Tomo Chen

22

Ba Sing Se

Earth

Standing at 4’8”, fairly average considering all things, Tomo could be described by some as boyish, others waif-like, and by a few as absolutely needing good, honest food. As far as complexion, the less said the better - the tunnel work in mines have wreaked havoc on what would have otherwise been a fairly good tan, lending to the young girl a paler sense. Tomo does possess a not insignificant musculature, a product of long years earthbending and training to earthbend, though it can't be said to be impressive. Her dark brown hair is kept at shoulder length, often fairly loose and unrestrained, while Tomo’s eyes are light brown.

Cautious, fairly secretive, and forever observant, Tomo is one who only reluctantly parts with her secrets. To her, everything given is in one way or another valuable and so should be carefully measured before being given. Long years of hiding have likewise stunted Tomo's ability to make any sort of friend, with at best a cautious trust being the sort of thing one might expect.

Born in the capital city of the Earth Kingdom at the very end of King Xiong’s rule to a pair of exceedingly not-so-wealthy citizens of the fine city, Tomo’s early life would quickly be changed with the discovery of her bending capabilities amid the backdrop of King Wei’s appearance, the following disappearance of the Avatar. Seeking that their daughter would have a better life, they quickly began to call on old friends to train her in whatever bending they could. Visits by retired Army friends and training in a nearby courtyard would become common for Tomo at that young age, bolstered by the fact that her parents treated the bending like a wonderful, wonderful gift that could only mean good things. She would take to it more or less eagerly, the thrill of it all being intoxicating.

At just fourteen years, she would begin working in the Lower Ring on the Monorail system. Of course, that involved lying about her age, speaking very little, and rarely dressing as a young girl normally would, but the pay was halfway decent and Tomo, lacking the normal inhibitions which age applies, had more than enough energy to move through a shift with the best of them. Through this, she earned enough to keep the family afloat, pay back the kindness of those older retirees who had trained her, and even save up a small stipend though it was extremely, extremely small.

Years would pass in this role as the Earth Kingdom became worse and worse for all within. The more outspoken of those retirees, those who yearned for days before, things before, anything, disappeared while many who worked the monorail would be reassigned to other duties, ostensibly work on the roads leading out of Ba Sing Se. Tomo became more and more isolated, could see that things weren’t exactly going as well as before. There hadn’t been many visitors from the other lands before, true, but even that seemed to decrease. On her shifts, she could hear talk of relations being cut, trade being cut, from tight-lipped merchants. When Tomo was just eighteen, her father looked for some of his friends who had gone, optimistic that they had simply moved to another district, and he would disappear too without a trace. A day after, Tomo’s mother disappeared too, their little home ransacked.

She knew she had to leave, that things weren’t safe, that they would be looking for her. In a panic, Tomo fled to the Agrarian Zone before trying to form a plan. She was halfway successful in this, though only due to the Dai Li agents who were trailing her allowing such movement to lead to more potential dissidents. It was only when the girl tried to flee aboard the ferry to Full Moon Bay that such agents attempted to intervene, though Tomo would bribe a dockworker to pack her into one of the crates on its way to Full Moon Bay. The journey was surprisingly and fortunately brief compared to what it might be, and she made the whole way in that crate with the crew none the wiser. Once offloaded into a warehouse, the young girl made her way out, traveling west through the Divide to the coast.

Tomo would pause to make a living at a small mining village on the coast, deciding that it was far away from the capital for the Dai Li to not find her. Fear would pave the way for her to accept that she would likely not see justice for her parents again or see King Wei removed for something better. Nevertheless, some part in the young girl held out the tiniest sliver of hope that she could help that.

The beginning of the war would only prove her parents and Tomo right. The town was swept clean of the young men by recruiters, her avoiding such by feigning illness as the soldiers moved through the tunnels. Production would lessen by the lack of workers in those following months, the representatives of the King always angry whenever they appeared. Not enough was their eternal answer, and they warned there would be repercussions. Soon after, the town was occupied as well by a smaller garrison of Earth Kingdom soldiers, production and shifts increased for the glory of the war effort. Tomo guessed things would only get worse, even as she lacked greater communication with the rest of the world, and worried that the Dai Li might even send agents throughout the kingdom to search for such dissidents. In the dead of night, again, the young girl ran away further north.

