The Jackal

[The Jackal || Ji Taro]

Ashitaka
image of character here. do not stretch the board!

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Basic Info

Birth name; Ashitaka
Age && date of birth; 18 years ago
Gender; male
Bending Element; none
Bending/Non-Bending Level; Beginner
Alias; Shi, AKA "The Jackal" "The Desert Fox"
Plot Position; none

Appearance

hair color; black
Eye color; emerald
Height; 6' 3"
Weight; 190lbs
Appearance;Roughly 6' 3" with a wide shouldered build and covered in lean muscle. His hair is purest black and cut close cap and wavy. His dark brown eye is set in a face that is still boyish when looked at compared to his age, and his somewhat sunken eyes stand out particularly for both their color and the fact that they seem to belong to a man at least twice The Jackal's age. Across the Jackal's chest is a large area of burn tissue somewhat in the shape of a star burst, this scar stretches all the way up to the base of Ashitaka's neck, all the way down to his belly button, and even begins to wrap around his sides, stopping at about the place the arms touch the ribs. As far as clothes go The Jackal wears desert chic. Black silken long sleeve tunics are affordable to him, and he likes to wear them.

His wardrobe, while not always as extravagant as his taste, does follow a few simple patterns, black linen cloth that covers most of his skin. His thin long sleeve shirts always end in gloves, and his pants always mesh with the black cloth boots that begin about halfway down his shins. He wears a tagelmust that covers his face and is black to match the rest of his attire, and rarely takes it off during business deals just as an added mystique to psych out the competition. Around his waist are two crisscrossed bandoliers worn like loose and over sized belts which hold the many specialty bolts designed by himself. Over his shoulder is slung the leather carrying case for his weapon of choice; the crossbow. Another self made design, his crossbow is fitted with a glass lens scope for far away shots, and is capable of shooting six shoots before having to insert more bolts into the magazine.

Traits

likes;

• Explosives
  
• Sunshine
  
• Riddles
  
• Board Games
  
• lots and lots of money
  

dislikes;

• Winter
  
• Benders
  
• Cacti
  
• Ostrich-horses
  
• ....not...money?
  

Overall Personality;Shi loves to talk, and he does so- at great length- whether you want him to or not. A combination of events through out Shi's life have left him unstable, and prone to long instances of unreasonableness and childishness. Its not that he acts with the mental capacity of a child, The Jackal just jokes much more than most people do and is quite eccentric; he may make statements the are hardly lucid or just down right outlandish to everyone else and has generally immature behavior. The Jackal loves a good chuckle and tends not to stop joking, even in the face of imminent danger, and gets particular enjoyment from banter with his enemies. Despite his displaying tendencies of insanity, he has the ability to function logistically on the same plane as the average person, if not more so. Shi is a competent tactician, and can formulate plans and strategies easily in the heat of the moment, often taking unorthodox approaches to common problems. For instance, even his loquaciousness is on some level purposeful, as people tend to not take someone who can't shut up about irrelevant drivel seriously. That is until The Jackal lodges a crossbow bolt between their eyes. He also has nasty tendency not to care about the lives of people he sees as obstacles. He might go out of his way not to hurt people uninvolved with his own military machinations, but has no qualms about offing those who get in his way regardless of which direction their moral compass is pointing. /size]

History Info

Home Country; Si Wong Region
siblings; none
history;

Born under the hot desert sun of the Si Wong, Ashitaka's life began not unlike many others and was not completely remarkable. His mother died in child birth, something much less rare than people in the Si Wong would like, and his father had wondered off into the desert and disappeared before he was born; again, something not uncommon in the sandy seas of the Si Wong Desert. He was raised by the village leader, Nago, who raised Ashitaka as his own. This is where Shi (an affectionate childhood nickname) started to learn about the world around him. Learning to survive in the desert was more than just staying out of the sun and drinking lost of fluids, the group of nomads Shi lived with constantly had to avoid the violent raiders. Nago wasn't just a father figure to Shi, he was as far as Shi knew, his actual father. He treated Shi just as a son, raised him, cared for him, taught him how to fight and how to survive. Every good thing Shi every learned, he learned from Nago.

Various encounters with the raiding bandits left behind tidbits that Shi used to learn from; a chromed blade here, a sand-sailor left behind there, and if Shi was especially lucky, maybe even one of those bombs filled with the black powder might be found in the sand after they were driven off. In fact, Shi's ingenuity helped out the nomad tribe on several occasions, coming up with the idea to hide clatrops under the sand around camp at night to deter raiders and animals from "wandering" into camp, and also with the idea to use load-stones to find them in the morning, though the latter idea didn't come till after several other villagers suffered rather grisly injuries. However, the large scar on Ashitaka's chest also results from his particular brand of "ingenuity".

When he was twelve years old, after "discovering" a few "abandoned" barrels of black powder (and most definitely not gambling with members of the passing by trade caravans like Nago told him not to do.) After working over several different schematics, Shi finally decided to build his cannon-yes, cannon- out of stripped wood from old sand-sailors. Considering the sizable scar now on his chest, its safe to say that the weapon's first test firing did not go as planned. Shi, who was standing in the firing position received sever burns to his torso, the "cannonball" (actually a large rock) did however make a good projectile, and the fact that there was no one in the tents it destroyed provided little solace to the other villagers. As a matter of fact, Shi never did find the turtle shell he used to decorate the cannon...

