Zen

Kuei-jin -=SF=- San Francisco

[Wu Symbol]
Character: ????	Nature: []	Balance: []
Player: [[]]	P-O Nature: []	Direction []
Chronicle: San Francisco	Demeanor: []	Wu: []
Court: []	Concept: []	Faction: []
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	ATTRIBUTES
Physical	Social	Mental
Strength ●○○○○	Charisma ●○○○○	Perception ●○○○○
Dexterity ●○○○○	Manipulation ●○○○○	Intelligence ●○○○○
Stamina ●○○○○	Appearance ●○○○○	Wits ●○○○○
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	ABILITIES
Talents	Skills	Knowledges
Alertness ○○○○○ ()	Animal Ken ○○○○○ ()	Computer ○○○○○ ()
Athletics ○○○○○ ()	Crafts ○○○○○ ()	Finance ○○○○○ ()
Awareness ○○○○○ ()	Drive ○○○○○ ()	Investigation ○○○○○ ()
Brawl ○○○○○ ()	Etiquette ○○○○○ ()	Law ○○○○○ ()
Empathy ○○○○○ ()	Firearms ○○○○○ ()	Linguistics ○○○○○ ()
Expression ○○○○○ ()	Martial Arts ○○○○○ ()	Medicine ○○○○○ ()
Intimidation ○○○○○ ()	Melee ○○○○○ ()	Occult ○○○○○ ()
Leadership ○○○○○ ()	Performance ○○○○○ ()	Politics ○○○○○ ()
Streetwise ○○○○○ ()	Stealth ○○○○○ ()	Rituals ○○○○○ ()
Subterfuge ○○○○○ ()	Survival ○○○○○ ()	Science ○○○○○ ()
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---	ADVANTAGES	---
Disciplines	Backgrounds	Rites (Name & Level)
Discipline 1 ●○○○○ ()	Allies ○○○○○ ()	---
Discipline 2 ●○○○○ ()	Contacts ○○○○○ ()	---
Discipline 3 ●○○○○ ()	Domain ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Fame ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Generation ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Influence ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Mentor ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Military Force ○○○○○ ()	Merits & Flaws
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Resources ○○○○○ ()	---
[[]] ○○○○○ ()	Retainers ○○○○○ ()	---
---	Status ○○○○○ ()	---
---	Haven ○○○○○ ()	---
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IMBALANCE	DHARMA	YIN CHI
---	(dharma name)	○○○○○○○○○○
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Health Levels	HUN	---
Bruised (0) - { }	○○○○○○○○○○	---
Hurt (-1) ---- { }	P-O	YANG CHI
Injured (-1) - { }	○○○○○○○○○○	○○○○○○○○○○
Wounded (-2) - { }	DEMON CHI	○○○○○○○○○○
Mauled (-2) -- { }	○○○○○○○○○○	---
Crippled (-5)- { }	WILLPOWER	---
Incapacitated- { }	(P) ○○○○○○○○○○○	EXPERIENCE
Final Death	(T) ○○○○○○○○○○○	---

Sobriquet: Huang Zhou Xia commonly called Zen - Madame Zhou or Grandmother Zen and occasionally Zhou Zen

Appearance

Zen normally appears as the skeleton of a small stooped woman covered by a yellowing sack of skin and a mop of hair like milkweed, her eyes are empty sockets with just a spark of green fire far back in the bony recesses, she smells like roadkill and a cold moist breeze stinking of the grave wafts about her at all times.

At great cost and purely for social reasons she can appear as a short elderly Asian grandmother in her later seventies. In this form she stands only five feet tall, adorned with a short cap of silvery hair, her eyes a shade of green like jade and she has age spotted sallow skin with the attendant wrinkles. When she appears so, Zen is often attired in long silk dresses that pool around her feet which were bound in life to give her a mincing step.

