Raihosha

Raihosha
Biographical information
Homeworld	Galcen
Birth	May 6, 1890 for his arrival in this Universe.
Died
Family	Adopted Children (see article), Mongoosetiger (genetically engineered ward), Caroline Carr (spouse)
Occupation(s)	Physician/AEGIS Deputy Director (United States)(ret.)
Alias	Dr. John Gregory III
Physical description
Species	Human with Cralkhi Symbiote
Gender	Male
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Blue
Height	6'4"
Statistics
Weapon(s)	Blaster, Cane
Abilities	Magelord
Affiliation	AEGIS, Caroline Carr
First Appearance

"Where I was born, we know that long ago, long enough to be lost in the mists of myth, the galaxy was split asunder. Two civilizations arose -- The Mageworlds and The Adept worlds. The details are unimportant for this tale, each developed independently, but both were human civilizations. A circle of Mages from the Mageworlds discovered the Adept worlds and decided to bring the two together. This was a long working (more than half a millennium), and spawned two wars between the Mages and Adepts before the two were rejoined. Beyond this working, it was eventually discovered that the force which had ripped the galaxy asunder was still active and it had originated from outside the universe. So a new circle formed, to prevent the further damage from this Splintering Force. Eventually, I came to head this circle and in order to prevent the damage, I needed to stitch other places, outside of my universe, in order to prevent the stress rising to critical levels. And so, calling upon the power of my circle I was sent through the void, outside our universe."

—Raihosha presenting a background for his purpose in traveling the multiverse

Details on the enigmatic gentleman known as Raihosha shall be presented as information is developed.

Raihosha’s History

Origins

Raihosha's origins are something of a mystery, even to him. While he knows all the basic information one would expect (for a citizen of a magically active Type II Civilization), he has little memory of his personal life from this period. He suspects that this is due to the price he paid to leave his home, in that the Dweller on the Threshold demanded that he leave his name behind until such time as he completed his purpose and opened a pathway back to his home universe.

What he does know is that he had a "normal" childhood, graduated from Galcen University with the equivalent of an M.D. by age 26 and was leading the life of a successful doctor. At age 28, he was discovered by a Magelord and trained in their methodology of magical practice. It took him several years, but by the time he was 35, he was the first of his own circle. At the age of fifty, he finally embarked on his long journey to save his section of the multiverse from what was called The Splintering.

Note: Although he is from a time period several centuries beyond the events depicted, background information on his home universe may be found in the series "The Mageworlds Trilogy" by James D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle (the main series consisting of The Price of the Stars, Starpilot's Grave, and By Honor Betrayed).

Early Travels

It is known that Raihosha visited many universes in his travels. He has, from his comments, only spent extensive periods in three. He apparently worked for Bernis Sands (David Drake's With the Lightnings and sequels), for a number of years. He also apparently spent a period of time working for Manticoran Naval Intelligence (David Webber's On Basilisk Station and numerous sequels). Finally he picked up a symbiote as part of the Sigma Draconis First Wave (David Webber's Apocalypse Troll). He has certainly visited many other worlds, but he hasn't stayed in them more than a handful of years. For his three major stays, he was probably around for 50 years. It was in this period that he became familiar with the Fifth Empire (see base entry for more).

1890s

Raihosha's first decade on Earth was difficult. He landed in Tokyo, Japan in a period of great activity and change. He also arrived not speaking Japanese (although he could fake the current English dialects), and without monetary resources or anything the locals would recognize as valuable. It was in this place and time, that he received his current appellation, Raihosha, which means "a visitor."

After a number of years living the life a destitute expatriate, he was finally able to take over the identity of the adult child of a family of missionaries to China--the whole family having been killed by warlords during the Boxer Rebellion.

It was in this guise that he would make his way to America and become an American citizen.

1900s

This period was personally complicated, but larger issues were put off in favor of immediate needs. It was a slow and difficult process to integrate himself into a community where his identity was known, but he had never been there before.

