Exalted: "Dirty Bull" Meng

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When one thinks of the Solar Exalted one expects a certain dignity and noble bearing, whether that is as the heroic warrior kings their followers see them as or as the brutal tyrants the Dragon-Blooded denounce them as.

What one does not expect is "Dirty Bull" Meng.

Who is "Dirty Bull" Meng?
To put it bluntly Meng is an oaf - a crude, loud-mouthed drunkard who lives according to three appetites - Eating, Drinking and Fighting - and steering himself towards whichever of these is closest or most desirable at the present moment. He sleeps in the woods, hunting for any food he doesn't steal but to call him a Thief is inappropriate, as thievery is at least somewhat professional. He's not really a Bandit either, per se, as Meng still has enough of a moral compass to avoid victimising the less fortunate. ("Besides, rich people have better stuff and are usually assholes anyway.") Meng takes things he wants from people he can loosely justify as deserving it, blows it on extravagant amounts of food and alcohol, then skips town to avoid the fallout from the ensuing drunken rampage.

"You Cannot Stop "Dirty Bull" Meng"
One would expect the life that Meng leads to be short and end in a gruesome, well-deserved manner. But the one thing that everyone, friend or foe, who has crossed his path can agree on is that "You cannot stop "Dirty Bull" Meng." For even though his enemies, his lifestyle and even his diet have worked tirelessly for many years to finally put an end to him, Meng has three things on his side: This has combined to make Meng something of a folk hero to people he has passed in his wake, even through no intention (or frequently any knowledge at all) of Meng himself. People just seem to find stories of his sheer disrespect for the law, society and the world at large oddly comforting and inspiring in these troubled times, and will pass on stories of his escapades around campfires and across drinking halls:
 * 1) A frankly unnatural resistance to damage - he will guzzle spoiled food, shrug off beatings from entire guard platoons and seem genuinely baffled at the idea that that should have killed him.
 * 2) A brazen, stubborn sense of self confidence that has allowed him to talk himself out of, and into, many unfortunate situations.
 * 3) Sheer dumb luck. Meng himself would be the first to admit, this last one has a lot to do with it.

"Did you hear that Magistrate Wa tried to challenge Meng to a duel? He made him promise that if he was defeated he would come quietly, and if he won he could go free!"

"So did he manage to arrest him?"

"No. When the duel started he bowed, but while he was distracted Meng kicked him in the groin and ran away."

Perhaps the - somewhat exaggerated and misremembered - stories of Meng's wild exploits and audacious heists will outlive even him, though given his tenacity that would have to be a very long time indeed.

The Man, The Mystery
There is one thing however that - entirely by Meng's design - no-one spends enough time around him to realise until his present company, and that is that he is on the run from something. Well, a great many things if you factor in all the people he's crossed, laws he's broken and many, many things he's stolen, but there seems to be one hound constantly at his tail driving him ever further into the wilderness. There are some eccentricities to Meng's behaviour that perhaps tie into this. While Meng's behaviour seems entirely governed by his worldly appetites, on the rare occasions he is caught between benders (and recovering from said benders) a sense of melancholy enters his demeanour, and on the even rarer occasions he actually feels shame for his actions it drives him into a mood blacker and more self-loathing than one would think him capable of.

Then there is the matter of his anima. Far from the "Dirty Bull" he portrays himself as, his Anima banner is a resplendent golden Bear rearing up on its hind legs with a righteous bearing that (along with the clarity and seriousness that enters his voice when he speaks with his Anima revealed) seems utterly incongruous with the oafish shambolic behaviour Meng maintains the rest of the time.

Is there a secret that ties all this together? Maybe, but if so it is locked so deep inside his heart that even Meng may not be thief enough to crack it.

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