character Noriko Kaino (海埜 順子), Warrior Poet

[Jubilant Thunder]

Image Credit

 

Name: Noriko Kaino
Race: Human
Class: Samurai(Warrior Poet, Order of the Songbird)
Campaign Trait: Younger Sibling(Ameiko)
Sheet: WIP https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2704824

 

Background:

Born the youngest daughter of the tumultuous Kaino family, Noriko's youth was largely uneventful. With Tsuto all but exiled and Ameiko occupying their father's attention as the 'proper' heir the young girl was largely left to her own devices, which mostly consisted of reading fantastical stories in the family library or wandering the hills and fields surrounding Sandpoint. She spent many a day delving into 'ancient ruins' and slaying imaginary goblins with the most sword-like stick she could find.

 

Noriko was eleven when her mother died, and it was in the wake of this that she and Ameiko became particularly close even as their father grew ever more distant. Three years passed as life at home grew more unpleasant for the two sisters until finally Ameiko came up with the idea of joining a group of adventurers with the hope of making enough money to start a new life. Noriko loved the plan...right up until Ameiko told her in no uncertain terms that she was too young and would be staying behind. After a very bitter argument Ameiko left to join her new companions, leaving Noriko alone with their father.

 

Life in the family manor quickly became unbearable, and Noriko began seeking anything that would give her a reprieve. She soon found the House of Blue Stones and a sympathetic ear in Jabyl Sorn, the monk that oversaw the small temple. Seeing the turmoil in the teen girl Jabyl began teaching her meditation techniques and calming exercises. After a few weeks she started showing Noriko the monastery's small collection of Tian texts, giving her a connection to her heritage that she had never experienced before.

 

The time spent with Jabyl gave the girl some much-needed perspective and tranquility, so that by the time Ameiko returned the strife over her departure was forgotten and Noriko was just happy to have her sister home and safe. When Ameiko purchased the Rusty Dragon Inn Noriko joined her happily, glad to be out of the family house for good. She spent her evenings working with her sister and her days at the House of Blue Stones with a renewed purpose: learning the fighting forms drawn out in the texts of her ancestral homeland. Ameiko had nearly died on her adventure, and Noriko vowed that she would never let her sister be in danger again.

Edited October 21, 2022 by iantruesilver (see edit history)

[iantruesilver]

Lore-wise, the James Jacobs canon family name of Kaijitsu has been reflavoured to Kaino (海埜).  Otherwise no issue with the rest of the story.

 

A quick search on Jisho gave 309 instances of various possible kanji interpretations of the romanized name Noriko, you are free to choose from any one, while noting that some of these entries are full names, and your character isn't necessarily going to be taking on some random surname of course.

 

Besides that, just need the mechanics (ie. character sheet) now.

Edited October 3, 2022 by iantruesilver (see edit history)

[iantruesilver]

Token generated

Edited January 8, 2023 by iantruesilver (see edit history)

[Jubilant Thunder]

I'm working on my sheet and have some Feat questions.

 

First, would a modified version of Dueling Mastery be available down the line? I can't qualify for it yet but it's something I can work towards.

 

Secondly, ditto on Dervish Dance because it's the only Paizo-published way that I'm aware of to get Dex to damage on a melee weapon(though it's designed to be impossible to get at 1st level which is vexing, and if you're not a Fighter you can't even get it at 2nd level).

[iantruesilver]

Dueling Mastery:  Not saying no, not promising anything yet.

 

Dervish Dance:  See Slashing Grace.  Note that while neither of these feats really explicitly say it, they both thinly veil the fact that the weapons should be finesse-able.  That said, dervish dance specifically applies to Scimitars, which are clearly not on the finesse list, and I happen to own 3 katana at home, none of which weigh more than 3lb out of scabbard (the 6lb as described by d20 systems is definitely inacurrate, possibly stemming from a confusion with the odachi).  And if you ask me, by comparison to a european weapon of similar size and destructive power, katana definitely should be "finesse-able" to an extent, seeing as the cutting power actually comes from using proper technique to drive torque to the tip of the blade.

 

That being said, I can see why a line was drawn there between the katana and wakizashi, analogous to the split between long and short swords.  So I'll go with RAW on this count, allowing Slashing Grace without the need for the weapon in specific to be finesse-able.

 

There's also the Effortless Lace + Agile route, though I doubt you want to spend that much/wait that long.

Edited October 6, 2022 by iantruesilver (see edit history)

[Jubilant Thunder]

21 hours ago, iantruesilver said:

Dervish Dance:  See Slashing Grace. 

 

Ack, knew I had forgotten something. I haven't played PF in quite a while. Thank you kindly.

