NS Name: Khasinkonia
Character Name: Sahaliyanilha “Sally Asgra” of the Aisin Gioro Clan
Appearance:
Age: Born circa 1545 in Hetu Ala, turned in 1562 on the shores of Dalinur Lake, making her a vampire for 201 years, and 218 years old in total.
Maker: Gegeen Jochi of the Baarin Clan, Pioneer of the Northeastern Oriental Marches(Technically an unofficial title, but nonetheless wields some deal of soft power in the northern steppes of Asia)
City of Origin: N/A, turned on the shores of Dalinur Lake
Abilities: Both basic abilities, and is able to shapeshift into a form similar to that of the Spectacled Cormorant, albeit with wings more akin to those of a black swan, as well as a beak that resembles the average of the two birds’. She has also made inroads into minor human appearance modification, albeit only with major success in simple areas such as hair colour, fat distribution, skin pigment, and the like.
Religion: Raised with a mixture of Animism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Generally reverent of dogs, and occasionally prays to the old gods or meditates, but otherwise maintains little in the way of consistent faith.
Languages Spoken(In Order of Learning): Manchu(Native speaker, able to read and write both Jurchen script and Manchu hergen), Mongolian(C1), Tibetan(B2), Chinese(C1), Korean(C2), Evenki(B2), Ainu(C2), Japanese(C2), Siraya(C1), Dutch(C1), Latin(C1),
French(B2), Munsee(B2), Powhatan(B1), Cherokee(C1), Mohawk(C1), and English(C2)
Biography:
Sahaliyanilha was born in the early spring to the Aisin Gioro clan to Liocan, brother of Giocangga, the grandfather of Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty, around 14 years prior to Nurhaci’s birth. From a young age, she displayed a free spirit and an open mind, which her clan keenly nurtured as she aged. As a good Manchu girl, she was primarily taught to farm, herd, ride, and shoot, but, even at merely five years of age, it did not seem to satiate her fascination with the world at large. Religion intrigued her, but more in the words it was written in than the moral quandaries or philosophical raised by the different belief systems that were strung together to form the local pantheon. Indeed, the foundations for her polyglotism were laid very young thanks to her clan’s possession of equivalent buddhist texts in Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian. Many a winter’s eve was spent before the fire enunciating Buddhist texts for her family, and she spent even longer reading quietly, her young mind absorbing words, grammar, and ideas like a sponge.
As her adolescent years came, Sahaliyanilha began to expand her realm of learning to a few Ming and Northern Yuan scientific tomes that she’d been able to trade for. By the age of 12, she too was allowed to go on trading expeditions, where she often added to her small collection. During her bi-annual visits to the eastern marches of Northern Yuan, she befriended a bookish member of the Baarin clan who never seemed to leave his yurt. He had other quirks too, particularly his taste for a strange wine. His children and grandchildren would go out, and tend to the animals, but he would remain indoors, often sleeping. Though his descendants seemed older, he remained strangely youthful in appearance. For years, Sahaliyanilha acquired a new book every time she visited.
During her autumn visit of 1562, Sahaliyanilha was invited by Geegen Jochi, as he was known, to stay behind for dinner on her own. Her fellow expeditionaries took this to be a bit suspicious, but permitted it at her own request. It was then thought that perhaps he wished to make a match of her with his son. Sahaliyanilha wondered if it was a way to express thanks for their cordial business relationship over the past few years. She was more correct than her fellow clan members, but not by much.
He offered her eternal life, of a sort. Over the course of dinner, as Sahaliyanilha did not flee, but merely listened with a calm suspicion, Jochi elaborated on this offer. He painted a picture of a vast network to the west and south that was slowly creeping across the world. A network of secret immortals, working in the night, with unbelievable power within them. Powers befitting of legend, no doubt. He told her the story of Rome, the story of Adonis, and the theories of the origin of “his kind,” as he put it. Long after they had finished eating dinner, and long after the sun had set beneath the horizon, Jochi rose from his cushion on the ground, and invited Sahaliyanilha to walk with him along the shore of Dalinur Lake.
