application: hometrail
player info.
name/handle: Herit
contact info: EmergencyShank [aim]
personal journal: srs99d_s2am
previous characters: brb_napping, apyrostrategy
character info.
character name: Cao Pi; styled: Zihuan
canon & medium: Dynasty Warriors, vidya
age & species: 33/human
appearance: Ref. 1, Ref. 2
previous rpg memories: -
timeline: 220, while Cao Cao is on his deathbed.
background/history link:
[ A historical biography for anybody interested, but it's not really that important - it doesn't cover much up to his canon point. ]
As the first son of Cao Cao's concubine Lady Bian - and second son of the legendary Cao Cao himself - Cao Pi's upbringing was exactly as one would expect with a father like his: very cold and very distant. There is obviously not much love between father and son here, but on the other hand, it is clear that there is some sort of silent mutual respect for each other's talents there, even if neither of them ever voices it under normal circumstances. Whether it was foresight and a recognition of Cao Pi's talents, or simply a means to be on the safe side should his oldest son Cao Ang not survive, Cao Cao - back then only a mid-level officer - had Cao Pi accompany him to battlefields from an early age on, and this proved a valuable source of experience for the boy. It paid for Cao Cao in the end, too, when Cao Ang was killed by enemy troops in 197 CE after giving up his horse to Cao Cao during the retreat at Wancheng to allow his father to escape instead. As Cao Ang's adoptive mother, Cao Cao's then-wife Lady Ding, fell into depressions after her adopted son's death, Cao Cao eventually grew tired of her and divorced her, marrying Cao Pi's mother Lady Bian, a former courtesan, instead. With this set-up, Cao Pi's position as Cao Cao's heir presumptive was as good as established - except that at this point, there was not much to inherit yet.
While his father undertook more military campaigns during the following years, Cao Pi would often accompany him, eventually taking part in the Battle of Guan Du during Cao Cao's campaign against his rival warlord Yuan Shao. There, he met Zhen Ji, wife of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi, and was immediately attracted to her when watching her take out his soldiers. While she was initially angered by his blunt offer to defect to his side, leave the Yuan and "let her petals bloom beneath [him]" instead, after she challenged him to a fight, he was only more impressed by her, and also managed to gain her respect, which eventually caused her to defect to the Cao. Despite this rough start, they grew close very quickly, attracted by each other's strength, power, and ruthlessness, and married in 204 CE, after Cao Pi successfully undertook a campaign for his father to destroy the last remnants of the Yuan once and for all between 202 and 204 CE.
Both Zhen Ji and himself supported Cao Cao during the Battle of Chi Bi as well and aided him after his disastrous defeat, even though having criticised Cao Cao's tying his ships together for better navigation from the start - still, rather than voice his criticism openly and having his father lose his face, he decided to instead just "clean up after father" out of duty. After Wei's forces had been beaten at Chi Bi by a coalition between the kingdoms of Shu and Wu, Wu continued to press into Wei's territory, laying siege on the strategically essential Wei garrison at He Fei. Again, Cao Pi was there to support his father in defending the castle. And while Wei finally managed to drive the attackers, led by Sun Quan himself, off, the city walls had taken much damage, and it was obvious that this would not be the end of the story.
Over the time, Cao Cao's achievements had convinced the Emperor of his exceptional skills, and he had been granted a fief of ten cities as well as the titles of Duke, later King of Wei - with this act, Wei had formally been born, and Cao Pi had officially been appointed crown prince. It is important to note here that the appointment as crown prince was not directly related to his being the oldest remaining son; Cao Cao had to choose his successor, and could have easily chosen one of his brothers instead.
In 215, after Cao Cao's campaign against Sun Quan had ended in failure, he prepared to lead an army to attack Han Zhong, while Cao Pi was left behind to guard He Fei along with Sima Yi, Zhang Liao, and a number of other generals. When Wu attacked in the same year, Cao Pi left the command of the troops mainly to Sima Yi, while it was mostly due to Zhang Liao's actions that Wu eventually suffered a grave defeat and was forced to retreat.
