History:

Once a fearsome, reptilian beast born from the Howling Plains of Kujishoku, Taifuin, Dragon Ruler of Storms, is still a regional legend within the Kingdom of Ataiyo, in the form of a nursery tale told to incorrigible children to keep them in line. Said to be a product of the Plains’ wind itself, he was responsible for an incredible storm that wracked Ataiyo’s capital Nisshoki 500 years ago for 3 straight days, after he breached forth from the Spirit Realm in a concerted attempt to bring the populace of Ataiyo to its knees.

However, it was during this windstorm that a brave hero known only as Ryushi, a spellsword of incomparable strength, ventured forth to slay him. He found the deadly dragon within a cave in the Tori Mountains, after battling his way through the hellish wind and rain Taifuin had been channelling. Their combat was long and brutal, with both combatants refusing to yield until the other had been obliterated. They both suffered numerous wounds…and crucially, Ryushi had drawn the dragon’s blood more than once with his ancestral sword.

In the end, Taifuin got the upper hand after catching the hero with an unexpected swoop of his tail, sending him flying and impaling him on one of the spiked, rock walls of the cave. Believing his foe to be defeated, he gloated of his superiority and his plans for the inhabitants cowering below; a mistake of hubris that would prove to be nearly fatal.

As Taifuin drew nearer, prepared to eat Ryushi whole to regain sustenance, the hero mustered one incredible burst of will and stabbed himself with his own blade, melding his blood and the dragon’s as one. The power of his sacrifice, his determination to protect his people, and his mastery of the sealing arts combined as he pressed his other hand against the inside of the dragon’s maw. With an ancient Ataiyoan technique used to seal away the power of wicked mages, he flooded his foe’s body with a force great enough to kill a hundred men. It was only Taifuin’s draconic blood and form that saved him from a certain death, as the seal forming within him stripped away his power, forcing it into the cage of a human body: the form of the creatures he had so greatly despised.

He had been struck unconscious by the sheer pain of the seal taking hold, until the next day when he awoke to find himself in his new prison. Cut off from the majority of his strength and power, he was outraged. Even a novice mage could likely conjure up a gust of air stronger than he could manage in his weakened state.

However, as he stood shivering in the cold air, he felt something calling to him, from the direction of Ryushi’s corpse. His sword glimmered in the faint light of the new day that found its way into the cave, as if it was beckoning to him. As an unintentional consequence of Ryushi’s blood being bound to Taifuin’s, so too was his sword bound in a similar fashion. The noble weapon had betrayed its master in a sardonic twist of fate, due to Ryushi’s own doing no less.

Though the former dragon knew little of how to utilize a blade in that moment, he would spend the next 500 years perfecting the art to compensate for the magic and strength sealed away within him, pushing the limits of his human form to regain what he once lost.

Now, after being forced to rehone the connection to the wind that was once natural to him, and spending centuries perfecting his bladework using the weapon of the man who sealed his fate, he is dead set on regaining his dragonhood. And he’ll gleefully crush anyone who stands in his way.

Personality:

Taifuin craves his former power, needs it. As such, he has devoted his life to seeking a way to remove the seal that has been placed on him. Whether by learning how to do so himself, or forcing a powerful mage to do it for him, he is desperate to return to his former glory as the voracious Dragon Ruler of Storms. His quest to restore himself consumes his existence.

As such, his already self-centered, egotistical, and violent personality has become amplified, turning him into a sociopath of monumental proportions. He is driven, desperate, and willing to do anything to anyone to regain his power. However, he still suffers incredible delusions of grandeur despite being lowered to the level of humanity, and refuses to serve anyone but himself unless they possess something he desires greatly.

In conversation (if you’re someone he even deems worthy of speaking to), he is crass, insensitive, and often insulting, even to those he offers his abilities to temporarily; after all, in his mind, he is the finest swordsman and master of wind the world has ever seen. Great enough that those who need his abilities should be the one kissing up to him, rather than the other way around.

He is also incredibly misanthropic, even seeing the gods as imperfect and weak compared to the form and power of the dragon. Ryushi is the only man he begrudgingly grew to respect, as his ego is still bruised from his centuries-old defeat.

What will he do if he ever regains his power again? Quite possibly something similar to the Great Storm that almost decimated Nisshoki…but he has been sure to keep his plans for the far future a mystery to all but himself.