Shou Ozawa
The rampaging demon samurai who roams the world, seeking the one who can give him death
Daimyo Shou Ozawa (a.k.a. The Fatal Blade)
Not enough...it's not enough! Shot, stabbed, blown apart, unmade with magic, turned to dust, none of it works and I'm tired of waiting! How many heads must I claim before you laggards finally put me down?! How many villages burned, children smashed, loved ones broken, and fools put to the blade will it take before your mightiest show themselves before me? It's been three thousand years, and I'm growing tired of waiting for this world to entertain me and give me my executioner! Damn you all! Cowards, all of you! Whelps that would sooner flee the noose than face the hangman...!
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Though he was once a mortal Human, he has now swelled to massive proportions after millennia spent as an undead Shiireiken - eternally trapped in the prime of his unlife with a body swollen by centuries of bloodshed and cruelty. Every fiber of his body is wound tight for mayhem and slaughter, and he reeks of blood and gore almost always - a being whose sole purpose and desire in life is to kill and be killed.
Body Features
With a towering body over three times the size of a tall Human wound tight with muscle and bursting with power, Shou's body is a thing of undead might the likes of which might only be rivaled by Osmantha the Indomitable.
Facial Features
Much like it was in life, his face is a scruffy mess - his hair is thick, wild, and unkempt save for being tied back into a ponytail, his beard is caked with blood, and his teeth are sharpened while his eyes glow a baleful red coloration from millennia of battle.
Identifying Characteristics
Most identifying of his features are his height and the wealth of trophies he keeps on his person - collections of rotten, mummified heads are attached to his body and blades, hands dangle from his outfits, severed and bloody bags adorn his waist, and similar grisly trophies adorn his person at all times and places.
Physical quirks
Most notable of his physical quirks is his height and his undead nature as a Shiireiken.
However, he is also strangely 'intact' even after centuries of undeath where normally he should be little more than a skeleton - somehow he has managed to retain his flesh and blood appearance even after millennia.
Special abilities
Most, if not all of Shou's unique abilites come from his nature as a Shiireiken. Any other unique abilities he possesses and/or has displayed are unknown at this time.
Apparel & Accessories
He usually wears nothing but glorified rags - often adorned with little more than a mess of straw, furs, and ragged cloth outfits patched and layered with ropes to hold his countless grisly trophies aloft to adorn his person. Complete with massive straw hat tied to his back and the titanic Liuxing, the Meteor Blade, tied to his back, he strikes an imposing figure despite his ragged ensemble.
Specialized Equipment
The only specialized equipment he keeps on his person are his two personal Dadao blades, ancient warswords made of little more than mundane iron that he has bestowed with the names Blood and Death respectively. These twin blades appear constantly rusty from the blood soaked into their blades but remain terrifyingly lethal, imbued with Shou's own horrific power even after millennia of use - they are capable of draining blood from those they hit, cleaving through solid Adamantine, and are even rumored to be able to sever soul from body.
Perhaps even more iconic is the legendary blade Liuxing(Better known as the demon blade Starfall) that sits tied to his back - the legendary sword known as The Meteor Blade that Shou himself is said to have claimed and forged after finding the impact crater of a meteorite early in his days as a mortal man. The blade, despite its fearsome reputation, has never once actually seen combat save but once - Shou himself had it made and strove his whole life in pursuit of perfection and power to prove worthy of its use, using it only once on the battlefield on which he died, where it was said to have flashed with such power that the entire battlefield vanished from the face of Zheng-Kitar forever, replaced with a crater a thousand feet wide that left Shou barely alive at its epicenter. Now, it has bonded with the legendary Demon of Yakujima and become a blade of epic proportions - one which Shou himself refuses to wield even in undeath, and apparently intends to gift to the being who proves capable of killing him and thus achieves what he could not in life, and the mission that has kept him burning with furious undead hatred for three thousand years: Proving oneself worthy of wielding the Demon Blade Starfall.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Much of Shou's personal history before his death and subsequent resurrection as a Shiireiken is largely unknown - from what little remains of so ancient a time, he is believed to have been a Samurai in service to one of the lords of the era that had been established by the Spirit Kings themselves in the Age of Rebirth when they led the armies of their newly reborn mortal followers outwards to reconquer and revitalize Zheng-Kitar. Born towards the end of this period of the Age of Rebirth such that many surmise he might have glimpsed upon the Spirit Kings themselves before they vanished, Shou is believed to have died in the legendary Okamoto Rebellion shortly after the start of the Age of Discovery, where the warrior-kings and samurai of the Age of Rebirth were suddenly confronted by the brutal fact that they were no longer needed in the ensuing era of peace and prosperity.
