---------------------------------
No, we're not back. In fact, we're both gone permanently; consider
this the official announcement.
This post tells the majority of the secrets about both Epsilon
and Blade's characters as they planned to reveal them over the
course of the next several months-years. This is just so you
know some of the stuff we were building towards; it is -not-
a complete rundown of all our various plots and characters (as
will become obvious) but rather those that are or would have
been directly affecting GRIT, at this time or in the very near
future. Also, we're only covering stuff that is more or less
our characters; while several of our plots were intimately
tied to other RL's and characters (such as Caine's plans for
Kiwi), we leave these unspoken in courtesy to those who may
still want to use them. Again, note that these were NOT our
full plans...over the years, some people with seemingly nasty
fates may have overcome them...and some may not have. But the
details were too far in the future, too numerous and too
tenuous to chronicle here.
TERMS AND GLOBAL DATA
---------------------
META-POWERS:
The term used in GRIT to describe "superhuman" powers of
various types, from the Chi/Ki of the various martial artists,
the magic used by Gaeld and others, Tina's psionics, and so
forth. People who make use of these powers are called
metanaturals, or, more informally, "empees".
THE ALMIGHTY:
Oftimes referred to in GRIT but never yet explained, the
Almighty is in truth the single most powerful known being in
the GRIT multiverse, and has been so for untold millennia. His
origin is unknown. Contrary to his grandiose title, he does
not rule alone; a less powerful yet still extremely formidible
being named Duron (see below) rules with him, the two
representing and championing Chaos and Order, respectively.
The Almighty and Duron created and enforce the Celestial
Compact (see below); all Meta-Powers (chi, psionics, magic,
etc) are also believed to stem from the Almighty and his
chaotic energies. Also, Angels and Fiends (see below) are
"born" with a shred of his immense energies within them.
DURON:
As mentioned, Duron is the second most powerful being in the
multiverse, and the champion of Order. His influence on the
multiverse and how things work is less then the Almighty's, but
still very significant. He is much more inclined than the
Almighty to take a direct hand in affairs, but was not
scheduled to interfere in GRIT for a long time, as the
happenings here are still rather insignificant on the
multiversal scale.
THE CELESTIAL COMPACT:
Created by the joint agreement of the Almighty and Duron untold
millennia ago, this is basically a restraint imposed upon all
beings of great power (Rank 12 or so and above) to prevent
cosmically-powered demigods destroying the multiverse in their
power struggles. Put simply, this prevents any such beings
from interfering directly in the affairs of mortals. They may
work through proxies (see Gieve and Midgar for examples), and
defend themselves if attacked, but they are not permitted to
directly enforce their will over reality.
ANGELS:
Shining protectors of good and truth-in their own way-Angels
are the living incarnations of the Almighty's power, beings
born with a higher purpose and infused with unique energies.
They are extremely rare, and it is almost unheard of for a
single planet to have more than one (but see below). Each
Angel acts as they see fit; the Almighty has never given clues
as to what purpose they may have been created for, and given
his chaotic nature, perhaps there is no reason. Every Angel
has a Word, a common theme that all of their abilities are
based around...Angels with particularly powerful combat
abilities are often referred to as Archangels.
FIENDS:
Since they are not given a clearly defined purpose, as many
living fragments of the Almighty turn to evil and selfishness
as defend good and justice. These beings are called Fiends;
there is no real difference between the two besides their
general attitude, and indeed some beings could blur the line
between the two. As above, Fiends with powerful combat
abilities grant themselves the title of Archfiend.
THE GRAND NEXUS:
The Grand Nexus plotline is very simple to understand. It
was not the -final- plotline we had in mind for GRIT, just
one of the bigger ones. The concept is about the idea of
Dragon/Ley/Power lines. Basically natural flows of energy
that criss-cross the multiverse. When they connect two ley
lines form a nexus of magical/chi energy that someone could
use to perform incredible feats of magic/martial
arts/psychic ability. In the case of the Grand Nexus, every
uncountable millions of years the multiverse cycles so that
all the ley lines are aligned to focus the power of all
existance to one place. Which place this is changes every
time, and this time the focus will occur in Nerima. Thus at
some point one individual could find themselves in the very
center of the Grand Nexus and have at their fingertips all
the power of all creation. As you may have guessed, this is
a very tempting prize for many a being throughout the
multiverse. However, not many know it is here due to the
mechinations of several people such as Caine and Epsilon to
repress the sudden, dramatic rise in power among the
inhabitants of earth, as well as all the transdimensional
activity which would be dead giveaways.
