Character:Sigurd Viir

A Date with Destiny

Sigurd Viir
A striking, battle-scarred man with hair the blood-red of his caste mark. Savagely sharp violet eyes; crisp military poise; dense iron bands of musculature. Hard features cast his face into sharp planes of light and shadow. Often dressed in red or black. Across his back are strung a battered kite shield and a longbow wrapped in prayer strips.

• Caste: Chosen of Battles
• Concept: Hardened Veteran

Motivation

• Neutralize Creation's enemies so that I may retire.

Intimacies

Natural

Negative

• Venus (Contempt)
• Creatures Outside Fate (Mistrust)
• The Heavenly Bureaucracy (World-Weary Irritation)
• Human Nature (Cultivated Indifference)
• Bullying (Distaste)

Positive

• Mars (Respect)
• Master Luang (Gratitude)
• Selura (Comfortable Affection)
• Lookshy (Curiosity)
• Fighting Dirty (Appreciation)
• His Job (Iron Resolve)
• Creation (Protectiveness)

Anima

The deep, brilliant crimson of the Sign of Mars grants +5 soak of all types to Sigurd and nearby allies.

Mechanics

  
Sigurd Viir, Chosen of Battles 

Attributes (8 XP): 

Strength 5 (8 Oriflamme)
Dexterity 5 (8 Oriflamme) 
Stamina 2 (5 Oriflamme) 

Charisma 3
Manipulation 2 
Appearance 5 (7 Demon-Ink Tattoo) 

Intelligence 3
Wits 3
Perception 1 

Abilities (23 XP, 13 BP): 

Caste: Archery, Melee, Athletics, Presence, War
Favored: Performance, Martial Arts, Integrity, Resistance, Dodge

Resistance 5

Craft 4
Dodge 3 (+3 Unarmored) 
Performance 4
Linguistics (Old Realm) 1
Socialize 1

Archery 5 (+3 Longbow) 
Presence 5
Melee 2
Athletics 3
War 5 

Investigation 1 
Lore 3
Occult 2

Awareness 5 (+2 Danger Sense)
Martial Arts 5 (8 Sifu's Useful Fingers + Demon-Ink Tattoo) (+3 Unarmored) 
Integrity 4 (+2 Been There, Seen That) 
Stealth 1 

Essence 5 (Personal 20/Peripheral 61); 10 peripheral motes committed to Oriflamme 
Willpower 10 (5 BP) 
Valour 5, Conviction 2, Temperance 1, Compassion 3 (2 BP) 
Colleges: The Banner 1, The Quiver 1, The Shield 1, The Spear 1, The Lovers 1, The Sorcerer 1, The Rising Smoke 1 
Flaws: Unusual Appearance 1, Permanent Caste Mark 1 (-2 BP) 

General Charms (8 XP): 

First Excellency - Performance
Second Excellency - Resistance, Melee, Athletics, War, Integrity
Third Excellency - Dodge, Archery, Presence, Martial Arts 
Essence Auspicious - Performance

Ability-Specific Charms (176 XP): 

Resistance - Someone Else's Destiny, Optimistic Security Practice

Craft - World-Shaping Artistic Vision (Unfair Odds)* 
Dodge - Absence, Duck Fate
Performance - Heart-Brightening Presentation Style, Perfection in Life, Song of Spirit Persuasion

Archery - Any Direction Arrow, Every Direction Arrow
Presence - Force Decision, Presence in Absence Technique, Impose Motivation, Loyalty-Sacrificing Sidestep;
Easily Accepted Proposition Stance

Investigation - Efficient Secretary Technique 
Lore - Methodology of Secrets 

Awareness - Prior Warning, Expected Pain, Wise Choice
Integrity - Heroic Essence Replenishment 
Martial Arts - See Below

Snake Style:
Striking Cobra Technique

Violet Bier of Sorrows Style: 
Secrets of Future Strife, Flight of Mercury, Joy in Adversity Stance, Blade of the Battle Maiden**;
Violet Bier of Sorrows Form, Metal Storm, Death-Parrying Stroke, Life-Severing Blow;
Conclusion-Pursuing Approach 

Sapphire Veil of Passions Style:
Yellow Dragon Flight, Black Dragon Coils

Prismatic Arrangement of Creation Style:
God Ways, Infernal Fiend Ways 

*Applies to efforts made to create, manipulate, exploit, or defy such odds. Examples: 
-Exploit: Sniping someone who can't fire back. Killing someone in their sleep. Fighting a Dragon King. Ganging up on an outnumbered foe.  
-Defy: Fighting a Celestial Exalt of greater Essence, or a Solaroid of equal Essence. Fighting a Third Circle Demon. Winning money from casinos. 
-Create/Manipulate: Arranging for a boxer to be poisoned before a fight. Seducing the enemy general before attacking her. 

