Nightstar's Character Sheet

Codename: Tao
Real Name: Nightstar or Lei X’ia-x’iang “Wu-xing”
Known Aliases: Nightstar is the only public name she uses these days, but some might
refer to her as Madame Lei around Little China, out of respect
Occupation: Martial Arts Instructor, Tattoo artist
Citizenship: Citizen of the UK/British Commonwealth via Hong Kong
Legal Status: No criminal record, legal alien resident in the US
Identity: No dual ID used
Birthplace: Allegedly Hong Kong, British Commonwealth
Birthdate: Unrevealed
Marital Status: Betrothed (on veeerrrryyyyy long hiatus)
Known Relatives: Izinagi Raijin (aka Raiden, betrothed)
Unnamed mother, Djinn/Otherworlder breed mutant, deceased
Lee (Lei Gong or Kuan Ti, father, thunder)
Tempest (Tian Mu or Lei Zi, aka Grannie Chen, step-mother, lightening)
Wind (Feng Bo or Fei Lian, half-sister, wind)
Skye (Yun Tong, half-brother, clouds)
Raine (Yu Zi, half-brother, rain)
Min Shanta, grandmother, Human/Otherworlder, deceased
Ru Hui-kun, grandfather, Human/Djinn, deceased
Base of Operations: India Ink or the Dancing Dragon Kuen, New York, NY
Former Base of Operations: Hong Kong, China
Group Affiliations: Society for Creative Anachronism, Int'l Wing Chun Society,
Black Belt Club, Hellfire Club, Master Mason, Tattoo Artists’ Guild
Past Group Affiliations: Unrevealed
Extent of Education: Master's Degree, Post-grad studies
Race/Type: Humanoid Alien/Deity/Human Hybrid (is only 1/8th homo magi)

Ht: 6'5" Hair: Black Build: Solid, fit
Wt: 350+ Eyes: Black Skin: Olive
Apparent Age: 25-35 True Age: Unrevealed
Other: She has pointed ears and several tribal tattoos. She can easily be mistaken for Indian, Native American or one of the Arabic, Central Asian or Mediterranean ethnicities. Nightstar’s tats have a softer, curvy Tribal style when she’s in a good mood. The style shifts to ‘sharp’ and angular when she’s angered. Her eyes are a glossy, bright black and the whites flash at odd times.

Fighting: Mn/Sh X
Agility: Am/Un
Strength: In/Am
Endurance: Mn/Sh X
Reason: In
Intuition: Un
Psyche: Sh Y

Health: 150/375
Mental Health: 390
Karma: 2984
Resources: Ex personal, In business
Popularity: 25, 50 with martial arts, tattoo culture and Taoist/Buddhist adherants
Looks: Ex

Known Powers:

Darkforce/Shadow: Un
Nightstar is resistant to darkness, the energies listed next at power rank and to light at -2CS. Her power blocks Light, Sound, Heat, Radio Waves, Radiation, Magnetism, Energy Doppelgangers & Energy Bodies of Mn rank or less. She is also able to see in natural or mystical shadows, Darkforce and total darkness. The Umbra is a place of liquid darkness, 'cold' and almost total sensory deprivation to those who are unfamiliar with its effects and nature.
Stunts @ Un: Self Sustenance/Energy Sheath, Paralysis/Possession
Stunts @ Mn: Shadowshaping/casting, animation; Phase (Airwalking, Partial Phasing, Phasecut, Phase Inversion, Phaseshift), Weapons Creation, Forcebolts Mn (In darkness/cold side F/X)
Stunts @ Am: Stealth/Blending, Energy Solidification/Absorption, Force/Shadow Shapes, Energy Dopplegangers/Self-duplication, Scatterblast/Shadow-spots
Stunts @ In: Reality Warping (the Umbra), Teleport self/others, Window, Mind Blast (turns the shadow-self against the self)
Stunts @ Rm: Suspended Animation, Sensory Deprivation, Entrapment/Suffocation, Clairsentience (between areas of shadow/darkness or via ‘shaped shadows’)
Stunts @ Ex: Dimensional Travel/Gateway, “Illusion Casting” (Shadows only)
Notes: **Energy Path: (must choose shape on use, and will remain the same until destroyed or dissipated) Mn material strength, Power rank air, ground or water speed. Typically appears as a sleek black customized sportbike or speederbike.
**Energy Doppleganger/Self-dupes: Can be in other shapes/forms. Typcially an Oriental dragons, cats (from domestic to panthers), crows/ravens, falcons.
**Dimensional Travel/Gateway: Otherworld, Olympus, Kun Lun, Panoptichron, Nirvana, Feng Tu, Asgard, Gemworld, Crimson Dawn, The Umbra

