Editing Character:Nuwa (section)

==History==
Nuwa's memories of her early childhood are vague. Her mother's love, the feeling of safety in her father's arms, a place she only knows as 'home'. Then there's the frightening images of her father returning home with fear in his eyes one day, her mother helping her to pack her toys and then a hasty flight from home. A succession of strange and foreign places follows in her mind's eye as the young family travels far and wide, never staying in one place for more than a few days. But clearest in her memories are the moments as her mother admonishes her to wait while she and father go to take care of something and the awful feeling of abandonment as even after hours and then days neither of them returns to her.

Subsequently, so she has been told, she was found close to death by a group of monks, among them Wisdom of the Eastern Wind who saved Nuwa and brought her with him back to his monastery. A time of safety and learning followed and as the years passed Nuwa found some happiness again among the eclectic collection of monks, philosophers and martial artists her surrogate father had gathered around him. From the scholars she learned lessons of writing and history, the wise instructed her in the teachings of the Noble Path that leads to the cessation of suffering, and the warrior monks taught her the arts martial. It was in that last field that her true talent was found as she learned with astonishing speed not just the physical but also the metaphysical aspects of the arts. Her aptitude for the sword in particular was shown to be extraordinary as she won her first tournament at the age of 15, surpassing even much more experienced fighters. And since then her talent has only blossomed more and more.

At the age of twenty Nuwa and her teachers both came to the conclusion that it would do Nuwa good to leave the monastery behind and wander through the world for a time. In that way she would be able to learn more of Creation than was possible staying at her new home, and benefit from the wisdom of different and perhaps even greater masters. Privately her hope was also that she might discover something about her parents, find the traces they left or maybe even find them alive and well somewhere. However the lessons the world had to teach were horrific to the naive young woman. People outside the monastery and the lands under its protection were beset by bandits, monsters and most often of all pitiable poverty, they lied and stole and murdered, and they laughed when she told them this was not the way to enlightenment. Many times she had to demonstrate her skills with the blade to protect herself or someone else from the depredations of the wicked or desperate, more than once ending in death. And that she had killed only in self-defense was of small comfort to Nuwa, who strained to keep to the Noble Path's purity and avoidance of violence.

But the greatest upheaval in her life was still to come. As Nuwa guested at a friendly master's dojo in Varsi the Deathknight calling himself The Glorious Saint of Blood-Stained Steel attacked, seeking to test his new hammer on the martial artists in attendance. Among the burning ruins of the dojo and the shattered bodies of her hosts Nuwa met the Saint with bright steel in her hands and the calm acceptance of death in her heart, for she fought not for herself or glory but for every man or woman that might be able to flee while she held the monster off. And though the Deathknight broke bones and dealt terrible damage with every successful strike Nuwa's virtuous cause gave her strength and she managed to cut him as well, once, twice, thrice. Taunting her the so-called Saint asked her why she even tried, why she risked her life when she could not win - after all he had died once before and yet here he stood. Just then in a moment of transcendent brilliance Nuwa saw a way, a move that would send the Abyssal back into the screaming void that had spawned him. And she began executing the maneuver, pushing the limits of mortal ability to the utmost and penetrating the Deathknight's defenses in a way he had never before considered. But as the Dark Exalt stumbled backwards in shock, grasping at the wound at his throat Nuwa spoke in reply, surrounded by rose-tinged golden light: "It is not your death I seek, to reduce the suffering in the world that is my goal. But I can see that you suffer as well, that pain drives you to violence." And she withdrew her sword, having deliberately missed the deadly stroke by fractions of an inch. "But suffering can cease. Let me instruct you." The Saint however, blinded by fear and misconceptions, fled.