After the successful defence of He Fei Castle, Cao Pi left in order to join his father in the Battle of Han Zhong against Liu Bei and Shu in 219, where he was to take over for Cao Cao while the latter would go to finish his conflict with Wu's ruler Sun Quan. Upon entering Wei's camp, he was greeted by Sima Yi, who had left for Han Zhong before him. Here, he indicated clearly for the first time that he was relying on Sima Yi helping him rebuild the country after Cao Cao's reign and the chaos had ended - something that Sima Yi later commented to himself was sheer arrogance. The Battle of Han Zhong went far less favourable than the previous defence of He Fei Castle, however, and the Wei troops were forced to retreat after suffering heavy losses.
In the following Battle of Fan Castle, Wei was able to retaliate by causing the death of Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu. The Wei troops, including Sima Yi and Cao Pi, managed to pin the blame on the forces of Wu, who had unexpectedly betrayed their former allies in Shu. In order to take Jiang Province back from Shu, the Wu soldiers had sided with their long-time enemy Wei, and had captured and subsequently executed Guan Yu, who had been overpowered by the surprise attack.
Cao Cao, already on his death bed due to an unknown illness, received the news well, and concluded that the path to Wei's future was secure. His last and only words towards both his son and Sima Yi were, "Our path is clear. Do as you must." It was Sima Yi who urged Cao Pi in a private talk afterwards that Wei needed a strong leader at a time like this - and that it was time for Cao Pi to assume command.
personality:
Cao Pi is not a nice man. This much is so clear and obvious about him, it hardly needs to be said. He is very much his father's son, very driven, shrewd, and ruthless when it's necessary. He goes beyond just that, however - where his father is known as an ambitious, ruthless warlord, Cao Pi has a reputation of actually being cruel. He has very few scruples, often ordering his soldiers to crush the enemy forces "without mercy" - a point he enjoys to emphasise - and in addition to that shows an arrogance that even leaves the not particularly humble Sima Yi irritated occasionally. Complimented by his wife Zhen Ji's personality, together the two would make the perfect image for your typical evil prince and princess couple - evil (obviously), ruthless, cruel, arrogant, with a lot of suggestive dialogue during their battles, and naturally only attracted to each other because the other is "just like them" and therefore "good enough".
Or so one could think. Of course, it's a little more complex than that. While there is a vivid exchange of suggestive comments between Cao Pi and Zhen Ji when they fight their battles together, mostly complimenting each other's looks and brutality, very little to nothing else is admittedly voiced between the two. That is, until Zhen Ji's Ending cinematic in Dynasty Warriors 5. Here, Cao Pi admits that what he has achieved up to this point had all been done for her, and at her surprised comment that such sweet words were not like him, explains that he thought it would just be nice to speak his heart for once. There is a lot more between these two than is immediately obvious, and they function very much on a mutual understanding of each other and of their affection for each other, which doesn't need much vocalising.
Zhen Ji is often shown protecting him in battle, or - if she fails a mission - wondering how she is ever supposed to face him again. She is also occasionally shown rescuing him, something that does not seem to upset him at all. In return, even when Cao Pi primarily comments on Zhen Ji's beauty (and her beauty while slaughtering enemy soldiers) or on how "frightful" she is (in a complimenting tone), he is shown to be very concerned about her safety, even to the point where upon her defeat, a battle can be lost, with Cao Pi retreating in grief. This is particularly noteworthy as in the time they lived, a man would often consider wives and children replaceable, but brothers-in-arm not - not so much Cao Pi. He is really an exception to most men in his canon and his time in that his wife is the person he most strongly and most genuinely cares about, and even though this may not always be as obvious as the physical attraction between them, there is hardly another couple in the games that is this close and this completely in love, even years after their first meeting.
Far more complicated is his relationship to his father, which defines his life more than Cao Pi would like to admit. With his father being this larger-than-life, famous, feared, and respected, exceptionally ambitious and talented warlord, most people Cao Pi meets will only see his father in him, and whether or not he can live up to his father's example. This, along with the very cold relationship between Cao Cao and his son, has naturally led to tensions, but tensions in Cao Pi alone, rather than openly between the two. In public and whenever he is interacting with Cao Cao directly, Cao Pi is the perfect filial son, respecting his father, following his orders, secretly saving situations in which Cao Cao would have been at fault for a failure rather than confronting his father openly, etc.