Following his honored brothers into rebellion out of protest for the new ways of the world which saw them rendered obsolete, Shou wielded the mighty Meteor Blade as he fought during that doomed rebellion, facing odds in excess of 100:1 as his kin died in a heroic final stand that was emblematic of their ways - honorable warriors to the end, unable to accept the changing of the times. And as he died, his entire life which had been spent in search of power enough to prove worthy of wielding Liuxing the Meteor Blade was enough to ensure his transformation into a Shiireiken, that he might continue that quest to see it through to its final completion.
However, in a cruel twist of fate, he would never prove worthy of the blade - he would spent the next three thousand years growing more and more depraved on his quest to find true strength, eventually culminating in his current state of seeking the one who will finally kill him and finish his three thousand year task of finding a worthy wielder of the Meteor Blade on his back.
Sexuality
Unknown.
Education
As a former samurai, he likely had an upbringing of some reknown and was likely given some kind of education, but the details are unknown.
Employment
The details of his service to his lord as a living samurai have all but been lost to time.
Accomplishments & Achievements
The records of his deeds as a mortal have been all but lost to time - now, his only legacy is that of a butcher, who slaughters others by the thousands in the hopes of one day finding a warrior who can prove themselves his match.
Failures & Embarrassments
In his own eyes, he has never once experienced failure or embarrassment - which is the source of his eternal rage and frustration. To others, he exists as one enormous failure - a butcher of a samurai who forewent his entire creed in search of power, such that he became a monster of legendary proportions.
Mental Trauma
Unknown. None have dared to speak of such things to him and lived to tell the tale.
Intellectual Characteristics
While trappings of his former life as a Samurai can be seen in his intellect and morality, Shou is little more than a butcher with a creed in the modern era - a tyrant who does as he pleases and leaves others broken in his wake, whose only morality or justification is his own desires and wants. He CAN be smart and cunning but rarely decides to be in favor of simple butchery and terror-inducing mayhem, though his intellect can best be seen when he stumbles upon on who he considers a potential future foe, when he will spare them and carefully foster their growth over decades in the hopes of finding one capable of killing him.
Morality & Philosophy
While trappings of his former life as a Samurai can be seen in his intellect and morality, Shou is little more than a butcher with a creed in the modern era - a tyrant who does as he pleases and leaves others broken in his wake, whose only morality or justification is his own desires and wants.
Taboos
None, though he dislikes having to kill those who cannot fight back such as children or the elderly and finds it distasteful when he is forced to do so to motivate a foe to fight or engage him.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
The only driving motivation for Shou after millennia of cursed unlife is the burning desire present in all Shiireiken for more - he constantly seeks out the challenge he will likely never find, a fight he will likely never have, and the worthy foe he has become increasingly sure might not exist. He yearns solely to experience the thrill of defeat, and to meet his end at the hands of a truly worthy foe who he can die to after fighting with every last drop of his strength - he dreams both night and day of the exhilerating feeling of coming up short, of failing and losing, of finding himself lacking before another...all things he has yet to find or feel.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Savvy warrior, calligrapher, judger of others' strength, tracker, hunter, brewer(?), bladesmith(?), ???
Inept at Cooking, Find it in himself to care about most things, dying, staying in one place, holding back
Likes & Dislikes
Likes: Boldness, Strong Warriors, Courage, Fighting worthy foes, Fostering strong foes, Wandering, Drinking, Eating, Collecting Trophies, The sound of breaking bones, Calligraphy, Collecting Weapons and Armor, ???
