Lian

出淤泥凝而不染 - Born from the mud yet remained pure

Used to describe how people or objects grew up with the right moral and goals despite how twisted and contaminated the environment is. This idiom is commonly used to describe lotus flower in Chinese society because lotus flowers are usually grown in muddy ponds yet remained pure and beautiful when bloomed, due to Lian's black colour thus I related him to black lotus. 

Lian had always been alone in his lotus pond and for what purpose he was brought to this world, he do not know. He enjoys crafting small objects from the leaves and petals he collected in his pond, strangely the object he crafted came to life as he completes them. He was excited to enjoy his time with these new companions he created, however the life he granted was not eternal... in the end he became all alone again. As time pass, he stopped creating new companions to avoid feeling the pain and sadness of parting... 

Lian had the ability to grant life to inanimate object yet only for a short while and sometimes it prolongs one's life by short while.

NTS random writeup / ideas:

• Lian with his lotus petal butterflies and black lotus
• Floating in his pond, watching the sky 
• People finding out Lian's living place and he was astonished yet curious at the same time
• Lian's story with an abandoned skull... 

Lian and Skull: (Idea from driving back home from work)

Lian found an abandoned human skull beside the tree near his pond on a rainy day, he was reluctant to go near it as it appeared scary and foreign to him. In the end, curiosity made him approach it and gave life to the skull...

He was excited and asked skull about the world outside and about their species kind, then he and skull spent time together where he carried the skull along in his arms and walk around the forest. Skull told him a lot of things about human and bitterly about how skull fell into the state he is now... Lian then thought a lot about it... and how he's gonna cheer up skull tomorrow by making him a flower ring and in exchange for skull's story he wanted to tell skull his stories as well.

The next day, Lian woke up excitedly with his handmade lotus flower petal rings then skull was no longer in this world... as the life Lian granted was only temporary. In the end, Lian kept the skull in his pond... somewhere where only he knows and often change the flower rings on skull... 

For the first time he felt the pain and sadness of parting and stopped granting life to objects. However, some human heard rumours about his ability and often try to find Lian's living place in hope he would grant life to their deceased beloved ones. Lian refused to grant life as he knows it's only temporary and which does not always end in a good way and might cause more agony and pain instead. 

Lovely poem by lorelei! 

A hollow skull echoed with each drop of rain,
then Lian granted it life and quite dear it became.
Most precious were stories the skull volunteered
of a world far away—of humans to be feared.
Humans were cruel, the skull woefully said.
It once was one—once trusted one—and now it lay dead.
And yet even so, the skull had few regrets.
It knew that hatred once held only hatred begets.
In even cruelty's depths, a beauty can be found.
Lian remembers well and cradles silent skull uncrowned.