**A variant that applies the properties of a reaper rather than normal Daiklave
 

Backgrounds

Sifu 5: Master Luang, Chosen of Endings

This sober-faced elder projects an aura of austere power, but is a playful trickster at heart. With an easy smile and rich, full beard, Luang is a master manipulator that enjoys stacking deception upon deception. Though oft busy countering the efforts of Fiend, demon, and Moonshadow alike, the Gold Faction elder makes sure to reserve time in his schedule for his students. With over a thousand years to his name, he is more than seven centuries older than Sigurd, but often acts like he's five. Luang has mastered the Prismatic Arrangement of Creation, Sapphire Veil of Passion, Border of Kaleidoscopic Logic, and Vermillion Clouds of Sunset styles. He knows a vast number of Celestial and Terrestrial Martial Arts as well. Sigurd is under the effect of Sifu's Useful Fingers from this character.

Ally 4: Selura Mys, Chosen of Serenity

Sigurd's legal counsel, fellow student, and occasional lover, Selura often runs the Heavenly side of Sigurd's operations, while he performs the field work. Though a powerful Chosen in her own right, Selura does not share Sigurd's talent for violence and prefers to explore the esoteric implications of the martial arts. Her moon-pale skin, light blue hair (the resemblance to her patron is oft remarked-upon), and slender frame attract many admirers, through which she yields considerable influence in the affairs of Yu-Shan. Though ostensibly a member of the Gold Faction, she is a diffident participant at best, and admires Sigurd's independence. An expert administrator, socialite, and musician, she has a knack for avoiding mission assignments. She prefers the palatial luxury of Sigurd's Celestial Manses to her own apartments, and minds them for him while he is away (i.e. all the time).

Salary 3

With nearly three and a half centuries of loyal service under his belt, Sigurd has been assigned a generous salary, though his monetary compensation pales in comparison to the other benefits he's accumulated on the job.

Backing 5: The Crimson Panoply of Victories

Sigurd has been quite successful in office politics, mostly due to Selura's assistance. Recently, however, he was promoted even further at what was rumored to be Mars' direct command. The Chosen of Battles minding Lookshy for her had recently been re-assigned, and he was to take up that post. As Mars' agent on the ground, he has wide powers to perform astrology that would normally invite censure, and can call down the armaments and legions of the Crimson Panoply if necessary.

Celestial Manse 5: Gem of Perfect Mobility

The Throne of Auspicious Victory is a refined palace in the Eastern Style. Opulent restraint is the order of the day: magnificently lacquered and scented rosewood structures channel the geomantic energies of the dragon lines towards the central sunlit throne. Large library complexes, bedrooms, dining halls, and entertainment rooms dot the open-air structure. Diaphanous blue vervian drapes and silk-cushioned divons demarcate Selura's sub-domain; her coveted Ascending Venus and New Moon galas are often held here. The large, broad libraries are filled with countless treatises on war and mundane statistics compiled by the various Heavenly Bureaus and delivered to Sigurd's doorstep by his (well, mostly Selura's) contacts in Heaven. The sprawling manse also includes an archery range, arsenal, and holographic battlefield simulators.

Celestial Manse 5: The Lotus Diamond

Sigurd's Garden of Martial Contemplation lies behind a thundering waterfall of hallucinatory Ambrosia near the Jade Pleasure Dome. Within, an elegant realm of wisdom awaits. Each blade of grass and stone-paved plaza contributes seamlessly to an environment calibrated for maximum martial enlightenment in minimum time. Master Luang often meditates here. At the Manse's center is a lotus pond no more than ten handspans across, but miles deep: the single lotus plant bobbing upon the water has flowered but once. The Garden's hearthstone, the Lotus Diamond, is the product of that blossoming.

• The Lotus Diamond

This perfectly symmetrical, near-translucent crystal grew organically from the center of Sigurd’s Garden of Martial Contemplation. It resembles a flawless blossoming lotus cut from raw diamond. Like its lesser cousin, the Precision of Form Gemstone, the Lotus Diamond augments its wielder when he activates a Martial Arts Form-type Charm. Under the influence of this hearthstone, such a Charm grants additional benefits:

• All Martial Arts charms associated with that Form have their cost reduced by 2m, to a minimum of half the original cost.
• The Form-type Charm adds (Essence) dots to the character’s Martial Arts rating for attacks and blocks. These dice originate from the Charm, and so count towards the character’s dice-adder limit from Charms.
• The Form-type Charm reduces the DV penalty of the character’s actions by 1 (min 0), and cancels onslaught and coordinated attack penalties to the character’s Martial Arts-derived Parry DV.