While away in the wilderness, however, Tomo was attacked by a group of Earth Kingdom soldiers. As a fairly benign bender, and one exceptionally unused to the techniques she had before been shown long in the past, the girl would largely succeed in holding the group off purely by virtue of their own inexperience. That they were trying to capture her also helped, of course, but as the two sides continued on their notable ruckus they were found by another group. A smaller rebel patrol would counter-ambush largely rescuing Tomo as she had been tired out by that point, and she was given an offer. The rebels had been impressed that she could fight as she had, considering how little training she had received.

With them, she traveled off and away to that distant port.

Tianshi

24

Western Air Temple

Air

Tall, broad-shouldered, and powerfully built, Tianshi strikes a distinctly imposing figure, and one at distinct odds with the layman's image of an Air Nomad. His mien is stoic and at times, severe, his steely grey eyes often cold and detached despite the distinctive mirth known to belong to his people, though there are times when a gentle empathy bleeds through his stony demeanor and makes itself evident. Atop his head, where there once may have been thick, wavy black locks is nothing, as, despite his differences with his monastic brethren, Tianshi is diligent in keeping his head cleanly shaven. While his skin tends towards a natural paleness, years of travel and harsh conditions have stained it a rich shade of peach. Those years of travel have marred his flesh in more severe ways as well: he has a litany of small scars over much of his upper body, tokens of esteem from various brigands and other evildoers encountered throughout his journey.

"Neither in the sky nor in mid-ocean, nor by entering into mountain clefts, nowhere in the world is there a place where one may escape from the results of evil deeds."

Often likened to a particularly stubborn bull bison in his youth, Tianshi is a complicated man. On the outside he is the very model of a monk, calm, collected, indifferent to his surroundings, and utterly unflappable in the face of adversity. Within, he is a kind, empathetic man, who struggles with notions of detachment and the uncaring nature of the world around him. He is a man driven by a strong internal sense of justice and a powerful dedication to doing what he believes to be right, which often contradicts the doctrine he has been raised to conform to. Unusually willful and courageous, Tianshi is the sort of man to throw himself wholeheartedly into whatever endeavor he sets his mind to, similar in some ways to the Earthbenders to whom he stands so diametrically opposite.

"Neither in the sky nor in mid-ocean, nor by entering into mountain clefts, nowhere in the world is there a place where one may will not be overcome by death."

Tianshi's earliest years were blissful ones, as they were for many of his contemporaries among the Air Nomads. He was born to a humble nomad of no great acclaim, cloistered away in the Western Air Temple during the later stages of her pregnancy. There he was cared for by both his mother and her fellow nuns until he was old enough to begin his education in their monastic ways. As his father had hailed from the Northern Air Temple, it was decided that he would be sent to the Southern Air Temple such that he could develop away from both of his parents, internalizing concepts of community and personal detachment as he grew from acolyte to monk.

In the idyllic isolation of the temple, he spent his youth amongst his fellow acolytes, learning theological principles and airbending at the knee of the more veteran monks in the temple. It was in the latter that Tianshi found himself excelling—the physical aspects of bending seemed to come naturally to him, though he did lag on matters of spirituality as he grew from boy to man. It was with his lackings in mind that the first truly transformative experience of his life was formulated: upon completing his education and coming of age, Tianshi would leave the Air Temple not of his own volition, but as part of a group of fellow monks seeking to engage in acts of charity within the neighboring Yokoya peninsula.

It was thought that by seeing the outside world firsthand, Tianshi might gain an appreciation for the connectedness of the world. That he would grow insightful as he garnered worldly experience and come to understand the importance of the monk's sacred oaths.

Instead, Tianshi found himself shocked and appalled by what he saw.

Secluded away in the Patola Mountains for much of his life, he had been blind to the suffering of the people beyond the monastery he knew and loved. The people went without food, shelter, or safety, as their overlords demanded steeper and steeper prices from them. Communities would live in squalor, preyed upon by bandits and pirates who themselves fell into villainy and ruthlessness to stave off the deteriorating conditions of the world in which they lived. The convoy of nomads did what little work they could, bringing food from what places had abundance to those that had none, providing spiritual guidance where there was none, and doing their best to mediate disputes whenever they came upon them.

