Kariya Amaris

Waterbending Instructor

”You are not the first to underestimate based on my apperance but the elegance of my movements belie their deadly potency."

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Full Name
Kariya Amaris

Nicknames
Kari by the children at home, other than that she Kariya doesn't have any nicknames.

Age
22

Gender
Female

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Abilities
Instead of looking to blaze a trail to the unknown throughout her training Kariya instead looked to the past and found strength and abilities in traditional teachings. As one would expect Kariya is an exceptional waterbender; both offensively and defensively. Having picked up the more modern styles of waterbending popularized by both pro-bending and Avatar Korra as a young child, Kariya studied ancient waterbending scrolls and teachings; the kind that women weren’t allowed to learn before the 100 Year War and brought the past into the present. Kariya mastered the forms of waterbending and all of the different applications of those forms until every single form and movement were drilled into her being.

Where Kariya truly shines though is in the application of her sub-bending skill; healing. Katara left an incredible legacy to the world and Kariya’s dream is to rise and take up the mantle. She has studied just about every form of medicine that exists; from studying the incredible anatomical knowledge of the chi blockers, to observing the movement, flow, and manipulation of chi used by acupuncturists, to reading all of the texts on healing written by Katara herself and other healers found in the water tribe. She’s the go-to expert on health matters within the White Lotus and many have begun to recognize her as Katara’s successor across the world.

Aside from her bending capabilities, Kariya has trained in the arts of dance since she was a child and dancing has become a second nature to her. She has traveled the world to hone the art and has performed for many nobles. Her dance style utilizes waterbending and the fluid movements found within it to create a spectacle of a show. Outside of dancing and bending Kariya is a good cook; her traveling experience providing her with a chance to sample many different types of food and take recipes where she could. She has lots of knowledge about animals and different types of herbs found in the wild and is also a fairly fast reader.


Fighting Style
Like any good dancer, Kariya moves to the rhythm as it plays. She is a very evasive fighter, constantly moving and weaving in between enemy attacks and her own launch of offensive skills. Using her acrobatic nature to quickly shift between offense and defense at a moment’s notice and without a single wasted movement. Like most waterbenders, Kariya uses fluid strikes and sweeping motions to overwhelm her opponent with masses of water and precision strikes. Kariya is also an avid user of ice in combat, especially on the offensive, and frequently switches water between its liquid, gas and solid forms.

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Physical Appearance
Kariya has the perfect build for both a waterbender and a dancer; she is lithe and elegant, small and supple with strong well-defined legs and fluid arms. As with most members of the water tribe, her skin is a beautiful tan color and although she stands at no more than average in height her well defined feminine assets and figure prevent her from simply shrinking into the background. Her light blue eyes convey energy and warmth, but also a deep passion and willingness for any adventure. When it comes to her mannerisms Kariya is just about what one would expect; she doesn’t waste a single movement, every action refined and elegant without being slow as if she had practiced every little detail one hundred times. Her lips and skin are incredibly soft, well cared for and free of any hardship. Her hair is a deep brown and is worn in many different styles, but currently, she is simply happy with it down in its natural state. When she is embarrassed there is a clear red flush on her cheeks that her complexion does nothing to help her hide, when she is feeling shy she often moves her hair in front of her face. Her expression is usually inviting and kind, but occasionally whimsical and almost childishly playful. Her eyes are her most expressive feature; steely and focused when determined, light and revitalizing when she is happy and a clear picture of emotion when she cries. When it comes to fashion Kariya has sampled the different styles of clothing throughout the globe and has discovered she has no particular preference for any one style of clothing. She prefers things that are blue but beyond that, she isn’t bothered. What really excites Kariya is a good accessory; her outfits and hair are always adorned with different pieces of jewelry or nice hair clips – small little things that Kariya feels helps tie together and personalize a look.


Equipment and Personal Belongings
Two large water skins which are always on her person. Along with a beautiful moon hair ornament which Kariya almost always wears. She has a necklace of a sapphire water tribe symbol for special occasions.

Goal
Kariya has but one simple goal. She has dedicated her life to becoming an exceptional healer; striving to surpass Katara as the greatest healer to have ever lived and use waterbending to heal the incredibly damaged world. She hopes that by teaching the Avatar and becoming a mentor for the first time will allow her to improve her own skills and as well as continue the traditional of healers passing down their studies.

Secret
Kariya's elder sister is a General within the United Forces. When the two of them were younger Kariya set out on a journey to find herself and so did her sister. While Kariya's path lead her down the route of dancing and studying the medicine of the world, her sister's path led her straight to San and the United Forces.

Habits
When she is standing still for more than a few minutes she starts to shift her weight from side to side. She stretches a lot and often finds herself mock dancing when she is bored. Despite how she might try she is unable to sit completely still, she is always fidgeting with something. Whenever she is talking to a boy who she finds attractive she always plays with her hair.

Other
She is banned from a lot of circus' around the world due to several moments of activism where she used her bending to free the animals held in captivity - as a result of this she is actually wanted as a criminal in one Earth Nation state. She has a polar bear dog named Moro, whom she loves dearly, but has left with her parents given her recent mission. She is obsessed with ghost stories and loves particualrly scary stories - when she was a child she frequently went out in search of the ghosts who plauged the storms of the south and was disappointed to never find them.

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Likes
o Dancing
o Animals
o Anything blue
o Learning

Dislikes
o Having her movement restricted
o The color green
o Bullies
o Any form of animal cruelty

Strengths
o Waterbending and Healing
o Listening
o Compassionate
o Evasive

Weaknesses
o Confined spaces
o Gets carried away trying to do the right thing
o Too trusting and easy to forgive
o Is too concerned with other people's opinions about her

Personality
Kariya is above all, a compassionate young woman but she is often held back by her emotions or her concern about the opinion of those around her. She is ingrained with a deep desire to help others which resonates with her to her very core. This compassion is the driving force behind most of the significant choices in Kariya’s life. She is always willing to help those who need it – even if they are not willing to ask for it themselves. Although some do appreciate her genuine effort to help, others have branded her a meddler. Despite her pure intentions, Kariya does have a tendency to get carried away when it comes to her own personal sense of right and wrong. She will go to the ends of the earth to prevent any injustice she sees, but her hot-headed all guns blazing attitude can cause more problems than it solves. Kariya believes that everyone should be passionate about something. Whatever it is, whatever your belief system, you should be willing to stand up and fight for it. People who are disinterested and remain neutral in everything drive her up the wall. Above all else, Kariya believes in equality and respect for all and repaying the kindness shown to you by the world and taking any opportunity you can to pay it forward.

She considers herself to be well-mannered and graceful and there wouldn’t be many people rushing to disagree with her. Kariya is kind and tolerant and much like the water is constantly fluid in her interactions with those around her to suit the mood – always willing to go with the flow. She might be more gentle and kind around quieter individuals, but has the energy and willing to keep up with even the most daring adventurer. From all her traveling and time spent at festivals Kariya loves a good party. She becomes almost childlike at any appropriate opportunity to simply let go and have fun. Like many benders, Kariya is very proud of her bending abilities and her accomplishments and believes fully in utilizing bending to its utmost potential for the sake of all, but she does not always acknowledge the damage that bending can cause and the duality of the wonderful ability.

For all of her positives attributes, Kariya does have some slightly off quirks. Most notably her terrible sense of humor. She is very quick to joke but seems to constantly be off beat from the punchline and it truly is odd what actually seems to make her laugh. Nothing is ever simply funny or amusing to Kariya, it is either hilariously gut-wrenching requiring an ungracious five-minute laughing fit or she doesn’t get it all. She does not shy away with from showing emotion and should someone hurt her feelings she will readily cry. If you manage to make her angry then her temper is as icy as you would expect and although she is quick to forgive, she is never quite as fast with her own apologies. She does not take criticism well and she is very concerned with how people perceive her – fundamentally she just wants to be liked.

