The sugar dad of the entire group. Is "very" rich.
History
Asura was born into an ordinary family of farmers, living in a small uninteresting town.
Asura’s parents were Eldis and Rana. They had gotten married a decade before Asura’s birth, and he was their only child. They weren’t rich, but they owned some land, and they had built a house there. As for how they made their money, they planted corn and wheat in the field they owned. Most of the crops they kept to feed themselves, but every year they journeyed into the nearby city to sell what remained or trade it for goods they needed.
As for the town where Asura was born, it was named Old Bridge, on account of the river crossing nearby. There, a truly ancient bridge stood, built by some ancient empire. It was a remarkable enough landmark to give its name to the town. As for its population, there were about five hundred souls living in Old Bridge and the surrounding area, most of which were farmers who had never left the settlement in their lives and had no plans of doing so.
Overall, then, Old Bridge was not important to anyone but the people living there. Its only contact with the outside world was some of its most worldly inhabitants traveling to the nearby city to trade wares, and the realm’s tax collectors coming to collect once a year.
It was in this environment that Asura grew up. For his entire childhood, he seemed to be – at least at first glance – just like all the other children of the town, or like all children everywhere. He played, he helped his parents on their farm, and he was a nuisance for the town’s quiet, like all children his age.
And yet, even then, there were signs of what he would become. Asura knew things. They weren’t major pieces of information of course. Just tiny morsels, but information that he had no business knowing. He would simply state what food their neighbors were eating that day without even seeing them, or he would tell his father about a bug infestation on some of the crops which was so miniscule it would ordinarily have been noticed days later.
All those things were of course strange, but none were exactly extraordinary. They were simply strange enough for Asura’s parents to notice them, but the conclusion they reached was that their son was simply very perceptive.
Asura also exhibited physical abilities. He was faster than the other children in his age group, and stronger too, with better reflexes.
Asura was also intensely curious. At first, this curiosity could be satisfied by his parents and the rest of the townsfolk. Questions such as how farming worked, or how one built a house, or what was located beyond that hill in the distance, were all ones people in Old Bridge could answer.
But then Asura had more questions. How come this tree grows the way it does? Why does water flow the way it does through the river, and not choose another way? Who built the Old Bridge?
These were questions the townsfolk and Asura’s parents could answer only partially, if at all. And so, Asura dreamt of finding answers in other places, one day soon.
This time came when Asura was about twelve years old. His parents judged him to be old enough to finally take him to the city with them. And so, Asura found himself sitting in his family’s cart, with sacks of grain and corn all around him and his parents leading their two oxen.
The city was a shock to Asura. The tall walls surrounding it seemed enormous to him, and the amount of people and buildings were enough to make him dizzy.
After this first wave of confusion and wonder had passed, Asura was left with a ton of questions, as usual. Some, his parents could answer. Most, they could not.
And so, as his parents set up to sell their crops, Asura started asking questions to the passers-by and those that stopped to buy corn and wheat. Most of these didn’t pay Asura much attention – city life was busy after all – while some stuck around and answered some things.
But it was one person who would change Asura’s life. Around midday, a tall man clad in monk’s robes and sporting a large white beard came to buy some corn. His name was Ison, and he was a regular customer of Asura’s parents, having bought wares from them for years now.
Since Ison was friendly with Asura’s parents, they introduced him to Asura, who wasted no time in asking questions.
But Ison was no simple man. He was the head monk of a monastery inside the city, and he was a very knowledgeable man himself, having gone through all the books in the monastery’s library. As such, he was able to answer almost all of Asura’s questions, apart from the more existential ones.
Ison was impressed with Asura. Not simply by his curiosity, but also by what he did when given answers. Asura was quick to digest the answers he got, and to use the knowledge he gained from them to create new questions. In short, his mind was quite marvelous, as Ison said to his parents.
Ison asked Asura’s parents to allow their child to spend some time in the monastery with him. It would do wonders for his curiosity, and he could be trained to become a monk, if he wished, mastering not only the mental part of himself but also the physical.
Asura’s parents were reluctant at first. They liked Ison, and even trusted him somewhat, but they didn’t particularly like the city. Leaving Asura alone there was, in their minds, dangerous.
But Asura pleaded and pleaded. He wanted nothing more than to learn about the secrets of the universe, and so he begged his parents until, eventually, they relented. A couple weeks later, Asura and his parents traveled to the city again, not to sell their wares but to hand Asura over to Ison and his monastery.
Asura spent the next ten years of his life in the monastery. At first, he wasn’t given many tasks – and those he was given were unimportant. To Ison and the rest of the monastery’s leaders, he was simply one of the monastery’s acolytes.
Under this position, Asura cleaned the monastery, and helped the monks in their meditations. In his little spare time however, he was given access to the monastery’s library, whose books he was soon devouring.