It became clear to Tianshi, the longer he traveled, that the cruelties of the world he was made to reckon with were not simple happenstance. That the conditions he found himself so distraught by were purposefully inflicted upon the people by their rulers. A worse realization came in the understanding that his own leaders—the monks who had raised him and taught him the inherent sanctity of all life—not only knew of this but chose not to oppose it.

The epiphany that he came to was not the one his teachers had hoped for. If all life was sacred, he came to reason, it was the duty of those who could safeguard life to do so whenever possible. In the same way a monk was expected to go without food so that a starving man might eat, it was the duty of the monk to use his abilities to not only defend himself but to also defend those who could not defend themselves. His return to the Southern Air Temple was a short one. After making his intentions to aid the struggling peoples of the world more directly, the young man bid farewell to his masters and set off into the world to bring about whatever change he could with his own two hands.

The years that followed only further entrenched Tianshi's thinking. The desolate villages of an Earth Kingdom struggling under the weight of tyranny were already difficult enough for him to reconcile. Further trips abroad, to the ailing Water Tribes and starving Fire Nation hardened his position all the more. Something had to be done to restore balance to a world that, in the absence of its Avatar, hurdled ever closer to calamity. And in his twenty-third year of life, that calamity struck when news reached the Temples that the Earth Kingdom had formally declared war on the Fire Nation.

The councils reacted as they always had in times of turmoil and declared neutrality, doing little more than condemning the actions of the Earth King and his tyranny. This proved a breaking point for a man who had spent much of his young life fighting for the good of all. Weeks after the monk's declaration, Tianshi declared that if his elders would allow indecision and dogma to paralyze them in the face of evil, then he would go and face that evil without them. Like many brave young nomads of the South, he formally severed ties with the Air Nation and left upon the back of his bison for the Earth Kingdom, intent on doing whatever he could to halt the tragedies to come.

Huo

19

Foggy Swamp

Water

Huo is tall, but not altogether imposing. He leans more on the lean side, and is almost always seen in the travel garments of his people. He sports a hat made from a leaf sourced from the swamp, along with natural fiber wraps around his forearms and shins. He keeps his hair cut roughly to shoulder length, but does little to style it. The rest of his garments are assorted basic earthbender attire with the sleeves removed, as Huo finds them too restrictive. The most notable addition to his outfit that he prefers to keep intact is the wooden plate on his chest, a symbol of his pride in his homeland.

Huo is, for better or worse, a child of the Foggy Swamp Tribe. He has remained fairly sheltered from the politics and culture of the outside world, and was instead instilled with the virtues of his people: community, generosity, joy, and a deep respect for the natural world. Some may call it immaturity and innocence, but Huo has a deep love of people and the world that he is experiencing for the first time. He wishes to see the best in people. In terms of his general beliefs, Huo ascribes to a simple philosophy: we are all branches on the same tree. The best way to solve any problem, in his book, will involve cooperation and different perspectives, and is quick to acknowledge alternate views in influencing his decision or approach.

That is not to say Huo is soft and unwilling to fight now. He had let Chi fall at the hands of the Earth Kingdom the first time he had truly faced adversity, and that shame dwells in his heart. He hopes to make it up to her through his actions going forward, but does his best to note let the shame turn to hate. He would rather fight for his love of others than in retribution for their failures... though that is a line that he finds tough to balance. His shame and desire to see the best in others does carry with it naivety and a predisposition to be manipulated.

Huo was born into the Foggy Swamp Tribe, and has remained somewhat disconnected from the politics of the world as a whole. While Earth nation kingdoms have bickered and fought, and even as a coup occurred early into Huo's life that installed King Wei into power... the Foggy Swamp Tribe has remained relatively remote and isolated. They had little to offer the changing world outside, and Huo felt a strong connection to the values he was raised with. He believed in a harmony and connection with all things that lived in the swamp, and with those he considered to be family. He was a strong and brave kid, picking up bending from a young age. Since he was nine, Huo was racing skiffs alongside grown adults through the expansive reaches of the swamp.

