Heaven's Martyr and Hell's Saint

HISTORY

The tale behind the family of these twins is too long to detail in full, but it mainly concerns the minor Fong clan with a maternal lineage, as their pregnancies result about half the time in twins (or, more rarely, in triplets). These twins would then share an extraordinary bond for their entire lives. But at one point in time this family faced destruction as disasters kept piling up; poor harvests, harsh winters, and as a result many bandits preying on their riches and women - which eventually produced a hostile splinter clan to boot. Things were at their worst when suddenly a helping hand was extended to them. Travelers from the far west promised to protect them, provided they accepted Christ as their saviour (which was technically quite true at that point). Call it a coincidence or not, but only did the westerners annihilate the bandits and most of the splinter clan, but the next year harvests were rich and winters mild. Needless to say, the Fong were now true believers and renamed themselves the Cruce Salus Clan.

But the twins in modern times are more than true believers. Faced with a few centuries of stigma and ridicule by the unconverted masses, Cruce Salus radicalized into zealots of the most extremist kind.

Their ‘As One’ Legacy, nowadays called Coniunctis Viribus, allows the twins to freely share their chi as long as they are united in goals. As long as they’re together (which is always) and conscious, opponents should be wary of the fact that they effectively have a single giant pool of 8 Jade, 8 Crimson, 4 Gold, 4 White, and 8 Silver chi... which regains two points of each kind at the end of every round.

DESCRIPTIONS

Heaven’s Martyr is the posterchild of christian benevolence. Dressed in radiant whites and golds, she is well spoken and understanding. That is why she always spends an entire full round in prayer for forgiveness any time she’s about to do combat and saw through people with her teutonic Zweihänder.

Hell’s Saint is convinced that her sins are unabsolvable, which makes her the more dangerous and desperate of the two. She dresses in coarse, uncomfortable hemp rags which she keeps pressed against her body by tying them down with barbed wire that digs deeply into her flesh. She is emaciated due to all too frequent fastings and heavily scarred from self-flagellations.

NOTES

No, I don’t hate christians. This is mostly a look on the religion from a Wuxia point of view. * The twins are, just like the rest of their clan, Baneful humans. That means that they don’t recognize the authority of Heaven, or at least not the same one that the rest of Shen Zhou does. This has some effects on their Joss. They also don’t follow the five Xia/Corrupt virtues, but rather the Seven Heavenly Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins.

TRANSLATIONS

• Cruce Salus comes from ‘a cruce salus’, meaning: From The Cross Comes Salvation. * Coniunctis Viribus = With United Powers. * Deo Adiuvante = With God’s Help. * Fiat Lux = Let There Be Light. * Oderint Dum Metuant = Let Them Hate Provided That They Fear. * Vae Victis = Woe To The Conquered. * Lex Talionis = The Law of Revenge.

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