<COLOR color="orange"><B>The Tale of Primus
Primus is often regarded the paragon of human potential, a champion of mankind and 'the one king' despite never holding a mantle of leadership beyond the battlefield. Born a slave of the Fire Court, Primus was not yet known as Primus, his birth name was Sunahoshi Obutsu meaning "dirt" or "garbage." Obutsu (Primus) as were many others, were gladiator slaves who fought in tournaments for the pride and profit of their masters. Considered little more than property of little value, many of the slaves in the Flame Court had names that were intended to remind humanity of their place. Homura was a particularly cruel master, humans were considered little more than cattle to the ancients and were subject to the whim and want of their lords. Homura was a great sportsman, he reveled in the glory of combat and a loss would bite his pride and the slaves would feel his wrath. Homura was known to break and remold his slaves into 'stronger' forms made of earth and fire at the expense of their humanity known as the Kirishii.
The desire for freedom was not a new concept, for years slaves worked tirelessly to free their peers and to them help them escape into the badlands. Homura's slaves rarely escaped successfully, but it was not uncommon for those slated to become kirishii to try to escape their fate. On occasion, one would succeed. One of the few to escape was Obutsu's (Primus') father Sunahoshi Buta (meaning "pig") and unlike many of the others Buta returned for his children and wife. Obutsu (Primus) was one of Homura's favored slaves, not because he was molded into the perfect being but rather he never required Homura's intervention until he was twenty years of age. It was upon a near defeat that Homura decided that it was time to mold his favorite human into something more, on the eve of his impending transition Obutsu's (Primus') father returned, perhaps in haste to liberate his family. Perhaps if he waited for another night, Obutsu's (Primus') family would not suffer such dire consequences. Sunahoshi Kusatta (meaning "rotten") was caught, being the slowest of the escaping slaves and she was transformed into a Kirishii while her children and husband fled into the wilds.
In the wilderness, Obutsu met with the nomadic human tribe of the north. Many of the members were also from the Flame Court as he and his family was and they welcomed him as one of their own. But all was not good even among the nomadic tribes, with scare resources and the everlasting fear that they would be brought back under the charge of their master, wars were fought between the nomadic tribes for food, water and shelter. Humanity was divided on the same lines as the ancient courts, the slaves of the Sea had found refuge in the northwest and those of the Solar and Earth Court had made their homes to the northeast, but without borders and the constant need to move on the many tribes of the north would clash. Obutsu grew into a strong man, his strength and youth made him a fine hunter and he was not only favored by the women of his tribe but also by the elders. Upon the death of the tribe elder, Sunahoshi Obutsu at the age of 27 became the leader of the nomadic tribe of the north. Over the next several years Obutsu felt that if humanity unified under a single banner that they would become strong and he even fantasized that together the whole of humanity could push back the gods. He was ridiculed for what seemed at the time to be a ridiculous notion. Humanity in comparison to the might of even the smallest of ancient lords was like a dune hair against a sand wolf -- they had no chance. Obutsu refused to relent and he was exiled from his tribe almost a year after he took the mantle of leadership.
Alone in the desert Sunahosi Obutsu (Primus) somehow survived where others would have gone mad, starved, or been eaten by one of the many terrors housed in the badlands. It was in the depths of a cavern that Obutsu came upon a wonder, a blade embedded into a stone. The blade shone despite the lack of light and it emitted a powerful aura that brought Obutsu to his knees. Obutsu did not know what the blade was or why it was there, he could only feel the awesome power that fell from the weapon in waves that rippled the floor and sent him stumbling from the cave. He fought to enter the space, but his body would not even tolerate proximity to the weapon. After his third attempt a voice resonated from everywhere yet also nowhere. "You are
unworth!" A voice thundered. Obutsu was a defiant man and he demanded answers but none were given, he was only told a name. The weapon, while it never spoke it drew him.
Years passed, Obutsu remained in this cavern and each day he tried again to hold Shoki. Ten years passed and all Obutsu was able to do was stand in the presence of the weapon. It took another five before he could even touch the weapon and another five still to be able to draw the weapon from the stone. Obutsu entered the cavern a young man, but he emerged nearly two decades later with the strength to draw a weapon with power he would never live to fully understand but the power none the less to topple the ancient lords.
With the passage of time Obutsu had become middle aged in the scope of human years, Obutsu had become stronger than even a youthful peer in his prime. He returned to the northern tribes of man carrying with him Shoki. So much time had passed since his exodus, the tribe no longer recognized him but they did not welcome him either but they felt the power of the weapon he carried even from afar. Obutsu proclaimed to the tribe of the north that he had found the power and the strength to overpower the ancients and that he would raise an army to take Wind Country by force. He was not trusted but his mere presence was a demonstration of his power. Obutsu rallied the men of the north, told them to discard the names given to them by their masters and to pick new ones. Obutsu picked the name Primus, meaning "the first."
