Nasuverse Concept characters I made a while back

[GenocideHeart]

Okay, a while back (before losing my old PC, specifically) I made a few characters based on the Nasuverse, just for the hell of it and for possible fics.

I recently discovered that I DID back up the file they were conserved in, so I decided to post a couple to see what people thought of them, since I thought they were fairly original.

Let me know what you think.

This is the first, a possible villain I made up:

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LISA CASSANDRA

Character Type: Unknown
Gender: Female
Birthday: February 29th
Height: 151 centimeters
Weight: 45 kg.
Three Sizes: N/A
Blood Type: AB Positive
Hair color: Purple/blue
Eye Color: Grey

Lisa Cassandra, also known as Lisa the Marble Hunter, is an infamous alchemist who holds the peculiar distinction of being the only known being capable of using multiple Reality Marbles at once.

This is due to her own Reality Marble, the 'Eternal Dominion', whose only ability is to actually steal and commandeer other Reality Marbles - although the process tends to result in the death of the victim, as it essentially amounts to ripping a piece of their very soul out, with fatal consequences.

So far, aside from her original Reality marble, Lisa is known to possess four more, with varied abilities that generally make her a giant threat to anyone, even beyond her considerable alchemic abilities:

--'Enduring Ideal' is a Reality Marble capable of regressing a single target to a previous condition it had earlier in time. However, it has severe limitations: it cannot be used more than once per month, it cannot regress a target to a condition farther than one month at most, and more importantly, the target has to at the very least have a semblance of life for this ability to work - returning a dead, soulless corpse to life is impossible, and it will not work at all on inanimated matter, but someone like Satsuki Yumizuka (who, as a Dead Apostle, still has a semblance of life despite being technically dead) could be theoretically reverted back to their human self, provided not too much time has passed.

This Reality Marble is the reason why Lisa has managed to unnaturally extend her lifespan to several centuries - constant resetting of her body's age allowed her to defy what should be the ultimate fate of all living things, aging and death.

--'Undying Flame' is a rather straightforward Reality Marble. It essentially allows the use of pyrokinesis (control over fire), and in addition to that, it can cause any fire currently being controlled to reject conventional rules for a very limited time (ie, even dousing fire with water will not extinguish it, and it will burn even things that aren't supposed to be flammable).

--'Endless Swarm' allows for control over insects. Regardless of type, size, origin or other variables, any sort of insects will have to move and act as Lisa sees fit. Self-preservation instincts are overruled by the control, and the area of effect has a very large radius - any insect within a mile from Lisa will be compelled to obey.

--'Neverending Torment' is perhaps the most sadistic of the Reality marbles in Lisa's possession. Its effects are simple and brutal - anything within a three hundred meters radius from Lisa, including Lisa herself, will experience atrociously crippling pain, which only the strongest of minds will be able to resist. The pain will severely impair the ability to act of anyone under its effects, and even Lisa, who had a few hundred years to get used to its effects and shrug them off, will find it harder to act and think as usual.

Lisa's ultimate goal is to attain divinity, and she is firmly convinced that if she amasses enough reality Marbles, it will be within her grasp. However, due to Lisa's known activity as a Marble Hunter and her disregard for life, be it human or nonhuman, she's considered a criminal by basically everyone who matters on the planet. The fact she is still alive after centuries of her activity and constant attempts to kill her is a testament to her skill and determination, but even her luck is bound to someday run out...

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There. Yes, it's a very powerful character, but still nothing compared to the bigger guns in Tsukihime, IMHO...

 

[toraneko]

I bet she's both cursing and thanking her lucky stars that Nrvnqsr Chaos is dead. His Reality Marble would be of use to her, likely, but were he to be subjected to Neverending Torment, I suspect the primal aspect of all his beasts would take over - and he's got quite a few in there that a human, augmented by magic and alchemy though she is, has no real hope of surviving.

I can guess at why she's so dead-set on divinity. She may be able to turn back the clock on the physical body, but what one can do to the soul - especially their own - is very limited in the Nasuverse, where souls also age and die.
Has she heard of making a contract with the World? Did she dismiss the possibility?

 

[GenocideHeart]

I bet she's both cursing and thanking her lucky stars that Nrvnqsr Chaos is dead. His Reality Marble would be of use to her, likely, but were he to be subjected to Neverending Torment, I suspect the primal aspect of all his beasts would take over - and he's got quite a few in there that a human, augmented by magic and alchemy though she is, has no real hope of surviving.

