Personality: Amitabha has a quiet and still. He is quiet and still when he is happy, sad, angry, or any other emotion. True to the tenements of his philosophy of life, he tries to remain dispassionate and detached within the variations of his moods. For the most part, he manages this very well. Seeing Amitabha emotional is a rare sight indeed.
There are two drives that motivate Amitabha. The first is compassion. He longs to see a world without suffering and wishes to help the suffering of all those he sees. The second drive, however, is one that Amitabha would never admit to, one that he would never even consider existing within himself. Amitabha is very quiet and very gentle, but he is also very prideful. He believes that he is the one meant to save the souls of soquilikind. He has what is perhaps a very quiet and very gentle form of megalomania. He would never be cruel to another soquili... he just also never would believe himself to be incorrect in his philosophies or decisions.
The combination of these qualities are what have made Amitabha the way he is... motivated, isolated, and subtle.
History: When Amitabha's parents died Amitabha had already passed out of childhood into adulthood. Still, it was a sad event for him in an otherwise sheltered and peaceful life. They left him with the message to seek out his sisters,
Vara and
Misaki, and to tell them of what had befallen their parents.
On Amitabha's long and arduous journey to find his lost siblings he was torn from his sheltered life. He found himself surrounded by unfamiliar soquili, soquili whose lives were torn apart by one variety of suffering or another. Helpless compassion filled him at each plight but Amitabha didn't know of any way to help the many tragic cases that encountered.
Eventually though, a philosophy and a plan began to form in Amitabha's mind. It was as if a veil had been removed from his eyes. Amitabha saw clearly the suffering in the world and saw clearly his place and what he could do to bring about some amount of salvation. Amitabha would take this philosophy and turn it into a quest. On his way to find his lost sisters he would try to save as many poor souls as he could.
He decided he was the one who was going to save them... save them and lead them into a new and wonderful pureland of life....
~~ Pureland Herd ~~ The formation of his herd is the main plot for Amitabha. He is looking to gather followers to form a herd, a herd based around the premise of escaping the suffering of the world through philosophy. I won't make a thread for his herd until he officially arrives, but if you'd like to preemptively express interest in joining, we'd love to have you!
The herd will be inspired off of
Buddhism in general and the concepts of
Pureland Buddhism in particular. The basic notion is that soquili come to Amitabha seeking his help in being "reborn" (in this case, a mental state) into his "Pureland" and be free of suffering. Some of the basic tenants of philosophy for this herd will be based around the Buddhist Four Noble Truths:
1. Life as we know it ultimately is or leads to suffering/uneasiness (dukkha) in one way or another
2. Suffering is caused by craving or attachments to worldly pleasures of all kinds. This is often expressed as a deluded clinging to a certain sense of existence, to selfhood, or to the things or phenomena that we consider the cause of happiness or unhappiness.
3. Suffering ends when craving ends, when one is freed from desire. This is achieved by eliminating all delusion, thereby reaching a liberated state of Enlightenment (bodhi);
4. Reaching this liberated state is achieved by following the path laid out by the Buddha.
When I work out the herd, it will be more philosophical tenants than literal spiritual/religious ones, but you get the idea!
Amitabha believes that everyone is worthy of and capable of enlightenment so joining his herd will be open to everyone who wishes. There are no requirements or tests to pass. Essentially, they're in the herd as long as they follow Amitabha around as he journeys to find his missing sisters and beyond.
~~ Mating with Amitabha ~~
(Note that I have my breedings currently lined up, so Amitabha
might not have his turn for a while. Please keep in mind that this will not be immediate when applying!)
I have a particular idea in mind for mating with Amitabha. You see... he follows his philosophies very carefully, meaning that he has attempted to free himself from desire and great attachment to anything in the physical world. This means not only belongings but soquili as well. Amitabha will never fall in love or lifemate as both of these would signify attachment and would destroy his life philosophy. If he found himself getting emotionally attached to a mare he'd be more likely to push her away to try to purify himself of emotions than to bring her closer.
