Character Name: Daniel "Danny" Rand-Kai A.K.A. The Immortal Iron Fist
Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Hero
Character Speech Color and Font (actually say what it is, like Blue Comic Sans): Sea Green Arial
Character Origin/Major Events:
Why this character?
I've always liked Iron Fist and even though I never seem to get to use him for very long in any RPs I want to try for a new take on the character that combines elements of both older and newer versions of Danny with some of the styling and conventions of the Wuxia stories, martial arts films and bits of various east asian folklores and mythologies that originally inspired the character.
What can you bring to the RPG?
A pretty wide range from initial street-level crime fighting potentially up all the way through to cosmic levels as Danny learns more about The Chi of Shou-Lao and what it means to be an Iron Fist and Immortal Weapon, with additional layers of a semi-hidden world of secret traditions and mystical martial arts. Also maybe potential team-ups with heroes both in and out of New York City if anyone's interested.
Provide a short sample post as your desired character, in three paragraphs or more and featuring at least one line of dialogue:
Alignment (Hero, Villain, Walking the Line): Hero
Character Speech Color and Font (actually say what it is, like Blue Comic Sans): Sea Green Arial
Powers and Abilities:
Martial Arts-First and foremost Daniel Rand-Kai is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, taught by masters with an immortal lifetime of experience with methods that would seem impossible to ordinary men. He is a master of all of the martial arts of K'un-Lun and many of the martial arts of Earth, including styles of fighting that have been unknown to most mortals for thousands of years. More mundanely he is a master of Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Aikido, all forms of Shaolin Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Boxing and even informal street-fighting techniques. He has complete mastery of nearly all martial arts weaponry and weapon styles, and is skilled enough at pressure point techniques to effectively use them against superhuman opponents and even beings whose physiology is completely inhuman.
Chi Manipulation and Augmentation-Thanks to his training in K'un-Lun, Danny is able to manipulate his chi to enhance his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, endurance, agility and senses to superhuman levels, although doing this usually takes some concentration and leaves him greatly drained afterward.
Chi of Shou-Lao-Thanks to plunging his fists into the molten heart of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny can call upon the dragon's immense and powerful chi and focus it into his fist. While this is primarily used for his signature Iron Fist ability, Danny has occasionally been able to utilize the Chi of Shou-Lao to heal himself and others in times of great desperation and it may have other functions as well, unknown to him. Danny's main usage is focusing the Chi of Shou Lao into his hands in order to make them practically invulnerable and capable of striking with massive concussive force. Although "Becoming like a thing of Iron" is how it was phrased in ancient K'un-Lun, the Iron Fist technique is capable of easily shattering or shredding through iron, steel and much harder and denser substances with relative ease. What's more, Danny can focus more of Shou-Lao's chi into his fists for stronger strikes and has yet to reach his maximum power with the Iron Fist.
Meditation and Body Control-Thanks to meditative exercises learned in K'un-Lun Danny is able to exercise complete mastery over his body, enabling him to control his breathing and heartbeat well enough to slow them to a state indistinguishable from death, deaden himself to all pain, greatly slow the effects of drugs and toxins on his body, go days without sleep and adapt himself to a wide variety of environments with relative ease.
Peak-Human conditioning-Danny's incredibly intensive training in K'un-Lun means that his body is trained and conditioned to the peak potential of an unassisted human, making him just short of a Steve Rogers-level of physically fit even without the use of his chi.
Acrobatics-As part of his training in K'un-Lun, Danny was honed into a highly skilled acrobat, enabling him to maneuver through environments as diverse as the mountainous slopes outside K'un-Lun, the twisted jungles of the H'ylthri and the urban sprawl of New York city with equal ease, speed and grace.
Stealth-Though not as skilled as some, Danny's mastery of ninjutsu includes training in the arts of concealment, deception and stealth.
Multi-Lingual-Danny is fluent in numerous languages and dialects used throughout China, as well as American English and Japanese.
