Yoru

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Yoru is a mostly humanoid Ruler and Builder with some feline traits, and is currently the Lord Mayor of Avaricia. His passions lie in the care of his furry cats (to the point where felines have become an obsession) as well as brewing, cheesemaking, and jam making (jamming?) to indulge in the high pleasures of a newfound lifestyle.

His aspirations lie in the construction of a grand Cathedral where his Cult can properly pay homage to the Spirits as the fanatical High Prophet of the newly founded Cult of the Pure Realm. Furthermore, as the recently elected Lord Mayor of Avaricia, he has a duty both to his home which brought him in, and to the Empire of Ravenguard of which he is a prominent member, and aims to expand Avaricia into the sparkling jewel of the desert that it is, and shall prosper into.

Biography
Yoru was born into the world as Scelest Sanguinis, who was a part of the wealthy "Von Macabre" family, rulers of the County of Ash from their seat of Ashford, a mining town within the mountains. He was born an illegitimate child of the influential Baron, and as such the Baroness always looked at him with disdain. From birth, she knew he wasn't hers, and as such declared his name to mean "he is the sin of the blood" in their ancient tongue. Due to pressing from his wife, the Baron neglected him with melancholy, despite his best intentions, and he was soon expelled into the streets from their lush estate. Weeks went by, and he found himself begging desperately just to survive, to live a malnourished, unfulfilling existence. He managed to deceive the matron of the town orphanage to let him in with a fake letter and distressed pleas for help. Life in the orphanage was where he learnt how to read and write the language he was so accustomed to, and once he was deemed old enough, he realised with dread a lump in his throat, that the orphanage was in fact a covert slavery operation. He witnessed the Baroness filling the pockets of the matron with money as he was carted off to the mines, his face a war between his indignity and his broken will. The cold, lifeless mines were a change of scenery to him. Though the caves were purged of spirit or rebellion, the miners shared a mutual respect for each other. It taught him the lesson that, though people may come from all roots of life, they all have a story worth listening to before you form opinions of them. Through his time swinging his pickaxe into grey stones and the rare ore, he learnt the value of hard work. Every day he saw the weak and brittle be dragged out of the mines, feinted from dehydration or dead from fallen stalactites, and though he felt pity, it encouraged him to work for every aspect of his life, inch by inch, lest he be subjugated and forced to face what lay beyond life. Was it the afterlife? He didn't know, and was afraid to find out what the unknown void beyond his existence was. He found a family in his odd group of miners, forged from the frigid, forced fallacy of their unfortunate lives. The thought of the cruel Baroness getting the last laugh was unacceptable to him; he needed an escape. That night, as all the miners showered, he coated his bare skin in the obliterated dust of the broken stones, and against the cover of the walls, fled as if he were invisible. Back, back he went to Ashford, his head throbbing from the cold, his skin glowing red. It was then that he was discovered, frozen to the bone from hypothermia, by a simple village family of the peasantry, an elderly, kindred couple that took to his plight like moths to a flame; but instead of facing death like he dared think, they brought him to their house and sheltered him.

As he grew up, he began to experience unconditional warmth. They loved him as their own, like they would their own son, as for their entire lives they had tried and tried, yet their pregnancies never bore fruit. It was discovered that the woman was infertile, yet the husband had loved her too much to use a third-party donor. He never learnt their names, but they taught him everything a boy ought to know. He explored the woods, learned to shoot a bow and furnish furniture from wood. He learned how to wield an axe, to fell trees and the fundamentals of architecture and building. He was fascinated by the architecture of the world; it was otherworldly to him that one could form such lavish structures from the impurities of the earth. He became engrossed in the thought of the perfect building. When his adoptive father died, he finally heard his name. His adoptive mother soon fell ill, and he knew that he had to spend what little time he had left with her before she inevitably passed away. Those last days are a great source of melancholy for him, but he managed to remain resilient throughout. Left all alone in the world, he gave his parents a proper burial before leaving Ashford, his only regret that he was unable to end the regime of the corrupt Baroness and her puppet husband.

Scelest walked wistfully from his motherland, surviving off the odd street job that he did, drifting from town to town. He developed an irrational love for the heights, where he could feel the breath of nature whistling past him on his place at the peaks of the world. It was a far cry from the mines; he felt free and at home. He had dreams of becoming a great architect, but where to start? He had lived such a solitary life that he had no outside connections. He resolved to rent a room in an inn using the money he had been left, and begin creating designs. At first, his ideas were mediocre and uninspired, and as his desperation grew, his designs grew more and more frivolous, until abruptly he had a vision of a splendrous house made of pearlescent, glistening stones that were out of this world. He put it onto paper, and gained a large sum of a thousand gold coins for the design. Soon, he was struck by wave after wave of inspiration, from the tallest skyscrapers to the most ornamented palaces. He became an icon in the architectural world, at such a young age.

