Hien Kurogane

Kasasagi Kiba
Also known as Hien Kurogane
Kasasagi Kiba
Gender	Male
Race	Au Ra
Clan	Raen
Citizenship	Ul'dah
Age	30
Occupation	Assassin, Thief, Leader of House of the Four Winds,
Class	Ninja, Archer
Place of Residence	Private Residence, Ul'dah

Kasasagi is a Doman Raen, born and raised in the city state itself, with a background in assassination, theft and piracy. Kasasagi has spent much of the last five years living as a pirate, divorced from his family after he betrayed them to help a close friend escape when the man became a target for their assassins. Now living in Eorzea, he has been putting together a small network of assassins and thieves known as the House of the Four Winds. Modeled on the similar such network in which he was raised, the Four Winds takes on contracts of a criminal kind for well paying benefactors who need someone who can clean up their problems without getting their hands dirty themselves.

Publicly, Kasasagi owns a small bar called the Waltzing Weasel (The Goblet, Ward 2, Apartment #67) which serves as both an open-to-the-public tavern, albeit a small one, and a private meeting spot for the members of the Four Winds and those seeking their services.

Appearance

Dress Style: Smart but comfortable. He prefers dark, muted colors and simple clothes.

Accessories: Kasasagi wears a pendant on a heavy silver chain, which he is rarely seen without. He also carries a book on his person in which he is often writing notes.

Scars/Distinguishing Features: He has a scar above his left eye, as well as several other scars on his arms, shoulders and back. Aside from the one above his eye, the majority are not visible while dressed.

Character and Personality

Personality: Kasasagi is a careful and calculating individual, a manipulator who prefers to tie strings to people with which make them dance, rather than resorting to the use of violence. He is not averse to using physical threats when necessary, however he commonly believes that there are easier ways to get what he wants than with brutality, and that intimidation does not always need be physical in nature.

On the outside he is genial and friendly individual, a man who spends most of his public time managing his own private bar. However, close observers might note that he tends to listen more than he talks and is more than willing to let loose tongues wag, often encouraging them share more than they initially intend.

As an individual, he is fiercely loyal to his allies, but he can be both vengeful and vindictive toward those he feels have crossed him and reserves a special kind of hatred for betrayers and double-crossers. As for individuals whom he does not know, particular if they happen to become the focus of one of his jobs, he can be manipulative and occasionally two-faced. Though unlikely to ever double cross an individual unless first wronged himself, he will occasionally manipulate events to engender the best outcome for his own interests, and he is not afraid to don a mask a play the fool if it will get him what he wants.

Kasasagi is a careful, observant individual who takes great care in his endeavors. He is extremely analytical, always looking for motives and weaknesses to be exploited, in the belief that, even if such information is never used, it is always useful to have. Yet in his darker moments he can exhibit elements of arrogance, pride and over-confidence. He can be careless with the lives and feelings of those he who cross his path often exploiting them for personal gain or on the wishes of a paying clients, and he does not always consider himself with the aftermath beyond ensuring that it does not blow back on him or those who hired him.

Motivations and goals: Kasasagi is motivated by two things - his own self interest, and the protection of someone close to him, the latter being a secret he tries to keep close lest it be used against him. For most part, his main desire has been to find a place for himself, and having found such a place he will fight to protect it.

Kasasagi also a collector of information, with no particular preference for its method of acquisition, and is usually willing to pay a price for particularly useful knowledge. As well as being a useful thing to possess in terms of his business, he is also a firm believer in the idea that it is the thing you don't see coming that will often get you killed; and he very much values his life.

Personal Interests: Kasasagi is exceptionally proud of his bar, having spent an enormous amount of time and effort to both obtain and maintain it. From this sanctuary he is able to operate his own business; he is fiercely protective of it and its secrets, and he is more than willing to cause physical harm to those who threaten it.

Positive traits: Analytical, intelligent, opportunistic, ambitious, loyal.

Flaws: Arrogant, over-confident, manipulative, cynical, suspicious of other people's motives.

Skills and Preferences

Skills, interests and hobbies: Kasasagi has a deep interest in magic, aether and arcanima, despite not being particularly skilled in any magical practice. He possesses a strong drive for knowledge of all kinds and values information, with little worry for the method of its acquisition, and as a result he is an avid collector of books and scrolls as much as he is secrets and whispers.

Likes: Books, music, crowded places, chococbo racing

Dislikes: Anyone being in a position to have leverage over him, surprises, abusive individuals, carbuncles, people breaking things in his bar

Fears: His biggest fear is harm coming to those he has fought to hard to protect. This is also, most likely, his largest weak spot and something he is entirely aware of being so.

Combat

Weapon(s) of choice: Long-bladed knives, swords, bows, and occasionally guns.

Fighting Style: Kasasagi likes to be able to set up the field of battle to his own advantage, preferring only to enter into a conflict if he is sure of his chance of winning. In general, he would prefer to have someone else do the fighting, and tends to draw his own weapon only if pressed, ambushed or a close friend would be in danger if he fled.

He prefers to fight with a bow from a distance, or with a knife or long blade when pressed into close quarters. He is a competent fighter, but far more likely to fight dirty and ambush someone when they are least expecting it than engage in a fair and honest fight. In a toe-to-toe confrontation where he feels he is outmatched or unprepared, he is more likely to try to escape a conflict than engage in something he's sure to lose.

Strengths (in combat): Kasasagi fights best when he can set up the field in advance and has allies he can rely on. He tends to fight dirty, and isn't afraid to use trickery, deception and generally unfair methods to win.

