Jian is, at face value, a dimwitted agricultural lass from the arid heart of the Earth Kingdom. She speaks before she thinks, has a constant bad temper and tends to insult people very often, then retreats back to the safety of her brothers. She is seemingly illiterate, and constantly chews on a piece of grass or wheat, regarding people thoughtfully and critically. It seems like a shallow, simple-minded personality...

...Mainly because it is. Jian is, in reality, very smart and not the very best at acting. Her surly temper is emphasised around others - in reality she hardly cracks a smile but that doesn't mean she's constantly scowling and sulking. She's very careful about most things, viewing the situation carefully before making much a move (in her 'stupid farmer' persona, she buys a few precious seconds by going "uhhh..." and pulling a face of deep concentration) and is actually an avid reader. Her philosophical nature and ability to control her temper helps her to unlock the secrets of Earthbending.

In between both her fake personality and her real one are a few overlapping qualities; her love for family and her loyalty to those who earn her respect from the ground up (excuse the pun) is present in both 'faces' of Jian. As well as that, she avoids alcohol and narcotics whenever possible and is fiercely patriotic to the Earth Kingdom, even if it doesn't outwardly show until someone scratches the surface of her seething, anti-Phoenix King hatred.

INTELLIGENCE is Jian's outstanding, strongest factor. She's quiet, observant, and thoughtful (even if she does pretend to be loud and idiotic sometimes) and that has opened many doorways into different theories, a wider expanse of knowledge from her ability to take in information and use it properly in a situation. She's the tactician, the wisewoman of the Kwan family, the brain behind the brawn. She sees problems like puzzles and works her way through them.

Closely (and I mean very closely) following her intelligence is her EARTHBENDING. She wasn't taught by the master from a remote mountain in the middle of nowhere, or anything nearly as special - but her interest in the literature around Earthbending, the theories put into Earthbending, the nature of the attacks - it interests her so much that she excels in her earthbending merely by being able to use it in innovative ways. Currently, she's even branching out and trying to teach herself how to use the seismic sense, after reading a scroll about the difficult art a few months back. It's a slow process.

DISGUISES are a -trait- of hers. She's not absolutely brilliant at disguises, but her ability to keep her cool and relay information means you can stuff her into an outfit and she'll be able to pass off as perhaps a guard or a noblewoman without messing up and forgetting her lines. After all, half her life is pretty much a lie, why not use that to her advantage?

STRENGTH AND UNARMED COMBAT can be considered a trait too; she's rather fit from farm work and, as a whole, the Kwan family are pretty tough. Stamina's not her thing though. She's getting combat and physical training from her big brother, with much complaint - but it's all for a good cause.

Pha Kwan || Father || M.I.A || "Daddy...I'll make them pay for your death."

Sela Kwan || Mother || Alive || "It's a bit rough. We did just run out on her to follow the same cause that lost our dad."

Xi Kwan || Big Brother || Alive || "My big bro. My warrior. He follows orders and saves my sorry behind when I mess up."

Dao Po || Uncle || Alive || "Uh, actually, I never spent a lot of time talking with him. Tense relationships; I thought mother brought him along as a relationship for daddy."

Grandparents || Grandparents || Alive || "Never met them. I know where they are though, couple of merchants in a nearby village."

Shin Zi Kwan || Little Brother || "I guess he needs my help too."

Chi || Little Sister || Alive || "Oh god...I badly wish I could be there for her. But I've got to keep moving on."

Shing Mu || Teacher || Alive || "I have to thank you, Shing. You've given me strength and started my journey. I owe you my life."

Jian was born to a small, run-down farm full of hybrid pigs and crops. Born to Pha and Sela Kwan, she grew up on the tales of her brave and noble father fighting back the tyranny of the Phoenix Kingdom, beginning a hatred for all things Phoenix from a very young age. Her mother used to take the crops and meat from the hybrid pigs to a nearby village, where it would be sold for profit, and she'd usually return with a book of a scroll from Jian's grandparents to be read to her as a bedtime story.

As she grew up into a spirited young girl, Jian used to go bareback riding on the family ostrich horse Jubqua, and took to the farm chores reluctantly as she helped her father with feeding the pigs and watering the crops using river water from the nearby stream. It was also around this time that she was marked with the Kwan family symbol, onto her forearm; the Kwan family's reminder that relatives always come first. Most of the time, her life was peaceful and innocent.

That is, most of the time. Every two weeks her family routine was harshly interrupted by a trio of guards from the Phoenix Kingdom, demanding taxes from her father and making small-talk with her mother and sometimes herself whilst her father counted out a large portion of what little family funding they had to give to the Kingdom with resentment. If the guards did talk to her, Jian always chose her phrases delicately, taking little subtle stabs at the guards whilst hiding behind a childlike innocence and apparent lack of sarcasm.

