Lady Kaede
Shiramine

Character Essential

Faith & Home

Kaede does not have to wonder whether the being she worships is real. Aldoron is quite literally under her feet. Her people build homes on him, travel across him, grow food on him, and have generations of history tied to the land his body gives them.

That is the center of Kaede's faith. She sees Aldoron as the living being who gives her people a place to exist and keeps carrying them. Worship is less about begging for miracles and more about gratitude, respect, and taking care of the place they have been given.

Shiramine Temple teaches people not to treat Aldoron's body like something they can use without limits. Waste bothers Kaede. Reckless construction bothers her. Damaging the land for convenience bothers her even more. She takes it personally when someone acts as though living on Aldoron gives them the right to do whatever they want to him.

Kaede's problem is that she can turn a good rule into an absolute one very quickly. Once she decides something is necessary for Aldoron's safety or the community's well-being, arguing with her becomes difficult. In her mind, she is doing her job. Everyone else may have a different opinion.

The Temple

Shiramine Temple is Kaede's home, workplace, and the thing she organizes most of her life around. It sits within the Japan-inspired civilization on Aldoron's back and serves both the people who live nearby and travelers passing through.

Blue lanterns line the paths and white tiger carvings sit near the entrances. Kaede's spirit flames are a common sight around the grounds after dark. She also takes temple festivals very seriously. She will claim the attendants handled most of the planning while knowing exactly where every lantern, flower arrangement, food stall, and guest is supposed to be.

What She's Like

Kaede is proud, witty, vain, religious, and very used to being listened to. She likes being good at things and likes it even more when other people notice. A specific compliment about her technique, jewelry, calligraphy, or temple will get much further with her than vague flattery.

She can be cutting without ever raising her voice. If somebody behaves badly in front of her disciples, Kaede is perfectly capable of smiling at them while making it obvious that she thinks they have embarrassed themselves.

Around children, animals, younger disciples, and small spirits, she softens a lot. She keeps sweets in her sleeves, remembers favorite meals, fixes torn clothes, sits with people when they are sick, and has no problem letting a sleepy child use her tail or fur as a pillow.

Kaede is also overprotective to the point of being controlling. Once she decides somebody is under her care, she starts having opinions about when they should sleep, whether they should be fighting, what they should be eating, and whether they are making sensible choices. She does not see herself as overbearing. She sees everybody else as unusually committed to making her worry.

She hates being corrected in public and has a hard time saying "I was wrong" out loud. Her apologies usually show up as food, a repaired possession, a favor she does without mentioning it, or a rule that quietly becomes less strict the next day.

Appearance & Wardrobe

Kaede is a tall white tiger spirit with gold eyes, long black-and-white hair that fades into pale blue, a tail, claws, and long tiger fangs. Her tail is terrible at helping her look composed because it starts flicking when she gets irritated.

She favors layered black, white, and pale blue clothing based on shrine wear and court dress from her homeland. Her usual outfit includes a white kosode, black split hakama, a pale blue overrobe, a white fur mantle, and silver armor pieces on her forearms and lower legs.

She loves jewelry and is picky about it. Her collection includes carved hairpins, heavy rings, jeweled combs, silver chains, old prayer beads, tiger-shaped clasps, and older pieces passed through her family or the temple. She remembers the story behind anything she considers important and can absolutely tell when something expensive-looking is cheaply made.

For combat she cuts down on the hanging layers and wears shorter sleeves so the fabric stays out of her naginata's path.

Fighting Style

Kaede practices naginatajutsu and builds the rest of her fighting around it. The naginata gives her reach, her tiger strength gives the weapon more force, and her spirit fire lets her threaten things a normal blade would have trouble touching.

She uses the curved blade to hook weapons and limbs, attacks the legs and hands to ruin an opponent's footing or grip, and uses the shaft to block, shove, trip, and strike. She is strong enough to pull larger opponents off balance if she gets the right angle.

Her fighting can look ceremonial because Kaede likes spectacle. Blue fire runs along the blade, prayer seals flare underfoot, and spectral tigers may rush beside her or cut off an escape route. She is not doing random acrobatics for no reason, but she is absolutely willing to make a practical technique look prettier than it needs to.

Getting past the blade is not a safe solution. At close range she uses elbows, knees, throws, claws, bites, and her own body weight. Threatening the temple, Aldoron, or somebody she considers hers to protect is also a reliable way to make her stop showing off and start fighting much meaner.

Powers & Techniques

People in Her Life

The God Games

Kaede was recruited by Sigfreid through Aldoron's connections and has been involved with the God Games from early on. She just has not spent all of that time standing beside the same group.

Sigfreid has moved her between different teams when he needed her somewhere else. Kaede has worked with earlier groups, taken charge during some of those assignments, and disappeared from the main team's day-to-day life for long stretches because she had her own work to handle.

She eventually rejoined the main group in North Side. That does not mean her temple or Aldoron stopped mattering to her. Kaede treats the God Games as another responsibility she has taken on, not a replacement for the life she already had.

What She Wants

• Protect Shiramine Temple and the communities around it.
• Keep the roads across her part of Aldoron safe for travelers.
• Preserve the temple's history instead of letting it disappear with one generation.
• Train a successor who can carry both the faith and the guardian arts after her.
• Protect Aldoron from careless damage and exploitation.
• Get better at recognizing when protection has turned into control.

Trivia

• Her tail flicks when she is irritated even if her expression stays perfectly calm.
• Her fangs show whenever she smiles widely.
• She uses a much softer voice with children, animals, and small spirits.
• There are usually sweets hidden somewhere in her sleeves.
• She likes specific compliments. "You look nice" is fine. Compliment the craftsmanship on one of her hairpins and she will remember you.
• Kaede is allowed to criticize her disciples. Outsiders, according to Kaede, are not.
• Several shrine spirits are called her babies.
• She purrs when she is deeply relaxed and will deny it immediately.
• She rarely says "I'm sorry." Check for food outside your door instead.
• She loves scratches behind her ears. This information is apparently classified.
• She keeps a go board in her receiving room and gets annoyingly competitive about it.
• Children who beat one of her groups in go get a sweet. Adults get a rematch.
• She practices falconry.
• She keeps taking in injured animals while insisting every single one is temporary.
• She is single.