Country Affiliation: Kina
Race: Human
Tier: D
Class: Ranger
Age + Birthdate: 47 | June 23rd
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Hetero
Personality: Years of travel have broadened Nobuo's mindset and outlook on life making him a rather mentally flexible individual. Rather than stick to the rigid customs and beliefs of the typical Kinan commoner, he looks to the other nations as examples of how to live by picking and choosing the aspects he likes best and discarding the rest. There is little room for a strict code of morality within his world view opting instead for a pragmatic approach that can accept any act or injustice as long as it works towards meeting his end goals. That said, he has never once let go of a love for his homeland and sincerely hopes to see it flourish and enter a new golden age of prosperity no matter the cost and sees the reforms that took place during his absence as a blight upon Kina's history. Especially upon having seen the corruption rampant in places like Reim or Blabadd, he believes that the system of daimyo is a case of too many cooks in the kitchen as it were and desires to see power reconsolidated under the reign of a sole capable ruler.
Outwardly amicable to those he finds useful or necessary and ruthlessly cruel to those who bar his path, the man seems to take glee in wearing two faces. He isn't without pride, but he isn't above hiding that pride in order to ingratiate himself with others as needed even if that means groveling or otherwise humiliating himself. It is all to serve a greater purpose and such slights are not forgotten so as to be repaid once his own power is established over any transgressors. Blood relations are not enough to spare one from this utilitarian approach either. Nobuo would gladly sell his own mother should the coin be needed for his aims. But found family is a different story.
At his core, Nobuo is not entirely heartless and towards the few who can earn his love the man shows respect and care. These few lucky souls are the only ones he will always be honest with and go to great lengths to ensure their well-being. But to achieve such status on his heart also requires deep and sincere showings of loyalty towards him as well as a commitment towards his cause. This often requires some kind of sacrifice on the other person's part before Nobuo is ready to open up to them and accept them into his inner circle.
Likes:
Women - Specifically those with big breasts.
Booze - Good wine after a plan goes well makes for a happy Nobuo.
Scheming - Plotting mischief and mayhem is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Dislikes:
Women - Specifically those with small breasts
Justice - Those who claim to represent it. Hypocrites one and all!
Eye-Based Jokes - It's not funny, okay!? Carve one of yours out and see how much you laugh...
Aspirations:
The total unification of power and authority in Kina under one ruler. Be that himself or another whom he approves of. The means to reach this end don't matter, even if they lead to vast temporary suffering across the nation so long as Kina can be brought into a new golden age of flourishing by said ruler. The criteria for which in his mind being to break away from the shackles of fate and determine Kina's destiny for itself. Something that can only be achieved by tearing down the fated reforms that have befallen it during his absence.
Phobias/fears:
The loss of his other eye and being totally blind for the rest of his life has been the subject of many recurring nightmares for Nobuo. He makes it a point to treat his remaining eye well and goes out of his way to keep it from harm during battle. He often finds himself holding a hand over his missing eye and when drunk he can sometimes be heard mumbling laments about the circumstances in which it was lost.
Face-Claim: Nobunaga Oda | Drifters
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Green
Height: 6'3" | 190.5cm
Weight: 180lbs | 81.6kg
Appearance: Nobuo is a tall, lean, and muscular man with a fierce and imposing appearance. He has wild and unkempt, jet-black hair that falls past his shoulders giving him a somewhat uncivilized look. His eyes are a piercing shade of jade green that glint with a sense of mischief. Nobuo's face is chiseled and angular, with a prominent jawline, high cheekbones, and a thin, pointed nose. He has a rough full beard that frames his mouth and adds to his barbaric and intimidating demeanor. Especially when he puts on one of his trademark toothy grins.
Nobuo's attire is that of a rather simple Kinan ronin, consisting of a kosode with a white jacket and black undershirt accompanied by a black hakama supported by a white obi. His feet are adorned with knee high white tabi and waraji sandals. Overall, his clothing does not appear to signal great wealth or power and if not for his height and unkempt appearance he might just fade into a crowd of local Kinan commoners. Nobuo's signature accessory is his black eye patch further adding to his ability to stand out among your average person.