Yeah, that pretty much sums up her thoughts on him. Make no mistake, Lisa is dangerously obsessed with her quest for divinity, to the point that she'll consider anything that doesn't help her in that quest as useless distractions... but she's also old enough to know when she's outmatched, and it wouldn't do to get killed before she can achieve her goal.

She does know of the more powerful Reality Marble users, but she also knows that barring very, very favorable circumstances, she doesn't even have a snowball's chance in Hell against people such as Arcueid, Chaos and Roa.

She mostly hunts down relatively minor Reality Marbles, but she's very picky about which ones could be useful and which couldn't, so she will often dismiss the 'weaker' ones, relatively speaking, as not useful for her quest.

I can guess at why she's so dead-set on divinity. She may be able to turn back the clock on the physical body, but what one can do to the soul - especially their own - is very limited in the Nasuverse, where souls also age and die.

Correct. Her soul itself is deteriorating. Since her Reality Marble essentially rips pieces of others' spirits off and tacks them on her own, it has been somewhat slowing down the effects of aging on her soul, but it must be remembered that as powerful and resourceful as she is, she's still fundamentaly human, so her time's running out.

We're still talking about centuries of time left, of course, but given how over the seven-plus hundred years she has lived so far she only managed to scrounge up four Reality Marbles, it's not looking good. She might have to resort to desperate measures sooner or later.

Has she heard of making a contract with the World? Did she dismiss the possibility?

She has considered it, but decided to leave it as a last-ditch effort. Someone as ambitious as her needs a backup plan in case things go horribly wrong.

 

[toraneko]

We're still talking about centuries of time left, of course, but given how over the seven-plus hundred years she has lived so far she only managed to scrounge up four Reality Marbles, it's not looking good. She might have to resort to desperate measures sooner or later.

Only 700+? That's actually kinda low in number, given the scope of the Nasuverse. I can see why she's so concerned.

Also, Reality Marbles are rare as fuck. And those who develop them, and have any clue about what they're doing, tend to keep them closely guarded secrets. Perhaps it's not just her own low power keeping her back, but the sheer difficulty of finding a RM user in the first place.

I'm 99% sure that she'd consider Yumizuka Satsuki's Reality Marble useless. All it does is drain out the prana present in a given area, without giving said prana to Satsuki herself. Depletion Garden is a useless RM, no question.
Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

...actually, that brings up another point. Vampirism - that is, becoming a Dead Apostle - is as much a spiritual transformation as a physical one. Given that Reality Marbles are most commonly found in Dead Apostles, I'd think there might be issues with attempting to take Reality Marbles from them.

There would most certainly be some side-effects from pasting pieces of soul from others onto her own. I'd imagine things like identity confusion, phantom memories, bleed-over of personality, etc., to be common with just the normal use on 'normal' humans. With taking pieces of Dead Apostles, she might run the risk of becoming a Dead Apostle herself, or worse - like, what would happen if her soul rejects the Dead Apostle chunk, like a human body rejecting an organ? Or if the DA soul was stronger than hers, could it possibly take over?

Has she heard of making a contract with the World? Did she dismiss the possibility?

She has considered it, but decided to leave it as a last-ditch effort. Someone as ambitious as her needs a backup plan in case things go horribly wrong.

Makes sense. Of course, it'd be a tough call to make - how can one call themselves a God if they're tied to a human-centric System?
Some might see the trade-off as worth it, but I'd bet she'd have no small amount of problems with it.

 

[Mechatrill]

As far as I see it, any of the 27 ancestors would be so far beyond her it's not even funny, so there's no way she'd ever try to go after them. Unfortunately, we haven't really seen any dead apostles apart from the 27 ancestors (other than Sacchin and Sion, but they don't exactly fall into the category of standard apostles), so we can't really tell if dead apostles get reality marbles in general or if it's the reality marbles that made the ancestors with them ancestors. Either way, dead apostles in general are probably outside her scope either way...

Her prey of choice are most likely more along the lines of "normal" humans with reality marbles like Shirou. Those are actually within her ability to fight against and can actually be killed or beaten by conventional means.

 

[GenocideHeart]

Only 700+? That's actually kinda low in number, given the scope of the Nasuverse. I can see why she's so concerned.

Also, Reality Marbles are rare as fuck. And those who develop them, and have any clue about what they're doing, tend to keep them closely guarded secrets. Perhaps it's not just her own low power keeping her back, but the sheer difficulty of finding a RM user in the first place.