The best way to befriend Kariya is to just ask her to dance for or with you, teach her something or challenge her to a game of Pai Sho. (Although fair warning she was the undisputed champ of the White Lotus waterbenders Pai Sho Tournament.)

Brief History

Like Katara and Korra who came before her, Kariya was born in the Southern Water Tribe. Her parents were traders by nature but welcomed the opportunity to settle down with their beautiful new daughter when Kariya’s mother first fell pregnant. They had a healthy baby girl who they called Kaita. Three years later Kariya was also born and her parents were glad to start their family in the more traditional sense of the word. They were both surprised and thrilled when it turned out that their daughters were both waterbenders. Kariya and Kaita both started instruction in waterbending from a young age and while both were remarkably talented at the art Kaita was always just an edge superior to her sister. Although she could never surpass her sister in regards to combat, Kariya was less interested in using waterbending to harm and more interested in utilizing the art to heal. The stories of Korra and Katara were used to inspire the waterbenders in the south – even though the two of them had passed.

But heroes never die. The legends and stories of the waterbenders gave birth to a spark of inspiration in Kariya and she became fascinated with the ability to use waterbending to heal injuries – amazing in the duality of bending. Her sister, while sharing her initial enthusiasm, was soon discouraged to find that she was able to heal no matter how much she practiced. This caused a rift between the siblings that Kariya never really noticed. As Kaita continued to master waterbending in her own the chasm only grew. When Kariya was eighteen she realized that she had gone as far as she could go while she was still in the south – so she decided to take a long journey to the north similar to the journey Avatar Aang, Katara and Sokka once took. Kaita, eager to impress and overshadow her sister, set out on a journey as well. The day before they left was the last time Kariya saw her sister, but in time she would come to find out that she went to Republic City and became a soldier in the United Forces.

Kariya’s own journey took her all around the world. She started off seeking to improve her scholastic knowledge as a healer; the chance to study the many different books and techniques used by different cultures around the world was the single most fascinating opportunity she’d ever had, but while travelling she found so many different pieces of culture and made so many friends that her initial mission started to take…a back seat. It wasn’t until Kariya ended up in Republic City that she found her agenda and passion lit anew. As with many benders Kariya had heard of pro-bending and always dreamed of seeing a match – when her journey brought her to Republic City to study the methods of the best healer in the city and she discovered it was tournament season Kariya couldn’t tear herself away. The Republic City pro-bending arena was everything the girl had hoped for with bright lights, crowds full of cheering fans and some of the best bending that she had ever seen. Complete with dancing and food and drink following the event. The passion inside Kariya was reignited and after staying in Republic City to learn what she could from those willing to teach her and copying the moves of those who weren’t she set back off for the north.

Kariya’s journey continued much in the same manner. She continued to imitate the dancers and benders she saw in Republic City and picked up other styles of dance and various maneuver’s she could incorporate into her bending. By the time Kariya had made it to the north she was already a master of her own style of bending and was fairly adept at the more modern styles of waterbending. Taking to the more traditional styles of waterbending found in the north with fervor and dedication and she quickly mastered what the instructors had to offer. Frustrated at her lack of a worldly goal or purpose to her journey Kariya continued to travel the world as a healer in hopes that she might find herself or a greater reason for being. Although she did not find exactly what she was looking for Kariya did find the White Lotus. Recruited in for her accomplishments in the healing arts and her mastery of waterbending. Being a White Lotus agent wasn’t as fun as one might expect – there wasn’t much to do aside from attempt to maintain balance but with the force of the United Forces backing San there wasn’t much they could do without the Avatar. While she was with the White Lotus she received a letter from her parents informing her that Katia had risen to the ranks of General within the United Forces. Dismayed at her sisters choice Kariya began to weigh up whether or not she should set out to stop her sister but was instead called upon to mentor the Avatar in the art of Waterbending.

With a little less than a month to prepare to meet and teach the Avatar everything she knew about Waterbending Kariya launched into preparations. She wasn’t bothered about the short notice given her own lack a goal, but Kariya remains hopeful that mentoring the Avatar will give her what she is searching for – but she mostly hopes to avoid crossing paths with her sister.

Yangchen

Airbending Instructor

”Air is the element of freedom, a concept only possible through equality of force. That’s what I dream of: a world without Tyrants”

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Full Name
Yangchen

Nicknames
Yang

Age
26

Gender
Female

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Abilities
The world is not a place for generalists, and Yang has tailored herself to fit a specialized niche. She has trained her entire life to be an airbending combatant, to excel in self-defense and the intricacies of bending conflict. She spent years improving her reflexes, increasing her maximum force exertion with her bending, sharpened her control over her element, beat routine after routine into her mind until the parries and ripostes of bending combat were second nature to her. She earned her Master’s robe fully, and excels in the physical, practical side of airbending rather than its spiritual manifestations.

In her later years, her fascinations with the physical world transformed her into something of a scholar of chemistry. Her contributions to the field of explosives are difficult to understate, and though she has long since been surpassed by those who have migrated to her nascent field of study, her knowledge and skill with the subject and its products is not insignificant. She tries to keep up to date with developments in the field, and has the steady hand and extraordinary care that comes with those who experiment with the deadly.

She prides herself on being both a good cook and seamstress, her paranoia manifesting in her desire to be as self-sufficient as possible. She has academic knowledge on a great many subjects to a slight degree, has a good head for mathematics, and learned to juggle and entertain after losing her purse on a trek from Ba Sing Se to the coast. She is a dab hand with the flute, after it was used as an instrument for her to improve her control with air.

Fighting Style
Being stationary is inviting death. Airbending is the quickest, the most nimble, and Yang glides around the battlefield as quickly as possible, never maintaining a constant vector if it can be helped. She earned her mastery of the element before disapproving teachers with her ability to close quickly and dominate within the guard of opponents, but with her discoveries in chemistry her doctrine changed. She prefers, when able, to fight with tools: tossed instruments, projectile weapons. To flit around the field and savor the range where her defensive abilities are most effective, and where her instruments may be used without danger to herself.

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Physical Appearance
Yang is of medium height, a slender build, blessed with an athletic body but one lacking in feminine assets. Her hands are well worn, her body flecked with the result of a premature detonation, scars and burns in small, well-spread quantities. Her long hair is her one concession to vanity, a river of light brown which she attends to with care and practice. Her demeanor is mischievous, her smirk almost as common as her great laugh, sonorous like the ringing of a bell. Her gait is purposeful, her stance proud and defiant. She holds people’s gaze without fail, her face and brash alto both expressive in their own ways. She furrows her brow and bites her tongue when concentrating, rubs her hands and taps her feet when nervous or unprepared. She blushes and stammers when flustered, the latter a holdover from her youth, when her nerves where much thinner and her opposition to authority so much more petulant and mundane. She dresses well, when she can, enjoying the feeling of confidence and self-possession that comes from looking well. She enjoys silk and lace, bifurcating her wardrobe into that which she wears for pleasure and that which she wears for purpose. The latter half is most frequently trousers of hardy leather, shirts of dense wool, a coat of mail she had tailored to fit her.


Equipment and Personal Belongings
Two revolving double-action revolvers and ammunition. Depending on her job, she may also carry several tubes filled with Toluene-based explosives and a semi-automatic rifle. She is rarely without a long length of silken rope and a sharp paring knife, or some amount of money and her white lotus pai sho tile.

Goal
Yang fundamentally finds herself drawn to Airbending’s promise of freedom. She despises authority without consent, imbalances of power and threats of violence. To her, the very existence of benders condemns those without the ability to some loss of freedom. She has no illusions that the world would be better without benders, their gifts to civilization are too numerous to count, but she hopes to give non-benders something with which to level the playing field, to let them stand on more equal ground with benders, with the Avatar, and decide to not comply with orders they don’t want to follow.

