Isao Sutauto

Isao Sutauto is a player character played by Ham.

Art by	Julianna Wilhelm
Name:	Ilrandir Hyarmenyandon
Species & Gender:	Tatya Hini
Date of Birth:	2922 GSC
Age:	99
Height:	6' (1.83m)
Weight:	200 lbs (90.72 kg)
Organization:	House Sutauto
Occupation:	Lord
Rank:	Lord
Current Placement:	Heled

Personal Blazon

Height: 6' (1.8288 m)

Weight: 200 lbs (90.7185 kg)

Build: Build of a soldier, strong and well-kept despite his age.

Eyes and Face: Young complexion with Blue eyes. His face is round, though his body is a contrast to his slightly portly face.

Ears: Regular curved shaped.

Hair: Black, done in a small samurai cut with a small bun on the back of his scalp.

Voice: Baritone with Liangese Accent.

Distinguishing Features: Round face, though somewhat angular at the very edges. Very subtle angles.

A well tempered man, very accustomed to military life. He's outspoken when he needs to be but is generally quiet and observant. He is very hard-working and seems to act like he owes something to everyone. Despite this, he doesn't commit to handouts. Isao believes in helping but not hand-holding to the vast majority of people. In conversation, he tends to occasionally and unknowingly try and take control of the topic and generally doesn't mean to. As a former imperial guardsman, Isao values defense of things he holds dear and is very devoted in said defense.

After his experiences as a Ronin after deserting from the Taianese Imperial Crusade, Isao has argued with his conscience on all of his acts of being and where his purpose in the sea of stars. He does not have a problem with killing if justified, though he does not value murder very highly. While he has experienced collateral damage, it holds a unique stance in his mind. He values his family highest, and is loyal to the bond that he made with his wife and the commitment as a father of three daughters and a son. He would defend his family over anything else.

Isao's hobbies include whittling, gardening, fishing, and dabbling in poetry. His ultimate goal is to have a successful life with his family, which he intends to do under any circumstance.

Sutauto Isao, born Ilrandir Hyarmenyandon, was born in 2922 GSC, in Zaria on the planet of Liang. His father was a landed hedge-knight sworn to a lord whose lands in the south included large flatlands and the Liang-Jord Mana node, whose abilities granted bountiful harvests due to its deep connection to the Word effectively blessing the ground beneath it. As Isao grew in age, he went to work on his family's plot of land. At age six he was helping his father plant in the spring and by age ten was helping reap the harvests. He was taught to read by a friend of his father, known as Sir Varyamo, over the long summers in his hold. This would continue until he discontinued his service as he would be risen from a landed knight to a lord following a marriage. Nevertheless, Isao continued to tend to his father's “lands” and became nicknamed “The Little Steward” by some of the other denizens of the Nodelands.

Following a call to arms by Varyamo, Isao's father left for war and perished on a distant field. Varyamo, though not a well established figure in his life, took Isao as a charge as a supposed dying wish of his father. Presented with his father's armor and sword, Varyamo allowed Isao to study under him, and eventually appointed him his squire. He was only sixteen when he first was able to don his father's armor, and wield his father's sword. Yet, as the years would gain him experience.

In 2942, Isao became twenty. A number of lords, of which Varyamo was one of, had banded together to form a large single force. Isao was knighted as a Knight and placed in Varyamo's garrison. While not as large as the main houses, House Hyarmenyandon¹⁾ was granted stewardship of the Node Region, marking his father's land as his hold. After winning a tournament against one of Varyamo's sons due to breaking a lance across his shield supposedly destroying it in its entirety, he gained the nickname “Telarcare,” Brickbuilt. This name wouldn't last, however, as in 2958 he would be called away from the Nodelands to the eastern fringe, upon which a new breed of settlers had declared themselves a new empire.

2969 began Isao's first taste of real warfare. At the orders of his liege, Varyamo's Garrison was to march to the Mana Node to set up defenses after being alerted to a possible attempt to thwart a full scale unification of all the nations of Liang against the Taianese by destroying the node. Following a change in command following the death of Varyamo's sons, Varyamo's garrison marched on a Taianese settlement in the eastern fringe. While the Guard made short work of the Taianese village guard, the rest of the Coalition Army burned through the village and the surrounding hamlets, setting fire to the village and trapping the citizens inside. Isao had remained in the vanguard, but was wounded early on and did not participate in the burning, having injured his right leg.

