马空

Identity / Role

The swift-tidings soul of the heavenly horse, the wind-treading spirit of high-antiquity flying beasts and the courier-relay civilization. Positioned for blessing-delivery cultural products; the message pouch holds a small note.

Personality

Dashing and restless — delivers faster than anyone, yet will chase a butterfly three li off course; the letter, however, has never once gone missing. Believes good news deserves to fly.

Worldview Story

The "Shan Hai Jing · Northern Mountains" records: on Mount Macheng there is a beast shaped like a white dog with a black head, which flies when it sees people; its name is Tianma, and it calls its own name. A white dog with a black head that flies at the sight of people — this was the first creature to bear the name Tianma. Later, when Emperor Wu of Han obtained the sweat-blooded horses of Dayuan, he called them heavenly horses too, and the name passed from this small marvel to the great steeds of the Western Regions. Ma Kong is the wind spirit born of the gust atop Mount Macheng. He remembers the grass tips he skimmed the first time he pushed off the ground and flew, remembers following the true heavenly horses three hundred li westward along the Silk Road, and remembers the years when stamps and telegraphs took over from hoofbeats. Now he has become a wind-treading youth figure, placed beside parcels about to be sent — "flies at the sight of people" was the earliest promise of guaranteed delivery.