Thus it was that he arrived in East Tennessee and moved in to his "grandparents'" farmhouse. By playing things carefully, and through judicious use of thought-reading, he was able to establish himself as a native son returned home after many years.

Towards 1904 he had integrated enough that he was ready to "legitimize" his education, so he attended a local university and went on to medical school. Neither had a high reputation, but neither did they have bad reputations. Then, to give himself an excuse to travel where he needed to be, he joined the Navy.

1910s

This is the period in which Raihosha established his bona fides and set himself up for entry into the American Intelligence community. He started his service as an ensign in the US Navy. By the end of the first world war, he was a lieutenant commander in charge of an escort destroyer with the supply convoys to Europe. This, combined with his knowledge of the Japanese and Chinese languages, made him an excellent choice for his next position.

1920s

This is one of the pivotal periods of Raihosha's stay on Earth. It was here that he also saw his first suburban senshi, although he wouldn't find out for decades. Raihosha was assigned to the office of the Naval Attache in Tokyo, Japan. He was unobtrusive, but he was also active with the cryptographic section. He would spend many an evening, when he didn't have work to do, attending the Imperial Theater and watching the performances of the Imperial Operetta Troupe. It was here that he first met Sakura Shinguji (aka Sakura Xadium Aino and got her autograph for one of his adopted daughters (specifically Junko). He also noticed what the troupe was doing spiritually with its productions. He was fairly quickly in a position to be told about the Capital Defense Plan by his superiors. He spent the rest of this decade lending what aid he could, in the form of information about the demons, to his superiors. This gave him a lot of backing and legitimacy with the intelligence community.

1930s

With the 1930s, Raihosha was reassigned to the Panamanian Canal Zone. While he was officially defending the canal from outside threats he had to deal with a potentially more serious internal threat. His adopted son Ichiro seemed to feel he was being purposely held back in his studies. In actuality, Raihosha had been preparing him for some of the most challenging lessons he had to teach, and these lessons required an unshakable moral compass. Ichiro decided to find others to teach him, and in the dark jungles of Ecuador he made pacts with the darkest of forces.

Ichiro was rapidly building a dark cult in the jungles, and Raihosha was the one who had to stop them. It was a long and silent game of move and counter move. In the end, to stop the spread of the dark forces, the universe demanded Ichiro's life and Raihosha offered it up. But in the end, Ichiro declared his Death Curse and left Raihosha greatly weakened. In his weakened state, and heart heavy with sorrow and regret, Raihosha had to leave the cult to fall apart on its own.

1940s

Throughout this decade, Raihosha was fighting the after effects of the death curse Ichiro cast on him. He retired his original identity and came back as a son (made easier by the numerous adopted children already in his care), suffering from malaria to explain his problems. He spent the war as a stateside intelligence analyst for the OSS, his main duties consisting of filing intelligence reports and writing summaries. He made a good showing and by the time the decade ended, he was over his illness.

1950s

With the dissolution of the OSS after World War II, Raihosha moved to the newly formed CIA as an intelligence agent. During this period, he operated around the world engaging in the classic spy-vs-spy of the Cold War Era. Most of his work during this period is still classified and will not be discussed.

1960s&70s

It was in this period that the backing he had earned as his "father" put him in a position for a very plum assignment. He was recruited for the UN operation of AEGIS. It was here that he saw first hand evidence of starseeds as well as seeing the human side of the demons invasion. Although there was a lot of secrecy surrounding the details of the operations, he can reveal that the actions during this period were merely the continuation of a very old conflict between humans and demons.

1980s&90s

By the end of the twentieth century Raihosha was feeling a bit out of the loop in a cultural sense. It was time for his persona to retire in any case. So, he began catching up on his cultural literacy by watching television. In addition he went on several short "fact finding" missions in other universes. Although officially retired, he kept busy with these missions and his televised education.

