Character DetailsName: Kong Wu
Style Name: Yiwèishì "Brave Defender"
Title: The Demon of Mount Song
Age: Thirty Nine
Sex: Male
Height: Four Foot Eleven (4'11)
Weight: Two Hundred Thirty One Pounds (231)
Appearance: A man of stout build, yet minuscule height, Kong Wu is a man of powerful stature despite a softening middle. With arms and hands that was both calloused and toughened from years within the forge, Kong Wu seems more of a man accustomed to the battlefield rather than the temple despite his softening middle. His hair and beard allowed to grow freely down to his chest, and his mustache only maintained with beads of black glass, Kong Wu surely must of seemed a opposite of his fellow monks with their shaved heads and faces. While surely the multiple scars that marred his naturally tanned, and normally dirty from ash, skin did little to help Kong Wu blend in with his more civil brethren. Normally clad within a simple robe of brown leather, which lacked any hint of design, and a pair of trousers underneath Kong Wu certainly did seem a oddity of a monk.
Weapon 1: Mò "Smasher of Rocks" (Chinese Axe Hammer)
Weapon 2: Zhōngshí "Faithful" (Spiked Mace)
Personality: A naturally prideful and boastful man Kong Wu at one time could of been called a bully of sorts. Having once been a man known to resort to extortion and banditry to support himself, Kong Wu has attempted to reform himself within his years at Mount Song. With a faint hint of manners developing, primarily towards women and the elderly, Kong Wu has become a man who now despises mere thugs such as what he had once been and could now be called a more reserved and less explosive man yet one still known to boast. However despite Kong Wu now being a man of Taoist belief and cloth, Kong Wu is still a man known for his temper when provoked and his love of the drink. More than once this trait, for which Kong Wu constantly admonishes himself, Kong Wu has found himself in a brawl with more than one traveler who has commented upon his height.
History: Born in the year 221 AD in the former capital of the Han Dynasty, Louyang, Kong Wu was the son of Kong Yuan, a local blacksmith, and his wife Hu Che. Within his early life Kong Wu lived a fairly simple and normal life within the recovering city of Louyang yet a hard one. Yet even the attempts by the Kingdom of Wei to revive the once destroyed city would do little to bring it back to it's former glory; Overcrowding, famine, disease, and poverty was all factors that plagued the lower classes even within the capital of the new Wei Dynasty. It was all the factors needed to create a tense environment to grow up in.
Yet it was a peaceful enough environment to grow up within. So far within the borders of the Wei Dynasty the distant wars against Shu and Wu was a mere thought upon the back of the people's minds. Their only fears laid within the hands of outlying bandits and the taxes of the new Wei Dynasty. For a mere child however the distant wars of Shu and Wu was a thought glorified within their innocent minds. With only the grand tales of valor and bravery of the Wei Dynasty and the cruelty of Shu and Wu left to feed their imaginations onward. A imagination that left dreams to be formed and dreams to take root; A imagination that left Kong Wu to dream of one day abandoning that forge and becoming a soldier of the glorious Wei Dynasty.
Even as a child though Kong Wu was small for his age, nearly a head smaller than most of the other children, despite his developing frame from days spent in the forge as his father's assistant. It was a fact even then picked upon by various other children, and a fact that drew a far younger Kong Wu into more than a handful of fights during his youth. Most of which won by the small but physically developing Kong Wu, yet a victory at a horrible cost when his father found out. However if those beatings did anything to curb the young child's anger it was far from obvious.
By the age of sixteen though Kong Wu was easily one of the strongest men within Louyang. A young adult whose body already resembled that of a full grown man, excluding his almost childlike height which had hardly changed over his youth, and whose beard was already growing thickly into place setting the edge of what it would become today. Yet he had as well become a man of boasting and great pride; A man who no longer felt he needed to spend days toiling away over a forge or even sober for that matter. After all why did he need to work when he could simply extort people into giving him what he desired? Living a lifestyle that bordered the criminal, Kong Wu continued to grow up within the city of Louyang. Forcing others, sometimes by threats or by a little bit of physical encouragement, to pay for his drinks or allowing his debts to grow and grow.
In a single night though that lifestyle of bordering the criminal was changed. All by a single action brought on by a stupid choice. Kong Wu had been settled within the bar for more than a few hours, and more than a few bottles of Huangjiu left empty before him, as he drank the time away when the barkeep had urged him to finally pay up on his debt. Claiming that no longer could he allow Kong Wu to simply drink upon credit that he never saw back, it was a claim that Wu all but ignored as he shouted out for another bottle. Only for the serving girl not to so much as move a inch from her position by the bar as the barkeep kept her in line. Even as Kong Wu shouted again for a bottle of wine he was ignored... until he finally rose up from his seat. A action that brought the barkeep to draw a knife and to demand Kong Wu to leave.
