The legendary paladin who fought
Senno, freed
Manna, and ended
The Break. After brokering peace with
Nobumori and returning to
Zonyashi, she was named as the successor to
Ono the Eastwind and became the second
Eastwind.
Personal History
Kansa was born in
Nanganato during the Moon of Sewing in the 11th year of the Break. Although no records indicate the exact date of her birth, it is rumored that she was born on the 13th day, the moment that the Hotsukai brought the Fade into this world. Her mother, Aya, was a cleric of
Hiega and a member of The Guard in Nanganato. Her father, Kinoho, was a soldier in the Hotsukai’s army, fighting at the eastern border at the time she was born. He was injured though, some reports say during
The Schism itself, and returned home to Nanganato not long after. Unwilling to quit entirely, he joined The Guard and prepared for the day he feared that he would have to defend Nanganato as the armies of fearsome beasts spilled across Shudan. Luckily for him, they never reached as far west as Nanganato. They were first crippled by the actions of the man who would become
Ono the Eastwind in
Mirin's Pass, and then driven out entirely in the months that followed.
From a very young age Kansa studied magic with her mother and swordplay with her father. Shudan was free from war at the time, but it was not without political strife.
Zonyashi had largely given up on magic in favor of the new
Shudan Shogunate, but Nanganato had become a city which still respected the culture of magic in a country which had lost much of it. Many in the city wished to adopt a stricter militant culture, following in the footsteps of Zonyanshi, but others still felt that magic was a great tool for good. One of the most vocal defenders of magic in this time was Aya. Despite the cleric’s best effort to do good for the citizens of Nanganato, she struggled greatly with the unstable mana that permeated the world. Kansa though, had been born into this world and knew nothing different. As she studied, she quickly found that she was able to naturally sense the state of the mana around her and account for minor instabilities herself. When the instabilities were too great, she knew enough to rely on her swordplay instead.
In addition to martial skills, Kinoho passed on to his daughter stories of war. They weren’t heroic tales that glorified the exploits of men like the shogun though. They were terrifying truths about what it was like to live on the front lines. To know that you might never see your family or your home again. To feel like your death will ultimately accomplish nothing of consequence. Kansa learned that war was not a great noble thing that heroes chose to participate in, but rather a terrifying and horrific necessity of life. As such, Kansa dreamed of becoming someone who would bring peace and not war.
By the time she was fifteen she was a member of The Guard herself, and also well on her way to becoming a paladin of Hiega. It’s said that she communed with the god of justice often at this point in her life, and that he had a specific purpose in mind for her.
In S18, Kansa journeyed to Zonyanshi to serve at the
Temple of Order there. In addition to her duties at the temple, she spent much of her free time training with the soldiers of the shogun. Ono, nearing the age of 50, still actively trained with his men on occasion and reportedly said of Kansa, “we would be wise to keep our eyes on that one.”
In S26, Kansa, along with two older and more experienced paladins and a cleric from the Temple of Order in Zonyanshi, was dispatched to
Dokage to help the town militia which was overburdened by frequent bandit raids and an infestation of basilisks in the area north of the town. After chasing off many of the bandits and clearing the basilisks entirely, the three more experienced members of the temple returned to Zonyanshi. Kansa stayed behind to help Dokage recover, and also hunt down groups of bandits that had fled to the hills and countryside nearby.
During her stay in Dokage she learned about
Sukorak and the former master
Glan Nightshade who had passed away in recent years. She became fascinated with magic in a way she never was before, and began to study the history of Shudan when magic was at its peak. In a time of studies and enlightenment instead of war and political turmoil. Inspired by the botany of Nightshade, she decided that she would do whatever was within her power to restore the world of stable mana her mother had so often told her about. She viewed Nightshade’s approach as a half measure though, and instead decided that the only real solution was to free
Manna herself. But Kansa knew of no one capable of interplanar travel, and so had no idea how to begin.
Kansa spent the next four years travelling the country of Shudan, helping where she could and learning along the way. When she returned to Zonyanshi in S30, she said that it was with specific instructions from Hiega himself. She was to collect whatever forces she could before journeying east of Mirin’s Pass to find yokai there capable of reaching the divine realm. She was given an audience with Ono himself, who she was surprised to learn had been eager for a way to begin brokering peace with the yokai of
Nobumori. With a delegation of thirty warriors, she journeyed north east to Mirin’s Pass, reversing the steps taken by Ono and his men 30 years prior. On the east side of the pass they were met by one hundred
Sarugami warriors, who not eager to see armed soldiers from Shudan intruding on their lands.
After Kansa explained her mission to the vanguard commander, he demanded that she sacrifice the right hands of 10 of her soldiers in reparations for what Ono's warriors had done in years past to yokai warriors. Without even a moment of hesitation, more than a dozen of her warriors volunteered their own hands for the success of the mission. Kansa refused though, offering her own head instead, but only after the successful completion of the mission. Apparently the commander was so impressed with the dedication of her soldiers and her own earnestness, that he offered her safe passage to one of their nearby cities to discuss her quest. He did not promise they would be well received in the city though, and required her and all of her warriors to surrender their armor and weapons first, or turn back to Shudan. Not a single one refused, and so the sarugami escorted her and her thirty warriors for six days of marching.
Upon reaching the city they were once again instructed to return to Shudan, or risk spending the rest of their lives here as prisoners. Not a single man or women opted to leave, and so all of them spent the next three weeks in chains. The elders of the
Kitsune came frequently to speak with Kansa and the others. She spoke not of glory, honor, or duty, but of a sincere desire to restore the world to its natural state. These elders spoke also with those who accompanied her, trying to understand why they were so eager to volunteer for such a dangerous mission. It’s not clear whether it was her, or them, or the combined efforts of both, but eventually the elders were convinced. Kansa and her warriors were freed of their chains and had their weapons and armor returned to them.
