The 31st of China, Genjo Sanzo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
killsthebuddha) wrote2016-06-12 11:03 pm
killsthebuddha) wrote2016-06-12 11:03 pm
Entry tags:
Far Shore Application
Name: Genjo Sanzo
Canon: Saiyuki
Canon Point: Reload Blast, shortly after his fight with Kougaiji
Age: 25
History: Wikia article, and his previous incarnation's Wikia article for good measure.
Personality: The name of "Sanzo" is one given only to those who serve as the highest ranking Buddhist priests this world, and those given this honor are revered as holy. It is a name and title that invokes an image of only the most devout, in Genjo Sanzo's case, they couldn't be more wrong. There are one of two first impressions one might receive when meeting him. There's the young, beautiful priest that's clearly worthy of the high regard he's given. The real Genjo Sanzo goes much deeper than that, and to get to know him has disillusioned many a pious monk.
The truth is that a pious, proper priest would have died long ago if set on his path. Sanzo is a heavy smoking, swearing, brutal man with no time for fools or gods, yet somehow he finds himself caught up in their matters more often than he'd like. He drinks, he eats meat, and he kills despite Buddhism's prohibitions against all of these. Harsh spoken, prideful, and easily angered, he isn't afraid to fire off a round or five out of sheer aggravation. He certainly doesn't act like the sort of person that would go out of his way to protect other people, but he does so even when there's great risk to himself. Injustice angers him, and he'll get involved when he finds something offensive to his morality even as he tells people that he's not at all interested. For all his bitter complaints and frequent death threats towards others, he has a sense of what's right that's difficult to shake. If he believes he can set something right, he'll do it and bitch all the while.
Life has never been kind to him. An orphan taken in by the eccentric Koumyou Sanzo and raised within the temple, he was disliked and sometimes even feared by his peers and the temple monks. Even as a child, he was the no-nonsense sort with a bitter streak towards almost everyone with the significant exception of his master who he thought of as his father. At the tender age of twelve, Koumyou Sanzo named him as his successor, Genjo Sanzo, and was murdered that very same day right before his eyes. This forever shaped his life, sending him down a path of violence as he desperately sought to find the stolen one of the two holy scriptures that were his inheritance.
He began four years of wandering with a gun chosen because it was small enough that he'd be able to shoot himself in the head, and killed a man who had attempted to rape him only days after leaving on his mission. The bloody, lonely trauma of those years left scars, literal and metaphorical, and he only began the slow road to recovery when others started to enter his life. Even to this day, though, he has relapses into depression and suffers flashbacks in the wrong conditions. Rain, such as that when his master was murdered before his eyes, is particularly notorious for leaving him crushed beneath the weight of an inconsolable grief.
To "hold nothing" is the principle by which Sanzo tries to live his life. Originally, he struggled to hold to this in order to push everyone away from him and protect himself from the pain that comes with the loss of a loved one. However, over time, his bonds with his comrades have solidified into something unique. Particularly strong is his connection to Goku, a young man who is neither god nor demon that he took in as his ward because he "heard him calling" to him. (In truth, their connection goes even further back, to Sanzo's past incarnation as the god who had been Goku's caretaker five hundred years ago.) It's Goku who helps him relearn how to care for another person, and he's oddly protective of him in his own rough way. He's moody and ill-tempered generally, but to be without his companions triggers something of a certain emotional instability in him. He's never done well alone, and this is shown with an increasingly sharp contrast now that he has companions to rely on.
In the time since Sanzo was sent once again on the journey that, he hopes, will allow him to recover the lost scripture, he's grown a great deal. With his three companions, he's experienced trials that have forced him to reflect on just what he has and what he has to lose. For all that he once decided to never care so much for someone that he can't bear to lose them, he's become attached to the point that the absence of any of his party causes him to become distressed and lash out. He's become more honest to himself about the fact that he can't use to "hold nothing" as an excuse to keep others away, though he still reflexively denies that his comrades are just that. He lives life as it comes, relying not only on his own strength but that of his companions to keep going forward.
Abilities: On the more mundane side, Sanzo is a well-educated Buddhist priest with a significant, in-depth knowledge of his world's version of his religion, the supernatural, and other related topics. (Though he's considered lacking in training when it comes to information that a Sanzo priest should know due to his circumstances.) Having been the highest priest of a major temple for several years, he has significant experience in that regard as well. On the less civilized side of things, he's skilled in wilderness survival.