With his head all but cracked open and the taste of iron within his mouth, Kong Wu would awake within a death cell. Three others within the bar outside of him, each of that cell's contents named for death by a local Magistrate for their actions. In confusion Kong Wu had growled for a guard to release him only for the guard to ignore him. A second request only meeting a reply Kong Wu would of never expected, "Shut up, scum! You've been arrested for murdering a local barkeep and the serving girl and then killing another three soldiers in your arrest! Your ancestors must be weeping in shame."
Kong Wu had finally slipped over the subtle line of borderline criminal activity to that of true crime. Kong Wu had been arrested and sentenced to die for killing five innocent people... For the moment it was to much for Kong Wu to accept and he merely shrunk back into the cell where he silently awaited his execution. Yet fear has a strange way of effecting people. Some merely hide it and act like a brave fool to cover it up. Some merely revel within the feeling and succumb to the terror of the moment. Some merely make light of the feeling and attempt to pass off jokes. Yet to Kong Wu... it had turned him sober. A dry almost hollow feeling had filled his chest, a feeling that seemed to gnaw at his very being as time slowly passed onward. It was the feeling to survive.
Finally though the day came where they execution was scheduled. The four men of that death cell scheduled to hang within cages in the market square to remind all of the penalty of crime. The four men of that death cell left to die by exposure of the heat, wind, hunger, and thirst. The four men left to lose any shred of humanity to primal urges before they would finally die, alone and without any shred of escape. It was a day that brought that feeling to survive alight throughout Kong Wu's very core. His entire body left to scream and wail for him to escape... yet finally it happened. One by one they was led forth from their cell by those guards. Marched down through that faintly lit halls until finally they emerged into the open air. The sky above them a brilliant blue, the sun shining a brilliant white, a day that any man should of learned to love and to appreciate. It was a day Kong Wu knew he would live out.. yet it would merely be the first day of a long death.
Four days... four long days Kong Wu remembered hanging within that cage. His body stripped down to little more than a loin cloth leaving his body exposed to the sun above. His leathery skin left to turn angry red and crack, his hair left to wilt and lighten every so slightly, his body left to shrink as it ate itself away in a desperate attempt to survive... and then that cage was lowered. For the longest time Kong Wu wondered if he had possibly died, left to live through and see his sun burnt and withered body to burnt alive. His soul barred forever from the Nine Springs by his ancestors for his cruel actions or perhaps by the Heavens themselves... yet eventually sleep would take him. While a grinning old man watched as two guards struggled to load the small but stout Kong Wu into a litter...
For two days and a night Kong Wu slept before waking up as the sun finally set again and the moon rose to take it's place. His entire body left to burn and seemingly crack as he moved, Kong Wu slowly forced himself to sit up before a reassuring hand stopped him in his ascent. "It's alright... it's alright. Just lay back down." that voice softly reassured him before pressing him backwards onto that thin mattress. Only for that voice to continue speaking as that sun set behind the horizon and well into that moon's ascent before he would finally stop, leaving Kong Wu to silently sob in relief as that figure finally departed.
His life had been spared and only because of a old man's mercy. A old man who had supposedly watched him for those four long days within that cage. A old man who cared for him two days and a night caring to his burns and needs. A old man who had supposedly found Kong Wu's will to live inspiring, a old man who had supposedly found Kong Wu's everlasting, a old man who supposedly found Kong Wu worthy of a second chance. The old man was named Liang Ha, a former administrator underneath the Cao family who had retired into a life of Taoist beliefs. A man who had pulled a simple favor to get Kong Wu removed from his death cell and sent to Liang Ha's monastery.
Yet as Kong Wu would eventually learn underneath Liang Ha, no action can be done without a cause. Kong Wu's life had been spared a cruel death but in return his life was one now dedicated to the Taoist belief. A temporary life all but owned by Liang Ha, a life he could take back upon a moment's notice should he desire. A fact he made more than apparent over those first few months of Kong Wu's stay with his threats. Threats which only helped to spur Kong Wu onward along with his daily tasks as a new monk of the Holy Mount Song. Tasks which varied as much as the weather and wind; Ranging from both physical, mental, and spiritual yet all supposedly important within the eyes of Liang Ha. However just what secret there lay to his betterment in milking a cow, or plowing a field, or even picking weeds which was a woman's job could possibly hold for him at the time.
