Soons Haven
A merchant community found on the coastline of Wind Country, just outside the Diamond Maelstrom at the deepest point of the bay. Calm waters provide safe harbor for a great many merchant ships but their proximity to the maelstrom leaves them prone still to in-climate weather. Soon's haven is Sunagakure's closest neighbor. They have high walls that protect them from the storms as well as roving bandits. Under the authority of the Wind Diamyo is the 7 Merchant Lords who oversee commerce, trade and policies in Soon's Haven.
The Merchant Lords
[col][legend="Fukui Shino the Iron Welder"]
Fukui Shino the Iron Welder
Bloodline/Core Ability: Nanjiro
Age: 23
Physical Description: Runic tattoos cover his face, back and arms. He often wears long sleeves even in sweltering conditions. His bright red hair is a family physical trademark, he and all three of his brothers share the same red hair. He usually wears it back in a ponytail that seems to enhance a rather deep widows peak. While he is not prematurely balding, his unusual hairline might suggest this, a fact that he is somewhat sensitive to. Besides that, he has golden eyes and a medium muscular build. His exact physique is not known because he is never seen in a state of undress.
Mental Description: He is a very serious individual. He does not think like a businessman, something that is painfully apparent when he speaks. He might be concerned with the overall bottom line and not invest in a failing venture or give his weapons and armors away on "credit", he is not looking for the next best thing or trying to undermine his fellow lords. He does care for the success and longevity of his family and thinks of them first. While his role as a Merchant Lord is rather recent, he is slowly acclimating to the role.
History: Shino came from a working-class family on the eastern fringe of Wind Country. His parents and brothers were metal workers who forged weapons and armors for Sunagakure. Their metal was imbued with something special, something that made the metal stronger while at the same time lighter. The secret to their craft has been maintained by their family for three generations. While not business-minded, the Fukui family enjoyed the profits of being the primary weapon supplier to Sunagakure. After Shino's father Fukui Osufune died three years ago, the Fukui family moved to Soon's Haven with their trade and their wares. While weapon production is a family secret and their efforts are manned by only four men, the Fukui brothers: Shino, Kenta, Junrou and Akio.
The head of the family is the middle son, Shino because he is the only literate member of the family. While his lack of education may make Shino and his family appear to be easy targets, but unlike many of the other Merchant Lords the Fukui family puts family before fortune or power. Their family bonds not only give them strength but also grant them the ability to weather any storm. While one of the Fukui brothers have taken a wife, one has grown increasingly fond of Guchi Sheena.
Most recently Shino has been accused of kidnapping a businessman Aburabuta Hirotomi as well as a shinobi Nekozuka Kimi. Aburabuta is has accused Shino of commissioning the Cabal attack on Sunagakure and claims that his kidnapping was in response to his statements against Shino. While it is not publicly known, Aburabuta staged his own as well as Nekozuka's kidnapping. An attempt was made to have a shinobi team intercept Aburabuta and 'rescue' him from Shino's compound but no shinobi group in the wake of the Cabal's anarchy took the mission for Aburabuta Corp commissioned a former Cabal ally Chikara Homura to recover Aburabuta which he had done easily.[/legend]|[legend="Guchi Sheena the Indebter"]
Guchi Sheena the Indebter
Bloodline/Core Ability: Quick Learner
Age: 19
Physical Description: While beautiful, she is not known for her trademark magenta tresses or lavender eyes. She prefers more masculine high formal military clothing and does not take to any form of traditional female wear. From brass button to woolen jackets and crisp white gloves, she appears more ready to lead an army than a bank. While she is only five feet in height, her only feminine feature being the heels she wears on her otherwise combat-ready leather footwear adds about three inches to her height.
Mental Description: Profit is her goal, while she is capable of waiting for long-term return she is a careful investor and takes great pride in knowing what is a good deal. Her preoccupation with profit while living an above-average but not anywhere near the life her wealth could afford her is perplexing. She is often euphoric about brokering deals, but has known to spiral into a state of angst and fury when arrangements are not made in her favor. While she is able to afford whatever those losses might have been, her strong reaction does not match the rest of her character. She is not known to be greedy, a penny-pincher or one who tries to give to those less fortunate in society. Her ultimate ambition is unknown but with her continued rise in power and wealth has made many of the other Merchant Lords uneasy.
History: Sheena is the youngest of the Soon Merchant Council, and for her age one of the more accomplished of the Soon Merchants. Sheena since an early age has been known to have people indebted to her, and has always made a good return on her loans. Mystery surrounds her origins as there is a great number of inconsistencies in their accounts. It is rumored that Sheena once came from an impoverished house but during her early years she inherited a great wealth as she was the last living relative of a wealthy clan who has all but vanished into the ages. There is an another rumor that Sheena instead of inheriting wealth manipulated a foreign bank into giving her a lead position and thus she acquired the wealth of others and invested it into several ventures which all made tremendous returns. Instead of merely using such riches to simply better herself, she has instead used such riches to invest in others who in return have made a profit in which Sheena has quite a stake in. Those who have failed to make good on their returns to Sheena have been completely ruined and are rarely heard from again.