Some Knowledge of the Occult-For someone who professes to totally lack any interest in or aptitude for magic Daniel Rand-Kai possesses a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the mystic arts, supernatural lore and arcane secrets mankind is typically not meant to know. However, Danny himself will swear-up-and-down that he's hardly an expert in such matters, instead insisting that growing up in the high society of K'un-Lun necessitates a basic understanding of such things.
Martial Arts-First and foremost Daniel Rand-Kai is one of the greatest martial artists on Earth, taught by masters with an immortal lifetime of experience with methods that would seem impossible to ordinary men. He is a master of all of the martial arts of K'un-Lun and many of the martial arts of Earth, including styles of fighting that have been unknown to most mortals for thousands of years. More mundanely he is a master of Ninjutsu, Jujitsu, Aikido, all forms of Shaolin Kung Fu, Karate, Judo, Boxing and even informal street-fighting techniques. He has complete mastery of nearly all martial arts weaponry and weapon styles, and is skilled enough at pressure point techniques to effectively use them against superhuman opponents and even beings whose physiology is completely inhuman.
Chi Manipulation and Augmentation-Thanks to his training in K'un-Lun, Danny is able to manipulate his chi to enhance his strength, speed, reflexes, durability, endurance, agility and senses to superhuman levels, although doing this usually takes some concentration and leaves him greatly drained afterward.
Chi of Shou-Lao-Thanks to plunging his fists into the molten heart of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, Danny can call upon the dragon's immense and powerful chi and focus it into his fist. While this is primarily used for his signature Iron Fist ability, Danny has occasionally been able to utilize the Chi of Shou-Lao to heal himself and others in times of great desperation and it may have other functions as well, unknown to him. Danny's main usage is focusing the Chi of Shou Lao into his hands in order to make them practically invulnerable and capable of striking with massive concussive force. Although "Becoming like a thing of Iron" is how it was phrased in ancient K'un-Lun, the Iron Fist technique is capable of easily shattering or shredding through iron, steel and much harder and denser substances with relative ease. What's more, Danny can focus more of Shou-Lao's chi into his fists for stronger strikes and has yet to reach his maximum power with the Iron Fist.
Meditation and Body Control-Thanks to meditative exercises learned in K'un-Lun Danny is able to exercise complete mastery over his body, enabling him to control his breathing and heartbeat well enough to slow them to a state indistinguishable from death, deaden himself to all pain, greatly slow the effects of drugs and toxins on his body, go days without sleep and adapt himself to a wide variety of environments with relative ease.
Peak-Human conditioning-Danny's incredibly intensive training in K'un-Lun means that his body is trained and conditioned to the peak potential of an unassisted human, making him just short of a Steve Rogers-level of physically fit even without the use of his chi.
Acrobatics-As part of his training in K'un-Lun, Danny was honed into a highly skilled acrobat, enabling him to maneuver through environments as diverse as the mountainous slopes outside K'un-Lun, the twisted jungles of the H'ylthri and the urban sprawl of New York city with equal ease, speed and grace.
Stealth-Though not as skilled as some, Danny's mastery of ninjutsu includes training in the arts of concealment, deception and stealth.
Multi-Lingual-Danny is fluent in numerous languages and dialects used throughout China, as well as American English and Japanese.
Some Knowledge of the Occult-For someone who professes to totally lack any interest in or aptitude for magic Daniel Rand-Kai possesses a surprising amount of knowledge regarding the mystic arts, supernatural lore and arcane secrets mankind is typically not meant to know. However, Danny himself will swear-up-and-down that he's hardly an expert in such matters, instead insisting that growing up in the high society of K'un-Lun necessitates a basic understanding of such things.