THE FIVE FLARES:
The Five Legendary Flares are the attacks of legend. Each is
said to be unstoppable but each is also said to carry the
heavy price of destroying the person who uses them as well
as their target.
The Nexus Flare: The Flare of Transformation
Althought it is usually used with fire the Nexus Flare does
not have to be used in conjunction with it (or Fire of the
Dragon or anything). The Nexus Flare works by extending the
users aura outward and then transforming everything in range
(matter, energy, spirit etc) into something else. This
process is instantly lethal and can NOT be blocked or
repelled by those in the area of effect, as anything they
attempt to repel it with is also transformed. Unfortunately
the user is also changed in the process and thus dies.
The Gaia Flare: The Flare of Manipulation
The Gaia Flare is actually a form of gestalt flare. What it
does is link the user completely with the conciousness
of a higher order being (either a planet, solar system,
galaxy or whatever) and then the user can project -all- the
energy of that being against their target at once. This
means that the pure focused will and all the chi that a
planet could produce could be sent against one person. As
you can guess, if you gather enough energy this is a lethal
technique. It can not be absorbed or blocked as it is pure
will energy that would simply turn any power you used
against it against you and it could track you across the
multiverse. The problem is that using this will destroy the
planet (or solar system or whatever) that it is used on as
that planet will have no chi left... and also kill the
subject because the will use up all their own chi in the
process as well.
The Nega Flare: The Flare of Destruction
The Nega Flare works by generating pure Entropy. It starts
in the user's mind, slowly building up as the thought
processes become erratic and distorted, then the chi of the
user begins to decay and finally the Nega Flare bursts out
like a ginat vacuum, slowly sucking in everything that
exists around it and decaying it into nothing in short
order. There is no defense against the Nega Flare as it will
eat through anything eventually. Of course, once the
original user is fully consumed by entropy they will die and
the technique will no longer work as it loses its focus.
Diem Flare: The Flare of Creation
The Diem Flare is also known as the Flare of Time. There are an
infinite number of possibilities, and this one uses them
all. The user must not be agressive at any point in their
life before using this Flare, as it takes all that built up
potential that the user never used and releases it in every
possible way it could be released. Because it works by
calling up every possible way the user could attack you at
once it evokes infinite energy, which the target will die at
the hands of. The problem is that in an infinite number of
possibilities the user also screws up and destroys themself
an infinite number of times.
Omni Flare: The Flare of Infinity
The Omni Flare can only be evoked by combining all four of the
"lesser" Flares at once. It has never been seen in operation,
as no single being could possibly survive using one of the
Flares, much less all of them. The Omni Flare directs the total
and complete power of all creation against the target,
eliminating them and only them from all time, space and thought.
The Omni Flare unmakes the target as if it never existed,
making it the most formidible attack of them all.
I.M.P.A.C.T.:
The International Meta Power Advisory Council Treaty was
created about fifty years ago when meta-natural people
started to be scientifically proven to exist. They were
behind many cover-ups and X-files like conspiracies to hide
the truth from people. As you can probably guess, they failed
rather miserably. Next they tried inducing meta-natural
abilities in people who showed no aptitude for them. This was
not a general success, either (see Tina).
Their third plan was control and containment. Since this fit
in with Gieve's agenda, Caine secretly began to feed the
IMPACT council scientific advances and meta-natural
knowledge through both his contacts with the Science
Division and through Gregor (see his entry). The weaponry they
displayed in Europe is standard issue but when they eventually
go out for the attack they hope to contain the meta-powers with
they are going to use weapons that are now top-secret. Among
them are bodysuits with force-field generators built into it
that react to attacks and protects the wearer, guns which
shoots "chi exploder" projectiles that cause high volumes of Chi
in places or people to explode and a neuro-chemical which
dulls fear in the people who use it. Their final weapon, however,
is propaganda. In reality, Mist was wrong: the humans of earth
would -not- be poisoned to death by high levels of chi. They
might get sick but they would adapt. IMPACT agents are following
around the Nerimans as they travel on the Hairclipper quests, and
when they leave, infecting people with a disease that mimics
overdoses of ki, and blaming it all on the meta-powers. This will
create fear and hatred towards those who are "unique" where it
might otherwise not exist.
Without Caine's help, they would not have been able to
survive this long, nor been as successful as they are.
AARON'S CHARACTERS
------------------
First, the big one.
EPSILON:
For those of you with brains the size of peanuts (;p
<-smiley, ie, this is a joke) yes, Epsilon was coming back.
