Artwork by @arctictemplarmoon
Artwork by davkgerart (Instagram/twitter)
Finally posting my lore for Gisei in the MK1 timeline. I’ve been putting this off for awhile, kind of waiting to see if NRS will finally announce the next MK game. But I’ve been wanting to share this with other people so screw it. I’ll adjust her story if I need to. This has also been a huge struggle because of a lack of world building for Seido/Orderrealm from NRS. So to preface, most of this world building is based around headcanons of my own, the Seido story of @biiguru and @tsuin , as well as some stories I created alongside @arctictemplarmoon ‘s oc, Ansei.
Gisei was born into a Seidan middle caste family to a priestess mother and a guardsman father in the red district, being the military district. Her mother was of a higher caste due to her status as a priestess, but having been married off to a guardsman lowered her status. Gisei’s mother shortly passed after childbirth, leaving her father to be the one to raise her. Her father had intended to raise her up to be a guardsman like him, but once her elemental abilities started to manifest and they began to face money troubles, he had to change plans. Wanting to live a life of wealth and high status, he thought he could reap the benefits of having a priestess daughter. So he sent her away to the Seidan clergy, essentially abandoning her and only visiting her when it was mandatory to continue to receive benefits.
Her life in the clergy had been somewhat lonely in the first few years until she met her lifelong friend, and someone she would consider a sister, Ansei. Both got along since they both had guardsman fathers, however Ansei had a Dreamrealm mother. Ansei’s father visited often, so Gisei would come to consider him as a father figure where she had lacked one.
Gisei was trained to hone her hydromancy, an ability she had inherited from her mother. In the clergy she had been sworn to celibacy, trained in the ways of combat, and the teachings of the religious sector. She would be sent to do work in the temple in the outer district, working with the slaves and enforcers. Seido’s Resistance was particularly prominent in the outer districts, but Gisei would turn a blind eye to it, having felt pity and sympathy for the slaves. Although she wasn’t a part of the resistance, she wouldn’t report the confessions of those who had been members or admitted to being a part of the movement.
When she had come of age, her father had considered marrying her off to a wealthier guardsman. Having slipped some money and bribed the arrangement committee, he managed to have her be considered by none other than Seido’s general, Hotaru. The two had met before a few times, but neither really liked the other. They tolerated each other, but nothing more. Seidan arranged marriages called for a trial week where the two would spend an entire week together before they finalized the marriage. However, Gisei wanted nothing to do with him, and wanted to try to do anything to get out of the marriage. Having found out her father had bribed the committee for this opportunity, she figured out the full scope of his scheme. He wanted to marry her off to the general in the hopes it would let him become a higher ranking guardsman faster. Gisei went to Hotaru with this information, and so he called off the marriage. He respected her for her honesty in coming forward with the information, making sure to leave a good word with her Mother Superior. Little did he know that one of her other motives would be because her heart belonged to another.
In the trial week, Gisei had stayed in Hotaru’s estate. She hardly ever really got to see him as he had been busy with his own duties, not that she minded anyways. Never growing up with servants of her own, the whole experience felt very weird to her. She wanted to talk with the servants, but they would simply turn her down or excuse themselves back to their own work. Gisei began getting to know Hotaru’s personal servant, Dairou, occasionally talking with him when she could catch him. She had quickly begun falling for him, but because of their statuses and her oath of celibacy, it couldn’t work. That is if no one officially knew about them being together. During the day when Hotaru was busy, Gisei and Dairou would have a secret sexual relationship. For the most part it was somewhat one sided with Gisei having feelings for Dairou, but him mostly just enjoying the sex and not really reciprocating any romantic feelings towards her.
Since Hotaru had respected Gisei, he had considered her almost as a friend, and invited her and her sister priestesses occasionally for dinner. It was in these nights that she would occasionally see Dairou again. Ansei would be the only one who would ever really know about their relationship. She would try to warn Gisei and convince her to cease the relationship to no avail. Little did the two know that the committee would arrange Ansei to be wed to the general. Knowing how he was, Gisei completely objected to it, trying to convince Ansei to do what she could to get out of it. She was too sweet for the ruthless General. He would ruin her, and Gisei didn’t want that. Unfortunately for them, the arrangement would go forward, and Ansei would be engaged to the General.