Slowly but surely though the seconds of Kong Wu's new life turned into minutes, those minutes into hours, those hours into days, those days into weeks, and eventually those weeks into months. For almost eight months Kong Wu did little more than labor underneath the watchful eye of Liang Ha, who at a moment's notice seemed ready to condemn him back to his fate of death. Yet even within the face of failure Liang Ha remained willing to allow Kong Wu to continue to live, for now at least. Yet as all things do eventually Kong Wu's life within the monastery of Mount Song was left to change as well. It was mere days from Kong Wu's twentieth year and the weather had already turned cold while the first snows of the year coated the tops of Mount Song. The pristine white left to coat the monastery and those monks, as well Kong Wu, who labored day in and day out despite the lowering temperatures.
The Kingdom of Shu had been destroyed and the Kingdom of Wu all but that; Soldiers who had never done nothing but fight for a living left to flock across the land as they took their week's grace to flee captured city after city in a desperate attempt to get away from the armies of the new King of Wei and Emperor of China, Cao Pi. Most of those fleeing men sought jobs amongst the Wei Army, ever bolstering it's numbers as the assault against Wu continued, while others sought to settle down and forget the horrors of war in a attempt to become farmers, sailors, or even simple laborers. Yet there was some of those men who with a foul eye for humanity turned to banditry, and with the armies of Wei upon the field there was little force outside of militia to protect the peoples of Wei. While even fewer to protect the fabled Mount Song and it's monastery's full of gold sacrifices to the Heavens...
It was these men who turned to banditry who would forever change Kong Wu's life. It was these men who turned to banditry who would finally turn Kong Wu from a simple servant into a truly accepted member of the monastery of Mount Song. It was these men who turned to banditry who would finally force Kong Wu to kill again in a moment of fury. The day had been slow, a fresh coating of snow drizzling downwards from the Heavens onto Mount Song as the monks began their daily labors within the fields and the halls of the monastery. At the time Kong Wu had been one of those outside, a farming sickle in hand as he cut away the last of the winter wheat for harvesting alongside the monks of Mount Song, when the first of his brethren noticed the abnormal amount of smoke rising from the monastery and eventually heard the faint screaming of their brothers. With indecision painted across their faces those monks acted in various ways; Some left to rush towards the temple with their farm tools in hand for weapons, some left to flee down the mountain and supposedly towards help, while others simply went back to work acting as if it was nothing or truly believed it was nothing.
For a moment Kong Wu stood there, fighting a mental battle of what should be done, as Liang Ha rushed up the hill. This was his chance... he could flee and forever be done with the Taoist Monks of Mount Song... and yet even as he considered that option he felt that urge to rush up that mountain and after his self proclaimed Master. At the time Kong Wu didn't know if he had made the right choice yet it was tightening his grasp about that sickle he rushed after his Master... for nearly twenty minutes near fourteen monks was left to run up that mountainside. More than once a monk stumbling as his robes caught upon the brush, a fact that left Kong Wu to quickly take the lead of that pack. While his youth and physical fitness propelled him even further on until he was lost upon the horizon by those monks.
Finally though Kong Wu came into sight of the monastery, it's stone halls billowing smoke as monks lay dead around the gates. Some holding simple sticks that they attempted to defend themselves with while others died with their hands not even clenched. Men who for eight months he had labored beside, men who for eight months he had studied beside, men who for eight months had been the only thing he could of called friends now lay dead before him... it was all Kong Wu could stand as he rushed into that burning building. It was said that Liang Ha and those monks who had charged up that mountain had begun to hear those screams of terror before the monastery had ever came within sight. Whether they was the screaming of the last of their brothers being butchered inside of that building or the bandits dying was a question debated to this day by some of those monks. Yet when they did eventually arrive they found that monastery almost deathly silent outside of the crackling of fire and the snapping of wooden timbers inside the building. What they found inside of that building was surprising however... within place sat every relic, even if they and their pillars had been marred by blood, and item of value inside of that building and within it the dead and dying. Seventeen of their brothers had died upon that eve, over a quarter of their total number, while inside nine bandits laid dead from a single stroke of a curving blade, and the man who would become known as the Demon of Mount Song clutching to his bloodied farming sickle as he laid downed by several arrows.
Time would pass for both Mount Song and all of China and the lands outside of it. Wounds would heal and injuries be forgotten while legends left to grow and spread amongst the people. Moments of joy was left to be lived while moments of sorrow left to be suffered through. Yet time would pass on as was it's nature and humans would continue to live and die alongside with it's passing. A former murderer left to take on the name of Yiwèishì to those he loved while to those foolish enough to attack the temple of Mount Song or defile it's lands left to meet The Demon of Mount Song and all of his fury. Yet the tale of Yiwèishì, or The Demon of Mount Song depending on upon how you meet, was a tale far from over...