Musubi
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-- A prophetic retelling of Musubi's origins
An arsonist-warlord who's haunted rural Japan for centuries finds his grand scourge slowed to a crawling halt. Now his wandering has become even more aimless as he simply searches for new experiences before his clock finally runs out.
Table of Contents
BackstoryBorn in rural Japan over 900 years ago, Musubi, whose original name has been lost to time, was originally a humble Onmyoji with a wife and multiple children. He lived in a village known as Maki until one day under unknown circumstances, he absorbed the life essence of his family and fellow villagers for power and burned down the village. Since then he had begun a centuries-long scourge of burning and destroying villages across Japan, amassing small armies of followers and utilizing his strategic mind and immortality to retain power.
However, as the years went on the mortality Musubi thought he had left behind soon began to catch up to him. His once youthful body slowly began withering and his small, yet loyal army has now been reduced to one loyal servant in Ts'ui Mei. Despite this, his mad rampage still leaves a gaping wound that has yet to be closed. Now, he wanders aimlessly, reminding the nation of his presence in spontaneous arsons and hunts down those prophesized to put an end to him, all while searching for a method to extend his already unnatural lifespan.
PersonalityMusubi is an... interesting individual. Despite being a merciless warlord, he's somewhat (albeit with heavy quotation marks) affable. He's extremely casual when it comes to committing heinous acts and his own past transgressions, acting like a traditional old man most of the time. He partakes in past-times like bingo, card games, and sightseeing. If one were to have never came across Musubi, he might seem like a standard old man, if not a little odd.
Musubi is completely aware that most consider him evil, in fact he agrees that he's an evil person, he just does not care. To him, life as entirely disposable on a dime as he views murder as almost a casual occurrence. He won't go out of his way to cause problems if it doesn't benefit him, but he has no real hesitation nor any tinge of regret for incinerating someone off the face of the planet. He doesn't get any pleasure from his crimes (unless he the victim was really annoying), and goes through life as if everything is just a minor annoyance, outside of what he actively enjoys doing.
With his attitude also comes a high amount of sass and sarcastic wit to him. He's been alive for over 900 years, he will never run out of things to say. Even when unprompted he will journey on long-winded rants on meaningless subjects or pet peeves of his. If in a fight he'll often give advice on how to improve (though this becomes very passive-aggressive if the individual clearly is ignoring him), or mock them for their cliché and tired lines. Sometimes, he might even be intentionally obtuse just to upset or frighten someone.
His demeanor only truly changes when he sees something he thinks is interesting. This mostly comes about when he meets someone he finds unique, has potential, or shares similar interests to him. When this occurs, he will become his more chatty self, this time with actual interest behind his words rather than contempt. |
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Abilities
Musubi knows three main types of magic which are as such:
Flame Magic
Musubi's most versatile magic, as it simply allows him to create, maintain, and manipulate flames. He is capable of creating incredibly scorching hot bursts of fire with specific control of the size, concentration, temperature, etc. He can even make his flames partially solid and act as binds. His range is limited but by painting a magical sigil around/on a surface he can extend the range of his flames and spawn a pillar of flame atop the sigil by placing his fingertips together and saying the word "Commence".
Divination
As a former priest, Musubi naturally knows Divination Magic. By performing small rituals, Musubi can gain vague glimpses into the past, present, and/or future when used traditionally. This also allows him to discover links between individuals, get a vague idea of who an individual is, and learn where they are. He has fiddled with this type of magic to make "Passive Divination", which allows him to sense the mystical presence of others. Most importantly, Passive Divination makes it so that Musubi knows when he's being observed or spoken of in some form or fashion. Whether it's a prophecy that involves him, an individual is attempting to read his mind or someone is using divination of their own to locate/watch him.
Necromancy
This is Musubi's weakest yet most mysterious form of magic as he only has access to one particular spell, "Essence Consumption". Upon touch, he can drain a victim of their life essence and absorb it himself, however, due to the danger this spell possesses several restrictions make this magic rather useless in its current form. Anyone with enough willpower can resist having their life essence consumed and outside of being granted some healing from draining an individual's life adds only a negligible amount of time to his own life, lest the target is someone Musubi has a deep connection with.
Strengths
Magic
Musubi not only is extremely proficient with his magic, but he has seemingly near endless magic reserves. Running out of magic appears to be something that Musubi simply cannot do and as a result, he can fire off large and powerful spells that make even Dragons blush and be fine afterward. The large magical reserves also allow him to dump heinous amounts of power into spells, making even "small" spells of his feared by those who have the misfortune of running into him.
Experience
Musubi has been alive for over 900 years. Outside of crossroads, he has seen just about all there is to see, which means he's especially knowledgeable of the technical aspects of combat. He more often than not has encountered something that he's going up against, and his previous experience has given him ample time to create contingencies and countermeasures to cover his own weaknesses.
Paranoia/Thoroughness
Musubi is an efficient individual, usually tackling his largest obstacles first before moving on to smaller disputes. With his extended lifespan, he quite literally has extra time to waste caring which makes him difficult to deceive. This extra time also feeds into his sheer thoroughness as he often takes extra time and procedures to ensure a task is finished. He has no issues waiting out his victims if it can guarantee a victory or the avoidance of disaster.
Weaknesses
Physique
While his magic is extremely potent, his physicals are the exact opposite. He weighs just about as much as his diet, a few grapes here and there, and his physical stats make toddlers seem impressive by comparison. If he were forced into an RPG while his magic would be listed at "999+", his physical stats would be listed at "1". At his age, even standing up straight proves difficult for him as he cannot walk without support like a cane or being carried by someone else. As a result, he tends to be mostly stationary to avoid pulling anything.
Senses
While being immortal allowed him to keep his youth at first, Musubi can now best be compared to a senior citizen two centimeters from death's door. His hearing is terrible so one must shout their words at him, and his sight is incredibly poor. While he can make out shapes and colors, he is incapable of reading even large text and relies on Passive Divination to find other individuals or understand his current location. While this technically doesn't count towards his senses, Musubi smells horrible, akin to a permanently rotting corpse.
Sunlight
Underneath all of his clothing is a series of several crimson wraps and seals. Made by a long-dead friend of his, Musubi covers his body head to toe in these wraps to avoid exposing any part of his body to sunlight as it will begin to degrade the exposed body part until nothing remains. If Musubi were to be left bare in the sun for around less than a minute he would disintegrate entirely.
Gallery
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| Musubi's Reference | A render of Musubi | [item description] |
Author's Notes
- Musubi is modeled after tropes of ancient evils found commonly in fiction, especially animanga.