NAMERyschi (Pronounced Rye like the bread, and schee like you're a snake saying the first part of Cheeto's. Rye-schee.)
AGE24
BIRTHPLACE The Northern Air Temple
ELEMENT Air
APPEARANCE DETAILS As pictured above, Ryschi is a young man with brown hair and gray eyes and a non-airbending tattoo he got from a Fire Nation friend of his on his left arm. It's meant to look like a coiling flame, but his friend wasn't a particularly good tattoo-artist at the time. He stands at 5'4" and weighs 120 lbs with little musculature.
PERSONALITY Ryschi is a man of action with a fierce personality, allowing himself a freedom of expression and movement before fully thinking of where the wind intends to take him. His spirituality leans towards a belief that the gentleness of tradition is restricting the flow and pressure of air. Peaceful clouds may have their place in the sky but so do tornadoes. Because of this viewpoint, he's become rather abrasive with the pacifists of the Air Nomads which has further led him to become quite defensive of criticism. Though, they put up with his antics because he and his sky-bison, Kimo, are the only ones willing to fly through storms to deliver messages. He does however quickly become friendly towards Fire Nation citizens since he understands their passion and feels bolstered by the heat to rise to greater challenges. Ryschi values the opinions of the spirits, and tries his best to connect with them when he finds a particularly angry one in the hopes of solving its problem so it may calm itself down in time.
BIOGRAPHY Growing up in the Northern Air Temple, Ryschi was 4 when the Avatar Korra passed away. As he grew, Ryschi felt the change in the air, witnessed the growing anger of the spirits, and sensed that bending had shifted fundamentally. All the elements are tied to the spirits, but airbending is deeply connected to them in a way the others aren't. Ryschi began searching for places of spiritual power to train or meditate and often found places full of rage and hatred. Instead of trying to quell the anger of the spirits, Ryschi embraced it and began to teach himself a new style of airbending where anger generated power. While others meditated within the peaceful snow, Ryschi found strong winds and harsh colds to balance himself. When it came time for him to travel, he bonded with a particularly rambunctious sky-bison that he named Kimo and left for the Fire Nation to train in the heat the way he did the cold. During his visit, Ryschi would meet firebending students and teachers who would lead him down the path of incorporating his style of airbending into a fighting form reminiscent of firebending. When there was no one available to teach him, Ryschi would either go hunting for spirits or he could be found at a sparring arena. Combat was his passion and he found a sense of peace in the chaos. Here he would find Shaw-Fe, the man he would still consider his best friend to this day. Shaw-Fe was an aspiring artist and would paint the fight scenes at the arena. Ryschi would speak with him only briefly before he returned to the North for the first time. When he returned, those who knew of his antics before found him to be even more riled up. For the first time, the young student had more than just powerful yet unconnected attacks. There was a rhythm that he gained from his time in the West, and his attacks had an even greater flair. When he went for his second journey, he chose the Fire Nation yet again and having learned how to refine and balance his techniques, he began his search for new ones. He began talking with Shaw-Fe more, and found his art to be lacking but fascinating. To capture a moment in time, to freeze the wind in place and view its form was breathtaking, and Ryschi found himself trying to "play to the camera" during his spars. He thought it was because of a growing pride in him that he needed to meditate on, but he would come to realize after many years that, in truth, Ryschi wanted Shaw-Fe's attention due to a growing affection for him. Ryschi began to study other forms of art, and found that a soft flute paired well with the image of an ink-brush painting. This was the only practice of his that the Elders showed any approval of, and it originally made him want to practice it more. Now though, he really only plays the flute when he misses Shaw-Fe. Ryschi would continue this pattern for some time, flying to the Fire Nation to heat up his passion for bending and combat and then returning to the cold north to sink back down and center himself and his spirit. This cycle would create a current within him, a need for movement, for action. The Elders were not fond of his intensity and found him to be unbalanced, there was fun and being carefree and then there was eternal restlessness. Thus, he was passed over for certain trainings, or would fail to be "centered" or "aligned" enough for the teachers liking and would be suggested to do the training again. This caused a greater stir within him, and a new cycle would begin as Ryschi would begin to work harder, meditate in crueler climates, and spend longer times within the Fire Nation. Of course, this was exactly what the Elders didn't like and as such, he never earned his tattoos and was never seen as a master. His closest friend, Shaw-Fe, attempted to reassure him by tattooing Ryschi himself saying that "You fight like a firebender, and I'd consider you a master." So, when the Earth Kingdom attacked, Ryschi felt a need to defend the Fire Nation and his dear friend. However, the Elders of the North threatened to refuse to teach him further if he did so which would effectively keep him from ever earning his tattoos. The loss of their teachings isn't what he feared, Ryschi feared all his effort meaning nothing. The tattoos would symbolize that his path was a valid one to walk, and that his life wasn't lived in vain. If the ability to earn them was lost, then so was he. Ryschi relented, and instead offered to be a messenger between the Water Tribes since they at least were doing something to help. It was the first time he went somewhere besides the Northern Air Temple or the Fire Nation as he actively tried to avoid the strife present in Earth Kingdom territories. The Water Tribes were a different experience for him. When he visited the Fire Nation, there was tension between them and the Earth Kingdom, but they had decent relations with the Air Nomads since they tried to help with the increased taxes on food by providing some of their own. But now, public opinion of the nomads had shifted in an unpleasant direction and the Northern Water Tribe proved as much when Ryschi arrived to be met with scorn and "It's the least you could do's" as if he wanted to be doing nothing. Ryschi learned that people could become quite biased towards individuals due to the actions, or inactions, of a larger group. This is when he began to fear a different threat, that Shaw-Fe would resent him for not showing up to help against the Earth Kingdom. With the awakening of the next Avatar, Ryschi refuses to sit still and let the Earth Kingdom have their way hoping that he could redeem himself and his tribe, prove that he walks a worthy path despite giving up his opportunities to earn his tattoos, and maybe, just maybe, earn back the right to stand next to his dear friend yet again. Besides, someone will have to teach the Avatar airbending, and it's unlikely to be any of the other Nomads that want nothing to do with the war.
TRIVIA Ryschi has endured many storms and has thus become familiar with lightning, leading him to become quite jealous of lightning benders for wielding a powerful force of the sky that he cannot.
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