Then, when she was just reaching her teenage years, a strange man from the other side of the Kingdom arrived on her father's doorstep. Shing Mu, an Earthbending expert who owed a debt to Jian's father, returned "as promised" to teach her and her brothers about the nature of Earthbending.

Jian took to Eartbending like a duck to water. Everything, from the scrolls and the stances and the meditation techniques seemed to quell her thirst for knowledge and give her the strength she revered. It gave her confidence to stretch her limits, improve her intelligence - soon she was making trips to the village to buy scrolls and books of her own to read, on what little chances she got; between the farm work and the training Jian didn't get a lot of free time to herself. Around this time, her mother became pregnant once more with (hopefully, the last) yet another Kwan sibling to join the family. Not even the tax collectors could dampen Jian's spirits...

...but the rebellion did.

Rebellion whistled on the wind across the deserts in the Earth Kingdoms for the third time in the Kwan family, but it was Jian's first experience of such violence; She used to see the wounded being bustled into the barn, since the town was being watched. Suddenly, those bi-weekly tax collecting trips became a lot more nerve-wrecking, knowing that there were five men with a hefty bounty hiding three feet from the guards.

Her father came into her room one day and kissed her on the forehead, saying how much he loved her before disappearing with the rebels to fight for the cause. A few days later her mother went into labour, and it was up to Jian to deliver the little baby, the little girl, the energy and warmth against the cold winds of worry for Pha Kwan.

Aptly named Chi, Jian took on the housework as well as the training and the farm work in order to give her mother a chance to bond with the baby. Amidst all of the stress (to which Jian cracked several times, storming out of the house to sit by the river and eventually doze off) it became apparent that the rebellion was slowly becoming crushed, the wounded stopped arriving to the farm, the guards had bloodied armour when they collected the taxes. Her mother wasn't as good with numbers, so Jian had to separate the correct amount of money for the guards. Her intelligence kept the family standing upright.

Eventually, it became apparent that Pha Kwan wasn't coming back. The rebellion was done, over with, but still their father didn't return home - Chi would grow up without her father to help them. The family falls into a year of grief, something so intense that even Shing had to work on the farm simply because everyone else wasn't working hard enough. Of course, the effects of the grief weren't entirely clear until the tax collectors arrived at the door.

All of a sudden, Jian lost her ability to count, and then to read. Her vocabulary became simple, dim-witted, her aspirations shrank into being a farm-girl forever. Her lack of trust for the guards forced her to think of a way to hide in plain sight; by making herself seemingly inferior and boring, she was able to avoid the usual chit-chat with the guards and distance herself from the Phoenix Kingdom. Unfortunately, this lack of trust grew to any outsider - Phoenix guards lurked around every corner bearing the faces of farmers and tradesmen.

Eventually whenever Jian left the house she'd turn into her fake persona, as a means of protecting herself, keeping her intentions hidden. Around her family she became more protective and observant, pursuing her studies more than ever. After one too many arguments with her mother, Jian agreed to give a signal as to which persona she was currently using, by sticking a piece of grass into her mouth to chew on whilst she was spewing out idiocy as her 'fake farmer' guise.

For Jian, her life turned from a simple and peaceful one into a massive game; her respect and trust became something that someone had to earn. A worthy ally had to be someone who could see through her disguise. She didn't do it out of paranoia, she did it out of fear for her family's safety - an intelligent, experienced earthbender with a deep dislike for the Phoenix Kingdom tended to be the type who started the little rebellions in the first place, so it was logical to assume that hiding this from the tax collectors would bring less suspicion onto her family. In reality, Jian was really overthinking the situation and acting out of fear of losing another family member, but she couldn't see past her own ludicrous schemes to realise it yet.

Five years after the rebellion, Shing announced that he's taught the Kwan family as much as he can and how he wishes to return to his family. He regarded Jian as a success, but as a person he saw that she was no longer the smiling, cheery girl who used to levitate pebbles in the barn. He reminded this new, introverted and paranoid Jian that not everyone out there was about to steal away those she held dear - whether or not that got through to her at all is something to be debated upon. Sela was getting old, and she couldn't handle the lack of a father figure in the house, so she employed the help of Jian's uncle Dao to work on the farm. Jian instantly disliked him and didn't talk much to him because he didn't have the Kwan tattoo, and she saw him as a replacement for her father.

This persisted for a few more years until Jian caught wind of the Rising. She told her older brother and her little brother about this new notion, still bitter over her father's absence, and a few weeks ago the planning to leave ended as she announced to her mother that she was leaving. In a bid to regain friendly bonds with his nice, Dao gifted her a new, younger ostrich Horse - named Zou - to use on their travels. Jian left in a bad way, arguing with her mother and leaving her in tears whilst Chi screamed her name from the speck of the farm, begging for her to stay at home.

For Jian, this journey is a form of vengeance - a chance to finally put all of that hard work and training inot good use to finish her own goals and hopefully make certain that no other family has to lose a father ever again.