PLAYER NAME: ruxi CONTACT: PM @ character journal or sobranie, please.
CHARACTER: Lan Wangji CANON: Untamed CANON POINT: after Jin Guangyao's defeat | post-series
BACKGROUND: All you never needed to know about this character can be found here and here, but to cut the tl;dr short: Lan Wangji is the spare noble scion of one of four leading ‘cultivator’ magical clans in a fantasy version of ancient China, the ascetic Gusu Lan sect. His strict, duty-led personality makes Lan Wangji briefly a foil, then the closest ally of chaotic but magically brilliant protagonist Wei Ying (Wuxian), over the course of two large-scale multi-clan wars and Wei Wuxian’s revolutionary and profane (re)introduction of demonic cultivation — a broadly lethal corruption of existing magical practices, not unlike necromancy. Critically, the Gusu Lan and Yunmeng Jiang are accused of insurgency and nearly extinguished by then-leading tyrants Qishan Wen, before the latter sect is overthrown.
As the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian’s descent into demonic cultivation, disrepute, death and a manipulated resurrection repeatedly put Lan Wangji at odds between fealty to his sect, his battling moral convictions and his ultimately triumphant loyalties to Wei Wuxian. Throughout everything, he’s typically short-changed with bearing the repercussions of rebellion against clan mores: defending Wei Wuxian costs him severe disciplinary action comprising lashing, a three-year seclusion, and a temporary fall from grace that he compensates through exemplary behaviour for roughly a decade, while the Gusu Lan recover.
Once Wei Wuxian is ‘summoned’ back 16 years after his death, Lan Wangji accompanies him for a series of investigations into the recent re-emergence of demonic cultivation and into the political machinations that falsely accused Wei Wuxian in his first life. This results in the second of the aforementioned cross-clan conflicts, which Lan Wangji survives to assume leadership of the sects.
ABILITIES | POWERS:
In the interest of doing itself a solid, the show canon is efficiently vague about the parameters of its magical system. Overall, we see the average Joe cultivator benefit from improved health, stamina and anti-age cream, as well as resort to paper or word talismans, wards and very minor elemental spells. Lan Wangji checks that list and seems to add a high spiritual awareness, lowkey healing abilities and musical qin — a Gusu Lan party trick favourite that lets the user connect with, interrogate, agitate or calm the spirits of the living/dead by playing music on a guqin. It can also coalesce and direct spiritual force as attack waves.
Lan Wangji’s spiritual awareness and capacity to liaise with spirits to some extent are fairly entrenched in his mentality and upbringing.
Silence spell: a beloved and frequently abused spell that effectively mutes targets for the time it takes to burn half of an incense stick ( around 30-35min). It can also be dispelled by the caster.
Riding, martial arts and acrobatics, as well as sword and (likely guqin, but could be transferrable to diamond-powdered) string weapon mastery.
The often underestimated abilities to suffer fools everywhere and walk in robes clearly unfit for travel purpose.
Base healing, which expresses itself more through readings of the living pulse and in/outflows of qi energy, rather than sophisticated medical knowledge.
PERSONALITY: Lan Wangji does what Lan Wangji wants. This is the 50-episode takeaway that poets, sycophants, swooning court ladies and clan groupies who never got the memo about white after Labour day try to dress up as nobility, honour, wisdom and pride.
To know Lan Wangji is to understand the ideological wheel this sad hamster has trotted for the formative part of his life: the ascetic ‘magical’ cultivator sect Gusu Lan. They’ve got the warrior monk gig down pat, from mandates against pleasure, titles, luxury or gain, to a time-honoured disciplinarian streak that, in a Footloose twist, still abides music. The Lan are praised for their elegance, while privately begrudged their aloofness, rigidity and intolerance of failure — traits that Boy Scout Lan Wangji goes to great pains to embody round the (curfew-bound) clock.