Yes, the rarity of Reality Marbles is a huge concern on its own. For the most part, the Reality Marbles she owns are from people who didn't even fully realize they had one, and thus were unable to use them to their fullest - but she collected those four because she found them to be of use.

Enduring Ideal is self-explanatory, since it basically allows her to indefinitely extend her lifespan, and given the incredible rarity of RMs to begin with, she pretty much NEEDS the extra time.

Endless Swarm's usefulness is also a no-brainer. Insects are pretty much everywhere, and depending on the quantity and quality she can gather, they can range from annoyance to outright threat.

Neverending Torment can be useful both for attack or, more often, defense. If someone is in mind-numbing pain, they can hardly attack her. That RM is one of the biggest reasons why she survived so many assassination attempts by people concerned about her activities.

The least useful of them, technically, is Undying Flames, since it requires a fire to be lit in the first place, but if there's a fire nearby, it can be lethal.

I'm 99% sure that she'd consider Yumizuka Satsuki's Reality Marble useless. All it does is drain out the prana present in a given area, without giving said prana to Satsuki herself. Depletion Garden is a useless RM, no question.
Isn't it sad, Sacchin?

Poor Satsuki never gets any credit. :snigger: But actually, Depletion Garden could have its uses if all she wants to do is disable an opponent without killing them and said opponent heavily relies on prana. For instance, Depletion Garden would be basically instant doom to a Master and their Servant, since without prana, both are screwed up the ass without lube.

However, since Sacchin is a Dead Apostle, I'd actually see it more likely that she'd use Enduring Ideal, if possible, to revert her to human state and see if she can trigger her Reality Marble again. Having someone bound by loyalty to you because you saved them can have its uses, and Sacchin is sort of easy to manipulate. Worst case, it's an useful distraction.

...actually, that brings up another point. Vampirism - that is, becoming a Dead Apostle - is as much a spiritual transformation as a physical one. Given that Reality Marbles are most commonly found in Dead Apostles, I'd think there might be issues with attempting to take Reality Marbles from them.

There would most certainly be some side-effects from pasting pieces of soul from others onto her own. I'd imagine things like identity confusion, phantom memories, bleed-over of personality, etc., to be common with just the normal use on 'normal' humans. With taking pieces of Dead Apostles, she might run the risk of becoming a Dead Apostle herself, or worse - like, what would happen if her soul rejects the Dead Apostle chunk, like a human body rejecting an organ? Or if the DA soul was stronger than hers, could it possibly take over?

Actually, a visible side effect of tacking pieces of souls on her own is that she has become increasingly more obsessive about her ultimate goal. It's kind of ironic, in a way - she might well go insane if she keeps collecting RMs, because she becomes progressively more unstable and singleminded with each new one she gets.

Her prey of choice are most likely more along the lines of "normal" humans with reality marbles like Shirou. Those are actually within her ability to fight against and can actually be killed or beaten by conventional means.

Pretty much, yes. In fact, the main reason why Shirou wasn't attacked by her is because so far he's managed to somehow stay off her radar...

 

[Avider]

Depletion Garden drains the surrounding mana in the environment, it has no effects on the connection between a Master and a Servant, since that is an internal link feeding prana directly from one to the other.

What it would do is make any spells requiring the use of the external environmental mana obsolete, basically limiting magi to small scale spells fueled by their own internal energy. An example of something that would be affected is Gae Bolg - Pierce.

 

[GenocideHeart]

Depletion Garden drains the surrounding mana in the environment, it has no effects on the connection between a Master and a Servant, since that is an internal link feeding prana directly from one to the other.

What it would do is make any spells requiring the use of the external environmental mana obsolete, basically limiting magi to small scale spells fueled by their own internal energy.? An example of something that would be affected is Gae Bolg - Pierce.

Hold on a minute. The connection between Master and Servant is internal, yes, but unless they are in CONSTANT DIRECT CONTACT, the Masters have to feed prana to their Servants at a distance, and the only way to do so is by having it temporarily leave their bodies and go to their Servant's. Meaning for a brief period, it's part of the surrounding environment - and thus Depletion Garden drains it before it can reach the Servant.

That's the only way it can possibly work, otherwise we have a problem, because there's no way the prana just teleports from body to body. If that was the case, Shirou wouldn't need to have actual sex with Saber to recharge her.

And yes, in battles, normal Masters do feed prana to their Servants real-time. Ilyasviel even feels pain over it...