Even though all of this happens without many words of appreciation between the two, at best with the slightest sign of acknowledgement, and certainly without even the smallest sign of affection or love from either side, Cao Pi respects his father, calling him a "great man" even on his death bed when speaking with Sima Yi briefly before Cao Cao's death. He acknowledges what his father has achieved and respects him for that as well as for what kind of person he is, clearly seeing his strength and power, without expressing any wish to be treated better by or be closer to him. In that, he may appear as very unfeeling and cold, and that wouldn't seem to be far from the truth. His upbringing has made him a man almost completely devoid of warmth or deeper feelings of affection, except in the aforementioned case of his wife.
Still, his respect for his father is real, but it is a removed kind of respect, in which Cao Cao could just as well be just another ruler rather than his father - even though even Cao Cao occasionally, on very rare occasions, shows some faint pride in his son, there is nothing closer or warmer than that between them. It's a strongly hierarchical, pragmatic relationship, rather than family relationships as we know them today.
Despite this, however, Cao Pi's main issue with his father is, as mentioned before, forever living in his shadow. When he finally seizes the crown later on after his father's death, he still cannot escape everyone, from his subjects to his enemies, comparing him to his father, and essentially waiting whether or not he will manage to finish his father's work and his father's ambition for the land. This is exactly his main internal conflict in the games: he wants, at the same time, to follow his father's orders as long as Cao Cao lives, and tear himself free from Cao Cao's shadow, becoming a ruler respected in his own right, with an ambition of his own. As Cao Cao's memory is so strong in people, however, this is far harder to achieve than just like that. It takes him a long time and many battles to earn his men's respect. Some of them never live to see it, as Cao Cao's first cousins, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, who were both two of his closest and most loyal officers, and who die soon after him respectively a year earlier.
While trying to establish his own authority, Cao Pi is blunt - and what can be considered arrogant - enough to openly say that he cared nothing for his father's ambition, and that he would rule only for himself. It is this mix of respect and antipathy towards his father that makes their relationship so complicated and complex. But beyond this, Cao Pi has a general tendency to be very blunt, apparently fearless for the reaction, telling Zhen Ji when he first meets her in battle to leave the Yuan and "let [her] petals bloom beneath [him]". He also has a habit of insulting his opponents in battle, and even his allies - commenting how worthless his enemy officers are, wondering why they even bother, or commenting with feigned surprise that an ally actually can fight.
Having been raised very harshly and without any understanding or tolerance for weakness or failure, Cao Pi has come to be a man unable to forgive or understand weakness himself. He permanently has a guard up, never showing much feeling at all, which is especially visible in his open interaction with Zhen Ji, whom he genuinely loves, as explained above, or even his father. One will never see him act emotional or thoughtless, and that combined with his shrewd nature gives the impression of always being scheming. He holds his men and himself to high standards, part of the reason why Zhen Ji does not allow herself to fail him either - the other part is that she is just like him in many ways, which plays into his actions equally - and shows them as little mercy as his enemies.
He can, however, be very forgiving if he considers someone useful. For instance, he refuses to kill Sima Yi even after the latter's rebellion and attempt to take over the throne - for the simple reason that, as he had told Sima Yi before - he considers the strategist a valuable ally, and needs his help to rule the country. He knows exactly how dangerous Sima Yi is, perhaps even better than Sima Yi expects him to know, even before the incident. This is another advantage of his always guarded demeanour - his ability to read people us very highly developed, even if he does not often act upon what he understands, unless he considers it necessary. He knows he has the power to subdue Sima Yi's rebellions, however, and so he considers the strategist's worth higher than the risk of keeping him around. With his typical ruthlessness and egotism, he even offers Sima Yi a deal: to wait until Cao Pi's death - and then to be free to do whatever he wants with the land.
