Path of the Peacock: Prelude

The Prophecy

Long ago, before Master Oogway unraveled the secrets of harmony and focus, the first words of animal kind predicted the future of young China. A white flower of dark shall rise, and helped by iron beasts that spit fire he shall conquer the hammer and the horn, thus crowning itself as ruler over all. It shall be feared throughout the land for its cruelty and malice. But the five virtues, ferociousness, agility, stealth, speed and grace, led by a dragon of black and white shall oppose it, and in a fierce battle the white flower shall fall out of its ring of fire, and be forgotten. Forgotten, but not completely gone. One of the virtues shall fall under the sway of the flower, and, blinded by aspirations to the greatest power in the world, it shall search for the flower and bring it back to its former glory. From their joining shall emerge one unlike no other, one of feathers and stripes. He will be of a kind that the world has never seen before, and all four corners of the known world shall suffer and bow under his iron fist. The prophecy was passed from mouth to mouth, even written in the first scrolls to warn future generations of the coming threat, but with each passing year, it was taken less and less seriously, until it became nothing more than mere infant's tale, a meaningless story to be told by the fire. And so, centuries later, when a certain albino peacock rose to power with the help of a new invincible weapon, no one would even think that something worse would follow…