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Leinhardt
(Underlined links are provided for those unfamiliar with the lore)
Leinhardt was born the illegitimate son of Lower-Daimyo Kiryu Mitsuhide's first daughter Mameha Mitsuhide and a Selune-worshipping swordsman named Richard Casca in the dominant province of Kyoto, within the island empire of Kozakura. Being of the distinct heritage of two potent bloodlines: his mother of the stock of legendary kensai, swordsaints of the east - warriors renowned for the usage of the katana and the creation of the feared technique Katto(The original Devestating Critical); his father coming from a long line of Selunite Marauders, hereditary lycanthropes that had attained a mastery of their condition through the submission to and service of the Goddess Selune. The romance between Mameha and Richard was a short lived one, the conception of Leinhardt having been the single occasion in which the two were able to tryst from Mameha's personal guard. During that time, Richard Casca had been the guest of Mameha's father, the Lower-Daimyo Kiryu Mitsuhide and held the honorary title of ashigaru within the Lower-Daimyo's court as a reward for dealing with an infestation of Malarian lycanthropes that had migrated from the southern coast of the main continent in hopes of establishing a foundation of Malarian worship in an exotic locale, distant from Selunite opposition. Despite the eventual incorporation of using silver weaponry, the Lower-Daimyo's kensai had great difficulty dealing with the shapeshifting Malarites, having never fought anything of their kind before. The arrival of Richard Casca and his own shapeshifting band of warriors (known as the Marauders of Selune)ended the issue within the province and the Lower-Daimyo saw an opportunity not only to educate himself concerning these shapeshifting warriors but to make permanent allies of them for the purpose of continued dominance over Kozakura, which knew only brief periods of peace without inner conflict between provinces in that age.
The Lower-Daimyo soon found out about Richard Casca's romantic pursuit of his daughter, though he was unaware of just how successful that pursuit had been. Being a jealous and possessive father, the Lower-Daimyo stripped Richard of his honorary title and holdings and gave him only the mercy of allowing him to depart not just the province of Kyoto but the entirety of Kozakura within the next fortnight, lest he be put to death along with his troupe. The availability of kensai wielding enhanced silver katana, the shock factor of a new, exotic enemy gone, was immediate this time and dealing with the shapeshifting warriors would be no problem as they were greatly outnumbered and far from home. So it was that Richard Casca left, leaving behind a son he never knew had been conceived.
Mameha Mitushide requested a private estate from her father the four months following, realizing her condition. Using the excuse of preparing and consolidating herself for the man she might eventually be betrothed to, she secured a place and time to give birth to and perhaps raise her child. At proper timing and in remarkable health, Leinhardt was born. His mother named him Shishi Mitsuhide, the surname her own and the given name(Shishi) roughly translated as "Lionhearted, Courageous, etc" in honor of the very things she had fallen for in his father. With her foresight and political tact, Mameha preserved her status at the estate for another five full years: Shishi enjoyed the rare gift of a true childhood. When the time came that she could hold her father's political motions apart no longer, being informed of her betrothal to a prominent Lord in the Shou Lung empire (a marriage that would grant the Lower-Daimyo greater influence in Kara-Tur as a whole, as well as direct control of the trade between the empire and Kozakura itself - a card he would later use to usurp Daimyo Ushimoro Kusage, the true emperor of Kozakura)she gave her son to the maiden Hirigane Omachiha along with the greater portion of her own dowry, that she might procure a place in a settlement not too far from the province of Kyoto itself where Mameha prayed she might at least be able to visit her son on occasion to see his growth into a man.
Far across the world, the Tears of Selune beheld a different plan. During this same extent of time, Richard Casca had properly founded the Marauders of Selune, marking one of the first religious-militant foundations of Selunite worship and more importantly, the official incorporation of Selunite Lycanthropes (whom were vital in the war against Malar). For his deeds and his paladin-like devotion, Richard had become a champion for the Goddess Selune and was visited on more than one occasion by her avatars, The Tears of Selune. It was made apparent to the faction that Richard's entire life had in some way been manipulated in it's course by Selune herself, that he might become precisely what he had - this was easily accepted as the truth for the faction, as Selune's ways were often enigmatic and chaotic, dealing with means of entropy and auspicious coincidence. The confirmation of this belief by the avatars themselves set Richard's status in stone and even during the ongoing campaign against Malar's own shapeshifting armies, he was considered to be a 'Chosen One'. So it was that Richard's progeny was considered Selune's property and if you had asked him during that time he would have agreed with the idea: His life, His purpose was absolved into Selune's own and he would have desired nothing more than for his son to enjoy the same priveledge. Richard's campaign would secure a new prosperity for the Goddess and in the end, greatly hinder the expansion of Malar who had at one time been able to contest the otherwise superior deity.
Six years later, when Shishi Akechi (formerly Shishi Mitsuhide)turned eleven years of age, the village of Ondu where he resided with his adoptive mother was literally struck by a descending rock from the sky. This was of course the manifestation of one of the Tears of Selune, the abrupt and physical manner in which she chose to import herself into a region otherwise beyond Selune's direct influence (though this would change when Selune rendered her identity the same as a Goddess of a different name in the Shou Lung empire)the price of the extreme action she was directed to take: Richard's son was to be secured and he was to be placed into the apprenticeship of a seafaring trader from the sword coast who would arrive at Kozakura's ports the following week, a man of Kozakuran heritage himself named Shendo Sai who would take Shishi in as his own, teaching him both the ways of Kensai swordsmanship as well as the ways of seamanship. When made to explain the event, the only written testament recorded by the province's officials was that Hirigane had said: "A Goddess came and took my son to the stars."
And so Shishi (Now called Leon)lived for the following seven years, training in the arts of swordsmanship, commerce and seafaring under his newly adoptive father. The truth being that Shendo was himself an agent of Selune was never made clear to Leon and it was a curiousity of Shendo's that Leon had never come to question the strange course and dramatic changes in his life before then but instead chose to involve himself completely with the work he was given and quickly grew into an obsessive zeal for the art of kensai swordsmanship. The style in particular that Leon was instructed in was Itto-Ryu, the art of the eastern greatsword or Odachi. When he was twenty, Leon's vessel was struck midstorm by a pirating ship out of Skullport, a slave trading site for the underdark, more specifically the undermountain itself. During the battle, Shendo was killed and Leon was taken as a slave.
For the following two years Leon served unwillingly (his rebellions unsuccessful until later and though his will may never have been truly broken, all direct resistance proved futile)as a guard and "hunting dog" for the port Mistress Korrah, a female drow who derived her power from her control of some of the slave trade in Skullport. Mistress Korrah could have at several points tortured and killed Leon (whom she called 'Dog man')but instead found his enduring will amusing - allowing him to unleash his fury upon disobedient male drow on several occasions. Because the Mistress Korrah possessed arcane abilities that allowed her to manipulate the psychology of the mind and because Leon was utterly mundane in terms of magic, possessing no magical talent whatsoever it was during this time that he endured a great distortion in his ability to perceive reality - though this never resulted in complete madness (though it might have if gone on long enough), the effects of what could be considered lunacy (literally a derangement most present during the night and strongest on full moons)are those that Leinhardt might never truly recover from or be able to change about himself.
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