When he turned 18 (1984), he began his training as an interrogator (ie. torturer, the "Monster" Demeanor) of political and domestic criminals. In this manner, he helped maintain party solidarity. He was taught discipline, self-control, and mastery over knowledge. Only through rigid living, maintaining the bodies, minds, and souls of Chinese citizens, can peace be gained.

He is a perceptive man, however, and while he has been perfecting his ability to manipulate and reprogram people (his Mind spheres), he has noticed a common overwhelming flaw in the Communist Party.

Fear.

In April 1987, Sunzi was given a strange order, to kidnap and interrogate Hu Yaobang, a moderate popular with the people, but a threat to the conservative Deng hierarchy. Officially, Hu was “voted” out of the Council, and lived in seclusion with an official membership to the Communist Party.

For two years, he picked apart everything in Hu’s mind, using all the psychological and physiological tricks he knew. As Hu’s life and mind slowly collapsed, Sunzi’s superiors praised their student for a job well done.

Unbeknownst to all but Sunzi and Hu, they held private conversations as equals. Or more like pupil to master. Hu gave Sunzi all his wisdom, intuition, and foresight about the People’s Republic of China, and on Sunzi himself. In fact, Sunzi lengthened, the interrogation process to the two years just to have the chance to continue learning under this compassionate moderate.

He learned that the Communist Party of China is actually ruled by one concept, fear. They instill fear in their people, and they use that fear to their advantage. However, that same fear is also a pathological fear of change, and of the very same purges the Party has supported.

See, the high-ups of the Party DID live through the Cultural Revolution, and DID live through the many purges, and each and every one of them knows that at any given moment, they could become the next victims.

Even Deng Xiaoping, in 1976, was a target of a short purge by Mao Zedong. For the very same reasons Deng fell victim to this ever-present fear, Hu, and Sunzi have become pawns to it.

Hu Yaobang has seen that this very fear will be the downfall of the Party. He can sense how and when the Party will fold in on itself, and self-destruct. He taught Sunzi to trust his instincts, and to see this truth for himself. He bright pupil exceeded his teacher’s expectations, and literally found himself predicting the eventual fall (his Entropy spheres). His belief in the Party broken, Sun has learned quite a bit about himself. His desire to be an interrogator wasn't purely out of malice or the joy in the Party, it was to learn the very same techniques of the Party so as to better defend himself.

Though willing to work within a system, he ultimately uses that knowledge to ensure his own survival or progress, thus breaking down that system (his "Rebel" nature). What he thought was zealotry was actually a survival instinct, a self-suggestion to believe in the Party despite his inner-most feelings.

In April 1989, Sunzi received an order to see to Hu Yaobang’s “heart attack.” Hu was prepared for this, having taught Sunzi everything he knew. In their last conversation, over supper, Hu Yaobang warned the young loyalist that there were other forces at work, pulling the strings of even the inner cabal of the Community Party. A force that was methodical and subtle, beyond the doublespeak propaganda of the Communist press. It was only two years later, when the American President George H.W. Bush gave a speech declaring a “New World Order,” did Sunzi understand that his fate had been masterminded to the very second.

As a final gift, and a sign of rebellion, Sunzi laid the old man to rest, peacefully in his sleep.

Sunzi was not surprised to feel the gunshot on his back. He had predicted that his “assassination” of Hu Yaobang could be used as a means to gain the public’s sympathy, especially if a loyal party member “avenged” the reformer’s death. Sunzi’s intuition told him not to fight against this fate; he would take this knowledge to another, more productive life.

As he lay dying, he imagined, or saw, a rolling, churning morass of faceless minds, gibbering all at once, too chaotic to understand. Sunzi would later call it the Dreams of the Dead, a gestalt mental landscape where minds go after death and return in birth, where ideas and thoughts seemingly vanish and reappear miles away. If only he could find the pattern in the chaos, not only could he control it, but also it would provide all the answers he sought.

His new Mentor, Tan Laoshi, a Euthanatos agent that worked within the Party, brought Sunzi from the morgue, and the “assassin of Hu Yaobang” mysteriously vanished from public record. Incidentally, without proof of a killer, Hu’s death sparked the Democracy Movement and the Tian’anmen Incident of 1989.

The explanation Sunzi was given was this:

This Euthanatos clique in China believed in ideas. Thoughts that recycle throughout time, and grow upon each iteration. The body is ephemeral, but the mind is not. The cycle of a Great Wheel not only governs souls, but concepts. Hu Yaobang, though not an Awakened person, was a great generator of ideas; Tan was using the reformer as a magnet for possible Mages. Unfortunately, another group, the New World Order, fought to suppress and control ideas, and arranged for Hu’s death, as well as Sunzi’s.

Under Tan’s tutelage, Sunzi grew in knowledge, though his paradigm is still limited. The influence of the New World Order was strong on the young interrogator, and Tan suspects that the Men in Black will come for his student. He fears that Sunzi will join them willingly.

When the Reckoning struck the world, Tan Laozi decided that Sunzi should leave the confines of the Communist Party, and absorb the world of ideas for himself. Hopefully, the New World Order would ignore this missing Euthanatos and allow the mage to mature. So, at a young age of 36, thirteen years after his rebirth, Fei Sunzi arrives in the Chantry in Kansas.

Rotes:

Body Language (ooo Mind):
An old trick in espionage circles is to use subtle hand, eye, or body signals to communicate basic information. Sunzi has taken this to a higher level, by creating a relatively complicated "invisible" language completely based on body placement.

A simple gesture could convey the sighting of an enemy. A nod a desire to retreat. Using hypnosis, Sunzi can instantly "teach" another person the language, thus allowing everyone to communicate with each other without speaking as far as the other can see.

Crowd Control (oo Entropy, ooo Mind):
This trick requires two parts. First, Sunzi scans a crowd to find a susceptible individual. Perhaps the most uncertain individual with the attention of part of the crowd, or the most angry and vocal agitator.

The second part requires Sunzi to subtly push the individual for or against chaos or order. The person then communicates the idea to others and, over time, Sunzi can influence a crowd toward riot, or calm dissipation.