The mysterious figure that was manipulating Saffron, Incense,
Hayato and others to arrive in Nerima was he. The basic story
is that when Epsilon was blasted by the Kyodo-no-Taifu
in Turnip Keep he still had a great deal of the Medallion of
Souls' energy inside him. This energy creates bonds and
containment; thus when he was blasted across the entire
multiverse in the final explosion his body "bonded" with the
chi of the universe.
This made him immortal and completely unkillable. While not
immune to injury (he still absorbed non-emotional energy
however) he would heal from any injury quickly, including being
scattered across the multiverse. Upon reforming, he set out
on a plot of revenge against those who were responsible for
his near-destruction. The real reason he does this is because he
is stuck in a permanent state where he can feel nothing but
negative emotions (hate, rage, pain etc.). His unique state
allows him to use the Nexus Flare with no danger to himself,
plus his raw hatred can now be channeled into Dark Emotion
abilities, giving him an impressive arsenal of powers.
The sword he carries, Damocles, was created from the soul of
a dead galaxy. The sword is a living Void, and anything it
cleaves has a permanent, unhealable wound ripped in not only
the flesh but the soul. If he kills a person with this
sword, not only do they die physically, but their soul is
literally destroyed, preventing any attempts at ressurection.
MIST:
Mist was pretty much summed up already across various posts
but here is what the truth was: When Epsilon was young, he
travelled with a band of heroic people (who may or may not
have been magic knights, doesn't matter now). One of these
was a plant priestess who much resembled U-chan in
temperment and looks. However a powerful wizard cast them
into a world with no life and Epsilon ruthlessly ate her
soul to survive. This wouldn't have been that bad, or at
least not that unusual, but she had been in love with him and
gave herself willingly to be destroyed.
This caused a spark of emotion to be awakened in Epsilon, and
while it was very small and thus could have no immediate
impact on his actions, in the long term it caused his quest
for emotions. When Mist was created he was made out of equal
parts of the four beings involved. From Epsilon he took the
draconic form of his Jyusenkyo curse, from Kitsune Fox he
took the energy neccesary to maintain his physical
existance, from Al-X he took emotions and finally inside of
him is that tiny spark of emotion from the woman (Celimene)
he killed so long ago.
Mist feels -very- guilty about Celimene, and worse, thinks
that all his emotions come from Al-X, so he doesn't really
love her or U-chan but is merely acting out the response of
Al-X in his situation. This has caused him to focus his
emotions and push them back, including all his positive
and negative feelings. Slowly over the months the raw power
of his guilt has been corrupting every positive memory he
has and if he doesn't get some serious emotional help soon
he'll become just as bad as Epsilon: so jaded against the
world that he will be unable to feel positive emotions
anymore, making him a monster. The only positive thing in
his life is U-chan, who hasn't been corrupted in his mind
(yet).
Epsilon recognizes this and plans to leave Mist alone; he
knows that seeing his friends suffer and being unable to do
anything will push him closer to the edge. Still Mist has a
year or so left before things go too far.
Mist knows about the Grand Nexus, and knows that it is coming,
if not precisely when. His rather pushy attitude towards the
GRITers travelling with him stems from his desire to ensure they
are ready to take up their new mantles; and he also is
accordingly rather less concerned with most of the current
problems.
CAINE:
Who is Caine? Well, there is a short answer and a long
answer. The short answer is that Caine is a self-created
entity. In the future, Caine will go back in time, get
cursed in the Spring of Drowned Girl, mate with himself and
give birth to a child which will also be himself. He is
aware that he must do this in the future because he has
already met his future self. He sealed off Jyusenkyo to
prevent people from learning that he has stolen the essence
of the Spring of Drowned Girl to use on himself in the
future.
The long answer is very complex and I'm not going into it,
as knowledge of it and its ramifications would not take
place until a LONG time from now. Suffice it to say he was
even more than he seemed.
ZING:
Zing was called to become a Magic Knight about ten years
ago. However, shortly after getting his power he had the
misfortune of running into Tina. Tina easily overpowered the
fledgling Knight and entered his mind with the help of
Midgar to keep Gaia from interferring. She reprogrammed his
mind so that he was madly in love with and willing to
do anything for her. The most callous thing they made him do
was watch as Midgar tortured to death the last Knight of
Water, not letting him help or even look away.
When he recovers his memories he will go through his next
two transformations as he learns to accept and then learn
from this suffering that has been inflicted on him.
TINA:
Tina is a failed experiment in inducing psychic powers in
non-psychics by IMPACT. Oh sure, it gave her -plenty- of
power, however it also made her an unstable, sociopathic
menace to society. They were going to terminate her, but she
was recruited by Caine instead. The IMPACT council thinks
she is dead.