Cao Pi's own vision for his land, however, is far less egotistic than one might have expected. While his father was a hero in a time of chaos, Cao Pi's vision for the land's future differs vastly from Cao Cao's. While he is ambitious to rule, and to rule for himself, he does show that he cares about his people to a certain degree, and he shows respect towards his loyal subjects, even if not all of them manage to respect him in his own right yet. His vision, as he explains to his general Zhang He at one occasion, is to bring the land back into a state of order after the wars - and, tying in with his utilitarian, pragmatic personality, to create a land where everyone can live up to their full potential.
abilities:
Like most people in Dynasty Warriors, he's a pretty good fighter. He really is, using a sword, and being pretty handy with it. I'd like to cut the supernatural strength/speed/musou stuff, though, since it's rather crazy, but doesn't really appear in cutscenes, where the characters are treated more like regular humans.
any plans for your character here?
Flip his shit about all the supposedly dead people walking around again, flipping his shit about daddy stealing his thunder again, flipping his shit because he has a coronation - his own - to attend to, and showing none of those. Having a strained, apparently terrible relationship with his father, plotting, conspiring with Sima Yi, being a jerk-arse... No, no real plans.
possessions:
samples.
sample journal entry:
Listen to me, and listen very well. I don't care which lord you serve or how desperate in need of food and money your people are. If you were expecting something out of this, you will be sorely disappointed. You will not receive any ransom for me. If you knew my father at all, you wouldn't even bother trying.
Regardless, you will suffer for this. Your people will be wiped out to the last man.That much I promise you.
third-person sample:
It was been just like the last time when men had been brought before him in chains. Peons or soldiers, he could not tell any more, because he had long since stopped paying attention. It only mattered as long as they were resisting him; to plan the approach. When they were captured, who or what they were became meaningless. These here were of no use for him; with one face and one voice, one broken demeanour and as one large body, they could have been the same men as the time before, or the times before that. He had almost grown too bored of the procedure to even answer his men's question what to do with the prisoners. It doesn't matter, he wanted to say, throw them to the others. Only, the battlefield had moved, and the "others" had been left far behind, rotting in rivers and poisoning the water supply of a town that was wiped out by now. Why did he have to bother with this?
"Kill them," was what he eventually said instead. "Get those peasants out of my eyes." And Zhen Ji gave him that particular smile, an arch of lips and a glance under lowered lashes, before a coy tilt of her head denied him the pleasurable sight quickly. And as always, while her fingers brushed idly over the flute in her hand, her act stung with frustration and only drew him more to her. She did it only to tease him, and like she knew him, he knew her thoroughly. Her words rang in his head with a pleasant spice of simplicity: "I thirst for blood - and I will take it where I find it." Such a beautiful flower on the battlefield, indeed. She was so enticingly frightful when she was sincere, and there was future in her smile. Future that was not for him. Cao Cao was dead, at last, but it was not as if he had ever actually left. Except for her, he had. It was refreshing.
"Worthless," he sighed, making no secret of his annoyance. "Why do they even bother?" He dismissed the soldiers with a bored wave of his hand. They left, angered and also grateful, because they were tired from marching and battling, and their newly crowned king's personality was nowhere near as pleasant as his wife's beauty.
An hour later, he was alone. Cao Pi never did anything with regret or without purpose, and he was not known as a man devoted to ideals - his own at least - or fantasy. But then, in the end nobody knew him, and around men like Sima Yi, he intended to keep it this way. It was not exactly what mattered to him, anyway. Thus when he took a walk through the camp, of course it had a point beyond being alone to think. After all, it didn't matter where he went. There was no place where he was alone, and wherever he arrived, father had already been.
He sneered. There was nothing to prove to a dead man. That time was over, he was king. Not for the dead, but for himself. There was more to life than finishing what another had begun, and more than preparing a path for the ones who were to follow after him. This time was his, not a shadow of the past or the future.
When he met Sima Yi's eyes, his smile remained, and a new, cold flare appeared in his eyes. "I know you," his eyes said boldly, "I know your ambition, and I don't care. After me, do as you please."
