Character Name: Yumi [結実] no Kagen
Nicknames: “Little bean” - by Hinata
Age and Birth Year: 23 (172AP)
Race: Short-lived Tacean
Caste: Queen
Birth Territory: Tacea
Home Territory: Tacea

Birthright Jewel: cut White
Offering Jewel: cut Rose

Role: Queen
Faction: Kagen Clan


Play By: Jing Tian
Distinguishing Features: Yumi is regularly called a legendary beauty, and is in fact quite lovely. Men and women alike have written poems praising the flower of the Kagen family.



Personality:
The name Yumi means ‘bear fruit,’ a promise of abundance and a sweet life. As her name would imply, Yumi no Kagen is a Queen with a boundless sense of love and compassion paired with a desire to live a life that is meaningful and fulfilling. She has been raised with a great sense of duty to all of the people who swear fealty to her Clan, and her driving ambition in life is to be the greatest Queen of the Kagen there has ever been.

Yumi craves new experiences, and loves first meetings for the possibility of excitement. As a child, she loved to hear stories of pirates and adventurers; she traveled as she grew older, taking advantage of her grandmother’s yearly pilgrimage to see the cultural sights of her homeland. Her Court is an open and welcoming one, valuing many different views and opinions. She strives to hear the voices of all who would speak to her and provide them with meaningful guidance, as befits of one of the Dragon’s daughters. Still, she knows she is young, and this makes her humble before more experienced leadership. Her advisors are all older than she is, and are veterans of the War between the Dragons. It is important to her that they reach consensus on major decisions; she would rather delay than make a rash choice.

Yumi’s stubbornness, combined with her desire to seek happiness for those she rules, often leads her away from the path to success. When handed five battles to fight, Yumi doesn’t pick one to focus on, she picks all of them. They all matter, and why should she pick only one of them? She doesn’t really understand the concept of the tactical retreat; when things are wrong, she believes that it’s not only necessary but morally required that they be fixed immediately. Yumi can be incredibly patronizing if she thinks someone is being obtuse, and vicious when she thinks someone is being cruel.

Likes:

• The Tang - Yumi is fascinated with the Tang. All she knows about her father is that he was likely a Tang mercenary, and that information has driven a lifelong interest in the Tang and their culture. For her sixteenth birthday, she traveled to Chang’an and lived there for a year, during which she got to know a great deal about the differences between the Tang and the Kagen. Now that she’s Queen, she desires to create a place of refuge and safety for them, but finds the differences between their cultures are causing more friction than friendship.
• The Kagen - Yumi is incredibly proud of her people. From the day her grandmother first took her into her arms, she has been raised to look up to the Unifier of Tacea and the many great Dragon Mothers and Clan Queens that have studded her bloodline like stars in the sky. The Kagen are a hard-working people. Their long labors and skill at the political arts have wrought a great peace in Tacea that the other Clans now seek to undo. Clearly, the Kagen are the best of all Clans.
• Autumn - Appropriate to her name and her season of birth, Yumi loves the autumn season. The fresh fruit, the smell of threshed grain, swapping summer kimono for winter, all of it feels so specific and special, but without the sweltering heat of late spring.

Dislikes:

• Gardening - Yumi knows that she’s meant to be in love with the land in all its forms, but she prefers to think of her territory as the people which live in it. Grubbing around in the dirt is unpleasant and sweaty work, and it makes her feel small, which she doesn’t like. Despite all her scholarship, Yumi doesn’t quite grasp the ins and outs of managing her Clan’s agriculture, so she’s glad she’s got a Steward to help her. Also, she might touch a bug if she goes in the garden. Gross!
• Disrespect - Yumi is not much given to outbursts, but as she is now Queen of the Kagen an insult to her is an insult to her clan, which as stated above is something she loves dearly. Actions or statements which impugn or attempt to circumvent her ability to operate as a Queen are actions that actively question the judgement of not only the Kagen elders who selected her for the position, but the judgement of her honored grandmother, whose reputation Yumi will throw down for at any time.
• Shedding dogs - Yumi likes dogs, as a rule. She just hates when they shed. Firstly, the hair gets everywhere, which is undignified. Secondly, she’s allergic to whatever happens when they shed, which is doubly undignified. She can brute-force her way through a meeting with red and watery eyes, but sneezing is just rude and unattractive. Still, this doesn’t stop her from fawning all over the dogs that come to her when it’s not shedding season.

