Jai Long
| Jai Long | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Path | Path of the Stellar Spear |
| Rank | Truegold |
| Faction | Jai Clan |
| First Appearance | Soulsmith - Cradle book 2 |
| Origin | Black Flame Empire |
| Family | |
Youthful Exile
Jai Long was born with a promising future into the then-prominent Jai Clan, highly ranked in the Blackflame Empire. However, he was attacked at age 14, along with his little sister Jai Chen, only six years old. Both of the Jai siblings were injured badly. Because of his own sudden facial deformation, incurred during the same attack that injured his little sister, he was exiled to the Desolate Wilds, despite his promise and ability. Still a child, little Jai Chen went “out west” with her big brother, because he wanted to care for her and seek treatment for her.
Desolate Wilds
In the Desolate Wilds, young Jai Long found a friend and a home in Sandviper Gokren, the chief of his sect in the Desolate Wilds. For roughly eight years, the Jai siblings lived among the Sandvipers in the Wilds — a desert, with twisted black trees and numerous dreadbeasts. When opportunity arose, Jai Long and the Sandvipers sought the powerful Ancestor’s Spear in the ancient Labyrinth — the Transcendent Ruins. He was determined to care for his sister and to wreak vengeance on his unfaithful clan, especially on the Patriarch, Underlord Jai Daishou.
Age
Jai Long was 14 when he was attacked and then exiled because his face was disfigured. He is eight years older than his sister Jai Chen. By the time of book 2, Soulsmith, he might be about 22-23. By book 10, Reaper, he would probably be about 28ish.
Appearance
Jai Long is slim and wiry. He covers his face with red cloth, covered with scripts. He employs a spear.
" He resisted lifting a hand to feel the strips of cloth wrapped around his head. The cloth was red, wrapped so tightly around him that not a hair or scrap of skin was visible from the neck up. Only his eyes peeked out of the middle, and if he could have covered those up without losing his vision, he would have. " ― Soulsmith (Cradle Book 2), Location 1048
Personality
Jai Long is hardworking, thoughtful, careful, determined, protective, and loyal. He can also be driven and vengeful, yet also grateful, forgiving, and merciful. Because his Jai family proved utterly faithless and fickle, he is slow to trust and quite cynical. He is learning to forgive and trust Lindon.
Path & Injury
In his youth, Jai Long’s affinity with the Path of the Stellar Spear was second only to the clan’s Patriarch, an aged Underlord named Jai Daishou. Recognizing his potential and seeing the need to raise up a second Underlord as an heir to the aging Patriarch, Jai clan elders stalled Jai Long’s advancement at Jade until a suitable Remnant from the Path of the Stellar Spear became available. Ideally, a Jai clan elder would die and Jai Long would draw the sacred artist’s Remnant into his core, processing the power and advancing to Lowgold.
However, after an attack on the Jai head family by a group of rebels practicing a warped version of the Path of the Stellar Spear, Jai Long was forced to capture and process the twisted Remnant of a defeated rebel Lowgold to protect his sister, Jai Chen. Jai Long easily broke through to Lowgold aided by the power of the processed Remnant, but had deviated from the Path of the Stellar Spear in doing so. Jai Long was marked with a Goldsign that twisted and scarred his face and the unusual ability to imbue Forged madra with temporary life, specializing in Forged snakes.
"Imbuing Forged madra with temporary life is an advanced technique, far beyond Jai Long. He can only produce this result because he absorbed a Remnant from a Path we’ll call.. .unnatural. Jai clan elders were horrified by Jai Long’s monstrous transformation; the next clan Patriarch could not have deviated from the Path of the Stellar Spear, and his face could not be hideous. A fallen star, Jai Long and his sister were quietly shipped away to the Desolate Wilds to support one of the Jai clan’s oldest allies, the Sandviper sect, where they could benefit the clan without bringing further shame. " ― Eithan Arelius, Blackflame Cradle Book 3, Location 1791
