equivocations | penance app

OOC Info
Name: Bri
Age: 32
Contact:

brbsoulnomming
Current Characters: none

IC Info

Name: Lan Xichen
Canon: The Untamed
Age: mid/late 30s
Appearance: here!
Canon Point: post series + CRAU
Background: Wiki link here, including the web series divergence at the bottom
CRAU: Lan Xichen spent about six months in the game

happyhearts at a hotel and casino in Wonderland. The biggest changes are that he is now aware that there are other worlds than his own, including that there are other versions and timelines of his own world. He has met people who were dead in his world, coming to the hotel from an earlier timeline, as well as people from alternate timelines where events did not occur entirely as they did in his own history. This will make him able to adjust a little more quickly to a new world, with new people, that is very different from his own.

It has also given him a little more time to try to sort out the events of his own past, after discovering how badly he had been deceived by Jin Guangyao. He had the opportunity to meet another version of both of his sworn brothers - Jin Guangyao from an earlier point in his own timeline, when he was still Meng Yao, and Nie Mingjue from another timeline entirely. His focus became on atoning for his complicity in the actions that lead to their downfalls by informing them both of what their future could be, and trying to change the outcomes of their timelines even if he could not change his own. His confidence in himself began to grow again, through this and the support of his brother and his now brother-in-law.

Around five months in, however, both versions of his sworn brothers disappeared from the hotel, and Lan Xichen was left without a purpose again. He was forced to begin to confront the fact that he had not been truly looking at moving forward, but was still fixated on trying to change the past. He has made the decision to truly begin to try to reconcile the events of the past and move on, though he still isn't sure how he's supposed to do that.

The only physical change is that Lan Xichen lost his left arm during an event at the hotel, and had a new one identical to his previous arm grafted on in its place. There's a thin band of gold around his upper bicep due to this.

Personality:

Non-judgmental: 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.
Complicity: 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. When he does find out the details of his sworn brother's betrayal, he admits that he was aware of some of the things that were going on, but he chose to trust there was a good reason for them and never looked into them more.
Compassionate: 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.
Too Trusting: His compassion directly factors into one of his biggest weaknesses. 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.
Balanced/unbalanced: 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.

However, at the end of the series, the balance that he worked so hard to achieve and seems to be so 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.

Weaknesses/Temptations: Despite everything he's gone through, Lan Xichen is still very much too trusting, particularly with people he believes he's close to. There's many things he could be swayed to do or to turn a blind eye towards if he believes the person has a good reason for wanting him to. He also still very much is someone who wants to avoid conflict, and this can lead to him not getting involved when he probably should.

Sins: Murder, pride, betrayal of a sworn brotherhood, sloth, Gusu Lan Sect rule breaking, befriending evil, attempted suicide, turning a blind eye, cowardice

Powers/Abilities:

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.

Items: his flute, sword, the clothes he's wearing, and a communication device called an Empathy from his previous game that will likely be relatively useless

SAMPLES

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