Trained from youth in the martial arts, Sanzo is an unusually skillful combatant in hand-to-hand fighting. He is noticeably faster and more resilient than a normal human should be, though he's just as prone to injury as anyone. He's also a highly talented marksman, and the weapon he carries on him at all times is a blessed gun with particular power against evil. It's a five-shot revolver, though it's a mystery where he gets ammo to reload it. He's also displayed, briefly, skill in swordsmanship.
As a Sanzo priest, he is well educated in assorted Buddhist magic. He wears one of the five Founding Scriptures of Heaven and Earth. The Maten Sutra manages the yin aspect or evil, and has a unique spell, Makai Tenjo, that allows the him to purify evil and break through darkness. It expands to many times its size, wrapping around foes, and can banish or bind evil beings. (Obviously, were he to use such a thing in game, it'd not be able to do more than bind ayakashi given the rules of destroying ayakashi.)
On the more instinctive side, he has something of a psychic sense that allows him to have an unusually clear insight into some situations and dealings with people, and the ability to sense chi, evil, and certain kinds of intentions. His weird psychic gift has also even extended to influencing the actions of other living things. (He once talked down a rampaging bear.) Additionally, even when he had no memory of his past incarnation's connection to Goku, he was called to where the boy was imprisoned, and has a particularly special link to him. He's also exhibited the ability to form the divine diadem that seals Goku's powers.
Strengths: Determined, resourceful, intelligent, brave, insightful
Weaknesses: Short-tempered, argumentative, bitter, self-destructive, cynical
God/Shinki: Shinki
Why?: Honestly, just because it'd be more interesting. He's been a god in a previous life, and a high priest in his current one. Drastically shifting to a role that is functionally the servant will be interesting to explore. His adherence to the principle of "hold nothing" and living the life that he's given makes him well suited to this, and he'll keep moving forward.
Cause Of Death: In a noble effort to buy time for Sharak Sanzo to cast the spells that would protect her people from an invading force, he faced off with a powerful youkai prince named Kougaiji. In the battle, he suffered severe burns that covered his right side. He dies shortly after the battle is over while Hakkai attempts to heal him. (See here for details.)
Vessel: Smith & Wesson M36 - a small, short barrel five-shot revolver
Name Location: Centered on his lower back
Power: Shared psychic sense. Allows his god to have the same psychic inclinations that Sanzo has. In short, his god will be able to sense things like chi, evil, ill intent. Generally, the latter two will manifest more as intuition than direct knowledge. His god will also get front row seats to his unusual attunement to Goku.
Canon: Saiyuki
Canon Point: Reload Blast, shortly after his fight with Kougaiji
Age: 25
History: Wikia article, and his previous incarnation's Wikia article for good measure.
Personality: The name of "Sanzo" is one given only to those who serve as the highest ranking Buddhist priests this world, and those given this honor are revered as holy. It is a name and title that invokes an image of only the most devout, in Genjo Sanzo's case, they couldn't be more wrong. There are one of two first impressions one might receive when meeting him. There's the young, beautiful priest that's clearly worthy of the high regard he's given. The real Genjo Sanzo goes much deeper than that, and to get to know him has disillusioned many a pious monk.
The truth is that a pious, proper priest would have died long ago if set on his path. Sanzo is a heavy smoking, swearing, brutal man with no time for fools or gods, yet somehow he finds himself caught up in their matters more often than he'd like. He drinks, he eats meat, and he kills despite Buddhism's prohibitions against all of these. Harsh spoken, prideful, and easily angered, he isn't afraid to fire off a round or five out of sheer aggravation. He certainly doesn't act like the sort of person that would go out of his way to protect other people, but he does so even when there's great risk to himself. Injustice angers him, and he'll get involved when he finds something offensive to his morality even as he tells people that he's not at all interested. For all his bitter complaints and frequent death threats towards others, he has a sense of what's right that's difficult to shake. If he believes he can set something right, he'll do it and bitch all the while.
Life has never been kind to him. An orphan taken in by the eccentric Koumyou Sanzo and raised within the temple, he was disliked and sometimes even feared by his peers and the temple monks. Even as a child, he was the no-nonsense sort with a bitter streak towards almost everyone with the significant exception of his master who he thought of as his father. At the tender age of twelve, Koumyou Sanzo named him as his successor, Genjo Sanzo, and was murdered that very same day right before his eyes. This forever shaped his life, sending him down a path of violence as he desperately sought to find the stolen one of the two holy scriptures that were his inheritance.
