Toritaka Kwaidan

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Crab.png
Toritaka Kwaidan
Toritaka Bushi
Clan: Crab Clan
Daimyo: Toritaka Nobuske
Glory: 2.5
Honor: 6.0
Status: TBD: 2.0
Rank: 2
Player: David Buresh

Background

Born the second cousin of the current Toritaka family daimyo, Toritaka Kwaidan was a quiet, studious child who would have otherwise led an entirely unremarkable life. He grew up in the Toritaka province, in the shadow of Tani Hitokage, and was sent to train in the traditional methods of his family. He studied avidly the way of the spear, urged to greatness in it due to a long-standing rivalry between his sensei and the members of the Heichi family who abandoned the Crab to join the Owl. Kwaidan himself also studied extensively the methods of keen observation, sharpening his senses in the ways of his ancestors. His family line stretches back to the dawning of the Falcon Clan, and carried with it a secret burden that Kwaidan only discovered after it was too late.

During their early days, a brother of the Falcon Clan Champion had angered a powerful and ancient gaki who ruled in the shadowy echo of Ryoko Owari in that spirit realm. This self-styled King of the Gaki cursed the brother of the Falcon Clan Champion with a terrible twisting of his kharma, binding it to the realm of the Hungry Dead. This nameless ancestor fell to his vices, but let himself be studied by the mystics of the Clan. They discovered that this curse would pass on to the line of the daimyo of the Falcon Clan, were the current bearer die without an heir. Though the cost was great, the Falcon Clan ensured that this curse was distanced from the line of the Clan Champion. This nearly failed during the 12th Century Troubles, when a Shuten Doji nearly wiped the Falcon Clan out. After it was incorporated into the Crab Clan, the new Toritaka family began its slow, terrible work at distancing the curse again from the family daimyo.

Kwaidan was never trained to carry the curse, but such was the will of Heaven. When his father and his older brother both died during the battle against the Shadowlands Horde in 1337 IC, the blood curse passed onto Kwaidan. As the hunger and the nightmares began to set in, he was pulled from his duties lighting the lanterns of Tani Hitokage, and informed of his new duty to the Clan: carry the blood curse as long as he can, and seek a wife to ensure the next generation will distance it farther from the Daimyo. With that, he was sent to the capital for the coronation of the new Emperor.

Modules Played

  • CIT00 - Festival of Coronation
  • CIT01 - Lessons Never Forgotten
  • CIT02 - Distracted Sentries
  • CIT03 - Legacy of my Ancestors
  • CIT04 - Crossing the Forbidden Sea
  • CIT05 - The Search Begins
  • CIT06 - Celestial Unrest
  • CIT07 - A Breed Apart
  • CIT10 - Winter Court: Shiro Ide
  • CIT11 - Ring of Air

Courts Attended

  • None

Fictions

Images

ToritakaKwaidan.jpg

Toritaka Kwaidan by Rhiannon McCullough