GREGOR:
Just a psychopath with gravity powers basically. Nothing
special behind his origin. He serves on the IMPACT head
council as the representative of Russia. They don't know
about his powers because his energy signature is
nigh-undetectable when he is not actively using them.
MIDGAR:
Midgar's father was a mortal who summoned and mated with the
Archfiend Lilith. Lilith killed him but gave birth to the
child in order to get a hook in the world. While the Celestial
Compact prevented her direct interference, she -could- influence
Midgar's actions using his half-demonic soul and thus wreak
havoc on the world.
Midgar is almost totally controlled by her. His unflappable
calm is the result of Lilith knowing any damage to her
puppet will never actually impede her. His few "real" impulses
are quashed and he generally follows her orders without
question. The Magic Knights eventually would manage to purge
his half-demonic soul from his body (very hard, as he isn't
possessed-his soul is literally half-demonic), leaving him an
emotionally scarred yet relatively normal man with no cruel
impulses (but see Tarou and Lo Shin's entries).
GIEVE:
Gieve is an ancient Archfiend of incredible power (Rank 14
or so). He is affected by the Celestial Compact, but works
around it by recruiting mortals into his giant organization.
It is best to think of Gieve as a huge gang boss or mafia
family head. He recruits meta-powered individuals to serve
him, and ruthlessly kills those who won't submit to his will.
This tactic has given him control of over a thousand worlds,
most of which he sucked dry of all life to feed his war machine
in campaigns against the Angels, Dragons and other supernatural
beings.
He was never able to consolidate control of Earth because he
was opposed by Epsilon, who was smarter if far less powerful
than him, and his ex-lover Tonya (see below).
Gieve's major power is the "Counter Field"; any incoming
attack will be countered by an attack of the proper type
without him even having to think about it. Thus hot attacks will
be snuffed by cold, and so on. His aura can not produce two
effects at once but will often go for esoteric counters (thus
if a fire and ice spell are cast at him from different sides
he will create an anti-magic aura).
RYOUGA:
When Epsilon attacked Ryouga several weeks ago (game time)
he didn't kill him or Akari. Instead Epsilon used a spell
to enhance Ryouga's confused sense of direction and gave him
a curse that would never let him go to the same place twice.
Akari was taken and hidden in a facility in the Antarctic
(which the Nerimans sensed briefly but then Epsilon figured
it out and cut her off from contact) but gave her the
ability to sense Ryouga's exact location and condition so
she could suffer as the lost boy slowly loses himself.
The only way to remove the curse was to remove Ryouga's bad
sense of direction along with it.
RYUU KUMON:
Ah yes, Ryuu. The thing you have to understand is that Ryuu
has seen everything he ever cared about taken from him by
forces more powerful than him. He lost his mother to cancer,
his father to obsession, his few friends to the perils of
fate, his quest for the Art to Ranma and his own self-control
to the Shadow Dragon which still burns inside his soul.
Ryuu has resolved that he MUST become perfect. Not only to
prevent losing control to the Shadow Dragon, but because he
is sure that if he doesn't, some being will come and take
away what is precious to him by force. So Ryuu strives to be
better than anything, better than everyone and the most
powerful being extant. Until he reaches this goal he won't
let himself care about the world at large, because that will
only cause him more pain.
The problem is that even the Almighty is limited in some
ways, and there is a certain level of power that you should
not go beyond lest Bad Things start to happen to you...
RANMA:
Boy, is he in for a world of hurt. After Epsilon steals his
kids (see Tarou) Ranma runs off to rescue them and ends
up in a one on one fight with the Vempyre for the life of his
children. During the fight, he discovers that Epsilon can not
absorb the Kontatsu Kai technique's power. The Ranma gets the
brilliant idea of using an emotion blast in the technique.
The result is that Ranma actually draws on all the emotion
of the planet and cold-cocks Epsilon. Epsilon gets really
mad and starts the Nexus Flare. Still partially connected to
Gaia and confused after the blast, Ranma sees this and
instinctively calls on all of the planets energy to protect
him, thus using the Gaia Flare. The two cancel out
in a spectacular explosion, but when the smoke clears Epsilon
is still standing.
However, he suggests to Ranma that the explosion killed his
own kids. Sure enough Akane can no longer sense their life
force through her bracelet. The kids did NOT die however.