Secret
Yang fears her own hypocrisy, though she is not self-aware enough to fully understand the potential problems her worldview presents. She is a bender who sought violent power so that non-benders could free themselves if ever oppressed by benders, but by incorporating the solutions she has developed into her bending she may have hamstrung her own goals through ingenuity solely for her own pride.

Habits
She fidgets, hums, and taps her feet when on edge or worried. She always takes ten seconds before making a crucial decision when possible, even if the decision seems like the most clear and simple choice possible. She has a habit of looking over her shoulder, of peering around a room, her paranoia manifesting in all sorts of small ways around this.

Other
She has an extreme fondness for lion-dogs, and has always wanted to have one for a pet. She never has, due to her circumstances. She craves the secrets to Zaheer’s flight, and has followed in the path of Laghima, but has so far not achieved what she desires, though her ability to direct herself through the use of airbending has been improved significantly.

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Likes

Explosions
Dancing
Her husband
The color orange

Dislikes

Beansprouts
Inactivity
Being forced to do anything
Rooms with only one exit

Strengths

Careful and precise
Airbending combat
Chemistry expertise and scholastic learning
Excellent reaction times

Weaknesses

Stubbornness
Pride
Irascibility
Anti-authoritarian axioms leading her to irrationality

Personality
Yang is self-assured, set in her ways. She’s spent her life analyzing why she does what she does, why she thinks what she thinks, and has found herself, if not unique, then at least unusual in this regard. She has a high opinion of herself, and a firm setting in her beliefs, her methodology. In preparation for being sent to train the avatar, she spent time learning to accommodate difference, be flexible in tutelage, but old habits die hard indeed. She’s vocal, not seeking the center of attention but often finding herself taking, it elegantly or not, with her talkative nature and natural oratory. She is quick to laugh, fast to come to anger but slow to act on it. Despite her firebrand, maverick personality, she is always slow to action, careful in everything she does. Self control is the fundamental quality of both scientist and airbender, and with Yang wanting to be both she has cultivated the skill over the course of her life. She prides herself on keeping control of her actions and her outward disposition, and only in the most extreme circumstances does she involuntarily let herself off the steel leash she has constructed.
She loves excitement and action, to be doing things and participating rather than watching or speculating. She has little time for the fantastical or the esoteric, no patience for mysticism which does not have discernible application. She loves to spar, to run and travel, to see sights and build things. She is dedicated to her work, but unlike the mania of her youth her desire for activity now is able to be directed towards entertainment: sports, cards, dice, a hundred activities have been picked up from the White Lotus and enjoyed, with the notable exception of Pai Sho, in which she is remarkably bad.
She is quick to joke, though her wit is not the sharpest. She enjoys reading, learning, but only as means to application. Her mind is often full of great piles of hypotheses, so many of which will only be discarded to reveal the scant few which bear fruit. She is collected, careful, discrete; an excellent keeper of secrets. She is still, and has always been, particularly paranoid. In the whorls of her mind danger always seems close, or the steps necessary to prevent disaster cheap enough to make them worth doing despite their apparently wastefulness to her peers. Try as she might, she has been unable to remove this facet of her personality, and it has saved her from embarrassment or even physical harm more than a few times.

Brief History

Yang learned from a young age that the world is not a place for generalists. Being a generalist is not the way the world was designed, with the elements compartmentalized and handed out individually, nor the way society was made to function. Her parents, both citizens of Republic City who had climbed from the slums into comfortable middle class society had instilled this into her, and even before she realized she had a talent for airbending she was living by the maxim. At age five, sitting across a table from her father and puzzling over sheets of sums placed before her, a sneeze tore the shutters from a nearby window, and within the week she was preparing to leave, to become an airbender. She protested, but frequent visits were promised, and pressure was applied. A few weeks after her sixth birthday, she left to train with the slowly-growing cadre of airbenders. It was a difficult adjustment, but she was a resilient child and well taken care of by both her masters, and her parents who did everything they could to make her exodus easier.

She proved prodigious, both through natural skill and steadfast determination. Airbending became a release for problems in her life, and something she could take pride in as she faced the trials of growing up. It took her some years to find the correct master, with Aang’s influence decreasing the emphasis on combative airbending despite his status as a war hero with scores of Fire Nation casualties to his name. After three years of less-than-productive training and antagonistic relationships due to the kindling of her anti-authoritarian compulsion, she found Master Wan, a young man recently raised to the status of master and a resident of Republic City as well. Together, they made incredible progress: Yang raced to catch up with him in terms of airbending ability, though it would take her more than seven years to truly close the gap. They developed their own form of airbending, an amalgam of several different styles and tested rigorously with help of the pro-bending phenomenon and tailored to suit the frenetic, quick-paced style that Master and Student shared.

Wan also instilled into Yang his love of chemistry. He was always more interested in farming practices, in helping people grow more food or helping the machinery which would gather in crops, but after seeing a fireworks display on her eleventh birthday she found her own way to take the enthusiasm of the master she so adored and apply it properly. She experimented with the rough powder first, and after several mishaps developed her caution. She learned all she could as she worked with her master, and when she was 16 she developed the first ever sulphur-free explosive powder, extruded in cords. She named it after her master, and sent it to the great industrialists of Republic City for testing and development. Wan had the insight to try and use her products in airbending, and in her 22nd year she received the fruits of her labor, and the benefits of her collaboration with the great industrialists of Republic City: her insight to propel small metal projectiles from first smooth, then grooved tubes produced the first firearms, quickly advancing alongside the other great marvels of modern technology, and a Toluene-based explosive with a much more bombastic yield than any of her powdered propellants. She earned her master’s laurels at the age of 23, and found a husband the same year: a water tribesman and musician named Tak. They share a home in the Southern Water Tribe, but the nature of Yang’s work as an itinerant, and later as an operative of the Lotus, means they spend very little time together. They are still, of course, very happily married, though childless.

Her inventions, clearly seen by the observant as a threat to the standard order of things, were noticed by the White Lotus, and she was approached. Their philosophy was a good fit for her, the possibilities for advancement tantalizing with her acceptance as an airbending master capping her other paths of status, and at the age of 23 she was inducted. She worked for the Lotus, opposing tyranny and injustice. She relished the opportunity to put the skills she had cultivated for a purely academic fascination a decade previous into practical, useful effect. She faced the normal problems of a soldier, the disgust at what was necessary and the difficulty of conflict in the real world, but she found her footing and worked towards the goals of the Lotus as best she could. She clawed her way to recognition, if not rank, and after being wounded and taken from active covert duty by a series of broken ribs, she was propositioned to be the educator of the Avatar’s airbending. She accepted, supposing the heads of the Lotus saw things the way she did: that in the growing strife of the age the Avatar would need more than meditation and inner peace: they’d need the ability to make their mark on the world.

Recovered, pensive and anxious to not ruin her greatest task yet, Yang is eager to set to work training the Avatar, to meet her charge and change the youth’s ways to better let them make their way in a world sliding down hill towards fires of war.

Kazuno Han

Firebending Instructor

”Watch me.”

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Full Name
Kazuno Han
Nicknames
“Most people just call me Kazuno since it’s already a pretty short name. Though I have heard people call me ‘Red Rover’ for some reason.”
Age
22
Gender
Female
Sexuality
Demisexual

Abilities
Firebending – Trained and competent in the traditional firebending style as well as the Dancing Dragon style introduced by Fire Lord Zuko. She prefers the latter for its more fluid and fierce aspects. Her travels helped her develop her style, as well as her own form of the element. Also developed an extended reserve of chi from constant practice. Unable to lightningbend but is familiar with the theory behind it.

Peak Physical Condition – Kazuno is a decent runner and has good stamina.

Survival Skills – Living life off road for a while really teaches you some things. Finding water, foraging food, laying traps, these are just a sample of the skills Kazuno had picked up over the years.

Abundance of (Useless?) General Knowledge – Another perk of her travels.