[col]Primus demonstrated his power further by single-handedly fighting an adult Sandworm, a feat that even an entire tribe was incapable of accomplishing. During his 'training' Primus had become powerful not only physically but also spiritually, it was not his physical strength that allowed him to withstand Shoki's aura nor was it his brawn that allowed him to lift the blade, rather he was the first human in Wind Country to manipulate his chakra. Then, it was not known as chakra as it is today, he referred to it as his spiritual energy and through Primus the northern tribe of men first learned chakra manipulation. It was then that many of the first men discovered that every human has an innate set of talents that differ from all others, some had powerful hot chakra while others has a cool fluid chakra and yet others had a solid unyielding chakra. While primitive in comparison to the modern understandings of chakra, it was through training and discovery that humanity became capable of defending themselves against the ancients.
Primus did not stop with the northern tribe, he sought to unify the many broken tribes of man. Much as he had for his tribe, he demonstrated his power, vigor and valor to the many nomads and like those before them they allied themselves with their potential liberator. Eventually, the day came when Primus would fight the ancient lords. It was a great battle between both man and ancient, but humanity was on the losing side. Despite the power of Primus' blade and the armors made for him by the Takahashi clan, Primus was only a single man up against a thousand ancients. The human tribes even united could not stand up against the ancient lords as they cruelly twisted and broke the men they crossed. Primus decided to challenge the leaders of the Solar and the Flame Court: Fuujin and his former master Homura. They agreed to what should have been a one-sided match, a man was no match for a single ancient never mind an ancient lord and a pair of them. The entire battle ceased to watch these goliaths take on an agerd gladiator, expecting Primus to easily fall under the heel of either great lord. This is where they were wrong, despite a discrepancy in size Primuse was more powerful than either of them alone and his blade cut through their armor as if it was air. He cut into Homura once... twice... thrice... and then Homura fell, while not dead he was mortally wounded and Fuujin tried to take Homura to safety but while they fled Primus dug Shoki into Fuujin's back. Fuujin released a massive electrical current that blasted Primus back over a hundred feet, amplified by the power of the blade it was well over 10,000 volts. It stopped Primus' heart and he died on the battlefield, Homura and Fuujin may have outlived their adversary but they did not last long.|[legend="[color=darkred]Shoki the Second; The Destroyer[/color]"]Even with the many tales told about the First Men and their One King, there are nearly as many told simply about the weapon that Primus brought with him to the field of battle. Commonly referred to as Shoki the Destroyer, history is relatively unclear as to what sort of weapon it actually was. Some of the most reliable legends claim Shoki to be a sword of tremendous size that could cleave a mountain in half with a single swing. Others contest that Shoki was in fact a spear and even more simply describe the instrument as pure willpower manifested as golden lightning able to pierce the toughest hides and scales of the One King's opponents. Whatever it's physical description or name, the one common trend with Shoki and it's stories is that it was as wild and prideful as it was powerful.
A force capable of toppling empires, Shoki bent it's power to the will of no other being before Primus and no being since then has ever achieved mastery over it in it's entirety in the way that the One King did. Some speculate that it is
Shoki rather than Primus which is responsible for the fall of the Ancient Courts and the demise of Fuujin and Homura but that perspective misses the point of the relationship between Primus and Shoki in it's entirety. Shoki despite it's tremendous power and pride lacked both the desire and autonomy to have performed the task on it's own. It was not until it encountered the fledgling king and Primus endured each and every one of the labors and tests intended to destroy any who might think to claim Shoki's power that Shoki found itself a worthy enough partner with which to exercise the role in the world for which it had been created; to bring about change. Guided by the conviction and desire of Obutsu and empowered by the raw strength of Shoki, it is perhaps most accurate to say that the being which we know as Primus the One King is a composite of both entities rather than taking them as separate in their own rights.
Since the fall of the Old World and the collapse of the Ancient Courts, Shoki has not been confirmed to have been seen by any men or spirits. Some since then have
claimed to be heirs to the power of Shoki and the name of the One King but all of them have proved themselves simply pretenders when their might was tested by beings beyond their ken and found wanting. It remains to be seen whether or not Shoki will manifest once more in the current age and what form the power will take.[/legend][/col]
With the death of the two most powerful ancient lords, morale was bolstered among the tribes of man and the ancient courts were diminished. The ancient courts began their retreat and humanity followed them. The war between man and ancient braved on for years to follow, even after the destruction of the courts and the creation of a human government hostilities persisted and the remnants of many of the great courts were actively hunted for decades after. Humans became clever in how they would fight the ancients, developing new and ingenious ways to bind and seal them away for eternity.