That is not to say Huo was a reckless child, or entirely ignorant of the outside world. Even in somewhere as remote and independent as the swamp... it was noticeable when the communication trickled to a near dead halt. It was even more noticeable when guardians of the Foggy Swamp tribe who would patrol near the very fringes of the swamp began going missing. A tension filled the air year by year, as it became clear that something very wrong was afoot. Even as that anxiety was clear to a young Huo, he remained sheltered from the true horrors of what was to come. They all were.

Until they weren't.

Huo was a gifted water bender, and was trained from the age of twelve in more complex waterbending forms. Back then, it always felt like playing. Water whips, octopus form, even surging up waves of water to defend against getting pelted with a torrent of water... it all felt like games then. It was fun, and Huo enjoyed his training. One of his "instructors" was just... gone one day. She had been selected as a messenger, to simply travel to the nearest town to get some answers about the state of the world. She was only supposed to be gone a few days... but Huo hasn't seen her since. Huo's training became more intense after this. It was becoming clear that he wasn't being trained for the sake of learning or education: this was more about survival than anything else.

Huo was sixteen when the first confirmed spirit attack occurred in the Foggy Swamp. Spirits had become somewhat more of a frequent sighting before this... but a frog spirit growing in size and crushing a grown man underfoot was a change. It was the first serious injury in some time. Huo was, understandably, shaken by the sudden turn in the status quo within the swamp itself. The tribe had only one elder trained in the art of healing, Yi. Given more injuries of a serious nature and an inability to do much about the spirits directly, several young skilled waterbenders were trained to help tend to the wounded. Huo was one of the few who volunteered immediately. He hated seeing his people in pain... and hated more that there was little he could do to stop it. So, he did the best he could to provide some healing and comfort to his brothers and sisters who had been harmed in their own homeland. But the more fellow members of the tribe were injured, the more clear it was that something had to be done.

Huo, a few months shy of turning 18, was in attendance when a meeting was held among the Foggy Swamp Tribe about how to deal with the growing threat. For the first time, the adults and elder of the Tribe discussed openly their growing predicament. All attempts to get answers from the outside world yielded nothing. However, it was becoming clear at this point that if anyone was going to help solve their current predicament with the spirits and help secure the safety of the free people of the swamp... it was the Avatar. Before they could even find the Avatar, though... the people of the swamp would need more information. Their best bet would be to make a beeline for the Southern Water Tribe and hope to gather more information. They would need strong, swift waterbenders. Three volunteered, all relatively young and competent benders. Huo was one of them. Even he could tell there was a greater poison... a greater disease at the tree of humanity at large. If anyone was going to help his people, it would be the Avatar. The last two had decent relations with the Foggy Swamp Tribe. Certainly this next Avatar would be no different.

The three scouts travelled swiftly south by night, using the cover of darkness to avoid whoever they could. They relied on hunting and gathering in less populated regions, and slept in caves during the day. It did not take them too long to reach the coast. Though it took several nights camped out in a cave not far from the coast in the Xing Fuhua province to cut down several trees and fashion together a makeshift skiff... a right of passage they had all undergone at a younger age. Of course... the stakes were much higher this time around. By the fourth night, the scouts were ready to disembark.

Of course, four nights was one night too many to stay in one place so long.

They were caught on the beach by a small patrol of Earth Kingdom soldiers. Huo tried to speak for the group, and tried to explain simply they were just heading for the Southern Water Tribe. He wasn't able to say much before the rocks started flying. The eldest of the scouts, Chi, quickly took command of shielding her companions. She ordered them to get to the water with the skiff, swearing she would catch up. Huo and the other scout followed their orders, and quickly disembarked. Huo wheeled his arms around, propelling the skiff out into the choppy waters as quickly as he could. Only two Swamp Tribe scouts made it to the Southern Water Tribe, and among them... Huo was the only one conscious when they were found.

