Liu Xuanzang (Approved: 2-3, C)

Name: Liu Xuanzang.
Age: Thirty.
Sex: Female.


Appearance Picture:

Personality: Liu is a person who stands at the top of the food chain in Naezri Culture. As the leader it would be considered atrocious for anyone to even consider disrespecting her. Liu however doesn't behave as though this has gotten to her head and made her think she stands above everyone. She is very down to earth and a loving woman. She has fully embraced the position of teacher to the Kurochi and spends a lot of time trying to get to know them and care for them as a mother. While not the oldest or the most mature with people she is close to there is a substantial difference with strangers.

The mantle of Laenlei is something she wears and doesn't forget. In the presence of strangers, foreigners and the like she is known to hold a respectable and pleasant conversation but it isn't one that is particularly welcoming of them. She is happy to speak to them on  level terms and even forgive mistakes or lapses on behaviour as they are not of her culture which puts her at a different standing than a lot of people in her country. She is respectable and doesn't discriminate people for their actions or choices but isn't afraid to stand up when she feels something is morally wrong for her.

Throwing away her position, her outer layers and at the very heart of Liu she holds a feeling of loneliness. Being at the top gives her a feeling that she is alone at the top. She has her friends of course that she can be with but they can't feel the niche of possible romance, the possibility of children of her own to teach like she does her students or the ability to not feel forced to drop her true colours easily like her friends can. It frustrates her at times from this

Likes: Teaching. Painting. Hot Springs. Warm Days. Children.
Dislikes: Cold. Stress. Gardening. Isolation.


History: From humble beginnings Liu was a child born in a very poor family. Poor enough that her unnamed mother and father had to trade their own daughter for a means to survive a little longer. This trade wasn't the worst or as bad as you'd think. She received food, experience and a liveable situation. This place was a property owned by a man that needed assistance. He was a wealthy man but a crippled man. He invested in taking on children in particular to groom them for roles and work around his property.

Being a young girl as she grew up she knew this man was not her father or even remotely related to her. Liu didn't like that but knew from an early age she had no power to control this. She couldn't complain though when she heard about the work given to the older children and primarily the boys due to being more useful for the hard labour that was needed. She saw very little of the outside work due to her dainty and small appearance. It would only be when she was ten that she grew enough to be allowed to go work and tend to animals. She enjoyed it greatly as it contrasted so much with how boring it was inside for her.

Liu would finally find a fight when she was twelve. One of the boys had fancied a girl and had grown violent and angry with the kind of work he received. It would result in a group of children trying to wrestle down the bigger male to prevent the older girl of foreign blood from his anger. There were a lot of cuts and bruises that evening and Liu felt sick when she learned her blood was of a deep black colour when everyone else had red. She felt like there was something wrong with her and given the children came from all different cultures and even if they were Naezrian they were still young and didn't understand the impact. It was only the older man that knew the impact of her blood that understood the situation and in that night she was treated as royalty. She saw no work for the next weeks and lived as well has he did. It felt strange and weird being above everyone socially until two women appeared one day.

Both were tall and quite beautiful, she was only twelve but seeing other adults felt strange and especially adult women. The two women were a priestess of some description with vulpine traits and the other carried a sword. She flinched when they gave her a small cut with the sword and drew some of the black liquid from her veins. When they confirmed her for something they called a Kurochi they took her away and she saw a lot of the world on the trip with the two women who taught her a lot more about the world than she previously knew. They were very friendly and answered all the questions she had for them. They had a destination they were meant to go but took a long way around. Allowing for her to travel the entire country for years before they actually arrived at the destination albeit occasionally without the fox woman who would disappear at times. She would arrive at their destination, the city Guanghua four years later at the age of sixteen.

The chance to explore the country excited her greatly and the new location was very interesting. It took her a while to adapt to the city before she settled down and it fell into being everyday routines. Liu learned about what it meant as a Kurochi and developed a sense of kindred with the other kurochi. She spent a lot of time with the fox woman here although her other companion she saw less of here. The two women had two very different roles she learned. Eventually the time would come when the previous leader and her teacher would pass away from sickness. Without naming a successor it was up to the vulpine priestess to make things work. This would result in a contest with Liu defeated her peers to be named the new leader and hold the title from the age of twenty to the present.


Skills:
Naezrian Swordplay: From a young age Liu was trained in the arts of swordsmanship although it was never her strongest area she has come to be quite the skilled combatant when it comes down to fighting with a blade. She was trained in a katana only, possessing no skill in double-edged swords or other areas of combat.

Experienced Artist: In her spare time Liu learned a lot about art and painting, taking it under her belt as her main pass time. She is quite the artist and has made numerous works to a high standard but keeps them to herself. It is something that isn't very known about her though.

Knowledgeable: Liu understands quite a lot with her age and experience. She had been given the opportunity to travel her land and learn much about it. As well as that she has been able to touch onto the mystic arts and other areas of skill. Because of this Liu is a wise woman with a lot of experience under her belt that she can pass on and has done so to students and those she knows. This understanding allows her to be considered a very strong mage by the standards of Empyrea as well as one of the leading experts in pyromancy and Naezrian magic. She has a particularly strong understanding of Sealing Magic, Fire Magic and Crafting.

Equipment:
Robe of the Fire-Rat
The cloth she created possesses some of her essence, it generates a pleasant warmth. Liu's often wears this robe. It provides her with a more efficient means to use fire magic resulting in using less energy to control and use her magic. This makes it easier for her to maintain staminia and an energy pool in long fights but doesn't bolster her energy pool or make her spells faster to use. It merely increases her stamina due to using less energy in only her fire magic. Destroying the robe will make her lose mana as she normally would.


