1) Describe a dream/nightmare that recurringly plagues your PC.

I can imagine Shen plagued by a dream wherein he is out wandering the fields, perhaps taking parhen, in a strong strong wind. The wind becomes so great that it carries him from the ground, and blows him across and over the land, and he watches his village, then his plain, then his world, vanish. He finds himself carried through skies of other lands, filled with strange things of legend: great oceans, huge structures of stone and twisted earth, great beasts and machines and creatures of all size, shape and make of life. He is blown through the worlds so quickly that he is overwhelmed by feelings of fear - fear of never being able to return home, fear of being eternally overlooked in a universe so full of worlds and people that it can never be understood or cared about. He is faced with endless cases of joy and suffering, art and war, knowledge and emotion - and suddenly life seems so short and arbitrary, so unimportant.

Perhaps, in some cases of the dream, he sees through the chaos an image of his mother, walking ahead of him through these worlds. He tries to catch up to her, to ask her how to find his place in all of this, but she moves so easily though the worlds he sees, while he, foreign, obstructed by obstacles and people of unimaginable number and variety, cannot catch her. Somewhere in the panic of losing sight of her, he awakens.

2) What might you, or other PCs, hate about your character?

Shen's most annoying traits may be his slowness and his passiveness.

He comes from a culture where time is rarely an issue. Certainly, nature often creates crises that must be handled quickly, and he is very capable of quick action, especially where life or home is at stake. Generally, however, his people are long-lived, highly physically resiliant, and emotionally very pensive. In many situations, reactions to stimuli are thoughtful and slow. In Shen's case, the fact that the ever-elusive mystery of his world-wandering mother keeps some part of his mind far away in contemplation makes him particularly pensive and distant. This trait has many advantages, but can also drive fast-moving or impatient people crazy.

Similarly, Shen's people are resiliant enough, and their world static enough, to have steeped long in the Tao of being at one with whatever the winds bring them. Even the harshest extremes of weather, work or circumstance are handled as given. Upon this is compounded Shen's personal situation. Both Nari and Rhea took directing roles in his life in their own ways, and, given his particularly pensive tendencies, he fell easily into the role of letting their inclinations lie. This trait, while also good in many ways, may make his character seem empty, stupid or even callous to other people.

3) What would provoke your PC to kill a shadow-dweller?

It would take a lot, as Shen's people consider life pretty sacred, and are used to being resiliant enough to never have to fear (and therefore kill) another person.

As for the "shadow-dweller" vs Amberite part, I don't imagine the deliniation mattering much. Even after Shen learns of the "big picture", I don't expect him to buy into the whole idea of Amber being the only real world. His people, and, in his mind, himself, are all "shadow-dwellers". I suppose it's possible that excessive exposure to the arbitrary nature of so many alternate worlds may start to convice him of the "unimportance" of those who dwell in shadow, but I find it hard to believe (as you'd have to convince ME first) that he'd ever see Amberites as anything more than dwellers of just another alternate world that is as arbitrary as the rest. He'd be more likely to simply go mad, I think. :)

4) How would your PC live day-to-day in a modern 20th century world?

Wow. For Shen, that'd be quite a jump. Assuming the answer to this isn't relegated to city life, and also assuming his meta-human nature wouldn't be a cultural problem, I think Shen would end up in a rural setting. I think he needs access to wide expanses of land, and plenty of hard work therein. I could easily imagine him doing what humans would consider back-breaking farming or wilderness-industrial work (like logging, mining, fishing boat work, etc). Any lifestyle that would allow him to spend great time outdoors, and allow him to use his strength and endurance in harsh conditions, is truly his element. Family? At some point, it would probably be important to him, but finding a mate for him in such a world is another question entirely...

5) Describe your character's sacred item.

Shen's flute is probably the closest he's got to something like this. Given to him by his grandmother, the flute is perhaps the only material item he accepts as having a link to the wind spirits. To him, it evokes the memory and image of what each parhen aspires to: an openness so complete, that the wind spirits can enter a being and touch its soul. To him, the gifts of his grandmother - the visions and perceptions given her by the wind spirits - come only to those that can open themselves this completely. His flute is his link to her memory, his reminder of what's possible, and therefore his best focus in times of challenge or when seeking deep peace.