Ranma doesn't know this, so he uses a collossal Perfect
Shishi Hokodan that calls on all his own grief and the
planet's and this reduces the whole of Turnip Mountain (and
Epsilon along with it) to a crater two miles deep. Epsilon is
supposedly dead but instead waits and revives later,
stealing off to where he has hidden the childen. There he
begins to train them and raise them to hate their parents, so
that one day he can send them back to kill their own mother and
father.
BLADE'S CHARACTERS
------------------
BLADE:
Blade is more than he appears. He is a freak of nature, a
living generator that is able to mimic any type of energy
he has experienced. This fuels his fantastic ki-powers and
makes him a formidable opponent. However, this has a downside.
Blade doesn't just create -ki- energy, he also creates emotions.
For instance, if Blade is angry he will create more and more
anger until it bursts out of him violently. This is why the
Angel of Vengance was created.
The problem with this is that Blade is still very angry. It
wasn't enough for him that Epsilon was killed; Blade could
never be satisfied until he crushed the vempyre by himself.
While most of his guilt has been purged, this only means he
doesn't have anything to hold back his aggression. Thus, when
Epsilon shows himself Blade is going to unleash all his pent-up
anger and become super-strong. Epsilon matches him anger for
anger for awhile, but in the end Blade's hate proves stronger
than that of the vempyre; Epsilon then uses the special Omega
technique (which reflects any attack back at its source) to
defeat him. Blade will then continue to get angrier and less
willing to listen to reason. Eventually this will consume him
and he will be unable to think of anything else but destroying
Epsilon once and for all, no matter the cost.
TONYA:
Tonya is not a normal woman. In fact, she is millions of
years old, and was once known as the Angel of Destiny. Her
lover, Gieve, fell from grace and became a Fiend so she came
to Earth to stop his plans. She encountered Epsilon many times
and the two often worked together to defeat Gieve; however,
Epsilon and she often were at odds as well. Their first meeting
occured when Tonya showed up to take the Christ's soul back to
the Almighty and Epsilon stopped her for a time (this
misunderstanding led to Epsilon believing she was a Fiend, a
misconception Mist shares; were Mist to hear that "Tonya" seems
to be alive, he would immediately drop everything and return to
Nerima at once). For instance, Epsilon discovered Caine and was
raising him as a weapon he could use against Gieve and Tonya.
Tonya, fearing for Caine's soul, set out to rescue him. In the
ensuing battle Caine was knocked off a cliff to his (seeming)
death. Overcome with grief, Epsilon knocked Tonya off the same
cliff and into the pools of Jyusenkyo.
Later she encountered Blade and realized what potential he
had. This was because her major power was the ability to see
a person's Destiny (the best they can be) and their Fate
(the worst they can be). Afraid of Blade's Fate, she settled
down with him and used her powers to nurture his caring and
compassion. Unfortunately, she fell in love with him.
Thus when Epsilon showed up to take her soul she knew she
couldn't let Epsilon kill Blade, so she gave herself to
Epsilon.
When the Medallion was broken her soul went back to the
Almighty, but her corporeal form had never degraded on earth
because of its divine nature. Epsilon, when he recovered
from the Kyodo-no-Taifu, sought out this body and using arcane
arts revived it in a parody of its former life. While she
has some angelic powers left in the body (holy energy and a
bit of her old ability to see Fate/Destiny but uncontrollable)
the personality is an artifical construct, actually controlled
by a system of chi "cycles" in the body created by Epsilon. One
cycle was designed to make her track down Blade. Another is
designed so that after falling in love with him she will lose
control of her body (but keep her senses and speech) and try
to kill him. Epsilon has programmed her so that she can counter
any of Blade's techniques except his lethal ones. Thus he plans
on putting Blade in the unenviable position of being forced to
either kill his old love, or let her kill him...and worse, she
will be conscious of her actions and because she -does- truly
love him, be begging him to choose the former course.
UKYOU:
Ukyou has problems. They started with losing Ranma and
continued when Blade died. She accepts Blade despite his
frequent horrible actions because she can't stand to lose
the man she loves a third time; Blade loves her, and in the
end she has suppressed her own feelings and emotions in
order to ensure he stays with her. She can see Blade needs
help, but is too afraid of seeing him taken from her to
criticise him. If left unchecked Ukyou could become
dangerously obsessed with keeping Blade and her together...
particularly when Blade starts putting greater and greater
emphasis on the destruction of Epsilon at all costs.
AKEMI:
Again, there is more to this girl than meets the eye. The
reason Akemi is such a ditz is because she grew up around Blade,
Tarou, Rarion and Kei. All these people were thinking so much
that they led miserable or otherwise pointless lives, so she
followed the example of the only seemingly happy person of the
household (Ginseng), and made the concious decision not to think.