Lightforce/Light: Un
Nightstar can generate a sort of living light of Am intensity, filling up to 2 areas. This light can stun opponents who fail an Endurance FEAT roll for 1 round, and gives those who are attacking her glowing form a -2CS to hit him. If used as an attack, it is considered a blinding flash of In intensity. Those whose sense of sight is not protected at equal or better rank, and are facing the flash, are blinded for 1-10 rounds. All FEATs by those affected are at -2cs for 1-10 rounds and even those who are not facing the flash, but are in his area, or an adjacent area, are subject to the stunning effects. This needs a successful Endurance FEAT or be stunned, unable to act for one round.
Note: She can also access The White Room, but is currently unaware of this.
Stunts @ Mn: Free Spirit/Astral Body, Glyphs (various effects)/Warding, Light-shapes & Force Manipulation (ala Green Lanterns)
Stunts @ Am: Lightshow/Blinding, Bio-physical Control (Healing/Purge/Purify)
Stunts @ In: Hypnosis, Neural Manipulation, Forced Reincarnation (recent only)
Stunts @ Rm: Exorcism, Invisibility, Telelocation (Col E), Illusion Casting
Stunts @ Ex: Floating Disk, Enchantment, Power Control (Magnification)
Stunts @ Gd: “Whiteboard”, Flashlight, Dancing Lights
Other Stunts: Resist Light/Blinding, Illusions
Specal Tricks: **Daggers: Am edged/energy daggers of solid psionic energy. Victims with no defenses or those with Body Armor, Body Resistance, Forcefields, and various Invulnerabilities of less than Mn rank must make an Endurance FEAT vs. Am intensity Stunning. Failure results in the target being KO'd for 1-100 rounds and is -3cs on all feats for 1-100 more rounds. Success results in the target being -1cs on all FEATS for the next 1-10 rounds. She can stun victims on any color FEAT. She may fire up to 4 daggers in a single round at up to 4 separate targets in the same area. She may control the flight of these daggers up to 5 areas away. If she chooses to make the blades Two-dimensional, they can effect up to Sh Z materials for cutting purposes.
**Bo Staff: Mn force/blunt, as if made of Mn material, doing Stun or Slam damage to the opponents she hits with it. Can be combined with the effects of the Sword in a naginata or similar type of pole arm.
**Arrows: Mn rank, varies by 'type' of arrow created, otherwise function like her previously described daggers. She may render them Two-dimensional, or hollow so that they may contain flammables, explosives, gases, powders and drugs of various types. She may also render them blunt, sonic or other types/shapes that have been historically used in the Orient.
**Swords: Mn edged/energy weapon, which penetrates defenses, forcefields and body armor/ resistances of up to Am rank*, otherwise functions like her daggers. However, the sword can kill, without leaving a mark on her victim, functioning as a monofilament blade if she chooses to make it 2D (Which grants +5CS to cutting damage, allowing her to breach up to Cl 3000 material/defenses.)

Unique Stunt/Tattooing: Nighstar can bestow one particular effect by “tattooing” a person with darkforce or lightforce, depending upon the imagery and intentions involved. She chooses the result—or she may choose to let the “power” adapt to the individual.

