Name: Admiral Maru

First Name: Unknown

Color: Deep Koamaru



Age: early 50s

Eye Color: Red

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Height: 6’5” (197 cm)

Weight: 247 lbs (112 kg)

Birthplace: Atlas

Relatives/Relationships: Azur Myst (son), Crim Rosso (adoptive son), Lapis Myst (wife), Baza Bones (enemy), General Ironwood (superior officer/colleague), Air Force General Sam Vulf (colleague), Master Red (friend), Ghost Vester (pupil), Gardenia Silva (colleague), Colonel Xanadu Stone (acquaintance/rival)

Occupation: Atlesian Fleet Admiral, Teacher

Weapon: Unknown – he claims to have a weapon, but nobody’s ever seen it.

Semblance: Ancient Warlord: nobody actually knows if this is actually his semblance. But people speculate that his overwhelming military charisma and leadership skills is actually his semblance, the ability to inspire an army to win no matter how dire or hopeless the situation may seem. And base on his impressive record as a military commander it’s not hard to see why people would think that.

Fighting Style: Maru is a monster when it comes to hand to hand combat. He specializes in a special style of martial arts first developed by his wife but later perfected by Maru himself. The style involves various hand cutting techniques whether it’s slicing or piercing, always striking, chopping and slashing with an open hand. It’ll be as if he’s fighting with a blade, only the blades in this case are his hands. Admiral Maru takes these deadly techniques and teaches them to his personal squad of assassins. As a teacher he isn’t even allowed to teach this style in the school’s curriculum. When it comes to fighting prowess he rivals that of General James Ironwood himself, possibly even more powerful in some aspects. It is a bit unclear whether these hand slashing techniques are the results of the fighting style itself or the pair of black gloves that he’s known to wear. Some theorizes that his gloves are custom made with hidden blades inside, others claim he merely uses his Aura to enhance his cuts.

HISTORY:

Not much was actually known about Admiral Maru, not many people even knew his first name. What was known though was the fact that Maru had always been an absolutely phenomenal soldier whether it was on the battlefield or as a commanding officer. He had on multiple occasion led his soldiers to victory in situations where most people would describe as impossible. Killing pirates, taking out bandits, prosecuting mobsters, and various Grimm infestations dealt with successfully, even multiple accounts of him taking on Grimm creatures many times his size with nothing but his bare hands.

With his skills and leadership capability, it was no wonder he rose through the ranks at such a rapid pace. Everything was going great, that was until he went out onto a mission to west of Solitas, taking with him several well trained huntsmen and huntresses and other officers. The expedition lasted a total of 2 weeks, and Maru was the only one who returned alive, losing an eye in the process.

Maru claimed the reason why they were defeated was because of a creature he described as a Grimm warrior. But nobody he knew in Atlas could actually verify this, not the scientists, not the government officials, not even any of the locals living near that area. In the end, Maru’s superiors deemed him unfit to continue his commanding position and sent him to a temporary “retirement” for him to heal his wounds and tend to his fallen comrades.

It was at this time when Maru took on a job as a teacher where he eventually met his future wife Lapis, a lieutenant in the Eastern division of Atlas. The two didn’t exactly start off on the best foot with Lapis unable to get pass Maru’s cold exterior. But that didn’t matter, especially after Maru started asking about Lapis’ strange fighting style, showing interest in learning such an art. The two eventually bonded over training and the rest, as Lapis would say, was history.

Years passed and Maru was promoted back to his high ranking position again shortly after coming out of his temporary retirement. This was when he really got to know General Ironwood on an joint operation with the military to clear out nearby Grimm infested areas where a lot of pirates resided. They had met in the past but only now did they got to work together. The two of them had a couple of major differences when it came to their military tactics and mindsets but Maru gradually came to respect Ironwood as both a combatant and a general (though they are both top generals, Ironwood slightly outranks Maru and the Air Force General due to being headmaster of Atlas).

One day during an inspection trip in one of the Dust mines, a massive accident ensued after one of the workers dropped some highly reactive vials of Dust thus causing catastrophic damage to the mine. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of casualties, unfortunately however, the few people who WERE caught in the accident just so happened to be his wife, alongside two other Faunus workers.

Grieving and tormented by the loss, he decided to adopt the child of the two Faunus workers who died that day. The reason why he decided so wasn’t entirely clear. Maybe he felt sorry for the child without a home, maybe he felt the child was a burden he had to carry. Whatever the reason was, this event was no doubt the worst memory he carried with him, a memory that he felt he will carry to his grave.

PERSONALITY/TRAITS:

Admiral Maru has always been the cold and silent type, especially after his Grimm warrior encounter where he lost his eye. Always conducting business in a professional manner and rarely let his emotions get the better of him and cloud his judgment.

Very few people in the world has actually managed to get close to him, not even his own two sons could read him sometimes. In fact, the only person in his life he’s ever opened up to was his wife Lapis. Everybody else is treated by him with the usual cold demeanor.

Although Maru holds Ironwood in high regard and respects him very much as both a fighter and a general, Ironwood still thinks that Maru subconsciously blames him for sending his wife out to that inspection trip in the Dust mine. Now whether this is true or not is not entirely clear, as there has always been a lot of tension between Maru and Ironwood with Maru finding major issues in the way James runs his army. So it is difficult to tell if the animosity is personal or not.

Maru has vowed since the day he met that Grimm Warrior that he will do whatever it takes to find the beast that took his comrades and in the end kill it with his own two hands even if it’s the last thing he does. Even if he has to wipe out every single Grimm out there in the world to find that beast. Also, on top of that, not many people actually know this, but the Grimm actually left a deadly disease within Maru when it took away his eye, a virus that’s slowly killing him as the days go by. Maru admits to himself that the only reason he’s not dead yet is because he hasn’t killed the Grimm warrior yet, it’s his willpower alone that's been keeping him breathing for another day, or so he says.

Maru is a harsh teacher and a cold father. Nothing ever seems to be good enough for his standards, as it just keeps on rising and rising. "There's always room for improvement" he says, especially to his two sons. Some students and even some teachers despises him for this, thinking he is too arrogant. But they couldn't complain much because his high standards is backed up by his immense skills due to the fact that Maru is legitimately one of the strongest men on the planet, as far as peak mortals go. He is up there with the Unbeatable Monster Baza Bones, the Legendary Grimm Reaper and Master Red in terms of strength.

The Admiral hates Grimm and he hates crime and evil. His sense of justice has been described as both strict and extreme, even twisted sometimes.