In reality, Akemi is another Angel (thus explaining her
superhuman powers) who was created on earth by the Almighty
to assist in the great battle for the Grand Nexus, but she has no
knowledge of her actual heritage.
RARION:
The first disciple of Ginseng is merely a strong telekinetic
with a connection to Blade. While there were plans for him
in the far future, for the time being he was mostly intended
to stop by on occasion and be an annoying jerk.
GINSENG:
Remember that Almighty we've talked about a few times? Meet his
avatar in GRIT. What better disguise than a befuddled old
man, after all? Ginseng has been secretly training his
students to help in the climactic battle of the Grand Nexus,
where the next gods will be chosen. Despite being practically
omnipotent and omniscient, Ginseng has never directly
interfered in the world of man. He is above the Celestial
Compact and is, in fact, partly responsible for punishing
those who break it (see above). He just chooses not to act
directly, for his own unfathomable reasons.
LOSHIN:
Tarou's sister has no secret past... but does have a dark
future. Sometime in the not-so-distant future Midgar was
going to torture and rape her. This would push Tarou over
the edge, and he would brutally kill Midgar despite the fact
the Knights had cleansed his soul by then. Unfortunately
for her, Lo Shin's trials were not over...
TAROU:
Yay. Tarou may have gotten over his anger at Ranma, but not
his jealousy. One thing to note is that Tarou's plans have
never involved directly killing anyone, this is because (we
surmised) Tarou is, in fact, mentally incapable of killing
anyone. This stems back to a nasty incident in his youth,
alluded to at the party thread when he and Lo Shin encountered
a crippled boy named Gel. The details aren't important unless
somebody wants to run with this...
Remember that techno-virus Shiroma was supposed to infect
him with? Well, in the storyline it was supposed to cause
his cursed form to break down outside Nerima and then
Saffron was going to use his mind-controlling eggs to enslave
Tarou. The eggs were not perfect however (due to the
circumstances of Saffron's last transformation), so Tarou
would have some free will. Saffron would use the eggs plus
Tarou's jealousy of Ranma to make Tarou assist Kiima in
kidnapping the kids (Nuriko and Isamu) while everyone else
was off fighting Incense.
The problem was that Epsilon shows up and decides to kidnap
the kids himself. Kiima learns that he, not Ranma, nuked Mount
Pheonix and attacks him but is beaten down. Only Akane
stands between Epsilon and the children and she is determined
to die before she lets him have them. Epsilon is about to grant
her wish when Tarou distracts Epsilon by admitting to his part
in his defeat and near-destruction. In the fight that follows,
the enraged Epsilon splits open Tarou's spine and thus cripples
him with the unhealable Damocles. Epsilon takes the kids and runs.
Meanwhile Tarou sinks into a shell as he can no longer do anything
in either form. This wears down on him until Lo Shin attacks
Shiroma in vengeance for her brother and is beaten up severely.
Tarou saves her, but she is kidnapped by Midgar in the meantime
(See Lo Shin above).
Once over the edge, Tarou begins to plot various people's downfall
as he wishes nothing more than to drag them down to his level; as
time goes on, he stops caring about his former friends until at last
even his sister is just another tool.
Lo Shin, desperately guilty over not saving her brother and keenly
feeling his increasing apathy towards her welfare, takes over his
fledgling organization and tries desperately to run it in such a way
to make him proud of her. But this, combined with her also
increasingly frantic martial arts training, not to mention the
severe trauma of her experiences at Midgar's hands, soon prove to
be too much for her...
FAFA:
Like many of our characters, Fafa is more than she appears, but
in this case she doesn't know it. While she believes her
battlesuit was an experimental unit she "liberated" from the
Chinese military, the entire incident was in fact set up by
Caine, who was banking on the GRITers being gullible enough
(especially given Fafa's less-than-serious demeanour) not to
question too deeply exactly HOW an ordinary Chinese peasant would
be able to steal such a device.
Thus, when she makes her regular patriotic reports on the
progress of the GRITers, Caine gets a free source of accurate and
up to date information on the Neriman's activities, which has
helped him plan his various ambushes of them (although she is far
from his only source of information).
After Tarou's crippling, Fafa is despondant about her failure to
protect him either from Saffron or Epsilon, and his now tangible
apathy to her doesn't help. Desperate to make it up to him and
win Tarou's respect, it is easy for Caine to entice her ever
deeper into his schemes...