Martial Supremacy: Kung Fu/Wushu: Am
Through intensive training and study, Nightstar has achieved uncommon mastery of Chinese martial arts and has learned to perform almost mystical/legendary feats with her chi-kung training and martial prowess. This is, in part, a learned ability and can’t be suppressed via technological or conventional means. Nightstar’s Fighting and Agility rank is considered Un to Sh-X when engaged in melee combat. Her Strength is considered Mn for purposes of breaking and damage due to the precision and skill she has in combat.
Stunts @ In: Breaking/Striking (In rank boost to her Strength), Multiple Attacks, Leaping, Iron Will
Stunts @ Rm: Sound Generation (Kiai), Blending or Stealth, Paralysis
Stunts @ Ex: Lightening/Hyper-Speed, Induce Sleep, Immovability
Stunts @ Gd: Skywalk/Waterwalk, Vocal Control, Neural Manipulation
Stunts @ Ty: Body/Lung/Digestive Adaptation, Gliding
Stunts w/o Rank: Water-Breathing, Water Freedom, Weapons Master, Blindsight

Cosmic Awareness: Am
Note: Nightstar does not suffer from risk of madness. Instead, she does suffer from a sort of sensory overload due to her general level of perception and awareness. This results in occasional migraines with aura, "photo/phonophobia" and nausea. Unfortunately, due to her divine physiology, she can’t use the typical treatments available for humans.
Stunts @ Am: Danger Sense, Aura/Chi Perception, Empathy, Total Memory
Stunts @ In: Environmental Awareness, Enhanced Senses
Stunts @ Rm: True Sight, Sense Weakness, Omni-Knowledge
Stunts @ Ex: Detect Magic/Illusion/Invisible, Extra-dimensional
Stunts w/o Rank: Circular Perception, Low-light Vision and she may retain up to 30 extra talents via this ability (via Omni-knowledge).

Psi-screen: Sh Z
Nightstar’s mind seems to eternally cloaked in swirling, obscuring shadows. Only Phoenix has been able to reach her, and then as if a single candle in a dark temple.
SideF/X @ Mn: Non-detection, Mental Invisibility

Divine Physiology:
True Invulnerability: Ex-In
Regeneration/Recovery: In-Mn
Self-Revival: In-Mn
Serial Immortality: Un
Note: Her Lightforce/Darkforce powers rise to Sh Y in her “true” form, Cosmic Awareness to Un, though her general appearance remains the same, her hair and eyes are blacker than black, and the whites of her eyes ‘flash’ ala Ra/Stargate. Her tats either absorb light or glow eerily and are far more animated.

Advantages: Attractive, Lightening Reflexes, Perfect Balance, 3d Sense, Intensive Training, Well-connected, Mystic Origin, Sanity, Iron Nerves (x3), Social Status: Master Mason (co-masonry) & Hellfire Club (social), Popularity

Drawbacks: Secrets, Migraines (see C.A.), Watched by father (Lei Gong / Kuan Ti),
Rival(s) (Raiden, mostly friendly Ares, Athena, Sif, Lugh, Sekhmet, etc), Personal Code (Wuxia), Headblind, Seriously bad temper (fortunately long fused), Prominent ID (top 20 world tattooists)

Talents: Martial Arts (all), Oriental Weapons, Oriental Studies, Photographic Memory, Computers, Multi-lingual, Acrobat/Tumble, Repair/Tinker, Performer (martial arts/weapons exhibition, dance), Occult Lore, Philosophy, History, Multi-lingual (English, Chinese dialects, Latin, Spanish, Gaelic, Hindi, Arabic, Tibetan and more), Artist (Tattoos, sketching/drawing, water colours, ink painting—Am rank ability in all)

Contacts: Martial Arts, Historical Re-enactment, Mystic/Occult, Otherworld, Tattoo culture, maybe more

Equipment:

Armor/Costume Specifications: RM3 materials, resembles normal clothing, Mn material strength, can change to match any style of clothing she desires.
Personal Weaponry: Conventional, high quality martial arts weapons
Special/Unique Weaponry: Darkforce or Lightforce weapons
Other Accessories: Smartphone, Laptop, Swiss Army Knife, Computer toolkit, etc
Transportation: Motorcycle or car, teleportation under own power
Design/Manufacture: Conventional manufacturers

