Manriki ninja clan
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
The Manriki Ninja Clan
| The Manriki Ninja Clan | |
| Founder: Manriki Hayate | |
| Basics | |
| Side: | Whoever pays/knows the most |
|---|---|
| Motto: | The Manriki Are ALWAYS there. |
| Leader(s): | Manriki Hayate |
| Logo: | Infinity symbol in circle |
| Group Colours: | Burgundy+ Plum |
| Playerbase | |
| Levels: | Any |
| Play style: | RP |
| Roleplay: | Required |
| Timezone(s): | Any |
| Recruiting: | Yes |
| Contact: | Any member |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Overview:
The Manriki Ninja Clan is an independent organization currently operating within the boundaries of The Rogue Isles and Paragon city. Their Current Leader is one Manriki Hayate. The group specializes in espionage, subterfuge, surveillance, assassination, and other covert ops. They are generally classified as “ninja” and self identify as such, but sources say that they are not so easy to label as it would seem.
History:
The Manriki’s history has been shrouded in mystery, quite purposefully It seems, for a long time, But an event known as The Hibiki Incident has made certain elements of the underworld aware of the past of the Manriki Ninja clan.
Post-Feudal Japan: A tragic tale of deceit and love
The Man who would be the Manriki clan’s founder was Gorou Arata, a lord of a region that had recently been united by the empire. He was able to maintain a place of power in the local government through his status as a member of the samurai class, and held onto a large estate. While general accounts depict him as a benevolent, or at least, not destructive member of the community, had apparently made enough enemies in the area, to have a hit put on him. A nearby ninja clan was tapped for the job and one Kunoichi,Haruka Akane, was assigned the mission of infiltrating his estate and setting up his ruination and subsequent death. She took on the identity of a servant and began her task.
Sadly, what would have been a simple tale of governmental espionage turned into a tragic romance. Akane and Arata fell in love, even as she continued her mission. As he began to realize that his estate was falling apart, that the ownership to his land and businesses was disappearing and his money being consumed in cleaning up this quagmire, he professed his love to Akane, offering to run away from his ruined life and live together somewhere in peace and anonymity. It was at this exact moment that she revealed her true identity to him. She revealed that she had no choice in the matter and would most likely have to kill herself to allow him to escape.
Manriki clan legend has it that her last words as she died were, “How sad, that the chains of fate have bound us, so that we may not be together” Arata escaped, and assumed a new identiy. Seeking to be a fearsome personality; and thus discourage social attachments which might reveal his identiy, he adopted the name Manriki Ayumu. Ayumu decided there was nothing left for him in Japan. With this , he fled to mainland China, where he would meet the next major influence on his life.
Imperial china: The Thief with the whip
While living as a traveler in Northern china, Ayumu was robbed in the night of all his belongings, including a scarf given to him by Akane, He ventured to the nearest town to find work and shelter, and saw a man with the scarf wrapped around a nine-sectioned whip tied around his waist. This man called himself Da Fu and told Ayumu he would not return the pilfered gods if Ayumu couldn’t beat him in a fist-fight. Da Fu and Ayumu fought to a standstill, until DaFu brought his chain into play, Ayumu was quickly defeated.
Da Fu laughed and supposedly said “For you, this chain represents the chains of honor and virtue that bind you down, that is why you will never win. For me, this is a Chain of Fate that will help me climb to wealth.” These words echoed in Ayumu’s heart, all around him people were prospering by cheating and deception, while his honorable life had brought him nothing but heartache. Ayumu chased Da Fu halfway around the region, before finally finding him. He proposed that they go into business together. And with that, The Manriki Ninja clan was born.
Over the years they amassed a large group of individuals who operated in the darkness, who aimed for their goals via a different path than the world at large, their practices traditions and culture developed over time into the Manriki Ninja Clan that is known to the underworld today as one of the most feared Ninja groups in the world.
The Hibiki Incident
The Manriki Ninja pride themselves on their information gathering skills. One of their common methods is to assign a 24hour- seven day a week shadow for their target. One such Shadow was Hibiki. Hibiki was considered an unremarkable ninja, nothing in particular made him stand out amongst the other Manriki, he was given his job and he followed through, he shadowed his target for over a month, and reported back with his findings.
Unfortunately the information provided led the Leader of the Manriki at that time to believe that further surveillance was required. Hibiki was sent back in, and was forced to follow his target for an entire year, alone. Hibiki cut off contact with the Manriki and disappeared.He would suddenly reappear captured by Tsoo operatives and tortured until he revealed what he knew, apparently the isolation and the fact that his entire life revolved around the life of one person had taken its toll on Hibiki’s mind.
He had wandered off, a shambling mess of a man. The secrets in his head were up for sale at a high price, eventually bought by a group that possessed a psychic to draw the information out of the morass that was Hibiki’s mind. This information eventually disseminated to the criminal world. So that now those in the know about covert affairs know something, or at least know of, the Manriki.
Practices: Chains and cheaters
Group Demographics
The Manriki did not have to rely on illusion alone to disguise their actions. One of the most interesting things about the Manriki Ninja clan is that, in the strictest sense, they are neither “Ninja” nor a “clan” they could be better defined as a group of individuals with similar skills who are organized by a central authority, and use the title of "Ninja" to promote an aura of mystery about them.
By and large, the people of the Manriki Ninja clan come already trained, and are approached by the clan for their skills and knowledge. Thus, they don’t have a distinctive “style” of ninjutsu, many of them don’t even practice ninjutsu per-se, nor are many of them, save a few pockets of long established members, related, in fact many of them aren’t even the same species.
There are, however, notable "Tribes" within the clan, members who were born and raised within the clan, and some of these sub-groups can be traced back several generations.
