Editing Lance (section)

=History=

Lance was born on a farm in the Hundred Kingdoms, where he might have worked out his entire life had Fate not seen fit to have his country annexed during one of the countless conflicts running through the region. The invading soldiers had slaughtered the most of hastily-gathered village militia and were about to carry off the womenfolk when Lance thrust himself between them, prepared to throw his life away to give the women time to escape. Instead of death, Lance received a Solar Exaltation, and the soldiers had little time to contemplate the rebirth of a Bronze Tiger in their midst before Lance scythed the armed and armored men down five at a time with a rusty sword. His foes defeated, he turned back to the people he had just saved... and saw them looking at him with the same fearful expression they had given the soldiers. In that instant, the truth of what he had become caught up with him, and he knew that for all intents and purposes, he ''had'' thrown his life away, after all. Unable to meet their gaze, Lance stopped only to clear the village of attacking soldiers before leaving his ruined hometown behind forever.

As the young Solar wandered through the East, trying to get a handle of who or what he was, he began dreaming of his past lives; of endless battles fought under a green sun in a crimson sky, of hideous beings from beyond Creation, half of which were his friends and even lovers, the others who were his enemies, and the two frequently blended into each other. He remembered occasionally returning to cities of soaring golden spires and impossibly well-dressed people, addressing a council of his peers, regal and magnificent in their Exaltation. He repeatedly asked himself the question, "God or demon, what am I?"

It is still a question he grapples with; the Solar Exaltation merely enables a man to engrave himself into history and become a legend, but it does not dictate the shape his mighty fate will take. Lance knows he is capable of great good, such as when he fells marauding demons, gods and ghosts, but he has seen the horrific carnage he can wreak, he wonders if there isn't a grain of truth to the things the Immaculates say about him. All he can do is live as well as he can, trusting that his heart will know the way. 

During his travels, he ended up passing through the Marukani Horselands, where he heard stories of the Goddess of Light. Finding the descriptions of the goddess suspiciously similar to himself, he decided to follow up on them, and discovered that they were referring to Mari, the Solar who had saved the gunzosha of Lookshy from an untimely demise by enlightening their Essence, but who had become increasingly unstable ever since her Lunar mate had left her behind. Lance found that Mari reminded him of one of his sisters, and the two became fast friends. Eventually, under Lance's influences, Mari drew back from the precipice of madness she had been nearing for some time, and the two of them decided to travel to Thorns to look up her erstwhile big sister, Shrike.

Along the way, Lance encountered a foxy medicine woman called Lily, and was surprised to discover that she was his Lunar mate. Mari seemed to take the whole thing as a comedy for her entertainment and constantly urged the two of them to "do it already, so I can see!" Lance, on the other hand, is not quite sure how to approach this...