After about a year in the monastery, having learnt how to care for the building, the time came for Asura to learn the monastic traditions.
For the next couple of years, Asura woke before the dawn, to partake in the monastery’s rituals. His access to the library was also greatly increased, allowing him to read even more of the texts found there.
What was more, Asura learned of the powers of Qi. This power, the monks said, was found inside one’s body. It was the epitome of the human condition, the ability to see the world and harness it through solely one’s own ability. No magic was involved, not in the ways sorcerers and mages utilized it.
What intrigued Asura the most was a concept known as Apotheosis. According to this concept, which Asura found in a book in the monastery’s library, one could, if they mastered the way of Qi, use that power to ascend to Godhood.
This was of course something that Asura wished to do, but not exactly for reasons having to do with arrogance. Asura didn’t want to become an overlord, ruling over the beings of the world and making decisions for them. He wished to satisfy his own curiosity in all things, and what better way was there to do that than becoming a God?
For the remaining time Asura had in the monastery, he spent his days contemplating the concept of Apotheosis and striving to reach it. To do that, he had to hone both mind and body, and so he spent days on end meditating and training, until he managed to understand his body in ways only an adherent of the Qi could. He studied the Seven Poses of the Crane, and other such martial art skill, improving his Qi’s flow as he did.
Finally, when Asura was twenty years old, he felt that he had learnt all he could from the monastery. Upon the agreement of Ison, he was allowed to depart and seek his destiny elsewhere.
After spending some time back home with his parents, Asura did exactly that. Beyond Old Bridge and the nearby city, he hadn’t seen any other parts of the world except as images in books. He would change that, because that was what Apotheosis demanded.
To gain Apotheosis, one had to have extremely strong control of their Qi. To do that, one couldn’t simply remain in one place. They had to test themselves against the dangers of the world, be those monsters or humanoids. And Asura would do exactly that.
For the next decade, Asura traveled everywhere he could. He met thousands of people, fought in many battles, and gave aid where he could, strengthening himself all the while. Even so, Asura slowly had a realization: No matter how strong he became, his life was simply too short to reach the proper understanding and power needed to ascend to Godhood.
And so, he had to search for things to help him. He found one such thing – or the clue to one – as he was walking through a forest. There, he spied a woman – a fairy – with pitch black hair, using her magic to fight off assailants, orcish and elven bandits.
As Asura watched, the fairy began to lose her form, her body becoming transparent. Asura, who had always made it a point to help those in need, decided to intervene.
That was the fairy’s opening. Unable to sustain her physical body, she saw Asura and decided to transfer her consciousness to him.
Asura felt a strange jolt as the fairy disappeared from sight, but couldn’t pause to examine it as he had to fight the bandits. After he had won, he heard the fairy’s voice in his head.
The fairy was named Lysithea. The bandits had attacked her not to rob her, but to steal a crucial piece of knowledge from her: The location of the Dreamcatcher, a legendary weapon.
Lysithea, having been saved by Asura, offered to tell him the location of the weapon. Asura, recognizing that this weapon would help him increase his power and funnel his Qi into achieving Godhood, agreed.
Lysithea, unable to reform a body, remained inside Asura’s brain, her consciousness residing next to his. They spoke often, and were even able to see each other, if Asura imagined that Lysithea was there next to him.
It took Asura a year to find the Dreamcatcher, as reaching its location – the top of the world’s tallest mountain – was no mean feat. Asura had to negotiate with the nomads leaving around the mountain’s slopes in order to gain access. Then, he had to best the various groups of goblins and trolls that lived low on the mountain.
Then, in the end, he had to face an ancient white dragon, who had made his domain near the peak. Only once that was done was he able to grasp the Dreamcatcher.
There, at the top of the mountain, whipped by snow and the frenzied winds, Asura stood, his only companion the presence of Lysithea in his mind. He held the weapon in both hands and raised it up high.
Slowly, and then faster and faster until he was but a blur, he focused his Qi, going through all the martial arts stances he had been taught. As he did, his grasp on his power increased and increased.
Soon, he began to glow. Through the Qi, he started to perceive not just the things around him – the clouds, the rocks, the snow – but the tiny particles that comprised them. Soon, he could see beyond the clouds, through the clouds, to the lands that lay around the mountain and even farther away.
Finally, he was gone, his physical form dissipating, joining the clouds and being carried by the wind.
High up, in the void of creation, the being known as Asura now stood. In his hands, he held the world itself.
Having finally achieved Apotheosis, he set about fulfilling his goal of satisfying his curiosity. Before he began, he made a new body for Lysithea and set her back into the world, granting her the ability to return and see him if she wished.
And then, Asura was lost in his own thoughts, pondering his divinity and the world he now beheld.