Weaknesses (in combat): Kasasagi has little knowledge of nor training in any form of magical arts. As a result, his skills in both magical offense and defense are poor, and when faced with a competent mage he'd rather run than risk being blown to pieces. However, if he can be sure of support from allies, he will often make any enemy mage his first target on the field of battle, recognizing them as possibly the greatest threat and seeking to neutralize them as fast as possible.

Background

Place of Birth: Doma

History: Kasasagi was born and raised in Doma but fled the city state in his mid twenties in order to escape trouble of his own making. For generations, his family had made their coin by selling their skills in assassination and espionage to those who commanded their loyalty or possessed the coin to buy it. But when one of their patrons put a mark on a close friend of his, Kasasagi risked the wrath of his family to help the man escape. Fearing pursuit for this betrayal, and confident that they would try to drag the man's whereabouts out of him, Kasasagi boarded a ship and paid the captain handsomely to ferry him as far away as they were traveling.

Unfortunately, the merchant vessel came under attack by pirates only a few weeks into their journey and the captain of the pirate crew not only recognized Kasasagi from pervious interactions with his family, but threatened to turn him over to them unless he agreed to put his blade, and brain, to use as part of the pirate crew. Reluctantly, Kasasagi agreed to the man's demands, even more so after the man forcibly uncovered the secret Kasasagi was hiding and used it to further blackmail him. For a long while the Raen found himself forced to serve unwillingly under a captain who was both vindictive and cruel, not only toward those he preyed up, but to those who crewed with him as well.

When the crew of the ship finally mutinied against him, Kasasagi was there with the ringleaders. It was his suggestion to leave the captain, bloodied but not yet dead, on an island where they walled him up inside a cave with only a bottle of poison-tainted water. If he chose to take it to escape the much slower fate of starving alone, the poison would promise the man a most agonizing death.

Kasasagi remained with the pirate crew for a year longer until the rebellion in Doma drew him back to his homeland, searching for signs of his family's survival in the rubble of the Garlean-wrought devastation. He found only vague rumors that suggested one sister may have survived the razing to flee west with the refugees, but further digging uncovered slightly more solid confirmation on presence of his uncles somewhere to the north of the city. Not wishing to cross paths with them lest they still hold a grudge for his betrayal, he rejoined the pirates and with them sailed west after the refugees. It seemed the wisest course of action given the destruction, though he had no desire to remain a pirate for the rest of his days.

If his sister had gone west with the others, he was keen to find her. She, alone of all of them, had understood the motives behind his perceived betrayal and though bound by the will of the family, had indicated that she did not wish to see him dead as they did.

Recent events:

After landing in Eorzea, the pirate crew returned to more familiar waters of the east and Kasasagi left them for good. However, he still maintains some contact with the captain, who serves to keep him informed of his family's activities back home and provide warning in advance should they ever catch wind of a plan to come after him.

He found his sister in Revenant's Toll, and she confirmed his long-held suspicions regarding his uncles. Though he made a few tentative attempts at contacting them, Kasumi warned him that neither seemed inclined to forgive nor forget and while his friend's life was not in danger, and she herself bore him no ill-will, the survivors of his own family were still set against him on principle for what he had done. That news effectively put an end to any hope of reconciliation with anyone beside Kasumi, and so he turned his attention to the future.

He had no desire to return to a life of piracy, and yet was not entirely willing to put the skills and traditions of his upbringing aside; there were too many opportunities to be had there. Instead, with the money he had managed to save during his years at sea, Kasasagi bought a small premises in Ul'dah which he had furnished and outfitted to serve as a small, semi-private bar. From here he sought to build a new network of assassins, spies and information brokers in Eorzea, this time without the politics, machinations and petty rivalries of the old hierarchy. Naming it the House of the Four Winds, it would operate in a similar way to the Doman network on which it was based and recruit to its ranks individuals with skills in subterfuge, assassination or thievery, who would be willing put their skills and blades to work for those who seemed likely to welcome their services or their loyalty. In doing so, the Four Winds would build a fortune for themselves and those who joined them.

Family: Kasasagi has two living uncles with whom he is not on very good terms due to past events and friction within the family. Though he has been in recent contact with them in an attempt to smooth relations with his surviving family, things have not improved much.

He has a much closer relationship with his sister, Kasumi, who arrived in Eorzea along with many Doman refugees following the razing of the city state by the Garleans. Together they run a small network of assassins, spies and thieves, under the name of the House of the Four Winds.

Rumors

Some from Doma might know his family name, Kiba and of the network of clans that they associated with, who were rumored to be involved in a variety of illegal dealings including disappearances, assassinations and the occasional theft.

Some may have heard rumors of a son of the Kiba line being involved in the escape of a wanted criminal, before likewise vanishing himself, and possibly of the violent repercussions suffered by the clan he left behind.

Very few people outside the family will know exactly why he fled or the names of those involved. Feel free to send me an OOC message for further information if desired.

Contact Information

IC

Kasasagi owns a small bar named the Waltzing Weasel (oocly situated in apartment #67 of the Goblet, Ward 2, Subdivision), where he can be asked for by name.

OOC

In game: Kasasagi Kiba - feel free to send me a whisper if I'm online. I'm almost always willing to RP.

Hydaelyn Roleplayers RPC: Kasasagi

Time Zone: EST

Feel free to contact at any time via the RPC, or add me as a friend in game. I'm always open to RP, and happy to discuss the possibility of former IC connections or new acquaintances. I am most often online in the evenings, from 10pm EST onwards, and always available through the RPC.