Training: Keep
Innate Ability: Deadly Accuracy: Her arrows are launched with greater velocity than normal arrows, being more likely to hit the target and do more damage.

About: Arah is an archer without peer, and her skills overshadow even the Dragon Clan archers of old - her arrows move with a speed, accuracy, and force that terrify her foes. Flying from the oversized longbow she carries, they punch through armor and bone like stabbing spears.

She traveled to this land from elsewhere, having met Kenji during his long exile. Somewhere in their shared past is a bond that links them, a blood debt or point of honor that led her to follow him home. A tall, slender woman, her manner is distant and cold, but for now she fights for the Dragon with all her heart and soul.

BATTLEGEAR Sight Beyond Sight: Arah has long since achieved the unity with her weapon that all Dragon archers pray for. When she wishes she can let an arrow become an extension of her mind through which she can sense the landscape.

Training: Keep
Innate Ability: Bracing: Garrin is immune to the height advantages of other melee units.

About: Garrin worked his way up from stable boy to cavalry general through matchless skill and tactical brilliance, and men who served under him still speak with awe at his exploits on the battlefield. Even after he became a general and strategist he still took the field alongside his men, armed with a lance and grim determination. Garrin loves to beat the odds, and his cunning and stubbornness make the difference even against taller or higher-placed foes.
 

BATTLEGEAR Call Horse: Garrin's years in the stables and on horseback have enabled him to summon wild horses at will. When he uses this skill, the nearest free horse will come running to him.

Training: Keep
Innate Ability: Fire Wielder: Huge armor bonus against fire and explosive damage.

About: Kazan is one of the four Elemental Brothers of the Serpent Clan, a monastic fighting order now scattered. Kazan the Fire Brother, however, is still very much with us, wandering the land, drinking, and lighting things on fire. In turbulent times he occasionally joins up with a traveling circus troupe, where his huge size and boisterous disposition appear less conspicuous to hostile eyes.

And in most contexts, Kazan is quite conspicuous indeed - he is a huge man, enormously fat and invariable drunk on the poisonously strong brew he carries with him in a pumpkin-sized gourd. In a fight it is usually the closest thing at hand and he swings it to deadly effect. Fires is his friend and element, and as such poses little danger to him - explosions and other fire and do little harm to his tough hide.

BATTLEGEAR Flame Breath: Kazan's beverage of choice is flammable as well as intoxicating - when provoked he'll light and spit it out, to ignite anything or anyone within reach.

Training: Keep
Innate Ability: Battle Leader: While Otomo is fighting, nearby allies slowly regain stamina.

About: When the last son of Tarrant's line died, it fell to his chief ministers to keep order in the land - of these, the most beloved by the people was Otomo. Where Shinja ruled through strength and fear, Otomo inspired loyalty and bravery in his followers through fairness, wisdom and honorable behavior.

His enemies deride him as weak and soft, but anyone who has faced him in battle knows the opposite - his very presence seems to put strength into his allies. In him, it is whispered, something of the old Dragon Clan survives.

BATTLEGEAR Battle Cry: At desperate moments, Otomo can call upon his warriors with a mighty cry, and the very sound of which causes their blows to fall with redoubled vigor.

Training: Keep
Innate Ability: none

About: This enigmatic mercenary has been observed wandering the land for at least forty years, perhaps far longer. He travels alone and simply, seldom mounted, carrying only a long staff and a small sack of rice, sleeping in barns or under the stars. He is described as tall and slender, speaking little, never giving trouble. Those foolish or desperate enough to bother him have seen that he is lightning quick on both attack and defense.

He seldom enlists in any struggle for long, and may work with Serpent as well as Dragon. He claims to serve neither yin nor yang but only a balance between them. Most mysteriously, he has ties to both monk and ninja organizations, and seems to share some of both their traits.

BATTLEGEAR Reversal of Fortune: Tao is deeply tuned to the balance of things. Anyone dealing harm to such a being will see a portion of it returned to them, for Tao stands at the center of all forces and fates.