All in all, his arc is about Minecrafting a bridge between his sect’s literal approach to ethic as (3,000) rules and ripple effects, and his own spiritually led understanding of morality. The Lan sect start with a lofty advantage: a top-notch graduate of Trauma 101, Lan Wangji witnessed young the repercussions of his father’s romantic indulgence, his mother’s homicidal madness, and the shameful seclusion that divorced her from the waiting world. The proof was in closed doors and parental neglect: there is a price for breaking norms, and Lan Wangji learned early that the offenders are not always those who pay it.
As the series progresses, he proves himself increasingly prone to dropping the mic and dismissing Lan austerity when it no longer aligns with his worldview. Outside of the sect’s headquarters at Cloud Recesses, he allows himself, gasp, alcohol, unorthodox magical adventures, unadvisable loyalties and even a best-suppressed sense of humour. He goes out of his way to troll Wei Wuxian by pouring out his wine in passing, because, why not? At his most critically insurgent, Lan Wangji even questions the philosophical premises that have underpinned his uncle and father figure Lan Qiren’s moral code for decades.
It helps that he takes the most divisive events and influences in his life as a fatalistic given. Lan Wangji seems largely unconcerned with this own descent into Wei Wuxian’s gravity pull, because: 1. he exists; 2. his fate is tied with that of a tone-deaf walking disaster; 3. such is life, inevitable and ever-flowing. This anchors him more than it excuses or lessens his agony, as he strays from clan codes: once he’s given his loyalty to Wei Wuxian, it becomes inevitable that he’ll snowball into covering his friend’s traces at the Burial Mounds, defending him against slander, and sacrificing his body to 300 lashes and his reputation to the dogs.
Lan Wangji might not see the world in black and white, but he seems to reduce his actions to a ‘loyal’/ ‘disloyal’ binary. At some point, Lan Wangji learned to take a good hard look in the mirror, evaluate his life and its terrible choices, then keep calm, Kanye-shrug and carry on. Nine times out of ten, he hits jackpot — but he wears his rare failures as scars rather than bruises, and he never forgets that he didn’t fully support Wei Wuxian during his downfall, or that the Yunmeng Jiang sect was slaughtered because of offence given to the Wen in his name.
On the daily, Lan Wangji’s no stranger to weaponizing etiquette as a posh blanket for disapproval, indifference, shyness or inertia. He’s silent, but physically expressive, typically in twitches of posture. He values personal space and is sufficiently socially reticent that his beloved brother Lan Xichen politely mentions he might wanna make some friends. For all he’s one of Untamed’s most literate nerds, Lan Wangji abbreviates his speech to the point of what must be deliberate obfuscation — a style that helps him preserve decorum, conceal lies by omission, annoy the living hell out of other characters, and presumably doesn’t extensively tax his robot circuitry.
Scratch the veneer, tilt your head and squint, and it becomes obvious that Lan Wangji hides a light temper. He’s impatient, easily outraged by improper or demonic cultivation, and goes full entitled helicopter mom when he unilaterally decrees ‘recovery’ for Wei Wuxian at Cloud Recesses. His single-mindedness can border cruelty: he barely remembers the affronted Su She, aims double-edged polite reminders at Jiang Cheng, abuses the Silence Spell on those who irritate him and obliterates the Qishan Indoctrination Bureau with neither sympathy, nor enlightenment, for their massacre of the Lan sect.
Competition’s thin on the ground, but Lan Wangji is easily one of the show’s more pragmatic token pretty boys. He suffers the indignity of surrendering his sword — a soul companion and the mark of a gentleman — to enemies when held captive, and he embraces the necessity of ruthless techniques like chord assassination, which should contrast the largely diplomatic approach of his sect. His hand seems constantly on his sword sheath to defend someone’s honour, and he’s efficiently quick to make blood work of enemies.
Inescapably, a man styled Hanguag Jun (‘Lightbearer’) will have a bright side: he’s exhaustively faithful, resilient before hardship and unquestionably heroic. For all his evolving ethics, he’s steadfast in defending what he thinks to be right and just, often at personal risk. He’s fast to raise his bat sleeve so his friends can take sanctuary, and he’s unquestioningly filial to the uncle who raised him and respectful of ancestors — his own, or those of other clans. Despite being a noble gentleman, he’s unconcerned with rank and takes the cause of ‘commoners’ and the maligned, even adopting Wen Yuan into his sect after his unfair persecution. He’s responsible within the clan, keeping Constant Vigilance over the welfare of Lan disciples. Lastly, he even bleeds pretty — and there’s something to be said for the equally bleeding heart of a man who nurtures bunnies and devolves into playful childishness once drunk.
