@prismatica

[approving]

▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: Nina the 3rd (i'm sorry there are so many of us)
CONTACT: vervains
OVER 18? Y
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: N/A

▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Jiang Yanli
CANON: The Untamed
CANON POINT: Episode 28, after Jin Zixuan's confession
AGE: 20-ish
BACKGROUND:

Jiang Yanli was born the eldest child of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan. Her brother, Jiang Cheng, was born when she was three or four. Details of her childhood are mostly unknown up until Wei Wuxian arrived in Lotus Pier, but it can be assumed she was as mild as she is as an adult. During her youth, she was betrothed to Jin Zixuan, due to her mother's close friendship with Jin Zixuan's mother.

When Wei Wuxian arrived in Lotus Pier, Jiang Yanli was in very adolescence. She immediately fell into the role of mediator between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, and would carry this role forward for most of her life. The three of them became very close, and Jiang Yanli was one of the only people who could remind Jiang Cheng and wei Wuxian how much they both cared about each other, even when they were fighting.

It was some years later, during Jiang Yanli's late adolescence that she went to Cloud Recesses for study with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian. Though not terribly skilled at cultivation herself — she is heavily implied to have some kind of chronic illness which she spends most of her spiritual energy keeping at bay in order to live a normal life — as an heir of Yunmeng Jiang she attended the classes nevertheless. During this time she met Jin Zixuan, who found her unappealing, and tried to keep Jiang Cheng from having a coronary every time Wei Wuxian hared off to do something forbidden and fun.

During this period of study, Wei Wuxian got in a fight with Jin Zixuan after Jin Zixuan professed displeasure with the engagement. Jiang Fengmian came to Cloud Recesses himself to convince Jin Zixuan's father, Jin Guangshan, to cancel the betrothal. Jiang Yanli accepted the cancellation despite her own feelings for Jin Zixuan.

After the Cloud Recesses, while her brothers were sent to Nightless City for indoctrination with the Wen sect, Jiang Yanli stayed home. When they returned, Wei Wuxian half-dead from his encounter with the Tortoise of Slaughter, Jiang Yanli and Jiang Fengmian left for Lanling after Clan Leader Yao came to Lotus Pier following the slaughter of his clan by the Wen sect. Before they could arrive back at the Yunmeng dock, they found Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng bound by purple lightning in a boat bound for Meishan Yu — the Wen came to Lotus Pier, and Madame Yu sent Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng away for their safety. Despite the three childrens' insistence on returning to Lotus Pier to save their home, Jiang Fengmian bound them all with purple lightning and refused to allow them to return with him.

Lotus Pier was massacred. Jiang Yanli didn't witness the aftermath like her brothers did, but rather stayed up all night waiting for word from them, leaving her with a bad fever. The three siblings took refuge in an inn, but there was little respite to be found: Jiang Cheng hared off back to Lotus Pier, and Wei Wuxian had to go rescue him. With help from a classmate of theirs from the Cloud Recesses, Wen Ning, the three of them got to safety at the home of Wen Ning's sister. Even that couldn't last, as it turned out Jiang Cheng had his Golden Core destroyed by a Wen sect assassin, and Wei Wuxian disappeared for three months after promising to get it back.

During the Sunshot Campaign, Jiang Yanli helped as much as she could, staying in Qinghe preparing meals and tending to the wounded. After reuniting with her brothers, she accompanied them to Langya to continue to assist as she was able. While there, there was another fight between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan, who once again disrespected Jiang Yanli (this time over soup).

Once the Sunshot Campaign was ended, Jiang Yanli was invited to the celebratory night hunt held by the Jin Sect on Phoenix Mountain, where there was yet another confrontation between Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan over her. It was during this confrontation that Jiang Yanli finally showed the Jin family her teeth, when Jin Zixuan's cousin Jin Zixun insulted Wei Wuxian and she politely but firmly insisted that he apologize to her younger brother.

A while later, concerned over her brother's growing instability, Jiang Yanli decided to leave Jinlintai to find Wei Wuxian with the Wen where he had hid them away in the Burial Mounds, only to discover Jin Zixuan making a lotus pond in one of the courtyards. He confessed his feelings to her —

and that's when she'll appear in Prisma.

PERSONALITY:

Jiang Yanli's given name means "to dislike separation", and there really is nothing more apt her parents could have given her — Yanli is at her happiest and most secure when all of her family and loved ones are together. There is nothing they can't weather together, and the worst things always seem to happen when they're apart. If one were being uncharitable, they could remark on the fact that Jiang Yanli doesn't seem to have much personal ambition or interests, and exists solely to support her family — and while this is, in a way, true, it doesn't give her nearly enough credit, either.

Growing up caught between her assertive mother and her kinder father — her mother who detested one brother and her father who couldn't love the other — Yanli chose kindness. She became the parent her two brothers needed, soft where her mother was sharp, indulgent where her mother was abusive, fair where her father was biased. Yanli never castigates or shames Wei Wuxian for his troublemaking behaviour, but never pits Jiang Cheng against him, either — they are both her brothers, and are both wonderful in their own ways. She never raises her voice, never gives more than gentle admonishment, always has soup ready for her brothers to celebrate with or lick their wounds. This mild, gentle personality allows her to talk sense into Jiang Cheng when he worries too much over Wei Wuxian's behaviour, and to get through to Wei Wuxian when others have difficulty doing so. She is, in essence, their rock; a source of steadfast comfort when the rest of the world is falling down around them. Life never seems all that bad when Yanli is there to pat your hair and hand you a bowl of soup.

Though not generally insecure, Yanli can have a hard time standing up for herself. When it came to Jin Zixuan's repeated slights against her, she would just stand by and let him disrespect her, and certainly could never say anything to her mother, shaming her for peeling lotus seeds during an argument between the parents. Yanli is uncomfortable with conflict and finds it difficult to order her thoughts enough to defend herself, even when she has a good point — she's too tongue-tied and emotional to explain the situation with the soup to Jin Zixuan, instead getting bowled over by his confidence. Despite this, Yanli will stand up for her family without hesitation, even when it makes her nervous, gently declining Jin Guangshan's inappropriate request to reinstate the engagement while her family is in mourning and not-so-gently demanding an apology from Jin Zixun for disrespecting her brother.

Gentle, mild, a caretaker — Jiang Yanli embodies all of these descriptors, preferring more to cook than to fight. She applies a bowl of soup to all of her brothers' ills and victories, but never makes any for herself. As the eldest, Yanli seems to see it as her duty to look after her younger brothers, and won't allow Jiang Cheng to apologize to her for making her worry — it's all she can do for him, after all.

POWERS/ABILITIES:

Golden Core: Jiang Yanli is a cultivator, like her brothers, which theoretically means she should be capable of all the same feats of spiritual magic as they are. In actuality, Jiang Yanli is implied to be infirm in some way, and as such diverts most of her spiritual energy to keeping her body well enough to live a normal life. Because her cultivation is weak, she tires easily even with this being the case.

Cooking: Yanli's real power. She's a very good cook, particularly of soups. She prefers cooking to cultivation and would (and has!) more happily feed an army than join one.

Diplomacy: Yanli knows how to choose her words carefully so as not to anger her audience, even when she's saying something unfavourable.

Nurse: Though not a healer by trade, Yanli spent a period of time during the Sunshot Campaign being a nurse in Qinghe. She knows how to treat battlefield wounds and infections, though without the skill of a trained healer.

INVENTORY: The clothes on her back and her sword

MOONBLESSING: Iris

▶ SAMPLES

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