Ten
 Ten | |
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| Title | Ten of the Peppered Scroll |
| Gender | Male |
| Race | Pandaren |
| Affiliation(s) | Shado-Pan |
| Occupation | Shado-Pan acolyte |
| Location | Shado-Pan Monastery |
| Status | Alive |
| Relative(s) | Deceased father, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, and five other brothers |
| Mentor(s) | Hawkmaster Nurong, Master Snowdrift, Yalia Sagewhisper |
| Companion(s) | Heavy Chan, Pei-Ling |
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Ten is a young pandaren member of the Shado-Pan. His name, Ten, literally represents the number ten, as his father ran out of interesting names after the fifth son.
History
Ten was born as the youngest son of a poor turnip farmer. When Ten was growing up his older brother Seven taught him to read. Upon their father's death when Ten was seven years old, his five eldest brothers split the property between themselves. However, due to the farm struggling as it was already, it was decided that the farm would not be split further with the younger five brothers being giving the option of staying as farmhands or leaving. Rather than stay as a farmhand, Ten decided to leave where he would soon come into a life of an impoverished thief in and around Halfhill in the Valley of the Four Winds.
Life was hard for Ten, who wasn't proud that he had to steal merely so he could eat, whether by taking food directly or speedy coin grabs. If there was an accident with a cart, he could help out while keeping some smaller pieces of food for himself. He had endured beatings, for instance once from a butcher for stealing the man's garbage, and on another occasion, a blacksmith for warming his paws at his forge. He had slept in sewers and fought off packs of virmen for food just to survive, and sheltered under the twilight rain in alleys with thieves and murderers. There was the occasional kindness, such as fruit "accidentally" rolling off Kim Won Gi's fruit cart right in front of Ten. Bartender Den Den of the Lazy Turnip once accepted a (obviously stolen) pomegranate in trade for a mug of Stormstout brew.
One day when he was 14, concerned with being able to buy another blanket for the coming winter, he stole a scroll from a group of four traveling 'merchants', later revealed to be in fact a group of Shado-Pan delivering a message to Haohan Mudclaw. After a long chase, he was finally caught by the group's leader, Hawkmaster Nurong, the one he had lifted the scroll from, after tricking Nurong's underlings into thinking he'd left in another direction. However, as Nurong had overheard Ten express admiration for his pursuers and being quite impressed with his wits and skills, instead of punishment he was given another choice: to apply to join the Shado-Pan, with the requirement of Ten reaching Shado-Pan Monastery in time for the Trial of the Red Blossoms within three months. For having used the scroll to blow cindergut powder to distract the pursuing acolytes, Nurong dubs him "Ten of the Peppered Scroll."
After a long, hard, and perilous journey, he eventually reached the gates on the very last day of his three-month parole, where he found himself with nine other pandaren who wished to join the Shado-Pan by completing the Trial. After passing the first trial Ten was witnessed to Heavy Chan arriving with the remains of the brazier around his paw. Upon discovering that Chan decided to simply take the brazier (as his paw was too large to remove the coin and the brazier was too hot) Ten silently wondered to himself if the other hopefuls had drowned, been frozen, or simply left once Chan took the brazier.
During the second trial, one of the initiates was killed by a bamboo python, but that was not the true horror as the surviving three initiates were forced to confront a manifestation of the sha. Ten led Chan and Pei-Ling in working together, and were able to overcome the sha. After recuperating, Master Nurong decided on their final test. Instead of the traditional test, Nurong explained to them the full consequences of having been exposed to the sha at such a young age and if they joined the order, they would be choosing to do so again for the rest of their lives, something nearly all acolytes are blissfully unaware of and only veterans dared to face. He then asked if they would still be willing to swear the Shado-Pan oath and join the order. After some inner introspective, Ten and his new companions accepted to take the oath at sunset later that day before Lord Taran Zhu, and become Shado-Pan acolytes.
With the official business over with, Nurong sat down to rest from his return journey and realized Ten had pickpocketed him again. Just like how they had first met, he asked the smiling Ten to give back his belongings. The future acolyte apologized, explaining that old habits die hard.[1]
Notes
As he was 14 during Mists of Pandaria, he is 24 in Dragonflight.
Speculation
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This article or section includes speculation, observations or opinions possibly supported by lore or by Blizzard officials. It should not be taken as representing official lore.
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Considering Ten's skill set, he would probably be trained as a rogue and thus eventually join the Wu Kao discipline under Nurong.