Academic Talent/Good with Machines and Numbers – During her school years Kazuno displayed a natural intelligence in her studies, placing her in the top percentage of her school. She excelled in all aspects of school, especially in the field of maths and science. Her education was further enhanced by private lessons with her father, whenever he had time. It was with him that she learnt to take apart and put together basic machinery. Her mechanical skills improved during her nomadic period. She stayed in a rural town for a while, refusing to leave until she fixed their generator. She also had a motorbike that she maintained for a while. The bike was stolen from bandit raiders, then eventually destroyed during a stampede of gemsbok bulls. Overall, her mechanical ability can help with light repairs but is limited after that.

Musical instruments – Learned the erhu when she was still in school, though her skills are very rusty now. Thinks that she can play the tsungi horn. She can’t.

Fighting Style
The most prominent aspect of Kazuno’s firebending is the way she “charges” up her blasts instead of using the usual flurry of blows of a traditional firebender. The result of the charging is an overwhelming, almost explosive, jet of flames that she releases from open palm (basically a fiery Kamehameha wave). Because of the time it takes to power up these attacks, in fights Kazuno is usually seen warding off enemies with flaming pinwheel and sweeping kicks before unleashing a full blast with her hands. Kazuno’s blasts can propel her short distances too, making her able to land safely from large heights. She can’t fly with these blasts as only the Avatar would have enough chi to maintain fire blasts for extended periods. She also frequently utilises fire breath and fire daggers.

The destructive power of these blasts make her a bit of a poor team player in group fights, as her own teammates are just as likely to be caught in the blast as their enemies. Kazuno’s general recklessness doesn’t help this either.

Her general technique can be described as an amalgamation of Dancing Dragon and traditional earthbending fighting style. Compared to traditional firebending style, Kazuno’s style is rather slow-paced and defensive. The style relies heavily on the earthbending principle of neutral jing which places emphasis on the balance of offence and defence and waiting for the right moment to strike.

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Physical Appearance
Long side-swept hair that varies between shades of black and brown, depending on the lighting. A generally cute face with a button nose and cheerful double-lidded eyes, a well-suited indicator for her personality. Her resting face is either a dozy content smile or an unimpressed-looking stare. It all depends on her mood really. Considerably more tanned than the standard Fire Nation girls due to the amount of time she has spent outdoors. Has a vertical scar on her right temple from her first encounter with Bukotsu. The scar is usually hidden by her side fringe.
Toned body, especially her legs. Stands at around 167cm, usually less because of her casual slouching. Contrary to her fighting style, Kazuno steps with a light-footed gait.
Is never seen without her red scarf or out of her travelling clothes, which consist of a light hooded robe, her travel pack, and some baggy brown cloth pants.

Equipment and Personal Belongings
Trademark red scarf (made with fire-resistant material)
Bag of lychees (for Bukotsu)
Picture of family
Swiss army knife (or whatever the Avatar-verse equivalent is called)

Goal
“Liberating my home country would be nice. But honestly, I’m cool with doing whatever the team wants.”

Secret
Got involved with some really weird adventures during her nomadic period. It would be really embarrassing if any of those incidents caught up with her during her time with Team Avatar.

Has a crush on someone on the team. Good luck finding out who it is.

Habits
Singing or humming while walking or setting camp. Has a decent voice and tends to improvise lyrics on the spot.

Other
Is followed everywhere by a hog-monkey Kazuno has named Bukotsu. Not exactly a pet or even a friend sometimes, in fact their relationship is slightly antagonistic. But after getting each other out of so many dangerous situations, the two have formed a strange bond. Kazuno and Bukotsu can often be found wrestling each other over food rations.

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Likes
o Bukotsu (not that she’ll ever admit it)
o Cool, quiet nights
o The sound of string instruments

Dislikes
o When Bukotsu steals her stuff
o Seas and oceans (she gets seasick easily)
o Sour food

Strengths
o Major offensive power
o Resourceful
o Dispenses good, honest advice

Weaknesses
o Teamwork in combat and missions
o Reckless, easily goaded into ridiculous dares
o Empathy issues

Personality
Kazuno has quite the affable, laidback personality. Always willing to crack a joke or assist with a problem, the traveller has enough wit and patience to puzzle even the most transcendent of Air Nomad Monks. The resident prankster of the new Team Avatar who often invites others to join in on the fun. Sometimes has troubles reading social cues, occasionally leading to her saying things that were better left unsaid. Has a habit of fondly rambling and reminiscing about her travels, much to the dismay of others. Mostly disinterested in global news and the political happenings of the world.

Beneath the charming surface lies a rather hollow person, someone constantly needing a purpose or challenge. This can lead to a utilitarian, almost compassionless, world view; something she tries extremely hard to hide. Kazuno is always trying to test her skills and limits, taking on all dares and challenges without even blinking an eye. During these times she displays a worrying recklessness and disregard for personal wellbeing. It’s easy to see this recklessness as an endearing character quirk and most people fail to see the deep-seated character flaw behind this trait. At the moment, guiding the Avatar has given her a direction. How long this commitment will last, even she’s not sure yet.

Brief History
Born and raised in the Fire Nation Capital. Both of Kazuno’s parents worked at the Fire Nation Branch of Future Industries; her father as an engineer researching the integration of bending arts and technology, and her mother being one of the leading executives of that branch. Their jobs kept the family securely in the upper-middle classes of society. Kazuno’s potential manifested early, displaying her prowess in both academics and firebending. It was nice for a while. She received many accolades and began learning advanced firebending techniques at the prodigal young age of 15. But even with all this, Kazuno felt a sort of … emptiness.

After another two years, she decided to leave. She needed to find something. A purpose? Herself? She wasn’t really sure, she just needed to go. With nothing but a sleeping mat, her utility knife, and an action adventure book she forgot to return to the library, Kazuno left a farewell letter on the dinner table and ventured out.

The initial years of her travels were a blur. A delivery job, a traveling erhu band, the occasional thrashing of bandit crews, following a group of air nomads with her motorbike, these were just a few of the adventures Kazuno went on. During the third year, she encountered a cadre of hog monkey poachers. They were defeated swiftly and the hog-monkeys were freed. All would have been fine if Kazuno hadn’t accidentally stepped on one of the hog-monkey’s tails, which prompted the hog-monkey to attack Kazuno, which prompted both of them to run into a tree, which created the mutual love-hate relationship they have today.

Over the years, Kazuno developed her own bending technique, something to finish fights quickly or scare off enemies before they even started. The style was developed through observing earthbending masters and hours upon hours of practise in the Earth Nation plains. With all the work she did, making big impressions in various towns by helping out with odd jobs or scaring off bandits, Kazuno gained quite the reputation for herself. Tales started to spread about the “Red Rover”, a red scarfed traveller with enough firepower to rival a dragon. To this day, Kazuno is oblivious to the wide-spread reputation of this moniker.

Her influence gained her the attention of the White Lotus, who initially recruited her as a White Lotus agent, then as the firebending instructor to the Avatar. She frequently went on solo missions for the White Lotus, as her volatile methods sat poorly with anyone she was forced to work with. As for her promotion to being an instructor for the Avatar, the higher-ups had hoped that Kazuno's blend of earthbending and firebending techniques would create a quick and comfortable transition for the new Avatar, who would have to learn firebending first according to the seasons. In these uncertain times, the Avatar would need to master the elements quickly. Kazuno's worldly experiences and overall power were also deciding factors in her new placement. She accepted the job with little complaint ("Well, it's not like I have anything better to do right now").

Theme Music:

”You may wander the Shi Wong desert for many moons, crossing hundreds of miles. You suffer from the heat. Your body will give in to the scorching sands and dehydration, and just as you are about to die, you may come upon a flower. The only flower in the entire desert, your one chance at surviving. I am that flower. Hello, my name is Shamo Hua, and I am the Avatar.”

