<strong>CC APPROVED: Yes<br/>SHEET APPROVED: Yes<br/>PLEASE CHECK: Yes<br/></strong><br/><div class="floatleft">(https://i.gyazo.com/498e6e71aa24d44cc569905317e530e1.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: impact;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Cheng-Ming  (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2467751)<br/></span></span><hr/><br/><strong>Race:</strong>Human<br/><strong>Class:</strong>Bard (Stonesinger)<br/><br/><strong>Brief History:</strong>Cheng-Ming is an explorer and adventurer from a far-off continent, across the world's oceans to the distant East.  A consumnate artist, poet, and performer, his soul is devoted to the fine arts of human endeavor.  His bearing and behavior indicate someone of fine breeding and comfortable wealth, likely from a noble family of some sort.  His manners and appearance are exotic, being a strange mixed resemblance to that of elves and humans, blending sloe-shaped almond eyes, high cheekbones, and yet embodying the human earthiness and zest for life with an aggressive passion that would ill-fit those of the fae mien.<br/><br/>Cheng-Ming's involvement in the affairs of this side of the world began five years ago, as a young man of sixteen years.  His personal sailing vessel was caught at sea within a violent storm, and in the course of the chaotic winds and buffeting, strayed far off course and into the realms of the Known World we are familiar with.  However, in the wake of the subsiding tempest, his ship became entangled with another also lost in the gale and fury, one crewed by a family of halfling travelers.  The storm threatened to sink and capsize both vessels, and the halflings would have been the first to be lost to the furious winds and battering waves.  But Cheng-Ming saved the little folk at the risk of his life, and brought both ships to rest, battered but intact, upon the shores of a forlorn isle.<br/><br/>Feverish and near-death after the storm, Cheng-Ming was nursed back to health by the halflings.  It was upon waking many days later that he noticed that his wounds and health were completely healed, with nary a trace.  Inquiring as to the means of his miraculous recovery, Cheng-Ming discovered that the halflings he had rescued were no mere travelers, but refugees from a long-lost world, one where halflings were a feared and long-lived group of man-eaters, skilled and immersed in secret arts and knowledges of the consumption of human flesh.  They had used their clandestine techniques to make broths and meals from the drowned crew of the storms, feeding upon their bodies and sharing their sustenance with Cheng-Ming out of gratitude for his courage in saving them.  As horrified as he was initially, Cheng-Ming was also fascinated by these primal secrets of the halflings, their taboo masticatory arts, and the good health that these secrets brought his own body.  For three years, Cheng-Ming lived amongst these halflings upon this solitary island, learning from them, becoming one amongst them, and adopted into their ways.  As they thrived and survived, the small clan of survivors gathered their sustenance from the local flora and hunted from both local fauna, as well as other travelers washed ashore from the stormy sea lanes that passed nearby their island.  Cheng-Ming became one of their premiere cooks as well as an artiste in his own right.  He adopted the recipes of his own homeland, the spices and herbs from the island, as well as the unique flavors of outlander meats towards creating fantastical dishes and recipes that delighted and amazed the palate.<br/><br/>It nevertheless came to pass, that passing ships one day came by the isle close enough to note inhabitants, and rescued the castaways back to civilization.  The halflings bade Cheng-Ming a fond farewell, as they returned to lands more similar to those of their homeland, while Cheng-Ming continued his exploration of the Western lands.  Having now acquired a particular taste for his special cuisine, Cheng-Ming carefully began to partake of his delicacies whenever he could manage to discretely lure away a doe-eyed demimondaine who managed to catch his eyes.  But what the gods of savage and wild lands will tolerate is not the same as what the gods of civilized lands will condone, and Cheng-Ming found that other Powers had noted his peculiar tastes, and began to inflict upon him a slow and insidious curse that accompanied his cravings.<br/><br/><em>"You are what you eat"</em>is a truism that generally cautions against overindulgence, and in this case it also holds true for Cheng-Ming.  For despite the cravings and desires for Cheng-Ming to continue his particular mastication for good health and longevity, he discovered that the more often he consumed his preferred two-legged doe, the more he began to notice an accompanying number of side-effects...  Softer skin, loss of muscle mass and stature, a growing change of appearance from simply androgynous to feminine.  Cheng-Ming it seemed, was trapped in a cycle of gradual transformation into the very type of prey he most favored, that of beautiful young women.  