Shah Sauma
"The Silent Wheel"
Gu of the Court of Bone
Pillars of Conquered Hells
Dance of the Thrashing Dragon
Laughing Rainbow of the South
High Appraiser of the Quincunx
Bodhittsava Advisor of the Court of the Prismatic Storm
Description
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 120 lb.
Ethnicity: East Asian
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Long simple black
Clothing: Red ethnic
Comportment/Cadence: Reserved
Distinctions: Terrifying sense of serenity as if she's not only seen how the world ends but actively helps it happen, combined with a mind-scrambling beauty that is super-charged both with celestial purity and insatiable hunger: in short, she looks The Devil barely hiding his fallen radiance in human form; a persona recognized immediately by other Wan Kuei
Supernatural Qualities: Beyond those unfathomable distinctions, there is disturbingly nothing supernatural about her
Accoutrements: Light jewelry, including a gorgeous red jade pendant; possibly a jeweled jen or surprisingly crude knife (as if stolen from a museum of Neolithic relics) if expecting trouble; a carefully net made from the highest quality silk
Traits: Appearance 9 (heavenly); Reputation
Demon Shintai Form
Height: 10'10"
Weight: 840 lb.
Eyes: Three black eyes
Hair: Single black braid
Clothing: Onyx-black scale armor
Supernatural Qualities: Her skin darkens to a violet and explodes with lean muscle, clothing replaced with black scale armor from her shoulders to her ankles, while her fingernails and toenails lengthen with diamond-hard keenness and all of her teeth sharpen to deadly fanged points; dark Chi energies swirl around her giant body while leaving lingering traces in the air and on the ground; she appears very much like an unbelievably beautiful demonic "fierce deity": the forceful side of an enlightened one
Accoutrements: An oversized kwan dao with a black steel haft and a blade of unknown metal composition that seems to burn with an incandescent vibrantly multi-hued flame of pure Chi, etched with kaja glyphs
Traits: Appearance 9 (heavenly); Awe, Temptation
"Shhh, submit. I crave only the tiniest taste of your soul."
History
Date of Birth: September 18th, 2000 BCE
Home: Zhenxun, Xia Empire
Family: Chi and Yin (parents), Yu (older brother), Mei (younger sister); Su (birthname)
Second Breath: External Supernatural Trigger (a peasant farmgirl of the irreverent Gu tribe, she was slain along with many of her fellow villagers by Shang to make a point to the Xia about honoring the gods properly; her soul plummeted to the Hell of Boiling Oil, where she was forced to eat her own skin that was boiled off her body, such that even her P'o was outraged enough to want escape, so she seduced the demon-guards and subverted them into killing each other, and she slipped out of Hell during the chaos), 1980 BCE
Mentor: Meihe
The Test: Trial by Knowledge (she dug her way out of the mass grave as chih-mei some years after the Gu's extermination, and she was subdued soon after by one of the earliest Thrashing Dragon Ancestors; indeed, Sauma was one of the first naturally-occuring Wan Kuei; but she proved a quick study of the new Fivefold Way and the Dragon Dharma, for she was determined to never again live as an obtuse barbarian)
Comrades: Huoshuo, Fei-Hei-He, Kongxu Mei, Myangan Uls
Key Event #1: Awe & Wonder (Sauma began her Koa at the White-Tiger Court in Western Zhongguo with discipline and focus, not lusty rowdiness)
Key Event #2: Awe & Wonder (Sauma attached herself to the local jina studiously, but she realized luck as much as hard work paved her Road Back)
Key Event #3: Awe & Wonder (the early Guan Rei of the Third Age reflected the relatively simple purity of their co-existing human dynasties, and Sauma progressed slowly but steadily over the centuries within the August Courts)
Key Event #4: Awe & Wonder (Sauma explored the metaphysics of undeath and unlife through planned or extemporaneous adventures, experiments, and voyages, all of classical and storied legend: she did not emulate the ancient folk heroes, she was one)
Key Event #5: War (as populations grew, resource scarcity began to become noticeable, so she and other ancients were called upon by the August Courts; she joined one of several special Wu formed to initiate shadow and midnight wars against the enemies of the Wan Kuei; her Wu served as a command and strategizing group that became [in]famously known as the Rumbling Tiger Blossoms)
Key Event #6: Treachery (the RTB began with the mission to seize as many dragon nests as possible and, to that end, targeted the dangerous hengeyokai pests through nefarious means of subversion and deceit, turning them against each other: that is, Sauma is one of those ancient Gui Ren responsible for instigating the War of Shame!)