---

Full Name
Shamo Hua

Nicknames
Sha
Amo
Ami
Princess of the Sands

Age
18

Gender
Female

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Abilities
Being the avatar comes with the perks of having a certain natural talent for many things, most prominently bending of all kinds. However it is her upbringing as a sandbender princess that has given her a leg up in many other skills. She is an excellent survivor and tracker, having been raised in the Si Wong desert. Hardy and as unrelenting as the sand she bends, Shamo Hua is near tireless, can withstand great heat (without the use of airbending insulation) and she will find you, if given a reason to.

As a noble, the princess of the sands is well spoken in diplomatic situations, well versed in inter-tribe relationships and politics. As the avatar’s duty is to bring peace and balance to the peoples of the world, this is a fantastic trait to have, and she will approach any situation with a word before a fist.

In terms of her spiritual ability, Shamo is not particularly gifted nor cursed. When she puts her mind to it and truly applies herself, she can usually accomplish what she’s attempting to do, but it’s hardly easy like such things were for Avatar Aang. She hasn’t yet mastered spiritual projection, but she has made contact with the only past life available to her, that of Avatar Korra, but she prefers not to. In terms of entering the Avatar State, she has not yet mastered the elements as needed, and has not transcended well enough spiritually to call upon it at will, so it remains as a life or death defense mechanism.

As a bender, Shamo is as excellent as you would expect from any avatar. Although she is still in training, she has nearly mastered earthbending, but has only been able to accomplish metalbending in the Avatar State, even though she does possess the knowledge of how to do it. Due to this, it is believed that Shamo herself is not a metal bender and can only perform it by channeling the abilities of avatars past. Her earthbending is at its best when working with sand, however, which is something to be expected of one of the sandbender nomads. Her attention to detail with sandbending is truly astounding, subtle, yet potent. It is thanks to her roots as a sandbender that Shamo is very adaptable in her non-native bending arts.

The other three bending arts are not mastered to the same extent as earthbending, but she is adept. Normally one would expect a native earthbender avatar to have trouble grasping traditional airbending, but thanks to the similarities it shares with sandbending, she took to it very quickly. The only subschool of bending she currently has any training or practice in is with water healing, but even that has a long way to go. After all, water is the last element an earth nation avatar learns, so it’s what she has the least amount of practice with.

Fighting Style
In a fight, Shamo Hua proves to be as relentless and offensive as a firebender, no matter what style she happens to be using. She prefers to keep the enemy off balance, battling with a quick succession of powerful yet swift blows meant to induce death by a thousand cuts. More than one individual has commented that her fighting style resembles a storm, with a constant flow of assault coming from nearly every direction. In her own mind, Shamo is enforcing her will to those that would deny it. She is the Avatar, she is the Balance, and you will submit! After all, she was born in an inhospitable land, one that is very unforgiving. This translates both to her fighting style, and her approach in maintaining balance.

---

Physical Appearance
Slightly taller than average for a woman, Shamo stands at 5’5” with a slender build. Her features scream “feminine” in nearly every way, being just about the opposite you could expect from a stereotypical “rough and tumble” earthbender. Of course, that’s only a stereotype, for the earth only bends to those who are patient and listen, willing to command it when it is ready. Shamo definitely fits what most people think about with those qualities in mind. She is a lady, but is also the daughter of the sandbender nomads’ chief, making her the equivalent of a princess and it shows. She takes care of her appearance to look regal and well kept. Her lips are full, sexy one might even describe, while her eyelashes are long. Her eyes themselves are green, and look to command respect, as does her entire posture and body language.

Even her clothes are made from the finest green silks imported from the Earth nation territories. The outfit’s design is utilitarian, fitting for a nomad that lives in hostile terrain, while at the same time possesses a certain style and quality that says, “I am important.”


Equipment and Personal Belongings
Goggles - Important for sandstorms, snowstorms, sea storms, basically any situation that would get things caught in your eyes. Wears them atop her head like a crown most of the time.
Waterskin - You have to stay hydrated! Especially if you need to make sure your skin is kept moisturized and looking good, like mine.
Pangu - Every avatar has a pet animal/spirit guide, and Shamo is no exception. Her best friend is Pangu, a pygmy badgermole about the size of a wolfbat. He’s a good boy. Mostly quiet, doesn’t bother people much, and doesn’t show his affection outwardly like most pets do. If he has taken a liking to you, it’s shown in a more quiet respect. Highly protective of his friends, loves music.

Goal
Shamo desires to continue the avatar’s duty of maintaining balance in the world, and wants to be the most effective and most powerful avatar that ever lived. Naturally, this involves knocking President San’s block off to prove his dogma is wrong and the world still needs its avatar.

Secret
Shamo holds a certain amount of self-loathing, not for anything that she did, but for the actions of her previous self, Avatar Korra. Due to what she sees as Korra’s weakness, the link to all her past lives before Korra are inaccessible, so she cannot draw upon their wisdom and guidance. For this reason she dislikes her most recent past life, and refuses to call upon Korra’s spirit for guidance and often lies even to her closest friends about her ability to contact Korra, stating that she just “hasn’t figured it out yet.”

Habits
Likes to pull up her scarf around her face even when there’s no sun or cold to protect against. Consistently maintains eye contact with anybody who is speaking nearby.Has a habit of referring to her teachers and bodyguards as her “servants.”

Other
Enjoys to prepare cooked meals for her friends and “servants.”

---

Likes

o Being listened to
o Making friends with her “servants”
o Animals and spirits (they have their own natural order and they don’t muck it up the same way people do
o Jewelry and fine dress

Dislikes

o Having to compromise
o Jasmine tea (somewhere in the spirit world Iroh is crying)
o Bullies
o Some crazy politician telling the world that she’s no longer needed

Strengths

o Excellent diplomat
o Highly adaptable and versatile
o Empathetic to the needs of others

Weaknesses
o Selfish
o Dislikes criticism
o Distrustful and proud

Personality
Whereas Avatar Aang was terrified of his duty and ran away from it, and Avatar Korra thrust herself head first into her duty with excitement and enthusiasm, Avatar Shamo Hua is something of a mix between the two. She has openly and gladly taken on her role as the avatar because she is terrified. On the outside she appears to be calm, cool, and in control at all times, but the facade is only skin deep. The avatar is tasked with maintaining order for the entire world. Such a tremendous responsibility would be daunting enough, but Shamo Hua has the added stress of knowing that there is an enemy out there that is expanding, which has eyes and ears hidden everywhere in the world, and that enemy is specifically seeking her out to end the avatar. It’s no surprised this would be such a daunting, even horrifying destiny, but she holds to one of the core values of earthbending: hold your ground, stand firm, weather any assault, and outlast your opponent. This attitude is only reinforced by her cultural roots among the sand benders: survive at any cost.

Aside from that, Shamo is something of an elitist. She prefers the finer things in life. Food, dress, make-up, everything, really. Coupled with her semi-royal background and you can be forgiven for thinking that she’s something of a snob, or self-important. The fact of the matter is that, well, she is. Shamo believes in a natural order in things, which includes authority, and the highest authority is, or should be, the Avatar. She recognizes that she is still an avatar “in training,” but this attitude still bleeds out in her interactions. It isn’t that she believes she’s inherently better than other people, just that everyone and everything has their place and the Avatar is, well, kind of an important position. So no, she is not a humble avatar, and she does not like compromising her own values or comfortability, but that does not mean that she doesn’t value the people beneath her.

In fact, quite the opposite. Shamo’s empathy is quite strong and there are few as willing as she is to get involved in the muck and grime of the common man. She does what she can to help out anybody in need, not just in accordance with her duty but out of a sense of necessity, out of a strong humanistic value. In fact, one of her favorite activities is to take the work load (usually cooking) off of the people in her life, as a way of saying “thank you” just for being there.

Additionally, Avatar Shoma does have a sense of humor, but it is rather dry and deadpan, filled with sarcasm she’ll spout out with a perfectly straight face.

