Ren Tao

Len is a Shaman from China, one of the few remaining members of the Tao Family, who after their years of serving as the guardians of the Forbidden City, became outcasts and condemned as witches and devils. Those two centuries of suffering were the fuel of the hatred En bared for those outside of their clan and even more for those of the Tao family who associated themselves with outsiders like his brother or Len's father (in the Japanese version, En is Len's father, in the English version, is his uncle).

Len was taught to hate and see the worst in people, with the Tao family Crest magically tattooed on his back by his uncle as a reminder of his "destiny" to be Shaman King so he can punish the world for what it did to the Tao clan. But that all changed when he met and fought Yoh, whose laid back nature and friends convinced Len that En was wrong about people.

Ren is serious, logical, and quite aloof. He tries hard to maintain a tough and confident exterior, but deep down would risk his own life for his allies. He is a particularly impatient person with a short temper and isn't afraid to hurt the source of the anger. Because of how he was raised amongst dead corpses and spirits he began applying the survival of the fittest rule as a way of overcoming death. He is also an egotistical person and usually doesn't care that people think that he's overly proud. He even named his own team, Team "The Ren", much to the annoyance of his teammate, Horohoro. In addition, Ren is also very intuitive, quick-witted, sometimes quite stubborn and he can also be very defiant.