Character Origin/Major Events:
1993-2003: Death of a Family
In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand-Kai, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned ten years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun. Meachum betrayed the Rand family, pushing Wendell off a cliff and abandoning Heather and Danny to die on the icy mountain slopes they were journeying through when they wouldn't join him in his hostile takeover of Wendell's former life. The two wandered lost through the mountains, stalked by wolves and weakened by cold and starvation. Eventually the wolves struck, and as Heather sacrificed herself to give Danny a few brief moments more to run the last thing he saw before collapsing in exhaustion was a set of shining, golden gates burning through a haze of snow.
When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, as he happened to arrive during the once-every-decade period when K'un-Lun intersects directly with the mortal plane. As an apology for failing to save Danny's mother as well, they offered to grant him any one request. It barely took Danny Rand any time at all to ask them to teach him everything they could about combat. Thus, while the world mourned the death of one of New York's most high profile philanthropists and his family, Danny Rand began his apprenticeship under Lei Kung The Thunderer.
2003-2013: Birth of an Iron Fist
The Thunderer's training was brutal if also enlightening, designed to hone mind, body and spirit into a weapon forged with an immortal lifetime of experience. Danny's fellow students made his life no easier as he was constantly isolated, mocked and attacked due to his foreign heritage and status as an outworlder. But Danny persisted, the desire for revenge on Harold Meachum lending an angry fire to his efforts that no amount of guidance from his mentors or torment from his peers could extinguish. All the while Danny and the other trainees were told stories of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, how he eternally guards K'un-Lun, his still beating heart magically separated from his body and placed inside an enchanted brazier that forced it to beat so that he would never die. They were also told that once in each generation a worthy warrior would be chosen from among trainees like them to face Shou-Lao and attempt to claim the Dragon's power as their own to become the Iron Fist, Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun. Danny desired this above all else, both to prove himself to those who mocked him and to better exact his revenge against Harold Meachum.
It took ten long years of nearly endless training, but finally the day arrived when a warrior would be chosen to face Shou-Lao the Undying. To the surprise of nearly everyone but himself and Lei Kung, Danny managed to defeat every other challenger and earn the right to face the Dragon. When the time came Danny entered Shou-Lao's mountaintop cave and fought the massive dragon with his bare hands. It was a grueling fight, but in the end Danny was able to grapple with Shou-Lao and cover the still-gaping chest wound which tied the great serpent to its' still beating heart with his own body. The heat of the beast's fiery blood was so intense that it branded the dragon-shaped wound of Shou-Lao into Danny's chest, but in the end he held on long enough to subdue Shou-Lao. With that done Danny plunged his fists into the Undying dragon's molten, still beating heart again and again, until it truly died. The process infused Danny with the dragon's powerful chi and enabled him to channel it through his fists. Thus The Immortal Iron Fist was born!
2013-2014: Iron Fist, Wanted Man!
Afterward it was revealed to Danny that his coming to K'un-Lun was no accident, in fact his father Wendell was the brother of the Immortal lord Yu-ti and Danny was K'un-Lun royalty. The Yu-Ti offered Danny the chance to live forever in K'un-Lun as an immortal and a prince, but he rejected life in paradise, instead returning to the mortal world to seek revenge on Harold Meachum. He was able to track Meachum down to the Rand Tower in New York and fight past innumerable traps and bodyguards, only to find Harold Meachum a broken shell of a man not only confined to a wheelchair after losing both of his legs but already driven to insanity by guilt for his past crimes. However, before Danny could decide what to do, Meachum was killed by a mysterious assailant dressed as a ninja and Iron Fist was framed as Meachum's murderer. Danny found himself at the center of a nationwide manhunt after murdering the well known billionaire. Worse yet, Harold Meachum's daughter Joy put a sizable bounty on his head and he had no real civilian identity to hide behind. Danny spent the majority of his time alternately avoiding the police, fighting bounty hunters and misinformed superheroes alike, and desperately searching for the ninja to clear his name. He eventually found out that The Ninja was a vengeful wraith of a warrior and assassin who had once fought against K'un-Lun. He had been raised from the dead by an unknown master and framed Danny to try and destroy him and leave the Eternal City defenseless. However in their final confrontation the increasingly unstable Ghost Ninja ended up gleefully confessing all of this in front of a rather large crowd during their rather flashy battle and as a result Iron Fist was cleared of all charges with minimal difficulty.