In her more human aspect Zen is often dressed by unliving attendants, her face is painted to highlight her age and give the impression of matronly elegance, cosmetics are applied in exactly the same way every time. Clothing is the same being selected to produce a specific emotion in those she will interact with and it is so with all such accoutrements including jewelry, perfume, even the color and design of her long lacquered nails. The overall effect is of entering a room and interacting with a human sized puppet held by invisible strings that smiles and moves about the meeting place mechanically.

Behavior

Although she is unfailingly gracious and seemingly kind, Zen has begun to feel less and less over the last century, a growing numbness brought on by her dark studies and the detachment required of a Bone Flower. Raised as she was in a time of great etiquette and intrigue, Madame Zhou moves graciously through the societies of the living and undead alike, both eastern and western. But beneath her sophisticated demeanor, Grandmother Zen cares very little about anything, that does not mean that she is inclined to ignore slights or shirk responsibilities, rather it means that true emotion is dying in her and secretly she despairs at this growing coldness and very carefully and quietly nurtures what little passion she has left. To those who pay very close attention to Zhou Zen's activities rather than her horrific visage an unmistakable current of nostalgia repeats itself in a pattern throughout her nightly movements.

History

Huang Zhou Xia was born during the zenith of the Qing Empire, beneath the auspicious reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty. At that time, the Qing Empire ruled more than one-third of the world's population, and had the largest economy in the world. By area it was one of the largest empires ever.

It was into this elegant time that Zhou Xia was born into the family of Huang Zhou, a common laborer who elevated himself by becoming a successful merchant of Guangzhou, China. Zhou Xia was the youngest child and final daughter of the merchant and his wife and she was preceded by six other children, half boys and half girls. This circumstance set Zhou Xia life path for two reasons. The first was that her father had little use for daughters save to cement financial alliances and because as the youngest child Zhou Xia's father had little time to spare upon her.

Thus Zhou Xia was raised in a wealthy household in a prosperous city during the cultural zenith of her society. Gifted from birth with a brilliant intellect and a voracious curiosity Zhou Xia mastered everything a young woman of her time and station needed to know and craved more.

Being the least valuable of the merchants children and the most precocious Zhou Xia was allowed after completing her devotions and lessons to roam her neighborhood with the company of two male-slaves as protection. In Zhou Xia's explorations of the streets around her home she met a Buddhist monk, each day the monk would ply the merchant's daughter with quandaries and on each following day Zhou Xia would correctly answer the koan. Sensing a great and restless intellect, the monk would meet the young girl in a public garden and tutor her in philosophy and letters. Zhou Xia suspecting her slave's were going to report these things to her father or mother, quietly threatened them with death if they betrayed her confidences, the slaves greatly shocked and fearful for their lives kept her secrets.

But secrets have a way of escaping the best concealment and Zhou Xia was far from experienced in matters of subterfuge. And a curious older sister exposed Zhou Xia's secrets in the hopes of gaining favor with their father. This revelation did not please the master of the house and fearing a potential spinster the merchant arranged a marriage with a young merchant without family close enough by to study his potential bride. Upon first sight the younger merchant was smitten and quickly agreed to the match in exchange for a business alliance. Thus Zhou Xia was married at the tender age of thirteen to a man ten years her senior and the traitor sister was relegated to spinsterhood as nursemaid to her aging parents.

Zhou Xia was most displeased by this turn of events, but understood that this was the fate of all women of the empire if they were lucky. Although she felt nothing for the young merchant, a man named Zhihao Chai, Zhou Xia turned her mind to excellence as in all things and sought to be a good wife. For his part Zhihao Chai opened his home and heart to the young girl, but love does not often blossom overnight. and the couple spent several years growing together as partners in both marriage and business.

Despite Zhou Xia's father's belief that a large dowry would be necessary to close the marriage contract, her husband had little interest in his wife's wealth and provided all the clothing, jewelry, furnishings and slaves she required. This left Zhou Xia with considerable personal wealth and the opportunity to continue her studies, both mundane and esoteric.