Rukh Alignment: Black
Special Features: Right Eye Missing
History: Born to the southern province of Kina, Susa, Nobuo was of very humble beginnings. His family was a line of fishermen and had done this work off the coast of Shiita for many generations. Though it required bravery and strength to master the way of the waves, such things were the bare minimum requirements to be seen as of value and worthy of respect. Their wealth was never great and their reputation and subsistence always meager, but dignified enough to avoid being pressed into slavery as the weak. Nobuo was the second son born to this family and soon after him came a little sister.
The Nagada household was joyous at their growing family, but also feeling the strain of having so many mouths to feed. Nevertheless, Tanezane Nagada and his wife Mizuko did their best to ensure taxes were paid in full and enough fish and foraged produce in store to last them through the harsh storms that frequented the sea here restlessly. Many times, Tanezane would have to risk going out into the maelstrom so they could ensure their children were well fed. Nobuo would stand with his brother as they watched their father sail out into swelling weaves and wild winds. The man took to the task without showing fear or cowardice despite the risks. Somehow he always seemed to come home.
Meanwhile their mother tirelessly worked keep the household in order. She would take the children into the forest to father fire wood, mushrooms, and various wild vegetables. Her swift hands were always there to mend or make any clothing as needed and daily lessons ensured all the younglings of their household could read and count. Humbly seasoned meals or snacks always seemed to manifest from her labor as soon as one of the children or her husband realized they were hungry. Even the budget was carefully managed by the hard working mother much to Tanezane's dismay whenever funds were low and they simply couldn't afford for him to go buy or barter for some wine in the village.
Fate then brought the fortune to the family which wrought calamity. Their oldest son, Torikumo was found to be blessed by the rukh and loved by them dearly when he was in town one day playing with some other children who had been bullying a four year old Nobuo. As a fight broke out, a borg lit up in young six year old Torikumo's defense. The moment brought silence and then a series of shouts as Torikumo was forced to the ground by adults and apprehended before Nobuo's very eyes. Their father tried to step in, but was lucky enough to be let off with a cut to his arm for trying to interfere in the laws of the land. The Nagada family was powerless to stop their first born son from being taken as a slave and branded. Bound by collar to live his life as a dog.
The payment received as compensation could not outweigh the shame they felt or the stigma that came from having a magician in the family. It just managed to keep them fed while Tanezane recovered from his injuries. But the wound had been deep and never quite recovered fully. So young Nobuo had little choice but to join his father at sea to help out even younger than had been expected of him prior. The child was more a burden than a boon at first, but in time he became the right arm to replace his father's injured limb.
Mizuko and her daughter, Itonami, would always pray the father-son pair would return home safely. But as their confidence as a team grew Tanezane began to feel comfortable challenging even stormy seas with his son. Nobuo was 10 now and had nearly become a man by all rights legally and was etirely capable of running a small fishing trip on his own. As they survived one stormy season after the other Nobuo grew even more sure of himself. Three more years and Tanezane was beginning to take a back seat while out fishing letting his son take the helm even during wild storms. No matter how angry the gods of the ocean became, fate always seemed to guide them home. Until one fateful day.
Test the heavens enough times and don't be surprised if they strike. At age 16, Tanezane and Nobuo were out fishing during a storm like the madmen they were. But the storm was unlike any other they had braved before. Their mast was blown apart when lightning struck and waves 30m tall capsized their small boat. Tanezane had let his bad arm weaken and wither as his soon took on most of the responsibilities. This weakness caused him to drown amidst the waves until his body was broken against the rocks of Shiita's coastline. Nobuo managed to keep hold of some floatsame but a different current took him out to sea further.