Brief History

The life of Avatar Shamo Hua is one that has been fairly short and uneventful thus far, at least as far as avatars go. By the same age, Avatar Aang had ended the Hundred Year War and founded the United Republic. Avatar Korra had accomplished even greater feats, bringing the human and spirit worlds closer together, bringing back the extinct Air Nation, opening a new spirit portal, and helping to rebuild the Earth Kingdom into something new. By contrast, Avatar Shamo has done nothing of any particular note. This is something which grates on her nerves.

After the deaths of Korra and her friends, the Avatar Spirit, and Rava, reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle: Earth. There in the Shi Wong Desert, amidst the various tribes of sandbender nomads, was born the next Avatar. The White Lotus immediately began scouring the Earth Nation for her, but it took a while before she was discovered. The sand benders travel across the empty wastes of the Shi Wong almost constantly, hundreds of miles of inhospitable scorching heat. Thanks to their isolation, and the fact they move around so much, Shamo was five before her talents were found out. The young girl, daughter of the tribe leader, accompanied her parents to every meeting, every barter, and earned their ways. Then one day, when the sun was particularly high in the sky and the sand particularly brutal, Shamo Hua was particularly thirsty. Her requests were being ignored as the grownups focused on a trade agreement between different tribes, so she reached out for her father’s waterskin herself and lo, she bended the water to quench her thirst.

The tribe couldn’t have been more amazed and proud that they had produced a legendary figure. The Avatar. The bridge between the human world and the spirits. The one being that could bend all four elements. The one who would maintain balance in the world. Shamo and her father left the tribe on a journey to Omashu, where the tribe leader would turn in his daughter to the White Lotus so that she may begin her destiny. This was when Shamo eyed her first glimpse of the dangers the world held for its Avatar. The White Lotus were not the only interested party in finding her, and sadly they were not the first. Assassins sent by President San attacked Shamo and her father in the streets of Omashu. Her father fought valiantly to protect his daughter, but they outnumbered and overpowered him. Just before the killing blow was struck, Shamo cried out in horror, then blanked out. When she had regained consciousness, the entire city block was decimated. The stone buildings had been smashed, scorch marks riddled the area, and a small portion was drenched, but her father was alive.

She had awoken to find her father and two women around her. These women introduced themselves as members of the White Lotus, and educated her as to what had happened. She had gone into something they described as the Avatar State, a reflex to the mortal danger of her father, and as a result of being so inexperienced and untrained she had caused massive collateral damage. They further explained to her that she needed to be trained, that her duty was to the world, and that she needed to gain control of both herself and all four elements. Then she could bring balance to the world. Shamo asked if that meant that she could protect people, and make sure nobody else had to lose their daddies. The women answered yes, and so Shamo immediately accepted.

The next ten years were a blur for the young avatar. If she wasn’t training, she was being moved to a new discrete location, so as to avoid Republic assassins. People came in and out of her life far too frequently to really make any friends, and they were all there to help train her, to serve her in her role as the Avatar, so she took to calling them her servants, though the proper respect was still given. This attitude led to a number of the White Lotus calling her “Princess of the Sands” as a form of mockery, but she either failed to see the insult, or took it in stride as she quickly took a fond liking to the nickname. Once she had turned fifteen, Shamo insisted that she get some real world experience for her avatar duties. The Lotus vehemently refused, professing to protect her as she wasn’t yet ready, and this did not sit well with her. Ignoring their protests, Shamo left the Lotus compound in search of trouble that she could quell. After all, she was the Avatar. Who were these guards to deny her the responsibility bestowed upon her by the universe itself?

Taking a disguise, the young avatar found a small hovel of a farm that had fallen on hard times. The family gladly payed their respects to the wandering visitor, showing much hospitality they could not afford as they explained their plight. For a generation they shared their farm land with a nature spirit. Each night they would leave tribute for the spirit, and in return the spirit bestowed their land with great fertility and bountiful produce. Over the last few weeks however something had driven their spirit friend away. The farmers had experienced tremors and feared that some monster or dark spirit had snatched up their friend. With a smile, Avatar Shamo Hua assured the farmers that she would discover the cause of this problem, and solve it. As they expressed confusion, she headed out the door.

After some investigation, the young avatar had discovered the source of the problem. A badgermole, a runt judging by its size and how development, had taken up residence beneath their farm. It kept itself well fed by eating the underdeveloped fruit and vegetables from beneath the ground itself, and its presence had scared away the local nature spirit. Taking pity on the creature, she befriended it, giving it the name Pangu. Feeling victorious, she took Pangu to the farmers to show them what exactly had been going on. She explained that now that the pygmy badgermole was coming with her, they shouldn’t be having any problems with their crops and the nature spirit should return to continue their arrangement. The farmers thanked her profusely, asking who they owed their generosity to. She smiled and informed them they had the honor of speaking with the Avatar. Having successfully flummoxed them, Avatar Shamo Hua took her leave and returned home, glad to have actual experience in maintaining the balance, if only in some small way.

The victory did not last long, however. The White Lotus insisted that since she had blown her cover, they had to move or else they risked President San’s assassins. Shamo felt insulted, but ultimately agreed to move yet again, so long as she could keep her new friend. That was three years ago now. Avatar Shamo Hua is now eighteen years old, and the United Republic forces are closing in on their position as she nears the end of her training. The White Lotus have decided that it would be best to move her, and as such have found new teachers and bodyguards willing to dedicate their services, maybe even their lives, to the Avatar. To her this is normal. A new home, new teachers, new servants, it’s all so expected. Yet this trip will take a turn for the exciting in a way that the young avatar could never had predicted...

”Pain now, or pain later? Choose.”

Full Name
Saitong Sang.

Nicknames
Satin.

Age
29.

Gender
Female.

Sexuality
Homosexual.

Abilities
Sang is a master of the five animal styles of his school - Monkey, Panther, Crane, Snake and dragon, as well as several traditional martial arts weapons such as the wooden staff, long sword, spade, metal whip, tonfa, daggers and of course the dual fans.

Apart from her mastery of the forms, Sang has already acted as master for young children in the noble art of fighting. Her place in the Avatar’s cohort was secured because she would be able to protect the Avatar, as well as work with the different bending masters to teach bending, form and discipline more efficiently.

Fighting Style:
Each style is different and suited for different opponents.
Monkey is a low grappling and acrobatic style suited for slow-moving people who can’t turn quickly or have a limited field of view.
Panther is a fast and offensive style that aims to take out an opponent at super-close range.
Crane uses lange movements and power-circles to turn the user’s limbs into unstoppable weapons, best used at some range and may easily break bones.
Snake is designed for speed and precision in both attack and defence. Used to take out defensive or highly skilled opponents.
Dragon is a fierce style where every attack can become a grapple, otherwise it takes traits from both crane and Panther.
These styles all build upon the general Kyoshi-style of fighting which is influenced by Aikido, tessenjustu (fan fighting) as well as (i presume) some sword fighting disciplines.



The different weapon styles are also designed for different things, but each weapon should be fairly self-explanatory.



Physical Appearance
As she has since she was a young child, Sang is most comfortable in her Kyoshi uniform with her face painted as tradition demands.
Without this she is a beautiful woman with surprisingly fresh skin (for one who walks around painted seven days per week). Her hair is a red and is cut to be held back by her “mask” and fall to the shoulders, her eyes are hazel brown.
Her body is well trained, not to the point where she would be considered muscular, but at the point where the size of her muscles does not interfere with her agility. Her training has made her very agile, and stronger than most people would expect. This means that her body is still very much a feminine one that will attract a certain kind of attention. The least feminine thing about Sang's body is her height, which is slightly taller than your average woman. Sang herself only sees it as an advantage as she can see over the heads of her peers and has a longer range than her fellow Kyoshi warriors.

Equipment and Personal Belongings
Sang carries her uniform as well as a pair of fans and also a small bag that contains sleeping and hygiene equipment, face paint and battle rations of dried food (green to match her uniform).

