Library :: The History of  Eihei Kyou'Tetsujin

By Eihei Kyou'Tetsujin

Eihei Kyou'Tetsujin was born Altorn Kyoujin in the Month of the Powerless, 297. She was born First Heir to Queen-Mother Akiko, ruler of the Kyoujin land which lies approximately north 10 day's ride a-horseback from Japan-proper. Altorn descended from a long line of Kyoujin heirs, dating back to Kyoujin founding at the hands of her Grand-Dame Eiichi. Despite the rich, Oriental heritage of the Kyoujin line, Altorn was born with apparent Elven heritage, a result of Akiko's mother, Queen Ruri, who, despite tradition, took on the famed Ranger Rithramir as Queen's Consort.

The Kyoujin House holds many traditions that are apart, even contrary to many customs of Japan-proper. One of the most notable is the strong matriarchal society. Unlike Japan-proper the Kingdom of Kyoujin does not hold women as physically superior, and in fact, the women of the kingdom, especially nobles and royalty, are privy to training that is never taught to Kyoujin consorts and husbands.

Altorn's queenly training began when she was four. The girl was drilled in writing and figures, in the morning and afternoons, but was given into the competent hands of Sensei Tsuki just before sunrise, who ruthlessly drilled her in the arts of stealth, poison, intrigue, and hand-to-hand combat. Three months after her training began, her mother died in her sleep. The Kyoujin House had never lacked for a Queen in its many generations, Queens of old having passed on well after their First Heir had come of age. After much bickering in Court and Council, it was finally agreed that Altorn's father, Basho was competent--if male--and would serve as Regent until Altorn came of age.

Another year passed, and Altorn killed her first victim under the tutelage of Sensei Tsuki, a visiting Elven noble from outKingdom, who Altorn herself had discovered was plotting Regent Basho's assassination, having his own machinations for the Kyoujin lands. Sensei Tsuki instructed her to kill him without arousing any suspicions of foul play. The next morning, the Elf was found dead on the floor of his chamber with no sign or hint as to his death. Sensei Tsuki herself never discovered Altorn's means.

The following summer, Basho's health began to decline, until he suffered a heart attack in October. Before the nobles could ruffle their feathers, the Council hastily appointed Sensei Tsuki as Regent. Being Second Heir to Queen Ruri, and Altorn's aunt, Sensei Tsuki had been the last candidate from the First Queen's bloodline that was of age to rule.

Five years passed without incident as Altorn continued her merciless training in the Ninja Arts, until finally reaching Sensei Tsuki's professed limits of teaching. With no Sensei to instruct her, Altorn turned to the books in the expansive Kyoujin library, studying long forgotten techniques that dated back before Founding, to the ninjas of outKingdom. At a mere eleven years old, Altorn outmatched the burly teenage boys that were training for the Guard in both stamina in speed, even in straight out melee.

Her twelfth birthday marked a new step in her training, one reserved solely for Queens and the First and Second Heirs. After a day of revelry celebrating her first step on the path to coming of age, Tsuki became her Sensei once again. She led young Altorn to a dark, stone-walled room in the heart of the palace and explained to her the art of the mind, detailing the ways of telepathy, empathy, and manipulation that transcended the wiles of the basic ninja. After two hours of verbal tutoring, Sensei Tsuki reached out and put her hands on Altorn's temples, intending to link with her mind and begin the actual training. As the Sensei's mind began to reach out, Altorn cried out in very real pain, flinching back from the touch and stumbling to the floor, stunned with pain. Tsuki moved to her side quickly, concerned, and met only the merciless boot of a frightened, injured young girl. After laying her Sensei and erstwhile attacker out on the floor with a single kick, Altorn fled to her chambers. It took many weeks, and many kicked telepaths, to discover the cause-- Altorn was a telepathic sync, the first of the Kyoujin line. She was immune to the manipulations of another's mind and acutely aware when anyone tried such suggestions on her will.

Left again without at teacher, Altorn spent three years teaching herself to use this pain as a weapon and a protection. She learned, during another outlander's attempt on the Kyoujin throne, that she could use the pain of a telepath's touch against the erring telepath, the intense pain traveling, if she focused, along the channel that had been opened in an attempt to influence her.

Altorn's seventeenth birthday arrived amidst a celebration and unease among the kingdom's Council. Regent Tsuki had ruled competently for eleven years, and some of the Councilors were arguing that she had right to stake claim to the throne, being Second Heir. The Councilors were thoroughly ignorant of Altorn's expertise, and many claimed her untrained or unsuitable to take the throne the following year when she came of age. Over the course of two months, the argument came to a head, and it was decided that Altorn must prove her worthiness as Heir, an event unprecedented in Kyoujin history. Upset and determined, Altorn set out from the Kingdom, seeking at task that not even the Councilors could argue.

Two weeks by fast horse brought her to the strange land of Turien, a town peculiar to her in custom, and yet somehow attractive to her sense of duty. She stabled her horse and made arrangements with Krantz for rooming to last several months and began learning the ways of the city. Leaves turned and snow fell, and she still had done nothing grand enough to prove herself. Twice she saved the Arch-Mage Gryjal from an assassin before he realized the danger, and the man never discovered the acts, or never admitted knowledge. As spring arrived, Altorn encountered the most peculiar man, perhaps twice her age and a native of Turien, Paladin to the Goddess Turien's worshipped as Celestial. The Paladin schooled her in Turien's long religious history, and she schooled him forms of combat that would augment his own Paladious ways.

