[hider=Umemoto Eiishii][center][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/93/d4/ab/93d4abb166f61756aece52ba0edfcbcc.jpg[/img][/center]
[center]Umemoto Eiishii[/center]
[center]Alias: Hannya, The Traitor[/center]
 
 
[i][indent]Y'know, most people are afraid of Hannya. Not afraid like he's some big ass dragon or some giant demon or something, but the guy wears suits that cost more than an education and looks like he owns the investment firm that bought the real estate company that owns your house. He's just got that way about him, y'know, like he's abso-fucking-lutely sure of everything he does, and that's kinda intimidating, y’know? But when you start talking to him, he's actually a really grounded guy. Sure he smokes the kind of cigars I couldn't buy without a mission's pay, but he's pretty good at giving you the whole 'sage wisdom' bullshit without the bullshit, y’know? And then you start to get to know him a little more, hang out around the towers a bit, and you learn that most people aren't nearly as afraid of him as they ought to be.
[indent][indent]- Alex "Brightlance" Temple, Paladin of the Temple of Stars[/indent][/indent][/indent][/i]
 
 
Age: Unknown
Race: Unknown
 
Rank: Knight Captain
 
Biography/history:
[indent]It's hard to imagine what possible history someone like Hannya could have. He acts as though he sprang full formed from the earth, constant and singular, as he will no doubt someday return to it. The truth is substantially less dramatic, and a surprising amount of it is actually public record if one cares enough to put together the timeline.
 
Umemoto Eiishii was born to a prominent corporate family out of Lorrath. Manufacturers of arms and armor, he grew up wanting for little and receiving the best of everything from education to magical tutelage. Given his heritage and his position in his family, the only son of the Umemoto Arms Corp. president and chairman, it was assumed from an early age that he would take up his father's position at the head of the company, find a woman to have a son with, and retire to luxury and backseat corporate espionage like his father's father before him. The only real surprise is that none of that happened.
 
The only real secret in Eiishii's past is what changed. That [i]something[/i] did was self-evident, but what it could be was anyone's guess. There was no horrible fall out, no awful tragedy that anyone is aware of. As far as most people are concerned, Eiishii simply woke up one day, put aside every weapon and lesson and aspiration he'd been working towards, and began focusing solely on his swordsmanship. Day in and day out, until his muscles ached and his fingers bled and his instructors had long ago left, Eiishii practiced his swordsmanship. At first his parents assumed it to be a hobby, a kind of phase, but as months stretched by and the rest of his studies declined it was clear enough that something was amiss. Ultimatum after ultimatum was provided and ignored, his family unwilling to follow through with actually cutting him off. Eventually, as far as his parents were concerned, he was written off as a waste--his 'little hobby' wasn't expensive enough to be a bother when it came right down to it, and so they let him have it. Better than losing their son, and to their credit they could (and did) have another.
 
In a year, Eiishii cleanly defeated his master.
 
In two years, Eiishii cleanly defeated [i]his[/i] master.
 
In five, he had ended a slew of schools, academies, and training grounds single handedly.
 
It becomes difficult to track him through public record, at this point, because by then rumor of his prowess had begun to escape. A monster swordsman, an impossible prodigy had begun to work his way through school after school, learning techniques like most people drink water, before defeating its greatest masters and moving on. The more difficult it became for him to move between schools unnoticed, the more guile he began to display in his dedication to do so. There are stories still told about the friends he betrayed, the women he seduced, the wizened masters he bargained or threatened or cajoled out of their secrets, all under different names that only a careful historian could begin to put together as being Umemoto Eiishii himself.
 
By the time he emerged as himself again, he was a changed man. Having long been assumed dead by his family, who hadn't heard word from him in more than a decade, he returned to their household with his thanks for raising him and a simple warning that it was time for them to leave. Confused, he made it clear in no uncertain terms that it was no longer safe for them to remain in the city and that now was the time for them to take their belongings and go. He would be staying, himself, and he would be just fine without them.

In less than a month, the Second Stygian War broke out and his family’s holdings were decimated. Having refused to heed the ridiculous warning of their absentee son, his remaining family perished under the Stygian assault. Eiishiii had more important things to do--he had joined the Knights of Star and begun, for the first notable time in decades, to apply his trade under his own name.
 
