Arth Komatsu

In present day, Arth is an enigmatic figure that has been in and out of the Order of Whispers longer than any current member can pin down. Until recently, he rarely interacted with anybody, and when he would, it would be terse and to the point, giving the impression of being a deeply unhappy man. After adopting a young orphan off the streets of Lion's Arch, growing close with his apprentice and work partner partner, Aurelia, and working closely with the Pact Commander to investigate Scarlet Briar, he seemed to be opening up. When adventuring with the guild in Elona, hints that he'd been there before, such as being strangely and personally familiar with Sunspear names of legend, raised eyebrows until he confessed to his age and confirmed that he'd adventured with the Sunspears during the Nightfall event two hundred years prior, and was working to set free Spearmarshal Zuhaira and others from the influence of Palawa Joko. It wasn't until the guild found itself in Cantha that they understood the whole truth of his history - that he was Tamotsu Hisato, the Canthan hero that defeated the ghost of Shiro Tagachi.

A more detailed history below!

Arth is a very old man. Born as Tamotsu to the Hisato family in a small village on Shing Jea island, he lived a pretty simple life. Coming from a farming family, money wasn't something they always had, but they always managed to get by, and found enjoyment in each other, so it was always worth it. Wanting to do something a bit different, and to get somewhat of an education, Tamotsu became a monk disciple at the age of 18. There, he was taught to read and write in old Canthan and the arts, such as poetry and a variety of musical interests. His disciplehood was cut short however, with the arrival of a eccentric individual from overseas.

This individual was a foreign student wishing to study in Cantha. Despite the oddities in his demeanor and behavior, since Tamotsu didn't know many other people his age at 22, he was interested in befriending the Tyrian and exchanging their knowledge and... at first they did just that. But when he started going on about about some forgotten god, trying to convince Tamotsu to abandon his faith in the others, growing increasingly insistant, Tamotsu grew concerned. In the end, his friend revealed himself to be a creature of the night, a diluted descendant of the demonic Margonite worshippers of Abbadon. Wanting to convert Tamotsu to his cause, he isolated him in the wilderness and tried to convince him over the course of several days. When Tamotsu repeatedly refused, the other turned him into a vampire as well, and brought Tamotsu's sister for his first meal :-( Upon waking, Tamotsu killed both and, distraught, took his sister's body home where he was chased away for his murder and transformation. Tamotsu fled into the wilderness and began a long solitary life living on next to nothing and hiding from civilization. He would come out scarcely to find 'food', at first attacking humans indiscriminately but overtime learning the restraint needed to single out other criminals.

As decades passed, and the amount of people that remembered him dwindled, he began venturing back into towns as a traveling fur trader. He rarely spoke and didn't like to stick around long, but one day he met a young man who offered to make him a fresh meal and to share his hearth amidst a particularly harsh winter. It was the first act of kindness shown to him, so he quickly felt a partiality to the young man, named Xiyang Feng. He was curious to the widespread adoption of the common language, and Xiyang had offered to teach it to him.

He had to go on the run again when word spread of a human-eating monster living in the Jaya Bluffs and the villagers, and even the Monastery, mounted a subjugation force. He was ultimately captured, but after various attempts, they were unable to kill him. Figuring out his weakness to sunlight, he was tied to a stake on a cliffside awaiting dawn. Moments before the sun broke the horizon, someone among the spectators had rushed forward and taken an axe to the ropes binding him, and they both toppled over the edge into the sea, and escaped together. It had been Xiyang, unwilling to accept that the shy and kind fur trader he'd gotten to know could be a cruel and cunning murderer.

Unable to return home, Xiyang began living with Tamotsu out in the wild, and over many years the two grew extremely close in their companionship, ultimately becoming each other's life partner. Xiyang didn't wish to continue ageing while Tamotsu wouldn't, and after much discussion, Tamotsu agreed to turn him into the same sort of creature he was. Naively trusting in their 'forever', the two waited a few decades then approached the Shing Jea Monastery and enrolled as apprentices together, finally receiving proper combat training to hone their raw strength. This is when the ghost of Shiro began to move, and they agreed to investigate

This lead to Xiyang becoming afflicted right in front of Tamotsu. Unwilling to fight back against his lover, Tamotsu received grave wounds to his chest and neck and was mistakenly assumed dead once the rest of the Monastery trainees managed to put Xiyang out of his misery in a fierce battle. When Tamotsu awoke, startling those present, even his immortal body has a difficult time keeping up with his injuries, and healing was slow and excruciating. Filled with rage at the ghost who had taken his lover from him, he continued to chase Shiro, hellbent on revenge. Saving Cantha and uniting the warring factions... that was secondary to his goal.

