Xià Hóu Dūn 夏侯惇

What's with the cartoon?

Why he is peeling petals off a flower, I have no clue. Perhaps it has to do with him losing his eye?? Or is he longing for his fair-lady? There has never seem to be any mention of this though!

Who is he:

Best remembered for the scene where he lost his eye, Xia Hou Dun is a ferocious combat general with balls of steel and fiery determination. He is one of Cao Cao 曹操's most loyal generals and is supposedly a distant relative. The story goes that Xia Hou Dun was caught in an ambush and suffered an arrow to his eye. His troops were panic-stricken, thinking that their general had fallen. But then Xia Hou Dun grabbed the arrow and yanked it out of his head, pulling with it his eyeball skewered on the arrow shaft. With one gulp he swallows his own eyeball, then charges right back at the assailant. Needless to say, the assailant died a horrible death when Xia Hou Dun got to him. His act of swallowing his eye-ball rallied his troops' morale and scared the shit out of his enemies. Henceforth, the name of Xia Hou Dun has become synonymous with bravery and gung-ho.

Character ability: "An Eye for an Eye 刚烈 (gāng liè)"

Everytime Xia Hou Dun suffers damage (count by occurrence and not by units of damage), he can choose to flip a judgement card. If the judgement is not the suit of "hearts", the source player that caused the damage can choose 1 of 2 options.

Option 1: Lose 1 unit of health

Option 2: Discard any 2 on-hand cards (chosen by the source player, and not Xia Hou Dun)

Ability's relation to story:

I could not help but use a pun to translate 刚烈 as "an eye for an eye". The most straightforward link to the story is where Xia Hou Dun impales Cao Xing 曹性 for firing the arrow that wasted his eye. It is said that Xia Hou Dun impaled Cao Xing's face before trampling his body beneath his horse. In the cardgame, this ability is a very effective deterrent to opponents. A wonderful psychological link to the story in terms of the effect Xia Hou Dun has on his enemies.

Additional info based on story:

1. Most famous achievement - Losing his bloody eye!

2. Cause of death - In the historical account, Xia Hou Dun dies of an illness at an age of approximately 50 - 60 years old. But this defers from the Romance of Three Kingdoms story which dramatized his death as being caused by an encounter with Guan Yu 关羽's ghost. In the olden days, illnesses were very much attributed to supernatural reasons, thus it is not too far-fetched for readers to believe (especially in the 1300's when the story was written).