“I have shared with you a truth this night,” he said to her when they suddenly stopped walking, in words now and forever ingrained in her mind, “The truth of the vampire. I was turned by Aniukha the Diminutive of the Güchügüd Clan, Governor of the North Yuan Governorate, who also turned Beejee Badmaarag of the Ubchikh Clan. She was turned by Bhayangkara, Governor of Tibet, who was himself turned by Kichkandi the Ghostly of the Vetala Order, Quaestor of Kathmandu. You are to be the next link in a vast chain. Aniukha is the first Governor on the steppes, and we hope to plant seeds of our way of life that will stretch across the world. The Chinese vampires dare not stray north of their borders, and so the task of finishing the conquest of the Old World is left to us. Now you have a choice to make. Will you be the first Jurchen vampire?”
Sahaliyanilha wondered aloud if there was another option. Jochi replied, “There is no alternative but death.”
A firm nod acknowledged that she had made her decision. He ushered her closer, and whispered to her, “Welcome to eternity,” before gently sinking his teeth into the base of her neck. She now has those very words tattooed in traditional Mongolian script over the twin wounds.
That night, they sat by the shores of the lake, where the Mongol gently explained what she would feel, the process of turning, and what was to come of her. As her energy slowly faded during the course of that night, Jochi let her lay down, and picked her up in his arms. As they began to walk back, the last words he said to her before she drifted off into a slumber were “You will stay with me over the winter, so that you may learn our ways before you return to your home.”
Indeed, Sahaliyanilha awoke two nights later to a gentle tapping on her side. There stood Jochi, and one of his sons with a small knife. As Sahaliyanilha’s vision came into focus from her long sleep, she saw the son gently and carefully cut a slit on his left arm.
“Drink,” Jochi said, “You must be thirsty.”
“The blood?” Sahaliyanilha asked, “Surely I can’t…”
“You must.”
She sighed, and then rose from her lying position onto her knees. She felt a bit lightheaded, and so nourishment probably was in order. She pursed her lips around the small wound, and began to suckle at it.
“Drink gently. My son will tell you when you’ve had enough,” Jochi declared.
Sure enough, Jochi was correct. She felt better, and was able to think more clearly. Over the course of the winter, Jochi taught Sahaliyanilha the ways of the vampire in depth, describing all the facets of life as a vampire in greater depth. They shared many other stories too, and thanks to Jochi, Sahaliyanilha was likewise able to refine her Mongol, Tibetan, and Chinese skills. At the first thaw of spring, Jochi declared that it was time for Sahaliyanilha to be returned to her village. On the eve of her departure, Jochi provided her with a mission.
“In coming years,” he commanded, “Grow accustomed to your new life. When you feel comfortable with your vampirism, go to the east. Past the Amur River, to the Kingdom of the Joseon, and to the lands of the Yamato. There are lands we still have yet to reach. As a Manchu, your nomadic blood is strong. Visit villages and cities, and learn about their people. Select a sampling of the most worthy, and turn them. Plant our seeds, and help our realms spread across the world. Good luck to you.”
The necessity of a night escort courtesy of Jochi’s eldest grandson illustrated to Sahaliyanilha for the first time the real extent to which her life had been permanently, irreversibly changed. There was a new stress inspired by the first gleams of sunlight where there had once been peace. On her return to the village, she quickly volunteered for all manner of night duties, largely by insisting that she had adopted Jochi’s sleeping schedule, and found it easier to maintain it and relieve some of her clan members of inconvenient nighttime activities. On nights where she was on night watch rather than child patrol,
For twelve years, Sahaliyanilha continued these duties, and delicately evaded needing to go outside during the day, with such excuses as eye pain and exhaustion being the most common. She visited the city of Fushun on several occasions to practice her Chinese when her cousin Chieftain Taksi would visit to negotiate with the Ming, and once visited Jochi for Tsagaan Sar, but otherwise remained in the village of Hetu Ala until 1574. Every day, she would study Japanese and Korean, the languages of the two nations she was to visit. Without practice, however, she was for the time being more literate than fluent.
