Naru Irugawa

Name: Narumi Irugawa (Naru, for short. She dislikes being called Narumi.)
Age: 22
Type: Heroic Mortal (Enlightened Essence)
Player: NPC
Archetype: Savant
Profession: Thaumaturge
Concept: Grass-Spiders Associate, Astrologer
Motivation: Demonstrate that nothing more than a command of logic is required to understand and manipulate Creation itself.
Political Affiliation: Hallowed Order of the Grass-Spiders (Associate)

Background

Naru has defied every naysayer and skeptic who dared challenge her. As a little Helot girl in Lookshy, she dreamed of being a Sorcerer-Engineer in the battlefields, weaving spells and constructing fantastic Essence weapons capable of cowing entire armies by themselves. No, they said, she lacked any Exalted or divine parentage - she'd never be able to manipulate Essence, an ability required of Lookshy's sorcery corps. They found themselves slack-jawed when 15 year-old Narumi supplied a logical proof, based only on her scant knowledge of human physiology, that anyone should be able to influence Essence lines with sufficient and properly focused concentration. That amazement was nothing compared to their dismay when, two years later, Naru validated her claims by draining an Essence battery on biofeedback alone.

She enlisted and joined up as a sorcerer-technician, where she took to studying astrology in her free time. Naru had a remarkable penchant for the art, and quickly realized that mathematics described almost every astrological phenomenon. Whether the will of the gods was governed numerically or simply behaved as such was not a matter of interest to Naru - what was important was that she found herself able to read the stars with surprising accuracy using only her own theories as a basis. Although she was well on her way to rising through the ranks, she was recruited by the Intelligence Directorate and introduced into a special Ranger unit - a black ops outfit which relied heavily on metaphysical phenomena to pull off otherwise impossible acts of surveillance, sabotage, or assassination. Easily the intellectual equal of anyone in the unit, her physical skills were nevertheless lacking - she barely survived the brutal training regiment, but emerged a capable Ranger. Her unit was slaughtered during a mission to Thorns ((more on this to follow, likely in a story)), and, fearing that her miscalculations had led to the incident, she disbanded. She fled to Nexus and became an astrologer-mercenary for hire. She was eventually hired by Aleni on a temporary basis, to make an off-the-cuff prediction about a mark's location, but when Aleni was pleased with the girl's results and her already-considerable knowledge of working in clandestine circles, Aleni recommended her for recruitment. The Three Elite Fiends were all too happy to have a capable astrologer.

After joining, she found her niche in a support role. She rarely completes any missions herself (though it does happen), but is a thaumaturgical and technological consultant to many of the organization's made members and associates. When business is slow, she, with the approval of the Fiends, devotes herself to improving her skill as an astrologer. She has a large laboratory under one of the central range homes.

Naru is a notorious academic recluse and takes few lovers, most of whom are women. While accompanying Opal on a contract run in the Far East, the pair became stranded in the Wyld for an indeterminate amount of time (see Strange Love). There, after a romantic encounter, Naru became quite taken with Opal. The reverse, to Naru's consternation, is not as true - Though Opal is occasionally receptive of Naru's romantic gestures, she is much less certain of her attraction to the mortal astrologer.