Togashi Sandaru
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| Togashi Sandaru | |
| Togashi Ise Zumi | |
| Clan: | Dragon Clan |
| Daimyo: | Hitomi Anako |
| Glory: | Ascetic |
| Honor: | 6 |
| Status: | 2.1 |
| Rank: | 3 |
| Player: | Scott Cozzolino |
The baby who would come to be named Togashi Sandaru was born to a simple peasant farmer couple, in a village at the foothills of Mount Toma, in the Dragon clan provinces. His father had had the misfortune of falling victim to the Shadowlands Taint. Where and how, and why, had the Shadowlands corrupted his father? Perhaps, by random chance - an encounter with another Tainted individual. Or, perhaps, there were nefarious reasons for which Sandaru's father was chosen as a victim - part of a larger plot? Perhaps we will never know.
Whatever the case, the Tainted man went unnoticed in the village for almost one year. Meanwhile, his wife, Momoko, became pregnant, and as time went on, the Taint's evil nature increasingly affected the man's behavior; he began to psychologically torment poor Momoko, for no other purpose than his fiendish delight. His behavior soon impacted the entire village, as well - crops were ruined, farm animals killed, and he even murdered two babies. By the time of little Sandaru's birth, the village was convinced it was under some curse, for the Tainted man had still not been discovered.
Momoko, by this time, was distraught, and the man kept her confined in their farmhouse; but when she went into labor, the village midwife had to be brought, for Sandaru was a breech birth. Momoko whispered to the midwife, "He is not my husband, he's a monster. Help me." After the birth, the midwife told other villagers what Momoko had said, and a lynch mob formed to capture and hang the Tainted man.
There was some question as to little baby Sandaru - no one could be certain if the baby had been conceived before or after the Shadowlands had taken hold of his father. The parents of the two murdered babies, however, were insisting on justice, and it seemed the prevailing attitude was that Sandaru should die also, just to be safe.
Momoko herself was not certain of the baby's paternity - part of her was horrified at the thought that he might be the offspring of the monster, but she could not bear the thought of her baby murdered at the hands of the lynch mob. So, she bundled him up, and ran off, high into the mountains. After several days, far from the village, she noticed that, in just the right light, her baby's left eye had a strange yellowish tint - that was all the sign she needed to convince her doubtful mind that he WAS, indeed, the offspring of the monster!
She held the rock in both hands, arms outstretched above her head, intending to bring it down on the little baby - but, she could not bring herself to kill him, for he was HER child, too. Momoko collapsed to the ground, sobbing, lamenting whatever she had done to offend the fortunes! Not able to accept mothering the monster's child, and not able to kill it either, Momoko left the mountains, abandoning the child to divine will, and returned to her village below.
That would surely have been the end of little Sandaru's tale, if fate had not intervened. Mount Toma is home to the remote Mountain Summit Temple, high in its peaks, and, while Momoko could not have known it, she had, by chance, managed to wander within 10 steps of sight of it. And so it was that Togashi Yokuni happened upon the abandoned baby, on his way to the Mountain Summit Temple. Though no one could detect the Seeds of Darkness within Sandaru, Togashi knew exactly what the baby was - but he also knew it's nature was not inborn. Sandaru had the potential to grow up good or evil, either way toward a great destiny - and so, Togashi brought little Sandaru to the temple, there to be raised by the ise zumi. He knew that a life of strict piety, meditation, and moral and physical purity, would allow Sandaru to resist the Taint, and he foresaw the child's potential to one day overcome it completely.
The Second Day of Thunder came when Sandaru was only 4 years old, so his memories of the Kami Togashi are vague... but one thing Togashi embedded in the child's memory, explaining that he would understand it when he was older, was the secret of his parentage, and the fact that his life would be a struggle against the Seeds of Darkness within him. But also, that this was Sandaru's sacred duty... for if he could overcome the Taint, perhaps he could teach others to, and therefore fulfill a truly great destiny.
The Kami Togashi never revealed Sandaru's secret to anyone else, only informing the monks of Mountain Summit Temple that the child had been found, abandoned, and that fate had determined he should be raised as an ise zumi. Many of the monks had something to teach little Sandaru, in his formative years - patience, contemplation, empathy, concentration, discipline, and the fine art of cobblery... and, as it quickly became evident that Sandaru was innately gifted, his daredevil nature manifesting almost as soon as he was able to walk, his primary sensei became (left blank for GM), a master in Toma's unique style of Kaze-do.
Upon gempukku, Sandaru was informed that the monks had no more to teach him - that to continue his path toward Enlightenment, he must leave the monastery. What he yet needed to learn could not be taught by books, nor by the words of his teachers, but only by experience. And so, his sensei sent him on his way, to explore the world, and see with his own eyes the suffering that exists in it, and learn through experience the nature of Impermanence. He told Sandaru that he had one last lesson to teach, and that when Sandaru was ready, to return to the Mountain Summit Temple.
