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== Next Session Notes ==
<@IXJac> If you use it, and it works, it's worth a Wisdom point
(With regards to the Yankee propaganda radio from the bunker for spirit summoning difficulty/stuff)
= Future Purchases List =
= Future Purchases List =


== Abilities ==  
== Abilities ==  


:Craft 5 (Weapons)
:More Instruction
:
:More archery


== Spheres ==
== Spheres ==


:Correspondence (Indra's Net) 1 & 2
:Correspondence (Indra's Net) 1 & 2
:Matter because goddamn you have to do all your crafting yourself.
== Merits ==
Without a trace (2 point) (mundane attempts to track you automatically fail, supernatural attempts are at +2 difficulty)


= Quests =
= Quests =


Acquire purifying dragon water from the water dragon at Arcus Prima.


== My Blade is My Soul ==
= Charms to Make =


When an Akashic fights using a weapon as part of his Do, he fights using that weapon as an extension of the self. It ceases to be an exterior element, but is instead part of the soul of battle that the Akashic warrior possesses, a melding of thought and will and force. However, not all weapons are created equal. Just as the enlightened seek transcendence, so too must their implements. To truly transcend a weapon, one must master it not just in battle, but in all things. One must learn the craft that forged that weapon, in order to turn it towards enlightenment.
== Life ==


Of course, the enlightenment of the blade is a different enlightenment than that of the Mage- but not a lesser enlightenment. Only a different path. To know the soul of the blade, one must forge a bond with it, both in battle and the forging.
'''Awakening of the Clear Water''': This water, purified by a legendary water elemental dragon, is infused with nature ki embodying the purity being and growth of life. Just as the clear water wakes the deep sleeper, so too does it serve to salve wounds and reject damages, restoring proper ki flows, healing chakras, and righting in the body what was once wrong.  


== Time ==


'''Time-Slipping Kata:''' Learned by weaving a cloak of time around oneself to step between raindrops, one masters the ability to slip between moments, moving beyond mortal limits. Dragon water, embodied with the spark of this knowledge imparts insight into the technique- and a user may cast the water into the air- and see how to step between the droplets as they fall. While the awareness of time imparted by the charm is temporary, the lessons learned while under its influence are no less real. These charms are often used to 'nudge' a student into his initial awakening to the true mastery of time.


= Guide to Ninjas =
= Guide to Ninjas =
Line 33: Line 54:
6. Be a real ninja. How does a ninja stop a truck? He jumps on the roof and shoves a sword through the cab. How does a ninja stop a rampaging boomer? He cuts off its limbs. Be theatrical.<br>
6. Be a real ninja. How does a ninja stop a truck? He jumps on the roof and shoves a sword through the cab. How does a ninja stop a rampaging boomer? He cuts off its limbs. Be theatrical.<br>


= Things below this point are out of date/redacted =
= Ninjaology =
Alright, so two years prior to the current game date, Shu's clan was killed by ninjas under a technocracy/order of reason contract. For whatever reason this triggered some sort of psychic feedback and Shu forgot how to use the Mind Sphere and Do- and became a ninja. He was an akashic FIRST, and then a ninja second.
When he got thrown into the modern world, he began returning to being an Akashic, because he can't get by being a ninja alone- so that means relearning the Mind Sphere, and Do, and focusing on more akashic things.
His current concept is that he's an Akashic warrior- honorable to a code of his own- and he believes that the technocracy needs to be defeated in order to do the other stuff he needs to do. His Story is about rediscovering the pieces of himself that he's lost, and figuring out what he needs to do. This leads to the next part, goals:
Primary Goals
:1. Break the Technocracy of its strangehold on Japan.
:2. Revive the Izanagi Clan
Secondary Goals
:1. Revive the Izanagi Sword Style
:2. Follow up on his commitments and the word of bond he's given for various plots.
= Angry, Angry, Shu =




Shu is bottling a lot of anger over the loss of the traditions against the technocracy in japan, and how a lot of his chantrymates just don't seem to *care* about it- Kana in particular, as he knew her as Miho and now she's... crazy. Shu's been bottling with a 'for the sake of the mission' justification, but really he's in shock of a sort- trauma from all the things he's lost and put aside, which have led him to new awareness- as they say, once you hit the bottom you have nowhere to go but up. It is this that has led Shu to his new level of mastery, and now he begins the long road of recovering what he has put aside and sacrificed in the face of his Task.
= True Enlightenment =


Do is a path to enlightenment, and perhaps the truest of paths. While other traditions believe they have found the secrets to true awareness, they cloud their perception and blind their senses. While their strength cannot be denied, they take strength from their falsehood and refuse to see that their paths are yet incomplete.