With the Knights of Star fighting on both sides of the battle, Eiishiii began to acquire something of a reputation. The contracts he took were almost always those with a Knight of Stars counterpart on the other side of the battlefield, whether fighting for or against the Stygians. He himself showed no loyalty to either side, and instead took the battlefield against those most distinguished Knights with neither fear nor concern. To this day, no member of the order has been confirmed to have killed as many of their own as Eiishii the Traitor, earning him no small amount of enmity within the organization. An inquiry was held after several prominent Knights of the time fell, but the short of the matter was that he technically hadn't done anything wrong--he hadn't sought out his opponents, merely placed himself in their path as a natural extension of his contract. Though the charges of treason were dropped, it was not a satisfying victory for many and the notion of it lingered. With the actions of the Knights during the war pardoned, however, Eiishii...stopped.
 
Not doing missions, but he stopped searching out new schools of swordsmanship to best. He had, in his not-inconsequential perspective, become the finest swordsman alive. It was not a boast so much as a simple fact, demonstrated when needed either on missions or in defense of his title, and though he may have been bested on rare occasions by the capabilities of his foes it was never a failure of his skill that lost him the battle. The sole duelist to survive Lilliana Highfell’s infamous challenge, it was then that Eiishii realized that his body was simply unable to keep up with the demands of his technique. He could see through the blade mistress’ gambits, knew where and when and how to strike, but his body was simply unable to keep up.

So he sought to fix that.
 
With the Umemoto Arms Corp. and the money from his missions funding him, these days Eiishii spends much of his time appreciating the finer things in life when he isn’t exploring newfound options to expand his capabilities. Known on occasion to take on a student or two, his rank as a Knight Captain is reflective as much of the infamy he gained with the Knights during the Second Stygian War as it is by his own disinterest in taking a more prestigious position. There are some who are curious why he didn't leave with many of the others in search of Christian Highfell, and he refuses to comment on the matter, but most assume he was unwelcome in their company.[/indent]

Reason for recruitment: 
[indent]A predator hunts where his prey lays its head.[/indent]
 
Strength of Will: 
[indent]Greater[/indent]
 
Magic:
[indent]Channeled from Norforandus, Eiishii’s magic is extremely powerful but entirely localized. Eiishii has a single driving focus, a point to which his every effort goes to, and that is to truly master the art of killing men with a blade. To that end, he has developed significant supportive magic for himself including the following:
[list]
[*] Alchemy - Eiishii has become a master alchemist, learning to transmute and alter the physical properties of himself and his armaments to further refine their capabilities. In particular he has mastered the manipulation of his unique blade and the various augmentations that have been made to his body, increasing his reaction time, speed, and stamina to impossible levels.
[*] Divination - While largely unskilled at foreseeing the future or scrying different locations, Eiishii channels minor divination as part of his cocktail of combat magics to allow him to see the motions and movements of his opponents slightly before they happen. The effect is minimal, less than a second in advance of the action, but more reliable than most divination thanks to its limited scope. Eiishii also utilizes divination in his conjuration of The Marble to prevent opponents from hiding from his sight.
[*] Abjuration - Long ago having learned that those who fight only with blades can still die to plenty of other things, Eiishii has devoted a significant amount of effort into ensuring that he dies to nothing but a better bladesman, namely via his use of The Marble.
[*] Significant Spells:
	[list][*] The Marble
One of Eiishii’s most powerful abilities, The Marble is what he calls the cocktail of battle-magic effects he uses when he serious about an engagement. A mixture of abjuration and divination, The Marble is functionally an intensely powerful spherical barrier that surrounds Eiishii and prevents a truly stupendous amount of incoming nastiness from having much effect. In truth a form of channeled alteration of reality, it is one of two proper gifts granted to him by Norforandus in that it is far and away more powerful than it has much right to be. Within the confines of The Marble Eiishii is absolutely aware of everything that occurs, a powerful divinatory effect combined with an alchemical alteration in the surrounding environment that allows it to function as something of an extended nervous system. Combined with his implants and augmentations, Eiishii’s reactions to events that occur within it are very nearly prescient and limited almost entirely by the capabilities of his (admittedly augmented) physical body. 
 
The catch, of course, is that this ability’s range is explicitly and exactly limited to the length of his sword extended from his arm. Yes, it varies depending on the weapon he’s using, but when it comes down to it the ability is simply a manifestation of Eiishii’s impossible desire to be the best at what he does. When you’re serious about fighting Eiishii, you fight on his terms.

