IDENTITY                                                                                                                                

so that the dead may rest.

NAME. Liú, ChénXiào (劉晨孝)
AGE. 24
BIRTHDAY. August 15
GENDER. she/her
HEIGHT. 5'8 | 172.7 cm
WEIGHT. 120 lb | 54.5 kg
FACTION. Han Lian
PURPOSE. Loyalty to the clan. (Her reason for living)

PERSONALITY. 

Upon first interaction, ChenXiao is dismissive and unsociable. She has a tendency to view the world as black and white, and so she categorizes the people she meets into either one of two categories: allies and enemies. Enemies are then categorized into harmful or harmless. She lacks the ability to understand the depths of an individual's personality, and when she encounters someone who doesn't fit within this view she forces them into a category on her own volition. As long as the individual doesn't seem dangerous, she categorizes them as so.

She is generally a passive individual, and it's hard to get under her skin. She is patient and not usually prompted to fight, as insults directed towards her are brushed off easily, and microaggressions are ignored. She doesn't care about the opinions of strangers or people she categorizes as "enemies". Not much of a talker, she avoids getting too close to others. She's very wary, and often questions other people's motives. She's honest and straightforward and doesn't beat around the bush, but this also makes her rather insensitive.

Her only Achilles heel are the people she loves. When it comes to them, she becomes aggressive, merciless, and brash. The type to think with her heart instead of her head, once provoked she will not stop until some blood has been shed. She holds grudges to her grave, and is the type to judge by first impressions. Once she has made up her mind about you, it is hard to change it.

Much like a dog, ChenXiao is fiercely loyal to the people she cares about. She will not hesitate to be cold or hostile towards anyone who slights them. This loyalty runs deep, and borders on blind obedience. Towards those she is close with, ChenXiao is a quiet guardian. Patient and gentle, she willingly goes along with their shenanigans. She has a tendency to want to spoil others. A tad overprotective, she will jump the smallest sign of danger. 

Her protective nature added with her fierce loyalty give birth to an anxious disposition. She gets lonely very easily, and relies heavily on the validation and acknowledgement of the people she looks up to to function. While she doesn't care about the thoughts of strangers, she cares too much about the thoughts of the people she cares about. When left alone for too long, she becomes depressed and stagnant. Without someone to direct her, she becomes lost. This makes her rather clingy and overbearing. 

SKILLS                                                                                                                                     

let sleeping dogs lie.

CLASS. DAN XIU 丹修
RANK. 10
LEVELS. 
DAN XIU 丹修 - Level 3

SKILLS. 
DAN XIU 丹修 - Pestilence Ghost.
ChenXiao specializes in creating fast acting poisons. She coats her claws in the poisons that she makes, and at her current level any wounds inflicted using her claws cause mild sluggishness and fever. The wound also takes longer than normal to heal. For example, a small papercut that would normally close in a day or two would take three days. (At her current level, wounds take a few additional days longer to heal, depending on the serverity of the wound and how much poison has been afflicted.) The poison may take a while to be removed by normal means, but even a mildly skilled practitioner of DanXiu could easily dispel it.

WU XIU 武修 - Chained Dog.
Fittingly, LCX wields a chain and claw set. Using WuXiu, she is able to reinforce her chains, and make them move in unpredictable ways. Is still unable to control the chains well, but can, for example, make them veer slightly off course. Her fighting style is feral and unsophisticated. She fights mostly off instinct, and shuts off her brain during conflicts.

HISTORY                                                                                                                                  

do not bite the hand that feeds.

HISTORY. 
Hunger. Fear. These are the first feelings Chenxiao know, and the only ones she can remember for her first few years of life. For as far back as she could recall, she had lived alone in the dark back alleys and slums of a small village near the Han Lian Valley. Her parents were her only living relatives, and they had both succumbed to illness when she was very young. Her dad was a handyman, and her mom a houswife, and they were poor and riddled with debt. When they passed, all of their belongings were confiscated and sold in order to pay off their loans. She had no other relatives in the area. Chenxiao grew up an orphan, with no-one to take her in, and no-one to raise her. Orphaned at an incredibly young age, she was unable to read or write and had just barely started to speak. She lived more like an animal and less like a human child. 

Through some twisted stroke of luck, she manages to live past the age of four. With her inability to speak properly, the other orphans of the town steered clear of her. Some times, kind-hearted villagers would pity her and give her bits of burnt bread or stale rice to eat. But most other times, she got by through stealing fruits out of fruit trees or rummaging through the garbage. On really unlucky days, she would go hungry. 

She manages to get by, until one day, she gets caught stealing. Chenxiao gets severly beaten and bruised, and left in a dark alley. A young malnourished child at the time, she would've died if left alone. That's when he finds her. He picks her up off the street and saves her, nursing her back to health. When she opens her eyes, she's in a small hut in the middle of the town cemetery. Her savior declares the day he picks her up to be her 5th birthday, although her actual age at the time is unknown. 

It's not until long after he passes that she learns his real name. In the time they spent together, he demanded that she call him teacher, shifu. She doesn't know much about him. Only that: he had no family, and that he was in charge of the graveyard. He wasn't a friend, and he most definitely wasn't family. The only reason he picked her up was that he was looking for a disciple. Someone with no history and no ties that he could mold into his ideal successor. He was not a friend, nor a brother, nor a father. Only a teacher, only a master. He made sure to remind her of that constantly. 

This is your role. I have given you a reason to live; your duty. You will live for it, and you will die for it.

Her shifu teaches her how to be human; How to read and write, and how to speak. He also teaches her to take over as the gravekeeper, everything from ceremonies to martial arts, and also DanXiu. Under his spartan discipline, she absorbs the knowledge like a sponge. An acquaintance of his stopped by the cemetery every so often and taught her WuXiu. While she wasn't very intelligent, she had good instincts, and adapted quickly. She accepts her new lifestyle quickly and enthusiastically; practically throwing herself into her training. 

Eventually, her master's body succumbs to old age, and she takes over his duties as a gravekeeper. When she turns of age, her master finally passes. On his deathbed, he tells her to travel to He Town, and that he is indebted to it. There, she will find her duty. After completing her week of mourning, she quickly packs her frugal belongings and sets off towards He Town.

She lives in He Town for a year and does shifts at the town's graveyard, while hunting for side income. During this year, she learns of the HanLian faction that rules over the area, and a small part of her reaches an epiphany. HanLian. That would be her duty.

She continues training her body, and takes and passes the initiation exam. She serves her first probationary year with the creed, dedicating her body and soul to the creed. Seeing her fierce determination, a HanLian member vouches for her and she finally is officially admitted

I've finally found my reason to live.

Even when she hears of the Green Heights Massacre, even as the anger floods her body and the thirst for revenge threatens to overtake her, her purpose does not change. ChenXiao resolves to continue to serve the faction. She hears of the fight for power within HanLian, and their new leader is revealed. She doesn't question the new leadership.

A dog's role isn't to ask questions, but only to obey.

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tl;dr She is a feral street orphan who gets saved by her master after getting caught stealing food. He teachers her and raises her to take over his position as the town's gravekeeper. When he dies, he tells her to go to He Town to fulfill her "duty". She goes and hears of HanLian, and decides to commit her life to the creed.

EXTRA