The following decades led to the birth of several children and Zhou Xia was pleased to discover motherhood suited her, it did not however eclipse her explorations into astrology, geomancy, and Taoist alchemy. Between Zhihao Chai's business acumen and Zhou Xia's talent for subterfuge and sorcery the couple grew quite wealthy and powerful. It wasn't until Zhihao Chai sought to bring their family into the ranks of the Qing aristocracy that difficulties arose.

Zhihao Chai had made inroads into Peking and the Forbidden city when one of his allies a man named Heshen rose at meteoric speed to oversee a number of important post that opened lucrative contracts to Zhihao Chai and Zhou Xia. So great an opportunity was this that Zhou Xia's husband moved the family twelve hundred miles north to the capital city. This relationship proved extremely profitable until Zhou Xia's twenty-fourth year. That year the fifth emperor died and his son, Jiaqing Emperor took full control and uncovered a vast web-work of corruption that led to Heshen and many of his associates. Those found to be involved in this corrupt plot to defraud the empire were sentenced to death by Lingchi also known as the death of a thousand cuts. Heshen, the previous emperor's favorite and the instigator of the plot was given the merciful option of suicide by hanging, unfortunately his allies and henchmen were not so lucky and Zhihao Chai was executed very slowly and horrifically for his ambitions and poor choice of friends.

Thereafter Zhou Xia dressed in a widow's black clothes and mourned for many years. Despite her personal pain and loneliness Zhou Xia understood that the family of a traitor would be vulnerable in Peking and moved the family back to Guangzhou City along the southern coast of China and tried to blend back into her old life. Unfortunately this was impossible and she was forced to sell much of her personal wealth to keep the family from starving. In time, decades, the memory of Zhihao Chai's treason faded somewhat and his sons with the guidance of Zhou Xia were able to return to public life and establish new business contacts outside China.

After Zhihao Chai death, Zhou Xia grieved deeply and turned her intellectual interest to necromancy to satisfy her love for her late husband. Although over many years she did master the arts of the grave, she never found a way to reach her husband in the next world, a fact that puzzled each of her teachers. That is until she met Wei Ning, a traditional necromancer who was himself a ghost made flesh, he was able to explain to Zhou Xia that through his dark arts he had located her husband's soul in the Hell of being Skinned Alive. Initially this news only brought Zhou Xia more pain, but Wei Ning assured her that he would soon escape from this hell and be reborn one of the undead. This presented Zhou Xia with another opportunity to be with her husband, but left her horrified at the cost and circumstances of their reunion.

In the meantime Wei Ning could instruct her in the arts of death and usher her towards both damnation and immortality. To restore her family's wealth and continue her studies Zhou Xia took up the opium trade and found herself doing business with the British. This arrangement proved quite lucrative, but following the disastrous First Opium War, Zhou Xia and her family were forced to flee China and death at the hands of imperial agents.

For a few short years the family resided in Vietnam, but when in 1851 the news of Gum San, the Mountain of Gold found outside of San Francisco led the family of Zhou Xia across the Pacific Ocean and to a new and barbarous world. Zhou Xia and her family arrived in a fleet of Chinese ships bearing twenty-thousand Chinese immigrants to the west coast of North America. Regrettably Zhou Xia was among the first victims of a cholera epidemic that would sweep the through the vast tent city surrounding old San Francisco. But precocious Zhou Xia refused to stay in her appointed hell and clawed her way back to the world of the living where Wei Ning waited to show her the lessons of immortality and where she waits patently for the return of Zhihao Chai.

Recent Events

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Basics

Gender: Feminine
Type: Elderly Adult
Nationality: Chinese
Location: Guangzhou, China
Language: Cantonese

Life & Times

Age: 247
Birth date: June 30, 1775 (5:27 AM)

Physical

Height: 153 cm / 5 ft
Weight: 31 kg / 68 lbs
Handedness: Left
Blood type: O+

Death

Death date: July 8, 1852 (8:28 AM)
Lifespan: 77
Cause of death: Cholera
Dharma: Bone Flower