Bridging the Divide:Flower Knight

Hwarang

Oathbound hunk devoted to knighthood, service, and the equalizing power of rules and restriction. Former captive of a Fallen Fae, now drawn to faerie things due to shared experience. Sworn champion of a fictional past and a bright, strange future.

Stats

Path: Acanthus

Order: Adamantine Arrow

Virtue: Protective

Vice: Vain

Nimbus: Blooming possibility, regal roses and finely-honed thorns.

Nimbus Tilt: -1 and lose 10-again on Weaponry.

Arcane Experience: 0

Experience Points: 0

Aspirations and Obsessions

Long-Term: Fight in the name of my oaths.

Short-Term: Teach a self-defense class.

Short Term: Go on a date.

Obsession: The Rose Whip, an Artifact currently held by unfriendly magicians.

Conditions

None

Status

Health: [][][][][][][]

Willpower: 6/6

Gnosis: 2

Mana: 11/11 (2/turn)

Wisdom: 7

Size: 5

Defense: 6

Speed: 11

Initiative Modifier: +6

Attributes

Intelligence 2

Wits 2

Resolve 3

Strength 3

Dexterity 3

Stamina 2

Presence 2

Manipulation 2

Composure 3

Skills

Academics

Computer

Crafts

Investigation

Medicine 1 (rote)

Occult 2 (Faerie)

Politics 2

Science

Athletics 4 (rote)

Brawl 4 (Restrain)

Drive

Firearms

Larceny

Stealth

Survival 2

Weaponry 2

Animal Ken

Empathy

Expression 1

Intimidation 3 (rote)

Persuasion 1

Socialize 1

Streetwise 1

Subterfuge

Merits

Adamant Hand (Brawl) 2

Court Goodwill (West) 1

High Speech 1

Mentor 2 (Dark Lady)

Order Status 1

Arcana

Fate 3

Life 1

Time 2

Praxes

Choose the Thread (Time 2)

(traded for attainment)

Rotes

Sworn Oaths (Intimidation) (Fate 3)

Fools Rush In (Athletics) (Fate 2)

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Equipment

Dedicated Magical Tool: Long silk scarf that doubles as a blindfold, embroidered with magically significant patterns.

Questions

- Character portrait, either an actual picture and short description, or a detailed description

Looks like this: [1]

Blasian, nonbinary, buff, pink hair, face pockmarked by acne scars. Has a very distinctive voice.

- Description of your Awakening, and how you perceive your Watchtower/Realm/Path

Before the Awakening, the future Hwarang was isolated, desperate, and drowning in debt after career failure and a messy divorce. Their Fate was sealed: trapped, no escape, no future. They would walk along the train tracks, hopelessly fantasizing about hopping a train and going Somewhere Else, but imprisoned by the linear tracks. They dreamed of cats with two tails, dozens of them, multiplying every night and consuming whatever narrative they dreamed up. Their little studio apartment grew choked with thorns.

One day, they saw a two-tailed cat when they were awake, and instead of going to their job, they decided to follow it to the train tracks. The other cats were waiting inside an open boxcar. There seemed to be a tall hedge on the far side of the tracks, with a silvery radio tower in the brambles beyond. They decided to hop in the boxcar instead, since they had dreamed of it so often, and see where it took them.

They had tumbled outside of Time and Fate to the castle-under-the-hill of the Fair Folk, where an overgrown cat lord called the Nekomata wished to wed her (they were known as her in that time and place) in a strange retelling of the Bluebeard fairy tale. Something about this did not feel right, but the Bride found that she couldn't say exactly why, and besides, she was very desperate for money and purpose and did not wish to insult her host's misguided hospitality. The cat yowled and purred and pleaded at the wedding altar in front of all his servants, "just say yes," but things proceeded without a word being said.

Time passed differently in the castle, less like linear days and more like reading the same storybook over and over with a few changes in every telling. The formula was that the incomplete Bride carried a secret heirloom jewel (her nascent Awakening), and the Nekomata coaxed and pleaded and threatened her to give it up, but could not take it by force. Servants were dispatched, potions were forced, rooms were explored, endless lies were told and boundaries violated and promises broken, and in every story she would finally approach the forbidden door and be executed, waking up in the morning the moment the bloody blade touched her neck.

Finally, a slave rebellion broke the rules of the story. The Bride fled through the forbidden door, climbing higher and higher up a spiral staircase with the jewel lighting the path through the Abyss beyond, until all the masks and costumes fell away and the new Witch emerged into the moonsilver light of Arcadia.

Hwarang perceives Arcadia much like the Peach Blossom Spring of Chinese folklore: a hidden place of natural beauty beyond a river of petals, whose immortal residents have escaped the tragedy of Time and Fate to live forever in joyful play. Arcadia represents the promise that Time blossoms in myriad directions and Fate can be tamed into submission by wise courtesans and noble knights. Hwarang swore an eternal oath beneath a thorny peach tree under silvery moonlight to undo the Lie of history and bring the Fallen World into alignment with the transcendent rules of Arcadia.

They woke up on the far side of the train tracks. Their debt, their divorce, their lease agreement: it just didn't matter anymore. Fallen laws were undone. That's magic for you.

- Brief description of how each of your Arcana fits into your magical worldview. How do you sense it, what metaphorical role does it hold

- Description of an NPC connected to your character. A major back story figure, a rival, a friend. Someone I can incorporate

- Free spin. Description of another NPC, an important Artifact or location, a short vignette that says something about your character

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