Fears:

• War - Yumi already has so much on her plate with the refugees and the struggling agricultural sector. Her lack of experience as a leader causes her to treat the Territory situation gingerly, preferring to keep the Kagen out of the conflict as much as possible rather than exercising her political clout in any one direction. She realizes this may not be tenable forever, but she needs time to consolidate her rule, so for now she’ll try.
• Being forced off the throne - Yumi firmly believes that she is the best Queen the Kagen could have. She is beautiful, smart, and socially adept, without relying on Craft manipulations. She has never caused a scandal and makes friends everywhere she goes. Most importantly, she has the support of Hinata no Kagen, a respected voice. All of these things are true, but the strength of her Rose Jewel pales in comparison to that of her cousin Toyani’s Red. The Kagen fields and farms are struggling beneath the ash-cloud that Mago and Itoko’s eruptions threw into the sky, and yields continue to drop no matter how many times Yumi and the Queens whose families swear to her own gift their blood to the land. A Red could do more. The strength of that Jewel would be better for Tacea, for the plants and animals… but her cousin would destroy everything Hinata and her successors have worked to build. But the Red could do more.
  
• Going mad - In all Blood, there is a capacity for madness, but Yumi doesn’t fear cold rage. What she fears is much more insidious and goes down to the root of her. Hardly anyone ever spoke to her of her mother as a child, except to say that Eri no Kagen had been very sick before she died. When she was older, she was told that her mother had fallen into a deep depression after giving birth, and in that blackness she had taken her own life. No one had foreseen Eri’s breakdown to prevent it; like Yumi, Eri had always been bright and bold, right up until she wasn’t. Now that she’s older, Yumi fears that the emptiness that drove her mother to kill herself will rear up and take her, too.

Craft Strengths:

• Mediation Craft - Yumi uses mediation Craft in much the same way her grandmother does, having been personally instructed in the art. Like her grandmother, she eschews emotional manipulation for a clever mix of mediation Craft and words, choosing instead to gently nudge people towards approaching the problem at hand with open minds and a modicum of trust in others.
• Psychic monitoring - Yumi uses this often in conjunction with her mediation Craft, with a particular bent towards detecting the signs of lies or concealment. She believes that no negotiation can take place without honesty between participants, and if she as the Queen has to make absolutely sure that no one is lying then she will. Though her Craft expenditure is actually a little higher than others who use psychic monitoring, she is able to glean emotional states even from outside a person’s inner barriers.

Craft Weaknesses:

• Sensing spells - Yumi has never really mastered the skills required to sense the spellwork of people around her. She has a difficult time telling when Craft is being used to manipulate her, to the point where she spends a good deal of time looking for a way to prevent the Craft of others from reaching her through an enchanted item or some sort of Widow’s web.
• Land sense - Yumi can adequately perform land sensing; it’s much easier for her than sensing spells. Her difficulty lies in the amount of power she must expend to adequately read the land (hint: it’s almost twice what another Queen would have to expend) and in the fact that she has no idea what the hell any of the readings she gets mean. This is why she’s glad she has a mentor in her grandmother.
  
  
  
  Life Story
  
  Family:
  Grandmother: Hinata no Kagen, Rose to Summersky Queen, b.123AP
  Mother: Eri no Kagen, Blood female, deceased 175 at age 28
  Father: Zhihao An, Tiger Eye to Summer Sky Prince, b.141AP
  
  History:
  Yumi no Kagen was the result of an ill-advised assignation between Eri no Kagen, a daughter of Hinata no Kagen, and one of her mother’s Seven Daggers. Desiring a large family, even if the man’s bloodlines didn’t meet her standards, she kept the child and gave birth to Yumi in the late summer of 172. Eri fell into a deep depression after the birth, from which she never recovered. She drank poison in 175AP and died.
  
  Yumi went to one of her aunts for raising then, but she didn't remain there long; her psychic scent changed and developed into a Queen's by her third birthday. Her grandmother--already in her fifties--took Yumi into her household, and raised her as her own. As a child, Yumi dreamed of meeting or exceeding her cousin Toyani's achievement of a Sapphire Birthright Jewel, but walked away wearing the White. She received the best training the Territory Court could offer to the grandchild of the Great Unifier. Though her grandmother spoiled her mercilessly, the pretty dresses, lavish parties, and expensive instruments were more than balanced out by the grueling lessons in the martial arts, Protocol, history, and the arts. Hinata and Yasuhiro had high expectations for their 'little bean,' and Yumi strove to meet them, flourishing beneath their love and resources.
  