It was around the age of 17 that Scelest came across his first bandit. At the time he was around Goldenvale, now of Aurum Solis, when he heard the faint sounds of rambunctious, infectious cheering echoing through the streets. He asked about, and was led to an underground arena with betters and fighters and spectators enjoying the spirit of the Rat Ring. The bandit in question was named InverseAtom and was fighting fiercely, before winning the match with a flurry of blows. Scelest left in awe of what he had seen, the sounds of clashing metal reverberating in his head.

It was on business that led to him meeting his first true benefactor, fellow architect Joms J Jommerson, at the age of 20. Now an adult known particularly for his interests in both Gothic and modern buildings, he was first introduced to Joms' city of Avaricia. It was a city with glass buildings soaring past the clouds and vibrant condos kissing the lips of the coral-filled sea. He was offered a place to settle down in, a home beyond the hearths of inns, with the only condition being that he aid in building a framework that would make the city the crown jewel of the desert, a safe haven of hedonism and happiness. Beginning to build, he constructed housing of the purest marbles and the most lustrous stones of the neighbouring oceans. He built luxurious houses and mansions, even a casino named after Joms' very good friend, Agrippa Calia. Avaricia was where he met vivid personalities such as Soul Leyla-Earcala, and it being a town of Ravenguard allowed him to socialise with the epic Onetapped, the quirky GamingDerp and the Book Bandit Nethy.

Despite having isolated himself from it, a few months later was when the wider world began to reach out to him. The first instance was of MrPierogi arriving through the desert on a steed, claiming that he was "scouting out the area" before his, and by extent, Bostadia (then protectorate of the AWE)'s declaration of war against Ravenguard (whilst also losing his horse in claimed land). The situation was quickly explained to the lords of the Empire and it was quickly diffused, ending in MrPierogi being ousted from power.

Yoru turned back to mining to earn a little bit of coin, and it was returning from a mining trip that he found Dahlion (fellow citizen) and Joms conversing at the base of the newly constructed Avarician hotel. It was a day as fine as any other. Nobody would have expected for the fierce Goon, InverseAtom, to show up and begin a slaughter. He lost much that day, barely escaping into the deserts at the cost of Dahlion's life.

It was there that, bogged down by all his heavy minerals, he began to lose his sense of direction. As night fell, he was dehydrated and ready to collapse from the scorching heat. As night fell, his mild fever was replaced by crippling cold, and he curled up into the fetal position, wishing that he would be saved. And he was saved, for in the shadows formed by the moon and the mountain-like dunes, it was Lysthar that benevolently came to him. The great shadow cat explained that it was the Messenger of the Spirits, that it had come for him. And as he felt the potent, powerful, pure energy of That realm surge through his veins, he felt renewed and restored. Lysthar named him "Yoru", after the night he was born, and dissipated as if it was never there.

He knew that losing a friend on his account was unacceptable. After the incident, he began to research bandits in depth. He was fascinated by their immense power, as if they were polar opposites to him, the lonely builder. He knew that if they ever made a call to his abode again, he wouldn't stand a chance. He, with his rudimentary childhood training, playing with wooden sticks and twigs, versus lifelong killers? It wouldn't be a contest. But he could fight smart instead of hard. He could become a hunter of prey instead of a bandit. He could use his newfound knowledge contained in That energy to outsmart, outwit, outdo them.

Yoru began looking into the obscure, antiquated Spirit Arts that had been defined by his predecessors that had been obliterated on Jagdas. He wondered if Lysthar was in fact one such ancestor, its soul saved from the consuming maws of the void. With much research and praying, he received his first recipe from the spirits. It was a brew allowing him to skip across the water as if he were a glowing dolphin. On and on this cycle went, his fascination with brewing and cheesemaking and jam-making growing with every new potion, every new cheese, every new jam.

He vanished from the public eye for a few months. In those months, he had found a Spirit Gate and had travelled through to begin his training with the Prophets Long Gone. It was there that he learnt the ways of the Cult of the Pure Realm which he had been introduced to by its messenger. He emerged from the dark abyss of the Gate smarter and stronger.

Yoru sought out the vampire forgemaster, Lathien, and it was he who, with his vast resources, aided him in crafting his rapier, Aur'lokirakusch, meaning "Crepuscule" in the Old Tongue. Yoru would then go on to become a very frequent customer at his forge.

It was later on that he would be called to arms to fight against a territory near Rhineland called Mushroomica, and he aided in the ensuing capture of their fort, allowing his nation to welcome the territory with amicable terms of agreement, and he would also go on to aid GamingDerp in battling the troublesome warriors of Shirokaneza, namely ElKool and BlazeickTheMage in the heartland of Ravenguard.

