Yulan-jin Rootless Tree and Guide of the Blind
Background
Yulan-Tao has no memory of life, only of death, burning pain and his own screams. He remembers the pain stretching on forever, his soul flayed by the razor winds of Yomi as his screams were torn away by the howling demons. He remembers the struggle to escape their tearing claws and red-hot brands as though it lasted a century. Perhaps it did.
He knows only he did escape, returning to the Middle Kingdom deep in the heart of China and rising to wear a corpse not his own. He remembers the terrible hunger that drove him to attack a girl who wandered too far from her village, to devour her flesh and flee from the villagers’ searching lights.
Yulan-Tao remembers existing like a beast, with no concerns save for hiding from the light and satisfying the gnawing, endless hunger. Finally, others found him and bound him. They took him and forced the Demon back, so that Yulan-Tao emerged once more… except he possessed no name then, none at all.
He took the name Tao when his training was complete and he stepped onto the Path of a Thousand Whispers. He would wear a thousand masks, starting with that of the corpse he wore. Already his true face was lost to him; when he asked his sifu if he should mourn that loss, his teacher said, “ did your mother mourn you before you were born?
” Tao stalked the Middle Kingdom, wearing many different masks. He spent some time at the Jade Court, studying with the masters there, filling the void in his mind with knowledge and understanding of his new existence. For him, the Second Breath was his first. He knew no existence other than the one he had. It was as if he had never beheld the sun before, so he did not miss the Eye of Heaven.
He was curious about it, even rightfully feared it, but it was fear of something strange and terrible he had never known before. Some said Tao’s forgetfulness was a blessing, while others thought it inauspicious. Tao said only time would tell — and it did. After nearly a mortal lifetime, Tao wore a mask that entangled him in the violence of the Boxer Rebellion.
He became careless and his corpse paid the price. He fell to the colonial soldiers’ guns and, in that instant, his soul was torn SAN FRANCISCO BY NIGHT 96 from the body it wore, the corpse collapsing into dust. He was borne on the hellish winds of Yomi and screamed in terror of his first memories, of his “first death.
” Yulan-Tao fought his way free of Hell again, and arose in a corpse of another stranger. This time he was a woman in Korea. Tao met Kuei-jin from the Green Courts, and eventually discovered he was Yulan-jin, a spirit-jumper and wandering soul who found no rest, even in unlife.
He carefully concealed his true nature and doggedly continued pursuing his Dharma, but fell victim to conflict once more when war broke out in Korea. While escaping the bombing of a village, Tao stepped on a landmine. Yomi beckoned again. Three more times Tao fought his way free of Hell. Three more times he rose up in a new corpse like a discarded suit of clothes.
The most recent time proved the most shocking of all. Just over ten years ago, immediately following the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, YulanTao found himself in the body of a Westerner, a young man named Tim O’Connell. Tao quickly adapted and blended into the city’s anarch underground, accepted as just another Caitiff.
In time, Yulan-Tao believed Heaven ordained his coming to San Francisco, because it allowed him to understand his unliving existence from a completely different angle. The moment of enlightenment opened his eyes, and he felt the weight of so many years of struggle drop away. Here was a new mask, a new role that truly affirmed his Way.
Since then, Yulan-Tao maintains Tim O’Connell’s identity as a Kindred anarch as his primary mask, occasionally adopting other identities as needed. He came into contact with Billy Wei a few years after arriving in the city and supported the cause of the largely forgotten kànbujiàn of San Francisco.
Yulan-Tao revealed his true nature to Wei and serves as something of a teacher and guide for the Heaven Promise Society, though he does so on his own terms. The Kuei-jin invasion and the so-called New Promise Mandarinate deeply concern Tao. He sees the Quincunx blundering into a situation it knows nothing about, full of bluster and self-importance.
He’ s afraid that if they discover him, they will brand him a heretic (or worse, akuma) and deliver him unto the Final Death, the most absolute of fates. He has some sympathy for the Kin-jin, having existed among them, but he’s not yet willing to help the Camarilla against the Kuei-jin. He continues working with the Heaven Promise Society while hoping another solution will present itself.
Character Description
Tim O’Connell was a handsome, college-age man, with short, sandy-colored hair and a gold loop earring in his right ear. Tim’s eyes were blue, but YulanTao’s eyes are a vivid jade green (as they have been with every body he occupies). He dresses in simple, serviceable clothes; usually jeans, combat boots, a t-shirt and a leather jacket. His guileless face actually conceals a being of considerable cunning: Yulan-Tao has become a consummate actor, able to play vampire anarch, drunken frat-boy, street con, brilliant student and more at the drop of a hat. Roleplaying Notes: You are not what you seem, and that is your greatest strength. To most, you are all but invisible, beneath their notice. As long as you remain that way, you are safe, but it is not your nature to hide when there are experiences to embrace. Once you cursed your existence as a wandering spirit, but now you seize it as your path to enlightenment. You have learned much about Western society and the Kindred since your arrival in San Francisco, and you wish there were a way to share your experiences with Kuei-jin. You fear, perhaps rightfully so, that they are too prejudiced and set in their ways to listen. If you could somehow help the New Promise Mandarinate live up to its ideals, as a true alliance between Kuei-jin and Kindred, however, you would.