A little over a year ago, Huo discovered from his cousins in the Southern Water Tribe the truth of larger scale politics. He learned of the invasion against the Fire Nation, and the efforts the waterbenders made to defend them. He made allies with his cousins, and explained his desire to find the Avatar. Needless to say, he was less than pleased to discover that there was no Avatar. He knew trying to return to the Swamp would have been a suicide mission, given recent developments... and as he lived in communion with the Southern Water Tribe for a few weeks (whilst heavily bundled and recovering from hypothermia), it became clear that Huo's mission would have to change. Spirits were little threat when it came to the intense suffering that would come from an invasion into the Swamp by the Earth Kingdom. And if the Earth Kingdom was bold enough to attempt an invasion against the Firebenders, it would only be a matter of time. Huo committed himself to aiding the Water Tribes in repelling any attempt by the Earth Kingdom to invade by boat, biding his time until an opportunity would arise to do something more proactive.

As of three days ago, a new plan has formed. The second murmuring had begun that an Avatar had awakened, Huo knew this would be his best opportunity. The growing Rebellion would be his best chance to find the Avatar, and the Avatar was easily the answer to both threats facing his people.

Huo constantly talks to animals as if they are people. He thinks he understands them when they chirp back.

Huo has some training in healing as a waterbender. However, he has not come close to understanding how some elders were capable of plantbending.

Huo has been tried hiding his accent, but has made little progress.

The only physical possession, besides his clothes, that Huo has maintained since leaving the Foggy Swamp Tribe is his banjo. It is unclear if he is bad at playing it, or if that's just how it sounds.

Lei is a tall man standing at six feet and ten inches, his body is very muscular being comparable to a bodybuilder. His hair is a dark brown that is slicked back, and tied into a short ponytail. His eyes are brown, and his face is quite rugged but handsome looking. Some of his distinguishing features are the many scars all over his body. Specifically on his arms, hands and on his left eye. The scar on his left eye covers most of his left eye and moves down towards the left side of his face.

Wearing the clothes of a commoner clothing with a red tunic, and brown pants that have been rolled up towards his knees. The shelves of his tunic have been cut to expose his muscular arms. Wearing a pair of wooden sandals that are very worn.

Lei is a nonsense person who is not afraid to speak and share his opinions. To other people, he could be perceived as aloof and rude. Although if one were to widdle him down, he is quite loyal to those he calls a friend. Although he usually doesn’t have much luck making friends with other people. For the most part, he likes to keep to himself. Lei has moments of kindness especially towards children and those who are down on their luck. And he was someone to hold grudges for people whom he considers an enemy. This hatred can fester and make Lei extremely violent and hot-headed. For the most part, he is depressed most of the time wallowing in his sadness.

After Lei was born he was placed in an orphanage. His birth was unwanted and his parents wanted to get rid of him. During his time in the orphanage, he befriended two other orphans. A boy named Feng and a girl named Zhi, Feng is a earth bender while Zhi is a waterbender. The three were unhappy living in the orphanage and planned an escape which Lei and Feng planned out. The escape was successful and they soon migrated towards the Fire Nation Captial. There they lived on the street stealing money, and food, and living in abandoned buildings in the capital. As they grew up into teenagers they were conscripted to join the Fire Nation army to help stop the invading Earth Kingdom. During this time Feng and Lei were a part of various missions with Zhi alongside them as a medic. Lei became somewhat famous for his participation in the battle of Hujiang. Soon he and Feng rose in the ranks with both of them becoming captains of different regiments.

At some point, Feng was captured by the Earth Kingdom forces and tortured for six months. It was eventually turned into a spy for them. Feng fend information to the Earth Kingdom, information that made it hard for the Fire Nation to win the fight. During a battle with all three involved Zhi was killed by Feng while she was pregnant with Lei’s child. Feng and Lei fought ending in Lei having his eye slashed out, and accidentally burning his body, arms and hands. Lei was captured by the Earth Kingdom and was tortured.

Escaping from his cell thanks to another Fire Nation prisoner. Planning his revenge on Feng.

- He is skilled in the martial art called "Lóng Quán" (Dragon Fist).
- He is also skilled in swordplay and is proficient in bladed weapons.
- He is equipped with a pair of nunchucks, a boomerang, and a Changdao (Basically a Chinese broadsword).
- He is also skilled in tailoring, cooking, hunting, and battle tactics.

