Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan
  |
|
| Qi Ben Xan de Ao Shu | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Occupation(s) |
Book-Loli, power battery |
| Alias |
Hsan-tachi, Bixia Yuanjin |
| Physical description | |
| Species | |
| Gender |
female |
| Hair color |
black, long |
| Eye color |
dark brown |
| Height |
5'1 |
| Statistics | |
| Abilities |
Knowledge of deep magic, pact-making to empower sorcerers, |
The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan are a lesser-known text of the Mythos. Though the books do not contain the raw magical potency of such texts as the Necronomicon, they are much older, and much less overtly dangerous for mortals to handle-- though the example of Barzai the Wise, who used the knowledge of the Cryptical Books to chase after the gods of Earth as they danced on Hatheg-Kla, is proof enough that no knowledge is foolproof.
For an age and a day after Barzai's doomed quest, the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan rested in the temples of Ulthar. Left in the care of the priesthood and treated as a holy work, the books were consulted by arcanists and sages alike; the secret workings and dreamings of the gods were in those pages, and such things are of extraordinary interest for both professions.
Such idylls do not last forever. One day, a young scholar was permitted into the holy temples of Ulthar; the next day, the Seven Cryptical Books were nowhere to be found. Of the perpetrator, the priesthood knows only that it wore Human flesh and possessed no soul in its body, and waltzed through their wards against evil without disturbing one of them.
And the books? As many things do, they eventually found their way to The House.
Bio
As a powerful Grimoire, the spirit of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan is both self-aware and manifests a physical humanoid body. As all powerful grimoires, her physical body takes the shape of a twelve-year-old Human female, apparently ethically Asian but not truly identifiable as belonging to any specific people. She goes by the alias Bixia Yuanjin, the name of the Taoist goddess responsible for dawn, childbirth, and destiny. Bixia believes herself to be between two and three thousand years old, but her memory is fuzzy about certain periods of her life; she only has the figure she has because one of her previous Masters may have spoken with the Buddha, and has cross-referenced that in recent memory.
Briefly appearing in the beginning of 2011, Bixia has apparently adopted Ten'ou House/The Hotel her home away from home. Initially very tentative as to how long she intended to stay, and rather skittish around the occupants of the estate, Bixia has warmed up and adapted to the comings and goings and cataclysms that periodically shake the Hotel and the people inside it. She also has a measure of street cred in that she was one of Yaijinden's first tutors in the arts of magic and the fighting arts, and claims to have the best handle on her erstwhile mentor's thought processes (though she has admitted in a quiet moment that she never fully understood him and his ideals).
Since Yaijinden's return, she has formally ended their relationship, and has resolved to find a way to make the world she wishes to see with her own hands.
Trivia
Bixia serves as the curator and guardian of Yaijinden's arcane treasure trove; since his return, she has vowed to protect these things even from him. While the majority of his stash is strictly utilitarian by nature, several of these items are sinister, if not dangerous or outright malignant; as such, Bixia keeps the collection intact more to prevent the pieces from falling into evil hands than for her own use.
The special field of Bixia's magical focus is what she calls the Ways of the Ten Thousand Gods. If it has to do with an appeal to divine forces (as opposed to Gods-In-Name-Only, or GINOs as she derisively calls them), she is almost certainly fluent in the ways, methods, and protections they offer. She is also fluent in a variety of magical systems; while some are beyond her ability to utilize, she knows the principles of those few exceptions well enough to advise almost anyone but a true savant.
Given the opportunity, Bixia agreed to participate in training with Gemini Sunrise and the formidable Franziska von Karma in ten years of condensed training in the Room of Time and Space under the Great Piccolo. Where her fellows' power gains were much more obvious, Bixia learned instead how to unlock a significant fraction of her true power as a Grimoire without the need for a sorcerer. Her access to this is not a casual affair; the clock ticks down from 999 seconds, and when that is completed she cannot access it for a full day, but when she has sworn the Oath of Opposition she can hold her own with some of the best.
Bixia is also tentatively participating in the Rising Valkyrie Unit, pending determination whether it would be right to integrate her into the fighting unit. As a Grimoire, interfacing with spiritual machines comes naturally to her; she can pilot the kobou and STAR armor types with ease, but the issues with integrating a known unknown into the unit have held back construction of her own giant robot. Bixia has taken this as a sign that she should design her own giant robot, one perhaps on the scale of a Deus Machina...
She currently writes her name as 陛下员缙, the characters translating to Her Majesty, the Red Silk Empress. As Bixia Yuanjin is merely a useful appellation rather than her true name, she occasionally juggles the characters that comprise the syllables.
