Ryuutei

[Ryuutei 滝亭 (Waterfall Pavillion)]
[Kirigakure no Sato]
[Onihara 鬼腹 (Oni's Endless Stomach)]
[Kiyoshi Ryuutei (NPC)]

• [Satori Ryuutei]
  
• [Other]
  
• [Members]
  

Clan History/Description

The Ryuutei Clan are a clan known for their destructive force, military tactics, and bloodthirsty behavior. Naturals when it comes to hunting and war, and well known for having brutal and pragmatic views and culture. This evolved from their original Kekkai Genkai that allowed them to assimilate and absorb the energy and traits of anything that they devoured. Hundreds of years ago, the Ryuutei were just another fight-hungry tribe that held close ties to nature, their early beliefs holding that one always ate what one killed, even then. However, after an interaction with a Bijuu, the two-tailed cat, and the removal of a small part of its body, the beast escaped. The resulting chunk of flesh was then devoured, as was the custom in the savage clan.

However, this time was different, and as the Bijuu chakra flooded into the Ryuutei it altered them and burned into their bodies and chakra network. The result was a rampage as the Ryuutei, enhanced with Bijuu chakra, tore into the landside. From this point forward, the clan became known for their rage, destructive potency, and feral nature that having the beast's chakra inside them caused. The chakra transferred from one generation to the next, the children burning with the same feral nature and prowess, but without a body designed to properly endure the chakra, and no "inner beast" to make a pact with properly.

As the years passed this chakra became repeatedly diluted, and their bodies began to slowly adjust to the shift in their chakra networks and bodies. The chakra altered their basic anatomy, slowly changing them as it forced them to evolve their own Kekkai Genkai passively to survive. This progression eventually led to the clan evolving physical traits comparable to that of incredibly diluted pseudo jinchuuriki, with animalistic physical traits, and large chakra reserves compared to other humans.

Seen as a useful weapon for their combat capabilities and raw chakra nature, the Ryuutei were accepted into Kirigakure after its founding and became one of its strongest initial members. The result was effectively making the clan into one of the more potent weapons of Kirigakure, and granted them a substantial section of land in the country where they were allowed to train their young as they wished with their brutal, and bloody methods required in order to endure their own chakra. They have since become well known for their brutal power, efficiency in combat, and primal nature ever since.

Clan/Bloodline Traits & Characteristics

Physically Ryuutei have elongated primary cuspids and claws on both toes and fingers that can retract and extend similar to a feline. Their hair tends to be dark colors varying from black to brown, with curly and wild patterns, usually extremely thick like the pelt of an animal. Eyes are generally feline in nature, holding vertical pupils and tend to be red, yellow, or green. Generally, they are born with extremely large builds, and average at six foot four inches, with the tallest being over seven feet tall.

Similarly, Ryuutei tend to hit puberty at a much younger age and have an escalated growth rate. Normally people tend to completely finish growing from eighteen to twenty-one on average, however, Ryuutei tend to finish growing by the age of sixteen to eighteen. Generally, this means that when other children are just starting to enter puberty, Ryuutei are already physically in their late teens. This does slightly shorten their average life expectancy, but only by a few years generally and for Shinobi such things rarely matter. Often due to the care of the medical shinobi in the family, it matters even less as they live such healthy lifestyles.

Culture & Traditions

In many ways, the Ryuutei are incredibly forward thinking, and yet in many others they are not. The reason for this is that sex has a tremendous regulation within the clan as a whole, due to the birth success rate of Ryuutei children being so low. This being inhibited by the Bijuu chakra, often killing Ryuutei children within a few years of life, or before even birth. This, however, comes at a substantial trade-off. Blood-related Ryuutei hold tremendous raw chakra, and often are feral warriors feared highly compared to others. However, the damage they often suffered, combined with their low birth rate, caused the clan's population to rapidly decline. This led to many initial deaths in the clan and caused the roles within it to shift based on the phenomenon.

Due to the fact that they could not risk women dying on the battlefield, they were kept to the clan compound and were expected to learn Medical Jutus from a young age. Similarly, they were expected to handle finances, documentation, and proper education. Due to this, the females became tacticians, librarians, teachers, and doctors while the men became front-line fighters, cooks, manual labor, and cleaners. In an odd way, despite the fact that males and females were effectively "forced" into these positions; because it was not out of a thought of superiority, there was never any issues as it was all for the betterment of the clan.

Women are not looked down upon, and in fact are respected for the work that they perform and often find themselves as the head of the clan, or parts of its high council due to their knowledge of tactics. Women are allowed to become warriors, if they so desire, but are expected to put in the tremendous effort if they wish to deviate from the normal path of women because they are effectively weakening the other half of the clan doing so. Similarly, if a male wishes to become a teacher or tactician that is also allowed but frowned even more on due to how few males tend to survive birth and must truly prove their worth.