The next five years of fighting, Isao gained much experience in fighting. Having not neglected his own connection to the Word and to the node of which they were tasked with defending, Veryamo's garrison doused their armor in red dye and became a mounted force of death and destruction. Yet, despite all the efforts, Liang's houses were never united. Some would capitulate and others would be vanquished as the Taianese ignited a powerful war machine fueled by industry. Pushed back to the node, the remaining troops were scattered when the Taianese bombarded the Mana Node from orbit. Some would run into the node for shelter, others, like Isao, would run for the mountains to the north and attempt to connect with the remaining forces under Bhelith Arleigh. Veryamo, along with a majority of the united house forces would perish and cease to exist when the mana node detonated, turning the lowlands into glass.

In the north, the forces of the Blackspear would go into hiding in the mountains and remain out of the Taianese's hands. This shelter would also shield them from most of the effects of the plague which would ravage the remaining pockets of resistance following the declared victory of the Taianese. In 2983, Bhelith's forces marched down the mountains and laid seige to a Taianese weapons depot, winning an early victory, they outfitted themselves with their rivals weaponry and commenced a hard charge towards the supposed last independent settlement of Tatya hini: Zaria.

While early success won their morale, their march would be halted outside of Zaria by a Taianese Mechanized Division which would scatter the united force. Isao took refuge with his remaining red knights with the Blackspear and broke into Zaria in the night, hoping to raise a force inside the fortress and contest the Taianese from behind its blessed walls. Yet, to prevent a siege of Zaria, the Blackspear would break out of Zaria with what she could muster and would run back towards the direction they had came, hoping to draw the Taianese away and towards the slagged remains of the node. They were routed before this plan could be put into action, yet at the climax of their defeat, Isao witnessed the Blackspear take a tattered black banner and enchant it with such powerful mana that it brought down one of the Taianese warships from low orbit, which would become a base for the Elven rebels once abandoned.

The Second Secession War in 2984 was ignited by the destruction of a Taianese fortress, and this time through careful political weaving had brought the fledgling Alliance into the fray with military support. Rearmed and reenforced, the original plan is enacted again: draw the Taianese away from Zaria and allow Bhelith to unite the remaining splintered independents under one flag. Within the first two years, the Tainese main army was suppressed under the slag of the node by Alliance forces as Bhelith and a large company charge Zaria and break the Taianese blockade. Bhelith's black banner was thrown over the fortress-city's walls and would remain for three years. At the end of the third year, the clouds were darkened by Taianese warships and a bombardment began. Bhelith, wounded by plasma fire, attempted a second breakout like before but following an ambush and Isao sending his entire garrison to act as a suicidal diversion to allow their de facto figurehead to escape, Zaria once again fell back to Taianese hands. Isao, captured by the Taianese, avoided death and insurrection charges by aiding the brokering of Zaria as a “protectorate” state of Tai Pan along with three other former lords, securing its independence from warfare to come. In a final act, his armor and blade was stripped away and melted down to help patch the damaged walls.

He would marry a former Alliance settler, Yumi Sutauto, and either out of shame or shadowing his former self, took her surname. Taking the Alliance woman's grandfather's given name of “Isao” to remind himself that he was to be brave to stand against an overwelming enemy until the last. They would have one son, Kunio.

In the fall of 2990, Isao was conscripted into the Taianese army by the Empress' command. Assigned to the Imperial Deployment Cruiser Liáoníng Zhī Zhàn, Isao and a mere forty six other men formed the first company of the First Taianese Imperial Repention Honor Guard. Trained as a combat medic, he would serve the Emperor through every expansionist conflict and finally the Emperor's Grand Crusade to expand the empire. From what he had been told and had overheard from his tenders was that this was a crusade not against anything, but to make all that the Taianese deemed below them “prove themselves” to the upper castes. He tried every way he could to resign himself to Liang to retire and die old, but along with his forty six, and two other “Honor Guards” constantly kept under guard and false movements, they did not know they were in the unknown regions until it was too late to do anything.

The Crusade Fleet made three quick landfalls in systems that were unoccupied. Quickly laying claim, They then moved onto another system, finding a small yet stout species of space-faring humanoids. Hellbent on power, the Taianese laid siege to the worlds of these humanoids and after almost a year of bombardment, Taianese soldiers made landfall to find that the majority of the species had perished. Laying another flag and claim, they set off further into unknown space.

Morale in these units were low, and the indiscriminant genocide drove many mad, others were driven to mutiny. In 3003, during the ship's “night” period, two teams of Guardsmen took the bridge and engineering. Executing anyone who stood against them and leaving the rest in escape pods, quickly combining the three units into one, they broke rank, feigning an engine malfunction before making a blind jump towards Liang. Miscalculating a FTL jump's distance however, the ship ended up on the other side of Taianese space, near a world that the older Guardsmen remembered, Jord.