 

[Avider]

Depletion Garden drains the surrounding mana in the environment, it has no effects on the connection between a Master and a Servant, since that is an internal link feeding prana directly from one to the other.

What it would do is make any spells requiring the use of the external environmental mana obsolete, basically limiting magi to small scale spells fueled by their own internal energy.? An example of something that would be affected is Gae Bolg - Pierce.

Hold on a minute. The connection between Master and Servant is internal, yes, but unless they are in CONSTANT DIRECT CONTACT, the Masters have to feed prana to their Servants at a distance, and the only way to do so is by having it temporarily leave their bodies and go to their Servant's. Meaning for a brief period, it's part of the surrounding environment - and thus Depletion Garden drains it before it can reach the Servant.

That's the only way it can possibly work, otherwise we have a problem, because there's no way the prana just teleports from body to body. If that was the case, Shirou wouldn't need to have actual sex with Saber to recharge her.

And yes, in battles, normal Masters do feed prana to their Servants real-time. Ilyasviel even feels pain over it...

Not really. Think of it as the summoning creating an ethereal tube connecting the Servant to the Master. The prana travels from inside the Master's body through this tube to the Servant, never actually going outside.

It's kinda like the line that Caster used on Shirou to lure him to Ryuudou.

And Shirou needed to have sex with Saber to recharge her because his line connecting to Saber was not there, hence the whole point of her not being recharged. The prana just doesn't teleport, it needed a transport system, which apparently having sex can establish.

Another problem with the theory that the prana temporarily becomes a part of the environment is that then it's up for grabs to anybody who is able, meaning that any Casters worth its name could easily disrupt the prana supply of any Servants, severely limiting them, and in essence, doing exactly the same thing as what you're suggesting Depletion Garden could do, except even better.

Masters can feed prana to their Servants at all time, not just in battle, so... ?

Even IF Depletion Garden does manage to cut of the Servant's supply line, so what? Servants have their own internal storage, enough to battle for some time without being recharged.

Depletion Garden, even IF it works like how you described it, wouldn't spell instant doom for Servants and Masters. It'll be more like a minor annoyance.

Just one more clarification, Depletion Garden drains mana from the environment, not prana. It would severely affect creatures that need mana, not prana. Mana is part of prana, but only a specific part. http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Prana

 

[Shaderic]

GH argument.
I'm going to need popcorn. To the Microwave!
Also, is this thread for any misc. concept chars. or only for Cassandra?

 

[GenocideHeart]

I have a couple other concept characters which I'll post later. Also, technically the name is Lisa. I named her after a singer called, of course, Lisa Cassandra...

Also, feel free to post any concept characters you might have as well.

I still don't buy the whole 'direct link' thing as suggested, but the only way to 100% know if Depletion Garden works on a Master-Servant relationship is pretty much to hope someday they make a F/SN-Tsukihime xover with such a scenario in it, which is... a slim chance at best. So educated guesses are really all we can do, and my guess is Depletion garden does shut down the prana fueling effect. :huh.:

I'll polish the other characters' formatting later and then post. There's one other Reality Marble user, as well as a normal human who unknowingly possesses a sentient, ungodly powerful artifact.

 

[knight_of_ni]

Um... GH, Avider just said Prana != Mana; as much as you want to think that way, he is right.

Prana is general, while mana is specific. Mana is the magic energy in the air; however, just because Depletion Garden sucks the mana out of the air, that doesn't do anything about the od in the master's body.

It could potentially limit the energy supply due to the fact that the master wouldn't be able to draw more energy from the environment; however, that still leaves the od untouched, and so prana would still be transfered.

EDIT: okay, basically repeating other things. Od is a different form of energy than mana, od is life energy that I believe everything has. Mana is the energy coming from the planet and exists in much higher quantities. Basically od is not the same as mana, it isn't just a matter of location, it is also a matter of the source of the energy.

 

[GenocideHeart]

K, point taken.

On the other hand, if prana is being limited, then by definition the Servant himself is being limited. The more powerful Noble Phantasms take an ungodly amount of prana to use, and assuming Depletion Garden hoses the mana in the surroundings, that basically shuts down or severely cripples any NP that use too much prana.

Also, I'm fairly sure that Depletion Garden would make Enuma Elish outright dissipate, since it's basically a giant construct made of prana... OUTSIDE of Gilgamesh's body. Meaning it's fair game for Sacchin's Reality Marble.

