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Zweischneid · 31st July 2008, 11:24 PM

Koryo of Tiger's Rest
Male Human Rogue 2

You think you know everything about me? Only fools know everything!
Lithe and lissom is a small man of about 35 years. He is dressed in light, wide-cut black clothes and black-and-white cotton-sole shoes. His long black hair, shot with first grey, is bound in a braid and he sports a fine, pencil-thin beard. His attentive black eyes rarely miss anything. He carries himself with disciplined grace. His wide clothes and belt could easily conceal shuriken and daggers.

Background (w/spoilers)

Koryo of Tiger’s Rest
Koryo, an orphan by birth and raised from his earliest days to serve the Black Veil, only had one true friend in life – Daejo. Both were brought up in the same orphanage. Koryo and Daejo, both known for mischief and clever tricks they played on the other kids, almost as soon as they could walk on their own, were noted for their behaviour by the imperial housemaster of the orphanage and subsequently marked for special training to serve the needs of the empire. Where most orphans, depending on their disposition, end up either in military or administrative services of the Great Empire, both Koryo and Daejo were tried and tested and eventually ascended to a hidden school and monastery in the distant Shadow Cloud Mountains. This hidden, nameless monastery schooled and trained children in the arts of subterfuge, espionage and assassination. Those who survived and prospered became spies and assassins of the Black Veil.

Though life at the school was hard, merciless at times and many children failed to complete their training, both Koryo and Daejo prospered, even excelled in the ways of the Black Veil. Their childhood friendship grew into youthful camaraderie and competitive companionship. In time, both were initiated into the secret order, taking up the secretive work of the assassin’s order.

Koryo, ever the more driven and ambitious of the two friends quickly rose in rank and reputation. Daejo, though equally skilled, eventually found love and purpose in the arms of a beautiful woman. Eventually they married and had a son. Dark fortune came upon the two friends when Mastermind Tien died and ‘Mask’ took over the order. Daejo, sensing the cruel streak of the new head assassin urged Koryo early on to part ways with the Black Veil. Koryo, denying the subtle early changes within the ways of the assassins order persuaded his friend – and his family – to stay. But ‘Mask’ was a man of cruel and fickle temper. In a nefarious scheme to rid the Black Veil of traitors and disloyal man, Daejo, having talked about disbanding the order once to often, was singled out to be assassinated. Black-clad figures descended upon the humble town-house where Daejo lived with his family, outside the Black Veil’s monastery. Daejo and Koryo, who came aware of the assassination at the last moment, fought off the assassins, but not before a poisoned throwing knife took the life Daejo’s beautiful young wife.

Before sunrise, Koryo, Daejo and Areum where gone and well out of sight of the city. They fled to the eastern islands, fighting pursuers and robbers all the way. But even though accusations where never spoken, the death of Daejo’s wife stood heavy between the two friends. Having persuaded Daejo and his family to stay, Koryo couldn’t help but feel responsibility for the women’s death by assassin’s poison. Eventually, the friends parted ways and Koryo settled in Tiger’s rest, where he lived, many years, in the solitude of the large islands lush forests, thinking, meditating, and contemplating.

Eventually, Koryo slowly grew back into a life of sorts, taking up businesses with the people of the island. Still, now in his middle ages, still lithe and muscular from the daily exercises of demanding martial art forms, he remains a withdrawn man, reluctant to engage with people for fear of harming them unintentionally.

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