[Jubilant Thunder]

Sheet should be done now

 

And yeah, I can't imagine a katana weighing six pounds...

 

Money Expenditures(120gp):

Katana 50

Dagger x2 2

Studded Leather 25

Monk's Outfit 5

Dominos 1

Scrivner's Kit 2

Painting Supplies 10(? I can't seem to find anything for this so I'm just ballparking a cost)

 

Stuff she doesn't have yet but will acquire once ADVENTURE! begins to happen:

Monk's kit 8

Mess Kit 2 sp

[iantruesilver]

Painting supplies: artisan’s tools

[iantruesilver]

Assuming FCB was used in HP, and 7 skill ranks came from background skills plus skilled human trait?

 

Also, make sure you record them bonuses (like from your traits and such) in your sheet, would hate to see those being forgotten when the rolling starts.

 

Otherwise I think you’re good to go.

[Jubilant Thunder]

14 hours ago, iantruesilver said:

Assuming FCB was used in HP, and 7 skill ranks came from background skills plus skilled human trait?

 

Indeed

[iantruesilver]

On 10/2/2022 at 3:03 PM, iantruesilver said:

A quick search on Jisho gave 309 instances of various possible kanji interpretations of the romanized name Noriko, you are free to choose from any one, while noting that some of these entries are full names, and your character isn't necessarily going to be taking on some random surname of course.

@Jubilant Thunder any preference on name choice? (Apparently it’s considered weird to refer to one’s own younger sister as imouto-chan in Japanese).

Edited October 19, 2022 by iantruesilver (see edit history)

[Jubilant Thunder]

21 hours ago, iantruesilver said:

@Jubilant Thunder any preference on name choice? (Apparently it’s considered weird to refer to one’s own younger sister as imouto-chan in Japanese).

 

I think I'm misunderstanding, wouldn't the kanji be the way it was written in 'Tian'? Would it affect the way it's said?

 

Looking over the options I like this one: ノリコ , it's simple but pretty.

[iantruesilver]

30 minutes ago, Jubilant Thunder said:

 

I think I'm misunderstanding, wouldn't the kanji be the way it was written in 'Tian'? Would it affect the way it's said?

 

Looking over the options I like this one: ノリコ , it's simple but pretty.

 

Well, from how I’m understanding James Jacobs and Paizo’s intention in general is for the world of Golarion, Minkai is basically to Golarion what Japan is to Earth. And then there are a cluster of Tian states that basically are China and other parts of Asia blahblahblah.

 

So, borrowing language then, Minkaian is Japanese, Tian is Chinese.

 

But trouble is, written Japanese… is kind of historically unnecessarily convoluted.

• Kanji, is a set of characters that were borrowed from Chinese, likely from Chinese exiles from the Qin dynasty.
• Hiragana and Katagana are ethnically Japanese in origin, but from different regions of the country prior to the Edo period unification

Since then, Hiragana has received widespread favour and has become more prevalent for common use, but for some dumb reason they didn’t phase out either Kanji or Katagana (like the Koreans did when they created hangeul). Instead they kept all three scripts, and Kanji is usually mixed in with hiragana and used to relay context, while katagana is used for emphasis or to describe something that isn’t Japanese in origin (like for example coffee is コーヒー).

 

ノリコ happens to be written in katagana, so it wouldn’t really be fitting for a name for a clearly Minkaian child. If you wanted to stick with non-kanji, the hiragana would be のリこ

 

Now that said though, if you break down the name in terms of matching sounds to Kanji (because Kanji is for context), usually the break down yields “nori” and “ko”. There seems to be many kanji variations of “nori”, whereas “ko” is usually written as 子, which basically means “child”. So it just depends what you like. For example, 乃梨子 could mean “child with pear”, or 意子 could mean “child of feelings” or “child of intent”, etc.

[Jubilant Thunder]

I will defer to your judgment, as you are far more knowledgeable and passionate about the topic.

[iantruesilver]

Well, aside from those two examples above, I’ll list several more for you to select from.

 

紀子 — could mean “child to commemorate/celebrate”

規子 — could mean “model (as in model citizen)/normal child”

教子 — could mean “teachable/cultured child”

典子 — “child of ceremony”

法子 — could mean “methodical child”, or “child of Dharma (in reference to Buddhist teachings)”

永子 — “eternal/long-living child”

賀子 — “celebratory/new year’s child”

花梨子 — “child of the flowery pear tree”

雅子 — “graceful/elegant child”

恭子 — “respectful/reverent child”

曲子 — “musical child”

賢子 — “wise child”

玄子 — “mysterious child”

順子 — “docile/orderly child”

悳子 — “virtuous child”

祈子 — “child of wishes”

Edited October 20, 2022 by iantruesilver (see edit history)