When he was gone, what did it matter? His life and rule would at last be for himself, for his own ambition. It would be short enough.
name/handle: Herit
contact info: EmergencyShank [aim]
personal journal: srs99d_s2am
previous characters: brb_napping, apyrostrategy
character info.
character name: Cao Pi; styled: Zihuan
canon & medium: Dynasty Warriors, vidya
age & species: 33/human
appearance: Ref. 1, Ref. 2
previous rpg memories: -
timeline: 220, while Cao Cao is on his deathbed.
background/history link:
[ A historical biography for anybody interested, but it's not really that important - it doesn't cover much up to his canon point. ]
As the first son of Cao Cao's concubine Lady Bian - and second son of the legendary Cao Cao himself - Cao Pi's upbringing was exactly as one would expect with a father like his: very cold and very distant. There is obviously not much love between father and son here, but on the other hand, it is clear that there is some sort of silent mutual respect for each other's talents there, even if neither of them ever voices it under normal circumstances. Whether it was foresight and a recognition of Cao Pi's talents, or simply a means to be on the safe side should his oldest son Cao Ang not survive, Cao Cao - back then only a mid-level officer - had Cao Pi accompany him to battlefields from an early age on, and this proved a valuable source of experience for the boy. It paid for Cao Cao in the end, too, when Cao Ang was killed by enemy troops in 197 CE after giving up his horse to Cao Cao during the retreat at Wancheng to allow his father to escape instead. As Cao Ang's adoptive mother, Cao Cao's then-wife Lady Ding, fell into depressions after her adopted son's death, Cao Cao eventually grew tired of her and divorced her, marrying Cao Pi's mother Lady Bian, a former courtesan, instead. With this set-up, Cao Pi's position as Cao Cao's heir presumptive was as good as established - except that at this point, there was not much to inherit yet.
While his father undertook more military campaigns during the following years, Cao Pi would often accompany him, eventually taking part in the Battle of Guan Du during Cao Cao's campaign against his rival warlord Yuan Shao. There, he met Zhen Ji, wife of Yuan Shao's son Yuan Xi, and was immediately attracted to her when watching her take out his soldiers. While she was initially angered by his blunt offer to defect to his side, leave the Yuan and "let her petals bloom beneath [him]" instead, after she challenged him to a fight, he was only more impressed by her, and also managed to gain her respect, which eventually caused her to defect to the Cao. Despite this rough start, they grew close very quickly, attracted by each other's strength, power, and ruthlessness, and married in 204 CE, after Cao Pi successfully undertook a campaign for his father to destroy the last remnants of the Yuan once and for all between 202 and 204 CE.
Both Zhen Ji and himself supported Cao Cao during the Battle of Chi Bi as well and aided him after his disastrous defeat, even though having criticised Cao Cao's tying his ships together for better navigation from the start - still, rather than voice his criticism openly and having his father lose his face, he decided to instead just "clean up after father" out of duty. After Wei's forces had been beaten at Chi Bi by a coalition between the kingdoms of Shu and Wu, Wu continued to press into Wei's territory, laying siege on the strategically essential Wei garrison at He Fei. Again, Cao Pi was there to support his father in defending the castle. And while Wei finally managed to drive the attackers, led by Sun Quan himself, off, the city walls had taken much damage, and it was obvious that this would not be the end of the story.
Over the time, Cao Cao's achievements had convinced the Emperor of his exceptional skills, and he had been granted a fief of ten cities as well as the titles of Duke, later King of Wei - with this act, Wei had formally been born, and Cao Pi had officially been appointed crown prince. It is important to note here that the appointment as crown prince was not directly related to his being the oldest remaining son; Cao Cao had to choose his successor, and could have easily chosen one of his brothers instead.
In 215, after Cao Cao's campaign against Sun Quan had ended in failure, he prepared to lead an army to attack Han Zhong, while Cao Pi was left behind to guard He Fei along with Sima Yi, Zhang Liao, and a number of other generals. When Wu attacked in the same year, Cao Pi left the command of the troops mainly to Sima Yi, while it was mostly due to Zhang Liao's actions that Wu eventually suffered a grave defeat and was forced to retreat.
