[hider=Cienie][hr][center] [color=Silver][img]https://safebooru.org//images/2042/fbb3f0c8de7d226e203585ec4df42e0cdf65d423.jpg[/img][/color][hr] [color=9aa9a6][b]Name[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Ten Hi En (aka Thème Cienie)[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Gender[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Male[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Age | Date of Birth[/b][/color] [color=Silver]16 | 1898-03-05[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Sexuality[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Heterosexual[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Race | Nationality | Place of Birth[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Honngìn | Edinburgher colonial subject | Crown Colony of Sin On, Edinburgher Empire[/color] [hr] [color=9aa9a6][b]Appearance[/b][/color] [color=Silver] Cienie’s typically Honngìn black hair resembles that of the Darcsens — though you’d have to be oblivious to mistake him for one — and hangs in a loose bob, sometimes hastily combed. The unusual milky grey of his eyes had made his parents fear that he was blind as a newborn, though so far they have served him well even when reading by candlelight. His skin is a little darker than the average Europan, though he could hardly be called tanned. He stands at an average 170 cm (5 ft 7 in), surprisingly making him a bit of a minority in this platoon of extremes. [/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Personality[/b][/color] [color=Silver]For a poor infantryman, Cienie generally looks unusually happy. He tends to proceed about his business with at least a neutral expression, and more often one of apparent contentment with his lot in life. Some officers have thought him a simpleton because of this, but behind this smiling lies a sharp mind. It’s just that a friendly demeanour comes off as more approachable. When bullets begin flying and bayonets are affixed, Cienie does not falter. Nor does he rejoice and let bloodlust get to his head. He isn’t unemotional, but takes combat in stride without being outwardly fazed or perturbed. This can manifest as idle commentary or spontaneous rhymes during an artillery bombardment or assault, though he’s careful not to let any light-hearted chatter distract or otherwise interfere with effective action. The superfluous speech is perhaps his own form of coping mechanism, calming and reassuring not just his fellow soldiers but himself as well. [/color] [hr] [color=9aa9a6][b]Rank[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Private[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Role[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Shocktrooper[/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Equipment[/b][/color] [color=Silver]SM-Longfield Mk. 3 Hand bombs Machete Entrenching tool Gas mask First aid kit Notebook and pen Mouth organ Bicycle (when not on the front lines) [/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Potentials[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Pack Mule: Endurance is something Cienie has in spades, both mental and physical. He isn’t the strongest or swiftest soldier, but he can and will keep going without stopping or complaint. Pain and adversity are nothing too new, and besides: he set off to Europa with a vision, and he certainly won’t rest until it is reality. Black Cat, White Cat: A mouser’s a good mouser so long as it can catch rats — or so the Scuanese saying goes. Cienie is a practical person, and he personally couldn’t care less if you were prole or prince, Darcsen or Valkyrur. He has an agenda to realise, and by and large, the means are secondary to his ends. Of course, this also means that behaviour some would regard as dishonourable or disgusting are also not beyond him. The Entertainer: Armed with an expansive repertoire with influences from both the East and the West, Cienie’s musical and storytelling performances behind the frontlines and in the trenches have always been a good morale booster. Even discounting the numerous not-always-intelligible dialects spoken among the Honngìn, his ability to at least hold a conversation in a dozen other languages has allowed him diverse audiences — sometimes even including Imperials, when no man’s land is narrow enough. [/color] [hr] [color=9aa9a6][b]Biography[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Born in a small Edinburgher colony carved out of native territory in the Far East, Hi En’s family are well-educated and respectable, but hardly well-off — in no small part due to his father Séu Kong’s constant drifting and inability to hold down a job even as in government service. His early life was characterised by numerous moves across his homeland as well as constant reminders of human mortality. Less than a year after being ‘adopted’ at birth by his gravely ill uncle Ii Conn in order to provide him with an heir, as was the traditional custom, the man succumbed to tuberculosis. This left the infant Hi En to be raised by the man’s widow, Ciin. A refined young lady, she educated him, taught him music and literature, and left him with a lifelong interest in the arts and culture — only to pass away when he was 10 years of age, just a year after tuberculosis had claimed Hi En’s biological mother Van as well. With his father working