Character 29 - Shinju Okumura

Our Strong and Hardy Kitsune was a tough nut to crack in terms of where to go with the background. My biggest question was does he run toward his family legacy or away. This time I started by narrowing my choices of class down and ended up with Ranger or Fighter. A percentile die roll got me Fighter and then I rolled on the Fighter background chart, and the result helped me pick which way to go.

Mercenary

Everyone needs to earn a living; and in your youth you were fast, strong, or tough enough to fight for pay. There are good causes and bad causes, but at the end of the day it all comes down to money. Sometimes you got easy jobs like guarding merchant caravans. Other times the jobs are rough, like fighting in a rebel lord's private army.

This opens up access to the Mercenary social trait.

Shinju Okumura

The might of Tar-Baphon may have only been spreading through central Avistan, but no one believed that the Whispering Tyrant would stop with just conquering a small portion of Golarion. Although most of those dedicating themselves to the forces of the Shining Crusade came from Taldor, not every warrior called the area home. Fighters from Osirian, Vudra, The Kelesh Empire, and even Tian Xia came to lend aid in the face of this overwhelming evil. When all was said and done and victory was declared against Tar-Baphon’s hordes, not every crusader went home.

The Okumura family came from the lands of Tian Xia to do battle with the Whispering Tyrant. This would not be the first time they had done battle with Tar-Baphon either. Family lore had always spoken of one of their ancestors heeding the call of Aroden to battle Tar-Baphon when the necromancer first tried his hand at world domination. When tales of the Shining Crusade reached the shores of Tian Xia, the Okumura family swiftly made their way to the frontlines.

After the fall of Tar-Baphon the Okumura clan stayed in Lastwall, seeing it as their sacred duty to be vigilant in case the Whispering Tyrant would try to rise again. This, of course, is the legacy that Shinju Okumura and his older brother would hear from their father day in and day out. Like his ancestors Kuni and Mari, who came to the region to fight in the Shining Crusade, Shinju’s father, grandfather, great grandfather and so on have dedicated themselves to the defense of Lastwall and vigilance for signs of the Tyrant’s rise.

Shinju grew up in a life of quiet solitude on the family estate, if it could be called that. The “estate” was comprised of a tract of forest the Okumura clan was gifted for their deeds in the Shining Crusade. From a very early age Shinju, like his older brother Anji, was taught to fight. It was always expected that both boys would follow in their ancestor’s footsteps. This daily routine and high expectations never sat right with Shinju, and even though he excelled at martial training – more so than his older brother – he chafed under his father’s tutelage.

Rebellion against his father made things tense in the Okumura household. Shinju’s sister, Yuma, was hit especially hard, having both respect for her parents and a special place for her older brother who always treated her like a princess. One of Shinju’s major acts of rebellion was to sneak off to Vigil where he would spend time with his friends getting into trouble. No matter how much his father forbade him the young kitsune would always find a way out of the house and onto the streets.

A boy named Oldrin Girsk, who seemed to know everyone and everything in Vigil, was Shinju’s best friend. The two were almost inseparable, getting up to good-natured shenanigans. Shinju appreciated that Oldrin accept him beyond just his family name. For his part Oldrin appreciated Shinju’s way with women. Carousing was one of the things the two did often and Oldrin saw his friend go through quite a few “girlfriends.”

But even Shinju’s friendship couldn’t survive the lengths to which he would go to piss off his father. When a group of arms dealers came though Vigil selling to the crusaders, Shinju joined up with them. The thing Shinju didn’t know was that the weapon runners were also selling to the orcish side of the conflict. When Oldrin tried to tell him, Shinju just wouldn’t listen. Rather than risk getting caught up as well, Oldrin cut ties with his friend leaving him to his own fate.

Although he later found out the truth behind the weapon dealers activities, Shinju never felt bad about disobeying his father. The act, however made it impossible to return home. Shinju decided that he needed to leave Lastwall and Vigil behind. The only person he said goodbye to was his little sister before signing up with a mercenary organization recruiting in the area. With just a sword and some armor the kitsune left home to find his fortune in the world at large.

From the base ingredients of our rolls the meal that is the background of Shinju Okumura has been formed. If my background has fed the creative needs of your soul please consider becoming a Patron of the CRB. Your support is what keep content providers like me afloat to provide the content you enjoy. Curious as to how I actually play check me out on twitter where among other things I live tweet my weekend games. Follow the CRB on Tumblr for images that help inspire my imagination as well as longer posts about my gaming experiences and other gaming news. Want to be the first to get the CRB? Have it pushed to your Kindle with Amazon Kindle Subscriptions. This weekend I’ll be a Lunacon in Westchester keep up to date with goings on through Twitter and Tumblr and have a great weekend of gaming.