Sun Li

Master Li (full name Sun Li the Glorious Strategist) is the hidden true main antagonist of the the 2008 video game Jade Empire. He's presented as the player character's mentor in the story's first half, after which he reveals his true colors.

He's voiced by Barry Dennen.

Early life and the Long Drought
Sun Li was born as the second oldest son of Jade Empire's previous ruler and was made the leader of the Imperial Army, while the eldest son Sun Hai became the Emperor. With his high intellect, Li earned the title of the Glorious Strategist. However, he wasn't for long satisfied with having to serve under his brother Hai. Li also had a wife who birthed for him a daughter who'd go by the name of Dawn Star.

Thirty years before the start of the game, the Empire was struck by what was afterwards known as the Long Drought. For ten years, scorching heat and limited rainfall killed crops, costing thousands of lives. Even opening the royal granaries couldn't help. Emperor Sun Hai couldn't accept that his empire would end in the face of the natural order, so he demanded Sun Li to find a way to prevent this.

Li found an answer from the Temple of Dirge in the western mountainous Land of the Howling Spirits. It was the home of the Spirit Monks, servants and protectors of the Water Dragon, the goddess who oversaw the distribution of water in the mortal realm and guidance of the spirits of the dead to afterlife and rebirth. Li also found a way to challenge the goddess's station and steal her divine powers, and as such, he led the siege of Dirge under Emperor Sun Hai's orders. However, Li had no intention to continue serving his brother should he become a god. Allying with their younger brother Sun Kin the Hand of Heaven, leader of the monastic Order of the Lotus, Li bid his time to betray Hai and seize for himself both the throne and the Water Dragon's power.

The siege of Dirge and failed coup d'état
Well before the Imperial Army assaulted Dirge, Sun Li approached several more temptable Spirit Monks such as Xian Wu and convinced them to betray their brethren with promises of wealth and power. He had them taint Dirge's holy waters with human blood in order to weaken the temple's protective charms and the Water Dragon's power. Thousands of Spirit Monks were slaughtered by the Imperial Army's superior numbers. Sun Li and Sun Kin were clearing the temple's stairs for the Emperor when they were challenged by the Spirit Monks' leader Abbot Song. As the abbot faced Sun Kin, Li cut him down from behind.

The Sun brothers entered the temple unopposed, with Sun Li catching glimpses of a hiding Spirit Monk who had a baby with him. As Sun Hai gave the killing blow to the Water Dragon through the portal to the Spirit World and claimed her heart, Li and Kin tried to kill him. Much to their shock, however, Hai didn't die thanks to the Water Dragon's power. He then struck his brothers with magical energy, sending Sun Li to fly across the chamber and close to the monk and the baby's escape route. With his coup a failure, Sun Li escaped, abandoning Sun Kin to Hai's retribution.

Catching up with the escaped monk and the baby, Sun Li killed the monk and claimed the baby along with the core piece of the Dragon Amulet, a focus tool of the Spirit Monks which makes the draining of the Water Dragon's power easier and faster. Realizing that only a Spirit Monk equipped with the Amulet could defeat the empowered Sun Hai, Li decided to train the baby as his pawn. He then escaped with the baby and the Amulet, leaving behind his fearsome armor, which Sun Hai used along with Sun Kin's spirit to create Death's Hand as mockery of Li.

The humble teacher
Sun Li went into hiding in the empire's borders, becoming the new teacher of the martial arts school of the remote village of Two Rivers. Adopting the identity of Master Li, he went on to raise the last Spirit Monk as his protege for twenty years. Respected by both the students and townsfolk, he carefully kept low profile so that the Emperor's Lotus Assassins (the former Lotus Monks) wouldn't find him and his protege too soon. Meanwhile, Sun Li the Glorious Strategist was believed by the masses to have died as a sacrifice to the ending of the Long Drought or as a traitor.

Before announcing his protege's training complete, Master Li made precautions to carry out his master plan. For one thing, he bid a loyal soldier under him, Hui the Brave, to wait until his protege would come to Tien's Landing and deliver them the second piece of the Dragon Amulet and teach them the Spirit Thief style. He also integrated into his student's fighting style subtle flaws that others could notice but only he could exploit.

Within weeks of Dirge's siege, Emperor Sun Hai ordered his Lotus Assassins to kill Li's wife and daughter Dawn Star. Dawn Star's death was prevented by one of the Assassins, Sagacious Zu, who then went into hiding with Dawn Star. He eventually gave her up to Hui the Brave to pass her to a good home. Hui delivered Dawn Star to Two Rivers and Master Li. Ironically, neither Li or Dawn Star realized their relation for the period of seventeen years they knew each other.

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Personality
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Powers and Abilities
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Quotes
"I sense my former student refuses rest easy. The time for subtlety is past. You are too valuable to abandon a second time. Come, we must return to Dirge."

- Sun Li binding Death's Hand.