Dislikes: Living, Himself, Greed, Fighting weaklings, Cowards, 'Good' Creatures who refuse to fight for moral reasons, Having to resort to butchery of those who cannot fight back(Ex: Children, the Elderly, Etc) to motivate others to fight, Being Sober, ???
Virtues & Personality perks
While the number of his virtues is so few they can be counted on hand, Shou Ozawa is not without them entirely - like most all Shiireiken, he has a strong aversion to killing off those he views as truly weak and not worth his time, and rarely will deign to personally kill others unless he views them as having stood a chance against him in the first place.
However, unlike many Shiireiken, he has exceptions to this rule - he will often kill those who stand against him out of bravery or courage regardless of their power level(unless they show exceptional promise, out of some sort of twisted respect for the honor of warriors), and will not hold back out of respect for those brave warriors who found it in themselves to stand before him despite the knowledge they will surely fail. This respect goes so far that many whisper that Shou carves the names of those who dare to stand before him in this way out of true and honorable courage or bravery onto his blades or flesh in their memory.
Finally, and perhaps his most curious virtue, is a twisted remnant of his mortal life spent as a Samurai in service to his lord - while he despises Greed in most of its forms, he holds an especially burning hatred for those who he considers to live "without respect to themselves or those who work to support that life". While poorly understood by many, this is best understood as a hatred for those who have no true code, goal, or convictions(Beyond base instincts) - those he considers to "live poorly, as rats" - and when faced with such people he will focus them and their lands as the targets of his bloody butchery first and foremost, taking especially savage enjoyment in brutalizing his way to their realm and confronting them with the threat of an often ironic and meaningful death that, to his credit, is said to be avoidable should one display the strength of conviction for once in their miserable lives.
Vices & Personality flaws
For each of his few virtues however, Shou has a dozen flaws - he is a notorious drunkard and layabout, and holds an overwhelming apathy for the world in general that borders on the supernatural, oftentimes lounging for decades at a time in a languid torpor without the strength or desire to rise and care about the world and its trappings. He is a wrathful beast who relishes in butchery(Though might dislike the fact others force his hand), who relishes the sound of breaking bones and shattered bodies, and who enjoys collecting the heads and hands of those he slays in battle as well as watching the anguished terror on the faces of his victims as he butchers those they hold dear.
A crude, roaring tyrant with no regard to people's lives, he puts his desires first and foremost and strives above all to see them achieved, no matter the cost in bodies or suffering to achieve them.
Hygiene
He cares absolutely nothing for hygiene - he is notorious for reeking of bloody death, and though his undead nature means he has no natural dirt or grime that exudes from his body he nonetheless never cares to wash himself.
Social
Contacts & Relations
As with many Shiireiken, Shou has amassed a massive collection of Undead and Partially Dead retainers that serve him, made up from a combination of the foes he has defeated over the untold centuries he has been alive and the countless warriors that have pledged themselves to his service in the hopes of growing strong and mighty in his service.
However, he also has a large number of mortal followers - he has long since stopped wantonly accepting willing retainers out of boredom and now keeps a host of living mortal bandits and warriors and the like on the island of Yakujima that hope to earn the right to enter his service as a bound retainer.
Other than these retainers willing or otherwise, Shou has earned the ire and attention of most all creatures on Zheng-Kitar - he is a legend spoken of by all warriors and those who engage in battle as a demon who will appear before others and judge their skill in battle as a bloody executioner, and savage them within an inch of their lives if they are found wanting. As such, he is well known by most all weak and strong on the continent - either as a savage judge of their might or as a terrible herald of butchery that comes for the strong in the hopes of finally finding a foe worthy of killing him. He has engaged in battle with the likes of Orstac Orid and other powerful warriors on several occasions, though others like Osmantha the Indomitable and Rasmus Elias Oström Olander XV refuse to engage him out of a good-natured sense of duty and desire to avoid collateral damage in the battle.
Family Ties
He is not known to have any family ties after three millenia as an undead Shiireiken - any he once had passed away long ago or died by his own hand.
Religious Views
Shou is very firmly not a religious man, and views religion as little more than a tool to use to foster mighty warriors willing to engage him in the hopes of killing him.