Just my theory, anyway. :huh.:

 

[Fatuous One]

Also, I'm fairly sure that Depletion Garden would make Enuma Elish outright dissipate, since it's basically a giant construct made of prana... OUTSIDE of Gilgamesh's body. Meaning it's fair game for Sacchin's Reality Marble.

Uh, no. Not at all.

Ea

Read the description of its power. It has absolutely nothing to do with mana, or even prana.

 

[GenocideHeart]

Well, Ea sure looks damn shiny for being just air. Maybe it's radioactive, kinda like Godzilla's breath.

Oh well.

 

[toraneko]

It's more than just that. It's a tear in space/time given form that reduces the target to chaotic matter.
Nothing says "Fuck you" quite like bitchslapping them with a spatial anomaly.

And, like I said, Depletion Garden is a nearly worthless RM. Since it drains mana, only the complicated rituals that draw on mana would be affected (humans can't normally use mana without rituals, whereas prana is comparatively easier).
Worth noting, though, is that it would likely cause significant problems for Arcueid Brunestud, since she is essentially a nature spirit and needs mana.

 

[Garahs]

I'm a noob with the naruverse, but I remember the friend who got me into F/SN told me that Emiya/Archer is the only human ever to have a reality marble, all the other owners are vampires and other monsters.

Is this true canonly?

 

[toraneko]

No, that's definitely false. Emiya's very rare in having a Reality Marble, but he's by no means the only one.

It is much more common for vampires and the like to have them, however, due to the fact that they have a long (un)lifetime in which to develop and realize them.

 

[GenocideHeart]

Here's the second character. I polished a bit his bio, since he was actually a bunch of disjointed thoughts put together under a name.

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L? ZHISHEN

Character Type: Unknown
Gender: Male
Birthday: May 16th
Height: 159 centimeters
Weight: 52 kg.
Blood Type: A negative
Hair color: Brown
Eye Color: Black

A quiet, shy boy from China. He has two rather unfortunate coincidences surrounding his name: for one, he and his family are allegedly direct descendants of the famous Chinese warlord L³ Bu.

The second coincidence was that his parents really, really, really liked the tale of the Water Margin. In fact, they liked it so much they named their son after the most famous of the Liangshan bandits - Lu Zhishen.

These two coincidences lead people to expect a scary, violent person when they are about to meet him, and they are often left confused and even a bit disappointed upon finding out that someone with such history behind his name is actually a fairly spineless boy who has a hard time even raising his voice, let alone being imposing.

Despite that, L³ Zhishen does have a few things in common with his namesake and his illustrious ancestor - he's a very good shot with a bow, is naturally agile, and more importantly, he possesses power that most humans do not.

This power comes in the form of a Reality Marble, 'Gravity Blessing', which lets him temporarily bend the laws of gravity in the area immediately around him.

He first found out this ability by pure accident when he instinctively used it to save his own life as he was falling off a cliff during a walk near the sea, and he's since learned how to actually invoke his Reality marble's power at will, becoming capable of pseudo-flight and other gravity-defying feats - an apt ability for someone descended from the 'Flying General' of the Three Kingdoms.

Zhishen hates conflict, and would rather live a quiet, unassuming life. Unfortunately, the very gift that saved his life also pretty much closed the door on any chances of a peaceful existence, for those who possess a Reality Marble rarely gets through their whole lives without becoming entangled in something greater than they are...

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Yeah, when I wrote this one down I was on a huge 3 Kingdoms/Water Margin kick... ^_^

 

[pjanimation]

"Gravity Blessing"? That's a spell from Valkyrie Profile, isn't it? How big is the range on the Marble? Because if its bigger than a relatively small area, that seems like it would be completely overpowered.

Still, he seems like a good character. So is Cassandra coming after him, to steal his Reality Marble? Would be an interesting set up for a story.

 

[GenocideHeart]

"Gravity Blessing"? That's a spell from Valkyrie Profile, isn't it? How big is the range on the Marble? Because if its bigger than a relatively small area, that seems like it would be completely overpowered.

Still, he seems like a good character. So is Cassandra coming after him, to steal his Reality Marble? Would be an interesting set up for a story.

Yes, Gravity Blessing is indeed a spell from Valkyrie Profile, although it's name is misleadig since it's a LIGHTNING element...

The effect range is a three meter radius, so at most he can change gravity for himself and anyone who's really close to him.