Artifact 2: Skin-Mount Amulet

Sigurd woke up one day on the outskirts of Chiaroscuro. This object had been implanted into the base of his spine and connected to his core chakras. Disturbed, he sought out multiple First Age savants and was reassured that the object was likely harmless and probably quite beneficial. It has been over a century and a half since that day; Sigurd now keeps his Gem of Perfect Mobility attuned through this amulet.

Artifact 3: Demon-Ink Tattoo

In a rare burst of vindictiveness, Sigurd had this tattoo inked after his six-day-long fight with the rampaging Second Circle demon known as the Green-Scarred Banner, whose rage ever fueled its majesty and power. It is created from the azoth that was the only remnant of that demon's body after their fateful encounter, and grants him the inhuman intensity and prowess of that beast: +2 Charisma, +2 Martial Arts, +3 Dodge Specialty (Not Wearing Armor). The tattoo has the appearance of a large mass of scar tissue colored a vivid green, and shifts from time to time. It can be variously found across Sigurd's left eye, high on his right shoulder, or deep over his ribs. Each location marks one of the wounds Banner inflicted upon Sigurd during their fight.

Artifact 5: The Oriflamme

This legendary prayer strip, a sign of Mars’ personal esteem, is inscribed with the secret Sutra of the Maiden of Battles in her own bold calligraphy. Incomprehensible as the glyphs are, nonetheless they channel titanic energies, granting a Chosen of Battles peerless dominion over all realms of warfare. He who possesses the Oriflamme is fated to succeed in every martial endeavor he turns his powers towards; the Bureau of Destiny plans accordingly. The Oriflamme enhances its wielder's physical attributes like a Crown of Thunders; however, it is a tool not of rulership but of war. Attuned to a Shieldbearer for 10m, it can reflexively assume the form of any generic starmetal Artifact weapon once per action; ranged weapons so created are treated as if possessing an effectively limitless supply of mundane ammunition. Should the Shieldbearer invoke the Lesser Sign of Mars, actions taken under Mars' purview (Archery, Athletics, Melee, Presence, War) double their dice bonus from stunts.

If its wielder should ever call upon the Greater Sign of Mars, the powers of the Oriflamme are said to be unrivaled on the battlefield. No one has attempted this since the Primordial War.

Artifact 4, Sapience 4: Frozen Shadow

Centuries ago, Sigurd's Sifu was not the venerable Master Luang, but rather a Directional war god whose name now has been erased from history. Titanically corrupt, jovial to a fault, and prone to tempestuous passions, the great red-bearded spirit had an influential hand in young Sigurd's development as a warrior. Many of the dirty tricks in the Shieldbearer's repertoire were inspired by the red-bearded god. Unfortunately, many in Yu-Shan had envious eyes for the god's residence, a well-situated Celestial Manse known as the Garden of Martial Contemplation. Though he fought his rivals long and hard, the great red-bearded god knew that one day he would be called to heel for the deeds that had enabled his millenia of debauchery. As a final act of spite to them, he wrote up a will leaving the manse and the starmetal artifact he would become to his only student. Then, he approached Saturn with two propositions, one which is not mentioned in polite company, the other which was very curious indeed. She rejected the latter and honored the former, and the god surrendered his body and name as she touched him with her rings. These starmetal bracers, chill and blocky and ink-black, were the result. Each contains a hearthstone socket; the right is filled, as a gesture of respect, with the Lotus Diamond.

• Urge: Never fight clean when you can fight dirty. Never make an enemy you don't intend to crush (figuratively, but a literal interpretation is fine too).
• Attuned for 8m, the character's limbs become as weightless as fleeting shadows, yet as unyielding as frozen iron. He ignores multiple action penalties for the first (Essence) actions in a flurry, and adds 3 to the Defense of his weapon. Once per action, when he successfully parries an attack, he may make a Martial Arts counterattack. Finally, the character is always treated as on stable footing, be he underwater or in the air: he never needs to make rolls to avoid knockdown or keep his balance.

• The war god wished to remain his student's sifu even in death, and planned to imprint his favorite Celestial Style, Earth Dragon Style, onto the bracers, making them peerless crushing tools. Unfortunately, this proved far too ambitious, and the god barely managed to imprint the lesser Jade Mountain style instead.
• Sapience grants the following Charms: All Jade Mountain Charms (Boulder-Crushing Grasp, Sliding Glacier Grip, Pillar of Marble Stance, Fortress of One, Jade Mountain Form, Falling Rockslide Onslaught, Pasiap Still Stands); Infinite Martial Arts Mastery, Hurry Home (the forgotten god's former sanctum, the Garden of Martial Contemplation), Landscape Travel (Flight and Burrowing at double speed)

Health Levels

• -0, -1, -1, -2, -2, -4, Incapacitated

XP

• Earned: 260
• Spent: 45 Backgrounds, 8 Attributes, 23 Abilities, 184 Charms
• Unspent: 0