Finally, in the summer of 1574, she decided that she was ready to take on the task of bringing vampirism to Korea and Japan. From her readings on Korea, she decided to go to the capital of each of the Eight Provinces, and turn exactly two people. Rather than save Japan for another time, Sahaliyanilha decided that it would also be prudent to visit Japan, and adopt a similar process for the Gokishichidō. As Japan had a greater population and less defined territorial, she decided she would instead turn up to three people for each province and circuit, and would simply slowly tour the nation rather than pinpointing local capitals. Ideally, once she had identified people, she hoped to get to know them for a few years, and get them to know one another, so that a network would become established.
Before she travelled through Pyeong’an Province to Pyeongyang, the first capital, something else critical occurred to her. She had no house, and certainly no longer had any mind to seduce one out of someone. No, an alternate solution needed to be found for long-term residence. Then an idea came to her one night as she rode. As the cousin to the chieftain of the Aisin Gioro clan, she believed she could take up lodging with a local official under pretenses of friendly visit. Indeed, the pretences would likely be useful for explaining the trip to her clan as well.
She succeeded in convincing her clan to allot her resources to set off on her journey, and so Sahaliyanilha set off from Hetu Ala on the back of a young horse from the evening after the harvest was completed, with enough gifts in tow to last her the entire journey. After eight nights of travel, she set up camp within sight of Pyeongyang, and then the next night found the governor’s house. She wore her best clothes, greeted him with a polite diplomatic bow, and explained that she had “travelled long from Jurchen lands to bring goodwill and peace to the lands of Korea, courtesy of the Aisin Gioro clan.”
The old governor accepted this reason with only slight suspicion, clearly on account of the fact that she was Jurchen and quite plainly rather young-looking, but nonetheless agreed to find her lodging for as long as she wished to perform her mission. A small but well-furnished apartment was provided, and, after a few months of pleasantries and discussions, Sahaliyanilha began to attract the distinct interest of one of the younger advisors.
He introduced himself as Rhee Jeong-Hun, and invited her to live with him in lieu of staying at the city’s expense elsewhere. She, of course, accepted the man’s gracious offer, and endeavoured to maintain special level of politeness with him and his wife. Though they were both fairly young and beautiful, to Sahaliyanilha’s amazement, they lacked children. After around a year, she visited the governor less and less, until eventually stopping altogether, and was soon forgotten by all but Rhee Jeong-Hun. Instead of visiting the governor for evening meals and discussion, she would sleep during the day, cook Jeong-Hun and his wife dinner and breakfast, and by night, visit various temples, festivals, bars, and other places of congregation to find potentially suitable people to turn.
Though she encountered many interesting characters, her mind kept drifting back to the Rhees. Jeong-Hun was well-suited to administration, while Yeong was every bit as sharp as her husband. After living with them and gaining their utmost trust for two subsequent years, even being entitled the honorary aunt to their newborn twin son and daughter in her second year with them, Sahaliyanilha made a crucial decision.
On the night before Daeboreum, Sahaliyanilha and the Rhees went out to play Jwibulnori in the Rhees’ vegetable garden after the children had been put to bed. As they burned grass on the cold soil, Sahaliyanilha asked them both a simple question: “Can I trust you?”
Yeong quickly responded, “Of course. We are family now,” to which Jeong-Hun affirmed with a slightly concerned nod.
Sahaliyanilha then asked a second question, saying, “Would you both like the secret to eternal life?”
The Rhees both laughed, but humoured Sahaliyanilha, who very seriously continued. She explained that she had been gifted with this secret, and had been sent to find worthy people to share it with by the one who gave it to her. She gave them a similar talk to that which Jochi had given her many years ago, but avoided mentioning the intricacies of the society and did avoid describing the immortality as ‘vampirism.’ Their response, unlike hers, however, was not immediate. They asked for time to think. Daeboreum came and went, and finally, a day later, they agreed to be turned. Sahaliyanilha opted not to tell them the alternative.
