Humble Beginnings

Ta’an was born into a big family in the valleys of the mountains. His parents were simple farmers with even simpler lives. But they were all content and happy. Unfortunately for him though, Ta’an had been born sick and weak and when he fell ill as a child, they took him to the temples, seeking the mystical healing of the nearby Monastery. It was there that he and his family learned of the celestial blood that runs in his veins, a main cause of his ill state. He stayed there in the mountains for months and managed to quickly recover thanks to the fresh mountain air and proper healing. Ta’an eventually got better enough to return home but he chose to stay at the monastery instead. Despite still being rather young, he chose to devote his life to learning and studying the cultivation of power.

Days in the Monastery

Ta’an grew up in the monastery with the other young disciples under the care of the monks. The years spent devoted to his studies resulted in him being an excellent cultivator. After graduating and becoming a fully fledged monk, he chose to stay at the monastery instead of leaving to pilgrim like many of the other graduates. Amongst the many reasons he had, the one was that made him ultimately stay in the Monastery was because he had met a girl. Ta'an had been the popular, young monk, the target of many young maiden's attention and she was the pretty daughter of a local tavern owner in town. The two surprisingly didn't hit it off instantly at first, but after grappling with each other's ego, they fell in love with each other. Eventually, her father suggested her marry him or another man he found for her. She tried to ask Ta'an to marry her, but Ta'an wasn't willing to give up his lofty dreams and settle down. He quickly tells her she'd be better off marrying the man her father chose for her. Ta'an's greed for his glorious future cursed him to be alone as she left not long after to live her life. Ta'an has since never taken another serious romantic relationship. Rather he spent his time tending to breif, meningless flings. Despite his tenacious habits however, he was respected in the temple for his skilled mastery and well adored by the younger disciples who looked up to him like a brother. Though he was slightly less popular with the elder monks who are not fond of his rather daffy and mischievous tendencies.

Cursed

Eventually his rather foolish nature did get him into trouble. During one of the nights he snucked out from the temple to drink down in town, he got rather wasted. When he went out to relieve himself, completely out of it, he accidentally pissed on a cat walking by. When he woke up the next day after getting brought back by the younger disciples and fellow monks, he had a fresh scratch on his cheek and… an unberable pain in his arm. He went to the Elders to be examined and that is when they realized he was cursed. Specifically by an all powerful deity. Realizing that Ta’an must’ve offended the mighty entity to such an extent worthy of a curse, and not wanting to harbor him, he was immediately thrown out, exiled from the Monastery. He was stripped of his status, never to return into the formal cultivation world.

It wasn’t until a few days later did Ta’an come to understand how cursed he was. His hand, where he had taken the curse, started to darken in the color of rot. And soon Ta’an grew sick. When he managed to seek a doctor, he was told that he was dying. The doctor struggled to find the cause of his pain but ultimately wasn’t able to find a diagnosis for him. However he informed Ta’an that he showed all the signs of a terminal illness. He couldn’t understand it but he told Ta’an that when the rot gets to his heart, his life will end. He told Ta’an he only had at most another year or two left to live. Upon realizing his fate, a defeated Ta’an decided not to mope around something he couldn’t really change and decided to at least enjoy the last of his remaining days.