Post by freakanature06 on Nov 10, 2009 19:55:27 GMT -5
Canon Character Application
My name is freakanature06 and I am 21 years old. I want to join this site because I love Hetalia and the RP looks absolutely fascinating, and the people look like they’re a lot of fun. I have been roleplaying for oh hell! Um… nine years? and I normally post between the I don’t know the word count, but between three to five paragraphs mark. Here is my application:
Character name: Wang Yao
Age: 4000+ (Ancient, in other words)
Appearance: Yao has dark, shoulder-length hair that he keeps continuously tied back in a ponytail. His eyes are dark, nearly black in color, and very deep, filled with many millennia of knowledge and thought. He is 169 cm (or 5’5”) tall, and very thin, lithe. His choice of clothing has varied much lately, but he has recently fallen into the habit of wearing large, billowing clothing in bright colors. Comfortable to move in and airy, allowing to feel completely free.
Personality: Yao seems to be a perfectly carefree person. He enjoys eating and wandering around. His favorite things in the world are things that are adorable. He covets them, having collected a mass of stuffed animals as well as acquiring a baby panda, which he carries around with him and never seems to get any bigger or older. He is very religious in a spiritual way, never missing his opportunities to commune with the nature spirits. Despite his seemingly carefree attitude, Yao is a very deep, thoughtful person, stemming from his long life. He is also highly protective of those he claims as his own.
Occupation: Yao has gone through many occupations in his long life. He has been a warrior, a mage, a monk, along with various other things. However, most recently, he has decided to become a nomad, roaming the lands and learning more about the world.
Strengths: Yao is physically strong, despite his size. He is well versed in various forms of martial arts and has a deep and vast knowledge. He is also very passionate and caring about things that matter to him.
Weaknesses: On the other side, Yao tends to be somewhat unchanging and old-fashioned in his ways, showing his age. Plus, he sometimes has a tendency to act happily about things that he should be more serious about, which causes some people to feel uncomfortable talking about serious matters with him.
Backstory: It isn’t entirely sure when China came into existence as he is, however there is a point in history in which recordings of China’s existence began to be recorded.
His country moved through various dynasties in which the building of the nation occurred, including the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties. The Zhou dynasty was the longest dynasty in China’s history and was run by a semi-feudal system.
The Spring and Autumn period of China’s history consisted of a lot of fighting. Various leaders of the hundreds of cities and states of China vied for power and were attacked by outside forces as well. This lead into the Warring States period, where seven prominent nations fought with each other over leadership of the country. It ended with Ying Zheng pronouncing himself as the First Emperor of China.
During the Qin Dynasty (between 221 and 206 BCE), the Great Wall of China was begun (later altered during the Min Dynasty), and is still a prominent part of China to this day. Yao is quite proud of it as an accomplishment of his people.
The Han Dynasty embraced the idea of Confucianism and brought about Yao’s more philosophical state of mind. It was a time of advancement in the areas of arts and sciences. This was also the time period when China first opened trade with nations to the West with the Silk Road and for the first time made contact with Rome. It was also the time where the Legends of the Three Kingdoms originated after a brief span of chaos in the middle of the dynasty.
Civil wars broke out soon after this, leading into the Wu Hu Period, which brought about an expansion of China to the South.
The next important dynasty was the Sui Dynasty, which, despite being a short-lived dynasty, managed to reunite China instead of having the country split into hundreds of states ruled by various other non-Chinese dynasties.
The Tang Dynasty, which followed, brought about another spurt of forward movement in the arts and technologies for China. At this time, China became a predominantly Buddhist nation as well. China’s trade routes spanned to many distant foreign countries and foreign merchants started to settle there as well. This time period also introduced the “Equal Field System” which allowed the peasants to prosper through support from the Emperor. However, in 860 AD, rebellions began in China, leading to a period of political disunity known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, which was followed by the Song Dynasty, also a period of disunity.
