Most of Michael’s history happened long before he was born. His father, an Akashic who became known to Westerners as “Cheshire”, was a long-time demon-hunter, a member of the Wu Shan faction. When Cheshire went mad from the strains of his path, Michael’s mother, Rose, took him to a monastery in China, where the Akashics have cared for him ever since. Like his father before him, he has been trained in Do and Akashic thought, and started on the path of the demon-hunter.
At the age of ten, still at the monastery, he, like all the students there, was required to spend a night on the side of the mountain on which the monastery stood. The spirits there, while weak, are both numerous and mischievous; many boys have been tricked or frightened into injuring themselves; there have even been a few deaths over the centuries, though these are rarities. Instead of fighting the trickster spirits, Michael first cleared his thoughts as much as possible, attempting to achieve No-Mind, and then proceeded to play his flute for them. When the monks came down in the morning, they found him, tired, but unharmed, and judged him worthy of more intensive training.
At the age of thirteen, the boy was reunited with his mother, and returned with her to Little Asia. Since his arrival there, his nascent sorceries have been developing at an accelerated pace, caused as much by Michael’s tendency to seek out problems to solve as by the usual sorts of events that harry the shen of the District. An early incident in his local career was telling; following a mass riot at a movie theatre, Michael was one of dozens of teens arrested. The young boy helped calm the others as they sat, fearfully waiting for their angry parents to arrive. Indeed, he insisted on being allowed to stay until the last of the students was picked up.
As if his father’s legacy and his own inclinations were not enough to keep him occupied, Michael is also a child of the Changing Phantoms, with blood of both the Bagheera and the Khan running through his veins (he, himself, seems to favor the tiger-blood).
Magical Style
Michael’s magic is centered around his training by the Wu Shan, Taoist mystics who specialize in internal alchemy. To the Wu Shan, the body is a mirror of the invisible universe; by cultivating harmony within, one controls the spirit world without, via sympathetic principles. His foci include an extensive array of katas, mudras and meditation techniques, designed to align his body, mind and soul with the ebb and flow of the world, both visible and invisible. He also possesses his lu, a coded journal passed on to him by his mentor, containing an extensive listing of spirit-names, and the rituals for their summoning, placating and binding. His flute is also a prominent part of his workings, particularly when dealing directly with the spirit-world. A regimen of deep-breathing techniques and meditation let him draw upon his body’s deepest reserves, and keep his mind clear of unwanted influences.
Behold the Character Sheet
Return to the Gallery
