You know me as Yojimbo.

I look barely 25 years old. Appearances are deceiving. I am actually 800 years old, born right after Lord Mi'hen formed the Warrior Monks corps to complement his Crusader order. When I was alive, I was known as Rowen and was rarely seen without my sword and without my dog Seika by my side.

I am immortal now, the fayth of the Aeon Yojimbo, the body guard, which together with his faithful lion-dog Daigoro aids summoners in the battle against Sin. This wasn't my idea. I agreed to die to rid Spira of Sin, yes. But Ghirlon, my first Summoner, never used me as a Final Aeon so I remained masterless, abandoned at the bottom of the Calm Lands gorge, deep into a cave. The cave of the stolen fayth, the people in Spira call it, perhaps imagining I was once deserving of a temple and got "stolen" and placed here. Not so. The only thing stolen was my honor. By deciding to live and not using me to stop Sin Ghirlon robbed me the opportunity to redeem myself and retrieve my family's honor. I curse him until today.

I had vowed to never trust a summoner again, after Ghirlon's cowardice and betrayal. But I'm getting ahead of myself. My story needs to be told properly.

I have few recollections of my childhood in Luca, one of the many sons and daughters of a prominent family, living a carefree life, or as carefree as it could be in a Spira with Sin looming in the horizon, ready to kill thousands in the blink of an eye.

Atoning for our mistakes and earning the right to get redeemed from Sin was atop every Spiran's mind and my father was no different. As it was customary at the time, he had promised to send one of his offspring to study and be a monk at the heart of the Yevon Church in Bevelle. That honor befell on myself and at 10 I left Luca to study in Bevelle's monastery.

I never saw my family again, as Sin attacked Luca soon after and our house and my entire kin died in the attack. I was alone in the world, the only one left. At the time, it never occurred to me that I could leave the monastery and live my own life. Quite the opposite. I knew I was there to carry on the family's honor and tradition, and now as the only living member of my family I felt doubly bound to keep my family's name and honor intact. Besides the monastery now was the only place I could call home. I devoted myself completely to my studies, to dull the pain and to ensure I would never stain my family's honor.

After two years in Bevelle's priesthood school I was being considered very skilled at sword combat and combat in general. That is when I had the honor of being chosen as a pupil of Lord Mi'hen who had founded both the Crusaders and the Warrior Monks a decade before. After that, I applied myself even harder to my studies, to please Lord Mi'hen and show myself worthy of his trust and affection. We spent days on end training and talking and he got to be the closest thing to a father I had, after my own father died. I was happy then, but didn't know it, the weight of carrying my family's honor and of being deserving of the esteem of such a legendary figure marred my days and nights, filling them with worry.

I needn't have worried. With Lord Mi'hem as my teacher and with my dedication my skills were developing fast, I was accepted as a swordsmanship teacher to the Warrior Monks when I was 16. Of course the naysayers indicated that my mentor had had a hand in the process, but those who said it didn't know me and Lord Mi'hem. If anything, my acceptance was made harder due to my personal friendship to the great man. I had to prove to myself and to him that I was worthy of it, not due to our friendship, but due to my skill. My acceptance test brought tears of pride to his eyes, as it was obvious that I was more than ready for the post. I wept also, for the first time since my family's loss.

After that test, I threw myself heart and soul to the task of teaching and perfecting my skills, to shush the naysayers. By 19, I was already the lead combat teacher, without the need of a single word from Lord Mi'hem. My students demanded it :grin:

After I reached 20 I thought I was free from the worry of being deserving of my mentors trust, and of keeping my family's name in honor. My skills and my student's skills were known and respected across all Temples. Even the naysayers had to admit - often at the tip of one of my student's swords ;) - that a student of mine was a fierce adversary not to be trifled with. I was finally able to be proud at myself. And that was the start of my downfall: pride.

Lord Mi'hen put ahead of preparing candidates to be warrior monks soon after I reached 20. While in that post Lord Mi'hen honored me once more, by asking my advice and help to write several books on strategy and sword fighting and even other skills needed for what he envisioned the warrior-monk's life should be.

Our teachings weren't limited to swordplay and strategy. As an elite corps the Warrior Monks were required to know how to heal and it occurred to me that warrior monks had to know how to have discipline, never ending patience and how to sometimes deal with conflict using a light touch. Force doesn't always solve problems. True strength comes from knowing when to use force and when to refrain from using it. I had been saying that to all my students, but on a book my sermons seemed hollow, easily forgotten by hurried students bent on passing a written test then promptly emptying their mind of all that was on it. - Aye, I know how students think. I have been one myself:grin: -

Thinking about written test and how soon their subjects are forgotten made me remember my (poor) attempts at calligraphy, right when I arrived at the monastery, when one of my teachers put me decorating temple books with those long, clumsy ink pens. "The pen is mightier than the sword" he used to say, which for a class full of active 10 year old boys was utter nonsense. We literally bounced in our chairs with impatience, waiting for the class to finish to be able to go sparring with our peers on the combat class that followed.

I remember it being pure torture to me, and I was glad to be rid of those calligraphy classes at 12. But being in charge of keeping my family honor I had to excel even in that so I did try my best to not only get a passing grade, but to get the teacher to praise my work. I spent long hours practicing calligraphy in my bunk, a time I sorely lamented losing, as I could be spending it in perfecting my sword skills. In spite of my dislike for it, my dedication eventually paid off and I was able to do a reasonable enough book decoration. One of my short prayer books was even added to the temple's library. Yevon's tears, that short book took it's sweet time to perfect:roll:

Looking back at those times while puzzling on how to teach patience, discipline, dedication and the limits of force to my students I finally realized that those calligraphy lessons helped me learn those same lessons. While my friends were sparring non-stop I was forced to take long breaks and patiently yield the brushes and pens with the lightest touch I could, with a keen focus and inner calm. The slightest hesitation or rush would bring about a stain and ruin the whole page. My legendary calm and focus in battle were nothing compared to the focus and calm I had to achieve to properly decorate a prayer book. Perhaps the same would be true for our students now.

I mentioned my idea and my reasoning to Lord Mi'hen and he agreed that it was paramount for his pupils to know what to do when brute force could not be used to resolve problems. I passionately proposed that calligraphy could teach the recruits that. He agreed to give it a try.

Never one to suggest something for his pupils that he was unable to do, Lord Mi'hen wanted ME to teach him calligraphy also and required that I excelled at calligraphy as I would be the one to teach our students to draw the flowery Yevon's symbols with ease and perfection. Here I go rushing like mad to find my old teacher and beg him to make me a calligraphy master before the next semester. Boy did I "stepped on it" as you students are fond of saying! ;)

(to be continued soon)

Notes:

1) Yojimbo means bodyguard in Japanese, which is usually the only job that the Ronin (masterless samurai) were left to do.

2) Yojimbo's fayth Rowen's story is inspired in one of the most famous Ronin on Japan's history: Miyamoto Musashi, the famed swordsman. Musashi wrote The Book of Five Rings about the warrior skills. Throughout the book, Musashi implies that the way of the Warrior, as well as the meaning of a "True strategist" is that of somebody who has made mastery of many art forms away from that of the sword, such as tea drinking and painting , like Musashi who practiced them throughout his life. See Wikipedia for details on the real life version of "Rowen".