Rizuka
Suggested Music: Jaya Lakshmi - Nataraj
Basic Information
Name: Midori Rizuka
Type: Dragon-Blooded Exalt
Player: NPC
Age: "It hasn't gotten any more polite, and I haven't gotten any younger." (Chapter 1: "It's rude to ask a woman her age, you know.")
Aspect: Wood
Concept: Grass-Spider, healer
Motivation: Ease the suffering of others.
Political Affiliation: The Hallowed Order of the Grass Spiders
Anima: At low levels, the ground around Rizuka springs small lilies with petals of white essence. As her essence usage increases, the lilies begin to consolidate, entwine, and grow around her, eventually bursting above into a cherry blossom adorned with essence petals of every color imaginable.
Likes: Breezes, sewing, guqin (playing and listening), singing, limes
Dislikes: Arguments, lawlessness, wine, the Immaculate Order
Familiar: Blink (Meerkat)
Background
Rizuka is the Order's primary caretaker. Her role extends beyond stitches and salves, however - at various times and to various members, Rizuka has served as a physician, confidant, midwife, therapist, mother, and more. In all ways, she strives to assist people in ways that they cannot assist themselves. She gives no rationalization for her duty - it is simply in her nature to do so. This might seem an odd fit for a senior member of Creation's most esteemed order of assassins, but within a certain context, it isn't so strange.
A bonsai tree must be properly pruned to flourish within its confines - left unattended, it outgrows its container, eats up what remaining resources it has left, and dies. In this fashion, Creation resembles these miniature trees; it needs to be pruned of its bad leaves and branches. It must be pruned delicately - just as a machete would do little for the health of a bonsai tree, it is not productive for a king to send a thousand-strong army at his dissenters, leaving a bloody trail of destruction in its wake. The Grass Spiders provide the delicate tools necessary to prune Creation carefully, avoiding unnecessary war and death in the meantime.
Rizuka isn't so naive as to expect all of the Order's members to agree with her mindset. She knows many of them are simply in it for the thrill, and that others, no doubt, are merely looking for a profitable excuse to satisfy a murderous itch they would have scratched anyway. For all her pacifism, Rizuka is tolerant, if not oddly supportive of these divergent viewpoints - the Grass Spiders have become her family, and she loves them because of their eccentricities, not in spite of them.
On a day-to-day basis, Rizuka runs the organization's hospital. It is a large mansion central to the range home cluster, adjacent to her smaller personal cabin. The work of a Grass-Spider is dangerous and taxing; Rizuka has little trouble keeping herself busy. She has a familiar named Blink, a small meerkat who lives primarily in the hospital, entertaining patients and alerting Rizuka to anyone who needs immediate attention. Blink has a modified form of the charm Hurry Home that allows him to teleport to Rizuka's location provided she is within 25 miles of the range home complex.
Outside of her duties running the hospital, Rizuka contributes to the ongoing efforts of the Lankhmar Harvestmen to expand the Eight-Legged Harvest Promenade style. Additionally, per her requirements as a made member, she still accepts one (and only one) contract per year. She always makes certain it is in keeping with her beliefs about an assassin's purpose - she is one of the few members with enough clout to be selective about her contracts. She normally carries these out alone - only Iron Shatters Oak has ever seen her kill anyone, and not in decades. This is as much testament to her peaceful nature as it is her skill as an assassin.
Rizuka has a decidedly ancient demeanor, though she never reveals her age. She has referenced being personally involved in events that occurred centuries ago, and other stories suggest she has been a Grass-Spider for much of that time. Her strict diet and young Exaltation have kept her well-preserved - she doesn't appear to be past fifty, even by liberal estimates. She has a few odd quirks - for example, she's completely eliminated the need for sleep from her life. She only needs an hour or two each day to relax her mind, during which time she assumes a meditative position and is overcome by a surreal calm. During this time, she busies herself with something that keeps her mind idle and her hands occupied, such as knitting or softly playing her guqin. She is both endlessly sympathetic and strangely direct - she will comfort brutal killers as readily as ailing children, yet offers little padding in her opinions and diagnoses; she never sugar coats information or tries to make a bad situation seem good.
Over the years, she has mothered at least three sons, though she has only spoken at length about one of them, her youngest. The boy's father was a pirate captain who now sails as a Realm privateer. He accepted a letter of marque from the Empress in exchange for the entrance of his and Rizuka's son into the Spiral Academy. Her youngest son, a Water aspect, is now a traveling scholar and practitioner of law. Her sons do not visit the range homes, nor do their fathers, with the exception of the aforementioned privateer. If he is sailing in the East, he will occasionally visit Rizuka; several members have made his acquaintance. He and Rizuka remain on amicable, though platonic terms.
