Avatar - The Hidden Earthbender

Water. Earth. Fire. Air. For decades the four nations lived in harmony. But everything changed when benders began to decline. Only the avatar, master of all four elements could solve the mystery. But when the world needed her most, she died. Twenty-five years passed and I met the new avatar, an earthbender named Yifan. Yifan has a lot to learn before he can fix anyone's problems. But I believe Yifan can save the benders...

Okay guys so here it is, a new character driven Avatar rp. Set in modern times, it's been a little less than a century since the events of Korra's time and bending has all but died out. As such I'll only be allowing one or two benders of each element, earth being the exception since not only will the setting be the Earth Kingdom but since the avatar is an Earthbender it wouldn't be fair for me to be the only Earthbender. Spots are not first come first serve, however, so I'll be picking the best character for each element that I think would bring something interesting to the group dynamic.

You may have noticed that opening narration being a play off the original show's ooening lines. Just like how Katara is the narrator in the show, I'd love it if someone made a character that could reasonably narrate something like that.

With all that said, here's the sign up sheet:

• Name: Try to keep it in line with the show. Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Inuit names are all fair game. Names outside those languages should at least try to fit the universe.
• Age: Please try to keep between 22 and 28 though slightly older or younger works too.
• Appearance:No pictures by themselves. They can be used to supplement a written description but a picture by itself is not enough. Exceptions are those who drew the pictures themselves/had one drawn specifically for them.
• Nationality: Which nation is your character from? Doesn't have to match their bending style but would probably work best if it could.
• Bending Style: For those trying to play a bender.
  • Substyle: For Fire, Water, and Earthbenders only. Can you lightningbend, lavabend, metalbend, sandbend, or bloodbend?
• Weapons: Primarily for nonbenders. What sort of weapons can you use? Nothing too out there, please. Chi-blockers are OP so they only get one weapon. Everyone else can get two to three.
• Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom: For characters from outside the Earth Kingdom.

We'll star once we've got a cast of five to six, including me.

Edited by Chariot on Oct 19th 2018 at 8:21:29 AM

• Name: Xhao Long
• Age: 25
• Appearance: Standing at 5'11, Xhao is moderately stocky, but surprisingly athletic in build; Somehow thin and big-boned at the same time, and toned to boot, he's got metal fingers on his right hand and burns all up his left, both from a less-than-friendly Firebender that won't leave him the hell alone. Or, wouldn't. He's got a mess of long, black hair that, if it wasn't for the build, might allow people to mistake him for a woman, and has gotten some friends of his in trouble with more stocky women too.
• Nationality: Fire Nation, full stop.
• Bending Style: Non-bender
• Substyle: Chi Blocking.
• Weapons:
  • Dragon's Hand: A wholly strong revolver with a lot of recoil, mitigated for Xhao due to strength and practice. Kinda like the Emperor but without the moving bullets.
• Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom: He wanted to get away for awhile. What was a few days turned into a few weeks, and before he knew it he had a valid citizenship, an actual living space, and a small job running a cabbage stand on the owner's off hours. And well, he wasn't doing anything important in the Fire Nation anyway, so why not, right?

Yeah, I think I just made the Sokka of the team. Except Sokka can Chi-block.

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Oct 19th 2018 at 12:45:29 PM

Dope idea for a game! Neat that you didn't include the super standard Personality and Biography fields, or any equipment beyond weapons.

• Name: Leung Yat
• Age: 27
• Appearance: A very thickly built and round-faced darker-skinned Earth Kingdom woman. Has a very round face, and black hair kept straight and shoulder-length. Wears a lot of bright and genuine woman's street fashion, like bomber jackets and snapbacks with bright colors. Wears various strappy tactical rigs when she's trying to be serious or work with climbing gear on a job, but otherwise dresses bright and fashionable.
• Nationality: Ethnically Earth Kingdom, parents were expats living in the Fire Nation and she was born there.
• Bending Style: She likes to say she's a possumbear bender.
• Weapons:
  • Leung's greatest weapon is her partner, Rabies, a giant possumbear that she rides. Rabies is "mostly" just a giant possum, but with the thicker and slightly longer limbs of a bear. She and Leung grew up together and they're from a family of similar hunters and rangers, so she has real talent to back up her bond. Her "actual" weapons are an old military surplus combat knife and a long-range single-shot tranquilizer rifle, all civilian-legal and fully licensed.
• Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom: Leung is one of several fixers spread across the Earth Kingdom representing the interests of a shadowy group of businesspeople interested in the current state of the Avatar and the decline of bending. She has no standing orders at present beyond verifying that she's found the Avatar, calling in word to her handler, and awaiting further instruction from highly suss and mysterious and wealthy benefactors.