  For her sixteenth birthday, her grandmother granted her request to travel to Zhong, the island home of the Tang people who had always sworn their friendship to the Kagen clan. For a year, she lived among the artistic Tang, developing her own burgeoning musical skills. She made friends there that she was sure would last a lifetime. She returned to Ito shortly after her seventeenth birthday to complete her training.
  
  When it came time for a new Clan Queen to be named in late 191, Yumi had every hope that she would be permitted to make her Offering early and contend with Toyani for the Clan Seat. Though the ruling Kagen Queen clearly favored the power of the Red, Hinata had a powerful voice in the decision and could have turned matters in Yumi’s favor. She did not. In the end, she forbade Yumi to make her Descent early. Hinata had seen too many strong Queens lose their full potential due to the trauma of war, and she wouldn't have Yumi fall prey to her own uncertainty. Instead, the offer was made to Toyani... who refused it. Everyone thought it was a sulk due to her single-rank Descent, but Toyani left Tacea to pursue something on the mainland. Yumi made her own Descent to the Rose in 191 to the pleasure of her family.
  
  Though they intended to wait for Toyani’s return, the Kagen were forced to choose their new Queen when the Dragon Mother Ishiyo no Izayoi lost her mind and attacked her Court. Their ruling Queen was in attendance that day, and died in her attempt to spare her males from the Dragon Queen’s wrath. With Toyani long gone and chaos looming, they required immediate leadership. Hinata was given the deciding voice, and she chose to enthrone Yumi.
  
  
  
  Show Us What You've Got
  
  Character in Play:
  The funeral procession of Naruko Tatsumi no Kagen began after sundown. As the successor to her throne, Yumi's presence was required. And so, there she was, white-clad, gaze downcast. The inheritance of her grandmother's first throne had always been her goal, it was true, and now she had it in her grasp. The moment was poisoned by the horror that presaged it. It ought to have been that Naruko finally yielded to Hinata's recommendation of Yumi over Toyani, that Yumi's steadfast kindness and strength of personality combined would finally overcome the Red Jewel that her cousin wore so poorly. Instead, the reign of Naruko Tatsumi no Kagen ended in blood and terror.
  
  All around her, hands were full of offerings to Mother Night and the ancestors: sea bream, wild birds, kelp, mountain potatoes, melons, and the tiny little dessert cakes that Naruko had so loved. Naruko's only daughter, a woman in her thirties, clutched a folded kimono and stared fixedly at the horse-drawn cart that would take Naruko's body to the funeral pyre. Yumi had never known what it was like to have a mother, not really. By all accounts, Eri had never really bonded with her. But she imagined that it was her grandmother's body on that cart, and Yumi broke away from the pack to join Naruko's daughter. Yuriko, that was her name.
  
  "I heard the news of your mother's death with deep regret," said Yumi. She didn't presume to touch Yuriko, not even through the heavy white kimono. Instead, she placed her own hand over her heart, where the white brocade crossed itself. "Please accept my condolences."
  
  Yuriko closed her eyes and composed herself. Yumi could feel it in the air like a miasma. It was true that Naruko had many good years left in her. She'd been in her fifties, not terribly old, just ready to retire. "Thank you," said Yuriko. They stood together, looking at the cart.
  
  If Toyani hadn't been so selfish, if she'd done her duty and taken the Clan seat when it was offered, how would that day at Court have gone? A Sapphire and a Red could've turned the tide, even if Uncle Shin's Red had only held her for a short while. And all of her Daggers hadn't stopped her either. Maybe the Kagen would've lost two good Queens instead of one.
  
  "She shouldn't have even--" Yuriko cut herself off, shaking her head. "I'm overwrought."
  
  This time, Yumi did presume. She reached out and touched Yuriko's cheek, gently, a brush of calming Craft in the gesture. "Almost done," she said. "Here, I'll walk with you. We'll show Naruko-sama all the honor she deserves."
  
  Yuriko nodded her acceptance, and as the procession formed up, Yumi stood alongside her. It was only what was right.
  
  Petitions (if any): 
  
  
  Player Name: Reid

I love this child and she is fine as far as her dad is concerned.

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1. Tiger Eye - Summer Sky
2. Yellow - Rose
3. White - Tiger Eye
4. Summer Sky - Opal
5. White - Tiger Eye