1.9

• Collecting and returning the daisho of fallen Akodo bandits to Daimyo Zunoro: +2 
• Contracting the Taint (3 points): -3 
• Recovering the Kyumadokuja vessel from Shosuro Tekini: +4 
• Collecting and returning the items of Bayushi Geno and Shosuro Tekini: +1 

Glory 1.9

• Returning the daisho of fallen Akodo bandits to Daimyo Zunoro:    +1 
• Recovering the Kyumadokuja vessel from Shosuro Tekini:    +4 
• Telling the story of his recent exploits to Daimyo Kendasi:    +3 
• Collecting and returning the items of Bayushi Geno and Shosuro Tekini:    +1 

Physical Description