What She's Been Up To
Prior to the Veil War, it seemed that the eldest member of the Grass-Spiders was finally winding down. She was working closely with The One-Eyed Queen of Silk and Lace as a likely successor to Rizuka's role in running the Range Homes' hospital. While not busy with her hospital duties, Rizuka has spent an increasing amount of time meditating, and could often be found in the woods alone, playing her guqin. She spent an increasing amount of time in her own head, and even while on the Range Homes campus, could be found pacing, deep in thought, running her hand idly along any nearby wooden surface. Many members privately speculated that Rizuka was preparing for her death and reincarnation. Oak has suggested that Rizuka's attention to her physical, mental, and spiritual well-being throughout her life have made it such that Rizuka will likely choose to die well before any natural causes take her. It seemed the time was coming soon. The Order was a very different one compared to the Order she joined as a young woman, with Iron Shatters Oak and the Fiends themselves as the only remaining members of the old guard after Atlas's death. The changes in the structure around her are not the only signs of her age; though incredibly well preserved, Rizuka's years (and connection with her Aspect) are finally beginning to show. Her hair is now a mixture of her familiar brown locks and more knotted, rugged strands that have taken on the texture of tree branches. Leaves and flowers occasionally sprout from her mane, and in addition to (finally) becoming somewhat wrinkled, her skin has taken on the texture of bark. Rizuka's command over her Essence has grown tremendous; it is said that the forest can be seen bowing inward, toward the hospital, whenever she exercises a sizable portion of her power. She still abstains from physical combat and training, and she keeps most of the missions she does accept a secret, even from most of the Order.
Then the Veil War erupted, and it became to clear to Rizuka that the Order would need her a bit longer. The Associates of the Order did most of the fighting in this conflict, and they also happened to be its most fragile members. While the Made Members of the Order appreciate Rizuka's talents (and the expedited healing that comes with them), such services are a requirement for wounded Associates, who are at risk of dying from wounds that a Dragon-Blood could shrug off. This has kept the hospital full and Rizuka incredibly busy, particularly as The One-Eyed Queen of Silk and Lace is called upon frequently to assist in matters requiring knowledge of sorcery. Rizuka has expanded the mortal staff of the hospital and trained them capably, although their skills will never contend with that of an Exalted healer. Still, Rizuka has done an excellent job of creating a hospital capable of handling the the number of patients generated by the Veil War, and has instated methods related to triage and sanitation unseen anywhere else save the Realm's best hospitals. With what little free time she has, she has turned the Associates' Village into a pet project of sorts - with hospital resources stretched thin, she has set up side clinics (usually maintained by mortal healers assisted by Wood elementals) in the Village and introduced public health reforms that have greatly reduced the number of sick and ailing people in the Village, thereby lightening the load on the hospital and freeing it up for more serious casualties.
Rizuka's stance on the Veil War has mostly been motivated by pragmatism. Her nature is such that she will always tend to the sick and injured, regardless of how they got sick and who injured them. While she doesn't approve of the number of mortal casualties the Veil War has wrought (which has earned her points with Ryn, who otherwise tends not to agree with upper management these days), she is also not wholly against the conflict: Anton might be a sadistic psychopath, but Rizuka doesn't necessarily disagree with him on the point that they are potentially an existential threat to the Order. Rizuka acknowledges that a certain degree of defense and retaliation is necessary to keep the Order alive. That said, she generally does not involve herself in debate regarding the matter, preferring to leave members who are more interested and experienced in combat and espionage to posture their positions. This hasn't been an entirely appreciated position - members who are against the war feel that Rizuka has sufficient clout to significantly influence the outcome of the debate on the matter, and wish she'd speak up (perhaps wrongly believing she'd come down entirely on their side).
In addition to her work keeping the Order mended and healthy, Rizuka's relationships with several members have developed considerably over the past seven years. Foremost is Iron Shatters Oak, whose considerable age has made him a natural companion and confidant. They have known each other for hundreds of years and have yet to run out of discussion points; despite their differing viewpoints, they share an utmost mutual respect and continue to learn from one another. To a certain extent, Rizuka has even demonstrated some degree of romantic interest in Oak, though it's unlike she'd ever act on it. Rizuka has also served as a mediator of the conflict between Queen and Leviticus, who she knows well as student and patient, respectively. While she understands Leviticus's protection of his own privacy, Rizuka has also stressed to the reclusive Grass-Spider that he is unlikely to survive without continuing treatment, and that Rizuka will not always be around to provide. She has slowly but surely worked to soften the icy relationship between Queen and Leviticus, hoping that someday she will able to pick up his treatment where Rizuka left off.
Like many senior Grass-Spiders, Rizuka has privately grown interested in Atlas's later years and final missions. As someone who knew Atlas personally and quite well, she was surprised to discover the extent of Atlas's relationship with the White Veil Society. Even more interestingly, while browsing Atlas's archives, Rizuka has found evidence of correspondence between Atlas and Fiends indicating that Mesa, Ash, and Fay were being considered for recruitment into the White Veil Society before being recruited by the Order. Rizuka has so far only shared this revelation with Queen and Oak.
Although her life has been long and she privately grows weary, Rizuka recognizes that the Order needs her for time being, and diligently continues her duty as her primary caretaker. Someday, she hopes to see an end to the conflict, and at such time she can continue on to be one with her element and pass onto the next life. It seems, however, that she will remain a Grass-Spider for the time being.