== The Universe According to Shu Izanagi ==
Do is The Way, and those who are ready to tread the path of Enlightenment walk it. Whether they learn from a mentor or invent it themselves, those who are ready, are. Those who are not, fail. It is a simple and elegant truth, just as the true nature of existence is simple, but elegant.


Shu sees 'rightness'- auras are like seeing with a new set of colours that you couldn't see before. Like going from black and white to high def colour.


It is the height of hubris to assume that because one walks the path of The Way, that those whom walk other paths have nothing to teach the Walker. There are many roads to reach this point, and many skills that may be learned. What exists, exists, but the physical world is but one part of a three-aspected whole. Can you truly say that the knowledge the other walkers have mastered is meaningless, when you have not studied it yourself or incorporated it into your being?


Ki is the ultimate expression of the balance of mind body and spirit- a rightness of being. Shu can perceive and manipulate this rightness, and recognizes that all mages use it. A technocrat gathers ki through technolocal implements- mimicking the unification of mind, body, and spirit through the unification of silicon, steel, and electricity. A hermetic invokes godforms, draws pentagrams, and calls things into being by naming them as they are- but all this is just a complicated way of shaping the ki of themselves and the world into a form they can use. When they summon a fireball through a circle of runes, they are channeling ki, the rightness of being, and the recognition that all things are part of akasha in order to produce the flame.
Of course not. A student must always be willing to learn, even if he does not yet see a purpose in what it is he is mastering.




All mages walk the path towards enlightenment, but while the Akashic Brotherhood are the custodians of the path, and indeed know more of its secrets than the others, they are still walkers on the road. Such an ungainly procession we must make, but the Akashics know that each person has a path to walk. The road spirals towards enlightenment, and Akasha is the True Way. Someone who follows another tradition should not be disrespected- for they too are on the path. One day, in this life or another, they will reach for Akasha and Akasha will answer.
== Lesson Tracker ==


Red Leaves Part 2: Shu can't rely on being all melee all the time. He needs a ranged option. But at the same time he's unwilling to rely on the technocratic sciences of firearms- artless weapons as they are. A more traditional ranged weapon, like a bow as it fits into Akashic Study is ideal.


From a strict perspective, this view is free of morality, or rather, it is not defined by morality. "Rightness" isn't a matter of action, so much as a matter of being. It is not a moral rightness, but rather a rightness of harmony. Someone can achieve rightness while still being morally wrong- murders committed following Fen Shui where the murderer is in enlightened harmony can have a degree of 'rightness' to them- but it is not the rightness of 'this is the correct action', and it is not a rightness that Shu necessarily accepts in his view of the greater whole of enlightenment.  
SF0 Liz Memorial Heist: Shu needs to become a teacher, to pass on his knowledge but moreover to give them the skills needed to keep them from ignorance- from unbalancing the foundations of time itself, or having dick all for situational awareness, being unable to meditate or knowing nothing about medicine: these are all key skills that Shu is versed in and nobody else (but Westin or Cara) seem to have any clues about. And that's a problem.


Stupid Hospital Haunting: Shu didn't learn anything, he was right the whole time.


Achieving perfection through enlightenment is the ultimate goal of every mage, whether they know it or not. The measure of how 'right'- or rather, how 'real' their being is, becomes one of the primary means for determining how close they are on the path. Those touched by ascension are colored with a different brush, a new set of colours, and by watching these colours- through various methods of opening the mind's inner eye, one can learn a great many things. Just as one can understand that a person is lame by the way their muscles move, one can learn that a person has been touched by ascension, or even what emotions that person feels by the colours they are painted in- the flavour of their Ki.


== Useful Descriptive Stuff ==


It is perhaps a misnomer to use the term 'rightness', for there is long association between that word and that of moral correctness, but the ethical consideration is not the underlying concern for this philosophy. Rather, it can be said that 'rightness' is a measure of how real something is. If a person is a photo made by main faintly coloured layers, they become more colourful, more <i>real</i> the closer they get to perfection and transcendence. But 'realness' is also a misnomer, for it suggests that those who have not journeyed so far on the paths are less. However, it is more accurate to say that those who have not journeyed so far have not yet become what they will become- they are an ornate process, intricate in its majesty. As they walk the journey, they come closer and closer to their perfection, that rightness of being that opens the way to transcendence and enlightenment. They are not less so much as it is that we cannot see the fullness of their being, for we are further along the path than they, and truly looking down and seeing all of creation is the greatest gift yet ungiven. Do not pity them, for they are on the road. One day they will tread the paths we have tread, and drink the waters we have drunk. One day they will see the rightness in all things, accept it, and look to the future.
Shu anoints his eyes with pure water from the spring of Arcus Prima, while steadying his breath and centering his mind. Free of outside influence, Shu looks beyond the physical and to the very ties of fate itself, drawing the living upwards and onwards, and the dead down, binding them tighter to the wheel of samsara. Per+aware

Latest revision as of 17:16, 5 September 2023

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Next Session Notes

<@IXJac> If you use it, and it works, it's worth a Wisdom point

(With regards to the Yankee propaganda radio from the bunker for spirit summoning difficulty/stuff)


Future Purchases List

Abilities

More Instruction
More archery

Spheres

Correspondence (Indra's Net) 1 & 2
Matter because goddamn you have to do all your crafting yourself.