After the successful defence of He Fei Castle, Cao Pi left in order to join his father in the Battle of Han Zhong against Liu Bei and Shu in 219, where he was to take over for Cao Cao while the latter would go to finish his conflict with Wu's ruler Sun Quan. Upon entering Wei's camp, he was greeted by Sima Yi, who had left for Han Zhong before him. Here, he indicated clearly for the first time that he was relying on Sima Yi helping him rebuild the country after Cao Cao's reign and the chaos had ended - something that Sima Yi later commented to himself was sheer arrogance. The Battle of Han Zhong went far less favourable than the previous defence of He Fei Castle, however, and the Wei troops were forced to retreat after suffering heavy losses.
In the following Battle of Fan Castle, Wei was able to retaliate by causing the death of Liu Bei's sworn brother Guan Yu. The Wei troops, including Sima Yi and Cao Pi, managed to pin the blame on the forces of Wu, who had unexpectedly betrayed their former allies in Shu. In order to take Jiang Province back from Shu, the Wu soldiers had sided with their long-time enemy Wei, and had captured and subsequently executed Guan Yu, who had been overpowered by the surprise attack.
Cao Cao, already on his death bed due to an unknown illness, received the news well, and concluded that the path to Wei's future was secure. His last and only words towards both his son and Sima Yi were, "Our path is clear. Do as you must." It was Sima Yi who urged Cao Pi in a private talk afterwards that Wei needed a strong leader at a time like this - and that it was time for Cao Pi to assume command.
personality:
Cao Pi is not a nice man. This much is so clear and obvious about him, it hardly needs to be said. He is very much his father's son, very driven, shrewd, and ruthless when it's necessary. He goes beyond just that, however - where his father is known as an ambitious, ruthless warlord, Cao Pi has a reputation of actually being cruel. He has very few scruples, often ordering his soldiers to crush the enemy forces "without mercy" - a point he enjoys to emphasise - and in addition to that shows an arrogance that even leaves the not particularly humble Sima Yi irritated occasionally. Complimented by his wife Zhen Ji's personality, together the two would make the perfect image for your typical evil prince and princess couple - evil (obviously), ruthless, cruel, arrogant, with a lot of suggestive dialogue during their battles, and naturally only attracted to each other because the other is "just like them" and therefore "good enough".
Or so one could think. Of course, it's a little more complex than that. While there is a vivid exchange of suggestive comments between Cao Pi and Zhen Ji when they fight their battles together, mostly complimenting each other's looks and brutality, very little to nothing else is admittedly voiced between the two. That is, until Zhen Ji's Ending cinematic in Dynasty Warriors 5. Here, Cao Pi admits that what he has achieved up to this point had all been done for her, and at her surprised comment that such sweet words were not like him, explains that he thought it would just be nice to speak his heart for once. There is a lot more between these two than is immediately obvious, and they function very much on a mutual understanding of each other and of their affection for each other, which doesn't need much vocalising.
Zhen Ji is often shown protecting him in battle, or - if she fails a mission - wondering how she is ever supposed to face him again. She is also occasionally shown rescuing him, something that does not seem to upset him at all. In return, even when Cao Pi primarily comments on Zhen Ji's beauty (and her beauty while slaughtering enemy soldiers) or on how "frightful" she is (in a complimenting tone), he is shown to be very concerned about her safety, even to the point where upon her defeat, a battle can be lost, with Cao Pi retreating in grief. This is particularly noteworthy as in the time they lived, a man would often consider wives and children replaceable, but brothers-in-arm not - not so much Cao Pi. He is really an exception to most men in his canon and his time in that his wife is the person he most strongly and most genuinely cares about, and even though this may not always be as obvious as the physical attraction between them, there is hardly another couple in the games that is this close and this completely in love, even years after their first meeting.
Far more complicated is his relationship to his father, which defines his life more than Cao Pi would like to admit. With his father being this larger-than-life, famous, feared, and respected, exceptionally ambitious and talented warlord, most people Cao Pi meets will only see his father in him, and whether or not he can live up to his father's example. This, along with the very cold relationship between Cao Cao and his son, has naturally led to tensions, but tensions in Cao Pi alone, rather than openly between the two. In public and whenever he is interacting with Cao Cao directly, Cao Pi is the perfect filial son, respecting his father, following his orders, secretly saving situations in which Cao Cao would have been at fault for a failure rather than confronting his father openly, etc.