	[*] The Blade 
Eiishii’s second true talent from Norforandus. If The Marble is a manifestation of his need to die doing what he loves, The Blade is a manifestation of his need to kill with it. Another alchemical-abjurant effect, The Blade cuts. It cuts well. Functionally, it creates a two-dimensional, frictionless plane of abjurant energy along the edge of a blade that Eiishii wields while reinforcing and slimming the actual metal of it sufficiently to prevent it from shattering or deforming. Physical armor is almost useless against it, as it slides through matter at a literally molecular level; magical barriers prove more effective, as the actual force of the swing is rarely the true danger of it depending on the technique used at the time. More sinister, however, is Norforandus’ blessing--wounds made by The Blade do not go back together. Period. They may be cauterized, replaced, healed around, healed independently, and many other variations involving the word ‘healed’, but what they don’t do is come back together. The two parts are, for all intents and universal purposes, no longer part of the same creation and no longer meant to be a part of one another. Significantly, much in the same was as The Marble, The Blade works only and explicitly along the edge of a knife or sword wielded by Eiichii. While he can create an edge on almost anything with alchemy and abjuration, it just isn’t the same and both he and Norforandus know it.[/list]
[/list][/indent]
 
God relations: 
[indent]Insofar as Norforandus has clerics, Eiishii is one of them. Long ago the God of Hunger looked into the soul of a young man and saw in him a singular, driving, impossible desire to embody the act of killing men in this world. It took pity on him, and Eiishii honors his end of the bargain every day.

There are also rumors of something...else. Though Eiishii does not speak of it, there is a solemnity and a forced calm that he approaches in certain discussions. Ruin comes to those walking the path that Eiishii walks,
 and that he is a man on borrowed time is not as hard to see as he might like.[/indent]
 
Tech:
[indent]The main technology Eiishii uses is the augmentations to his physical and neural form that allow him to surpass his human limitations. A combination of bio-alchemical alterations and straight cybernetic enhancement, almost all of Eiishii’s functioning system has been enhanced and streamlined up. In particular his neural system and the attending muscle groups have been adjusted to an incredible and alarming degree, tuned up with the best medical, magical, and technical knowledge that money can buy. More than being able to run faster than a normal man, Eiishii can [i]react[/i] faster with short-twitch muscle movements boosted by anti-friction and anti-gravity nanites employed in a secondary nervous system to reduce impediments to his technique.
 
Aside from his general adjustments, Eiishii’s main form of magi-technology is the degree of shielding that goes into said implants and nervous systems. Eiishii values his mind and his techniques and isn’t about to let anyone with an EMP or decent Enchantment skills play havoc with either.[/indent]
 
Possessions/items/property:
[Indent]Money. A lot of money. Outside of that, Eiishi’s eschews permanent holdings and prefers temporary things, such as hotel rooms, eating out, and otherwise purchasing what he needs in disposable goods. He does, however, have a single significant possession that he keeps on him regularly:
[list]
[*] Nanite Sword
Eiishii's primary weapon, concealed in carefully constructed channels in his arms is a series of nanities affixed with graphene monoblades. With a proper electric charge from an adjustable hilt the nanites emerge and configure themselves into an almost unlimited variety of blades.
[/list][/indent]
Skills:
[indent][list]
[*] The Blade
Eiishii is arguably the best bladesman alive. He is relatively sure that he is the best [i]technical[/i] swordsman alive, having mastered every known technique (including a great number of secret ones, at no small cost and expense to himself and others) in Galendar. This knowledge extends to knife combat as well, and to relative degrees other hand-to-hand bladed weaponry such as axes and spears, but he makes no bones about the fact that he is a swordsman first and foremost.
[*] The Marble
Eiishii is a master of close-quarters abjuration and alchemy. Though not particularly talented in grander applications, when it comes to arm’s reach there are few more skilled at both offensive and defensive application of barriers and reinforcing magics than Eiishii.
[*] Intelligence
Eiishii is reasonably intelligent about most things that he has an interest in. His deductive and inductive reasoning skills are significant, and while he isn’t a genius he’s not a dumb brute.[/list][/indent]
 
Misc:
[indent]Eiishii enjoys the finer things in life, and he is unrepentant about it. Money is meant to be spent and comfort is the reward of the living. He’s also a bitch for aesthetics and more than a little vain, taking good care of his appearance.