Pyromancy
Liu possesses what is referred to as the Prime Yang within her. While named for a belief the magic works in that it allows her incredible control of the aspect of fire to the point where she is renowned for her infamous skill in control of fire and the use of it. As a note though her magic is deemed quite peculiar and is noted to be more closer to foreign than traditional Naezri culture. The ability allows for her to general incredibly hot flames that are much more resistant than other forms of fire, unlike other forms of fire which would quickly be extinguished by water or a lack of oxygen Liu's flames are able to last up to three posts before they extinguish. She can control fire up to a maximum distance of one-hundred metres around her. The maximum temperature that her fire can reach is 1500 degrees Celsius. Her fire's temperature loses 500 degrees every 33 metres it is away from her for area of effect attacks, this doesn't apply to projectiles but anything that isn't a fireball essentially will be subject to this debuff. Liu possesses a strong resistance to fire and heat, all damage that would affect her from attacks that are fire-based are treated as though she has a skill bonus in durability towards them but only in this situation and capping at Master.

• Northern Formation: Turtle
  Activating her first technique, Liu fires a large fireball into the sky which bursts into embers and falls down in an area of two-hundred metres. This technique marks those she desires with markings that appears on their body where they are touched by the fire. This marking shields them from any damage that she might inflict on them with her attacks. It is typically used before she engages in a fight. This ability breaks her constraint of one-hundred metres but this is because the embers have no damaging effect and feel only warm when they touch people, they cannot harm and the technique is purely supplementary. It has a cool down of four posts.
  
  
• Eastern Formation: Dragon
  Her second technique allows her to create a burning shield on marked allies, this is incredibly painful to those that would touch it that are not marked and applies the burn affect. It is a buff that can only be used in a situation where she has allies to use it on. This is a support ability that is limited to her one-hundred metre radius though meaning that this is only for marked allies which are in the area of effect that she can use it on. It has a maximum of twenty marked people having it active at once. It has a cool down of seven posts and a duration of two.
  
  
• Southern Formation: Bird
  Another support and supplementary technique. Using the concept of the vermilion bird, Liu is able to infuse a healing affect to actively heal those that are marked in her area of effect. This fire does not damage like the shield does but shows a visible effect. The targets feel a soothing effect as their body repairs itself. It does not regenerate lost limbs but doesn't negate the excessive bleeding of it. This ability can only be active on 30 marked target with the healing being more diluted the more it's spread. It has a cool down of five posts and a duration of five, deactivating it earlier will take away some of the cooldown by however many she posts she has left.
  
  
• Western Formation: Tiger
  An offensive spell that when a marked target makes contact she can apply a different mark on the person. This mark then stays idle for two posts before igniting and causing explosive damage. This effect is completely negated the moment a person gets more than one-hundred metres away from her. It also isn't hard to miss so a person will be immediately aware of the very warm presence it has which quickly gets hotter until it explodes two posts later. It has a cool down of eight posts.
  
  
• Central Formation: Sovereign
  The final formation that Liu has by waiting a total of ten posts she will draw in all of her marks, taking with her some mana of those she had marked before releasing it as an explosive blast capable of destroying most things within about 200 metres which is conditional to what exactly is countering it which expands past the limits of her bounded field and will leave her unconscious for three weeks before she can wake up and she will still not be able to use this ability until another month OOC time. This is an event only ability.
  

Symbol Magic
Given her training from the priestess Su-Na, Liu is an expert in symbolic magic. This magic encompasses effects related to sealing and the use of symbols such as runes and literature. She is able to create sealing formulas with a variety of effects which grant excellent utility and can be passed on or easily taught to other people if they analyse the formula. It is a very traditional Naezri magic that she uses which makes the sealing techniques quite powerful from the amount of time that has been put into perfecting them and building of previous masters in the area.

Crafting Magic
Liu is able to craft magical items to an extent. She couldn't create a magical item that is incredibly powerful however she is very skilled at making utility items or even weapons if she has enough time and focus in doing it however the effects these weapons have will not likely be the most flashy or impressive as some other weapons and items that a more skilled mage could create.

Click here for more information on the skill sheet. Do not fill this out until after approval.


Durability:
Speed:
Stamina:
Strength:
Energy Control:


Focus:
Mental Deduction:
Willpower:
Hand-to-Hand Skill:
Weapon Skill:


Roleplay Sample:

Erika had arrived in the Seireitei about an hour ago, a place she never thought she return to so soon or a place that she'd never thought that she would be returning to for the very reason she was here! It was something she initially doubted, something she refused to accept and tried to ignore for a few hours before it finally pushed her into a state of mind where she had to know and it wasn't something she could just go without making sure just in case.

So here she stood in the crowd, out of place in her attire but it didn't conceal the fact she was a shinigami. She made her way through the crowd with the many faces looking at her curiously. Let them look, their curiousity was nothing compared to young woman's own. It took a full fifteen minutes of walking around before she could sense that reiatsu signature she had been seeking and the one that brought her hear. She was sure she could've sensed it much quicker if she had focused on the task but to many thoughts were going through her mind to focus completely on the reiatsu signature.

"It can't be.. I have to be wrong."

Erika made her way towards the Second Division barracks where the signature was coming from which only became stronger the closer she got to it. Eventually she got to a high-vantage point, looking around for the familiar face she was looking for. Tsubine Koezuka wasn't a woman that could simply disappear and Erika was sure she'd spot her, she was to close to the other woman not to spot her.

Where are you? I search for four whole years and you appear right where this began! Why!? I want to know why!

She noticed her eyes were getting blurred from a small amount of liquid that had built up and she quickly rubbed her eyes to dry them. She didn't want to cry but the thoughts going through her mind made it very hard to keep her composure in this situation and she would often have to get the tears out of her vision every few minutes as she searched for Tsubine amongst the crowd.