Even though all of this happens without many words of appreciation between the two, at best with the slightest sign of acknowledgement, and certainly without even the smallest sign of affection or love from either side, Cao Pi respects his father, calling him a "great man" even on his death bed when speaking with Sima Yi briefly before Cao Cao's death. He acknowledges what his father has achieved and respects him for that as well as for what kind of person he is, clearly seeing his strength and power, without expressing any wish to be treated better by or be closer to him. In that, he may appear as very unfeeling and cold, and that wouldn't seem to be far from the truth. His upbringing has made him a man almost completely devoid of warmth or deeper feelings of affection, except in the aforementioned case of his wife.
Still, his respect for his father is real, but it is a removed kind of respect, in which Cao Cao could just as well be just another ruler rather than his father - even though even Cao Cao occasionally, on very rare occasions, shows some faint pride in his son, there is nothing closer or warmer than that between them. It's a strongly hierarchical, pragmatic relationship, rather than family relationships as we know them today.
Despite this, however, Cao Pi's main issue with his father is, as mentioned before, forever living in his shadow. When he finally seizes the crown later on after his father's death, he still cannot escape everyone, from his subjects to his enemies, comparing him to his father, and essentially waiting whether or not he will manage to finish his father's work and his father's ambition for the land. This is exactly his main internal conflict in the games: he wants, at the same time, to follow his father's orders as long as Cao Cao lives, and tear himself free from Cao Cao's shadow, becoming a ruler respected in his own right, with an ambition of his own. As Cao Cao's memory is so strong in people, however, this is far harder to achieve than just like that. It takes him a long time and many battles to earn his men's respect. Some of them never live to see it, as Cao Cao's first cousins, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan, who were both two of his closest and most loyal officers, and who die soon after him respectively a year earlier.
While trying to establish his own authority, Cao Pi is blunt - and what can be considered arrogant - enough to openly say that he cared nothing for his father's ambition, and that he would rule only for himself. It is this mix of respect and antipathy towards his father that makes their relationship so complicated and complex. But beyond this, Cao Pi has a general tendency to be very blunt, apparently fearless for the reaction, telling Zhen Ji when he first meets her in battle to leave the Yuan and "let [her] petals bloom beneath [him]". He also has a habit of insulting his opponents in battle, and even his allies - commenting how worthless his enemy officers are, wondering why they even bother, or commenting with feigned surprise that an ally actually can fight.
Having been raised very harshly and without any understanding or tolerance for weakness or failure, Cao Pi has come to be a man unable to forgive or understand weakness himself. He permanently has a guard up, never showing much feeling at all, which is especially visible in his open interaction with Zhen Ji, whom he genuinely loves, as explained above, or even his father. One will never see him act emotional or thoughtless, and that combined with his shrewd nature gives the impression of always being scheming. He holds his men and himself to high standards, part of the reason why Zhen Ji does not allow herself to fail him either - the other part is that she is just like him in many ways, which plays into his actions equally - and shows them as little mercy as his enemies.
He can, however, be very forgiving if he considers someone useful. For instance, he refuses to kill Sima Yi even after the latter's rebellion and attempt to take over the throne - for the simple reason that, as he had told Sima Yi before - he considers the strategist a valuable ally, and needs his help to rule the country. He knows exactly how dangerous Sima Yi is, perhaps even better than Sima Yi expects him to know, even before the incident. This is another advantage of his always guarded demeanour - his ability to read people us very highly developed, even if he does not often act upon what he understands, unless he considers it necessary. He knows he has the power to subdue Sima Yi's rebellions, however, and so he considers the strategist's worth higher than the risk of keeping him around. With his typical ruthlessness and egotism, he even offers Sima Yi a deal: to wait until Cao Pi's death - and then to be free to do whatever he wants with the land.