Name: Suki Shek

Age: 23

Appearance: An lithe, athletic young woman with short black hair and large, brown eyes. Somewhat attractive but not noticably so. Normally carries a large jar on her back she uses to transport clay.

Nationality: Earth Nation

Bending Style: Earth style, Limited. Substyle: Clay/Mud Bender

Weapons: Carries a knife in a boot sheath, can use the wet clay she carries as a bludgeoning weapon or as a shield, using her bending ability.

Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom: Born in a small villiage, moved to the big city to try to make money with her abilities as a clay bender and potter.

Suki grew up in a small villiage, where her father took advandage of the fact that he was the strongest Earth bender in the village to lord it over his fellows. Suki was the only daughter, with three older brothers. Suki's father was deeply bitter that none of his children seemed to have Earth bending abilities. When Suki discovered she could minipulate Earth but only when it was wet (clay or mud), she hoped it would please her father but he was instead only upset that it was her and not one of his sons that had inherited even a diluted form of his powers.

Suki moved to the city at a young age. During the days she works as a potter, using her skills to make elaborate clay pots. Some evenings she participates in semi-illegal fights, where women compete in combat in mud pits for the enjoyment of wealthy spectators and gamblers.

She is aware a lot of city people look down at her for being from a rural background and having limited abilities.

While she can't control rocks or dry earth, she can do things like wrapping clay around a person's body then rapidly releasing the water from the clay. Once she 'dries' out the clay this way, she loses control of both the resulting dried clay and the water.

Since moving to the city, Suki has become very aware that her father's situation is common; many long standing families of benders are now having children with either no bending ability or only limited/diluted versions of their power. Most of her fellow fighters are like Suki, Earth benders with limited powers (one girl who can only control dust, one girl who can only control rocks that she brings with her gathered from near her home, etc) or women with no bending abilities but strong fighting abilities. The fighting league is run by a gangster who is a water bender who fled the water nation to escape the police.

In fighting, goes under the name 'Dirty Girl' for her habit of smearing mud over her face and body; partially to disguise herself and partially because she can use the mud as 'limited' armor, briefly bending the mud on her skin to help absorb blows.

The current champion of the league is a woman claiming to be a fallen/disgraced Kyoshi warrior.

Edited by Nodrog on Oct 22nd 2018 at 3:58:12 AM

Both Xhao and Leung are accepted, though try to keep Rabies from being too overpowered. As for Suki, I want to see if anyone else wants to play an Earthbender before deciding since bender slots are limited.

Ok, no worries... I just had this idea of wanting to seeing mud wrestling in the Avatar universe.

Hi, I'm just fine tuning my character sheet for this and could use some clarification on a couple things.

1. Are spirit PCs okay? My character concept is this renegade knowledge-seeker fox from Wan Shi Tong's library who's with the group to record their exploits for posterity, but I could retool most of what I have into a regular human historian if a spirit PC isn't okay. Speaking of spirits, have they been fading away like bending has or anything?

2. When you say modern times, how modern do you mean? Like, present day smartphones-and-high-speed-internet modern, or like Cold War era or 90s or what?

Edited by JohnTheSavage on Oct 24th 2018 at 12:16:18 AM

I hadn't considered that anyone would want to play a nonhuman so I didn't give much thought to spirits, player characters or otherwise. I'll have to see your sign up before deciding for sure.

As for what I mean by modern times, I mean it's set in the Avatarverse equivalent of 2018, yes. I'm thinking things are slightly less advanced though since due to the reliance on benders for most things prior to their decline. For instance, cell phones exist but smartphones haven't come into existence yet.

Edited by Chariot on Oct 23rd 2018 at 9:34:56 AM

Okay, got my sheet done for my spirit character. Seeing as though Ling'll be writing a book in between all the adventuring, I think she'd be a good fit as the narrator for that opening bit. Could even be a excerpt from her notes or memoirs or something.

• Name: Ling Shi Tong

• Age: 20

• Appearance:
  • Much like her knowledge seeker kin, Ling bears a resemblance to mundane foxes but does not completely match any particular material world species. Ling is built taller and thicker than most foxes (both mundane and spirit), her body almost more canine or lupine than vulpine. Her fur is coloured reddish-brown and Ling takes great pains to keep it immaculately groomed from her snout to the tip of her fluffy tail. Ling's nature as a spirit is difficult to hide as she possesses a pair of otherworldly, bright blue, pupil less eyes that have a tendency to unnerve because without visible pupils, it's almost impossible to tell where Ling's eyes are actually pointed. To many, it seems as if Ling is always watching them.

