mickilennial
Emberdawn2
vietmyke
Lemons
Damycles
Supermaxx
Xiro Zean
Cu Chulainn
IzurichTianshi
"Hasten to do good; restrain your mind from evil. He who is slow in doing good, his mind delights in evil."
NAME
AGE
BIRTHPLACE
ELEMENT
APPEARANCE DETAILS
PERSONALITY
BIOGRAPHY
TRIVIA
Tianshi
AGE
24
BIRTHPLACE
Western Air Temple
ELEMENT
Air
APPEARANCE DETAILS
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.
PERSONALITY
"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.
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.
BIOGRAPHY
"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.
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.
TRIVIA
- Tianshi is a potent Airbender; having perfected thirty-four of the thirty-six tiers necessary for mastery, he was close to receiving his tattoos before the advent of the war precluded its possibility.
- Like all Air Nomads, Tianshi has a constant companion in the form of a bull Sky-Bison, named Bao Bao.
- Tianshi sired a child with a close friend and companion from the Eastern Air Temple shortly before his self-imposed exile. He has yet to meet them as a result of the war, perhaps his greatest sacrifice.