Refueling at Jord with the help of it's human population and a few blessings from sympathetic Elves, the newly dubbed “Ronin” set sail for Liang after voting to cast down arms and live hidden in their own population. After spending the latter half of 3008 sneaking through Tai Pan space through manipulation of their IFF signals, they arrived at Liang. Their sensors were flooded with Tai Pan signatures, and they attempted to wade through the fleets of Tai Pan ships before being discovered as they entered atmosphere. After a quick, very one sided engagement, the wounded “Liang” ship jumped South in an attempt to cross the Alliance neutral zone, but again missed their jump and ended up way off course. Wounded and running out of time, they made one last jump South, making it in orbit of a planet in the last stages of terraforming. The ship's hull broke in two, sending the largest of the two sections into a secluded valley.

The guardsmen all survived through the Tai Pan's very study shipbuilding plans, hiding in the armory deep within the vessel. After spending days trying to put out the remaining fires, the Guardsmen and the remaining survivors of the mutiny left the ship through a service airlock three feet above the ground. It was decided by a small “election” of the group's primary leaders to focus was to survive and then vote on what to do next. Isao, viewed as almost a figurehead, worked a plan to build a wooden wall around one side of the vessel and a clearing. After a year of almost straight building, the small village and wall were built, and Isao and the rest of the survivors went into silence.

As the years passed, the isolation began to take hold. Some went mad and jumped the wall into the unknown, others died in their chambers wanting to be masters of their own fate. A set of scouts, two for each cardinal direction, were formed as a search party and a long distance reconnaissance system, were formed shortly after, with Isao himself going west. After a short period to collect supplies, the scouts ventured forth, and Isao said goodbye to the very people he had been with for the past decades. He assumed he'd never see them again.

On his trek West he stumbled upon a road. Following this road he ended up at a terraforming site. He took up a position as a freelance laborer, concealing his armor and weapons in a cache in the forming wilderness. It wasn't easy work, but he preferred the exhaustion of building life than taking it. He sent his second scout back to Liang, believing the reclusive crashsite-living veterans would soon either all separate or die. As Heled was tamed, Isao began to adjust to being an outcast. Once the forming of Heled's environment was finished however, he fell back into drifting without purpose. Living in the very cache he'd hidden his past, it haunted him until he had enough.

In the year 3017, Isao donned his armor again and resigned himself to walking the corners of Heled to find a place to build a home and live out his days. Leaving the Glass City and going into orbit, Isao found a notice for the colonization of Heled outside of the City of Glass. Realizing he still could be technically called a Knight, he joined the expedition and swore fealty to Lord Aniseth Whitemeadow.

Though not all was well. His mind had lapsed in judgement, and in the first few months of fealty and actually meeting the Lord. Isao had a very brief affair with Lady Aleksasha Whitemeadow, and doing so put his entire status and life at risk. Initially, the single day affair was kept hushed, but slowly found its way around until finally reaching Lord Whitemeadow. Lord Whitemeadow took this as an insult and challenged Isao to a duel. Believing it a sword duel, Isao swallowed his pride and was prepared to just defend until either yielding or dying. On the morning of the duel, Isao discovered it was a duel with ancient pistols. Trying to adapt his plan quickly and surviving a missed shot, Isao placed a shot wide as to say that he wasn't going to kill him but wasn't going to yield, submitting to his regrets to die. Lord Whitemeadow on the third shot of the duel, put a mortal wound on Isao to which he finally fell. Through advanced medical systems of which he had never seen outside of Taianese space, he was revived.

After spending a week in a recovery state, Isao took this as the gods telling him that he was to atone for his mistakes. After another week of isolation, Isao came in front of Lord Whitemeadow for judgement. As a peace offering, Isao gave his family's Wakizashi to Lord Whitemeadow, signifying that his life was to be dictated by him. Lord Whitemeadow gave the only offer he would. Isao would keep his position as Knight of House Whitemeadow, but was barred from ever setting foot on Heled again. He was given a ship, the Avern Liad, and a band of soldiers to act as his charge. Setting off on the first task, filling the coffers of the House, Isao was thought to never return.

Setting foot in invasion of a world to raid it, Isao met the Azalea Free Company on a similar mission and their leader Lord Creature du Rochon. Word of Isao's banishment and why had already reached the fringes and capitals of the Kowloon Region, and Isao was quickly dubbed “Isao, The Bloodtree Slayer” to which he quickly tried to forget and failed. Throughout the raid, Isao and his company marched with Azalea Company until they reached the Treasury. Quickly filling their ships, they left before any major blockade was formed and returned with minimal casualties.