Goal
To serve the Avatar, uphold the honour of the Kyoshi and to see the world.

Secret
Sang’s sexuality.

Habits
Sang has never really been out in the world for real and doesn’t really have a lot of social experience. She has a habit of smiling a lot, nodding and letting others decide for her. Anything from where to go to that to eat, if someone speaks up she’ll accept it.

Other
Anything about your character worth mentioning

Likes
o Colourful birds.
o Sweets.
o Passing out from over-exerting oneself.

Dislikes
o Rain.
o Anything reptilian or with tentacles.
o Hot weather (the uniform is like five layers of clothing).



Strengths
o Martial arts. (I’ll kick your ass!)
o Approachable. (I’m sweet and innocent)
o Quick uptake. (I’m smart, dumbass!)

Weaknesses
o New to the world. (Excuse me, where is… Everything?)
o Out of touch. (My style might be a bit old…)
o Hydrophobic (I HATE water… And everything in it”

Personality
Sang is a very sweet girl that easily makes friends with people. Her methods might be a bit…. Physical, but she believes that a good training segment is the best way to bring two people really close. In a way she’s right since her training uses other people as “weights” and once you’ve climbed another person like a mountain, you literally have very few secrets left.

Sang’s sweetness can be a bit deceptive, when she’s the master she is a very ruthless teacher that enjoys pushing her students to the absolute limit of what they can do. The only acceptable way of stopping is to fall to the ground because you cannot keep yourself up, then you may drink and catch your breath before rejoining the other students that have waited for you to come back.

This whole deal with the republic has really made Sang appreciate the Avatar as a keeper of the peace. In her little mind, minding only her little island, peace shouldn’t be harder than everyone not fighting. But as soon as Korra disappeared, a whole bunch of trouble arrived. She respects the Avatar greatly and will do whatever she can to help restore the peace.

Brief History
What state would the world be in if there was no place for the Kyoshi warriors?

Sang started out as an apprentice when she was five like many other girls. At age five the body is still agile and the mind able to be moulded into pretty much anything. They’d train like beasts for hours at a time (which can be quite taxing for a five year old) and learn about stuff like philosophy, reading and writing and other basic forms of education once they were good and tired.

Sang never really stood out to the masters as a fighter, but she was tenacious enough to get a reputation among her peers as one who would keep going no matter what. Her arms and legs would be bruised, lip split, she could be bleeding, dazed and half blind and still get back up to take another punch. Before long this made her advance in the grades and eventually reach the highest grade, where she would be able to teach.

The white lotus and the Kyoshi warriors had a close bond ever since the incident with the fire nation when Avatar Aang was young, and when the word came that a team was being assembled to protect, serve and teach the new Avatar to stand up to president San and his goons she wished to be sent and cornered the grand master about it. Surprisingly she believed her talk about “To be the best teacher I can I must teach the best students, and there can be no better student than the Avatar” and signed her name on a scroll and sent young Sang to the secret base later that day.

” If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.”

________________________________________

Full Name
Fan Zhong

Nicknames
One-Hand Fan

Age
26

Gender
Male

Sexuality
Heterosexual

Abilities
“The first weapon you wield is vigilance. The second is the knife in your sleeve.”

Fan is a master of the Qing Dao (Shortsword), the Shéng biāo (Rope Dart), the Sleeve Arrow, and an array of flying blades, and has some moderate hand-to-hand skills. His agileness and limberness also granted him impressive parkour and free-running skills, allowing him to scale almost any surface or terrain quickly and squeeze through most barriers and small spaces with noticeable ease, and was once considered a master of stealth.

However, due to his injury, the most valuable asset the once-assassin now possess is his extensive knowledge. While the other Bending Masters may focus on their particular bending style, or martial arts, or philosophies, it is the duty of Fan is teach the Avatar both personal defense and the ways of the world. The most recent avatars had endured many trials and tribulations during their journeys, most often due to ignorance and Fan would see this Avatar suffer a little less.

His sharp eye are on constant lookout for any attempt on the Avatar’s life and is attempting to teach her what so knows so that she might thrive once she has completed her education and he is no longer around. His personal experience has given a veritable treasure trove and knowledge to impart on her: diplomacy, history, courtly intrigue, the identities foreign officials and their stations, laws and politics, customs and traditions, camouflage and survival, strategy and warfare, counter espionage, herbs and their uses both medicinal and poison, in addition to his knowledge of the human body, his own assassination techniques, and most importantly… Pai Sho.

Fighting Style

“You know who was honorable? A lot of people who died, that’s who.”

Fan wholeheartedly believe that one should do whatever they can to ensure survival in a fight, and demonstrates this philosophy in his own combat style, which centers around speed and agility, dodging enemy attacks instead of blocking them. For this reason, he does not wear heavy armor or capes or use loose robes, but instead relies on just his sword and knives. Fan typically opens with his more ranged attacks before closing the gap to engage the opponent with melee as swiftly as possible before they’ve had the chance to recover mentally and physically. Fan actively employs an entire arsenal of dirty fighting, looking for any weakness in an opponent and exploiting it as brutally as possible, seeking to win by any means necessary. Using an extensive knowledge of chi and artery points of the human body, the Avatar’s Martial Instructor seeks to end combat as swiftly as possible.

This is all, assuming of course, that Fan hasn’t already poisoned everyone’s tea.

________________________________________

Physical Appearance

Fan is a tall man of about six feet,with his face framed by length of black hair pulled back. He wear the traditional dark greens of his homeland, the Earth Kingdom, his outfit design to keep his movement as unimpeded as possible. His only visible weapon is his Qing Dao, the others carefully hidden up his only sleeve or elsewhere on his body. Wooden sandals adorn his feet, and his body is taut with lean but firm muscles. A sense of tired weariness hangs about his amber eyes.

Most peculiar is his left arm, or rather, the lack of it. His empty sleeve is carefully pinned to his clothing, and underneath, a patch of scar tissue that clearly showed where his arm was.

Equipment and Personal Belongings
“And I will place my Chrysanthemum… here…”

His weapons, a pair of steel shin and forearms guards, caltrops, a set of worn climbing spikes, and an extremely battered Pai Sho set that he insists on bringing everywhere.

Goal
“The recluses’ dream / coming true vividly / the peach blossoms”
Fan had actually been contemplating starting a peach orchard before being chosen as the Avatar’s instructor. Right now, keeping the Avatar alive long enough to realize the orchard seems like a worthy goal, if a little selfish.

Secret
"The quest for truth above all else."
Due to the events of the Avatar Korra’s life, the White Lotus have a greater understanding of the Avatar Cycle and Spirit, as well as the potential for destruction an Avatar could truly cause. In the event of the Avatar going rogue, or utilized against their will as a weapon, Fan has orders to neutralize her without hesitation. As bad as President San’s Republic might be, the thought of another Unalaq was reason enough to make this a viable option.

Habits

"Yes! High Fi-.... other hand."

In the occasional excitement of things, Fan sometimes forgets that he’s missing a particular limb much to his annoyance and the amusement of others.

________________________________________

Likes
“Come on… just one more round!”

o Pai Sho
O Peach anything.
o A well organized plan that survives contact!

Dislikes
“Here we go- Again.”

o When the Avatar doesn’t heed his advice or chooses to skip her lessons.
o The “Fight First, Think Later,” mentality he views most Benders to have
o His four year losing streak to Kariya Amaris.

Strengths

“I'm paid to kill and protect people. Friends get a discount."

o Stealth and Acrobatics
o Worldly Knowledge and Experience
o Complete Mastery over his few chosen weapons
o A mind for tactics, strategy, and counter espionage.

