poorlittlesange | 'the city' app

OOC INFORMATION.
NAME: ray!
CONTACT:

ragweed; DM for discord info
AGE: thirtymumblemumble
OTHER CHARACTERS: n/a
NOTES: given Jin Guangyao is essentially a walking trigger warning, I have included detailed opt-out and opt-in info pages, and I encourage everyone to make use of them.

IC INFORMATION.
BASICS
CHARACTER NAME: Guangyao, Jin
CANON: Chinese book series 魔道祖师 (pinyin: Mó Dào Zǔ Shī; English: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). The English language translation of the first novel was published in December, 2021.
CANON POINT: I am pulling Jin Guangyao from the very end of the Guanyin temple confrontation seconds before Nie Mingjue's fierce corpse snaps his neck and kills him.
AGE: it is unclear from the canon source material exactly how old Jin Guangyao is; however, at this canon point he is likely to be in his mid to late-30s.

BACKGROUND
HISTORY: Wiki entry
PERSONALITY:

What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?

First impressions of Jin Guangyao are normally positive: he is almost pathologically polite and courteous to everyone he meets, even if he is not treated to the same courtesy in response, and excels at quickly and competently solving most social problems without ruffling too many feathers in the process. Combine his demeanour with his smaller, slighter stature, photographic memory, and "advantageous face," per the novel, and Jin Guangyao has all the tools necessary for presenting himself as mild-mannered, inoffensive, and nonthreatening.

The 'reality' of Jin Guangyao's true nature is a narrative sticking point for many characters in the novel; there is no straightforward or easy answer forthcoming here. But what is clear from the text is that Jin Guangyao uses his appearance, memory, and courtly manners as both a sword and a shield when navigating the cutthroat world of cultivation sect politics and society. Without the cultivation base, martial arts prowess, or formal education of other key characters in the novel, this is how Jin Guangyao protects himself, and eliminates his enemies. His capacity for ruthlessness and cruelty is deep indeed--but so too is his capacity for generosity and selflessness towards the people who have earned his love and loyalty.

What are your character’s ambitions/goals? Why are they important to your character?

Jin Guangyao is a character whose principle motivation and raison d'être is to fulfill his mother Meng Shi's lifelong dream for him before her death when he was a teenager: to claim his birthright by having his father recognize him as a legitimate son with a place within the Lanling Jin line of succession. Achieving this goal is not about vanity or pride for Jin Guangyao. It is about filial piety, and is also his only reliable path forward out of a life of poverty.

Jin Guangyao grapples both with his love of and affection for his mother, as well as intense feelings of shame associated with her profession as a sex worker, as his 'low birth' has been flung in his face and used as a cudgel against him his entire life. This shame has fostered a hyperawareness of his appearance and reputation in the public eye, because he is well aware that even the most insubstantial rumour that he might indulge in the same excesses as his father in his personal life (sexual and romantic entanglements, general lasciviousness, and other vices) would spell his ruin. In this respect (and in others), Jin Guangyao is also deeply motivated by fear--of other people, as well as his own background. More on that below.

What are your character’s fears? How do they hinder or challenge your character?

Fundamentally, Jin Guangyao is insecure about his place in the world (understandably!) and afraid of almost everyone around him. These are the negative character traits that most define him; his ruthlessness and cruelty are often a direct reaction to having his deeply-seated fears and insecurities triggered by plot events or other characters, and they are the driving force behind nearly every key decision he makes. He is transparent about this fact to the people who are closest to him, namely Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, and Xue Yang. I particularly lean on this exchange between Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue when I write his character:

"Jin GuangYao still wanted to speak, but Nie MingJue had already lost all patience, “Meng Yao, don’t speak such pretentious words in front of me. Your whole thing stopped working on me since a long time ago!”

Within a second, a few degrees of unease flashed over Jin GuangYao’s face, as though someone with an unmentionable illness was suddenly exposed in the public. There was nowhere for him to hide.

He spoke, “My whole thing? Which whole thing? Brother, you’ve always yelled at me for calculating people and being too dishonorable. You say that you’re a proud, righteous person, that you aren’t afraid of anything, that proper men shouldn’t need to play with schemes. That’s fine. Your background is noble and your cultivation is high. But what about me? Am I the same as you? First, my cultivation isn’t as firm as yours. Ever since I was born, has anyone taught me? And second, I have no prominent background. Do you think that I’m in a steady position, here at the LanlingJin Sect? Do you think that I can rise into power the moment Jin ZiXuan dies? Jin GuangShan would rather bring another illegitimate child back than want me to succeed him! You think that I should be afraid of nothing? Well I’m afraid of everything, even other people! He whose stomach is full believes not him who is starving.”

This excerpt is also useful for illustrating how Jin Guangyao's fear of losing his father's support--and, as a result, his already tenuous position in cultivation society--propels him down an increasingly dark and self-destructive path. The more deeply entrenched and entangled Jin Guangyao becomes in the bloody work of realizing his father's ambitions, the more impossible it becomes for him to ever find his way back out of that darkness.

