Zi Mei's Bio
Name: Zi Mei
Age: 28
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 100lbs
Blood Type: B
Origins:
Zi Mei is the daughter of Zi Ren, a powerful and clever Covenant of Twilight spy, and Sigrun, a valkyrja warrior from a far-off land. Zi Ren apparently fathered the child during an undercover mission for the Covenant that began in Egypt and took him to the barbaric mead-halls of the frozen north.
When Zi Ren's mission drew to a close, he murdered Sigrun and took Zi Mei with him home to China. Surrendering her to a Covenant monastery, Zi Ren continued his work, returning at the end of each mission to visit his white-haired half-foreign daughter.
As Zi Mei grew, she was trained as an agent of the Covenant of Twilight. Her Sifu were not surprised to discover that she proved clever and able. She was certainly her father's daughter, and the only question was where her considerable talents could be best applied and where to focus her training.
When Zi Mei was nine, her father returned to the monastery and took her with him on another journey. While on the road, father and daughter were set upon by a savage band of pale-skinned, fair-haired warriors. Their leader, a tall, long-haired woman, brandished a knife fashioned in the Chinese style, and called Zi Mei's father by name. To her surprise, Zi Ren drew an identical blade from within his voluminous sleeves and sneered at the woman. They spoke quickly in a barbarian tongue, but Zi Mei was surprised to discover that she understood much of what was said. This foreign woman was her mother's sister, Astrid, and she had come seeking vengeance for Zi Ren's betrayal and Sigrun's death, with the very blade that murdered her.
The identity of her mother's killer was a shock to Zi Mei, but the speed and grace and strength her father and aunt demonstrated in the battle that followed took her breath away. In moments, all five of the valkyrja's savage companions lay dead and bleeding and Zi Ren struck fluidly and endlessly against Astrid's hasty defense. Abandoning the symbolic but unfamiliar knife, Astrid drew her sword and launched her own vicious assault. The battle raged for hours, passing through a bamboo wood, from stone to stone across a roaring river, and then up a steep and rocky slope. Zi Mei, frightened and confused, chased after the combatants, barely able to keep them in sight.
The battle reached its climax at the top of a rocky cliff with a torrential waterfall. Just as Zi Mei finally gained the top of the cliff, Zi Ren and Astrid collided and fell over the edge. Another hour later, Zi Mei reached the foot of the cliff and found her father, badly injured but still alive. He held Astrid's long white braid in one hand, but Zi Mei's aunt was nowhere to be seen.
Zi Ren explained to his daughter that he had, in fact, killed her mother. He told her that there was no right and wrong, that strength and weakness were the only factors worth considering. He hadn't murdered her mother because it was the right thing to do, but because he was strong and she was weak, and because he did not want his daughter to be raised to be weak.
Zi Mei understood his lesson, as she had already learned it well from the Covenant. She proceeded to pick up his discarded knife and plunge it into her father's heart. The next day, she returned to the Covenant of Twilight monastery that had been her home, explaining only that they had been attacked by bandits and that her father had been too weak to fight them off. She redoubled all her efforts in training, driven to become the strongest and to exterminate all signs of weakness in herself.
By the time she was a teenager, Zi Mei's natural ability and passionate drive had allowed her to outstrip all but the most advanced of the Covenant's available Sifu. Her trainers arranged for her to meet and train along with Zhao Hei, another promising disciple who was the son of Zhao Deiyu, one of the Covenant's most influential elders. In Zhao Hei, Zi Mei finally met an equal. While forced to respect his strength, Zi Mei found herself frustrated by her inability to best Zhao Hei. Even when she did beat him in a trial or a sparring session, Zhao Hei seemed to refuse to acknowledge his own weakness, merely vowing to improve and beat her next time (the fact that he almost invariably made good on this promise made things even worse).
Finally, Zhao Hei and Zi Mei became full-fledged agents of the Covenant of Twilight. Zi Mei took these missions as another chance to prove her strength and to punish the weakness she saw everywhere in others. It quickly became evident that she not only excelled at any task she was assigned, but also that she truly enjoyed her work. When a particularly troublesome governor had to be removed, Zhao Deiyu assigned Zi Mei and Zhao Hei to lead the assassination mission.
The governor was better guarded than expected, and ultimately only Zhao Hei and Zi Mei were able to break free and reach the governor's chambers. There, they encountered Lu Chen, the Pillar of Heaven, who had been staying as a guest of the governor. He invited the brash young assassins to leave in peace, which only a weak old fool would do, so Zi Mei attacked…and was defeated more suddenly and resoundingly than she had been since she was nine years old.
Reeling under the force of the old man's attack, Zi Mei watched in shock as Zhao Hei hurled himself at Lu Chen. His sacrifice bought her the time she needed to escape, but the shame of her defeat and the taste of her weakness went with her. How dare Zhao Hei do that to her?
On her return to the Covenant, Zhao Deiyu ordered her to lead a team of assassins to the sanctuary where Lu Chen had taken her son. If Zi Mei was surprised to discover that it was Zhao Hei, and not Lu Chen, who was the target, she did not show it. She did her duty and led the assassins to their destination, and then watched the ensuing battle with interest. Zhao Hei acquitted himself well, but he was still injured after his fight with Lu Chen. After he lost an eye, it became evident that he was doomed…it was his moment of weakness. Seeing a chance to show Zhao Hei his weakness in terms he could not deny, and to remove some of the sting of her own shame, Zi Mei leapt to his rescue and dispatched the remnants of the assassin team in moments. The scales finally settled, she explained to Zhao Hei that they would forevermore be enemies.
Zi Mei still serves as a fist of the Covenant of Twilight, and still strives to prove herself the strongest. She has since crossed paths with Zhao Hei many times and, as ever, finds herself frustratingly unable to beat him for good. Someday soon, she knows, she will be strong enough to challenge Lu Chen again, and this time it is him who will prove to be weak…
Personality
Zi Mei's entire life and being is devoted to not being weak. If she ever feels sorrow for the fate of her mother, father, and aunt, she certainly never reveals it, for to do so would be to admit weakness. Sentiment and attachment are further weakness, so Zi Mei does not allow herself friends or especially loved ones.
Her defeat at the hands of Lu Chen shook her more badly than she will ever admit. The truth is that Zi Mei is scared. No matter how strong she is, she might someday meet someone stronger, a fact which meeting Lu Chen made evident to her. In her mind, Lu Chen has become the sum of all her fears and self-doubt, and she commits herself to becoming strong enough to vanquish him, convinced that if she does so then all her fears will vanish.
Fighting Style
Zi Mei is quick and deadly in combat. She uses her twin-bladed staff to keep opponents off balance and out of range. In close, she has mastered the cutting draw technique and is able to draw her sword, slash at an opponent, and even return her sword to its sheath in one smooth action.
Since her weapon of choice has blades at both ends, Zi Mei prefers spinning and very mobile strikes, giving her twice as many opportunities to land a blow. This technique excels at fighting multiple opponents, and Zi Mei will leap into the midst of her enemies with no fear. While the exotic weaponry and showy maneuvers are not strictly necessary, Zi Mei enjoys the psychological edge this gives her over her opponents, and it is another way to demonstrate that she is not weak.
Most of Zi Mei's attacks are two-part maneuvers. She may jab and then slash as she withdraws her weapon, or whip through a lightning-fast spin that strikes high and then low faster than can be believed. Her speed and accuracy are phenomenal, clearly the result of advanced Chi techniques.