Tao Huangzi

18

Ba Sing Se, Earth Kingdom

Water

Tao is a foreigner no matter where in the world he goes. Though he has the striking blue eyes of a Water Tribesman, his complexion is far more at home in the northern Earth Kingdom, and his features aren't quite typical in either. His face resembles both and neither of his parents' at the same time, with his father's sharp eyes subdued by his mother's demure eyelashes, and her soft jawline sharpened with his father's chin. He has a lithe build atypical of a hardy Earth Kingdom native, born of a life of leisure rather than hardship or starvation, and accustomed to the dancelike flow of the waterbending arts. This is accentuated by his attire; outside the frigid poles, he prefers the flowing attire of the Earth Kingdom, both for its familiarity and its helpfulness in blending in, though he's still petulantly fond of blues and whites.

"You are not a child of the earth, Tao. You are only as rigid as you need to be. Water has no shape. Water is flexible. Be as the flowing river. Be as the raging tsunami. Be as the stalwart glacier. Be whatever you must to suit the moment."

Tao is no stranger to the role of the outsider, and has thus embraced it. He has a friendly nature, even if it can be hard to see under a reserved and awkward exterior, but he rarely considers himself truly integrated into a group. To this end, he tries to be very adaptable. He believes he cannot find a space for himself through commonality, so he weaponizes his differences in order to ingratiate himself to others. As his father would say, every group has a weakness, whether through their values or simply the combined shortcomings of those that compose it, and Tao aims to fill these weaknesses as surely as water fills the vessel it inhabits. He is the unconventional solution, the Vaatu's advocate, the fresh perspective to a tired problem. Failure is simply the result of one lacking the fluidity to attack the problem from another angle.

Expectedly, he finds it all rather lonely. The only people with whom he's ever felt as though he truly fit in was with his family, which now stands in jeopardy due to the war. Beyond this, Tao has a tendency to cling to those who are nice to him, though he's thankfully a bit too shy to be overbearing with it. He also despises liars, and the dishonesty demanded of returning to the Earth Kingdom, much less taking part in a rebellion, unfortunately grate heavily on his patience, even if his misgivings are ultimately overwhelmed by his drive to end the war and return to Ba Sing Se.

"The clever bird chooses the branch whereon to perch; the wise servant selects the master to serve. Seize the chance when it comes, for repentance ever comes too late."
Though a waterbender, Tao was born in Ba Sing Se, and spent his childhood in a luxurious apartment in the Upper Ring of the city. His mother was an immigrant from the Northern Water Tribe who left to ply her healing arts in the wider world, and his father was a native-born agent of the Dai Li under King Xiong and later King Wei. The family knew little of his work, only that he was a peacekeeper for the crown and the city, and that his frequent fishing trips to Lake Laogai were probably more work-related than he let on. Tao was shielded from many of the worsening conditions for foreigners across the nation by his father's position, but he felt like no less of an outsider, especially in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se, where foreigners were rare beyond visiting dignitaries. His mother was the only waterbender he'd ever met, and her womanly education in the north could show him little more than the fundamentals. Attempts at practicing with other children left him with little choice but to try and replicate earthbending with ice, to limited success.

This seemed like it would change six years ago, when Tao's father cryptically announced that dangerous events were in the works, and he was moving the family to Northern Water Tribe territory until it all blew over. While Tao was hesitant to leave the only home he'd ever known, Agna Qel'a promised a new beginning; for the first time, he'd be among fellow waterbenders, he'd have a role in a collective united by more than just geographic location. At least, that was the idea. The reality was less than ideal. While never one to enjoy the heat, the biting cold of the north pole was still a far cry from a Ba Sing Se winter, and the local cuisine left a lot to be desired. Likewise, his father's status meant nothing in the frozen city, and he was reduced from pampered gentry to just another tribesman. It was a hard adjustment. The one saving grace was that he was formally enrolled under a waterbending master for training, and he took to it swimmingly. The initial learning curve was rough, as Tao had to unlearn his earthbending-inspired philosophy and relearn how to be a waterbender proper, but the lessons were far more engaging than his mother's rudimentary teachings.

