He nods slowly, then looks away for a long moment. Finally, after a long time he begins to speak.....
I suppose it would be best to start this story at the beginning. I was born to a small but powerful clan of Samurai nobility. Within my clan, my own family was influential. We did not rule the clan, but my family held sway over those who did. We were known mostly as a family of warriors. Both of my parents were practicioners of the way of the Samurai, as were my brother and my closest uncle. My family had our own particular fighting technique, taught only rarely to those outside the family, usually at the request of the clan leadership or the Emperor. It was my father who taught me the arts of combat, along with the code of Bushido.
For me, the tenets of Bushido, the Samurai code of honor and behavior, were absolute and incontrovertable. Duty, Loyalty, Honor, Respect, Courtesy and Compassion. To me, they were not just words to be bandied about in conversation, they were the fundamental rules of life. I was always taught that each of the six virtues was of equal importance, and that to improve one's stature in one was to improve one's standing in all. I was taught to show equal measure of the tenets to all people, regardless of apparent social or financial status. I was also taught that the Samurai were held to a higher standard then everyone else, that we were excpected to follow Bushido more than any other member of the nobility.
My instruction in the arts of war was no less comprehensive. I learned the arts of personal combat from my father, who had once been personal bodyguard to none less than the Emperor himself and was regarded as one of the finest warriors of his time. I studied the arts of Strategy and Tactics with the emperor's warmaster, who was also regarded as being one of the finest leaders of his time....a reward for my father's many years of service.
Upon completion of my training, I was invited to participate in a graduation ceremony in the Imperial Court. This ceremony was held every year, at the end of the summer. It was a tournament for the finest youth from all of the clans, by invitation only. I came in one of the top three places in each event. in the final event, the one testing skill at arms, I defeated all of the other participants. I was thirteen. All of the other participants in the tournament were sixteen or older. Upon conclusion of the tournament, I began my career as a Samurai.
Before my twentieth birthday, I had been in no fewer than sixty-seven duels, and I had never lost. I had been in no fewer than two dozen battles, fighting for my clan or one of its many allies. By the time I was fifteen, I was a Sergeant, by seventeen a Lieutenant and by twenty I was a Captain. I was even titled with a small keep and some land of my own. It was during these years when I recieved most of my scars.
This one, he gestures to a long scar that runs the length of his arm from the wristbone to the middle of his bicep I recieved in a duel against a tyrant landowner who dared to challenge an Imperial Edict ordering him to lower the taxes on his land and treat the peasants more kindly. He was a skilled swordsman.
This one, he pulls his kimono open slightly, revealing a small scar over his collar bone came from an assasin's arrow. Over a period of a month, a rival clan sent four of thier finest swordsmen to challenge me to duels over whatever percieved dishonor or insult they could find. They grew frustrated and desperate when I killed the fourth Samurai they sent after me in one stroke.
I was one of the most feared and respected Samurai in the empire.
All of that was soon to come to an end.
By this time, I was the only surviving member of my family. My mother had died while I was away at war, and my father had entered a monastary. My brother....had last been seen leading a small group of Samurai in a charge up a hill during a battle.
((OOC: I'm Ba-ack.))
In my twenty-second year my clan was having trouble with one of it's closest rivals. They had noticed that our lands were very fertile, and had been coveting them for some time. For a few months, they had been content to hire small Ronin bands and use them to harry villages near the border, and target shipping. Occasionally they would also attack a small patrol. These bands were typically anihilated very quickly, but the enemy would just hire more Ronin.
We petitioned in the Imperial Court against our neighbors, but since we could not prove directly that our neighbors were responsible the Emperor could do nothing. During the month leading up to Winter Court, we had been cautiosly building up our forces on the border with our neighbors. We declared war on them, and our troops crossed into thier territories. Thet were waiting for us, but we expected that. We fought a brief war, driving the enemy deeply back into thier territory.
We were engaged for perhaps a week when a legion of enemy soldiers we had been persuing for a day and a half had entered a small village and set up defenses. We were ten legions strong, and they were only one legion. One exhausted, hungry legion that was ready to give up the fight. When we entered the village, they broke and ran. My commander ordered me to lead my men and charge into them. I refused. The commander stripped me of all rank and promoted one of my Lieutenants, and he lead the charge. The entire enemy legion was killed, to a man. I saw the aftermath......there were corpses everywhere....the plains surrounding the village were red from the blood of the dead. To this day the area is haunted by the souls of those who died there. It is so haunted in fact, that the villagers have even begun abandoning thier homes. Everything that grows in that field has some sort of taint to it.
For showing compassion to my enemy, I was branded a coward and cast out. My family was stripped of all of it's holdings and I was refused the right to commit honorable seppuku. Those who had lead the charge, the commander and my former Lieutenant and the army commander are hailed as heroes.