That said! He still is going to want to mate. He has a great interest in having children to carry on his legacy. To distance himself from the mares that he breeds with, he will not have "mates"... he will have "consorts." This means that at any one time he may have multiple consorts around. They'll have to belong in his herd for him to consider them and if they leave the herd or breed with another... he won't be angry. He just wouldn't accept them back as a consort.
To be considered as a potential mate for Amitabha you have to have your mare in character be willing to be potentially one among many consorts and willing to at least attempt to follow his philosophies. The first breeding I'd like to be with a kalona, or a unikalona. Possibly another suitably dark soquili. Amitabha would be looking to test his ability to purify troubled souls by raising unikalonas within his philosophy. These unikalonas would hopefully play some very important roles in the herd, so I'd really like this to be his first breeding. I know that a kalona would likely be uninterested in being a consort and hanging around the herd... so this part is negotiable. I figure the exact plot will depend on the exact lady to go with it. Technically I suppose that the female doesn't have to be kalona... just something pretty evil... but kalona is my default preference.
Interested in being one of his consorts? Fill out this form! It's fun to have more info! ^^
[b]~ Form ~[/b]
[quote][b]Your Soquili's name:[/b] (name)
[b]Soquili's image:[/b] (image!)
[b]Soquili's personality:[/b] (personality blurb!)
[b]Are you willing to RP some of this out?[/b] (RP isn't a requirement and I'm very slow. XD )
[b]What would bring your mare to Amitabha's side and herd? Would she be willing to have Amitabha take the larger part in raising their children? How would she feel about Amitabha's lack of emotional attachment to her?[/b] (Aka... give me your ideas for plot and whatnot! You don't have to answer each question exactly, just give me a feel for it!)
[b]Anything else?[/b] ( ? )
~~ Amitabha's Soulmate ~~
I'd like for Amitabha to have one soquili that he is somewhat more open with, that he occasionally even allows himself to be emotional to. He will share his thoughts with this soquili and spend his time with them too. Notably, he won't spend all his time. Maybe not even most of his time with this soquili. However, he will spend more time than he spends with any other individual soquili with the one that is his 'lifemate.'
I say 'lifemate' in quotations because I don't want this to be a sexual relationship. I want this to be more of an enjoyment of kindred spirits. So while I suppose that Amitabha might feel love for this soquili... it wouldn't be romantic love, at least not at first. There coooould be a breeding late in the game... but if there was, it'd only be one and it'd be Amitabha's last breeding, sort of a softening in his growing age. Pretty much.. if you want to breed with Amitabha, I'd fling your mare at him as a consort instead of a lifemate.
Because of the nature of this position, Amitabha's mostly-platonic lifemate can be
male or female! I don't really mind if this relationship grows to perhaps be more physically affectionate, be it with either gender.. but yeah... breeding just shouldn't be the main aspect of this.
I don't have strong ideas/preferences about the personality. Breed/looks/gender are certainly not going to be factored in! For the personality... I think it'd work best perhaps with someone who has the vivacity that Amitabha lacks... maybe someone more outspoken. But again... these aren't hard and solid requirements. I'd even be willing to consider a soquili with a darker personality. That has many intriguing possibilities too.
Pretty much, I'm open-minded about this!
Interested in this? XD I have a form for that too! I think I could start liking this form thing...
~ Form ~
[b]Your Soquili's name:[/b] (name)
[b]Soquili's image:[/b] (image!)
[b]Soquili's personality:[/b] (personality blurb!)
[b]Are you willing to RP?[/b] (I'd really prefer this to be backed by some amount of RP...)
[b]What would bring your soquili to Amitabha's side and herd? Would they agree with his philosophy or challenge him? How do you see them interacting? How would your soq feel about Amitabha's policy of breeding only with soquili he's not emotionally involved with?[/b] (Give me your plot ideas! My questions are more guidelines than requirements!)
[b]Anything else?[/b] ( ? )
~~ Other plots ~~
Got something you'd like to use Amitabha for? I'm all ears! Personal suggestions of things he'd be decent at include:
- Advice for upset soqs in need
- Raising/mentoring foals
- Daring feats of selflessness? Might be interesting to have a scene where Amitabha has to put his life in danger to help someone
- Conflict mediation
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