Then and there, she turned them both. As they prepared to sleep, she informed them that they would need a recovery period, and promised to care for and teach them, and would stay with them until they had begun to adjust. By summer, she bid them farewell, and continued on to her next destination, the city of Hamhung in the Hamyong Province. There, she spent five years, and ultimately took almost 3o years to complete her mission in Korea. With vampiric foundations finally fully laid in Gyeongsan Province in the year 1603.
She continued this process across Japan, and finally returned to Hetu Ala in the year 1641. It occurred to her now that it had been nearly a century since she’d departed, and so decided to introduce herself as the granddaughter of Sahaliyanilha to her grandnephew, who she was surprised and deeply impressed to learn had declared himself Emperor of the new Qing Dynasty when she entered Mukden at the recommendation of her relatives in Hetu Ala.
For two years, she took a break from her quest, and took time to get to know her influential grandnephew, learned his hobbies, met other new members of her clan, and even partook in some of their new luxury. Though this life was pleasant, she knew deep down she still had a promise to fulfil, and so, two years later, she approached her grandnephew, and convinced him to fund an expedition to the northeast, into Evenk and Ainu territory, so that she “might continue [her] mother and grandmother’s work in displaying Qing goodwill to the east.” Of course, this was a lie, but the dedication Hong Taiji presumed a supposed near century of work from three generations ended up winning his favour, and so Sahaliyanilha obtained her supplies, and was escorted out to Evenk territory.
She spent only six months each with two Evenk tribes, and, though she considered them excellent people, opted not to turn any of them, believing them to be too nomadic to successfully work with the vampiric system. Even so, she made an excellent impression, and was gifted a domesticated reindeer on her departure. Although during her time with the Evenks, she had begun to make proper inroads into shapeshifting, the gift was nonetheless greatly appreciated. She then visited northern Sakhalin, but encountered hostility from the Nivkh, and so proceeded to the south of the island, where she began learning the Ainu language, and began travelling from village to village. By the time she reached Hokkaido, she had a reasonable command of the language, and began to make connections with the members of larger villages.
In Wakkanai, she met her first choice for turning, none other than the daughter of the village’s chieftain. After three years, she deemed the girl worthy, and moved on after an initiation process that, in truth, had scarcely changed much over the years. From Wakkanai, she travelled to Rurumoppe, and converted a successful local fisherman. Then, among the villages of the Ishikari Plain, she ended up choosing a final Ainu vampire in the form of a local chieftain, who had opened his home to her, fed her, and treated her as if she were his own blood. With this warm taste, she travelled to Honshu in the winter of 1652, and reached Nagasaki by summer of 1654, taking care to visit some of the vampires she’d turned on the way.
From Nagasaki, she decided to visit the island of Taiwan, and went with some Japanese traders to the town of Soulang, where she would stay and learn the Siraya language of the local aboriginals. She travelled to numerous local villages, and ultimately decided to turn one person from Soulang, and one from Bakloan, the two largest surviving Siraya villages under the Verenigde Dorpen. During her time in Taiwan, she also learned Dutch, and probed Fort Zeelandia and Fort Provintia for any fellow vampires. Though she found none, she did befriend a number of Dutch men and women, some of whom noted aloud that they were quite surprised to find a Jurchen in Taiwan of all places. Nonetheless, she was indeed welcomed many a night into local taverns and became friendly even with a few higher-ranked individuals.
From 1661 to 1662, the Siege of Zeelandia brought Sahaliyanilha a quandary and an opportunity. As Koxinga’s armies began to overcome the Dutch, she realised that, if she ever wished to see Europe, see with her own eyes the ancient strongholds of vampirism, and perhaps meet some ancient figures, then there was not likely to be another convenient opportunity any time soon. So, in a burst of impulse on night, she boarded a fleeing Dutch merchant ship with all of her belongings, and set sail for Jakarta. From Jakarta, she soon made it to Amsterdam, and finally set foot in Europe for the first time on Easter of 1663.
