She feels trapped by her past because she was born into a prestegious Chinese family with a great honor to uphold. Her father is one of the 20th generation inheritors of Chen Style Taijiquan (the first and most effective form of Taiji). This makes her one of the 21st generation Chen practitioners. And now, she is expected to live up to exacting standards in her martial arts practice -- whether she likes it or not.
She feels trapped by her future because she was also born with a strange birthmark on the plam of her hand. A deep blood-red mark in the shape of the Chinese ideogram for the word "spirit" adorns her right palm. When she was younger, everyone believed this to be very auspicious. But after she Awakened and joined the Taoist mage group the K'an Lu (a sect of the Cult of Ecstasy), she found out that her marking had a special, more dreaded, meaning. Legend has it that there are four other people bearing the same mark as she, and they all possess a fraction of the same shattered Avatar's essence. The mage who hunts down all the others with the mark, killing them first, will gather the broken shards of the Avatar and again be whole.
While Chen has no intention of killing, she realizes that the others with the mark may not have such reservations. She has fled to America, hoping to avoid her destiny for a bit longer, but fearing in her heart what lies ahead.
Her father, ashamed of her disappearance has threatened to disown her if she doesn't return to China and take her place teaching Taiji as she should. But she has refused him, telling him that she loves him but there is something she must do first. So now, she wanders America, hoping to find some way out of her current circumstances. Having arrived in Necro city recently, she lives off the kindness of others, sleeping at strangers' houses and offering to do menial labor in return.
Chen's quiet life in Necro city was brought up short when an American came through town with the same mark on his hand. While he didn't seem to know what it meant, his presence frightened Chen, and she took precautions (including a disguise) in an attempt to throw him off. Later, the guy, who's name was Chance, just seemed to vanish.
Shortly after her encounter with Chance, Chen heard about a Chinese general who was looking extensively into the leged about her hand. She hired a girl from Necro City to steal some information for her, and she discovered that the general also had the mark. She also found that the reason for Chance's disappearance was due to the fact that the general had Chance abducted, smuggled into China and then killed. Now it seems to be getting serious and Chen is afraid that she'll have no choice but to fight soon.
Even more recently, Chen's father recently tracked her down in America and ordered her to return home. She was forced to explain the truth behind the legend of the mark on her hand. She showed him the pictures she had of the Chinese general Zhou, and begged her father to leave her in America where she was safe for the time being. He grudgingly allowed her to remain, but criticized her for not doing much to advance her Taiji skills. He feels that her ability to defend herself rests in her martial prowess.
A little less than a year ago, Chen's sister came to visit her and was quite surprised by her sisters new life and lifestyle in America. Chen's sister, named Chen MeiLi, also a martial artist -- but not nearly as skilled as LianXin -- is just a regular mortal, and that has LianXin frightened about what to do if danger comes knocking on her door.
Since a few months ago, Chen's become much more proactive about her attempts to bring down General Zhou before he has a chance to do real damamge. Using her information broker, Vivienne Li, she's been able to procure several fake IDs which she uses to travel in and out of China. Once there, she's been hooking up with an underground student movement that is attempting to fight communism. Using this movement as her support network, Chen has been framing General Zhou for crimes that even the governement would frown upon if they became public.
Her theory is that if she can do enough public relations damage, General Zhou will be taken down by his own people.
I now have Chen LianXn's character sheet up here.
