Karal Xiangfan, Chosen of Battles

Under construction, nobody read. Yes, that means you, Chejop. Being dead gives you no excuse.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zti3og1418ko0qi/Karal%20Xiangfan.pdf?dl=0


Backstory

On the day of his birth, everyone but him knew that Karal Xiangfan would exalt. His parents knew with the certainty all parents have that their child will do great things. Those aware of the birth knew because both of his parents were dragonblooded in one of the Gentes; statistics were in his favor. The unseen Fivescore Fellowship knew because a Pattern Spider had put out a harried report some weeks before; the receiving young Vizier had seen the words "Lookshy," "Dragonblooded," and "Exaltation" and handed it to the rest of the bureaucracy for filing. With a little more diligence, they might have been able to trace the threads of Fate back to the unexplained disappearance and death of Ju-long Qiang the year before. Creation knew Xiangfan for 17 years before he disappeared from all records and memory. A year after that, his parents had another child with the name Xiangfan, who did exalt as a Dragonblooded. They were very proud of him, but their forgotten child, swept into heaven by Mars, could only look down and see the love and adoration given to his younger brother. But in his heart he knew, despite the gratitude they could never have or show, he was more pivotal to the fate of the world in general than his brother could ever be.

Karal spent most of his early time training and joining elder Sidereals on strikes, in battles, and occasionally on light-duty espionage, provoking or defusing armed encounters where necessary. Throughout his tenure, Lookshy has been his preferred area of influence; though his home doesn't remember him, he remembers it. Though his perspective has broadened since being exposed to the sheer magnitude of Fate, what he passes off as pragmatism is clearly a more personal issue than he lets on.

Karal will turn 500 years old in several months and has been partly responsible for keeping Lookshy and the Realm out of direct conflict over the last 470-ish, as well as keeping the scavenger lords fighting amongst themselves rather than banding together and threatening Creation's power structure too seriously - though he isn't above dropping in and making a key demolition; continued fighting keeps Creation ready for dire eventualities, provided it isn't overdone so as to be deleterious, or too small-scale to provoke innovation.

Karal has been kept busy around the Scavenger Lands recently in working to contain Thorns. Though his tried and true arsenal has been slow to adapt, he has had occasional deathknight contact. As such, he takes a definite interest in the Convention on Deathknights; their assignments and the Eastern Convention's often overlap, so at least it keeps the workload streamlined.

Personality
Xiangfan is something of a paranoid mercenary, known for a brutal if efficient pragmatism and a blunt manner. He has sided with the bronze faction for most of his life, but with the emergence of the Solars, his allegiance has been leaning gold; though the golds have been waving around unprovable what-ifs for centuries, the first age's benefits were undeniable. With the tools to re-establish it showing up again, it seems to him to be the obvious choice that those tools should be used. If ever they become too dangerous? They were removed from power once, and could be again.

He has put in some effort to maintain a well-rounded skillset; as he puts it, "when you're this old, there's no excuse not to have learned at least a little about everything."

Motivation
To raise Lookshy up to supplant the Realm as the center of Creation's power.

Environment and Backgrounds

Retainer: Koiwaii, [former] god of Lapfish
Koiwaii was birthed in the First Age, and her domain was once fairly expansive, as low-essence gods go. The Lapfish were, as the name suggests, amphibious, furry fish bred by the Solars in their desire for exotic pets. They had a reputation for being extremely cute and cuddly back in the day, with luxuriant pelts with no equal in all of Creation - or at least that's what Koiwaii will tell you, and only she truly remembers. Fertile lapfish required a fair amount of intervention to remain viable breeders, and between the Usurpation and the Great Contagion, the species didn't survive the mass extinctions. Now, Koiwaii is washed up to the point of her only job being serving as a maid to a trigger-happy, paranoid Shieldbearer. When lacking things to do, she enjoys painting, and her quarters are utterly plastered with pictures of her remembered charges, sometimes with prominent first age owners fawning over them. She always insists on showing them to anyone nearby, including and especially Xiangfan, who seems to merely tolerate them. Though, if anyone were to look at her exotic paints and masterwork brushes compared to her salary, it would be obvious she didn't buy all of them herself. Craft(Air) is her most prominent skill, with "Cute paintings" being a prominent specialty.

Weapons of choice: Annihilating Cleaver of 3000 Fates and Organ Relocator Apparatus
The Annihilating Cleaver has been Xiangfan's dear companion for most of his Exaltation and was the first artifact with which he was entrusted. It is a starmetal Reaver Daiklave with most of the blade hollowed out to emptiness, save for an elaborate system of support ridges that form a detailed image of a dragon. When essence is directed through the sword, sparks of essence fly through the sword, and the dragon lights up and appears to breathe fire. Records and craftsmanship standards date it to the late First Age. Xiangfan finished learning Violet Bier with it, once he showed himself worthy of a true blade.
Organ Relocator Apparatus formerly belonged to the Division as special equipment, but Xiangfan's fondness for it led him to procure it on a more permanent basis. It is a hearthstone-powered small Concussive Essence Cannon with an additional hearthstone beyond the one required to power it. The additional socket appears to have been a retrofit, one that its owner takes full advantage of. It also includes an integrated sheath for Cleaver along its side.

Celestial Manse
Well-flavored aspect
Archive (historical battle tactics and practical motonic physics)
Magical conveniences (automated training room, stereo)

Karal will spend all of that XP on going from craft fate 1 to 4.

Training time starting from the beginning of chapter 1, six weeks