She wandered nightly in the Netherlands, and found shelter during the day. This odd behaviour did not go fully unnoticed, as finally, the Quaestor of Brussels sent and had her collected and met with her. The Quaestor of Brussels was quite curious to know as to why Sahaliyanilha was not present in any records available to him, to which Sahaliyanilha responded by explaining her story. After a discussion over tea, the two reached a mutually acceptable explanation, namely that the nature of the distant marches made communication necessarily difficult, and so the initial expansion of vampiric influences beyond the Ming and Yuan borders into Jurchen lands and beyond may well have slipped through the cracks in the tenuous Mongol communication lines. To finally remedy this crucial lack of information, they sat down with some of the latest copies of Dutch maps, pens, and paper, and spent a great deal of time reviewing Sahaliyanilha’s travels. She diligently recounted the stories of each person she’d turned, and pointed out their rough locations on the map, so that proper contact could eventually be established. Although this error in communication embarrassed Sahaliyanilha, the attention she and the Quaestor put in to fix it put her at ease. She hoped that, some time soon, the vampires she had produced would be properly integrated into vampiric society at large, a task that she had left incomplete.
The Quaestor plainly insisted she remain for at least several months, so as to monitor her, and ensure that she bore appropriate understanding of and perspective on her existence as a vampire. Sahaliyanilha made decisive use of this time restricted from travel to further her study of Dutch by diving into the language’s literature, and soon found herself expanding her interests to Latin, French, English, and the European advances in science. As she learned of European colonisation efforts in the New World, she found the accounts of the natives deeply fascinating, as they brought to mind not only her own people, but the Mongols, the Evenks, the Nivkhs, the Ainu, and the Siraya that she had spent so many years among. She imagined they surely could not have been so different. On learning from the Quaestor that the lands of the natives were a vampiric frontier, Sahaliyanilha could not help but imagine that she was spectacularly suited to helping the cause, albeit to the mixed reaction of her host.
After two years, at her host’s request, she departed, and opted to formally request entry into Amsterdam. She was permitted, and there lived until 1672, where, with the oncoming prospects of war and the reconquest of the New Netherlands, she managed to obtain transport by insisting herself to be a stranded Lenape translator, using slightly slurred Evenki to supposedly prove her legitimacy. When she arrived in New Amsterdam, she soon began to settle in, only to be uprooted by the Treaty of Westminster and an English seizure of the city. She fled to the countryside, and would slowly trek southwestwards, taking advantage of hospitality in various Lenape and eventually Powhatan villages over the course of two decades.
Eventually, she reached Cherokee territory, and nostalgic for her own civilisation, she settled. Indeed, she even married, falling emotionally for a man by the name of Yonaguska. For a time, she was happy, and on occasion, it would nearly even slip her mind that she was a vampire, not a human, and thus not truly one of them. This key disparity scratched at the foundations of her relationship, and slowly eroded its roots over the course of two decades as the young man she fell for aged while she did not. Combined with her vampiric barrenness, her marriage would eventually reach a point of disintegration, and so she departed from Cherokee lands in the late winter of 1708.
She travelled northward, and would eventually reach the Iroquois Confederacy, where she would reside amongst the Mohawks for eighteen years. Though she had turned none of the Cherokee, she did resolve to turn one member of the Mohawk tribe. Shortly after doing so, she decided to return to the European colonies, and find a fellow vampire to inform of it, not wanting to repeat previous mistakes. She headed south for the long-established city of Philadelphia, and there sought out an authority with whom to speak.
Since 1726, she has drifted on every few years between the cities of Philadelphia, New Amsterdam(Or New York, as its new inhabitants insisted upon renaming it, to her chagrin), Providence, and Boston. Sahaliyanilha currently resides in Boston. She maintains a fairly low profile with modest wealth, regarding her primary duties as done, and has endeavoured to renew her previous efforts in higher learning. She often uses her foreign appearance and fluency in indigenous tongues to present herself as a ‘noble savage,’ enabling her to act more freely without significant cost other than largely manageable prejudices. Though her interactions with non-vampires are still considerably more frequent than many of her fellows, she has made a significant effort in recent years to properly integrate herself into the Society at large, so that she might avoid trouble.
#CoB1764
This is one of the longer apps I've made, so it's a lot. I've tried to make sure everything in here is feasible, but do tell me if there are any issues. Considering this took three days to put together, I should hope it doesn't!