Four great druids were called to the city, each opening their own portal between the material and divine realms. Kansa’s forces were escorted by a force of sarugami and
Kuma warriors, twice as large as her own numbers, as well as a dozen powerful spell casters, including two of the great druids. When everyone was through, the portals were closed. It would be up to the two druids accompanying the warriors to reopen them when the time to return arrived.
Kansa sent three quarters of the combined forces to stage an attack on
Coldreach Bastion, in an attempt to draw the attention of
Senno and his forces. When the time was right, she took the eleven stealthiest of the remaining forces and began to infiltrate the stronghold from the rear. Most of his minions were dispatched to deal with the main attacking forces, but Senno himself remained within, guarding Manna. When Kansa and her group arrived, a battle erupted. Kansa commanded half of her warriors to distract Senno, while the other half freed Manna, but the god of war’s attention was not so easily disturbed. He possessed a supernatural understanding of everything happening on every part of the battlefield at once, easily darting from one combatant to the next, never allowing a single one of them through.
Many of her allies were slain by Senno, including the druid who was necessary to take them home afterwards. Kansa knew that she would have to fight with everything and be willing to throw away her own life in order to succeed. She fought with such valiant desperation, that Senno was forced to focus singularly on her for the first time ever. With this new focus and determination though, it was not long before he had overpowered her. All seemed lost, until
Seishiro, appeared. The adopted son of Senno saw this distraction as the moment he would finally overthrow Senno, and so plunged a great sword through his chest. Senno, however, grasped the blade with his bare hands and shoved it back with such force that it flew from his back. Seishiro pounced though, and the two fought for a time.
Kansa’s allies took this chance to break the locks on the cell imprisoning Manna, who swept them and Kansa away to safety. At Kansa’s behest, Manna also signaled to the yokai and warriors of Shudan who were still fighting outside of the stronghold to open the portal and retreat to their home.
Manna then thanked the 6 survivors of the battle with Senno, and gifted Kansa herself with the legendary longsword
Manastorm. Afterwards, she personally opened a portal and returned them to the city from whence they had come.
The casualties had been great, and there was a time of mourning in the city, during which Kansa presented the sword to the commander of the yokai, and as promised her own head. He made her promise to keep both and put them to use further building the peace between Nobumori and Shudan. In time, mana began to stabilize, for the first time in almost 50 years. Kansa and the remaining warriors of Shudan set off for Mirin’s pass and eventually to Zonyanshi.
During her absence, the first shogun Ono the Eastwind had passed away without an immediately apparent successor. Military leaders clashed for weeks for the right to claim the position, but after the stabilization of mana they were suddenly faced with a new problem. Prominent wizards and supporters of the old ways suggested that the shogunate should die with Ono, and suddenly the military leaders realized that they needed to work together instead of fighting among themselves.
When Kansa arrived in Zonyanshi, nearly three months after having left, she was hailed as a folk hero on par with Ono himself. The military leaders championed her as a hero who had preserved peace for everyone in Shudan, especially the magic users. She was a warrior, a wielder of magic, and in general incredibly charismatic, so it was not hard for them to find enough support to declare her the second shogun of Shudan. She was even given the title
Eastwind, like Ono before her, owing to how she had arrived from the east and brought with her the stabilization of mana throughout Shudan.
Where Ono had been forced to spend a good deal of time quelling civil unrest within Shudan, Kansa took over at a time when the shogunate was fairly well established. She turned her attention to maintaining peace with Nobumori, and set up a trading outpost just above the northern tip of
The Fade, near the entrance to Mirin’s Pass. She also posted diplomats there, which visited the tribes of the yokai often, and occasionally hosted visitors inside Shudan. In time this outpost became known as
Hokuya.
Kansa traveled often, trying to learn from as much of Shudan as possible so that she could understand the problems different cities faced and how she might address them. She especially visited Nanganato often, where her parents lived the rest of their lives. Even after their passing, Kansa stayed in close contact with the
Temple of Hiega in Nanganato. The temple flourished from the additional recruits and accolades her attention afforded them, and Kansa helped to establish the position of
High Shield as the head of the temple there.
By S46, western towns began reporting increased raiding from the
Pannoowan who roamed the unsettled plains between Shudan’s settled land and the Nigishi Cliffs. Kansa established many outposts on the western side of Shudan in response, seeking to open a dialogue with tribal leaders to understand the causes of escalated aggression. She promoted peaceful negotiation as much as possible, using the military to defend cities from raids and only rarely to chase or attack western settlements. A young commander by the name of
Kanagi Remingale stood out among the Shudan military leaders in the area as being able to negotiate and build strong relationships with the western tribes.
In time, the frequency of western raids began to slowly decline and Kanagi was able to visit Zonyanshi periodically, to spend time with his older sister who worked there and to be with the woman who would eventually become his wife. During this time, Kansa met with him on occasion to discuss the state of the west and his general beliefs about leadership and the country. Like Ono before her, she had not been raised to be a leader, but had instead had the role thrust upon her in light of what she had considered a single successful endeavour. What she wanted for the future of Shudan was not another folk hero, but rather a qualified leader who knew what they were doing.
Like Ono before her, Kansa took no spouse and had no children. Rather than risking turmoil after her passing, she decided to step down in S82, at the age of 84. She named Kanagi Remingale as her successor, and served as an advisor for him for the next five years. In S87 she passed away, notably leaving Manastorm to the High Shield in Nanganato, rather than the next shogun as many had expected.
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