INVENTORY: The clothes on his back, a Gusu Lan forehead band, his sword Bichen, and the guqin musical instrument he seems to keep fastened on at all times, like every dedicated weirdo should.
lan wangji | the untamed
CONTACT: PM @ character journal or
CHARACTER: Lan Wangji
CANON: Untamed
CANON POINT: after Jin Guangyao's defeat | post-series
BACKGROUND: All you never needed to know about this character can be found here and here, but to cut the tl;dr short: Lan Wangji is the spare noble scion of one of four leading ‘cultivator’ magical clans in a fantasy version of ancient China, the ascetic Gusu Lan sect. His strict, duty-led personality makes Lan Wangji briefly a foil, then the closest ally of chaotic but magically brilliant protagonist Wei Ying (Wuxian), over the course of two large-scale multi-clan wars and Wei Wuxian’s revolutionary and profane (re)introduction of demonic cultivation — a broadly lethal corruption of existing magical practices, not unlike necromancy. Critically, the Gusu Lan and Yunmeng Jiang are accused of insurgency and nearly extinguished by then-leading tyrants Qishan Wen, before the latter sect is overthrown.
As the Yiling Patriarch, Wei Wuxian’s descent into demonic cultivation, disrepute, death and a manipulated resurrection repeatedly put Lan Wangji at odds between fealty to his sect, his battling moral convictions and his ultimately triumphant loyalties to Wei Wuxian. Throughout everything, he’s typically short-changed with bearing the repercussions of rebellion against clan mores: defending Wei Wuxian costs him severe disciplinary action comprising lashing, a three-year seclusion, and a temporary fall from grace that he compensates through exemplary behaviour for roughly a decade, while the Gusu Lan recover.
Once Wei Wuxian is ‘summoned’ back 16 years after his death, Lan Wangji accompanies him for a series of investigations into the recent re-emergence of demonic cultivation and into the political machinations that falsely accused Wei Wuxian in his first life. This results in the second of the aforementioned cross-clan conflicts, which Lan Wangji survives to assume leadership of the sects.
ABILITIES | POWERS:
Lan Wangji’s spiritual awareness and capacity to liaise with spirits to some extent are fairly entrenched in his mentality and upbringing.
PERSONALITY: Lan Wangji does what Lan Wangji wants. This is the 50-episode takeaway that poets, sycophants, swooning court ladies and clan groupies who never got the memo about white after Labour day try to dress up as nobility, honour, wisdom and pride.
To know Lan Wangji is to understand the ideological wheel this sad hamster has trotted for the formative part of his life: the ascetic ‘magical’ cultivator sect Gusu Lan. They’ve got the warrior monk gig down pat, from mandates against pleasure, titles, luxury or gain, to a time-honoured disciplinarian streak that, in a Footloose twist, still abides music. The Lan are praised for their elegance, while privately begrudged their aloofness, rigidity and intolerance of failure — traits that Boy Scout Lan Wangji goes to great pains to embody round the (curfew-bound) clock.
All in all, his arc is about Minecrafting a bridge between his sect’s literal approach to ethic as (3,000) rules and ripple effects, and his own spiritually led understanding of morality. The Lan sect start with a lofty advantage: a top-notch graduate of Trauma 101, Lan Wangji witnessed young the repercussions of his father’s romantic indulgence, his mother’s homicidal madness, and the shameful seclusion that divorced her from the waiting world. The proof was in closed doors and parental neglect: there is a price for breaking norms, and Lan Wangji learned early that the offenders are not always those who pay it.
As the series progresses, he proves himself increasingly prone to dropping the mic and dismissing Lan austerity when it no longer aligns with his worldview. Outside of the sect’s headquarters at Cloud Recesses, he allows himself, gasp, alcohol, unorthodox magical adventures, unadvisable loyalties and even a best-suppressed sense of humour. He goes out of his way to troll Wei Wuxian by pouring out his wine in passing, because, why not? At his most critically insurgent, Lan Wangji even questions the philosophical premises that have underpinned his uncle and father figure Lan Qiren’s moral code for decades.