Isao had unexpectedly survived his mission, and remained in Heled's orbit awaiting new orders and training his soldiers to pass time. Then, in the first month of 3018, Isao received his first blessing. While Isao was serving as a combat medic in Tai Pan's Honor Guard, they had been steadily introduced to a new type of soldier which was branded to replace them, the ones based on the ancient Earth Chinese Zodiac. One of those soldiers had developed an affection for Isao, which at the time he didn't notice much nor pay too much attention to. This soldier, Ilona Zamaki had returned, though was now human. Through the connections that she had made through Lady Whitemeadow, she was now her agent to make sure that Isao was still alive, and began the depressed man's rise back to normality.

While Ilona nursed Isao back to mental health, they developed a relationship. By the forth month of 3018, Ilona told Isao that she was to bear him children, his twin daughters, and Isao knew that he had to figure out a way to either secure himself back to Heled or find some way to make landfall permanently. He knew space was no place to raise a family. The only problem was that Isao had no idea how.

When Lord Whitemeadow was capture and his manor burned, Isao sent half of his forces down to act as auxiliary forces to Lady Whitemeadow. While they were below, Isao began to feel a calling to Heled but couldn't name why. This manifested again when Isao and Ilona snuck down to Heled's surface and was immediately identified by a man in Liangese armor while Isao was magically disguised. The man, later revealed to be a former scout of Isao's that had suddenly returned, told Isao that he was now the Captain of the Guards. This initially confused him, but after reading a letter passed to him by the man before he disappeared again, Isao knew what needed to be done. Leaving the City of Glass, Isao and Ilona left for the river valley that Isao had arrived on years ago and found the village had not grown, but the populace had.

Being ushered by a Yeoman into the docile wreck of a ship, Isao was met with a council based upon the three classes of people: the soldiers, the hunters, and the families. All had unanimously voted Isao into the previous Captain's position and with it the false claim as Shogun of Liang. Isao knew that he had to control this information, and fast. If he didn't, Lord Whitemeadow would soon know and would levy an army against him. Isao thought fast and began forming a plan to restore honor to himself and retie his allegiance to House Whitemeadow.

Isao snuck down multiple times down to the river valley, slowly building his political strength before finally addressing the entire village at once. He told them of Heled, House Whitemeadow, and how the previous Captain had chosen ignorance and isolation over survival. Through his words, he was able to win the full support of all of the soldiers, all of the hunters, and most of the families. Assembling his troops for march, Isao sent for Ilona and sent a Yeoman with a letter to Lady Whitemeadow at the City of Glass to send for Lord Whitemeadow at the eastern crossroads to the City of Glass.

Ilona took all of Isao's men down from the Avern Liad, meeting the rest of Isao's Liang Army east of the crossroads and had them cast away their Tai Pan armor copies and resuited them in Liangese Imperial Armor. Marching to the crossroads, Isao met Lord Whitemeadow and ceded the army to him with him as their commander. Lord Whitemeadow folded Isao's army into Whitemeadows and Isao was able to retain leadership. Lord Whitemeadow spoke of the Atraxians, and how they had levied an invasion force against Heled. Isao was told by Lord Whitemeadow that he was unforgiven and cursed by the very oath he took that if he or his family ever stepped foot near him, Lady Whitemeadow, or their children he would die. Solemn and understanding, Isao finally felt at a state to declare himself free of his mistakes though at the same time knew he wasn't. He knew he could raise his family on land, at that was all he needed.

The war with the Atraxians was short, and when Lady Whitemeadow was too far in pregnancy to lead House Whitemeadow's Army, Isao took the reins in the final months and drove a hard fought but well needed victorious end to the war. Through this, and the oath Isao swore, Isao and Ilona were given land to rule and title to fit. The time following, Isao was blessed with another daughter and his son. While Lady Whitemeadow was able to visit on rare occasions, Isao was never present and in this absence, Lord Sutauto began to form around both the Liang Guardsman and the Banished Knight within him. Isao retained his army of Liang Elites through political maneuvering and patience and the Red Knights of Sutauto became known throughout the region of both their dominion and the Kowloon Empire.

Sutauto Isao is connected to:

• Hyarmenyandon Felmion - Father (Deceased)
• Hyarmenyandon Cemnarisse - Mother (Deceased)
• Norogumi Varyamo - Father Figure, honored friend.
• Sutauto Yumi - Former Wife
• Sutauto Kunio - Son (With Yumi)
• Ilona Sutauto - Wife
• Tsukiko Sutauto - Daughter (twin born GSC 3018)
• Haruko Sutauto - Daughter (twin born GSC 3018)
• Miyu Sutauto - Daughter (born GSC 3023)
• Ren Sutauto - Son (born GSC 3038)

Sutauto Isao can speak four languages: Liangese, Taipanese, Trade (English), and Elvish.

Sutauto Isao is currently a Kowloon Lord and has a well off purse to boot. His coffers and treasury are in great supply.