Most recently her bank manager Amaya was given a message from Sheena that the Diamyo was behind the Cabal attacks. This fact has not been made publicly known as of yet. A bounty on Amaya's head, she is under the protection of Saieko. Her previous protector Kagemaru was killed by the mysterious mercenary Isaki Nakashin.[/legend][/col]
[col][legend="Moto Sakura the Silk Weaver"]
Moto Sakura the Silk Weaver
Bloodline/Core Ability: Aburame
Age: 47
Physical Description: Sakura is perhaps the vainest of the Soons Merchant Lords. She takes extraordinary precautions in making sure that her appearance is pristine in the extreme. Her long wavy green hair is often left down, it reaches her shoulder blades and is brushed often. Her hair matches her eyes, otherwise she has an affinity for warmer hues. As per her title Sakura wears nothing but silk material. Sakura oftentimes wears at least three different silk dresses a day, and those three dresses are only worn once. Oftentimes her choice in colors are that of various shades of red. She will begin the day in pink, then proceed to darker shades and ultimately end the day in a blood red dress. Her love of jewelry is apparent, each finger is often graced with at least one precious jewel. Many of these rings old, yet despite the years they glimmer like new. Necklaces, sometimes plural are also often enjoyed. Some claim that this is a demonstration of her wealth while others cite her vanity.
Mental Description: She enjoys her personal space the most and at all times those who attend her are five meters away from her. Those who are in her circle are allowed to be within three meters of her. The degrees of separation she has between herself and others is to clearly demonstrate the difference in class between herself and others. She believes in class above other traits and values people not on their efforts or aptitude but rather their lineage. She is not afraid to remind others of the insurmountable differences between herself and those around her. Many would claim she was calculating and cold, but most prefer to use the term 'bitch' when describing this woman.
History: Sakura is one of two Soon Merchant Lords who have inherited their title from their parents. Her family maintains a monopoly over the silk industry; they possess the largest silk worm farm in all of Wind Country. Often called the "Silk Dynasty" or the "Silk Weavers. While their bloodline limit is not a publicly known fact or even a rumor, this family has a profound kinship with their worms unlike society. The members of the Moto Clan are known to age gracefully and to have long lives, the reason for this (if any) is unknown.
Sakura became one of the Soon Merchant lords upon her seventeenth birthday when her mother retired from the position after holding it for thirty years. After her mother retired, she fell into obscurity despite strong media interest in how she was enjoying her 'golden years.' Their similarities are uncanny according to many historians between Sakura and her mother Sumireguesa. Most of the Moto Merchant Lords retire at the age of forty-seven. It occurred with Sakura's parents, her grandparents, and most likely she too will return upon the forty-seventh year of service in the Soon Council. Her status does attract a variety of male callers but she has never taken a husband. The fact that she even has children has been wildly left to speculation until recently. Apparently Moto Sakura has done well to keep her family and her children from the public eye. This child's father is unknown, the same could be said if there were any other children to be had. An unsubstantiated rumor initiated by Miss Moto on the day of her death was that her daughter was fathered by her former bodyguard Kimura Jiro.
Sakura was found dead at her daughter's birthday celebration which also served as her daughter's public unveiling. Her daughter has become the next Merchant Lord of the Silk Dynasty.
Moto Shigemi
Physical Description: Petite with shoulder-length brown hair and pale green eyes, she most certainly looks like a very young version of her mother. Often adorned in fine dresses and pretty jewels, her love of nice things is also apparently hereditary as well. Like her mother, only silk ever touches her skin and perhaps in honor of her late mother she too often prefers varied shades of red.
Mental Description: She enjoys her personal space the most and at all times those who attend her are five meters away from her. Those who are in her circle are allowed to be within three meters of her. The degrees of separation she has between herself and others is to clearly demonstrate the difference in class between herself and others. She believes in class above other traits and values people not on their efforts or aptitude but rather their lineage. She is not afraid to remind others of the insurmountable differences between herself and those around her. Many would claim she was calculating and cold, but most prefer to use the term 'bitch' when describing this girl.