INCENSE:
Hundreds of years ago the Musk Dynasty used to capture
animals, bathe them in the Spring of Drowned Girl and mate
with them to produce half-breed, superhuman offspring. The
ancient first king of the Musk captured a dragon and tossed it
in the pool. Unfortunately, it was a MALE dragon. This caused
a problem.
In effect the actual powers of the dragon were split among
the two bloodlines of the Musk. While the women were born
with tremendous power, they lacked the ability to channel it
effectively. And the men were given the ability to channel
the energy precisely, but not the sheer power of the women.
Of course, all the princes born might have tried dipping in
the Spring of Drowned Girl, but this only reduced their
control, as the amount of power born into them remained
constant despite their current form.
Then was born Incense, who violated a whole bunch of rules
right from the outset. As long ago mentioned in GRIT by Jorge
Pratt, Herb was seperated from his female half, and then
proceeded to wed her (see Herb's entry). Incense was the result
of this union, and her blood was thus stronger than any other
Musk royal ever born. This is why she calls herself the Pure,
for she sees herself as the ultimate expression of the Musk
bloodline.
She is haunted by frequent hallucinations of the past of her
ancestors; this is the cause of her strange knowledge, far
beyond what even an extraordinary four-year-old could possibly
know. Thus, when calm, she is an intellectually gifted opponent
of vast knowledge and strategic planning, but when she gets
emotional, reverts to being a selfish and destructive child with
no real grasp of what she is doing.
She learned of the Musk story from a mysterious benefactor (most
likely Epsilon) and went for a dip in the Spring of Drowned Man.
Sure enough, she gained intuitive control of her colossal power.
Now Epsilon has steered her to Nerima. Why?
A distraction, no more, no less. He plans on her keeping
people like Ranma and Co busy while he performs his plans of
evil revenge on everyone and their dog. The same is true of
Saffron and everyone else he has brought.
For her own part, Incense is aware-on an intellectual level-that
beings exist who could, if they gathered together, defeat her.
Under the ruse of getting revenge on Ranma, she has gone to
Nerima as the first step of her scheme to discover more about
the Fire of the Dragon. Using Gaeld's knowledge, she intends to
eventually capture all of the world's dragons and drain them of
their Fire to add to her already-immense powers. Treacherous
and deceitful, she never had any intention of fulfilling her
bargain to Gaeld, or any other bargain she might make; it's only
half-bloods, after all, and they aren't worth keeping your word to.
Eventually defeated, Incense would hang around Nerima, scheming and
plotting. However, in the end experience does mature her, and she
ends up sacrificing the bulk of her power permanently in the great
battle against Saffron (see below).
HERB:
The Musk King was totally unaware of his prodigal daughter's
intentions until she disappeared suddenly with Lime and Mint;
this event left the Musk in an uproar, as noted by Jingai. He
is worried about his daughter's welfare, but-since he knows her
well-even more worried about the people she's after, and is thus
making preparations to track her down. His experiences of five
years ago changed the once-arrogant monarch greatly; he now tries
to be fair and just (although still has a bad temper), and his
respect for Ranma is great.
ROUGE:
What's she doing here, you ask? In reality, Rouge is Herb's
-other- royal wife, having taken advantage of her power to ensure
an interview with the Musk monarch, and her not-inconsiderable
charms to snare a place by his side. But shortly after they were
married, Tarou broke into the Musk Palace one night and splashed
her with Nyannichuan water, taking away her powerful cursed form.
As the first part of his plan for revenge against those he (at the
time) considered responsible for the hated cybernetic adjustments
to his cursed form, Tarou had discovered a little-known fact: if
your Jyusenkyou curse is cured, you can never again get another one.
Although Herb doesn't really care anymore, Rouge feels inferior to
his other, more powerful consort, and spends much of her time
agonizing over how to be more equal, thus fulfilling Tarou's revenge
for him. Rouge (and his other wife) would accompany Herb when he
reached Nerima, and it is also important to note that this is why
Tarou has knowledge of the Musk, and that all of the Musk members
in GRIT know Tarou and are far from fond of him.
MINT:
The speedy Musk warrior saw himself as responsible for Herb's defeat
five years ago, and despite Herb accepting this with grace, has
spent most of the last five years training himself for a chance to
avenge it. He is Incense's personal bodyguard, and takes his job
with the utmost of seriousness, being perfectly willing to lay down
his life to protect her. He knows that contrary to her words,
Incense almost certainly never asked permission to go to Jyusenkyou
or Nerima, but doesn't care, as this gives him a chance to see Ranma
humbled; whether Incense does it, or he himself has the chance is
all the same to him. Despite his obsessive fervour, he is
honourable to a fault: he will not attack Ranma without Incense's
leave, and he would never attack Ranma or anyone else in anything
but a face-to-face duel (unless Incense ordered it). The Musk and
werewolf tribes in China have had a few runins in the past; Mint,
due to his heritage, takes this more seriously than the other
members of the tribe and considers all werewolves to be
abominations.
