Name: Gardini Almaster IV.
Age: 52.
Sex: Male.
Date of birth: June 8th.
Place of birth: Imperial City, Cizok.
Status: Alive.
Race: Human.
Nationality: Half Coranian, half Cizokian. Appears more Coranian than Cizokian, however.
Marital status: Unmarried. Widower.
Height: 6'3.
Weight: 212lbs.
Eye color: Green.
Skin color: Caucasian; fair.
Hair color: Dark, gray in some spots.
Voice: Bass. Extremely authoritative--perhaps unnaturally so.
Notable marks: Like most aged Cizokian warriors, Gardini has a slew of scars, but not nearly as much as others with his age and battle experience.
>> Image.
Art by Porcelain82
>> Persona.
Demeanor: Gardini Almaster IV is known for his impatient and impulsive attitude. What he feels "necessary" at the time (which is the action he generally takes) changes quickly, often resulting in him disregarding all prior decisions if they reeked of mistake. On a personal level, the Shogun of Cizok is a truly despicable human being. He has on numerous occasions molested his female servants on a whim (denying all accusations later), claimed and proved followers and servants to be traitors and thus executed, had innocents tortured for information and later executing them for silence's sake, and even encouraged his soldiers to rape and pillage during war. Despite this, for anything dealing with his country, he thinks not of himself but of his people as a whole. The previously mentioned tortures are generally for information regarding national threats, and the unwelcome opening of Cizok's borders to outsiders was purely for the sake of fixing a broken and dying economy. Likewise, Gardini refuses to replenish the royal treasury with funding originally meant for civil services (such as building roads, schools, and the like).
Despite his corrupted personality, he was--and remains--a natural born leader. To even those who view him with no sense of loyalty, he commands respect, and carries with him an air of strength and power that can inspire both subordinates and enemies.
History: Fifty-two years before the fateful revolution against him, Gardini Almaster IV was nothing more than a newborn child of noble blood--but in a purely "dishonorable" way. His mother, a Coranian woman, shared a bed with Gardini Almaster III, and when it became evident that she was pregnant, they married out of obligation, and when a son was born who held not the appearance of a Cizokian child but a Coranian, it further dishonored the Almaster family name. The noble Almaster family proceeded to dive into the same social class as commoners. At the time, for a nobleman to marry a foreigner was a dishonor to the entire House--but to bear a child with him or her . . .
It went without saying that a family could not be lead by anyone short of a full blooded Cizokian. The taboo in giving the House to his only heir left Gardini III in such turmoil that over the years he inevitably took his own life, feeling as if he had dishonored his ancestors, his family, his country, and his son. Gardini IV was only ten at the time.
Over the years, Gardini IV became a trained warrior, initially wishing to make his father proud, but in time, he saw it only as a way to reestablish the House that he inherited. The young man fought time and time again, battling against dojos and personal warriors of other noble Houses, during which he met men such as Uematsu Tetsuken, Toryiama Shiden, Toushin Hikane, and Kiyoshi Sasaki, all also children of Noble houses who bore exceptional skills with a blade. These men were some of the few who did not turn Gardini IV away because of his heritage.
The rest of the country, however . . .
When Gardini IV was nineteen, his discontent with Cizokian's current state had reached a boiling point--and by then, he had accumulated companions who all felt the same way. The very notion that a living, breathing, thinking person was less than human just because he or she was born from the union of a foreigner and a native Cizokian was a subject that enraged the young man when he gave it so much as the slightest thought, and when his companions witnessed how the Almaster family was subordinated to such a low that he, his grandmother, and mother may as well have been slaves to slaves, they supported him in every way they could.
Little by little, he was viewed with a sense of sympathy, and over time, a small group of commoners and nobles alike treated him as if he had a cause. The Shogun at the time saw this as a threat, and sought to put down this attempt to rebel against the old ways of Cizok. Tradition, beyond all things, was maintained by the previous order. Knowing the threat that tradition now presented him, Gardini IV even felt as if he had a cause. For his House, and for all others like him, trampled by society, he took up arms with his compatriots, and with a small force, fought a rebellion against the Shogunate at the time.
And they won.
The band of revolutionaries toppled the Shogun and, as a show of disdain for the old ways, Gardini himself cut the man down--rather than exiling him. They each sought change, most of which wishing for a less disdainful outlook upon foreign soils. The newly instated Shogunate sought to change this, and they did. Over time, the citizenry began to see other countries as "barbaric" and less than human. Gardini IV, as the man who inevitably lead the rebellion, took the title of Cizok's Shogun, half out of the insistence of his compatriots and half out of his own ambition, a drive to succeed despite the country's degrading of he and his House.
Gardini IV, however, was unprepared for such power, and within the course of thirty years, power had corrupted this man and turned him into something vastly different than what was once an idealist and revolutionary. This is not to say, however, that his corruption was not assisted--nor that he'd have even become the corrupt human being he is now without that assistance . . .
>> Contacts.
Amaya Almaster: The Shogun's first daughter.
Seiria Almaster: The Shogun's second daughter.
Hiraku: Gardini's minister of foreign affairs. Gardini's essential "second in command," next to Abi Hisshino.
Abi "Abby" Hisshino: A (likewise) half-blood samurai under Gardini's direct command. No one but Gardini has authority over Hisshino, giving Hisshino more authority than even the daimyos and generals themselves.
Shichiroji Kambei: Commander of the Kensai. Under Hiraku's direct authority (and Gardini's, of course). Companion during Gardini's rebellion.
Zaila Nakamura: Commander of the Kisai. Under Hiraku's direct authority (and Gardini's, of course).
Shichiroji Kambei: Commander of the Kensai. Under Hiraku's direct authority (and Gardini's, of course). Close friend during and after Gardini's rebellion; fellow idealist that has been slightly distanced by Gardini IV's drifting from his ideals.
Uematsu Tetsuken: Best friend and ally prior to Uematsu's death.
Toryiama Shiden: (Former) Close companion; distanced when Toryiama refused to serve as a Daimyo, and instead of taking part in the new Almaster Shogunate, walked away from it.
Toushin Hikane: Former compatriot during Gardini IV's rebellion and Daimyo serving under the Almaster Shogunate. Was forced to resign from his position when he took wounds during a civilian uprising that left him physically incapable of fighting. Gardini IV hasn't seen him since.
Kiyoshi Sasaki: Close friend and rival before and after Gardini IV's rebellion, before he was mysteriously murdered--a crime which Gardini IV has yet to get over.
>> Powers and Abilities.
Special abilities: It is a known fact that the Shogun has special abilities; talks of aged samurai suggest that it is something related to fire, but what it is exactly is a mystery. No one individual in Cizok has lived to see the Shogun utilize anything other than his regular fighting style. Because others claim him to make use of ice, water, and even some claim electricity, it can be concluded as nothing more than hearsay.
Fighting style: Djem So. An intensely aggressive style of swordplay, wherein the wielder uses a heavy blade for successive blows, rather than a passive-aggressive defense-offense. It is built around combination attacks, utilizing momentum to increase the speed and strength of his successive blows. When using a smaller, lighter blade, his attack speed remains constant (perhaps even unnecessarily fast!) and his defense remains minimal. That is, after all, the point of wearing armor.