Cao Pi's own vision for his land, however, is far less egotistic than one might have expected. While his father was a hero in a time of chaos, Cao Pi's vision for the land's future differs vastly from Cao Cao's. While he is ambitious to rule, and to rule for himself, he does show that he cares about his people to a certain degree, and he shows respect towards his loyal subjects, even if not all of them manage to respect him in his own right yet. His vision, as he explains to his general Zhang He at one occasion, is to bring the land back into a state of order after the wars - and, tying in with his utilitarian, pragmatic personality, to create a land where everyone can live up to their full potential.
abilities:
Like most people in Dynasty Warriors, he's a pretty good fighter. He really is, using a sword, and being pretty handy with it. I'd like to cut the supernatural strength/speed/musou stuff, though, since it's rather crazy, but doesn't really appear in cutscenes, where the characters are treated more like regular humans.
any plans for your character here?
Flip his shit about all the supposedly dead people walking around again, flipping his shit about daddy stealing his thunder again, flipping his shit because he has a coronation - his own - to attend to, and showing none of those. Having a strained, apparently terrible relationship with his father, plotting, conspiring with Sima Yi, being a jerk-arse... No, no real plans.
possessions:
- His clothes & armour.
- His sword.
- Nothing else of note, he was kind of not prepared for this trip.
samples.
sample journal entry:
Listen to me, and listen very well. I don't care which lord you serve or how desperate in need of food and money your people are. If you were expecting something out of this, you will be sorely disappointed. You will not receive any ransom for me. If you knew my father at all, you wouldn't even bother trying.
Regardless, you will suffer for this. Your people will be wiped out to the last man.That much I promise you.
third-person sample:
It was been just like the last time when men had been brought before him in chains. Peons or soldiers, he could not tell any more, because he had long since stopped paying attention. It only mattered as long as they were resisting him; to plan the approach. When they were captured, who or what they were became meaningless. These here were of no use for him; with one face and one voice, one broken demeanour and as one large body, they could have been the same men as the time before, or the times before that. He had almost grown too bored of the procedure to even answer his men's question what to do with the prisoners. It doesn't matter, he wanted to say, throw them to the others. Only, the battlefield had moved, and the "others" had been left far behind, rotting in rivers and poisoning the water supply of a town that was wiped out by now. Why did he have to bother with this?
"Kill them," was what he eventually said instead. "Get those peasants out of my eyes." And Zhen Ji gave him that particular smile, an arch of lips and a glance under lowered lashes, before a coy tilt of her head denied him the pleasurable sight quickly. And as always, while her fingers brushed idly over the flute in her hand, her act stung with frustration and only drew him more to her. She did it only to tease him, and like she knew him, he knew her thoroughly. Her words rang in his head with a pleasant spice of simplicity: "I thirst for blood - and I will take it where I find it." Such a beautiful flower on the battlefield, indeed. She was so enticingly frightful when she was sincere, and there was future in her smile. Future that was not for him. Cao Cao was dead, at last, but it was not as if he had ever actually left. Except for her, he had. It was refreshing.
"Worthless," he sighed, making no secret of his annoyance. "Why do they even bother?" He dismissed the soldiers with a bored wave of his hand. They left, angered and also grateful, because they were tired from marching and battling, and their newly crowned king's personality was nowhere near as pleasant as his wife's beauty.
An hour later, he was alone. Cao Pi never did anything with regret or without purpose, and he was not known as a man devoted to ideals - his own at least - or fantasy. But then, in the end nobody knew him, and around men like Sima Yi, he intended to keep it this way. It was not exactly what mattered to him, anyway. Thus when he took a walk through the camp, of course it had a point beyond being alone to think. After all, it didn't matter where he went. There was no place where he was alone, and wherever he arrived, father had already been.
He sneered. There was nothing to prove to a dead man. That time was over, he was king. Not for the dead, but for himself. There was more to life than finishing what another had begun, and more than preparing a path for the ones who were to follow after him. This time was his, not a shadow of the past or the future.
When he met Sima Yi's eyes, his smile remained, and a new, cold flare appeared in his eyes. "I know you," his eyes said boldly, "I know your ambition, and I don't care. After me, do as you please."
When he was gone, what did it matter? His life and rule would at last be for himself, for his own ambition. It would be short enough.