Míng Chāng (明昌)

Created as a companion for my partner's character, inspired by a bunch of freak accident documentaries I've binge watch at work

Born in a noble family, his country was in chaos after the king was assassinated, leaving behind only one infant heir and the Queen Dowager. The regent queen - traumatized by the event, had locked away her young grandchild and took control over the throne, though not for long until she was pressured by her court to give a debut to the only prince. She asked one of her trusted subordinate to let her adopt a child of his concubine, to play as the prince's body double. And so, young Ming Chang at 4 year old was given away by his family to live in the palace, studied and mimic every traits of the prince and debut in place of the real royalty. He was the first member of the soon to be founded personal guard/ stand-in team for the caged prince, since one backup body didn't seem to be enough to Queen Dowager.

Many of his look-alike future teammate were also of nobility background, and many had died in various assassination attempts, though "The Prince" always miraculously survive after that, building a mystical image in the mind of the people. Ming Chang has survived the longest due to him being so invested in improving his martial art skill and always being hyper sensitive to any possible threat. Ming Chang saw the Regent Queen as his own grandmother, and he had also gained her favor as well, thanks to his loyalty and hard works. The young stunt double was promised a prosperous life, only after the Prince had proved to be capable enough to be the owner of the throne.

The royal palace was under attack when Ming Chang was 23, and he was allowed to escort the Prince to fled the cappital by an underground exit that run through a mountain, half of it was originally a natural cave path. The secret path was full of dead ends and traps to cut loose any pursuers. This was the first time the young prince had been in any real stressful situation, and under high pressure, he could not tell where the path that lead to the true exit is for his dear life. Ming Chang was made to test out multiple solution in the dark cave, and eventually ended up stuck in one of the cranny. The man rush his master to fled first to the then-apparrent exit, and told him to come back later with help. The young prince agreed and successfully reunited with his grandmother and their army, though being basically imprisoned and outshined by a stand-in his whole life, the royalty decided to hide the real truth about his chevalier, though his lie was discovered by the Queen Dowager few days later, but when the re-enforce soldier she sent to help Ming Chang arrived, it was too late for him.

The Queen tried to give Ming Chang a proper burial, but the soldier couldn't retrieve his corpse in one piece, so they were forced to left him there and seal the whole mountain, for it to be his final resting place.

In fear of Ming Chang turning into a vengeful spirit, Queen Dowager has ordered for various treasury and magical objects to be buried inside the escape path, and finally built a shrine blocking off the entrance, then sent taoist monks to pray for him. One of the monks suggested hosting a type of ritual to merge him with the mountain spirits, eventually create a new mountain god that could help immensely with the local eco-system, which would also prevent him from harming the royal family

Ming Chang, enveloped in heaps of curious items and worshipped by the people as the guardian of the mountain for many years, finally regained his consciousness and awoken from limbo. Angered by this newly imposed obligation, he refused to work and chose to scare his followers away so he can maybe returned to be a normal spirit, and probably move on.

Centuries after being made into a mountain guardian, Ming Chang has a fateful encounter with a sickly human who were in search of somekind of rare flower. He did attempt to lure this man into the cave's death traps, but hestitated midway and let him stay the night in the ruined shrine instead. This man soon passed away at home and returned as a ghost, and was took in by said mountain guardian to serve as a "representation", for Ming Chang's spirit has returned to its hedious decayed form after many years of being neglected by fearful worshippers.

Ming Chang was pushed to work again by hell's respesentatives coming to claim the runaway deceased, though this time he has a goal, to revive the mountain scenery and find the legendary skeleton flower the lone soul had always wanted to touch.