The Yuan Dynasty was marked by death and bloodshed. There were many wars with the Mongols and the Black Plague killed about 30% of China’s population. It was a dark time.
The Ming dynasty, however, was marked by a strong central government that controlled its people well. Xenophobia was common at that point after spending so many years fighting the Mongols. However, China was not isolated, still trading with foreigners. Towards the end of this era, China had to deal with Mongols attacking again, as well as Japanese pirates. This was also when the Great Wall was updated and redesigned.
During the Qing Dynasty, China’s borders expanded again and many of the previous dynasties were suppressed and forced to conform to the new rulers’ liking. During this time, the Taiping rebellion occurred, but was squashed in 14 years. About 20 million people died during the rebellion. There were also a number of other rebellions, and the 19th Century in China was marked by these rebellions and the immense loss of life it created. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Boxer Rebellion began, wanting China to return to the old ways of doing things. However, the Eight-Nation alliance stepped in and quelled the Boxer Rebellion for China.
At this point, the Republic of China was born.
In the 1920s, the Chinese were against most Western thought and philosophy, which gave birth to more radical ideas on their part. Also, there was an attempt to reunite China once again.
From 1931 till 1945, there was a Japanese occupation of China. The Chinese began to fight back in 1935, and those wars became a part of World War II. With the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Chinese began to fight amongst themselves again and China gained ownership of Taiwan, which became the People’s Republic of China. The two countries have still not signed a peace treaty to this day.
Sample Post:
A single drop of water landed on the letter, smearing the ink. Looking up from poring over the words, Wang Yao cast a wary eye to the sky, sighing at the sight of the dark clouds gathering there. In a moment, the letter was rolled up and tucked into his sleeve as he stood and made his way inside. The downpour was unleashed at the precise moment that Yao slid his door closed, beating harshly against the roof, slanting against the walls. Yao spent a few moments wandering through the home and closing everything up, stopping the rain’s attempts to soak through Yao’s belongings.
Thoughts ran through the immortal’s mind as he moved about the house, continuing on from closing up the house to putting together an impromptu lunch. He had never been sure what to think of the rain. In his youngest days (at least what he could remember of that time), Yao had seen the rain as a miracle – a blessing from the heavens that brought life to everything it touched. Through the millennia of his life, though, his views on the rain had changed countless times.
For a brief time, Yao had feared the rain. For an overabundance of it could kill anything and the lightning that often accompanied the rain was terrifying. The dark loneliness of the storm had made him fearful.
However, that loneliness was eased for a time by the children that Yao raised. They made him happy, while they were around. Yet when they were gone, living their own lives, Yao’s views on the rain changed again, to the view that had been most prominent in his long lifetime – sadness. The sky was sad, as Yao himself had been sad, and it washed the world with its tears.
Yao chuckled to himself as he carried his bowl of rice to the front door. “I was very naïve, aru,” he muttered. Opening the door just a crack, Yao watched the rain quietly as he began to eat. After over four thousand years of existence, he had been given enough time to finally come to a conclusion about the rain – though he was sure even this view would change after another thousand years.
The rain represented balance. A balance of nature. By pouring water upon the land, the rain sustained life, yet in excess it quenched life. Balance between life and death, that was the rain.
And Yao found it comforting to know that.
Chewing his mouthful of food, Yao pulled the letter out of his sleeve again, reading it over once more. It had been brought to his attention that he had become stagnant, doing nothing but sitting at home and reflecting, like some crotchety old man. This letter, from one of the children he had raised, made him feel as if he should set out to experience life once again, and he suddenly made the choice to do so.
“I still am naïve, aru,” he spoke aloud with a laugh, standing as he finished the last of his meal and closed the door on the rain outside. “Maybe I’ll become a nomad, aru.” These words were directed at a large, stuffed cat that he kept in his room. The inanimate animal simply smiled adorably at him.
For as a nomad, tied to no one piece of land for too long, Wang Yao might see more the wonders that the world, with its balancing rain, had to offer.
((China is love!))