History: Little is known of Shigemi's history, it was unknown that Sakura even had a living heir until her seventeenth birthday. Then, as if it was divinely ordained she too inherited the Merchant Lord title on her 17th birthday just as her mother had and her mother before her.[/legend]|[legend="Maki Shin the Supreme Fish Monger"]
Maki Shin the Supreme Fish Monger
Bloodline/Core Ability: Unknown
Age: 42
Physical Description: Almost shoulder-length dark hair and a rather plain face, he seems out of place in a suit-jacket and tie. Often he wears comfortable, daresay casual clothes because at heart he is a blue-collar type of man. He does not enjoy fine jewelry or expensive clothes, his one guilty pleasure is his ships. The sea and what he places in the sea is his pride and joy. While he could easily blend into a crowd with rubber shoes and plaid shirts tucked into blue jeans, he is best identified by his ship. He rarely leaves the water unless it is absolutely necessary and his boat is the largest and grandest in Soons Haven by far.
Mental Description: Quiet but seemingly kind, he does not have the look of a hardened businessman. He enjoys the company of others in small groups and is known to be a cordial host to those who spend time on his ships or demonstrate of love for the sea. He will, however become angry at the first sign of disrespect towards his wife or the sea itself. He claims that his wife is the most precious thing he was ever fished from these dark blue waters and that he will protect her with his life.
History: His name sounds out of place because it was a name created out of spite for this man. He is considered to be the 'least' of the Merchant Lords but he is also the one with the greatest power. While he comes from a line of fishermen, being that he is a first generation Merchant Lord who ascended to power when he traded his fishing line for a fleet of trade ships. While educated no more than the average man, he has a natural business savvy. His rise to power was initially innocuous, he simply provided a shipping service for cheaper than his rivals at a net loss that he made up for trapping crustaceans. When his rivals went out of business, Shin developed a monopoly on shipping in the bay area between Soons Haven and the rest of the world. He maintains his grip now not by keeping his prices dirt cheap but by ensuring his rivals experience a 'little accident' if they try to take some of his trade.
In his personal life, it is said that he is not a smart man but that behind every good man is a great woman. A year before he went from fisherman to trade ship fleet owner he took a wife. Said to be the distant relative of a disgraced merchant lord and trained as a shinobi in Sunagakure before she was retired at the age of 23, she is believed to be the "brains" behind Shin's business moves. They have three children, two boys and a girl all under the age of thirteen. The children are home-schooled by their mother.
Maki Kana
Bloodline/Core Ability: Water Affinity
Age: 38
Appearance: Pretty and petite, she looks at least fifteen years younger than her stated age. With long dark tresses that reach her thighs and large, expressive eyes it is no surprise that she married well even if she made the man into what he is today. While she is commonly seen wearing formal wear in the form of simple presses in pastel colors they seem out of place much like in her husband's case. While it is also very hard to notice, she has a prosthetic right arm. It is uncanny how human the arm appears at first glance, it is not until you get up close that you can see the fine seams at the joints.
History: A distant relative of a former merchant Lord that specialized in banking that left their station in disgrace when they lost their wealth twenty five years ago, Kana had access to fine schools and was given an excellent early education. By the age of eighteen she had completed her schooling uneventfully and was considered a likely bride to one of the wealthiest families in Wind Country. Unfortunately that same year her uncle lost their wealth, while the details have always been sketchy it has been claimed that Aburabuta Corp sabotaged the business dealings in Sunagakure and crippled her uncle's business until it went under. With her name in disgrace, her education was essentially worthless and she entered the ranks of shinobi at the age of nineteen having no other place to go. She was an nontraditional student, being so much older than her peers and she was clumsy, having no honored shinobi lineage or bloodline limit to depend on but she had a noticeable affinity for water. Able to manipulate and even create bodies of water as an expression of her will, she was considered a necessary shinobi for many long-term desert missions.
She reached the rank of Jounin on her 23rd birthday. It was shortly after this that her life would change forever. She was mapping the tunnels that surrounded Sunagakure when they were betrayed by a member of their team. One of the team members planned to betray Sunagakure and leave for Sound and was going to use their excursion as a way to fake their own death. He collapsed the cavern, killing Kana's two team mates instantly and trapping her under the rubble where she was left for dead. Her arm was crushed by the massive boulders that came down, she was unable to use her skills as a ninjutsuist to escape and she remained there trapped for four days. She was eventually found, on the brink of death. Her arm had to be amputated, there was no saving the crushed limb that had went without care for so long. Incapable of serving as a shinobi she was honorably discharged from service but at the loss of a vocation and source of income she was forced to return to her extended family in Soons Haven in hopes that they would care for her.
It was shortly after that she met her husband and they fell in love. As her husband rose in power and prestige she was fitted with a prosthetic but it is unknown if she is still capable of manipulating the elements as she once had.[/legend][/col]
[col][legend="Oshiro Ori"]
Oshiro Ori the Tome Entombed
Bloodline/Core Ability: Quick Learner
Age: 31
Physical Description: A rather bookish appearing man, he is always well-dressed even in a casual setting. He does not necessarily wear the "most expensive" clothes he can accomplish to afford, nor does he seem keen on any specific style but rather he allows logic to dictate everything he does. He wears excellent quality clothes, shoes, ties, even his shoelaces. What he buys and owns could last even the most abusive person a lifetime. He can, however, change his look. He has a rather average or daresay plain facade but he knows how to pain, manipulate, shade or alter his physical characteristics without the use of heathen shinobism to appear as someone he is not.
