The White Jade Lord, Champion of Amur
Background: Legends claim, that the White Jade Lord was the last Khan of feline breed ever to be born among the Siberian tigers. True as that might be, none really seems to know much about his past. Maybe it is because the White Jade Lord has outlived most of his own brethren, or that he lived for so long behind the iron curtain of Baba Yaga's realm. He is said to have slain Nestor of Krasnoyarsk, a powerful mage in Baba Yaga's service, and to have travelled more extensively than almost anyone else in the spirit realms of the Russian Far East. A white tiger born to the wilderness, born to serve the Emerald Mother, he never submitted to the Iron Hag, something that can be said only of so very few of all the supernatural denizens of Russia. Instead, it is said, the White Jade Lord chose to fight, and he haunted the wilderness of the Far East for decades together with other rebellious Khan and a small entourage of their tiger kin.
In the end, when Baba Yaga's dominion finally crumbled, it seems only the White Jade Lord himself remained. Alone, scarred from a thousand battles, he crossed the Amur, into China, the spiritual heart of the Middle Kingdom. He came for reasons unknown, but his roar was heard all over Manchuria, and more than a dozen werewolves and a few of his own people soon gathered around him. Together, they ravaged the town of Changchun a stormy winter night, slaughtering most of the local Wan Kuei without pardon. The Ancestor herself, a mighty vampire, was torn apart by the White Jade Lord, her ashes scattered in the wind. No reason for the attack was given, and the White Jade Lord and his entourage soon withdrew into the mountains of North Korea, disappearing from the eyes of other shen for a while. When they again surfaced, they were accompanied by siberian tigers from the north, and they raged across North Korea for most of the year 2001. How many Kuei-jin there that have fallen prey to them none can say, for the vampires of North Korea are almost as isolated as its mortal population.
However, the following summer, the Green Court of Seoul began receiving a strange amount of bad omens and subtle warnings from the spirit realm. A more cautious court would have researched this troubling signs thoroughly, but the vampires of the Green Court are often said to be blinded by having stared all too deep into the Yin world, taking an interest in little else than necromancy and jade. Indeed; only a precious few have paid the events in the Yang world any attention. These few, however, have heard strange tales of a furious storm rising in the north, of a great white spirit of unimaginable fury. Some believes it to be just another sign of the coming of the Sixth Age, but others see a much more real and urgent threath - the dreaded beastlord of the north, who seems to be on some kind of relentless crusade against their kind. Getting the decadent mandarins of the Green Court to listen to these warnings, however, is entirely a different matter - and a much, much harder one.
The White Jade Lord isn't talking. Not to their kind, at least. To his own, he tells of being chosen by the Emerald Mother and the ancient god Ulgan to wipe out those among the shen who have become to decadent, to weak or to corrupt to be of any value in the coming battle against Yomi. He shall purge the world, prepare it for the gathering storm, and may the gods help all who stands in his way.
Image: Born a tiger, the White Jade Lord's human form is large, rugged and brutish. Despite this, he radiates power and pride with every move, giving him a certain, savage kind of charisma. He is old by now, weather-beaten and balding, with grey hair and beard. The left eye have long since been lost; covered by a huge scar. His clothing is old and torn, his neck adorned with a plethora of fetishes and talismans of bone and jade, and his forehead with a large jewel that seems to have fused with the skin. Draped over his shoulders are the hide of a woolly mammoth he killed in the Yang realm of the far north decades ago. However, imposing as his human fort might be, his chatro form is pure terror. It is that shape he prefers, even more than the crinos or the feline shape of his kinfolk. In chatro form, he takes the shape of a white, one-eyed sabre-toothed tiger of enormous size and terrible rage, an incarnation of primordial fury that has sent countless mortals and shen alike screaming to the afterlife. In all his shapes, the White Jade Lord has countless battle scars, and his fur are almost completely white - thus his name.
Roleplaying Hints: Feared and revered by all, you are a living legend, and you know it. You never speak of your life yourself, though - such things are better left to the storytellers. Some might dismiss you as an unsophisticated brute, a mistake you gladly repay in spades, for you have the laws of the wilderness in your blood, and none survives for so long as you have without intelligence. You have slain thousand, faced the strongest of enemies, talked to the most ancient of spirits and wandered to the most distant shores. Yet, old and weary as you may be, the Emerald Mother still has one mission for you left under Heaven. That mission, you will carry out, even if you must raze cities and walk in rivers of blood, for you shed no tears for the humans who have brought your tiger mother's people almost to extinction.
Entourage: The White Jade Lord roams the countryside with a company of about a dozen other shapeshifters, attracted to his legendary status. They are followed by a small yet impressive entourage of spirits, and a pack of tigers from his mother's tribe near the Amur river. When preparing for battle, The White Jade Lord sometimes calls forth great beasts that roamed the land long ago; woolly mammoths, elasmotherium, and other creatures of old.