He began four years of wandering with a gun chosen because it was small enough that he'd be able to shoot himself in the head, and killed a man who had attempted to rape him only days after leaving on his mission. The bloody, lonely trauma of those years left scars, literal and metaphorical, and he only began the slow road to recovery when others started to enter his life. Even to this day, though, he has relapses into depression and suffers flashbacks in the wrong conditions. Rain, such as that when his master was murdered before his eyes, is particularly notorious for leaving him crushed beneath the weight of an inconsolable grief.
To "hold nothing" is the principle by which Sanzo tries to live his life. Originally, he struggled to hold to this in order to push everyone away from him and protect himself from the pain that comes with the loss of a loved one. However, over time, his bonds with his comrades have solidified into something unique. Particularly strong is his connection to Goku, a young man who is neither god nor demon that he took in as his ward because he "heard him calling" to him. (In truth, their connection goes even further back, to Sanzo's past incarnation as the god who had been Goku's caretaker five hundred years ago.) It's Goku who helps him relearn how to care for another person, and he's oddly protective of him in his own rough way. He's moody and ill-tempered generally, but to be without his companions triggers something of a certain emotional instability in him. He's never done well alone, and this is shown with an increasingly sharp contrast now that he has companions to rely on.
In the time since Sanzo was sent once again on the journey that, he hopes, will allow him to recover the lost scripture, he's grown a great deal. With his three companions, he's experienced trials that have forced him to reflect on just what he has and what he has to lose. For all that he once decided to never care so much for someone that he can't bear to lose them, he's become attached to the point that the absence of any of his party causes him to become distressed and lash out. He's become more honest to himself about the fact that he can't use to "hold nothing" as an excuse to keep others away, though he still reflexively denies that his comrades are just that. He lives life as it comes, relying not only on his own strength but that of his companions to keep going forward.
Abilities: On the more mundane side, Sanzo is a well-educated Buddhist priest with a significant, in-depth knowledge of his world's version of his religion, the supernatural, and other related topics. (Though he's considered lacking in training when it comes to information that a Sanzo priest should know due to his circumstances.) Having been the highest priest of a major temple for several years, he has significant experience in that regard as well. On the less civilized side of things, he's skilled in wilderness survival.
Trained from youth in the martial arts, Sanzo is an unusually skillful combatant in hand-to-hand fighting. He is noticeably faster and more resilient than a normal human should be, though he's just as prone to injury as anyone. He's also a highly talented marksman, and the weapon he carries on him at all times is a blessed gun with particular power against evil. It's a five-shot revolver, though it's a mystery where he gets ammo to reload it. He's also displayed, briefly, skill in swordsmanship.
As a Sanzo priest, he is well educated in assorted Buddhist magic. He wears one of the five Founding Scriptures of Heaven and Earth. The Maten Sutra manages the yin aspect or evil, and has a unique spell, Makai Tenjo, that allows the him to purify evil and break through darkness. It expands to many times its size, wrapping around foes, and can banish or bind evil beings. (Obviously, were he to use such a thing in game, it'd not be able to do more than bind ayakashi given the rules of destroying ayakashi.)
On the more instinctive side, he has something of a psychic sense that allows him to have an unusually clear insight into some situations and dealings with people, and the ability to sense chi, evil, and certain kinds of intentions. His weird psychic gift has also even extended to influencing the actions of other living things. (He once talked down a rampaging bear.) Additionally, even when he had no memory of his past incarnation's connection to Goku, he was called to where the boy was imprisoned, and has a particularly special link to him. He's also exhibited the ability to form the divine diadem that seals Goku's powers.
Strengths: Determined, resourceful, intelligent, brave, insightful
Weaknesses: Short-tempered, argumentative, bitter, self-destructive, cynical
God/Shinki: Shinki
Why?: Honestly, just because it'd be more interesting. He's been a god in a previous life, and a high priest in his current one. Drastically shifting to a role that is functionally the servant will be interesting to explore. His adherence to the principle of "hold nothing" and living the life that he's given makes him well suited to this, and he'll keep moving forward.
Cause Of Death: In a noble effort to buy time for Sharak Sanzo to cast the spells that would protect her people from an invading force, he faced off with a powerful youkai prince named Kougaiji. In the battle, he suffered severe burns that covered his right side. He dies shortly after the battle is over while Hakkai attempts to heal him. (See here for details.)
Vessel: Smith & Wesson M36 - a small, short barrel five-shot revolver
Name Location: Centered on his lower back
Power: Shared psychic sense. Allows his god to have the same psychic inclinations that Sanzo has. In short, his god will be able to sense things like chi, evil, ill intent. Generally, the latter two will manifest more as intuition than direct knowledge. His god will also get front row seats to his unusual attunement to Goku.