Concept: Mei-Ying, offspring of forbidden love between goddess of the Jade Emperor's Celestial Court and mortal.
[sblock=Story (blocked for space, not secrecy)]Sages know of a time before Yun-Ki, God of Luck, when fortune was ruled by the twin god and goddess, Xiao-Gao and Zhing-Yun. They represented the fickleness of fortune, the yin and yang of its essence...and yet also that luck, while often a minor influence on one's life, was one of the few forces that operated outside of Fate, and could even thwart Destiny itself. The story has become an object lesson in the value of obedience to divine will, and an object lesson in what becomes of those that defy the laws set down before them.
Zhing-Yun, as goddess of fortune, was well loved by...just about everyone. Shrines to her dotted the countryside of the mortal realms, and prayers for her aid rose like a fine haze wherever people were gathered. She was fond...overfond, perhaps...of taking mortal form and walking through casinos, arenas, racing tracks, and other places where her worship was particularly strong. Zhing-Yun was admonished against entering the mortal realm too often, but did not listen.
It was in a gambler's hall in the great capital of the mortal, yet divinely mandated Holy Emperor himself that she met who was to become her greatest joy, and ultimate downfall. A man dressed in peasant rags, who scraped and scoured his pockets for each coin he played. He called himself only 'the gambler,' or 'the gambling man,' when asked. And while his appearance seemed pathetic and an easy mark...the Gambler never lost a game unless he meant to. Zhing-Yun noticed this right away, as she could see the rise and swell of his fortunes around him like a cloud. Fascinated by this man who seemed to be in control of his own luck, Zhing followed him and eventually he noticed her. The first of many conversations ensued, and a new destiny was forged; one too strong even for both of them to break free again.
It should be noted at this time that love is forbidden between mortals and gods. In the chaos before the Jade Emperor, humanity was subjugated by the halfbreeds of such unions...lustful and vain gods and spirits who would lie with men and women and bear semi-mortal children possessed of strange and unearthly powers. These so-called sorceror kings were known for their cruelty and love of warring against one another. Constantly vying for the power to rise up against Heaven and steal the divinity of their parents, thus becoming truly immortal. This is the true fear of the Celestial Court...for there are laws older and deeper than those of the Emperor. Laws graven on the deep stone at the world's heart. Laws that give children the right to claim what was their parents'...should their parents surrender it, or be no more.
The Gambler and Zhing-Yun fell in love. The goddess bore him a son, and fearful of what she had done, immediately secreted her away in an all female monestary that taught secret arts and was heavily shielded from detection. To those wards Yun added her own power, clouding her from the senses of gods as best she could. But her old enemy, Fate, had felt the tugging on the strings of destiny...too many threads moved. Too many powerful beings fates changed. Her affair with The Gambler was discovered, and in her testimony before the Jade Emperor himself, Zhing-Yun lied and denied that there was a child. In punishment she was stripped of her power and immortality, and made mortal. Yet when her divine essence was surrendered by her, the accounts were found lacking. A tiny, almost unnoticible fragment of her power was not there! It had, in fact, been passed to her daughter. Using the pull of like to like, the gods used Yun's divine essence to seek out that daughter. Mei-Ying.
Mei Ying had long ago left the nunnery, after learning the female monks' ways. She had uncovered strange, supernatural powers in herself and chose to go forth to explore those in preference to continuing her martial arts training. After meeting and besting many challenges, her power was blossoming. It was that same power that drew her mother's essence across the divide between mortal and divine, and led the eyes of the Jade Emperor himself to her.
The danger was great. Only Mei Ying's ignorance stopped her from laying claim to her mother's essence, and becoming divine herself. The claim of blood was higher than the claim of justice. And yet, Mei Ying also had a mortal soul, and he could not simply destroy her. Killing her would not solve the problem, as her soul would simply reincarnate. But not even the gods of the Court can -destroy- a soul...any more than they could destroy the divine essence taken from Zhing-Yun. There was but one option. Banishment to the so-called Hell of Iron Cages.
It wasn't well named. It wasn't TRULY a Hell...a place of punishment and retribution. It was a prison. A place for beings that had no other place. There was no escape from it...not even the Great Wheel of Rebirth reached there. You might reincarnate, but it would still be in the prison plane. No laws applied there. Not even the Deep Laws. Mei Ying would be helpless to claim her birthright even if she somehow found out, and would be so for all time. Balance would be restored, and the Celestial Court would go on as it always had, perfect and unchanging. Until, of course, Yun's brother vanished. To replace him, an Immortal was promoted to God...this time just one god of all luck, good and bad. A small change to be sure...but as Fate could attest, great avalanches sometimes start with the smallest pebbles.[/sblock]