far away from home, Hi En and his two younger brothers Po En and Su En moved to Fakuh, a large city quite some distance to the north, to live under the roof of his father’s older brother, I Kâng. It was an impoverished nursemaid from the countryside, Kaan Kaan, who cared for him there, acting like a third mother for the young boy. Her son Duven and her daughter Siovu soon befriended Hi En, despite differences in age and background, and the three were always together, playing or tending to the family farm. Little Po En and Su En quickly took a liking to their new ‘big brother’ and ‘big sister’, at Hi En’s expense. Then illness took its toll again, in 1910. Siovu suddenly felt a cramp in her stomach as the children were plucking weeds one summer afternoon, which quickly led to bloody diarrhoea and fever. She was bedridden within the week. And, after a long month of alternating hope and despair, big sis Siovu was dead from dysentery. The girl had just turned thirteen. That same year, Hi En would have to bid a tearful farewell to Kaan Kaan and Duven, as he moved to the bustling port of Hohsi to pursue further studies. A series of rebellions and revolutions in 1911 saw massive upheaval and destabilisation tear through the already-fractured Honngìn lands. Regimes and leaders rose and fell, yet the lives of the commoners saw little real change. Although he wasn’t personally affected much, it sparked a sort of passion to effect change in his homeland and the lives of the people around him. He put his all into his studies and learning, even teaching himself Europan tongues in order to unlock the insights of Western science and philosophy. This consistent excellence and forward-looking drive caught the eye of the school headmaster Jen Siouh, who offered his daughter’s hand in marriage (which Hi En was quick to turn down) and the chance to join a work-study programme in Valois, fully sponsored. The boy was quicker still to accept the latter, his mind set on one thing — to learn from Europa and rescue the Sick Man of the East. The winter of 1913, a convoy of steamers carrying thousands of Honngìn workers arrived in Ostend, with 15-year-old ‘Cienie’ — so christened by the Europan crew and later the immigration officials — being perhaps the youngest in the contingent. Upon stepping foot on dry ground, his first task was to dig unmarked graves for the unlucky ones who had died during the journey. At first Cienie contented himself with loading trains and wagons at a munitions depot, far removed from the fighting. But after a month of doing this relatively safe work for but a pittance, news came from home that his youngest uncle Ee Kway and his cousin Sark Enn, both always of fragile constitution, had taken ill. In addition, his father had once again been dismissed from his post and was now wandering off to someplace around Scuan. The prospect of higher pay risking his life closer to the frontlines grew more and more attractive. The volunteer labourers were promised non-combatant roles: digging trenches, carrying stretchers, clearing mines and so on. This promise remained unbroken for a long while. Cienie even managed to land a more skilled job as a maintenance technician, welding and riveting together plates of steel. Life got downright comfortable for some time. He read for both leisure and learning in his downtime, and took up writing of prose and poetry. Then came the shellfire. A swift Imperial offensive punctured a gap in the forward defensive lines, through which men and metal began pouring through. All of a sudden, tail became tooth, and on one fine morning an entire camp’s worth of support personnel had arms thrust upon them. They were told to prepare for combat by noon. Cienie was hardly enthusiastic to fight, but his fearless conduct during the defensive action impressed his officers. Being a subject of the United Kingdom with an above-average command of half of Europa’s languages only smoothed things along. He was offered the opportunity to enlist in the Federation infantry with an even more generous salary — better than any of his fellow Honngìn could ever hope to earn. Call him mercenary or reckless, but it sounded like a good deal. After a few more months of training, he was posted to a regular battalion in the 15th Atlantic Rifles. Three months into his service, during which he participated in the last days of the Assen Offensive, restructuring resulted in him being shuffled into a new company and platoon. [/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Affiliations[/b][/color] [color=Silver]Ten Séu Kong (biological father), 1874 – Van Tûng’i (biological mother), 1875 – 1907 Ten Ii Conn (uncle/adoptive father), 1879 – 1899 Ciin (adoptive mother), 1878 – 1908 Ten Po En (younger brother), 1899 – Ten Su En (younger brother), 1904 – Ten I Kâng (uncle), 1870 – Ten Ee Kway (uncle), 1876 – Ten Sark Enn (cousin), 1902 – Kaan Kaan (nurse), 1874 – Kaan Duven (childhood friend), 1894 – Kaan Siovu (childhood friend), 1897 – 1910 Jen Siouh (teacher/mentor/sponsor), 1860 – [/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Relationships[/b][/color] [color=Silver]None so far![/color] [color=9aa9a6][b]Character Theme[/b][/color] [color=Silver][url=https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1H541157sR]Yu-Peng Chen — Gallant Challenge[/url][/color] [/center] [/hider]