Tribes
Within the Manriki, there are five "Tribes" like the clan itself, they are'nt all related, save for the elders and their direct families, and are instead linked by their methodology and approach to their work.
Zhi
Leader: Hayate is the current leader of the Clan
Membership: Highly trained Natural-origin human beings
Specialty: Espionage
The Zhi are the eldest tribe of the Manriki. The Zhi are said to descend from Bai Zhi, a spy and the first member of the Manriki. Bai led Da Fu and Manriki Ayumu down the path that would turn them into Ninja, she was the one who encouraged them to do more than just steal, as she had made a good life for herself discovering information and selling it to the highest bidder, Da and Ayumu would help her steal information and other things.
The Zhi are spies of the highest order and value information above all. They, being the tribe with it's roots closest to the source, are normal humans who are highly trained. Manriki Hayate, his Father and Brother are Zhi tribe members.
Akachi
Leaders: Akachi Shu and Akachi Shin
Membership: Mysticlly imbued individuals and those with command of elemental forces
Specialty: Sabotauge/environmental support
The Akachi's Founder was a man Named Amadi Akachi, Amadi joined the clan shortly after the rise of the slave trade in the Angola region of Africa. Akachi had the mysterious power to control the weather, and used it to fight off anyone who attempted to capture him. A vengeful man, Amadi began raiding the European trade lines in his region. This lead to the enlistment of the Manriki to find and destroy him.
Amadi fought off the entire outfit sent to dispose of him and located the current leader of the Manriki's mobile location. He summoned a powerful storm and laid seige to them from afar for weeks. When he strode into the camp, the grandmaster was too weak to fight back. He killed the man and took over the Mnriki, his first job being eliminating the people who had put the hit on him.
The Akachi value the power of the forces of nature, using them to their advantage, they believe, as Amadi did, in destroying the enemies resources before striking, the akachi are frequently enlisted for sabotage missions, or to utilize their powers to "stack the deck" in favor of oher Manriki ninja.
Afzal
Leader: Amon Afzal
Membership: Shapeshifters, masters of disguise, those possesing biological weaponry
Specialty: infiltration
The Afzal were founded by Faiza Afzal, a lone woman and Hashashin in Persia. She found herself on a great deal of trouble over her sense of self-superiority she derived from her powers. Because of this she had to find work in the underground, leading to her employment. She stood out for her shape-shifting abilities, and delighted in infiltrating enemy circles before acting. She was forced to cross the Manriki on a contract that they also had. She was impressed with their skills, but dissapointed when they beat her to the target, robbing her of her reward.
She tracked and infiltrated the Manriki. When she assasinated the Master, she took control of the Manriki, and had the person who took her job publically executed.
The Afzal value natural weaponry, such as claws and fangs, for the ease with which they can be snuck into secure areas. The Afzal also are masters of disguise and typically take on infiltration missions.
Lowell
Membership: Lycans, Weres, human/animal hybrids, humanoid bestial individuals
Specialty: Tracking
James Lowell was an honest-to-goodness Lycanthrope, a werewolf, and an assassin. Lowell operated out of brittain in the post colonial days and was known for his quick and efficient kills. He was so good, in fact that he was hired to discover and eliminate the Grand Master of the Manriki. A job he was able, through some type of miracle, to accomplish.
With the Manriki in disarray, he took up the reins and brought the clan to the forefront of assasination
The Lowell tribe are master trackers, and love to enlist hybrid beings into their number, due to the sensory and physical enhancements afforded by animal and beastial properties that benifit them so well. They are such good trackers in fact that they have their own version of the Manriki's ominous motto:
"The Manriki ALWAYS tell the Lowells to be there"
Leonardo
Membership: cyborgs, those with cybernetic enhancements, andoroids or similar beings, technological geniuses
Specialty: Surveilance
The Leonardo are the newest tribe of the Manriki, only coming to existence in the last fifty years. Their Leader is Antono Leonardo, a man who considers himself "post-human" a cyborg of mysterious origins. He has built into himself a powerful cloaking device that renders him invisible to the human eye. He basically walked into the Manriki Ninja compound during Haru Ist's early days and and asked for membership. There was little Haru could do but laugh and welcome him, or kill him. Antono gained a following due to his amazing abilities in combat, stealth, invention, and maskmanship.
The Leonardo are specialists in surveilance operations that do not fall into the previous categories. They encoporate those fueled by technology into their tribe because of the ease with which Leonardo can install his stealth and communications technology into their devices.
Training
What they do have in common is a specialization in stealth, tactics, disguises, assassination, and deception. The other unifying factor of the Manriki ninja clan is the use of their signature namesake weapon, it is considered a signifier of rank among Manriki Ninja. It is not known if they still assign one ninja to shadow a target for long periods of time, but the Phrase “The Manriki are always there” is still prevalent, implying that they do still keep heavy surveillance on those that attract their attentions.
Administration
The Leadership of the Manriki Clan is fronted by a"Master" who, at the end of his life, appoints a succesor from any of the members of the clan. Part of this position is adopting "Manriki" as one's surname, becoming as much of a "face" as a secret band of spies can have. In the past, there have been several individuals who have "taken" the name by force. The The perilous nature of being sole leader of a group of spies means that the Master usually assigns a group of loyal elite guardsman to protect him at all times, from both internal and external threats.
OOC: Notes
- everyone does'nt know all this, people very educated in ninja, assasins, and the circles they travel in may know a bit of the history. Psychics may know more upon meeting members, obviously, the best thing to do is to play it person by person.
- Contact @premonitions to join
- This group recruits anyone sneaky in their theme or concept, not just ninja as should be obvious by the description
- Manriki Ninja Clan Guild Portal
