Once upon a time, there was a young elf named Faine Avenier. A child of Soscyan elves, relatively young, she was raised in a magical temple, isolated far from civilization.  Her parents treated her as an object, an animal, an experiment amongst a half-dozen other siblings.  What was senseless negligence to little Faine had purpose - little did Faine know, but her parents were sorcerers apart of a congregation seeking to create Exemplars, thinking little of children who failed to manifest their powers... as little Faine did.  Eventually, determining she had no spark of magic potential, she was arranged to be sold away, and so she was, sent out of Soscya.

A fate worse than death might have awaited little Faine if she hadn't taken an opportunity to flee while being carted through Shyn lands.  Fleeing slavers, wild animals, and bandits, she travelled south, until she finally stowed away aboard a ship, exhausted and weak, hoping to flee for safer lands.

The ship was bound to the island City-State of Auros, a heavily overbuilt city with buildings hundreds of feet high, towering like a lighthouse of Rayosia's south.  Filled with enclaves and held together by guilds and trade organizations, Auros stood tall, clusters of hundreds of families, organizations, and crews, people whose families had emigrated to Rayosia from across the world and led to creating a cluster of cultures, wildly disparate construction and design aesthetic making an ugly, but diverse city.

The ship Faine stole away on was taking goods to the Tendou Family conglomerate, crates full of equipment dropped off at their family compound, and they were certainly surprised to find a little elf girl nestled in their shipment, weak and exhausted from travel.  The family matriarch, Ayaka, decided to adopt the little elf, giving her a new name - Moriko, a child of the forests.

For a time, life was good.  Moriko learned the ways of her new family, was educated in letters and numbers, taught the way of trade and swordsmanship.  She knew peace, and made friends, and even took an apprenticeship.  Her new older sister, Ayaka, was firm hand, but kind, seeking to teach Moriko about the ways of the world, about justice and decency and family.  The Tendou Conglomerate were a close-knit network of former samurai from the distant homeland of Higanku, who took up the blade to offer protection and participate in trade.  A mafia, some might say - but to them, they believed in family.

However, such peace was not meant to last.  The Tendou Conglomerate had enemies, rival criminal guilds that didn't care for their growing influence.  When Moriko's foster father died, wo of these crime families, the Mightnighters and the Giovanni Family, saw their chance.  In tandem they acted, assaulting the Tendou Family's home in force with enforcers, and even an Exemplar, hoping that through sheer brute force, they could eradicate the Tendou Family's leadership in one go.

The odds were hopeless, but Moriko fought alongside her sister, desperate to protect her new home, her new family. Moriko's foster father, her friends, the servants, collapsed and died - and soon, it was only her and her sister, back to back, at the end, the Exemplar all but invincible before them.  Moriko knew it would be hopeless, but she stood before the Exemplar, blade out, and challenged them to a duel.  The exemplar let out a mocking laugh, knowing the imbalance of power made it hopeless, and accepted.

Just as the first blow was about to swing forth, however, a surge of sudden energy welled in Moriko's chest, an urge to shout forth an incantation she'd never heard before, and she spoke.  "The way of the sword, made manifest!  Henshin!"

Steel encased her, a blade of unerring sharpness coalescing in her hand, data flooding into her eyes, the exemplar almost overwhelmed by the deluge of data flooding her brain.  It was smaller than her enemy's, but fast, darting forward and around the enemy exemplar to slash at its legs, handstringing it with careful, precise strikes, darting around each clumsy attack from her enemy with ease.  A final, fatal strike to the cockpit, and Moriko had won victory for the Tendou clan, the rest of her foes fleeing as their strongest warrior fell, dead.

But the Tendou family was devestated.  A funeral for one turned into a funeral for dozens, and when the adrenaline wore off, she found herself heartbroken, at a loss, and her older sister wasn't much better.  After some discussion, Ayaka tasked her younger sister to escape from Auros, and seek out allies to aid the Tendou family.  Moriko agreed, but deep down she knew what Ayaka really wanted - for her younger sister to not be dragged down with a sinking ship.

Moriko opted for a different approach.  Taking on the mantle of a hero, she resolved to use her exemplar powers to challenge evil and banditry wherever it stood, to draw the eyes of organizations intent on destroying the Tendou family.  It's made her no small amount of enemies, but despite her roots and being raised under organized crime, Moriko sincerely does want to help people with the power she has... and hopefully, herself.