In truth, his live-for-today mentality is a simple result of the fact that he is doomed. People like Eiishii don't live and die well, and the sacrifices he has made to become who he is are beginning to weigh on him. While it may not appear physically, those sensitive to the ebbs and flows of fate and death magic receive a clear sense of foreboding from him, a foregone conclusion from the waiting dark.

The only question is what it could be.[/indent][/hider]

[hider=Jane M. Doe]
[center][img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/84/85/4c/84854c5995d17a754cf3a86e7f6ea2aa.jpg[/img][/center]
 
Name: Jane M. Doe
Alias/Nickname: Airburst/Jericho Doe
Rank: Artificer, Order of Shadows
 
Age: 26 
Race: Elder Ogeron
Personality: 
[indent]Jane is what many people might call ‘mousy’. A very private, slightly paranoid person, she spends a good deal of her time in her workshop with the rest of the artisans and the rest of it skulking about people-watching. Something of a voyeur, she often prefers to watch rather than interact and has on more than one occasions gotten in trouble for her nosy habits. A socially anxious individual, she vastly prefers the company of individuals or very small groups rather than large social situations and in the latter she is often mute unless her opinion is directly requested.
 
One on one and in her element, Jane can be surprisingly relaxed considering she almost never takes off her blast helmet, drops her various degrees of obfuscation, and intentionally wears baggy clothing that covers up whatever figure she must have under there. Intensely observant and occasionally surprisingly crude, she has a bad habit of both knowing more about someone than they intend her to and referencing it casually without meaning to. She vastly prefers to avoid actual combat and gravitates towards field support on missions, but is known to hold a grudge and have something of a cold streak when it comes to people she feels have slighted her.
 
Considering how little she takes off her mask, she always seems to be carrying around snacks of some kind of another.[/indent]
 
Biography:
[indent]Once upon a time, one Lady Blahblahblah of Soandsoshire was a slut and spread her legs a lot until she got knocked up by John Doe of Nothingsham and ruined her fun. As far as Jane is concerned, that’s about all there is to it.
 
That [i]something[/i] happened is obvious enough to anyone who...well, interacts with Jane. She doesn’t like to be touched, she’s [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/74/3d/7a/743d7a5c2209ba4ced9523f91edfd262.jpg]replaced her hands[/url], she takes great pains to obfuscate as much of herself as possible, and she likes watching people when they don’t know she’s there. None of that speaks to a great upbringing or traditional parenting, and she’s noticeably bitter whenever the subject comes up. When pressed she lies through her teeth and never tells the same story twice, ranging from plausible-but-unlikely to downright ridiculous stories, though asking her is a good way to get her to not talk to you for a week or so.


Jane joined the order by demonstrating her proficiency both at espionage and explosive ordnance development. To hear her tell it she was on the run from someone or another and the order provided her shelter, but that could well be one of the dozen stories she tells about herself. 

A curious colleague once confirmed that her biological father was an Ogeron named Robin Goodfellow, on record for numerous felonies including assault, sexual assault, and currently wanted for treason in Eldrafen. The resultant property damage was halted only on threat of expulsion from the Knights and they haven’t spoken since.[/indent]
 
Reason for recruitment:
[indent]There aren’t many places willing to both employ explosives and tolerate eccentricity. Jane considers herself lucky to have found this one.[/indent]
 
Strength of Will:
[indent]Potent[/indent]
 
Magic:
[indent]Noticeably, Jane’s magic is almost entirely ritual in nature. Skilled though she may be, almost all of her talent requires time and concentration and as such are of little practical use in the field. Of note is her tendency to utilize (and talent with) contingent magic, i.e. stored effects that are triggered under proper conditions. She relies exclusively on Wild Magic rather than Channeled Magic.
[list]
[*] Divination
Jane is especially talented at divination rituals, specifically those involving scrying or the prevention thereof. She frequently uses this ability to spy on targets, ascertain proper firing coordinates and locations, and to divine proper methods of avoiding detection.
[*] Abjuration
Jane is reasonably skilled in abjuration, though she typically amplifies it by technological means when using it for the purposes of her explosives.
[*] Alchemy
An impressive chemist, Jane’s talent with alchemy is relatively limited but surprisingly useful in the crafting of her various ordinances. While able to change and manipulate small quantities of matter, she’s skilled at it more in that she knows what changes she needs to make than in her ability to alter things drastically.
[*] Force
Jane’s talent with force magic is almost exclusively used for the amplification and direction of explosive energies, at which she is demonstrably proficient.[/list][/indent]
 