Mental Description: He is who he needs to be in any given situation. He has a brilliant mind, something he has been celebrated for ever since his youth. A child prodigy, he was fully literate before he could walk some claim. He is rather serious in his most natural state, a utilitarian by nature he says what he needs to say and understands and follows social conventions if he deems them necessary. He is physically the weakest among the Merchant Lords but by far the most brilliant and therefore the most dangerous.
History: Schooled in Soons Haven, he completed the public education system by the age of 8. Soon thereafter he entered a university in Tea Country where he studied business and psychology. His love for literature kept him in Tea Country for the next 10 years because of the great libraries that can be found there. A rumor suggests that he also made his way into the northern wilds of Tea Country and that he spent some time in Sound before returning to Tea Country. He returned to Wind Country at the age of 18, bringing with him as many books as he could. He found wealth not in the rare tomes he collected but rather the books he penned. A celebrated author and owner of a printing press in Soons Haven, he controls most of the written learning available in Sunagakure for the last decade.
Ori became a Merchant Lord 5 years ago, after his printing company took off he amassed great wealth and maintained his relations with Tea Country. Favored by Hotsume Rika, Countess of Tea Country Mako championed improved relations between Tea Country and Soon's Haven. His ascension in rank was purely the logical end game conclusion for a man as valuable as he.
Most recently Ori has been visiting Sunagakure. He requested an escort for his personal safety while he visited Sunagakure and toured the subterranean village but no shinobi took him up on his offer in the wake of the Cabal attack. While unknown as of yet, Ori posed as Aburabuta Hirotomi, perhaps to sate a need for vengeance as he commissioned a pair of shinobis to assassinate fellow Merchant Lord Gucci Sheena. The reason, risk and end-game for this is still unknown.[/legend]|[legend="Hisamura Mako the Leafed Emerald"]
Hisamura Mako the Leafed Emerald *Current Daimyo of Wind Country
Bloodline/Core Ability: Reckless
Age: 30
Physical Description: Blonde and beautiful, Mako could have easily been a model if she would only smile. She often has a serious or even a stern look on her porcelain-like face. Despite being involved in many battles directly over the years, miraculously she never seems to permanently scar. She often dons military-like regalia designating her as a keen supporter of the Daimyō. Despite her position as a jewelcrafting Merchant Lord, she does not tend to wear jewelry less an engagement ring made of pure Hisamura, flanked with two pieces of a rare advanced-element Carmot given to her my the Daimyō as an engagement gift that she wears proudly.
Mental Description: Serious and cold, Mako is not very feminine as she has taken on many masculine mannerisms. She is blunt, direct and to the point. She can be extremely aggressive and she does not tend to have a high regard for others, be it their happiness, health, time or even lives. She is a critical thinker that often looks to the end game and determines a cost to benefit ratio before she makes any rash decisions. while wild, often unprovoked aggression tends to be her most common strategy, it is not done without thought but to many spectators it would appear as such.
History: Like Sakura and Shigemi of the Silk Dynasty, Hisamura Mako was born into her role as a Merchant Lord but the title does not fit this woman well. Her parents and their parents before them were jewelers, many of their fine wares came from distant countries such as Rice and Tea Country as well as the far reaches of Wind Country. Crafters by trade, they gained their wealth as artists making beautiful works of art from the finest gems in the world for the wealthy. A wondrous lavender stone discovered in Wind Country was even named after this family: the Hisamura. Popular among the ladies as an alternative to diamonds as an engagement ring because of its relative rarity being even harder to come by than actual diamonds or even carmot.
Hisamura was never interested in gems, crafting or mining. Her ambitions some could say are greater. She was educated in the finest schools in Wind Country and she traveled abroad to Rice Country in her distant youth. It was her parents hope that she would take to the family business when she came of age but she never shown any interest. Her brother, on the other had, had but he was weak in body and died at the age of twenty seven. Mako, two years her brother's senior was then granted the title of Merchant Lord but she had already made a name for herself elsewhere. In service, directly to Daimyō Ishii Shirō, she served as the general of the Daimyō's private army. A tactician at heart, Mako loves war games and has a brilliant mind for aggressive combat strategy.
Mako never gave up her station as general, in fact she solidified her relations with the Daimyō even further when she accepted Daimyō Ishii Shirō's proposal to her which would make her Shirō's eighth wife. The leads her family business in name only, mot of the day to day decisions are taken care of by her trusted employees and advisers.[/legend][/col]