The boy had smashed his head against a broken piece of wood in the chaos causing a splinter to shoot through his right eye. Bleeding and soaked sore by the salty waters, Nobuo drifted for three days before finally getting fished out of the water by a boat off the coast of Kou. Nobuo knew he had not wound up back at Susa as these boats were different from the ones he knew and the names of the people there seemed strange to him. He soon leaned that he had crossed the ocean to a mainland the young Kinan youth had never even known existed in the first place.
Nobuo was brought to shore and treated, but his eye would not survive his wounds and had to be removed lest it rot in his head. The pain of his nerve endings being torn out nearly killed Nobuo, but he was burning with a will to live after his ordeal. Eager to return home and search for the father who's fate he'd yet to accept and the mother-sister pair he'd left behind to fend for themselves. But his path was not so simple. The land of Kou was undergoing much strife as a young upstart conqueror named Gao Yuan Zu was making sweeping moves to secure more fertile land for his growing empire. Nobuo found himself mistakenly conscripted into the Kou army as a foot soldier and fought for five years as a member of the Kou army.
Nobuo's status as a foreigner was never a secret once the misunderstanding had been cleared up. As such, despite good service he never gained any form of officership or rank of any notice. But merit had value in Gao's military, so Nobuo still found himself assigned to assist a low ranking officer as a servant. From over the shoulder of his superior he observed strategic meetings and came to understand the way of organizing and commanding men.
Eventually his service was complete, but his horizons had already been broadened by tales of other lands throughout the world. So when Nobuo was relieved of duty after a long campaign, he did not return home but instead went west. The young man confirmed the tales he had heard with his own eyes as he crossed a great landsea to arrive at a fledgling city of magicians. Though he was not granted entry, he thought to himself of his long lost brother and wondered how great it would be if he could ever be freed and brought here some day.
His travels then took him south across deserts to find a flourishing merchant state in Balbadd. Compared to the rigid cultures of Kina and Kou, this land seemed far more unreserved. The casinos and brothels were prosperous as the marketplace was busy as trade from the east and west both met at its ports. Nobuo came to love this city and stayed for a few years apprenticing under a merchant by day and becoming a well known scoundrel at the gambling halls and courtesan houses at night. But the young man only lost himself in debauchery for so long before he began to feel restless and continued his journey.
To Imuchakk he sailed. It's icy floes something he had never before navigated and challenged by the loss of an eye he was at the mercy of the frozen sea until an Imuchakk youth happened upon him by chance while scouting for his tribe on a hunt. They rescued the traveling Kinan, fed him, and then robbed him of all he had save for his boat. Their chief had jokingly said they would have eaten him if they had not been successful on their hunt. It had the intended effect of frightening Nobuo into swearing he would never trespass into Imuchakk waters again. A promise he would later come to resent once he learned from a more well traveled man that the Imuchakk were not cannibalistic nor would they eat people.
Reim was his next destination, but being destitute from the Imuchakk raiders taking all of his non-essentials it was difficult for Nobuo to find a foothold. He wound up as a beggar and had to learn to throw away his pride in order to survive as he made his way through Reiman lands. He gilded his tongue in silver to try and earn more hand outs through flattering and used his cunning to begin swindling extra coins from people when possible. More than once, he was forced to flee a given town for fear of being stoned for having been found cheating at some gambling scheme or to have stolen some bread or wine when he became desperate. He thought life could not get much worse. Then he traveled south.
In Heliohapt things took a turn for the worse as Nobuo quickly found himself captured by bandits in the desert and sold into slavery at age 25. The man was rebellious at first, but enough whippings and almost any one would break. He lost count of the lashes when his spirit was finally broken along with his faith in the path Solomon's Will had lain out for him to walk. Nobuo was used as hard labor to move massive stones for some distant Pharaoh's grand projects. The days bled into one another and for ten years he served learning the basics of construction and picking up a skill for stone carving along the way which elevated his status as a slave with value. Though this improved his treatment, it never gave him a sense of self worth or contentment.