God Relations:
[indent]Jane tends to pay lip service to whatever God may or may not have dominion over her whatever it is that she’s up to, but she isn’t really a ‘faith’ person.[/indent]
 
Tech:
[indent]Jane utilizes a variety of technological items, mostly crafted either by her or by other artificers of the guild. Of note:
[list]
[*] Sinskin
Produced by another Artisan from the Order of Shadows, Sinskin is a techno-illusory collection of nanites that uses the same technology as the Mistress of Shadow’s cloaking nanosuit applied instead as a layer of active camouflage over an otherwise normal outfit. It protects against most forms of magical and technological detection while rendering the wearer largely invisible to the naked eye. Jane keeps it on her at all times and often uses it more casually than she ought to.
[*] SS-IV Surveillance Scrambler
While not running her Sinskin, Jane is almost always running her surveillance scrambler. The small device distorts both audio and visual recording processes, effectively blurring her figure and her words to unintelligibility (though notably still visible as a patch of active pixelation or distortion). While it can be an issue for those with technologically augmented eyes, it provides no benefit against magical or visual sight.
[*] TODS Mk.2.2 “Arbalest” & Accompanying
Jane’s primary weapon and method of fire support while in the field, the Arbalest is functionally a techno-magical mortar largely of Jane’s own design. Billed as a teleported ordinance delivery system, it is essentially a large and heavy cylinder inscribed with both runes and coordinate calculating entries for manual use. Utilizing stored magical charges that Jane creates via her rituals and the targeting coordinates she is able to gather via various integrated or her divination magic, the Arbalest teleports a given form of ordinance to a target location moments prior to detonation, resulting in near instant delivery of its given payload. Even more useless than most mortars in a direct confrontation, it can provide varied and effective fire support from distances of up to 5 km with proper targeting information. Jane has a variety of magical and mundane “shells” that she can utilize with it, ranging from high-explosive charges to alchemical healing tinctures, and typically bases her carried payloads based on mission parameters.
[*] UAC “Hornet” Automatic Flechette Pistol
Jane’s most typically used self-defense weapon, the Umemoto Arms Corp. “Hornet” flechette pistol utilizes a magnetic chambering system to shave slivers out of its base ammunition and a standard rail system to fire them at tremendous speed. Firing at a rate of nearly a 1,000 rounds per minute, these minute darts are excellent at carving apart unarmored and lightly armored targets at close range but ineffective at anything beyond that due to a lack of rifling and the minimal projectile weight. Of specific note is the system’s ammunition capacity, which is substantial--a single block of ammunition can last for more than a minute of prolonged firing, allowing for sustained fire. Next to useless against any form of significant armor, it provides a decent enough distraction in a pinch.
[*] [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/9a/54/e5/9a54e5a00b53db7493921c54d74172b6.jpg]Mk. III “Boxer” Grenade Pistol[/url]
A more personal method of ordnance delivery, Jane’s Boxer is a modified breach-loaded grenade pistol designed to accommodate various smaller-scale ordnance at limited range. As with her Arbalest rounds, Jane often utilizes custom shells for various effects based on the mission at hand.[/list][/indent]

Skills:
[indent][list]
[*] That Sneaky Little...
Jane's sneaky. She's good at getting in and out of places without being caught or leaving a surveillance record when she wants to, though sufficiently advanced sensory equipment or magic still provide significant barriers for her.
[*] [i]Cour, petit lapin, cour[/i]
Faster than she ought to be, Jane's primary defense is to run. Naturally graceful and balanced, she isn't a trained parkour expert but can function pretty well at it regardless at getting where she needs to go to deliver her payload (or getting away from whatever's trying to stop her).
[*] Living Bombard
Jane's true talents lie in ordinance generation and delivery. A brilliant chemist well-versed in various methods of making things explode and the best way to have them do it, Jane is well known for her skills as fire-support in the field and for providing custom devices to specific specifications when required.
[*] Not an Ace, Not a Dummy
Jane is a reasonably skilled hacker, familiar enough with most security systems to get in and out undetected. Her repertoire consists of a good deal of surveillance and anti-surveillance software, however, rather than any capacity to do real damage to most systems, and military grade networks are still difficult for her to address.[/list][/indent]

Misc.:
[indent]Jane is almost never seen without a helmet and heavy clothing on that covers the entirety of her skin. She typically uses a vocal distortion software that makes her voice deep, obviously synthetic, and nominally female.[/indent]
[/hider]