On the day of her Coming of Age, the Paladin, Enedwaith, hopefully extended to her admission into the traveling company he was slowly rebuilding. The Dragons of the Mystic Star, he claimed, had once been the grandest guild to walk the streets of Turien. Caught by curiosity and an instinctive feeling that this might be the chance she had been searching for, Altorn accepted. Amidst her tasks as a Dragon of the Mystic Star, Altorn took to meditating at the temple crossroads to clear her mind and focus. Messengers were sent to her homeland to inform them of her location and her well-being, but the more she stayed in Turien, the less intent on claiming the Kyoujin Crown she became.

After some weeks, her meditating gave way to silently wandering the temples, studying each one and how it reflected the personality of the god that was worshipped there. Baasha's Glade became to have a particular draw to her. In the sprawling Kyoujin Palace, she had had little chance to come to appreciate the tranquility of nature. Soon, her wanderings stopped and she began taking to deep meditative trances in the Glade. It was during such a trance on the eve of her twentieth birthday that the ground suddenly shook and the erupted. Altorn was not faltered; she held her ground by way only of her intense training. When she opened her eyes, before her was a massive man regarding her with a measuring eye. Not only a man, but a green man besides being huge, bearing a lightning bolt in each hand. She took only a moment to recognize him for the Lord of Nature, and she kept her silence, knowing that if there was to be conversation, the god would initiate it.

Speak he did, and patiently. He questioned her thoroughly on everything she knew before schooling her in things which she did not. He spoke to her at length of things far greater than she, of the Balance, and its great importance in the role of life and the Universe. He spoke to her of those that worshipped him, who protected this Balance with not only their bodies and lives, but their soul and their entire being. As he spoke, she felt a kinship for the Guardians he told her of and knew that this was what she had come to Turien for. Not to prove herself to those petty Councilors, but to serve this being before her, this God who held more wisdom than she could fathom. By the end of the conversation, which she had scarcely noticed had lasted for two nights, she found herself speaking words that bound herself to Him in the service of the Balance. She pledged her blades, body, heart, and soul to the service, and in turn He pledged a lonely existence rife with toil and hardship, and at the end of it all, her ascension to His side, reward for a lifetime of service.

Over years she trained more fiercely than at any point in the Kyoujin kingdom, and studied diligently under the philosophers of Rome and other lands, determined to honor and protect not only by force but by word. Her messages to her homeland became more and more infrequent, and Tsuki tacitly indicated she did not mind the prolonged absence, though she would as readily as ever step down when Altorn returned. Altorn turned 23 and was titled as a ruler of the Dragons of the Mystic Star, which had grown considerably since the miserable state she had found it in. The service of the Balance had her stealing away from Turien's gates deep in the night more than once, a potential power of Good or Evil found dead or with a change of heart the morning after.

Altorn turned 30 and began honing her methods of meditation under Baasha's eye, learning how to tie her mind to her Inner Balance, and eventually, after considerable pain due to her innate sync, how to use the meditation to sense the state of Balance for many miles around her, but a speck in the scheme of the Balance. Her life was lonely, as promised, her bed never once sharing two occupants. But her work was rewarding, and messages from home indicated Tsuki was enjoying her position thoroughly in Altorn's absence.

And then, war. A quiet war, but war nonetheless. The Dragons of the Mystic Star found itself amidst a battle of shadow. There was a call to arms and a rallying of allies done silently, midnight meetings developing strategies of defense and attack. Overall, the battle to be fought was small, but incredibly important to the parties involved. Altorn found herself troubled. The force that opposed the Dragons and its allies was small yet, but in years to come, she knew that it would grow, until ultimately countering a great force of Good, destroying itself and crippling its opponent in the process. If the Dragon's opposing guild was cut down now, this unnamed for of Good would find no match in the years to follow, posing a threat for Altorn's sworn ward, the Balance. Working urgently, Altorn employed thieves and whisperers to turn the attentions of both sides elsewhere. It took many weeks and much gold, but the conflict that had been brewing was finally disarmed thanks to her conniving. It did not take Altorn long to realize that the situation would have been diverted much easier if her tie with the Dragons of the Mystic Star had not gotten in her way and made her have to work much quieter and employ more people than if she could have spoken to the leaders of both sides impartially, doing the whispering herself.

The next month, she withdrew her leadership from the Dragons of the Mystic Star, leading Enedwaith to find guidance at the hands of two members of old, Kiisa and Bais, before the Paladin ultimately died serving his Goddess. As she turned 35, an edge of doubt that had been nagging her finally came to a head. Her position as Heir could become as much a liability as her Dragons Leadership had. After much debate, she set out to her homeland. Two weeks later, before there could be a fuss, she abdicated in a simple, private ceremony that could not be refuted. Tsuki was astonished, but she could easily see the reason in Altorn's eyes. She spoke no council against the decision and quietly let her step down from the position that had burdened her for thirty- five years. Altorn left before the ceremony of Tsuki's coronation could begin.

Upon her return, Baasha appeared before her again in the temple and proclaimed her His Sentinel, an ageless position of honor that had gone unfilled for a number of decades. She was pleased, honored, and humbled, and she re-spoke her lifetime pledge to Him. Privately, she had hoped to become His High Priestess, but she knew the position already to be filled and by a good friend of hers to boot. For five years, she worked for Him and the Balance with a renewed fervor, now collaborating with His High Priest and Priestess much more often. Still, though, in her heart there was something out of place. She had kept her ancestral name of Altorn, a name that had been passed down in her family since before the Founding. She found herself becoming uneasy when she was addressed by the name. She, instead, thought of herself as "Sentinel" rather than by any name among Men. Her position and her duty transcended anything that so fleeting as the names or ancestry of mortals. Without reluctance, she cast off her final tie to her ancestry, the last thing that kept her apart from being wholly Balanced. She went officially nameless for days before finally deciding on her new denomination. With Baasha's accord, she named herself truly to her position: "Sentinel and Philosopher." In the old tongue, Eihei Kyou'Tetsujin.