It does mean that getting close to him with bad intentions might not be the best idea, though. He hasn't quite mastered his Reality Marble just yet, but he's still good enough to increase gravity in a single spot within the area of effect to roughly Jupiter's gravitational pull - which is more than enough to make even Dead Apostles go 'squish' if they are caught unprepared - or outright reverse gravity, which could conceivably cause you to end up somewhere in the lower atmosphere if it happens at the wrong time.

Of course, using this power offensively means that you need to let the target get uncomfortably close...

As for the second question, I actually never really considered whether my OCs would interact with each other, but gravity control is a powerful enough ability, even limited in range, that Lisa would want it...

 

[Avider]

This question may be redundant, but is Lu a Magus? Nothing in his bio suggests that he is, other than deploying a Reality Marble. And to be able to actually deploy a Reality Marble, he must have quite the prana reserve.

--

Oh, I didn't catch that Valkyrie Profile reference. Ah, probably because I don't use mages for anything other than the occasional Sap Guard and Might Reinforce.

 

[GenocideHeart]

This question may be redundant, but is Lu a Magus?? Nothing in his bio suggests that he is, other than deploying a Reality Marble.? And to be able to actually deploy a Reality Marble, he must have quite the prana reserve.

Actually, Zhishen himself (remember, Chinese naming convention, so L³ is the family name, and Zhishen the given name...) doesn't really know what a Reality Marble is. He's strictly a natural at manipulating prana, and everything he can do with his Reality Marble he figured out on his own, through trial and error. Mostly error.

That is also why he lacks finesse, overall - while he has a whole lot of prana, he wastes a huge amount of it whenever he uses his Reality Marble. Because of this, he only has a limited time in which to use his Reality marble before he becomes completely exhausted.

He hasn't really looked into how to use it offensively, he just figured that if he can increase gravity, doing it a whole lot should be pretty harmful, and reversing or nulling gravity, which is what lets him quasi-flight and leap impossibly high, could possibly be used to shove upwards and away something he really doesn't want around him.

All the offensive applications of his Marble, in short, are mostly from use on inanimated objects and theory. But despite lacking finesse, he's got creativity in spades, and can do some pretty awesome shit with it.

Oh, I didn't catch that Valkyrie Profile reference. Ah, probably because I don't use mages for anything other than the occasional Sap Guard and Might Reinforce.

I'm assuming you never let Bloodbane get below 50% HP, otherwise you'd have instantly recognized the name, since he spams Gravity Blessing if his HP falls below half.

 

[pjanimation]

Yes, Gravity Blessing is indeed a spell from Valkyrie Profile, although it's name is misleadig since it's a LIGHTNING element...

The effect range is a three meter radius, so at most he can change gravity for himself and anyone who's really close to him.

It does mean that getting close to him with bad intentions might not be the best idea, though. He hasn't quite mastered his Reality Marble just yet, but he's still good enough to increase gravity in a single spot within the area of effect to roughly Jupiter's gravitational pull - which is more than enough to make even Dead Apostles go 'squish' if they are caught unprepared - or outright reverse gravity, which could conceivably cause you to end up somewhere in the lower atmosphere if it happens at the wrong time.

Three meters is about the distance I was thinking of (give or take a little) for it to be perfect. Anything more than that gets a little ridiculous.

I'm assuming you never let Bloodbane get below 50% HP, otherwise you'd have instantly recognized the name, since he spams Gravity Blessing if his HP falls below half.

Hmm... I honestly don't remember that happening. I don't even have that quote of his in the Voice Selection thingy.

 

[Mechatrill]

The second coincidence was that his parents really, really, really liked the tale of the Water Margin. In fact, they liked it so much they named their son after the most famous of the Liangshan bandits - Lu Zhishen.

Sigh... I hate to do this, but as an avid fan of the four great classics of China, I'm going to have to be nitpicky.

Lets start with the name shall we? First, L? and Lu are two completely different characters. Heck, they're not even homophones; they're pronounced quite differently. For one, I've found that words containing the letter ? is often unpronounceable for westerners (I should know. It's in my own name after all, and I finally chose to be called by a nickname after 3 years of hearing it getting butchered by everyone around me). So, the whole connecting Lu Zhishen to L? Bu... Doesn't work that well.

Second bit has to do with a specific phrase you used: most famous of the Liangshan bandits. Now that is just plain not true. Yes, Lu Zhishen the berserker monk is one of the most well known of the 108 bandits, but most famous? I think you're discounting others such as Wu Song, Li Kui, Wu Yong, Sun Jian, Lin Chong, etc... Really, this is only a bit of irritation on my part due to the wording you used, but still...