Background:

Quirks: Hates chocolate.
Has a snarky, sarcastic sense of humour.
Doesn't like sitcoms or children, or dogs much either. Indifferent cook.
Doesn't like people making decisions about her/for her, without her express consent and/or knowledge about such things. (Hello, Lei Gong, pay attention…)
Can’t stand dumb-bunny-females or male chauvinists.
Really, really dislikes Raiden of the Okami, and never mind how toe curlingly gorgeous or graceful Raiden is, she can’t stand *him* either! (And if he weren’t such a pompous, arrogant asshat, and actually, sincerely apologised, she *might* be willing to revise her opinion, but don’t count on that happening anytime soon!)

Hobbies: SCA/Historical Re-enactment. Martial arts. Various artistic pursuits, especially tattooing.

History: Nightstar is the child of a woman of mixed djinn and Otherworldly heritage and an unknown, divine father. According to ‘modern’ history, her birth mother abandoned her with her maternal grandparents and joined the nutjobs in LA's Scientology community after divorcing the man she'd claimed was Nightstar's father on the birth certificate. She later produced a son as the result of an affair with a married man (also a Scientologist).

Nightstar grew up with her grandparents, both of whom were highly educated and open minded professors. They encouraged her avid interest in a variety of subjects, yet never pushed her toward any particular religious sect. Her grandfather, a Master Freemason, encouraged her interests in Classical and Celtic mythology, Oriental philosophy and Taoism as well as history and the arts while her grandmother encouraged her interest in the practical side of life—ensuring that she was able to be self-sufficient. As a result, Nightstar gained a very well rounded education, and is something of a Renaissance woman.

She has been a member of the SCA for a number of years, gaining recognition as a amateur costumer and artist. That early interest in history, philosophy and the arts further lead her to become study Chinese martial arts—particularly Kung Fu, Tai Chi and Hsing-I—growing up. She'd earned the equivalent of advanced degree black belts, but has equally as devoted to learning the historical, mental and philosophical aspects of her martial arts as well as the purely physical, combat aspects.

Nightstar became aware some subtle, unusual things during a rare family get-together—where two people she'd attended high school with mistook her for a much-younger sister of her half-brother, asking her grandparents if she was their third grand-child! She'd long considered that her devotion to living a healthy, active lifestyle was responsible for her youthful appearance and good health—until she learned some things from her elderly grandparents, in regards to her mysterious father and her mother's odd "religious" or "mystical" experiences, as well as their own "mixed heritage" was a lot more mixed than most folks would've been willing to believe. Of course, she filed that knowledge away for future reference—but it didn't really come back to her, until more recently.

She'd never really given the fact that she'd rarely gotten sick or suffered any serious injuries much thought, either. She'd known she was allergic to stuff with a higher Sulphur content, going back to one really bad sinus infection she'd had as a teenager and the idiot GP hadn't clued in that she was suffering from the secondary and tertiary allergic effects from the Sulpha antibiotics—and that she couldn’t eat eggs or seafood. Sure, her arm had knotted up when she got the mandatory MMR shots back in her university days, a painful nuisance was about it. The pieces began to come together in the aftermath of a situation that'd rattled her to the core.

She'd been at a martial arts convention in LA, out clubbing with some of her friends and fellow martial artists—and having a great time of it. They'd been walking back to their hotel in Universal City when the group encountered some punks with more attitude than sense. In the ensuing fight, two of her friends had been stabbed, another shot and others injured. Nin had helped her chums fight off and subdue the punks. She'd taken as much as she'd dished out, her clothing showing irrefutable proof that she'd also been stabbed and shot—yet there wasn't much more than bruises and scratches on her!