Secrets: Deep inside, The White Jade Lord has come to suspect that he never really met the spirit of Ulgan in the Yang realm, and never got the mission he has embarked on. He might just have become mad, dreaming up orders from Heaven just to have an excuse to ravage all in his path. This secret fear haunts his dreams as well as his waking hours. Even worse, still, are nightmares that has awakened him almost shivering with fear. These are dreams where the spirits whisper that he has lost the Emerald Mother's favor and become a tool of the Yama Kings, an instrument of their hatred against all creation. As far as the White Jade Lord knows, that could very well be the truth, and that truth is the only thing on earth that scares him.
Influence: The White Jade Lord practically rules the shapechangers of North Korea. Those who do not follow him do their best to keep away.
Apparent Age: Late 60s, although he may be almost a century old
Breed: Feline
Pryio: Night
Tribe: Khan
Nature: Barbarian
Demeanor: Sociopath
Physical: Strength 5 (7/8/9/7), Dexterity 4 (5/6/6/6), Stamina 5 (7/8/8/8)
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 3 (1/0/0/0), Appearance 2 (1/0/0/0)
Mental: Perception 5, Intelligence 3, Wits 4
Talents: Alertness 4, Athletics 3, Brawl 5, Dodge 4, Empathy 1, Expression (Speech) 3, Intimidation 5, Interrogation 2, Primal-Urge 5, Subterfuge 1
Skills: Animal Ken (Tigers) 6, Crafts (Jade-carving) 3, Etiquette (Beast Courts) 2, Leadership 3, Melee (Huge Axe) 4, Stealth (Stalking Prey) 5, Survival 5
Knowledges: Area Knowledge (Russian Far East) 4, Enigmas 3, Linguistics (Evenk, Manchu, Mandarin, Russian), 3, Medicine 1, Occult 3, Rituals 3, Spirit Lore (The Yang World) 5
Backgrounds: Ancestors 2, Contacts 3, Fetish 5*, Kinfolk (Amur Tigers) 4, Magical Artifact 6*, Pure Breed 4
Gifts: (1) Catfeet, Hare's Leap, Heightened Senses, Inspiration, Mindspeak, Primal Anger, Razor Claws, Sense the Truth, Sense Wyrm, Spirit Speech (2) Call to Duty, Command Spirit, Gift of the Cricket, Heart of Fury, Jam Technology, Sense Imbalance, Staredown, True Fear (3) Eyes of the Cat, Mental Speech, Name the Spirit, Paws of the Raging Spirit-Tiger, Pulse of the Invisible (4) Beast Life, Grasp the Beyond, Part the Wall, Punishment from the Moon, Scent of Beyond (5) Elemental Gift, Heaven Thunder Hammer, Song of the Great Beast, Wrath of the Northern Wind*
Rage: 9, Gnosis: 10, Willpower: 10
Rank: 6
Rites: Baptism of Fire, Moot Rite, Rite of Binding, Rite of Feeding the Ghosts, Rite of the Harmonious Journey, Rite of Talisman Dedication, Rite of Quiet Burial, Rite of the Winter Winds, Stone of Scorn, The Hunt
Derangement: Mild Schizophrenia, Severe Cruelty
Notes:
Magical item - 'The Old Man of Winter'. This is a huge, black axe, whose blade seems to be made of obsidian, yet almost impossible to shatter. For all intents and purposes, it counts as a Grand Klaive. However, it contains no silver, so the White Jade Lord does not lose any gnosis when carrying it.
Fetishes - He wears one fetish with a Wind Spirit bound in it, that confers a -1 on all difficulties to dodge bullets and other ranged attacks. A Luck Talisman around his necks lets him reroll two dice per day. A white jade figurine of a tiger in his belt was a gift from the Tiger General of the Minister of Heaven. It confers two extra dice on soak rolls against all kinds of supernatural attacks. In addition, he could have countless low-level fetishes of the Storyteller's choice.
Gift - 'Wrath of the Northern Wind'. This gifts allows the White Jade Lord to call upon powerful spirits of the Arctic, in order to unleash a vast snow storm. He spends 1 point of Gnosis and rolls Manipulation+Rituals, at a difficulty determined by how likely such weather would be at the present time and place - for example, a difficulty of 4 in North Korea on a winter day with cloudy skies, and a difficulty of 10 in Hongkong a hot, humid summer morning. If successful, dark clouds will slowly gather, soon resulting in a huge blizzard that covers several miles, with the White Jade Lord at the center. The effect generally lasts for hours. The White Jade Lord claims that he was taught this gift by the spirit of Ulgan, an old Altaic creator-god.