It helps that he takes the most divisive events and influences in his life as a fatalistic given. Lan Wangji seems largely unconcerned with this own descent into Wei Wuxian’s gravity pull, because: 1. he exists; 2. his fate is tied with that of a tone-deaf walking disaster; 3. such is life, inevitable and ever-flowing. This anchors him more than it excuses or lessens his agony, as he strays from clan codes: once he’s given his loyalty to Wei Wuxian, it becomes inevitable that he’ll snowball into covering his friend’s traces at the Burial Mounds, defending him against slander, and sacrificing his body to 300 lashes and his reputation to the dogs.
Lan Wangji might not see the world in black and white, but he seems to reduce his actions to a ‘loyal’/ ‘disloyal’ binary. At some point, Lan Wangji learned to take a good hard look in the mirror, evaluate his life and its terrible choices, then keep calm, Kanye-shrug and carry on. Nine times out of ten, he hits jackpot — but he wears his rare failures as scars rather than bruises, and he never forgets that he didn’t fully support Wei Wuxian during his downfall, or that the Yunmeng Jiang sect was slaughtered because of offence given to the Wen in his name.
On the daily, Lan Wangji’s no stranger to weaponizing etiquette as a posh blanket for disapproval, indifference, shyness or inertia. He’s silent, but physically expressive, typically in twitches of posture. He values personal space and is sufficiently socially reticent that his beloved brother Lan Xichen politely mentions he might wanna make some friends. For all he’s one of Untamed’s most literate nerds, Lan Wangji abbreviates his speech to the point of what must be deliberate obfuscation — a style that helps him preserve decorum, conceal lies by omission, annoy the living hell out of other characters, and presumably doesn’t extensively tax his robot circuitry.
Scratch the veneer, tilt your head and squint, and it becomes obvious that Lan Wangji hides a light temper. He’s impatient, easily outraged by improper or demonic cultivation, and goes full entitled helicopter mom when he unilaterally decrees ‘recovery’ for Wei Wuxian at Cloud Recesses. His single-mindedness can border cruelty: he barely remembers the affronted Su She, aims double-edged polite reminders at Jiang Cheng, abuses the Silence Spell on those who irritate him and obliterates the Qishan Indoctrination Bureau with neither sympathy, nor enlightenment, for their massacre of the Lan sect.
Competition’s thin on the ground, but Lan Wangji is easily one of the show’s more pragmatic token pretty boys. He suffers the indignity of surrendering his sword — a soul companion and the mark of a gentleman — to enemies when held captive, and he embraces the necessity of ruthless techniques like chord assassination, which should contrast the largely diplomatic approach of his sect. His hand seems constantly on his sword sheath to defend someone’s honour, and he’s efficiently quick to make blood work of enemies.
Inescapably, a man styled Hanguag Jun (‘Lightbearer’) will have a bright side: he’s exhaustively faithful, resilient before hardship and unquestionably heroic. For all his evolving ethics, he’s steadfast in defending what he thinks to be right and just, often at personal risk. He’s fast to raise his bat sleeve so his friends can take sanctuary, and he’s unquestioningly filial to the uncle who raised him and respectful of ancestors — his own, or those of other clans. Despite being a noble gentleman, he’s unconcerned with rank and takes the cause of ‘commoners’ and the maligned, even adopting Wen Yuan into his sect after his unfair persecution. He’s responsible within the clan, keeping Constant Vigilance over the welfare of Lan disciples. Lastly, he even bleeds pretty — and there’s something to be said for the equally bleeding heart of a man who nurtures bunnies and devolves into playful childishness once drunk.
SAMPLE: A tl;dr thread appears!
INVENTORY: The clothes on his back, a Gusu Lan forehead band, his sword Bichen, and the guqin musical instrument he seems to keep fastened on at all times, like every dedicated weirdo should.
NOTES: N/A