POWERS
SKILLS/ABILITIES:
Cultivation Abilities
This is a glossary of terms for most things that will come up vis-a-vis Jin Guangyao's spiritual/power-based abilities as a cultivator, such as qi circulation (moving qi through the meridians in his body to, for example, increase stamina), or meditating within the Lotus position to strengthen ('cultivate') his golden core, to grant himself additional reserves of spiritual power. His 'power level', to be blunt, is low when compared to his peers, though to be fair, who isn't a weak cultivator when compared to Nie Mingjue or Lan Xichen? But when compared to your bog standard human or rogue cultivators without a sect, he is still going to be more resilient, slower to tire physically or mentally, faster to heal from injuries, and capable of using spiritual weaponry without passing out from exhaustion. These are qualities he's likely to share with cultivator characters from other canons. Anything specific to the MDZS canon which are unique to Jin Guangyao will be described below.

Collection of Spirit Turmoil. A cultivation manual of songs that, when played by a cultivator capable of imbuing their music with spiritual power, can cause physical illness, mental distress, and ultimately kill. Jin Guangyao memorized a section of sheet music from this cultivation manual and blended it together with Purification Tones to gradually destabilize Nie Mingjue's already fractious spirit, which ultimately results in Nie Mingjue's qi deviation and death.
Cleansing. Cleansing is the strongest of the mind-calming pieces of music in the Gusu Lan Clan's compendium of musical techniques, and is a particularly challenging piece of music. It has a soothing melody that, when imbued with spiritual energy by a cultivator, can suppress hostile or resentful energy and calm the mind. This song is considered a Lan Clan secret; Lan Xichen taught Jin Guangyao how to play it on the guqin.
Talismans. Jin Guangyao is capable of making use of most of the cultivation world's more common, non-combat-oriented talismans, such as talismans designed to keep food, beverages, or bath water hot. The only especially powerful talisman he is capable of using is the Forbiddance Talisman, which he uses to keep the resentful energy simmering in and around Nie Mingjue's head sealed.

Martial Arts Abilities
This glossary of terms contains the same sort of general information about martial arts practiced by cultivators within the broader genre. As with Jin Guangyao's cultivation, his lack of formal education in childhood places him at a disadvantage when it comes to outright martial combat with other cultivators, but he is nevertheless capable of drawing upon his limited reserves of spiritual energy to enhance his qinggong. He won't be leaping to the tops of towering redwood trees or skimming his way across the surface of vast and tranquil lakes, but he could absolutely leap his way up to one of those stupidly high IKEA warehouse storage ranges for you and then glide back down carrying a reasonably heavy piece of furniture. (If he likes you, and you ask nicely.) Basically, his natural grace and agility far outpace the capabilities of the average human. Specific to MDZS:

Chord Assassination Technique. A martial arts technique invented by the Gusu Lan Sect Leader, Lani Li, several hundred years ago. The exact mechanics of how this technique works are a little bit vague in the canon, but it involves using guqin strings as garrotes. Example: Jin Guangyao use guqin strings to take hostages during the climax of the novel at the Guanyin Temple. He is capable of hiding guqin strings within his own body for use as concealed weapons, which sounds just. horrible. but okay.
Swordsmanship. As a result of his time spent serving as Nie Mingjue's right-hand man on the Hejian Front during the Sunshot Campaign, Jin Guangyao is familiar and competent with the traditional forms of Qinghe Nie Clan swordsmanship. He also is familiar with the Qishan Wen Clan's martial techniques (Nie Mingjue Disapproves -1000). This distinction likely won't come up at all in-game outside of threads with castmates.
Spiritual Weaponry. Jin Guangyao's spiritual weapon is a flexible 'soft sword' named Hensheng, which can be easily hidden on his body either by wrapping around his arm or his waist. This flexibility makes it an excellent weapon for subterfuge. Per the wiki: Hensheng's blade "is extremely sharp. Once it has been wrapped around an object, its user can send spiritual power through the sword to cut that object into pieces." NB: while JGY does not have his sword with him yet in the City, I'm listing details about it here in the event that I am able to reclaim it later. His competency with it will be limited initially as he is missing his dominant hand. More on that below.

NERFING: The novel canon itself does a pretty good job of nerfing Jin Guangyao's ability to do virtually any of the specialized cultivation or martial arts techniques outlined above, because it's going to be difficult for Jin Guangyao to do any of those things with only one hand. However, since I would like to lean in to him adapting to this disability and regain his competency with his cultivation and martial arts, I'd like to propose that he can over time regain his ability to draw the talismans and arrays above with his non-dominant hand. I would use overflow rewards for this purpose.
WEAKNESSES: ~~staircases. jk jk... unless??~~ Jin Guangyao is missing his right hand, which was cut off by Lan Wangji during the Guanyin temple events sequence in the novel canon.

SAMPLES.