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meng yao
COURTESY NAME JIN GUANGYAO

BASICS

CANON. the untamed.
CANON POINT. Pre-Wen infiltration
AGE. 19(ish, age in The Untamed is hard)
APPEARANCE.

IN CHARACTER

HISTORY.

Born February 20th, the same day as his half-brother Jin Zixuan, to prostitute Meng Shi and Jin Sect leader Jin Guangshan. Meng Shi was convinced Jin Guangshan would come for his son and teach him cultivation, and devoted her time and money to educating Meng Yao in preparation for such a day.
Endured poor treatment at the brothel where his mother was contracted to work, kept in a cupboard while she was working.
After his mother's death, left the brothel where he grew up to go to Jinlingtai to ask his father to formally recognize him; was instead kicked down the stairs of Carp Tower.
Thereafter found his way to Qinghe Nie, where he worked in the army as an errand boy. During this time, he was mocked and bullied by the other Nie soldiers, to the point he ate alone rather than with the other soldiers. Nie Mingjue, leader of the Nie Sect, noticed this, and reprimanded his soldiers, immediately promoting Meng Yao to his righthand man.
Quickly became indispensable to Nie Mingjue, who praised Meng Yao to his good friend Lan Xichen, leader of the Gusu Lan Sect.
During Gusu Lan summer school, escorted Nie Huaisang to Cloud Recesses, and assisted in presenting Lan Qiren with a gift. During the presentation, Lan disciples mocked him for his birth, but Lan Xichen stepped in, praising him for his well-spoken erudition.
Returned to Qinghe Nie.
Next seen meeting Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji, who had taken custody of delinquent Xue Yang. The group brought him back to the Unclean Realm, where Meng Yao advocated to keep him alive to try to get information about the Wen sect and the Yin Iron.
The Wen Sect arrived the day later to reclaim Xue Yang and the Yin Iron. When Nie Mingjue refused to give either of them up, the Wen Sect attacked the Unclean Realm. In the ensuing chaos, Meng Yao allowed Xue Yang to escape, and murdered a general who had mocked and belittled him previously. Nie Mingjue saw this, but before he could attack Meng Yao for his crime, Meng Yao saved Nie Mingjue's life.
After the Wen left the Unclean Realm, allowing Nie Mingjue to keep his life, Nie Mingjue kicked Meng Yao out of the Unclean Realm. Injured, without a plan or a clan to take refuge behind, Meng Yao set out to find Lan Xichen, whose Cloud Recesses had been raized by the Wen Sect prior to their attack on the Unclean Realm.
Meng Yao found Lan Xichen and hid him in a brothel, before leaving to join the Wen and act as an informant on the inside. This is when he will be lured into Happy Hearts.

PERSONALITY.

Like many characters in The Untamed, Meng Yao is shaped by a cruel environment which taught him to look out for himself and his own interests because no one else will. Despite hs father's high status, society treats him as a second-class citizen, bullying, mocking, ridiculing, and even abusing him for his mother's profession. This treatment has bred in him both a desperation for approval and a seething resentment which leads, in the end, to an increasingly avoidable series of tragic events.

Due to the circumstances of his life, Meng Yao has a victim mentality which he uses as a way to absolve himself of the guilt of any of his crimes. He is, in his opinion, merely reacting to circumstances out of his control, which leave him no other choice but to do the things he does — he had to kill the general who let Xue Yang go. In order to keep his place in the Wen clan, he had to torture the members of other clans. In order to save face and maintain reputation, he had to marry his half sister. In order for no one to become suspicious of their relation, he had to kill their son. He refuses to acknowledge the different choices he could have made, insisting he was backed into a corner with each one and could not possibly have done anything differently — after all, the maintenance of his reputation among the clans is paramount, more important than the lives of others and all moral concerns.

Having learned early in his life that his birth will always be used against him, Meng Yao has gotten very good at projecting the perfect face to suit every occasion in an attempt to counteract this with a good reputation — for all the good it's done him. With an eidetic memory and the ability to remember everything about a person after meeting them at least twice, Meng Yao works very hard to appeal to everyone he possibly can, constantly putting on an act. He will take an insult on the chin and smile, allowing people to say whatever they like to his face while committing everything they've ever said or done to him to memory, building resentment. As intelligent as he is, people still constantly underestimate him, and that makes it easy for him to play them against each other, saying and doing whatever will please the person in front of him at the moment while still advancing his own agenda.

There are people in his life that Meng Yao is genuinely fond of — Nie Mingjue, at first, his younger brother Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen, Qin Su, Jin Ling — but Meng Yao would and has hurt all of these people when it suited him, when he felt backed into a corner and didn't see another choice. He also expects anyone who shows him kindness to one day turn on him, so lives in wait for the day they reveal their true feelings — though he began his mission to kill Nie Mingjue on orders from his father, Meng Yao ended it happily, when Nie Mingjue hit his berserk button by calling him a son of whore. Meng Yao gave Jin Ling a husky as a present, evidence of genuine affection for his nephew — and then held a garrotte to his neck and used him as a human shield in Guanyin Temple. While he never did anything to physically hurt Lan Xichen, and in fact made sure that the Lan Sect was able to rebuild in the wake of the Sunshot Campaign, Meng Yao still lied to Lan Xichen constantly, about many things, leaving Lan Xichen bereft and unable to trust himself in the wake of all Meng Yao's deeds coming to light. There is no one Meng Yao loves so much that he could not, some day, bring himself to cause them harm.

In the end, though, all of his scheming and resentment really boils down to one thing: Meng Yao wants, has always wanted, approval and acknowledgment. At first he wanted this acknowledgment from his father, and then when he realized he would never get that, the cultivation world at large. Meng Yao is a brilliant strategist, an able schemer, talented in so many ways — and no one ever cares to notice. Or if they do notice, they take credit for his accomplishments. This desire for approval, and knowledge of just how much more he deserves from the people around him, turns poisonous and hollow over the years, leading him to resentment and anger (he'd make a greath Sith). Though there are people who offer him understanding and who acknowledge his talents, they are never enough to satisfy him.

ABILITIES

STRENGTHS.

SOFT SWORD though not quite an able Cultivator, a nonetheless capable swordsman. Later in the series, uses a soft sword, Hensheng.

GOLDEN CORE Like others from the world of The Untamed or Mo Dao Zu Shi, Meng Yao has cultivated a golden core, which allows him to utilize his spiritual energy in the application of spells and swordfighting techniques. Due to his lack of education in childhood, his cultivation is some of the weakest in the series, with his strength lying in learning a wide variety of techniques, rather than mastering a single one.

EIDETIC MEMORY Meng Yao has a photographic memory. He never forgets a face, and can remember names, likes, dislikes, and even minute details of entire conversations. [3]

INTELLIGENCE Meng Yao's main strength. A first class schemer and sneak, The Mastermind.

ACTING an excellent actor, can switch from polite smiles to annoyance in a second.

WEAKNESSES.

CULTIVATION due to a late start, Meng Yao's cultivation is weak. In a direct fight, he would be hard pressed to end the victor.

TEMPER meng yao is able to hold his temper for many things, but he has one particular bersekf button: do not call him the son of a whore, or say anything rude about his mother. Just don't do it.

OPT-IN. YES

ITEMS

CLOTHES. Peasant's robes, as he's been kicked out of the Nie clan.

ITEMS / PETS. A pack of provisions for travel.

WEAPONS. A dagger, concealed in his boot for travel. Confiscated.

SAMPLES

LOG. Sample Link 1, Sample Link 2.
NETWORK. Sample Link

NAME. nina TZ. pst AGE. 28 CONTACT.

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