Weaknesses
“If I was five years younger..."

o The loss of his left arm has considerably lessened his fighting ability and action economy. Simple things, such as holding heavy objects, tasks that require the use of more than one hand (holding a sword AND opening a door for example), are extremely difficult, if not outright impossible. Further more, while he is quite adept at hiding in the shadows and maintaining silence, personal disguises have become all but useless with his most identifying lack of a feature.

o Unlike a bender whose body is a weapon at all times, Fan has a limited number of weapons, especially flying daggers and arrows. These must be either recollected or replaced when used. In addition, if he is utterly disarmed or loses his sword, his handicap has made it so that his own martial arts is not enough to engage a skilled bender and win.

o Was trained for mores for agility instead of endurance, and while is fully capable of dodging blasts from a Bender, he has no method to defend himself from them, and probably could not survive more lethal blows.

Personality
“If by my life or death I can protect you, I will.”

Fan is sarcastic, with a black sense of humor, and a pragmatic, amoral philosophy for life. He will often be the first to offer the most direct, albeit cold solution to problems, regardless of how it may affect the emotions of others, stemming from years of mission triage: achieving the greatest return on investment for his actions. He is rather apathetic to the idea of killing someone with his methods, arguing that what he does is no different than any Bender in existence.

However, he is not completely heartless, nor is he sadistic. He takes his duty of mentoring and guarding the Avatar very seriously, and views the success of this mission as not just simply protecting an innocent girl, but rather, the safety of the entire world. He is utterly loyal with the Avatar and while he may not always agree with her actions or ideals, he will do his best to ensure that she is safe in her endeavors of them.

As a tutor, he is a firm but gentle teacher, seeking to guide his charge rather than beating the lesson into her brain. Most lessons will involve a practical or physical aspect for the Avatar to utilize, showing through demonstration and careful explanation rather than a lecture or countless repetitions.

He is someone who will go to lengths to ensure that his own survival and the survival of his charge is paramount, but fully knows that he is not the sole teacher of the Avatar, and that his fellow instructors are vital for her training. Therefor, while he may not be as merry of lighthearted as his compatriots, he will gladly consort with them to develop their charge into the Avatar she is meant to be. Fan is actually rather shy about talking about himself, seeing this as an uncomfortable broach of his work-relationship.

Brief History
“Kill one, save ten. Kill ten, save a hundred. Kill a hundred…”

To tell the story of Fan, one must first tell the tale of the White Lotus, for the two are inexplicably entwined together. In the years following the Red Lotus Cell lead by the Airbender Zaheer, the Grand Masters of the Order met together to restructure the Order. The most recent debacle showed the desperate need for some drastic changes; once barely two dozen masters had stood against an occupied Ba Sing Sei held by thousands of Fire Nation soldiers and had achieved victory in almost an hour. Shortly after the Hundred Year War's conclusion, the society stopped concealing itself from the public eye and began to serve the world and the Avatar more openly, expanding their operations and recruiting more openly, swelling their numbers.

But it was only after the incident with the Red that the White begin to reflect that quantity did not always equal quality. Where before they had masters, now they had many, arguably skilled, but lackluster sentries. They had been reduced to glorified bodyguards, while the Red Lotus had focused on skills and resources, working in secret to produce the highest quality of Masters. Every instance before, from Unalaq to Amon, the White Lotus could do little but slow down attempts on their charge. Even now, they knew not of the whereabouts of the Red Lotus remnants, their numbers, or their powers.

A change was necessary. The few decades would find a rise of more off the books practices in lieu of their public face as the White Lotus saught to consolidate its power once more.

Their enemies had fallen into the shadows.

The White Lotus would follow.

---

Fan Zhong was born the only child to two Sentinels of the White Lotus who had stood guard during the reign of Avatar Korra, and had been inducted into the Order at a rather young age, and had since considered the Order almost as his birthplace and home rather than any city or nation. The son of two benders, it was considered mild disappointment when he inherited neither of his parents talents, though his place in the Order was still assured.

Fan grew up against the backdrop of the civil unrest in the Earth Kingdom, as territories slowly splintered from the unrest caused by President San. His family became accustomed to living in occupied territory, moving from base to base with other cells of the White Lotus to stay ahead of the encroaching forces. It was during one these particular moves that Fan first came into contact with Zhen, an old bounty hunter with a cordial affiliation to the Order of the White Lotus. Zhen was a grizzled mercenary, a true money-grubber willing to do anything to make a quick buck who constantly acted like a wild hedonist unable to save a dollar ahead in his life. He made his living by selling them information, taking operatives from the Red and selling them back to the White for an inflated price. But the Order could only acknowledge his skills, and the coins changed hands frequently enough for him to become a reliable source.

Realizing that the tragedies he saw in his childhood were common occurrences in the world, the teenage Fan stole away from home to became a freelancer like Zhen to hunt down Red remnants around the world, acting as the man’s assistant…

…after Zhen knocked him down a mountain in protest of becoming the boy’s morally questionable guardian.
The mercenary trained him not only in bounty hunting, but in tracking, assassination, and all types of weaponry. At first, he only got in Zhen's way, but he eventually became his partner and equal. The Masters of the White Lotus saw the budding skill in Fan, especially those of discreet missions, and began to rely more and more on the two for such things. Year after year, Fan and Zhen traveled the globe from the icebergs of the two Tribes to the great pyramids of Omashu and everything in-between, hunting their quarry through ruined Sun Temples and the darkest slums of Ba Sing Sei. Many Red Lotus operatives were either caught or killed by the two, who were inducted deeper into the Order to allow Fan more training, especially against various bending styles, and by extension, Zhen. Sabotage, murder, blackmail, espionage: each act a move on the Pai Sho board of Red and White flowers. With the less than innocent actions of President San and his Task Force assassins to claim the Avatar, the battle in the shadows was erupting into full scale war.

About four years ago, word reached the White Lotus of a Red Lava-Bending master named Mao Lifu, who was unifying various bandits in an attempt to destabilize the already fragile Earth Kingdom countryside. Once again, Zhen and Fan were tasked with his capture or disposal and a cadre of Order sentinels were tasked to accompany them. It was as they were readying their bags the night before their journey that Zhen spoke the first affectionate words to his young apprentice.

It was to be their final mission together. He explained that he had been troubled over Fan following the same path as him due to the fact that he has too much potential in killing, displayed by emotionlessly their targets in a manner that took others many years to accomplish. He explained that even with such talent, doing what is necessary should not come before doing what the person wished to accomplish, likening such people to machines.
Those words set the stage for whappened next.

Somehow, the Red Lotus knew that they were coming and were ready for them. They were ambushed enroute to location of their target, on the downward slope of a rocky hill. Ultimately, the events of what followed are unknown to the White Lotus, save that the mission ended in a pyrrhic success. Fan Zhang returned alone, bloodied and with a ruined, blackened left arm, carrying the head of Mao Lifu. When asked what had occurred to the rest of his squad, including his mentor, Fan would only reply that there weren’t enough ashes left to warrant their retrieval.

It was after this mission that Fan became disillusioned with his ideal of any real change in the world, as it was impossible to save one person without losing another. Nothing could be done to save the man’s charred arm, resulting in its amputation, and Fan took the long road of recovery with nothing but silent determination, trying to adjust to his new life. While his recovery was all but assured, given the talent of the Order’s healers, it slowly became an issue of what to do with him.

His bladework was still sharp, and his mind even moreso, but their was still a hesitancy to give him any new tasks given his disability. The game the two Orders played was one where every failure meant perhaps hundreds of innocent deaths, yet to waste the man’s knowledge would have been a sin in of itself.

A solution was offered. Fan was still capable of serving the Order of the White Lotus, but he would be removed from active field-work, forced into a quasi-retirement as he worked as a mentor, and bodyguard, to the new Avatar. It was a task that would assuredly be a soft-job given the presence of the other masters and White Lotus sentinels. A “reward” for his years of faithful service and for his accomplishment of slaying one of the Red Lotus Masters.

After nearly years of recovery and training, the job was finally accepted with the same silent nod Fan had always given. He would protect and train the Avatar, to ready her for all the battles to come.

For this time, by saving one, he could save millions.