Exalted: Brave New World/Riyu Astariel

• Riyu Astariel, the Thunder Heart of the East
• Caste: Dawn
• Concept: Hero of Justice
• Appearance: Riyu has the appearance of a young woman in her early-to-mid twenties, slightly on the short side. Her eyes are blue and her hair is long, straight and black, held into place by three flowing white ribbons. She wears an old-styled white, blue and black dress with a long skirt, and, usually, her armor over that. When travelling, she keeps armor, sword and whatever little stuff she owns in a large old leather backpack.
• Character Portrait
• Theme Music: "Mystic Oriental Dream ~ Ancient Temple"

Motivation

• Justice

Intimacies

Natural

Negative

Slavers (hate)

Positive

Falling Petal, Mentor (deep respect)

Anima

• When in anima flare, +2 to my DV against anyone with a Valor equal to or less than my Essence. Mortals must roll Valor or flee.

Attributes

Physical

• Strength 4
• Dexterity 5
• Stamina 3

Social

• Charisma 4
• Manipulation 1
• Appearance 4

Mental

• Perception 2
• Intelligence 3
• Wits 3

Abilities

Caste

• Archery 4
• Martial Arts 3
• Melee 5
• Thrown 0
• War 5

Favored

• Integrity 5
• Resistance 5
• Athletics 5
• Dodge 3
• Ride 3

Unfavored

• Performance 0
• Presence 3
• Survival 1
• Craft (Earth) 2
• Investigation 0
• Lore 2
• Medicine 3
• Occult 1
• Awareness 3
• Larceny 0
• Stealth 0
• Linguistics 1
• Sail 1
• Socialize 1

Backgrounds

Influence

• Influence 1 - Thunder Heart of the East

Stories are beginning to spread about the wandering swordswoman in golden armor who destroys the Guild's slave caravans, routs Fair Folk, slays monsters and stands as a champion of the people. The nickname "Thunder Heart" comes from her swordsmanship style, derived from Falling Petal's own "Wind Heart Style" and based on extreme speed, economy of movement, and wildly acrobatic maneuvers.

Mentor

• Mentor 1 - Falling Petal

Falling Petal, a former Thorns officer, now wandering swordswoman, has helped Riyu understand better her purpose in life. She trained her a bit in swordsmanship and tactics, but, far more importantly, she forged her CHARACTER. She took a young and confused Exalted full of anger and vague dreams, and remade her into a hero that people might one day sing legends of.

Artifact

• Artifact 3 - Reinforced Orichalcum Breastplate

"Nameless Fortress" is the name Riyu gave to this suit of armor, found in her travels across Creation, its plates scattered here and there. One by one, she put them all together, retriving them from archeological sites, ancient tombs, scavenger lords' collections and first age weapon caches hidden by paranoid scavenger land rulers. Where possible, she paid them back with whatever money or trinket she had, or performing services for them as a mercenary.

• Artifact 2 - Orichalcum Daiklave

This Daiklave, called "Rising Sun's Hope", is a long, slightly curved single-edged blade with a small hilt Riyu "liberated" from the private collection of a merchant prince that dealt in drugs, slaves and "protection", after carving a bloody path up to him through his base. The original owner, a local Scavenger Lord, had to insist in order to let Riyu keep the weapon.

Flaws

Code of Honor

3 points. Riyu has no use for deceptions, and even innocent little lies like "No, I don't think you're fat, honestly!" are incredibly difficult for her to say. She is incredibly harsh with herself, holding on to inhumanly high standards of honesty and honorable behaviour.

Unlucky

2 points. Riyu as always been plagued by bad luck since her childhood, for some reason. Sidereal plots, tests sent by the Unconquered Sun to forge her character and future, or just plain unlucky? Hard to tell. Riyu's usual reaction whenever the universe demonstrates once again just how much he hates her is just to shrug and try harder.

Wanted

2 points. Too many people have lost anormous amounts of money, slaves and thugs because of her. the Guild, criminal cartels and organizations and even a few nations throughout Creation have put several bounties on her head.

Charms

Archery

Archery Excellencies

Martial Arts

Martial Arts Excellencies

Melee

Melee Excellencies
Infinite Melee Mastery
Call the Blade
Hungry Tiger Technique
One Weapon, Two Blows
Peony Blossom Attack
Dipping Swallow Defense
Bulwark Stance
Fivefold Bulwark Stance
Heavenly Guardian Defense

War

War Excellencies
Infinite War Mastery
Mob-Dispersing Rebuke
Rout-Stemming Gesture
Fury Inciting Presence

Integrity

Integrity Excellencies
Infinite Integrity Mastery

Presence

Presence Excellencies

Resistance

Resistance Excellencies
Infinite Resistance Mastery
Ox-Body Technique x5
Body-Mending Meditation
Whirlwind Armor-Donning Prana

Survival

Survival Excellencies

Craft

Craft Excellencies

Lore

Lore Excellencies

Medicine

Medicine Excellencies

Occult

Occult Excellencies

Athletics

Athletics Excellencies
Infinite Athletics Mastery
Thunderbolt Attack Prana
Graceful Crane Stance

Awareness

Awareness Excellencies

Dodge

Dodge Excellencies

Linguistics

Linguistics Excellencies

Ride

Ride Excellencies

Sail

Sail Excellencies

Socialize

Socialize Excellencies

Combos

• Thunder Heart Style: Mountain Cleaver (Call the Blade, Hungry Tiger Technique, Thunderbolt Attack, Heavenly Guardian Defense)
• Thunder Heart Style: Steel and Light Hurricane (Call the Blade, Hungry Tiger Technique, Peony Blossom Attack, Heavenly Guardian Defense)

