Character Name: Ryuko Shiroyama
Origin: Ravenloft - Rokushima Taiyoo
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Good
Class: Cleric
Age: 20
Religion: The Pantheon of Kami, with focus on Watatsumi
Hair Colour: Light Blonde (Explained below.)
Eye Colour: Azure Blue
Biography:
Ryuko is the undesired offspring of a sailor of unknown origin, and her estranged mother, a maiko (Geisha apprentice). She knew close to nothing of her biological parents, having been very quickly abandoned at a shrine on the coast of a small seaport. She was taken in by a fisherman and his wife, whom had no children of their own. She was raised well enough, among those who loved her, but she was always seen as an oddity and bullied for her strange hair and eyes. As a child, she had taken to accompanying her father on his fishing expeditions out into the vast open sea, and the day was like any other, however there had been something in the mist and the waves that caught Ryuko's curious eyes. With a sudden jerk, the young girl found herself in deep, endless ocean, sinking ever further into the abyss. But she wasn't afraid. In the deep blue, she witnessed a great leviathan of tremendous size. Ryuko was in awe.. Until she remembered she had to breathe. She struggled, taking ever more water into her lungs. The last thing she witnessed before her life ebbed away was the Leviathan.
Ryuko awakened days later, in the company of her family. There was much tears shed, though the young girl didn't understand why. Life for the young Rokuma had changed from that day on. The young girl started noticing even more oddities than before, strange sprites that played amongst the trees, or would sit at the Kami-dana in her home. Ryuko had told others what she saw, down in the abyss, and everything that came after. The local priests were awed, and some, perturbed. The great Kami, O-Wata-Tsu-Mi made himself known, to a mere child?
She was taken in by the priests, and taught to be a Miko. The shrine she was assigned to care for belonged to non-other than the Dragon God.
Many more years passed for her, now a young woman. She had tended to the shrine for much of her adolescence. Her duties were all she knew, until one day, the head priest paid her a visit at her shrine, in the company of a woman with a katana at the hip. The eccentric woman introduced herself as a
kensei, a sword-saint. A holy warrior, on an unending quest to purge the land of evil spirits and lend aid to those in need. The Kensei knew about Ryuko's special talent, her ability to see the things that no mortal should have been able to perceive. She explained to the Miko that when she fell into the sea on that mist-covered day, she was bound for Yomi, the land of the dead. But the Kami, with their unknowable machinations, denied her Izanami's embrace.
Yes, Ryuko died that day. But it was also the day that she truly began to live.
The Kensei, a brash and unyielding woman, enlisted the fair headed young woman as her apprentice, and they would spend the next precious few years together, with the young Miko providing assistance and healing to the holy warrior, who in turn taught Ryuko not only the way of the blade, but also the role of a sword-saint, the divine blade of the Kami, and the vanquisher of evil Yokai.
Unfortunately, their journey would come to an abrupt end. Having been hired by the head priest of a village engulfed in fog, the two of them were to cleanse a desecrated shrine and it's surrounding areas from the multitude of demons that had taken residence. Their quest was a challenging one. With every yokai slain, it appeared more would appear from the depths of the temple. The two had come to understand the entire temple and its surrounding graveyards had become a haven for yokai, after the village had seen several lean months followed by a crippling winter. The fog was stifling now, and the Kensei realized too late that it was going to choke the lives out of them. The duo were overwhelmed, with Ryuko cut off from her master, with naught but fog between them and the sounds of combat. Try as she might to find her, Ryuko kept getting turned around within the mist. The with every step she took, the sounds of battle dimmed, even if she tried to orient herself towards it.
She walked for what felt like days. All she had for company were the seemingly endless mists, and the soft, damp grass beneath her feet. She could see things, shadows passing by, just obfuscated enough by the fog that she couldn't identify them. She kept walking. Thoughts of her master were always at the forefront of her mind. She was desperate to reunite with her. She felt like she had failed her, when she got seperated in the melee. If only she was a better fighter. Ryuko clenched her teeth and gripped the laquered scabbard of her katana tightly. She kept walking. She thought about her life up to that point. She knew she was unwanted as a child, unloved by her biological family. But she couldn't even picture what her parents looked like. She grew up in the loving home of two strangers whom raised her as their own flesh and blood. For that she would always be grateful to them, though now she wondered if she would ever see them again, in this dreadful fog. She kept walking. She thought about her fateful meeting with the leviathan. Why did the Dragon God choose her? What role did she have in his plans? Better yet, why was she still alive? It seemed like the fog began to thin, step by step. Was she chosen to fulfill some sort of role of the Kami? Was that why her Master came to her? Her vision began to stretch further. She could make out.. trees. Tombstones, but not of the same make as those in Rokushima. Etched in the stone were letters that were alien to her.
Thus begins the first steps of Ryuko Shiroyama, into a world she knows next to nothing about.
Ryuko - Wandering/Lost Child
Shiroyama - White Mountain