Masami Ren

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• Vital Stats

  • Name: Masami Ren
  • Gender: Female
  • Played by: Theazel
  • Nicknames: Ren, Renni
  • Race: Siamese
  • Class: Nomad
  • Alignment: Neutral
  • Deity: Buddha
  • Age: 22
  • Body Type: Tall, lithe
  • Height: 5 feet, 6 inches
  • Weight: 150 pounds
  • Complexion: cream fur with cocoa markings
  • Hair: Blue-black, falls to midback but is usually worn up in chopsticks or a loose bun
  • Eyes: Milky glass blue
  • Handedness: left-handed
  • Scars: Lotus brand burned into flesh and fur on her upper right shoulder
  • Relationship Status: Single
  • Orientation: Straight
  • Personality: Tranquil, reserved, but with just the slightest chip on her shoulder
  • Mannerisms: Quiet and soft spoken; most assume she is shy but really, she just can't stand the mindless blather that spills from the lips of others
  • Likes: Opium dens, catnip, soft silk, rain, creatures with distinguished features, fish, plum wine
  • Dislikes: complete silence, those who talk too much, lack of familiarity, harsh scents

• Description

  You see a young Siamese sitting before you, poised upon her knees, with a vacant gaze that didn't quite stare at you, but rather, through you. The cerulean-eyed beauty with raven tresses that fell down her backside was blind, and such a fact would quickly become obvious as she turned her head slowly to follow your movements. Ears were always perked and attentive, swiveling every few moments to pick up on new sounds. She was clad in a simple turquoise and gold kimono, accented with embroidered lotus blossoms and koi fish. The garment itself fit loosely around her slender form, the sleeves sliding down her arms to expose soft shoulders and an elegant, lengthy neck. Around said neck dangles a small jade pendant--an engraved koi fish, inlaid with rubies for it's eyes. It plunges low, the tail of it resting comfortably upon plush breasts that were bound by a simple, golden cloth. Upon her lap rests a kokyū, pristine in its craftsmanship and polished with a deep varnish to give it an ebon hue. Her delicate paw-tips run over the instrument slowly; no sight was needed to know each and every part of such a priceless treasure. The bow for it lays at her side, and next to that, a bamboo staff, engraved with a Buddhist prayer that she could easily recite in her sleep. She was a lotus among the lilies, a rare treasure that, even in her blindness, seemed to exude the pure essence of grace and poise.

• Biography

  Ren was, for the most part, born blind. Upon her birth, she had been able to see, but in her first few days of life, that vision waned, and within a week, she was declared sightless. Such a birth was considered to be a bad omen among her mother's village, and because of this, her and her family were cast out and forced to live the nomadic lifestyle high up in the bamboo forests. Her mother and father made the best of the situation, finding peace and solitude in a one-room hut that Ren soon called home. When she was old enough, she was instructed in musical arts and dance as a way to make her own income, should she ever be parted from her family. Her father, upon her 10th birthday, gifted her with a handcarved staff; something to help her get around and defend herself. Little did she know that soon after the gift was given, that same staff would save her life.
  
  Just four days after her birthday, Ren was returning to the hut from wandering between the sky-high stalks of bamboo. The young girl had made a habit of going out to practice with her new staff, striking at leaves as the fell from the branches. However, upon this homecoming, she found that something was off. Her ears flicked and twitched---there was silence. Even the rustle of leaves seemed to be halted in that moment. Crouching low to the ground, she pressed an ear to the earth and again, was met with nothing but the faint pulse of blood in her ears. Within seconds, she made a dash from where she stood to the hut, knowing each and every item that should lay in her path. But when she stumbled against something large and heavy, she was caught off-guard and tumbled to the moistened floor of her home. The wood beneath her was wet...and warm....blood? Yes, blood. In her absence, her parents had been slaughtered, no doubt by bandits. They had taken everything; what little the family owned was stripped away, leaving the hut bare, save for the dead bodies of her parents. In shock, the feline sat there for days, maybe weeks, soaked in the blood of those who had raised her. The same thought crossed her mind over and over: if she had just stayed home, she could have saved them. The guilt weighed heavily upon her, and it would be something that, even in her later years, she would always struggle with.
  
  Time passed, and eventually, some lone traveler stumbled upon the hut--and more importantly, upon Ren. He was a nomadic monk, sent out from the Temple to do good in the world. The man took pity upon the traumatized girl and, after spending hours trying to coax her out of hiding, convinced her to return to the temple with him.
  
  It was there she honed her skills as a musician, playing music with the chants that filled the halls. She also was instructed in self-defense, and while that never came easy to her, she did manage to get a firm grasp on the basics. However, despite this training, she chose to live her life as the monks did--peace over violence and tranquility over chaos.
  
  Years passed, and upon her 18th birthday, she decided it was time for her to try to live on her own, to start up the journey all of the monks had to travel at some point in their lives. The monks had little, but managed to find the perfect gift for their adopted child. They presented her with her staff, newly polished and with Buddhist prayers carved into the bamboo. They also gave her a kokyu, an instrument that would keep her company when the world became too quiet for her ears. And lastly, the eldest monk gave her a pendant---a jade koi fish. It was simple and small, but out of all the gifts, it was the one that touched her heart the most.
  
  Ren's journey wasn't easy, but she was well-prepared for it. It took her to villages high up in the mountains, to buzzing towns down by the river. In these travels, she eventually gained an affection for opium dens and the products they supplied, catnip, and plum wine. It was indulgent, yes, but she felt that life had been hard enough, and she deserved to live a little. While she'd deny having an addiction, one may wonder just how long it'd be before those vices took over the usually sweet-natured feline.
  
  Her travels eventually landed her at the Golden Tether, an Island in the middle of nowhere that she now claimed as her home base until she earned enough coin for her voyage back to her homelands.