Merits

Without a trace (2 point) (mundane attempts to track you automatically fail, supernatural attempts are at +2 difficulty)

Quests

Acquire purifying dragon water from the water dragon at Arcus Prima.

Charms to Make

Life

Awakening of the Clear Water: This water, purified by a legendary water elemental dragon, is infused with nature ki embodying the purity being and growth of life. Just as the clear water wakes the deep sleeper, so too does it serve to salve wounds and reject damages, restoring proper ki flows, healing chakras, and righting in the body what was once wrong.

Time

Time-Slipping Kata: Learned by weaving a cloak of time around oneself to step between raindrops, one masters the ability to slip between moments, moving beyond mortal limits. Dragon water, embodied with the spark of this knowledge imparts insight into the technique- and a user may cast the water into the air- and see how to step between the droplets as they fall. While the awareness of time imparted by the charm is temporary, the lessons learned while under its influence are no less real. These charms are often used to 'nudge' a student into his initial awakening to the true mastery of time.

Guide to Ninjas

It has come to my attention that my concept for Shu has really diffused over the while, to the point where he really isn't behaving like an martial artist ninja guy. So some things I need to keep in mind are:


1. When in doubt, go out and find trouble. High risk, high reward.
2. When in doubt, punch things. An Akashic can always use punching things as a focus for his Magick.
3. Don't spend too long in a planning phase- or if people are dedicated to doing a planning phase, announce and make sure you're heard, that you're going with one of the ideas you had and doing it. PM if necessary.
4. Play the character you are, not the character you think you want to be. Shu is statted as a combat monster with limited social skills. Play him as such. No more long winded philosophical bullshit- it accomplishes nothing and wastes him as a character.
5. Shu is a student of the old ways- and invested in the old ways. Even without Achronism, he shouldn't be super tech guy. Go out and hit things, or otherwise take care of things in the old manner. Shu isn't equipped to do super modern fighting, so he should rely on his strengths.
6. Be a real ninja. How does a ninja stop a truck? He jumps on the roof and shoves a sword through the cab. How does a ninja stop a rampaging boomer? He cuts off its limbs. Be theatrical.


True Enlightenment

Do is a path to enlightenment, and perhaps the truest of paths. While other traditions believe they have found the secrets to true awareness, they cloud their perception and blind their senses. While their strength cannot be denied, they take strength from their falsehood and refuse to see that their paths are yet incomplete.

Do is The Way, and those who are ready to tread the path of Enlightenment walk it. Whether they learn from a mentor or invent it themselves, those who are ready, are. Those who are not, fail. It is a simple and elegant truth, just as the true nature of existence is simple, but elegant.


It is the height of hubris to assume that because one walks the path of The Way, that those whom walk other paths have nothing to teach the Walker. There are many roads to reach this point, and many skills that may be learned. What exists, exists, but the physical world is but one part of a three-aspected whole. Can you truly say that the knowledge the other walkers have mastered is meaningless, when you have not studied it yourself or incorporated it into your being?

Of course not. A student must always be willing to learn, even if he does not yet see a purpose in what it is he is mastering.


Lesson Tracker

Red Leaves Part 2: Shu can't rely on being all melee all the time. He needs a ranged option. But at the same time he's unwilling to rely on the technocratic sciences of firearms- artless weapons as they are. A more traditional ranged weapon, like a bow as it fits into Akashic Study is ideal.

SF0 Liz Memorial Heist: Shu needs to become a teacher, to pass on his knowledge but moreover to give them the skills needed to keep them from ignorance- from unbalancing the foundations of time itself, or having dick all for situational awareness, being unable to meditate or knowing nothing about medicine: these are all key skills that Shu is versed in and nobody else (but Westin or Cara) seem to have any clues about. And that's a problem.

Stupid Hospital Haunting: Shu didn't learn anything, he was right the whole time.


Useful Descriptive Stuff

Shu anoints his eyes with pure water from the spring of Arcus Prima, while steadying his breath and centering his mind. Free of outside influence, Shu looks beyond the physical and to the very ties of fate itself, drawing the living upwards and onwards, and the dead down, binding them tighter to the wheel of samsara. Per+aware