6) What emotions can your PC express in public?

Shen isn't too shy about his feelings, mostly because they are (in the admittedly limited ways I've explored them so far) not terribly intense. This may well change as he is faced with more and more situations to which he is unaccustomed.

Probably the easiest way to answer this question is to mention the feelings he _is_ shy about. He's definitely shy about his attraction to Nari. He is uncomfortable expressing anger, when it is present, as he believes that to act in anger is to relinquish the benefits of inner peace and discard the wisdom granted by a quiet mind. (I personally tend to agree with him on this, but that's not really relevant.) He's probably shy about expressing longing for his mother, if only because it's such a private thing that only his father could possibly relate to directly. Since his father never expresses it, and others carefully don't tread on the issue, it remains private. Other than that, it can only be added that all of his emotions are somewhat subdued. He can definitely be described as "distant" much of the time.

This is a question whose answer will evolve as Shen's emotions are tested in the new worlds he's about to see.

X1) What is your character's voice/accent like?

I'm gonna take a freebee here because I designed much of this during my character brainstorming, and I hope I've subsequently answered it pretty clearly in session. I intend to continue to work Shen's voice, speech patterns and some of his people's language into roleplaying as much as possible. It actually serves as a great focus to me to remind me of who he is.

X2) What does revenge mean to your PC?

As he is now, it means failure. Revenge is a failure to accept the shortcomings of others that have come to hurt you. It is a failure to take what you are given by a world that must be as harsh as it is beautiful. The truly peaceful never have drive to avenge - to prevent harm, yes, perhaps even to see justice, but never to avenge. The drive to avenge is, in reality, a symptom of some hatred of the self simply cast out onto another. Embracing or accpeting that hatred externally is, essentially, no different than striking out in anger unprovoked.

X3) What is your PC's personal bedroom or suite like, and where?

I purposefully chose this question because I had no friggin' clue how to answer it. Hmmm...

My best guess is that Shen and his father share a home of bamboo, if only because there has never been a reason for them to seperate. Within this sturdily built rainproof structure, there are well-woven bamboo mats on the floor, strudy structures for beds and tables, and heavy weavings over the windows that can be rolled up during warmer times. Shen's people do not use fire excessively, but they do use it for warmth, cooking and craft, and the hut definitely has a fire pit for all three. Being strong-weavers, Shen and Eris have given the hut an elaborate roof and sweeping chimney that is as much a work of art as it is of engineering. I imagine the hut is fairly well stocked with typical tools for daily life and long winter stays - baskets, water troughs, firewood, perhaps a small store of dry food, etc.

In Shen's area of the dwelling, I imagine he keeps his clothing and a few personal items together. These items probably consist of many utilitarian items (bowls, cutting and weaving tools, firestarting tools, etc.) and perhaps a few more personal items (flute and case, some herbs and teas, a few random memerobelia from his travels, perhaps a very few woven parchments of drawings and basic writings*, and a few artistically dyed weavings given to him by Nari).

*(I've been pondering whether or not Shen's people have writing. I think I've concluded that they have some basic written language, but their oral tradition and compact culture don't demand much call for it, so it's limited and not used very much. The basic concept is there, but the need for advanced development of it is not, so it remains largely pictographic and artistic, and probably isn't at all phonetic.)

X4) Describe your PC's ideal horse for a long journey.

Big. Damn big. I'm bad with weights, but how much does a 6'9" huge guy with a 44 endurance weigh? Probably a lot.

I think Shen's horse, were he to have one, would need to be much like him in both trait and disposition. Strength and endurance would need to be primary. It would need to be able to go long distances in harsh conditions, perhaps without food for significant periods. It would have to be able to withstand cold, rains and winds. Though all of this, it would have to share the passive determination that Shen has - the outlook that "this, too, shall pass", and that life is truly about handling, and even savoring, the moment, even (and perhaps especially) when discomforts make one want to rush ahead to the next one as soon as possible.

Like Shen, I don't imagine it needing to be necessarily nimble or fast, especially since Shen is arguably a beast himself, and very capable of great speed on foot when necessary.