#Yi just being like 'IM AN ASSHOLE AND IM GOING TO BE A CLAN LORD ONE DAY GET REKT'

[yi-dashi-a]

On Wuju School Influence Pre War and Yi Hui: The Political Figure

//You know when you’re inspired to write serious headcanon posts while thinking about your muse being lovey dovey with people who look effectively older than him but are his age because wuju agelessness is dumb

  While not Elders, not even within their own province, the influence of the Wuju School within Ionia was hard to ignore. The most skilled of their craft were ageless, neigh immortals with speed and agility the likes of which have yet to be seen elsewhere. Furthermore, their devotion to Awareness in all things made them good, distant minds to pick at when influential people needed an outside opinion.

  This then put one foot in the door for the Wuju School in Ionian politics since time immemorial, and by extension its ruling clan of Yi and the Wuju Swordsman within or under said clan. It’s no surprise that some people were so, “Desperate to counter the power of [...] Wuju swordsmen, [that they] conspired to secretly free Jhin and turn him into a weapon of terror.”

  There were a good handful of ‘Wuju Swordsman’ alive pre war, though the ones that held any true political merit were:

Yi’s father (Master Yi Chao)

Yi’s grandfather (Master Yi Heng),

Grandpapa’s students (Da-Shei, Da-Kahd, Da-Zhy, and Da-Izu)

A fifth, ostracized student of Heng’s (Affectionately known as Wu-Jhei)

And, of course, Yi himself (Head Teacher Yi Hui)

  Some had greater political aspirations than others, and this is by no means in order of their political influence. Yi’s father may have only held as much sway as he did because he was a Telepath, and therefore was open for discussion from great lengths across Ionia. He had no desire to play political games. He wasn’t even prepared for them when he became Head of School so very suddenly, though he still tried to play the roll.

  When the political sphere of a pre war Ionia thought of the most influential Wuju Swordsman, it would have certainly been Yi’s grandfather who first came to mind. Yi Heng was Head of School until effectively the turn of the era (whether still canon or not), and had overseen generations of Elders turn over in his day. With a good deal of highly trained men under his thumb, it may have been he alone that prompted nerves from some.

  With smooth talking as well as strong arm tactics, Yi Heng was able to pull strings from the mountainous catacombs he exiled himself to, even long after he was deposed as Head of School. He was able to buy favors, keep the Wuju Lands in check, influence local political affairs, and even had aspirations of being an Elder himself one day. In Wuju doctrine it is strictly prohibited to take a political seat in any capacity, as decreed by the First Master Yi because of Wuju agelessness. It is seen as unfair for a man who lives forever to take a finite seat. Yet still Yi Heng’s ambitions burned hot, though maybe if he had survived post war he might have mellowed out in his lobbying ways.

  Another thing that struck fear into the hearts of some would have been the way the Wuju School effectively, with a high percent of success, churned out capable swordsman. Swordsman who were more often than not seen as some of the greatest in Ionia, perhaps only rivaled by the likes of the Wind School or the highly specialized Kinkou Ninjas. They were just good at what they did. Too good it would turn out, and that nicely brings us to the last Head Teacher at the Wuju School: Yi Hui.

  Yi himself was certainly not unknown to those in the political sphere, because he made it his goal to be known. Even before he took up a teaching roll at his father’s school, Yi would run the gambit of invites to parties from Shon-Xan’s noble clans, and he’d essentially network like crazy. He never got the chance to use his network or contacts for anything much, but it was all for the ego points anyway. Yi was already being heralded as a protégé the likes of which hadn’t been seen since the Master who literally invented Wuju Stageplay millennia ago. Yi knew he was destined to be a powerful man in a figurative sense, and he was all the more affirmed by that when he internalized Wuju agelessness at just twenty-five years old.

  But Yi was also not in a rush to become Head of School. To become the Master Yi. He deliberately built himself up, and he planted the image in the minds of some that he could become Master Yi at any time. That the debaucherous (at least by Ionian standards), idealistic loud-mouth who just happened to be a tactical genius would be, any day now, among their ranks. It made people squirm, and he drank it all up. It didn’t stop him from becoming a Wuju teacher to delay his process towards Master, which then subsequently humbled him a lot, but he still wanted the name Yi Hui to be known.

  So if your muse had their ear to the pulse of Ionian politics pre war, then they may well have heard the name Yi Hui, and they will certainly know of the Wuju School. Whether or not they can place a name to a face is another thing entirely, though Yi with his amber eyes, and now a white highlight to his hair I guess pft, was certainly a hard face to forget. Doubly so since that face has literally not changed all these decades later.