Another noteworthy point is that Ryuutei only have a fifty percent chance of proper survival after birth. Due to this, the clan has nearly gone extinct several times purely because their children were stillborn. This amplified the clans need for the women to become medics, and more than that, caused an alteration in the culture of the clan itself so that multiple women per male is incredibly common within the clan. It's not unusual at all for a male to have two to four wives, that all live together relatively happily within a single home in order to maximize the birth rate of the clan. Often many women are offered to the clan for political benefits as well.

Similarly, stillbirth is not something that is nearly as emotionally stunting within the clan as it is so commonplace, and due to this children are rarely seen as "loved" until they reach the age of a year and have gotten past the danger zone. Children due to this, do not have names and are instead given numbers to go by until they reach maturity and earn their name through an action that they have performed. Due to this, names are incredibly sacred within the clan, as it to them represents that you managed to survive not only birth but the rough childhood of being nameless and enduring tremendous training.

A notable tradition within the clan is simply that killing is not to be taken lightly, and that should one kill, all resources of the body must be used properly. This comes from their ancient beliefs that led to the osmosis of Bijuu chakra to begin with, and the tribal traditions are still clung to today. This rule includes the battlefield, and the Ryuutei are often seen as savages for their "Battlefield Feasts", being willing to cannibalize other humans that they have killed and use their bones for weaponry, their skin for material, and the leftovers for fertilizer in their farms.

Similarly, the clan doesn't care about age or sex when it comes to adulthood. Instead, in order to become an adult, it comes in two forms as a staged test. The first is that the child must live in the forest without being given any weapons or supplies at all, bare naked for a month living entirely off the land starting from nothing. On completion of this, the child is required to return with all clothing, weapons, materials, and leftovers from their kills so that the clan can make use of them all. With this, they are given bone piercings that decorate their eyebrows, lips, ears, and nose. This allows them to be considered an adult, allowing them to be considered "legal" as it were, but not a standing member of the clan to participate in meetings, own land, and so forth.

Instead, comes from having to kill a human opponent in battle, neither of them can be armed or wearing anything and are chained to the ground so that escape and tactics are impossible beyond basic physical feints and similar actions. Anything goes, and once they defeat the opponent they must kill them while looking into their eyes, and then butcher and eat them while turning the remains into useful tools. This is generally how the Ryuutei's first true weapon of their choice is made and signifies them as true clan members that can claim wives or husbands, as well as own property.

A universal law within the Ryuutei Clan, is that no matter your current standing or rank, you are allowed to challenge anyone within the clan for their own rank at any time. Anyone can be challenged at any time, and must accept the challege or they forfeit their ranking. Duels are controlled by a majority vote, with each participant and one referee, and always hold the possibility of death at any time (though it is required to halt before killing, accidental deaths are quite common within the clan despite this).

Notable Ranks

• "Nameless": Those that have not yet earned their rank as an adult, they lack the adult piercings that the named have and lack any form of distinct names or aliases, not allowed to own land and forced to live with their parents generally.
  
• "Named": An uncommon rank within the clan but not incredibly rare. This is considered the step from the bottom, these are Ryuutei that have managed to achieve proper adulthood and have been allowed to choose their own name. They are allowed to sit at the table during meetings, own land, building their own home, claim mates, and so forth. To become a named they must kill another warrior (non-Ryuutei) in unarmed combat completely naked, before eating the corpse and turning their bones into their first tools and weapons.
  
• "Seated": These are considered the council of the clan, there are a total of twenty-five seats. Each seat is ranked based on power, skill, and experience. The higher the number, the weaker the seat. This is a rank that mixes with the other ranks as generally the clan Champion and Clan Heads are both the number one or two Seated members of the clan.
  
• "Champion": Given to the mightiest warrior of the clan, the Champion is an honorary title that grants the individual no extra diplomatic power, but does give them access to the scroll holding the Clan Kinjutsu, as well as the ability to take control over seated, elders, and below during times of crisis. Comparable to a "Grand General", to the Clan Head's "Emperor".
  
• "Clan Head": The head of the clan and the step above the seated members of the clan, they hold large diplomatic power but can be overridden by votes of the elders and seated council if the situation requires it. The Clan Head is decided through combat as with all things in the clan.
  
• "Red Lion": A rare, honorary title gifted to the few individuals that have mastered the "Red Lion" Kinjutsu technique of the clan. Only a handful of Ryuutei have earned this title throughout the hundreds of years it has existed.
  
• "Elder": Retired Clan Heads and Champions, the Elders are old Ryuutei that have begun to deteriorate physically but hold tremendous rank, power and skill.
  

