happy hearts info

[equivocations]

Lán Huàn | Xīchén | Zéwú-jūn
There wasn't a clear line between right and wrong

BASICS

CANON. The Untamed.
CANON POINT. Post episode 50
AGE. mid/late 30s
APPEARANCE. here!

IN CHARACTER

HISTORY. Lan Xichen was born to the leader of the Gusu Lan Sect. His interactions with his parents were limited, as his mother was imprisoned to her room after killing someone and his father had secluded himself for loving and marrying her anyway. He was raised primarily by his uncle, especially after his parents' deaths, and became the Gusu Lan Sect leader at a fairly young age. Like other Lan clan leaders before him, he was aware of the piece of Yin Iron, a powerful artifact with strong resentful energy, sealed in the back mountain of Cloud Recesses, and kept it secret to protect it.

Young disciples from other clans came to take classes from the Lan clan, and it was during one of these that suspicions rose that the Wen clan was seeking the Yin Iron. It was revealed that the leader of the Wen clan already had two pieces of the Yin Iron, and was using them to raise to ultimate power over the other clans.

Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen's brother, was sent with their Yin Iron to locate the missing piece before the Wen could find it. Lan Xichen encouraged him to take Wei Wuxian, a young disciple from the Jiang clan who had also become aware of the Yin Iron.

When Lan Xichen refused to hand over the Yin Iron to the Wen, Cloud Recesses was attacked, forcing Lan Xichen into hiding. During this time, he ran into Meng Yao, the former assistant to the Nie clan and illegitimate son of the Jin clan leader, and Meng Yao helped him survive. The two became close friends, and Meng Yao volunteered to pretend to defect to the Wen clan and become close to the clan leader to obtain secrets for them.

Lan Xichen kept this secret to protect him when he rejoined the clans to help lead the Sunshot Campaign against the Wen, refusing to reveal the source of their information to even his good friend Nie Mingjue. They triumphed over the Wen clan, and Meng Yao himself killed the Wen clan leader. Meng Yao was finally claimed by his father, and became Jin Guangyao. Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao, and Lan Xichen became sworn brothers, despite Nie Mingjue's misgivings.

Most of the clans had suffered heavy losses during the Sunshot Campaign, and rebuilding was difficult - made more complicated by the fact that Wei Wuxian had used something that closely resembled the Yin Iron during the Sunshot Campaign to help them win. As time went on, he fell from war hero to dangerous rebel, especially when he defected from the Jiang clan to protect the remnants of the Wen clan. By this time, Lan Xichen was well aware of the fact that Lan Wangji was close with Wei Wuxian, and tensions around what to do about Wei Wuxian rose. They broke eventually through a series of events that included the deaths of the Jin clan heir, the Wen clan remnants, Wei Wuxian, and his sister, and Lan Wangji entering seclusion.

Sixteen years passed by in relative peace. Lan Wangji came out of seclusion, Jin Guangyao rose to become the Jin clan leader after the death of his father, and Nie Mingjue succumbed to qi deviation and his body was never recovered.

Then Wei Wuxian came back.

It was ultimately discovered that his return was orchestrated with the purpose of revealing who Nie Mingjue's killer was - and who was in fact responsible for the most severe of crimes that Wei Wuxian had been accused of. Although Lan Xichen initially refused to believe it, it was Jin Guangyao who was behind it all, acting first on behalf of his father and then to keep his position and power. They had a final confrontation in a temple where Nie Mingjue's ferocious ghost came to take revenge.

Jin Guangyao was left severely injured by the time it was subdued, and although Lan Xichen was working to heal him, when he turned his back and Nie Mingjue's younger brother warned him that Jin Guangyao was about to attack, he didn't hesitate to stab him. Jin Guangyao insisted that he would have never harmed Lan Xichen and that it was a trick, and then promptly rewoke the resentful energy and caused the temple to start to fall down around them. He asked Lan Xichen to stay and die with him, but when Lan Xichen agreed, he pushed him out of the temple, saving Lan Xichen's life and sacrificing his own.

PERSONALITY. For the majority of the series, what most describes Lan Xichen is balanced. He walks the balance between his clan's strict disciplines and being friendly and approachable, between navigating the political atmosphere of the clans and his own values, between his steadfast belief that everyone should be treated well and practical acknowledgement of the world they live in, even between his love for his brother (and by extension, support of Wei Wuxian) and his duty to their clan.