Unable to partake in the War of the Black Flag, he watched from the side lines as the freedom of the Barbossan Pirates (whom he held great respect for) was crushed by a foreign power, and he spectated the Valorant War (Uraka Coalition VS Tortuga/Barbossa), unaffiliated with either side, as the renowned Pirates fell into the waters, most of them never to be seen again. It was on that day that he was inspired, by how the brave pirates rallied in the face of death, charging into a battle that they'd known they had pre-emptively lost. His respect was earned, and the Barbossans had earned it.

As a Bandit, his time was fraught with failure, yet it is due to his friends that he has the resolve to carry on a life of hardship. He was extracted from battle by JDD_JDD and pulled into the Spirit Realm by the Prophets Long Gone at the most unfortunate time -- when he was locked in combat in the centre of the Nether, losing his trident in the process. He was brutally assaulted by DireWolf57 and ElKool (nearly losing his fabled rapier to them) and was awkwardly bested in a duel in a fiery pit. Humility isn't something he is great at, but then again, he begins to see that nothing lasts forever. That it is only what anything has accomplished that makes them a memorable memory in the minds of the many.

Tensions were growing between Ravenguard and the shattered remnants of Maximus. Former Emperor Paullus "Tron" Decker had swayed many to his unjust cause. People that Yoru knew -- like Jommerson and CraftWars, a member of his Cult -- had been corrupted to Tron's bitter, pungent fallacies, leaving him at an impasse. He had scoured through both sides' arguments. Despite all the fond memories he had had, he had to make a decision. Yoru would forsake his once Mayor for the righteousness of Ravenguard against its petty neighbours lusting for land, frantic for power.

He knew the days were numbered. One by one the sun rose and the moon fell. One by one he knew that what was inevitable drew nearer. One by one he knew that this would be fate's parallel of what had happened to Barbossa. He couldn't let the same happen to his pride and joy, and that of his friends. Yoru set out to the land of Roma (which had been claimed by CraftWars) alongside Onetapped, GamingDerp and Paul under the banner of a diplomatic mission to rid Ravenguard of the rebellious squatters. This escalated into a mad fight to keep CraftWars from fleeing, in order to force him to listen to what they had to say. In the chaos, CraftWars had been shot down by Onetapped, though not without its costs. Yoru both felt sapped of energy. Yoru watched as he saw a wooden doll crumble to dust. He knew what had happened.

His pupil had enacted a voodoo ritual, the likes of which sacrificed life to inflict damage on a foe. He felt weakened. Stumbling back to Avaricia, he slumped down on a chair as he began lighting the fires, boiling the water, and preparing ingredients for brewing. He needed something strong, something that would replenish the stores of spiritual energy that he had lost.

War was coming. His Citadel may not have been finished, his body may have been weakened, but Yoru would stand against for justice. Yoru would stand for his nation, his empire, his Ravenguard.

The time before the inevitable storm grew to a close; Ravenguard grew closer to the Goondium and they merged into GoonGuard. Yoru could respect the skilled Goons, he was even wary of them, and to him, that made him respect them even more. Yoru was disappointed at the rebel surrender; it was one thing to spread lies, but it was entirely another to fail to support your deceptions with real action.

Yoru had fond memories of Boardwalk; meeting Lathien and Lizzie at the Cat Cafe (naturally, he loved cats!) and sampling whatever brews she had made for the day. Boardwalk was an extraordinary place that brought people together, regardless of their occupation. Regardless of whether they were a reaver or not. One day, Boardwalk was looted by Aurorans from Rathnir; it was robbed of millions in one fell swoop. The beloved Cat Cafe was forced to close down; centralised economy and business was relocated. The magical aura that lingered in the air had been eviscerated.

When the Eldham Entente declared war on the Aurorans for the atrocities committed at Boardwalk, Yoru knew that he had to volunteer. The War of the Worlds was bloodied but ultimately a decisive win for the Entente. The defenders of Fornost were slain and ultimately the score was not in their favour. In the ensuing chaos, Yoru was able to slay Queen Nikephoros who was caught outside their walls. The Entente would later withdraw from Rathnir at the surrender of the Aurorans and the Treaty of Hakkinza, which would reimburse the victims of the Boardwalk Incident with a total of 20 million. Drenched in the blood of the first inter-world war, Yoru made the necessary sacrifices to Lysthar and returned home, his canines marred by sinew and flesh.

The haven that Lysthar had imagined nears completion. Cat Citadel, an abode of great fortitude and soaring towers, is being imagined block by block, and will soon dominate the tallest mountains, the barren deserts, and the sparkling seas.