Activity in Japan, particularly some odd temporal effects during the early 90's lead him to an early exploration of the senshi, in particular the various news reports and fictionalized recreations based on their activity. However, this was a research project on his part, not an active mission. At the same time, the revelation of these activities that had been under-reported in the West, began to answer some questions he had from curious gaps in the official records.

2000s&the Suburban Senshi Years

With the turning of the century, Raihosha felt the need to become more proactive in his work. The signs he followed led him to a suburban living room in Tokyo in the Fall of 2005. He's made friends with most of the house/hotel denizens, and is currently involved with Caroline Carr.

Early in 2017, Aescapulus found an anomaly while doing some scans of North America, and found an unusual complex which seems to have been left by The Traitor. While Rai told Caroline about it almost immediately, a family meeting wasn't held until April 20, when Aes had been able to gather much more information on it.

Rai led a small team including Caroline into the pyramid in early June, which severely tested them, and resulted in Caroline receiving injuries for which she was given the symboite Rai carries to save her life. She spent about a month an a half in a coma as her body came into balance with the symbiote, and Rai has been doing a lot of thinking about his life, family, and future since the event.

She and Rai were married in a small, hastily planned ceremony attended by her parents, Viir, Yumiko, MGT, and Aes in the late afternoon on Saturday, September 2, 2017, as a result of his proposal earlier that day. They plan to spend several weeks honeymooning in various locations before returning.

Raihosha’s Cane

While originally Raihosha used a standard Magelord's staff (a roughly two foot long rod of ebony, covered in inlaid silver pattern work), after coming to suburbansenshi2 he decided to replace it with something a bit more wieldy. He has thus replaced it with a rather ornate cane. The main shaft of the cane appears to be a glass rod, but is in actuality a large piece of synthetic diamond. The head and ferrule appear to be an odd bronze-like material, in actuality pure orichalcum.

The cane or staff, is a way for Raihosha to focus his powers for combat or major workings. It begins to glow with purple and green "flames" when he empowers it, and in this state it is highly resistant to damage (in fact, it could likely be used to parry a lightsaber in this state).

As part of binding the cane or staff a magelord makes it an integral part of his being. Thus, the cane or staff will appear as part of the astral or spirit body of the mage. The ability to use this focus is unimpaired by the fact that the physical object is not present with the astral body.

Magical Abilities

Raihosha's style of magic is more along the lines of mental abilities such as telepathy and telekinetics. He can do the semi-typical things like project and receive thoughts, create mental illusions, empower his cane so that it can cut like a laser. He can do telekinetic like things, lift, bend, fold, create shields. His core skills are the ability to travel through the Void (a place that touches all times and places, enabling travel to all of them) and the ability to pull on the threads of fate (essentially he can control probabilities, create "luck," with enough care you can control weather to a limited extent). His "specialty" is the probability control/ taking advantage of peeking at the probabilities. A keen observer would notice he occasionally will be standing in exactly the right place to not get caught in an explosion.

Raihosha’s Base: Aescapulus

Raihosha's base, Aescapulus, is currently parked somewhere in hyperspace within Transmat range of Earth. Aescapulus is also the name of the sentient AI housed in and running the ship, and more information on him can be found here.

Raihosha's Family

Over his years on Earth, Raihosha has adapoted many children from around the world and bred a new species, all of which make up his household.

Other Information

Raihosha's Cralkhi Symbiote has given him a long life. Although he is not immortal, if left alone he will live long enough to seem so. He appears to be in his early 30s, and has a beard.

He has been in a relationship with Caroline Carr since March 2012, and they married in September 2017.

Retcon

Previous to April 2010, Raihosha was mated to Eiry, but this was retconned by Eiry's player due to long term absense of Rai's player. In the current timeline, they had a few dates and left it at that. Rai had, however, created a xcheamo ecosystem specifically for Eiry, and the details are on Aescapulus' page.