If he refrained from his consumption, the change back to his former self was slow to initiate, but was palpable enough over time if he could maintain his self-control.  But with that self-deprivation, came a loss of sanity and empowerment that began to strangle his own sense of control.<br/><br/>Back and forth over the span of two years, he experimented and maintained a gradual level of balance against self-control.  Achieving a general level of comfort with his artistry, creative cuisine, and impulsive cravings, Cheng-Ming had managed to bring his desires and curse under gradual control.  Likewise, he had also begun to research possible treatments and solutions for his unique problem, and found it referenced in the annals of Zharian cultists.   An ancient book from his own homeland,<span class="bbc_u">The Secret Shih-Tan</span>, a cookbook rumored to have been stolen from the Celestial kitchens of the Emperor of both Heaven and Hell, had long been held and then lost to mortal hands in ages past...  But the annals of Zhar contained references to a number of lost artifacts that had been taken by the followers of Madness in the eras long since, and<span class="bbc_u">The Secret Shih-Tan</span>numbered among them.  Resolved to find and read<span class="bbc_u">The Secret Shih-Tan</span>, Cheng-Ming has since joined the company of the Children of Zhar, in order to find and recover the solution to all of his desires and woes...<span class="bbc_u">The Secret Shih-Tan.</span><br/><br/><strong>Brief Personality:</strong>At first impressions, Cheng-Ming is a polite, modest, and soft-spoken Tian, but with a particular manner of class and dignity that immediately captures the attention of others when he stands and addresses those around him.  His outward bearing is much like any simple adventurer, humble and somewhat worldly, but he also possesses a sense of presence that some might call 'an old soul'.  Bright, optimistic, quick of wit, and filled with an innate calmness that 'all will work out as it should' that is cheerily infectious and encouraging for those around him.  His ordinary inclination is not necessarily to be the 'natural leader', but rather the 'binding glue' that brings people together, lending them a friendly ear to talk to, a helping hand to pick them up, and an encouraging word when they must sally forth.  For Cheng-Ming, lofty goals and ideals are not what inspire him, but friendship, warmth, cheery company, and good food.<br/><br/>However, his ordeal and curse have given Cheng-Ming a bit of a darker side as well.  His cravings and appetites have made him somewhat predatory and cruel to those he views as 'celebratory incarnations to the art of cooking', which is to say the beautiful subjects of his carnal and masticatory desires.  He rationalizes away his hunting, seductions, and manipulations of attractive young women, by telling himself he is immortalizing them, taking them away from horrible futures of decrepitude, poverty, and decay.  He tries to also target those he feels are 'deserving' of such fates, normally those of a somwhat dubious moral flexibility, who display aptitudes for theft, deception, and even murder, but there have been times where his artistic spirit has gotten the better of himself, and he has gravitated towards the pure and innocent as well.  Ultimately, Cheng-Ming has begun a downward spiral upon his slippery slope of moral descent.  Whether or not<span class="bbc_u">The Secret Shih-Tan</span>will save him or damn him, is up to the Heavens to decide.<br/><br/><strong>O/O:</strong>Oddly enough, I am not a big fan of bloody gore, despite the subject matter of this character.  So for Cheng-Ming, he's more apt to be turned on by aspects of horror which are more pyschological, focused upon seduction and pursuit, rather than simple bodily consumption or sexual victory.  Also not a big fan of scat or such.  I do like coerced non-con style of RP, from both the POV of male or female, and I fully expect that depending on the levels of 'feast or famine' there may be opportunities for both seduction and coercion for and against Cheng-Ming, depending on events.<br/><br/><strong>Adventuring Party:</strong>Children of Zhar.<br/><br/>Connections:  Is your CC seeking connections with other characters?<br/><ul class="bbc_list"><li type="square"> Love interest<em> I am open to the idea of a former romantic connections, or a future romantic connection with another party member.  It might be a bit complicated, depending on Cheng-Ming's level of invested romantic interest versus his ideas of aesthetics, but I'm open to discussions! </em><br/></li><li type="square"> Friend <em> Cheng-Ming could totally befriend and value other characters as the campaign progresses!  Just because he has certain appetites and inclinations, does not mean he does not value or regard friends and loved ones as important to him!  He's just more likely to want to share the things he holds as important with such friends, and/or keep them ignorant of his activites, depending on how he foresees their reactions!  :-) </em><br/><hr/><br/></li></ul>