Essence

• Essence: 3
• Personal: 19/19
• Peripheral: 35/35 (44)
• Committed to Charms: 0
• Committed to artifacts: 9
• Willpower: 10/10

Virtues

• Compassion: 2
• Conviction: 3
• Temperance: 4
• Valor: 4
• (Virtue channels used: None)

Limit Break

• Ascetic Drive

Conflict

Physical

• Join Battle: 6
• Dodge DV: 5
• Parry DV: 7
• Soak: 13L/14B/12A (pierced 7L/8B/6A) (Hardness 10)

Movement

• Move: 4 meters/tick (5 unarmored)
• Dash: 10 meters/tick (11 unarmored)

Social

• Join Debate: 6
• Dodge MDV: 9
• Parry MDV: 4

Health Levels

• -0, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -1, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated
• (wounds are designated as bashing, lethal or aggravated)

Equipment

• Rising Sun's Hope (speed 5, accuracy 14, damage 10L, rate 4)
• Nameless Fortress (soak 12L/11B, hardness 10, mobility -1, fatigue 1)

History

Riyu Astariel's life, especially her childhood, could make for a pretty good novel, but no one is going to believe to the "based on a true story" part.
Born in Thorns (you can guess this isn't going to end well) in a family of minor nobles. When she was three years old, the caravan transporting her and her uncle back to Thorns from Sijan (where he had to attend a rather important funeral) was attacked by bandits. Uncle was killed, she was kidnapped for ransom.
The messengers the band sent to her family asking for the ransom contacted the wrong household by mistake, who of course didn't guess it was a misunderstanding and instead thought of some sort of scam. And refused to pay.
The bandits however, some of which had a soft spot for kids, decided to raise her themselves instead of killing her or selling her in slavery.
At least, until she was eight years old, when she WAS sold into slavery, together with the rest of the band, after being captured by a Guild caravan that proved a nut too hard to crack for them. After being bought and sold several times, she ended up, aged ten, in a mercenary company based in Nexus, the Red Bands, as an errand runner and general helping hand.
Said mercenary company was actually a facade to cover a conspiracy against the Realm presence in Thorns.
Said conspiracy was quickly uncovered, and ended in a bloodbath. A few prisoners were shipped to the Southern satrapies as slaves, and Riyu ended up in the mines of Gem...

...starting to notice a pattern? Yeah, it's pretty much all like that.

Let's skip to 10 years later. After a whole life of hopeless fights in name of disparate ideals, slavery (and escaping from it), getting involved in rebellions and revolutions, getting attached to people only to become separated form them (sometimes violently) and getting used to killing and bullying her way through life in horrible ways, something happened.
While she was in a slave camp (for a change), in chains, she saw a guard putting his spear through a slave desperately trying to escape.
It wasn't a new sight, for her. She even did worse herself. Killed for far less, or for nothing at all sometimes, out of spite, bitterness, callousness.

But something snapped, and she just suddenly realized that the world sucked.

And that it needed Big Damn Heroes to put it back on track properly.

In a few minutes, that camp became a pile of smoldering ruins.
A similar fate befell a lot of other places like that.

And the newly-exalted Riyu realized that it wasn't working.

Even as an Exalted, she was just one. Some of the toughest and more motivated ex-slaves followed her, but they kept dying in battle. So, instead, she resolved to fight alone. And accomplished very little. Her actions were unfocused, undisciplined, spur-of-the-moment affairs.

Until she met Falling Petal.

Falling Petal was a former officer of the army of Thorns who survived the war and the Mask's takeover by pure chance.
Now a wandering swordswoman, Falling Petal, to say it bluntly, called Riyu out on her bullshit. That she wasn't helping anyone and just making things worse for anyone. That she didn't have any good idea on how to improve Creation. That she didn't even know what "justice" was.

Which was true. But she still took offense and attacked the mortal swordswoman.

Who managed to wipe the floor with Riyu's ass.

"How did you do that?" asked Riyu, spitting a few teeth.

"Justice gives me strength." was the answer.

The young solar was flabbergasted. Confused and broken, she did the only reasonable thing to do. She asked Petal to take her as a disciple.

Cue Training Montage from Hell, wrestling with bears, headbutting trees, standing under waterfalls, learning how to read and write in record time, memorizing thousand-pages books on philosophy, tactics, medicine, engineering.

Finally, she was ready to depart. Petal had forged her into a kind-hearted, cultured warrior. Into the hero of justice that Creation needed.

Since then, Riyu has been travelling as a wandering swordswoman, ally of justice, righter of wrongs, seeking to atone both for her past misdeeds and her more recent reckless behaviour.

Personality

Riyu is silent, hard-working and serious. She has incredible discipline and force of will and a strong sense of honor and justice. However, she can come off easily as too inflexible and bossy, because she holds everyone to almost the same enormous standards she applies to herself. She is unsubtle, uncompromising and often prone to follow her exacting code of honor instead of acting like a reasonable person.
Riyu acts with an uncommon mix of humility and pride. She has no problems with doing menial work and household chores for random strangers in exchange for food and shelter, but refuses to receive anything for nothing and getting her to accept any kind of gift is an uphill battle.

Goals

Riyu has no real short-term goals as of the start of the campaign. Her long-term goal is, of course, the improvement of the quality of life for the people through the eradication of crime, injustice, and the many threats against Creation.
For now, she carries out her life as a day-to-day battle against evil and injustice around her as she wanders the Treshold, but Riyu's idea is that sooner or later an opportunity will present itself for her to start something more solidly organized.

Family

Riyu was separated from her family, the Astariels of Thorns, when she was a small child. The war and the Mask of Winter's takeover happened while she was far away from home. She has only vague memories of her family.

XP

• Earned: 0
• Spent: 0
• Unspent: 0