Shosko Inobi

Name: Shosko Inobi, also known as Archibald Miller
Sex: Male
Age: 28
Origin: Japan
Betrothed/Married to: Nobody
Citizenship Status: Citizen (as Archibald Miller)
Weapons, Powers, Combat Skills: Shosko uses a triple-axe -- three pairs of identical axe heads (six blades in all, three on each side, and the blades are parallel per pair) attached to a long, laquered wooden pole -- and two somewhat long and curved knives he keeps under his shirt, typically tucked into the front of his pants. With the exception of his highly-attuned senses (particularly his sense of earing and smell), he has no special powers or extraordinary abilities of any kind, but he is a highly-skilled martial artists and combatant, compared to samurai contemporaries Tadakatsu Honda, Katsuie Shibata, and Munenori Yagyu.
Skills: Shosko is a highly proficient hunter and outdoorsman, having honed his skills by living nearly every day of his life in the wild. In order to survive in the forests and jungles of Japan during his fugitive days, Shosko had learned to track animals, how to hunt and fight, how to cook animals, and how to skin them to make blankets and cloaks and things. He learned how to survive in the wild and how to read movements based on his hunting. His need to keep hidden had taught him how to be stealthy and hidden, and in his early years he had learned how to steal and break into homes.
Links: [dessel.chatango.com]
NPC's currently Played: Barkeep Rogers, Lazarus Undine Stoneslayer
History: Shosko Inobi was born in the mid 1500s in Japan, in an era that was known as the "Warring States" period. Born into a peasant family, his mother died in child birth, and his father succumbed to disease when he was five. Living in a poor village during a time of civil war, nobody was able to take him in. As a result, he was forced to steal food in order to survive. The boy began by stealing from merchants, but soon learned how to break into homes for shelter. However, his youth and his situation did not pardon him from persecution from the law, and his crimes continued to be held against him. So when peasants or passing authorities or soliders tried to turn the young thief in, Shosko was forced to add another crime onto his list: murder. Over the past several years, his murder count increased as was needed, and Shosko was forced to flee his village. He spent the rest of his life as a vagabond, wandering Japan's wilderness to remain a step ahead of the law. He appeared in different towns from time to time to spend a night in a bed or to eat a prepared meal, but he normally hunted and killed like an animal, cooking his meals in the wilderness, and sleeping in caves or outside of the roads. To make money and to hone his skills, Shosko had a second skill outside of killing; he had become procifient in skinning animals and fashioning their furs and hides into blankets, cloaks, etc., and would often use the alias of a fur merchant (to those who do know him) to sell his goods for pocket change.

Shosko Inobi had a hefty bounty on his head for a lifetime of crimes he was forced to commit in order to survive. Though he had been captured on a number of occassions and spent time in the dungeons of different Daimyo, he had managed to break out of prison and continue to run from the law every time. Reaching a point where he tired of worrying for his life, Shosko began to lay low and find more permanent places to lay his head. The political climate of Japan had, during his life, been a treacherous one. The Daimyo that hunted him down had been just as busy fighting each other for control of the nation. After a brief period of stability, civil war sparked back up briefly. Ieyasu Tokugawa, friend of the then-deceased Nobunaga Oda and highly-distinguished samurai, had taken advantage of the death of the regent Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and began to consolidate his power and position to become Hideyoshi's successor and become Shogun. However, this sparked conflict amongst the clans that were loyal to Hideyoshi's son, Hideyori Toyotomi, and this would eventually lead to a war of east versus west Japan, with Ieyasu commanding the loyalty of the eastern clans and a colation of the western clans of Japan loyal to Hideyori standing under the advertised leadership of powerful warlord Terumoto Mori, and the de facto leadership of Mitsunari Ishida and Sakon Shima (former retainers to Hideyoshi). Outnumbered and standing against the odds, Ieyasu made a bold move. He tracked down Shosko Inobi, and instead of imprisoning or executing him, he made the notorious murderer a proposition: if he would fight with the eastern army and their side won, Shosko's bounty would be removed and he could live as a free man. Shosko accepted, and he took part in the famous Battle of Sekigahara as an ashigaru (foot soldier), much in the same respect that legendary swordsman Musashi Miyaomoto took part in it for the western army. Ieyasu's forces won the battle, but upon their victory the men of the eastern army apprehended Shosko and brought him before the new Shogun, where he was informed that his crimes were too great to simply be pardoned. Knowing that he could not be imprisoned long enough to be executed, he was given the next best punishment: exile. Placed on a boat that was westward-bound, Shosko eventually left the land of the Far East, and he soon made his way to Dessel.

Note: He had had to develop numerous aliases throughout his life, and he rarely gave his real name. Though he is known as "Shosko Inobi", and is referred to as such by official records and wanted portraits, it is a cultural fact that "Shosko Inobi" cannot be his real name. Until the 18th century, only members of the samurai class had a first and last name. Shosko, being born a commoner, would only have one name. Therefore, his true name is not know, but for official record, his true name is accepted as "Shosko Inobi".