Key Event #7: War (Sauma later admitted regret since, among the few direct combat actions she had to take, she personally slew one of the now extinct Okuma werebears)
Key Event #8: War (the RTB also led the courts' assault on heretical paths, an era that overlapped the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Warring States period among the mortals that the Wan Kuei called the Dharmic Crusades)
Key Event #9: Awe & Wonder (but the wars filled Sauma with doubt and diao, so she retreated to the foothills of Mount Meru to meditate in solitude, and her Wu primarily retired with her)
Key Event #10: Awe & Wonder (as the Fourth Age dawned, Sauma decided then to focus solidly on the wisdom of her Dharma rather than any court politics, ascending to the status of bodhittsava)
Key Event #11: Awe & Wonder (she spent the bulk of this long, grim Age in solitude or with her Wu-mates, mastering her Arts; she maintained connection to the August Courts but only as an ancestral guide)
Key Event #12: Personal Tragedy (though Sauma held most of her Wu-mates as dear friends and lovers, one by one they returned fully to the courts for positions of leadership or war, and all perished over the centuries)
Key Event #13: Awe & Wonder (the collapse of the August Courts and rebirth as the Quincunx had little effect on Sauma, though the accompanying turn of the Wheel into the dark Fifth Age brought nightmares of the Demon Emperor)
Key Event #14: Treachery (the new Quincunx called upon Sauma and other ancients to request their help to prepare all Gui Ren for the terrible Sixth Age; her suggested role involved the cataloguing of the spiritual essence of all known Wan Kuei across the world)
Key Event #15: Treachery (Sauma began with her homeland and the Quincunx vampires proved mostly cooperative; she moved onto the Green Courts, uji, and down into the lusty Golden Courts, employing her unconscionable beauty and wiles to seduce all fellow Kuei-jin, and her dragon tear to analyze them to the core)
Key Event #16: War (she encountered some resistance, and once even had to slay an ancestor Crane of the Infinite Thunders court for his vindictive and recalcitrant rejection after the fact)
Transition: Victory (after several centuries, Sauma completed her work in the Middle Kingdom, leaving her only with those Kuei-jin who scattered abroad into the West; her tracking of known vampires in Africa and Europe went quickly, leaving her with the Americas, soon settling on the West Coast where the preponderance of emigrant undead had arrived)
The P’o
Appearance: Herself but contemptuously (and icily) calm and serene, mocking authentic empathy and morality
Trigger: Whenever she finds a weakness in her Dharma, especially some restriction that works against personal desires and goals
Jade Talismans
Red
Appearance: A smooth ovaline cut of crimson jade set into a pendant of silver
Origin: Theft
Magical Artifacts
Fly Catcher
Appearance: A silk net about 10 ft. x 10 ft., with a anchor cord
Origin: Gift
Effects: Toss like a war-net to capture any spirit on the other side of the Wall in the Mirror Lands, effectively holding it in place (because of its frail composition, it isn't effective at holding most material beings)
Activation: The net must begin from a specially folded position and invested with Chi (the kind attuned to the sort of spirit targeted) before making a standard net attack
Significant Others
As an ancient and extraordinarily powerful Gui Ren, she can have anyone or anything she wants if she really wants it.
Hungry, Hungry Dead
Weakness
Old Sorrows
Such an ancient and insatiably hungry Dragon is full of corruption and sadness, whatever her intentions. Her beauty is like that of a delicious piece of fruit already rotting under the skin.
Likelihood of Corruption
Very low.
Though full of wickedness and sin of her own fallen variety, she will never fall to Yomi Wan (and the gods save us if she does). Lesser demons flee her mere presence and greater demons withdraw with curses. Muttered under breath, of course, lest she overhear.
Links
Character Stats
Character Profiles
Deus Ex Machina
E-mail me!
Main Character Hub
Back to Game Hub