Nighstar laughed it off at the time, joking about being bulletproof like one of the wuxia heroes in her favourite Hong Kong action flicks—but deep inside, she was far more shaken up than her friends, the cops and the paramedics realized. She never considered herself anything other than a 'normal' woman, but the sudden realization that she hadn't ever been 'normal' finally sunk in as she slept off the post-adrenaline rush and awakened to find nary a trace of the bruises she'd had. After she returned to Phoenix, Nightstar realized that she wanted answers, and there were only a handful of experts in metahuman physiology in the nation. That'd mean taking a leave of absence from her job and traveling to New York. Then again, it wasn't like she minded getting away from the 120 degree weather and insipid, endless sunshine of Phoenix in July and August. It was time for a road trip! In the years since, Nightstar has become a balance of darkness and light, embodying her understanding of the Tao. Not exactly a vigilante, nor a superhero, but someone who is true to herself and follows her conscience and knowledge—as Nightstar would say, “Trying t’do the right thing, as best I can, with what I’ve got…”

At least that’s the way Nightstar relates her history to most folks in the modern age. In reality, she’s much older than that…since she was born in the 14th century. She was raised by her maternal grandparents, her mother was never quite ‘sane’ thanks to some rather dysfunctional quasi mystical abilities. She had a mortal half-brother in the military. Her alleged “father” was of noble, aristocratic or at least gentrified birth.

There are some things she just doesn't discuss, like the arrangement her father made without consulting her, regarding a certain “samurai”, who seemed to be expecting a demure, decorous paragon of Oriental maidenhood...too bad for them. What Lei Gong and Raiden met for the first time wasn’t any such thing.

Nightstar was a quiet, well-dressed (if somberly so) warrior-scholar who spoke her mind, openly and honestly. She didn’t mince words or pretend to be something she wasn’t. A gifted artist, calligrapher and musician, a reasonably graceful dancer, she wasn’t petite, delicate or particularly beautiful. She was completely lacking in culinary arts and the sort of domestic skills one of that era expected from a young lady of her august station.

Raiden had mistaken Nightstar for a commoner, whom he could freely accost and seduce, before officially meeting “the Lady Lei Wu-xing”…only to have his advances rebuffed quite vigorously and be blooded by what he believed a common scribe! In the fight, Nightstar’s nose had also been broken, it didn’t heal straight thanks to her divine metabolism, and she’s never bothered to rectify it since she can breathe just fine. (Nor did she ever have it corrected, out of sheer perversity, to remind her father and Raiden!)

Needless to say their first formal meeting did not go particularly well either. One got what one saw in Nightstar. She lacked usual feminine wiles and airs, and his presumption that she was a ‘common scribe’ was his error, not hers. Raiden lost much face when she calmly, matter-of-factly related the cause of her broken nose to her father…and being a stubborn, proud god, a simple apology wasn’t forthcoming… And so began a grudge (and a rivalry) that has carried over to modern times… Today, Nightsar’s Shadow Dragon Yang-lung Kuen and Raiden’s dojo are ‘friendly’ rivals. Neither condones violence between their students, but competition’s very stiff in ‘proper’ martial arts competitions… and among those whom they’ve trained, that have gone on to become heroes, soldiers, police officers and special agents...

Both she and Raiden are too stubborn to admit they would be well suited, and Raiden will do just about anything to keep her attention—even if the results aren't particularly positive. He just –has- to keep her attention, somehow, and over the years Raiden’s fallen in love—but hasn’t seemed to have a bloody clue how to woo Nightstar.

(Hey, sending her some roses with haiku might be a way to start? Or penning her a sincere note of apology and an accompanying work of art or something? Or even simply asking her out for coffee and talking to her…but that’s all too simple for a stubborn, proud Okami!)

Yet, when Nightstar is ill from the side effects of her “knowing” and “seeing”, it’s Raiden who sneaks into her loft and cares for her—rubbing peppermint oil on her temples, bringing her iced green tea or a snack if she can stomach it, creating a cooling breeze or rain to sooth her to sleep…just sitting with her and smoothing her hair with cool hands, the little things that nobody sees that are eroding her dislike of the outwardly lazy, shiftless samurai and his ostensibly rude, overbearing attitude. Maybe Raiden isn't quite so clueless, after all?