LIME:
The immensely powerful Musk warrior retains a happy-go-lucky
attitude towards life, and if he ever thought about it (which he
doesn't), would probably wish that Mint would lighten up. He is
still Herb's personal bodyguard, but believes Incense's story of
having gotten permission to take him along. When the record is
set straight, he will eventually leave Nerima with Herb and Co.
SAFFRON:
The Pheonix King is eventually convinced that Ranma is not
to blame for the death of his people, but retains a burning-
if rather impotent-grudge against him. He and the rest of
the Phoenix settle around Nerima as he, much like his rival
Incense, plot and scheme for revenge with little success.
However, Caine has other plans for him. Caine knows about the
Grand Nexus and wants to ensure Gieve doesn't get it, but to
do so he needs a being powerful enough to keep Gieve from
coming to Earth to claim it.
Thus he makes a deal with Saffron. He takes the essence of
Jusendo and takes Saffron to the sun, that is THE sun, as in
the big glowing yellow thing in the sky. Once there, he bonds
the essence to Saffron and throws him in. Over a matter of
weeks Saffron matures inside the egg and becomes Shin
Saffron. His true heritage as the Archfiend of Fire, a being
of pure heat energy, comes to the fore and he descends on
Earth like an angel of death.
This is the great adversary the Magic Knights and Priestess
have been called to defeat. In an epic battle (which also
includes Ranma, Blade and Incense, along with most of the rest
of GRIT-see Kiima) they prevent Saffron from claiming the
Nexus as his own and destroy him.
KIIMA:
She serves Saffron faithfully and wants Ranma dead until she
learns of Epsilon's deception. She then becomes sort of
listless for awhile until Saffron realises his true self, at
which point she (and the rest of her people) are powered
up through their connection to him and help him fight the
Nerimans. After Saffron's death, she is personally broken but
leads the pitiful remnants of the Phoenix Tribe from Nerima,
hoping to find a place where they can live out the remainder
of their days in peace.
HAYATO:
Hayato is intended to distract Ukyou so she can't help Blade
fight Tonya. He would also, in grief-stricken vengeance,
attack all the other Ukyou look-alikes. His final fate wasn't
planned...
KONATSU:
Aside from being a Magic Knight he wasn't going to change
much. He'd develop healing/illusion powers and gain an old
crochety dragon for a Mashin (think Kup from Transformers: the
Movie). As he progressed Konatsu would learn to be more
active and to stand up for himself and his beliefs more
often.
TALERON:
Who you ask? Well, he's a person who won't be showing up
now, but bears mentioning...Taleron is Blade and Tonya's
son! Although it doesn't work genetically, through some
fluke (read: Ginseng) he is the Archangel of Light, a
powerful and stern crusader-type. Blade does not know of
his existance; Tonya, still fearing Blade's Fate and knowing
that Epsilon was still after her, left shortly after
realising she was pregnant, planning to hide her child in a
safe place and throw Epsilon off the trail. Surprised to
find out she had borne not a normal child but an Angel, she
gave Taleron some hasty instruction (Angels do not, obviously,
mature in quite the same way-or rate-as normal people do ;p)
before returning to her work with Blade; planning that once she
was satisfied with Blade's progress, she would introduce the
father and son and also complete Taleron's training. This
didn't work out, to say the least.
Taleron knows of his mother's death, and hates his father (she
warned him of a "great evil", meaning Epsilon, but his
incomplete knowledge has led him to believe it was Blade).
However, not knowing much about Blade besides his name, he
shelved the idea of looking for him right this moment and is
currently hunting down and dealing with rogue meta-powers. He
has learned of IMPACT and been taken in by their propaganda;
steadily he is coming to believe that his divine purpose is to
help IMPACT contain the metapowers, especially the Nerimans.
PINK AND LINK:
There was nothing definite planned for the Dynamic Duo, aside
from the fact Link is steadily falling for Vince. They were
planning to crash Kunou's wedding to Ranmei, thinking that it
was Vince that was actually getting married.
That was, as said, our basic plans. We're gone and are not
coming back, so any of our characters/plotlines are open to
whoever wants to use them.
Blade and Epsilon