2014-present: A New Life
With help from a penitent Joy Meachum, Daniel Rand was able to prove his identity as the boy who vanished into the mountains many years ago and take back his father's company, though he was mainly put in charge of public relations and Rand Incorporated's numerous charitable organizations. With vengeance long out of his reach Iron Fist decided to put his training to good use instead, becoming one of New York's many street-level heroes, though his duties as the Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun also bound him to a world of martial arts and mysticism. Now Daniel Rand-Kai is living a new life with new friends and new enemies, all while serving as a bridge for two very different worlds.
In 1988 Danny Rand-Kai was born to Heather Duncan Rand and businessman Wendell Rand-Kai, CEO of Rand-Meachum Inc. Danny's childhood was about as uneventful as the son of a billionaire's could be until the year he turned ten years old, when his father decided to take Danny, Heather and his business partner Harold Meachum with him in search of the mythical city of K'un-Lun. Meachum betrayed the Rand family, pushing Wendell off a cliff and abandoning Heather and Danny to die on the icy mountain slopes they were journeying through when they wouldn't join him in his hostile takeover of Wendell's former life. The two wandered lost through the mountains, stalked by wolves and weakened by cold and starvation. Eventually the wolves struck, and as Heather sacrificed herself to give Danny a few brief moments more to run the last thing he saw before collapsing in exhaustion was a set of shining, golden gates burning through a haze of snow.
When Daniel Rand next awoke, it was within the walls of the Eternal City of K'un-Lun. Its Immortal rulers had rescued him and taken him in, as he happened to arrive during the once-every-decade period when K'un-Lun intersects directly with the mortal plane. As an apology for failing to save Danny's mother as well, they offered to grant him any one request. It barely took Danny Rand any time at all to ask them to teach him everything they could about combat. Thus, while the world mourned the death of one of New York's most high profile philanthropists and his family, Danny Rand began his apprenticeship under Lei Kung The Thunderer.
2003-2013: Birth of an Iron Fist
The Thunderer's training was brutal if also enlightening, designed to hone mind, body and spirit into a weapon forged with an immortal lifetime of experience. Danny's fellow students made his life no easier as he was constantly isolated, mocked and attacked due to his foreign heritage and status as an outworlder. But Danny persisted, the desire for revenge on Harold Meachum lending an angry fire to his efforts that no amount of guidance from his mentors or torment from his peers could extinguish. All the while Danny and the other trainees were told stories of the legendary dragon Shou-Lao the Undying, how he eternally guards K'un-Lun, his still beating heart magically separated from his body and placed inside an enchanted brazier that forced it to beat so that he would never die. They were also told that once in each generation a worthy warrior would be chosen from among trainees like them to face Shou-Lao and attempt to claim the Dragon's power as their own to become the Iron Fist, Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun. Danny desired this above all else, both to prove himself to those who mocked him and to better exact his revenge against Harold Meachum.
It took ten long years of nearly endless training, but finally the day arrived when a warrior would be chosen to face Shou-Lao the Undying. To the surprise of nearly everyone but himself and Lei Kung, Danny managed to defeat every other challenger and earn the right to face the Dragon. When the time came Danny entered Shou-Lao's mountaintop cave and fought the massive dragon with his bare hands. It was a grueling fight, but in the end Danny was able to grapple with Shou-Lao and cover the still-gaping chest wound which tied the great serpent to its' still beating heart with his own body. The heat of the beast's fiery blood was so intense that it branded the dragon-shaped wound of Shou-Lao into Danny's chest, but in the end he held on long enough to subdue Shou-Lao. With that done Danny plunged his fists into the Undying dragon's molten, still beating heart again and again, until it truly died. The process infused Danny with the dragon's powerful chi and enabled him to channel it through his fists. Thus The Immortal Iron Fist was born!
