*smiles*<br/><br/>We're on the same page.<br/><br/>The blacksmith picture would give me a character who doesn't feel quite so much like he's fighting his place in life.<br/><br/>The idea i had originally was a son of the Mirumoto family who aspired to be a great bushi.  The kami had other ideas, speaking to him from an early age, so he was chosen to attend to the Agasha Shugenja school.  He did well there, but continued to study swordplay.  He found that the meditative discipline of an iajutsu duel was very similar to the meditative practices of shugenja.<br/><br/>The Topaz Championship doesn't have many opportunities for shugenja, but he wants to compete to test his conviction that he can be competent in both, if he just works hard enough.<br/><br/>If I could find the blacksmith picture i would build a character who was more devoted to tradntional shugenja practices--more focuses and less spread out--but he's quite burly and skilled with his staff.  He makes good use of the Tetsubo of Earth spell in combat.