Since she had access to the Seidan Resistance in the outer districts, Dairou had convinced her to become a messenger. Gisei had now become a willing participant in their cause. She had been doing so in the hopes that he would eventually reciprocate romantic interest in her. Gisei would give her messages to members as “advice” from confessionals whenever they came to her. In her mind, her joining the resistance was also a way to get back at the General for taking her “sister” away.
She would continue this routine for months until she was eventually caught, getting arrested for working with the resistance. It wasn’t revealed until later while she was being interrogated that she had been having a secret relationship with Dairou. Gisei’s titles and status were stripped away from her, and she was disowned by her father. Hotaru was furious and was allowed the chance to carry out the punishment himself. He beat her and cut up her face, giving her the signature scars she would later go on to have. Since she had been working in connection with the Seidan resistance, she would be sentenced to death as a way to quell the resistance.
The night before her execution she was visited by Ansei. Although she knew she couldn’t convince any of the senators to let her go, the least she could do was let her sister die with dignity. Ansei healed her facial cuts, letting them scar so at least Gisei could still die with her beauty. This would be the last time the two would ever see each other again. All alone in her cell, Gisei would pray. Forgiveness? Salvation? She wasn’t exactly sure. What she does know was that her prayers were answered when a sorcerer had come to her. Was it divine intervention? A coincidence? Did someone come to save her? She had so many questions but none would be answered. He had given her a proposition. In exchange for her assistance, he would give her a gift that would let her achieve whatever she needed without anyone or anything getting in her way. He quickly left before the guards came and took her to be executed.
Gisei didn’t know what this gift was or what it would do. She believed that there was no gift, and she was just given false hope to ease her nerves. As he had been allowed to fulfill her punishment, Hotaru would also be her executioner. The one thing he did promise was that it would be a quick end. With a swift swing of his naginata, he cut off her head, proudly displaying it as a warning to the resistance. He ordered her body to be disposed of, and her body was dumped into a biohazard waste disposal facility underneath the prison. With her new abilities given to her from the sorcerer, she opened her eyes, rejoining her head to her shoulders. Gisei had died but came back as if it was nothing. She now understood her newfound powers, and began to escape.
Now being free and considered dead, she ran off to the outer districts to rejoin the resistance. Showing her new abilities to the rest of the members, she devoted her life to the resistance as a spy and informant. It wasn’t long until Dairou, now renamed Havik, would also “fake” his own execution having been given similar abilities from the sorcerer. He would also rejoin the resistance, but would be shocked to see Gisei believing her dead. He was surprised by her devotion to the cause, but to her, she had already made it this far, so she couldn’t give up now.
She always got the information they needed for their operations, no matter what she needed to do. Havik slowly started to take an interest in her, seeing how she cared for the other resistance members. Now that the two were reunited with the resistance, the sorcerer, revealing himself as Quan Chi, had come for them to uphold their end of the bargain. He promised them spells to overthrow the Seidan government in exchange for their assistance in his plans with Shang Tsung. Gisei was skeptical, but she couldn’t deny that Quan Chi had given her her new abilities. All she could do now was agree and hope for the best.
As stated before, their relationship began as a one sided fling. Havik believed she was only playing with his feelings, not knowing why a woman of her status would ever want to be with him. However, when she kept doing secret work for him for the resistance, he slowly but surely started reciprocating some of his own feelings towards her. Seeing her devotion to the cause, even after risking her own life for it, he felt nothing but admiration, respect, and love for her.
As for Gisei, she knows she completely ruined her life the moment she decided on having a secret relationship with him. She had been hoping that one day he would feel the same way she does for him. She just wanted to be loved by someone, and she was lucky enough that her love was eventually accepted and reciprocated.
Here is Gisei’s MK1 voice claim if you would like to hear!
