White Tiger (Hero)

Code-name: White Tiger

Full Name: unknown

Faction: The Way

War without end and without mercy. Everlasting battle between eternal enemies, the Shijin. Each White Tiger was born anew with the knowledge that the cycle was begun again. The master of the ancient Jade Cult locked in his eternal quest for mastery of the Shijin powers, and the White Tiger standing against him. Today, under the dark gaze of the Oni Queen, the Green Emperor has at last broken the cycle by destroying the Crimson Phoenix and now the White Tiger must find a path to reconcile the Shijin. For seven years she was lost. Today she forges most uneasy alliance to oppose the Green Emperor.

Seven years ago, Hong Kong, the Dragon and the Beast on one side fought the Tiger and the Phoenix on the other. Yet this time the Dragon had the upper hand. A scheme hatched by the malevolent dark Oni Queen brought the Phoenix low, undone by pride leaving him vulnerable to a fateful blow as ancient Oni magic poisoned his system, felling him as the Dragon and the Beast attacked.

In the face of two rival Shijin, the Tiger was outmatched. With whirlwind grace she unleashed tiger kick, then struck with the fabled seven element fist. Blow after blow she rained down on her foes as she was ground down. Lightning Fist. One Thousand Strikes. Heavenly Tiger Punch. Earthquake Stomp. All three remaining Shijin were unleashed in their full aspect, their battle shaking the heavens and the Earth as the Tiger let loose with every maneuver and power at her disposal. Tiger’s resistance was futile.

The Dragon and the Beast won that day and the Black Beast banished the Tiger to the void. The cycle was shattered. The Beast was tired from the battle and began its slumber. The Dragon was triumphant, and the Phoenix and the Tiger both lost. But the story did not end there.

White Tiger was lost in a void, drifting in a no-where realm where time had no hold. That nothing-place held torments, strange things banished from the places beyond the mortal realms that bit and slashed at her, hissing unspeakable threats.

She heard whispers in the nothingness, of the predations of the Necroplane as world after world was consumed. Of the Everlasting, beings of power beyond mortal ken who were waking from their torpor. The return of the queen of the damned Forgotten. The Saints and Dimanche, powers behind the Coven throne pulled the strings of their puppets. The veil between universes sundered as first the Zeta Initiative crossed over, soon followed by those who forged a new Dark Camelot. It was interminable, unending. She was cast out from her realm and could only listen to fragments in the beyond-darkness.

Feral howls of rage and pain were heard quietly at first, ghost-like sirens across the void. Slowly, the sounds grew, and the din of battle followed. How long it had been she did not know, but she had to act, of that she was sure. The tormenting voices dissented, snarling curses, telling her that none escaped this place. She glimpsed then a spark in the distance, flickering, a flame against an ocean of bleak emptiness.

She fought, swimming through a tide of grasping spectral hands seeking to stop her, ghost-voices rasping at her to turn back. Unyielding, with each stroke the flame flickered into ever-brighter life. As the Tiger closed the flame became more distinct, its shape like a lone feather whipped by a breeze.

Finally, the light pulsed, a brilliant radiance that reached forward, washing over her and then she was elsewhere.

She knelt on one knee in a grimy alley, the Tiger Amulet clutched tightly in her hand. The smells and sounds of the place marked it as somewhere new, it certainly wasn’t Hong Kong. She heard a mighty and familiar roar in the distance: Ging Gong! What strangeness was this for the great creature to be so far from its lands!

Wherever she was, she had work to do. She had to learn the ways of this place and do so quickly. There were battles ahead, to fight the rising threat of darkness that had been whispered to her in that place beyond. She would need help. Flexing her golden gauntlet, the White Tiger resolved that she would gather a band of defenders to face the darkness and restore the Shijin cycle. Together they would forge The Way.