Still, he was even more of an outsider among the other students than he was in the Earth Kingdom. He didn't know how to hunt a seal or dive for sea prunes - he barely knew how to swim before moving to the north. His culture was foreign and nonsensical to the traditionalist Water Tribe, which made him an interesting visitor but not an accepted member of a tight-knit tribe. They were polite, friendly even, but it was clear that Tao was not one of them. Nor did he want to be; with the reality of the north falling short of his hopes, Tao longed to return to his home in Ba Sing Se. He trusted that his father would not steer the family wrong, but he couldn't fathom what threat could possibly justify leaving the eternal walls of Ba Sing Se for a shoddy replica carved from ice and snow.

Tao thought he received his answer when the war broke out. The real answer came months later, when his father was brought before the chief on charges of espionage. Though the ostensible reasons for their relocation may have played a role in Tao's father's decision to flee the Earth Kingdom, his primary motivation was to act as a spy for the Earth King in the Northern Water Tribe. He and his mother naturally fell under suspicion as well, and any good will he had accumulated evaporated nearly overnight, and with it left any ties Tao had to the Water Tribes. He wanted to return home with his family, even if his father was a liar who broke his mother's heart, but that was impossible with the Earth Kingdom's descent into tyranny and his father's new status as a prisoner of war besides.

The solution was simple; he'd have to help end the war. Since his mother was barred from participating in military affairs, Tao had volunteered for a blockade run to the south pole to help prove his innocence. The expedition took damage during one of their encounters with the Earth Kingdom navy and docked in the southeastern edge of the continent for repairs when they heard the news of the Avatar's alleged return. That seemed a far more prudent method of ending the war decisively than merely ferrying messages between the Water Tribes, so Tao, now back in his homeland, set off in search of the elusive resistance. Wary of Tao being a saboteur to their own mission, his fellow warriors from the Water Tribe did little to stop him.

Wujin, or just Jin

20

Earth Kingdom

Earth

Wujin is a young woman of average height and solid build. As an outsider, her complexion is somewhat lighter compared to most other citizens of Omashu. She possesses the lean, athletic musculature of a lifelong martial artist moulded by years of effort; something she takes great pride in. Her chin-length black hair is often kept neat and parted at the front with short fringes on either side partially covering her eyes. She is almost always seen wearing a blindfold, beneath which lies a pair of dull silver eyes that render her "as blind as a badgermole", though you couldn't tell that by watching her move. She usually dresses in a short top and baggy pants with an even split of white and green, along with a pearl necklace.

There are a great many words that could be used to describe Wujin. Reckless, energetic, playful, flexible, (too) curious. But most people who had the distinguished pleasure of making her direct acquaintance would call her insan–eccentric. She rarely appears to take anything seriously and is often flighty and carefree when she should be focused and serious. Thrill-seeking and kind-hearted with a penchant for random bouts of philosophy, Wujin is more tolerated than liked wherever she goes, though you couldn't pay her to care. However, underneath her light-hearted demeanour lies a highly observant and driven individual with wisdom seemingly beyond her years, in the very, very rare moments she lets it shine. At her core, she values freedom above all things.

While she doesn't always show it, the current war has made her restless in a way she doesn't quite understand. And not in a good way.

No one knows for sure where Wujin was born, only that she was found abandoned as a child a little ways outside the walls of Omashu.

At a young age, she displayed great interest in learning martial arts, and she more than had the talent for it. Unfortunately for her, there was a rather significant roadblock in her path. For as much as Wujin was a smart and energetic child, for as much as she could be diligent and driven, she was also severely limited by one simple feature; she was blind. In spite of that, she wasn't one to let things like physical limitations stop her. She decided that if she couldn't see with her eyes, she would use something else to do it for them.

However, optimism could only get her so far. Despite her best efforts, for a long time, her progress was less than stellar. Everything changed when one day while following a group of merchants, she wandered away from the group and fell into a sinkhole where she found herself lost within a system of caves then undiscovered by humans. While wandering the caverns, she came across a small family of badgermoles that aided her in navigating the labyrinthine passageways.

It was then inspiration struck, and she immediately threw herself into training once again. Observing and learning from them, she taught herself to mimic their actions down to the slightest movement to compensate for her blindness. Day after day, she travelled with them, doing as they did until it was completely engraved within her muscle memory.

It worked. And it was as if a thousand tortured souls screamed out in anguish, and were silenced.

