Ray Donau, one of the main characters in Tales of Three Countries (still just a working title).

Ray just so happens to not be any of the four species, but from a fifth that may as well be on the brink of extinction. The gepari.

Backstory time!:

When Ray was little, so was life quite easy. He was taught to hunt and fishishing, he always helped his mother whenever she needed it, and he always trains himself at night in case any monsters would attack.

All was peaceful in the village, but one time he and his mother had to leave the village to buy some food that was hard to find around.

Ray grew amazed by all the villages they traveled through and seeing all the different kinds of people. But the two of them never foundnd what they were looking for until they came to a big town where there was plenty of the nice meat that his people required.

The towns mayor, who was a very ambitious shindoun, wanted to become a Daimyo so that he could take over all the territories around him.

The only bad thing about him was that he was a lazy slob, and that he's too greedy to share.

Ray and his mother couldn't go home empty handed, but then they met a young female shindoun at around Ray's age who calls herself a vagabound due to her being exciled.

She promised to help them and together she and Ray made a plan to steal all the meat from the mayor and make a fool of him.

So they did. The mayor was taking all the meat on his wagon just to show off his wealth to the people until suddenly, Ray and the vagabound came in masked and showed down the mayor down to the dirt and rode off with the meat.

Coincidentally so did their heist cause the high priest Rocky Di to officially make people to make him the leader of the town and throw the greedy and corrupt mayor in jail.

Ray, his mother and the vagabond came home to the Gepari village so did they have a feast and party since the village was pretty much starving without them.

Of course the vagabond asked where they will get the meat next time their supplies runs out.

Rays mom told her that they needed the meat only because the wildlife they usually hunt haven't come back from their migration, which she admitted was strange.

Ray and the vagabond decided to get to know eachothers better by sparring each others. Ray didn't know it yet, but that vagabond was Tengen Luka, his upcoming rival later down his life.

Some years passed, it was a long time since he last saw the vagabond. And during a hunt so was he distracted by the thoughts of her that he didn't do good in the hunt.

After his failed attempt at hunting so did he smell fire and smoke in the air and became scared and furious of what he saw.

His village was burning to the ground.

Whoever was behind this must pay, but first he had to find his mom.

But wherever he looked, he only found dead bodies. Either they were cut up by sharp weapons, or burned to death.

He then found his mother's dead body and a tall warrior in a dark armour.

Ray grasped his polearm and charged at the warrior, but the warrior seemed to have more experience when it comes to fighting and trashed the young gepar.

In the next day so did Ray find that he survived the battle, but was weakened. The look of his now destroyed village and all the dead crushed his soul, especially his mother.

Suddenly he heard someone.

He looked up to see a female shindoun with a muscular body, and a beautiful ponytail. He was unsure if she was supposed to be an angel or the reaper coming for his soul.

The woman picked up and told him that she was only a mere mortal daimyo and laughed.

Ray didn't know how to respond. There was this woman who laughed in his burned down village. It just didn't feel right to laugh at this time.

The daimyo grew worried about him and had her men take him to a doctor.

After the visit so did the daimyo tell him that her name was Maru Kalin of the Maru clan and that since after the empress's death, she has tried to unite the country in a more peaceful manner, but considering the situation so did she have to go to war against other daimyos for the title of empress.

She then apologised to Ray, telling him that a rivaling daimyo must have burned down the village just because it was in her region and that she wished she could have been of more help to them.

Ray then told her that he wants to join her army since he has no other reason to live.

He was accepted and during his years in training he grew to see Kalin as a second mother, but he still promised his dead mother that he would avenge her.

He also grew to be an aquintance of Hattori Kenzai, Kalin's trustworthy ninja who gathered information and occasionally helped her lead her army (even though he himself thinks Kalin already does a good enough job of it). But more of him another time.

As the probably last of his specie so does he meet up with prejudice. He does think it's bad that he's (as far as he knows) the last of his kind, but he doesn't want that to get in the way of him performing his duty.

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Ray Donau and Tales of Three Countries (c) C-L (that is to say, me)