A Modest Proposal: Shen's Lore Update (Part 2 of 4)

**Quick Primer ** As much as I hate them, I think he needs a major story overhaul. We're going rebuild this guy from the ground up but we're not going to decimate his foundations. There some interesting ideas that are salvageable hidden in the mess that is Shen. I'm guessing Shen players like him for his disjointed kit and general tone than for his weak/non-existent lore. I say we should embrace the hodgepodge core of Shen. Perhaps his gameplay can remain and given a spit shine if we allow the lore to give it reason to be.
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New Lore: Those who sought the wellbeing of their people understood peace and hardship were both necessary. Too much peace and order leads to weakness and complacency. However, too much chaos and hardship erodes at you, eventually breaking you. It is the reed which is strongly rooted but bends with the torrent that survives the storm. A balance must be maintained. Light and dark, order and chaos in equal measure. And thus the Kinkou Order was formed to ensure that balance.

Shen is a member of the Kinkou order. Though young he was gifted with Sight and taken and taught the Way. He abandoned his father's school and teachings that he might become a Seer: the Eye that sees the nature of balance. He sits and watches, deciphering the portents and visions of people or events that may sway the balance too far.

Shen would sit in meditation, opening his mind to the Way. Most often he would receive visions of the mundane: a rabbit and snake as sparing rivals or a grey waystone cracking with age meant the impending death within the Order. Very rarely would a seer see major shifts in balance: such as the dark sea that drowned an entire nation as the seers saw long ago. Mostly, visions were vague at best or so petty they seemed to reconcile themselves despite the Order's actions. But Shen's duty to the order was absolute. He spent innumerable hours in meditation each day.

Shen sat and considered a reoccurring dream of a broken sword forged in of furnace of wind. He wondered if it could be made whole or even if it should. As he mused, he began to notice that the sky above him had changed. What once was pleasant sunshine now burned his skin. Grass and plants around him began to wither and blacken in the scorching rays. And just as quickly, salvation came as the sun darkened, hidden behind as the moon eclipsed. Granting soothing shade. Shen looked up at the solar eclipse; it was beautiful and emanated dark brooding power. As he stared, the moon, too, began to change. It's somber silver and greys gave way to a deep red. A blood moon. And it stayed. Day and night it hung above the sky never setting, never ending.

He awoke from his dream in cold sweat. A blood moon? An eternal blood moon must mean a world shattering omen. Shen rushed to tell the Order. To his dismay those that believed him saw it as a sign of the Way finally being achieved.

"Permanent balance! No waxing and waning. No light and dark. No order. No chaos. These things will finally become one."

"But how could that possibly be the Way. The natural way of things is to change. To push and pull. To live and die. Harmony is motion. Not a stand still."

But dishearteningly still, more of the Elders didn't believe or they called for caution and patience. If they weren't calling him a child, they were saying he was a liar.

Shen thought him self alone, but as he was silenced and dismissed, one elder stood to escort him out, the Waystone.

"Shen, you are young and brash but undoubtedly gifted. I believe your Sight and I believe you are correct. That perhaps all of Valoran is in danger. Here in Ionia, the Kinkou live in relative peace and we have grown stagnant in that luxury. We work with Ionian leaders out in the open to avoid bloodshed. Our names are known and we make appeals in courtyards in broad daylight. Though our stature has grown our true power is diminished. What you said was true. 'Harmony is motion.' And the Kinkou has grown silent in their stillness.

The Order was not always like this. The Kinkou worked in secret as the common man could not be expected to understand the need for both order and chaos. The Order grew slowly but surely as those that understood were found and taught the Way Between. We were shadows in the daylight and stars in the night sky. Working our influence and tempering both extremes to the Way Between. Disciples traveled the world to spread the Way to other nations in hope that Balance might find all people. Schools and temples were made in nearly every nation but those that were not so secret were destroyed or corrupted. Others merely faded as balance tipped against their favor. But some, some lay dormant waiting to be awoken.

I remember reading of one such school that sleeps in the Twilight. A faction of the Kinkou fell between the Sun and the Moon. It is likely only there will you find clarity to this vision. I suspect that it is somewhere in the gargantuan mountain range of Valoran. It is many a span of sea and land but You should try to find it. In the shadow of those mountains you might lead the Kinkou back to the old way and perhaps avert certain disaster. Come Shen, I have a map I would give you. It is older than I by decades and mayhap less than accurate. But it shows the suspected locations of similar forgotten sects of the Kinkou. They should provide safety and rest even if they remain defunct."
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Okay that was much longer lore than I was planning to write but you get the idea for his setup, right? Eventually, he'll try and get permission to go from the main order but be denied with prejudice. His gift, his sight, if too important for a fool’s errand. He'll have to sneak off on his own to try thwart Fate.

** TLDR:** Shen is the Eye of Twilight: A renounced wandering world traveler seeking the forgotten temples and sects of his former Order. Picking up new skills and items as he discovers them and putting use to old forgotten teachings. Possibly to become a hidden insurgent/agitator within Mt. Targon while trying to reawaken the Kinkou order. Ultimately to prevent a shift in balance that could threaten the world (if what he believes is correct). Perhaps, he'll eventually confront his old school and masters that they be brought back to The Way, one way or another. DUN DUN DUN!

The Nature of Ninjas & Shen: An Overview (Part 1 of 4) A Modest Proposal: Shen's Lore Update (Part 2 of 4) A Modest Proposal: Shen's Lore/Visual Update (Part 3 of 4) A Modest Proposal: Shen's Gameplay Update (Part 4 of 4)