Afterwards, he struggled to cope with the public attention he received from all over Cantha, and graciously accepted Spearmarshal Kormir's invitation to join them as they waged war on Kourna, especially with the mention that Abbadon and the Margonites may be involved. Despite being closed off due to his grief, the Sunspears he traveled with, namely Zuhaira, became dear friends to him as they stood up together to the god that had indirectly ruined his life in so many ways. He remained in Elona afterward for nearly two decades, and was taught how to sign by Zuhaira, and accompanied Koss and Zuhaira on their attack on Palawa Joko. It ended in failure. Everybody was killed and awakened, except for him, who was already undead. He sustained severe injury again, however, and his previously healing wounds were reopened. He fled, but remained in the area for quite some time attacking all the Awakened he crossed and trying to no avail to break back into Gandarra. When Joko began to expand, Tamotsu cut his losses and retreated, determined to return someday to kill the old bastard.

He began a long and slow journey northward that culminated in him reaching the northern Shiverpeaks in 1168 AE. Briefly assisting the Norn, he was welcomed to stay in the newly constructed Hoelbrak but he declined, electing to live nearby in the lush foothills in a secluded area. Upon moving here... He hit a rough patch. Falling heavily into alcoholism, he was a complete recluse with only the company of his pets and Shrine Guardian Katsuhito to keep him sane. It was a sorry state for Master of Whispers, Manon, to find him in when she had spent so much time tracking him down after recalling a Canthan man that fits the description of the Canthan hero of legend from her earliest childhood memories. She was insistent that he should join the Order, if for nothing else but to have some purpose again. Time and time again he refused, but agreed to tag along on some missions, just to have something to do.

Throughout the decades of knowing the norn, he came to hesitantly enjoy her friendship, but wasn't able to trust it, expecting her to die anyday. Through their friendship, she convinced him to sober up, and when she surprised him by living to old age, he finally agreed to join the Order some time in the mid 1200's. He officially changed his name to Arth, his current alias at this time.

After Manon passed of old age, he found life to be irritatingly monotonous, and he would frequently skip on work and generally be a fickle figure within the Order. Nobody could figure out why he had the level of clearance he had, especially for not being a Lightbringer (which had been to not call attention to himself). He was consigned to this life of failure and nothingness being his now and forever, until a prickly and just as fickle newcomer to the Order walked into his life. A woman of the young race that had appeared on the Tarnished Coast, breathing a breath of fresh air into the world and his life, apparently.

He mentored this sylvari, Aurelia, in order to help her come into good standing with the Order, and the two transitioned into a working partner relationship. When Aurelia was promoted to Lightbringer, it was decided that Arth should as well, since they made a fine team. He had also taken in a young orphan named Selene when his suspicions were roused by Ministry guards in Lion's Arch targeting her and trying to take her. Suddenly quite busy, he found himself working with a bold asura named Ospreii when investigating the woman named Scarlet Briar... and before he knew it, he was staring at an invitation to a guild. Dragon's Watch.

He accepted, and shortly after was glad to have done so when they returned to Elona. With so many capable soldiers and a dragonet... Maybe returning to Gandarra to take out the trash wouldn't be so impossible. Then, Selene died fighting Forged and he was completely devastated. He'd gotten too comfortable, forgetting that he'd have to watch her die someday too. And no matter how much he'd looked the other way, she was his daughter, and he'd neglected to make that clear to her and give her the affection she had deserved. In a downward spiral, he relapsed with alcohol and his irritable mood returned after so long, but with the encouragement of the guild, he kept moving as their work in Elona led them closer and closer to Gandarra. In there, he came face to face with his undead daughter and again, he was unable to fight back when she'd turned her sword on him after leading him to the dungeons. He was wounded badly again, but he couldn't shake a feeling of guilty relief after the fight was over that she undead as well without him needing to inflict that on her himself.

He also had a gleeful reunion with Zuhaira and the other Sunspears who'd spent the long years in Gandarra. He felt immense guilt that he wasn't able to do much to help back then, but acknowledged that killing Joko was something the world hadn't been ready for back then, and it had needed a united army to pull off

He and Selene grew much closer in the aftermath, and now share a true father and daughter relationship today. Once again in Cantha in the current year, he's been taking the time to come to terms with a lot of the still healing grief he endured while living there. Reuniting with Kuunavang had been a pleasant surprise, and now that she is taking a human form, the two have been bonding over their shared weight of loneliness staring down an eternity, finding in each other a brother/sister relationship. Wanting to thank him for helping her get back in control back in the day, she gifted him a rather large estate in New Kaineng for him to share with his guildmates wishing to living in Cantha for the time being.

For the first time in forever, he's beginning to feel it may be possible to heal and look to the future with optimism. It didn't look so lonely anymore, and he certainly wasn't feeling like it now, with Selene reuniting with her biological siblings and their in-laws. His little family was expanding, and he's been feeling ridiculously happy about it.

It's about to get more complicated with the return of Aurelia and Bluebell but... He'll probably figure it out.