2013-2014: Iron Fist, Wanted Man!
Afterward it was revealed to Danny that his coming to K'un-Lun was no accident, in fact his father Wendell was the brother of the Immortal lord Yu-ti and Danny was K'un-Lun royalty. The Yu-Ti offered Danny the chance to live forever in K'un-Lun as an immortal and a prince, but he rejected life in paradise, instead returning to the mortal world to seek revenge on Harold Meachum. He was able to track Meachum down to the Rand Tower in New York and fight past innumerable traps and bodyguards, only to find Harold Meachum a broken shell of a man not only confined to a wheelchair after losing both of his legs but already driven to insanity by guilt for his past crimes. However, before Danny could decide what to do, Meachum was killed by a mysterious assailant dressed as a ninja and Iron Fist was framed as Meachum's murderer. Danny found himself at the center of a nationwide manhunt after murdering the well known billionaire. Worse yet, Harold Meachum's daughter Joy put a sizable bounty on his head and he had no real civilian identity to hide behind. Danny spent the majority of his time alternately avoiding the police, fighting bounty hunters and misinformed superheroes alike, and desperately searching for the ninja to clear his name. He eventually found out that The Ninja was a vengeful wraith of a warrior and assassin who had once fought against K'un-Lun. He had been raised from the dead by an unknown master and framed Danny to try and destroy him and leave the Eternal City defenseless. However in their final confrontation the increasingly unstable Ghost Ninja ended up gleefully confessing all of this in front of a rather large crowd during their rather flashy battle and as a result Iron Fist was cleared of all charges with minimal difficulty.
2014-present: A New Life
With help from a penitent Joy Meachum, Daniel Rand was able to prove his identity as the boy who vanished into the mountains many years ago and take back his father's company, though he was mainly put in charge of public relations and Rand Incorporated's numerous charitable organizations. With vengeance long out of his reach Iron Fist decided to put his training to good use instead, becoming one of New York's many street-level heroes, though his duties as the Immortal Weapon of K'un-Lun also bound him to a world of martial arts and mysticism. Now Daniel Rand-Kai is living a new life with new friends and new enemies, all while serving as a bridge for two very different worlds.
Why this character?
I've always liked Iron Fist and even though I never seem to get to use him for very long in any RPs I want to try for a new take on the character that combines elements of both older and newer versions of Danny with some of the styling and conventions of the Wuxia stories, martial arts films and bits of various east asian folklores and mythologies that originally inspired the character.
What can you bring to the RPG?
A pretty wide range from initial street-level crime fighting potentially up all the way through to cosmic levels as Danny learns more about The Chi of Shou-Lao and what it means to be an Iron Fist and Immortal Weapon, with additional layers of a semi-hidden world of secret traditions and mystical martial arts. Also maybe potential team-ups with heroes both in and out of New York City if anyone's interested.
Provide a short sample post as your desired character, in three paragraphs or more and featuring at least one line of dialogue:
The muted rustle of a curtain drawn aside should have been drowned out easily in the casual tumult of pre-dawn New York City. Compared to that the slight puff of the blowgun that followed was less than a whisper.
So it was with a certain amount of shock that Danny Rand-Kai awoke, clutching a needle-tipped dart just inches from his own face.
With his mind and body both running on full alert he could smell the poison that coated the dart. An extract of the Flower of Ten Dreams, a plant found only in the heavenly gardens of K'un-L'un. Ingested in even the tiniest amount it was a potent sleep-aid, and said to be a gateway for prophetic dreams, but in a dose this large straight to his circulatory system the victim would be wrapped in seemingly endless nightmares before dying in their sleep.
The next thing he noticed was the nature of his would-be assassin. A bestial, silver-furred creature crouched by a window of Danny's penthouse apartment, the blowgun discarded at its clawed, canine feet. But the eyes of the creature were what caught Danny's attention. They were the same eyes he saw in the mountains of K'un-Lun more than ten years ago as wolves devoured his mother.