Bloodline Description & Abilities

Feline Traits [Free] [Exaple Image: Claws]
Ryuutei have natural weapons in the form of their retractable claws and fangs. These weapons are C-Rank quality and hardness and are retractable. Fangs are up to two inches long each and can retract to an inch in length. Claws are up to four inches long and can retract until their points barely overhang from their fingertips. They also have an improved sense of smell comparable to a feline, allowing for scent-based roleplay and a + to their Perception.

Monsterous Chakra [Free]
Compared to other humans, Ryuutei are well known for their immense chakra reserves and stamina. This is due to the diluted Bijuu chakra floating through their networks, and it causes several side effects. Granting them + to their Stamina, and causing anyone that senses their chakra to feel something more akin to an animal or beast than a human.

Pack Hunters [500 EXP]
Ryuutei's natural chakra and animalistic traits have caused them to specifically evolve with a supernatural empathy toward felines. Felines instinctually see Ryuutei as one of their own, allowing interactions with them to be far easier. This causes combination techniques with the felines tremendously easier as they can act based on one another's body language and physical tells, not having to rely on verbal communication. While feline-based summons/pets are active, both the Ryuutei and the feline(s) gain an extra ++ to Coordination and + to Speed. This cannot push these stats to X-Rank.

Feral Progression [500 EXP] [Must be Purchased On-Creation, or Requires "Feast of Flesh"]
Some Ryuutei are born with abnormal amounts of the Bijuu chakra within them, generally due to their side of the family having cannibalized itself causing the diluted chakra to steadily build up within the branch until it was passed down and condensed into the character. This can also be acquired by eating large quantities of other Ryuutei, heavy chakra users (individuals with A-Rank or higher stamina), or Bijuu flesh. By doing so their raw chakra, as well as feral traits all are enhanced even further than normal. This grants the Ryuutei a further + to their Stamina and Perception, this cannot push these Stats to X-Rank.

Unbreaking Claws [500 EXP]
Through extensive abuse of their claws and fangs, constantly using them against opponents and hard materials, the Ryuutei's body will naturally adjust over time. This causes their natural weapons to steadily grow stronger, causing them to become A-Rank quality and hardness. Their teeth and claws infinitely regrow, the speed of such being equal to one IC day per rank of stamina that they have.

Feast of Flesh [500 EXP]
Ryuutei's core Kekkai Genkai that came far before their passive augmentations was the ability to assimilate and adapt to any genetic material that they devoured. This allowed them to rapidly evolve and grow stronger by feasting on the flesh of others. Though their Bijuu chakra has augmented their bodies and chakra networks, this remains a potent ability. If a Ryuutei eats the flesh of a living creature that holds chakra (pets, shinobi, summons, etc), there is then a 2 post waiting period while they digest. On the third post they begin regenerating minor injuries and 5 chakra per post for three posts. This has a 4 post cooldown (the cooldown begins after the last post of regeneration ends). This only effects registered or purchased NPC and Summons, as well as PC (this rule can be overturned if those within the thread allow it to effect non-registered NPC/Mook NPC by ooc vote).

Ritual of Flesh [1,000 EXP] [Requires "Feast of Flesh"]
Ryuutei are able to evolve their dietary abilities and evolve their stomachs even further so that when they devour the chakra-rich flesh of others, they are able to not only regenerate their bodies but also empower themselves with a temporary burst of energy from the meal. This means that while "Feast of Flesh" is active, the Ryuutei gains the normal benefits but also gains a + to Strength, Speed, Coordination, and Perception. This can never push these stats into X-Rank. This also unlocks the special "Ritual of Flesh and Water" Clan Technique.

Bloodline Limits & Drawbacks
Ryuutei are naturally empowered with raw Bijuu chakra, but this is not without its drawbacks. As even with their empowered chakra networks and large bodies, they are no more durable than other shinobi. This is due to their own chakra constantly eating away at their bodies passively. Similarly, their enhances senses may seem like a potential benefit but it can also be used against them due to their over-sensitive eyes, ears, and nose.

As well, due to their ravenous hunger Ryuutei need to eat twice to three times as much food as a normal human. As such if they do not roleplay eating some form of food every [1+Stamina Rank] IC hours, they will begin suffering the loss of one + in Constitution, Strength, and Speed per post until they're rendered too weak to properly move.

Clan Techniques

Clan Contract
The Ryuutei have been closely bonded with the Lion Summoning since their first steps into beginning to bond with their Bijuu chakra. Their natural affinity for animals, combined with their natural primal nature made them prime candidates for the summons, and it took little time for the Lion Tribe and their servants to form a contract with the Ryuutei. Often, the champion of the clan is required to fight the head of the Tribe in a one on one battle to obtain the Tribes respect, to become the head of the Ryuutei Clan.