It's something that he had to learn fairly early on - Lan Xichen himself says that he once thought that if he read everything in his clan's extensive library and disciplines, he would know the truth of the world, but had to realize there there was no clear line between right and wrong. He firmly believes that people can't be easily judged by what may be misconceptions.

He is respectful to just about everyone we see him interact with, regardless of their background - Meng Yao is the largest example, but he spoke up on behalf of the Wen clan right after the end of the Sunshot Campaign as well, and didn't hesitate to harbor Wei Wuxian when he became aware of his return, giving him the benefit of the doubt to prove the accusations he was making.

At the same time, he isn't unaware of the political environmental he lives in. After the Wen massacre that destroys much of his home and wipes out many of his clan's disciples, he is well aware that the position he's in means he must make compromises. He is polite and reasonable when he voices a dissenting opinion, and there are times when he stands his ground enough that he receives concessions, but there are also many times when he stays silent despite it appearing that he doesn't completely agree.

More than anything else, Lan Xichen is kind. He cares very deeply, about his clan, his younger brother, and his sworn brothers in particular. He is somewhat more willing to discuss emotions and process through things than most of the people around him seem to be, although he'll often do so merely by inviting the topic and very gently being reluctant to back down from it. He can also be extremely devoted to those he cares for - it seems to be somewhat of a Lan tradition for them to stand by the people they love, and he's no exception. The biggest example of this is, of course, the fact that even after learning about everything that Jin Guangyao did, he still wanted to try to heal him, and he was still willing to die with him.

At the end of the series, the balance that he worked so hard to achieve and seems to be confident in is virtually shattered. His discovery of his sworn brother's betrayal, of the fact that Lan Xichen not only hadn't noticed exactly what Jin Guangyao was capable of but that he was complicit in his actions threw off his perception of the world so badly that he is rocked to his very core. It casts doubts into his ability to do, well, just about anything, and it's not something he's likely to recover from quickly.

ABILITIES

STRENGTHS.

Swordsmanship: like all members of his clan, Lan Xichen is an expert swordsman. His sword is Shuoyue and it can be an extension of his spiritual power, enabling him to do things like send it from its sheath to stab someone and call it back, as well as giving him the ability to utilize the sword to fly.

Archery: although we don't see Lan Xichen use this much (if at all), like all members of his clan he was trained in archery and has placed among the top four in an archery competition when he was younger.

Magical music: he is a skilled musician with both a guqin and a xiao, and his clan is known for their musical techniques. His spiritual tool is a xiao named Liebing, and with it and his spiritual abilities he can play music to do things like vanquishing evil, calming minds, cleansing, putting spirits to rest, and even removing swords from peoples hands. On the other end, he also knows some musical compositions that can disrupt spiritual energy, unsettle the mind, and even kill. He's only shown playing this type of music once, to test it on himself, and it's highly unlikely for him to use it.

Magical seals: Xichen is also capable of using his spiritual energy to seal places, and set magical locks and wards. The level of this can vary to keeping people locked out, such as in the case of the sealed hidden entrance in the Library Pavillion, to keeping people from listening in either physically or magically, such as when he sets a ward to protect a secret conversation.

Golden core cultivation: this is ultimately the root of all his other powers. This is his spiritual energy, what he draws on for all of his other abilities and what he accesses to utilize magical talismans - whether drawn on paper or in the air - or heal others with his own energy.

WEAKNESSES.

Golden core cultivation: as this is ultimately the root of all his other powers, if he no longer has access to it, he's no longer able to access most of his abilities. His spiritual energy can be sealed to render him powerless.

Trusting: Lan Xichen wants to believe in the good in people, and is almost always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. This has, of course, absolutely been taken advantage of in the past.

OPT-IN. YES

ITEMS

CLOTHES. here!

ITEMS / PETS. Liebing

WEAPONS. Shuoyue

SAMPLES

LOG. Sample Link 1, Sample Link 2.
NETWORK. Sample Link


NAME. Bri TZ. PST AGE. over 18 CONTACT. brbsoulnomming