Social Aptitude
There is little in the way of charisma dwelling inside him - he is a being of pure, unadulterated violence whose only social aptitude is terror and mayhem, left behind in the corpses of the thousands left broken in his wake. He instills a primal, overwhelming fear like no other being save perhaps The Witch Kings of Bhorsis-Razghûl can, and while he can be claimed to have some measure of ferocious, demonic charisma to justify the throngs of retainers and followers that serve him, it is likely just as due to his masterful combat prowess and bloody reputation that others flock to him rather than any sort of charisma or persuasive ability.
Mannerisms
His mannerisms are rough, brutal, savage, and those of an unrefined barbarian - he reeks of blood and belches at his leisure, kills when he wants, and knows nothing of civilized behavior, preferring to eat and drink as he wishes and beating or killing any who inconvenience or displease him.
Hobbies & Pets
He has no pets - he has earned the respect of several animals over his centuries of life that have served at his side out of their own volition after being beaten by him, but currently he has no such companion after his previous pets' death at the hands of Orstac Orid's predecessor, Narix'Ana the Ultimate.
He has no known hobbies beyond battle, violence, and fostering enemies in the eventual hopes of killing him - though many spread rumors of his supposed love of blades, metalworking, and eating and drinking both.
Speech
The language spoken by Shou most fluently is one that has all but died out on modern-day Zheng-Kitar - his native tongue that has long sinced passed from living memory thousands of years ago. Now, he speaks only in the broken, brutish tongue of the Common language with any degree of fluency.
Relationships
History
As two beings that many might assume would get along out of their shared love of cruelty, Shou and Jilixia could not be further from allies - instead, they are the most bitter of rivals. Shou, for his part, despises Jilixia as one who lives without conviction or purpose beyond base desires - while Jilixia secretely fears Shou as a being she fears might become her executioner, and a beast the likes of which even her mother might not have been able to stop.
History
As a being who crippled his friend and predecessor Narix'Ana the Ultimate, Shou could never and will never be anything to Orstac Orid than a bitter enemy...however, he is one that the grizzled old man cannot help but admire and pity. Shou, meanwhile, views Orstac Orid with nothing short of giddy reverence - viewing the aging leader of the Narixian people as one of the most promising heroes he has fostered in recent memory...and one who might prove capable of giving him the death he longs for. As such, the two have a relationship similar to old enemies and drinking partners - both know that they will inevitably meet on the battlefield once more, and that one will walk away dead from such an encounter, but until they they are carefully neutral to each other.
History
Though the two have never met, Shou wishes nothing more than to meet and fight Kyra Aenai - the being whom he yearns to engage in the hopes she could deal him a final death. Kyra, however, has staunchly avoided the brute - her pacifistic nature means she cannot and will not give in to his challenges.
History
Though they have never met, Shou has expressed an interest in finding a way to traverse the Liuwang Ocean to meet the god-king of the Kingdom of Tarthus-Tetsu for himself, that he might one day engage him in battle and determine his worth.
History
As two of the most bitter rivals, Shou and Osmantha have come close to engaging each other countless times over the millennia - Shou desperately yearns to force the legendary Heat-Reaping demon onto the battlefield that he might finally determine her worth and possibly even meet his death. Osmantha, for her part, avoids the Demon of Yakujima with a fervent passion - she has no desire to engage his lust for butchery that will inevitably lead to casualties and collateral damage. As such, she avoids him - most recently by taking up residence in Axiom, city of the Great Game, under the protection of the Daogui whom even the legendary Fatal Blade is reluctant to provoke for reasons unknown.
Wealth & Financial state
Though he is not one to care about coin or such material wealth, Shou has instead amassed a truly massive collection of weapons and armor over his untold centuries of life, taken from the slain foes that he has fought in the hopes of finally earning his death - most of this wealth of his lies on his home island of Yakujima off the east coast of Zheng-Kitar and west of the Blackgrave Isles, where his retainers watch over his vast lands, castle, and treasure hordes. In the same vein, he keeps a massive stockpile of other material goods - alcohol, food, clothes, and similar things primarily with the likes of coin being almost completely worthless to him.