Wallowing at his life circumstances for this ten years, Nobuo gradually gave form to his dissatisfactions. He realized he could no longer remember the faces of his brother, sister, or mother. Even his father's face which sometimes haunted him during dreams of drowning had become blurry and indistinct. It was around this time that freedom fighters got in touch with Nobuo in a risky move. His status as an artisanal slave granted him certain privileges such as more freedom of movement. The insurgents caused a distraction and Nobuo freed a number of working slaves before escaping himself. He then joined their cause acting as a rebel fighting a guerilla war against the pharaoh. He rode with his compatriots learning the ways of mounted archery and attacked supply lines as well as slaver groups. They would have occasional small victories but after another five years it was clear that they were making no real difference in the status quo of Heliohaptan rule.
Age 39, Nobuo managed to extricate himself from the freedom fighters and found passage on a ship back to Balbadd. His time as a fisherman made him capable as a sailor and entered into a new life at sea as he saved up money to buy his own ship with plans to return home with something to show for all the years he had been away. Nobuo dared to hope that his mother and sister yet lived. That he could buy his brother's freedom back if he returned with enough wealth. That his father would be waiting for him at the shore of their home. After seven more years he finally accumulated enough money to buy his own vessel.
Nobuo gathered some trustworthy friends he had made during his travels and set out on a final voyage home. He stocked up his ship with fine silks, wines, and jewels. Nobuo returned feeling triumphant. But when the coastline of Shiita-jima came into view he began to get a foreboding feeling as military vessels approached to stop their advance. After an inspection, he was forced to dock at an unfamiliar port that had built up after his departure and there he received the treatment of a foreigner being taxed heavily on the goods he had brought with him. Even his freedom of movement was restricted being unable to leave Mizumata unless it was to leave the country the way he had come.
He spent months attempting to prove his citizenship but there was no proof that the young boy that had disappeared at sea all those years ago had survived and was now returned. Apparently the fishermans hut his family lived in was long gone and nobody in Mizumata had ever heard of Mizuko or Namisode Nagada. These names were supposedly not even recorded in the newly established registry which kept track of all the citizens under the new Kinan government. Nobuo refused to accept this and did his best to ingratiate himself with the local clan but he soon found out that the Unmeichi he needed to consult about becoming a citizen was located elsewhere. The Susa clan no longer held absolute authority over these lands and others from the main land were seeking to exert their power over Susa.
After much patient effort he was at last given a travel permit to the main island to meet with the Unmeichi but this left Nobuo feeling discontent. He could not even call himself a citizen unless he submitted to the new government and entered into the service of a large clan? This was the land of his ancestors, what need was there for all this run around? To make matters worse, all inquiries into the whereabouts of his family had turned up with nothing to show for the effort. So despite having obtained his travel permit, Nobuo had still yet to step foot out of Mizumata Port a few months later. To the careless observer he seemed to be drinking his frustrations away.
Only Nobuo would know that he spent this time gathering information and forming a plan. After so much time in port he had learned about about how fate had taken huge turns in Kina after many foreign influences got involved in a civil war which resulted in a total restructuring of how his homeland operated. How the Unmeichi were established to divide up power into regions. Powerful clans who jointly decided the way the country was managed at a council of these powerful clans. The emperor had largely become a figurehead and real power resided with the various clan leaders. But could such a system really work smoothly given human nature? Nobuo didn't think so.
He predicted that the urge to vye for power between these Unmeichi could not be suppressed by vague causes like the greater good of Kina. Nor could the scars of that civil war already be fully healed. He suspected that this alliance of powers was fragile and that another great of conflict would be inevitable. So why not fan the flames a bit? But first he would need to confirm his suspicions. Nobuo decided that he would first travel the land and seek to better understand the finer details of each clan and their strengths as well as their weaknesses.
Role-Play Sample: https://magiworld.forumotion.com/t12830-prized-marionette-social-private