Initially, it was thought that she would mellow out as she grew older. Yet, after she returned from her underground adventure with her newfound knowledge and ability, her antics only became all the more elaborate. Not a day went by where someone wasn't cursing her name for one thing or another, usually about "cabbages". Over time, her adventurous spirit grew so she became bored with life within Omashu, and then it happened. King Wei's sudden declaration of war on the three nations was surprising and distressing. It was an act of tyranny. And she couldn't stand idly by and let it happen.

Thus, when she heard word of the light in the sky heralding the awakening of the Avatar, she didn't hesitate to hop onto the bandwagon.

Sune

24

Presumably Ba Sing Se, but you'll find that Sune is not exactly forthcoming about his personal life.

None

He's almost always wearing his trademark white fox mask. Between that and his habit of keeping his hood drawn up, it's very rare for anyone to see his face.

Sune can be very difficult to pin down. The mask he wears prevents anyone from seeing his facial expressions at any given time. When he speaks it's typically in an even tone, though one that also contains just enough playfulness that you can never tell if he's being genuine or not. It's all part of the effort to maintain the persona of the mysterious masked man that he puts out.

Underneath the mask is someone who sees the threat that the Earth Kingdom poses, and detests it for the most part like the rebels themselves do. But Sune often refrains from commenting on the matter, insisting that interactions with him be strictly kept professional and nothing more. This gives him the air of someone who prefers to have business associates rather than friends. Though to be honest, who can really tell? After all, Sune himself is basically just a walking enigma of a man.

Sune actually was born in Ba Sing Se, that much is true. To a middle class merchant family of little real importance. Although if you were to ask him, Sune would simply tell you that his identity and parents don't matter. At some point in his childhood, both his parents were arrested by the Dai Li. Something about contraband allegations, the truth of which he's never actually confirmed one way or another. The real point is that they were taken from him, and he was shipped off to an orphanage in the aftermath. The orphanage was... not great, to say the least. Understaffed and underfunded, the place always seemed like it was under threat of shutting down if it couldn't make some kind of payment and meet some kind of city code.

And that was about when Sune started stealing. Food, purse-snatching, whatever he thought could be used to keep his home in the orphanage afloat. Not that he was a some great child thief or anything. On the contrary, Sune was caught several times. But as he was only a child at the time the most he could be given was a slap on the wrist and extra chores to do as punishment. So when thievery proved unsuccessful, Sune took to spying instead. This was something he actually was good at. After all, what important-looking officials discussing clandestine dealings would pay mind to some random urchin playing or scrounging around nearby? At first he tried taking incriminating information he learned to the authorities, thinking he'd get some kind of reward for it. Instead he was just turned away, nobody seeming to be willing to take him or his information seriously.

This was all because he was still just a kid, an orphaned urchin at that. But he wasn't a kid forever. As he became a teenager and those years eventually gave way to his young adulthood, Sune took to another form of business: blackmail. If the information he managed to learn about people wouldn't be taken seriously by police or the like? Then he'd simply sell it back to the people he learned it from under threat of exposing them. To accomplish this, he took to wearing mask and hood and gradually adopted the persona he has come to be known for now. But blackmail wasn't enough for him. So eventually Sune ended up becoming a full-blown information broker.

Now this proved to be quite lucrative. After all, there were people on both sides of the law that could make use of the kind of information that only someone like him could obtain. The orphanage he grew up at, and even many of the orphans who lived there when he did, all in their own ways became part of Sune's network. Those kids grew up like he did, went out and made lives for themselves in various places and professions. Those combined with the homeless population proved to be a rather fruitful way for Sune to keep his eyes and ears open all over the city.

He's heard of the Rebellion through his network, naturally. But he hasn't joined them, not officially anyway. In his own words, he's "waiting to see how serious they are" before he decides whether to commit to doing business with them or not. No sense in backing a horse if it can't even finish the first lap of a race, after all.

Sune is obviously not a bender. And he's also not a particularly skilled warrior either. But he's a sneaky bastard and very good at infiltration and information gathering. Not to mention a seemingly endless supply of acquaintances and contacts in various places and fields. Also, Sune isn't even his real name. It's just a moniker taken from "kitsune", hence the fox mask he wears.