"So yaoguai, who dares to make a demon of my past and send it to attack a K'un-L'un warrior with poison in the night?"
The wolf spirit's only answer was to pounce through the air, clawed hands lashing out to tear Danny to pieces faster than any ordinary man could react.
But not faster than an Immortal Weapon. As The demon's claws were rending through the bed's headboard Danny had already vaulted to the side and lashed out with a sidekick that sent the monster sprawling onto the floor.
As the demon rose and faced him across the bed Danny was already reaching deep within himself for the source of his power, the burning inner energy that was the Chi of Shou-Lao. As the soul of the dragon flowed into him he directed it into his fist, the pure fiery power filling it until it began to glow...
...to smolder...
...to burn...
and became, as they said in ancient K'un-Lun, like a thing of iron.
"So, care to see how a wolf does against a dragon?"
The voice that answered him was mangled and growling.
"My Master will see you dead, Iron Fist. You cannot hide your scent, you cannot hide yourself. I will have your throat...another day." Before Danny could react, the wolf-demon was already fading with the night like a frigid mountain mist.
This...raised some uncomfortable problems. Someone had access to a plant not found outside the Eternal City of K'un-L'un and enough dark sorcery to create a yaoguai. Worse yet it was someone who knew his identity down to the intimate details given their choice of assassin.
"Well, now that I'm up, guess I might as well get some breakfast!"
After all, this was still just another morning for The Immortal Iron Fist.
So it was with a certain amount of shock that Danny Rand-Kai awoke, clutching a needle-tipped dart just inches from his own face.
With his mind and body both running on full alert he could smell the poison that coated the dart. An extract of the Flower of Ten Dreams, a plant found only in the heavenly gardens of K'un-L'un. Ingested in even the tiniest amount it was a potent sleep-aid, and said to be a gateway for prophetic dreams, but in a dose this large straight to his circulatory system the victim would be wrapped in seemingly endless nightmares before dying in their sleep.
The next thing he noticed was the nature of his would-be assassin. A bestial, silver-furred creature crouched by a window of Danny's penthouse apartment, the blowgun discarded at its clawed, canine feet. But the eyes of the creature were what caught Danny's attention. They were the same eyes he saw in the mountains of K'un-Lun more than ten years ago as wolves devoured his mother.
"So yaoguai, who dares to make a demon of my past and send it to attack a K'un-L'un warrior with poison in the night?"
The wolf spirit's only answer was to pounce through the air, clawed hands lashing out to tear Danny to pieces faster than any ordinary man could react.
But not faster than an Immortal Weapon. As The demon's claws were rending through the bed's headboard Danny had already vaulted to the side and lashed out with a sidekick that sent the monster sprawling onto the floor.
As the demon rose and faced him across the bed Danny was already reaching deep within himself for the source of his power, the burning inner energy that was the Chi of Shou-Lao. As the soul of the dragon flowed into him he directed it into his fist, the pure fiery power filling it until it began to glow...
...to smolder...
...to burn...
and became, as they said in ancient K'un-Lun, like a thing of iron.
"So, care to see how a wolf does against a dragon?"
The voice that answered him was mangled and growling.
"My Master will see you dead, Iron Fist. You cannot hide your scent, you cannot hide yourself. I will have your throat...another day." Before Danny could react, the wolf-demon was already fading with the night like a frigid mountain mist.
This...raised some uncomfortable problems. Someone had access to a plant not found outside the Eternal City of K'un-L'un and enough dark sorcery to create a yaoguai. Worse yet it was someone who knew his identity down to the intimate details given their choice of assassin.
"Well, now that I'm up, guess I might as well get some breakfast!"
After all, this was still just another morning for The Immortal Iron Fist.
. That said he's just about my favorite comic book character ever so I'm keeping him. Working on my second post today as a matter of fact.