Ashitaka was bedridden for about a week after that incident and was being watched over by the group's healer. Through either some cosmically contrived plot or just incredibly bad luck, the group of nomad's had decided to camp in the immediate vicinity of an especially nasty group of raiders. When the raiders demanded supplies, and Nago said that handing over even a portion of their stock while so far out in the desert would be a death sentence for at least half of the nomads. the raider leader said not handing them over would be a death sentence for all of them. Nago refused. The raiders attacked. It was a bloodbath, everybody Shi had ever cared about, every friend he ever had, everyone he considered family was killed in the massacre. The healing tent Shi was in was set ablaze, and the twelve year old boy, still weak from his injuries, had to crawl to safety, and barely escaped with is life.

Jackals are the desert's fox however, and it often takes more than that to kill one. Shi's extraordinary luck (good or bad is left for debate) led him to a small encampment of raiders camping under the cold starry sky of the desert night. Shi wandered into their camp exhausted, weak from his injuries and over exposure, and dehydrated. One of the raider groups various thugs approached Ashitaka dagger drawn, as surely it'd be easy to put a delirious child out of his misery. The man swung the blade at Shi and received two eyefuls of sand for his trouble. A swift kick in the shorts worked as a good deterrent for a follow up swing, and in the ensuing brawl Shi gained a broken nose and a fat lip. The man however lost an index finger and nearly bled to death from stab wounds when Shi was able to get the knife from him. Shi lost consciousness in the rush of the action and the bandit was prepared to kill him, but Sayyid, the leader of the group decided to spare the boy. Impressed with his resolve he stated that none of the men should lay a finger on the boy, and none of them should raise a hand to help him either.

At first Shi loosely followed the group, always setting up his own campfire just outside their camp, picking up some of the "left overs" from any of their raids. He even stole from some of their stores first emboldened by the fact that the raiders seemed to ignore him, later he did it in spite of the fact that they directly disobeyed their orders and most of them acted as if they had no problem killing him. They began to call him "The Jackal" a creature which thrives where other creatures have trouble surviving, one that has no problem stealing or doing whatever it must to survive. They didn't so much regard him with respect as a grudging acknowledgment of his innate tenacity. None of them would rush to help him if he got into trouble, but all would be sad to see him go, he was almost a mascot for the group. A year of this and The Jackal was thirteen, and Sayyid was dead, injured on one of the raids. By consensus the position of leader should go to the second in command, but this was very much contested and many of the members of the group staked their claim to the position. So did The Jackal.

The proposed method of deciding was going to be a shooting contest with crossbows, the weapon of choice amongst the raiders. The Jackal had also become quite proficient with the weapon and used one "abandoned" by one of the raiders as a hunting tool, so he aptly decided to join the contest. In light of his age, many of the raiders scoffed at the idea, others decided to let him in because they thought it'd be funny, and still others believed him to be dangerous competition. When time came to shoot there were 6 other contenders for the position. The only rules were everyone was aloud to take ten shots at the target, and the one with the most accuracy won. The Jackal drew straws along with the other bandits, and was chosen to go first. When he stepped up to the line he had only seven bolts in his quiver. Instead of taking shots at the target on his turn, his first six shots were all at the competition. Each of his bolts struck in either the hand or the arms of the other marksmen, and temporarily destroying their ability to shoot, and with his last shot The Jackal struck home, getting a perfect bulls-eye. His rank as leader was unchallenged, even (or maybe "especially") by the wounded marksmen, and he chose Nine Fingers (yeah...that Nine Fingers) as his right hand man.

Over the next five years The Jackal slowly expanded his control, absorbing merchant groups who used the trade routes through the desert into his cadre. Eventually Shi even managed to convince a business man from the northern Empire to sign over several of his failing factories and mines to himself, in exchange for the merchant's life of course. With these new resources at his disposal, The Jackal decided to take his bandit gang of raiders in a new direction. This was the birth of the organization "Mirage", a weapons distributor. Shi figured that if the whole world was going to cut itself up in one big war, he might as well be the best damned scissor salesman he could be. The former bandits became enforcers who protected the convoys which were made up of the old merchants who carried the weapons made in the factories from the materials taken from the mines to ports all over the world. The bandits not only served as a private security force, but also were there to "negotiate" deals involving particularly dangerous clients, the kind who seemed to be afflicted with Chronic Back Stabbing Disorder (at the Jackal found out it was often this type that needed to buy the knives).

The Jackal oversees the day to day ins and outs of his corporation and manages their activities as the become the premier weapons marketer to the nations rapidly amassing strength and armies for the violent wars that are fast approaching. At first many groups and factions a difficulties with the fact that Mirage will sell to anyone, but they quickly get over this when they realize that if they don't buy weapons from someone, their enemies will have the upper hand. When everyone's looking to kick some ass, its not so bad selling pants and shoes, and thus The Jackal profits from the pain of the world.

"Why is no one ever happy to see me?"