Contrary to many Shiireiken, the only wealth he keeps on his person are his twin butchering blades and the legendary blade Liuxing, the Meteor Blade - forged from a fallen star and one of the greatest weapons in Zheng-Kitaran history that Shou supposedly keeps for a future enemy that proves worthy of it...his much-sought after enemy that will at last defeat him and put the Hound of the Black Gates to his eternal rest.
Many attribute this lack of a weapon collection as with most Shiireiken to his unusually long lifespan - that his standards have grown so high that only the mightiest of mortal weapons are worth his attention.
No dream is equal in this world. Those who dream by night awake to find it was vanity; Yet the dreamers of day - those are the most dangerous men; The ones who will shake the very foundations of the world.
Species
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Honorary & Occupational Titles
The Fatal Blade, Ozawa the Undying, The Hound of the Black Gates, The Bloody Handed, The King of Samurai, The Demon of Yakujima, Master of the Meteor Blade, Steward of the Starfall
Age
He has existed as an undead for nearly 3,000 years.
Date of Birth
Unknown. His 'rebirth' as an undead is believed to have occurred around 1440 ASK.
Date of Death
He is believed to have died as a mortal around 1440 ASK.
Circumstances of Birth
Unknown
Circumstances of Death
The circumstances of his death have not been confirmed, but he is believed to have died during the Okamoto Rebellion shortly after the start of the Age of Discovery.
Birthplace
The place of his birth has passed from living memory; none remain alive who recall the place of his birth, not even the likes of Osmantha the Indomitable.
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Current Residence
Varies; Wanders about the continent but keeps a semi-permanent residence on Yakujima Island off the East Coast of Zheng-Kitar and West of the Blackgrave Isles.
Gender
Male
Eyes
Dark Blue(Mortal), Solid Red(Undead)
Hair
Scruffy, Dirty, Extremely Long, Jet-Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Bone White Skin, Extremely Veiny(Blood Red Veins)
Height
18'6'' (5.63 Meters)
Weight
At least One Ton (907kg)
Quotes & Catchphrases
Get up, pup. Today's not your day to face the noose - you're not worth the rope. Fourty years. I'll be back then, and you had best be worth that rope by then - for your sake.
Aligned Organization
The Hound of the Black Gates
Though a title that has waned in use and popularity in recent years, for good reason was Shou Ozawa once and still referred to as The Hound of the Black Gates - he is spoken of as a rumor, a myth, and legend by warriors across the continent and beyond as the guardian of the gates of death, a being that cannot die who exists to judge the souls of the living to see if they are worthy of entrance into the afterlife of the greatest warrior-kings. This Hound is rumored to appear before warriors to test their mettle, and is said to savagely brutalize them(Or worse, ignore them) if they are left wanting, while it kills those with the bravery, conviction, and power to pass beyond the Gates of Death into the afterlife. This hound is said to supposedly wield the Blade of Prophecy, whose name has long been lost - the blade that it is cursed to never wield, that it will one day yield to the one that delivers death to the unkillable hound and proves themselves worthy of wielding the blade of Starfall whose power is said to be the key to the return of the Spirit Kings themselves. While this rumor paints Shou as the legendary Hound of the Black Gates, even going so far as to possibly link him to the Spirit King of Death, Xu-Jie, the truth is most likely far from such a glorious tale...likely a myth started from the earliest warriors who encountered the looming, blood-soaked behemoth and lived to speak of it. However, rumors of him persist in this way to this day, speaking of the blood-soaked behemoth as being truly unkillable - that while he may have begun his life as an evil undead and exists as one now, he has transcended beyond all things to become an envoy of the gods(Willing or not), who serves a purpose even he himself cannot fully comprehend...though the truth of this is skeptical, and is now considered by many to be a pagan belief of antiquity created by supersitious warriors who yearned to explain the unexplainable monster they encountered on the battlefield. However, just maybe, such a thing might be true - that the Demon of Yakujima might just be more than he appears - and such a possibility lends the monstrous butcherer what is quite possibly the most-well known and fearsome reputation in all of Zheng-Kitar such that there are almost none across the land who do not know his name, or one of his epithets.
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