  • When out and about, Ling wears a modified green service dog vest with a pair of saddlebags on either side and several small holsters for scrolls or scroll cases.

• Nationality: Ling is originally from the Spirit World but has spent the last 2 months roaming the Earth Kingdom and spent the 4 months before that living in Republic City.

• Bending Style: N/A

• Substyle: N/A

• Weapons: In addition to her teeth and claws, Ling also possesses minor supernatural abilities as a Knowledge Seeker. She can effortlessly walk, run and stand on vertical surfaces and ceilings and is capable of bizarre feats of manual dexterity such as operating pens, pencils and computers with paws that logically shouldn't work that way or using her tail as a prehensile limb. Like all spirits, Ling is capable of possessing humans for a short time, but at the cost of placing the subject in mortal danger.

• Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom:
  • Youngest of Wan Shi Tong's Knowledge Seekers, Ling has spent almost her entire life holed up in the paranoid owl's library, barred from ever leaving as Wan Shi Tong no longer fully trusts even his own servants. Only the older Knowledge Seekers who had proven themselves trustworthy were allowed to leave and travel to the material world to seek out knowledge. Outside of providing assistance to the occasional visitor, Ling had little to do but read. And read. And read.

  • The more Ling read, and learned and observed her fellow spirits, the more disillusioned she became about her place at the library. The library had been stagnant for almost two centuries and it showed: the books on the arts and sciences were woefully out-of-date, the material on modern history near non-existent, and while the books on earlier history and the ancient classics retained their value, so few could appreciate it, as humans were banned from the library and spirits rarely visited anymore. Ling came to a realisation: that Wan Shi Tong had lost his way, that his hoarding and hiding of knowledge was selfish and stupid because knowledge held value only when used to inform action.

  • Eventually Ling decided that enough was enough, she would no longer sit around and be complicit in Wan Shi Tong's selfishness. She vowed to leave the library, to find and record knowledge and freely share it with as many creatures as she possibly could. The next opportunity she had she stole out of the library with a number of rare tomes and scrolls and headed for the Material World.

  • Entering the Material World through the Republic City spirit portal, Ling's first move was attempt to donate her stolen literature to the biggest library she could find. Unfortunately, every librarian she encountered was familiar with Knowledge Seekers. Specifically, they were familiar with the fact that the foxes were infamous for stealing rare and expensive books and spiriting them away, never to be seen again. Ling was turned away at every place she tried, until she finally found a kindly old man who ran a tiny public library in a poor district of Republic City. Ling donated the literature and found herself living and working with the kindly grandfather in his library. The old man was not long for this world however, and passed away soon after, leaving the library with a much less fox-tolerant owner.

  • Unable to participate in the spreading of knowledge by working at a library, Ling decided to make good on the other part of her vow: she would seek out and record new knowledge as a writer and historian. The fox used the money left to her in the old man's will to purchase her custom vest and supplies and set out for the Earth Kingdom, searching for something or someone notable enough to warrant writing about.

Little did Ling know, BAM, AVATAR!

Accepted. I'll keep signups open until next Friday and then decide what to do from there.

If Suki does get approved, I want to check that Yifan is already an Earth Bender. The reason why is Suki would be a terrible teacher; the moves she knows are basically just moves she learned copying her father, then modified by her so she can use them. Basically she uses earth bender style moves but in a way someone who was a water bender would use them; more fluid and less rigid then a standard Earth bender would stand. Her bending style works for her, but traditionalists and standard Earth benders would consider her technique flawed or corrupted.

On the other hand the fact that she is a corrupted/limited Earth bender might be an important clue to why pure benders are dying out as a breed; especially if corrupted benders are becoming more common. I would think Sparky Sparky Boom Man from the original Avatar series was a 'corrupted' bender, combining fire and air.

Edited by Nodrog on Nov 6th 2018 at 3:24:02 AM

My intention is to have Yifan have already "mastered" all four elements. So basically they can use them but they can't access the Avatar state or use any substyles like Bloodbending, Lavabending, etc. Even then I might nerf them but how I nerf them I'll tailor around the party we have.

Alright so here's the deal. Accepting Suki/Yuki (Which one is it? You use Suki throughout the sign up but you referred to her as Yuki in another post.) and counting my character, that gives us a team of five. However, since I am the GM and don't want to hog a spot from a potential player I'm extending signups a bit. However, there's a stipulation I'm putting out there: the final slot has to be a bender and they can't be an Earthbender. I'd prefer a Firebender or a Waterbender but if someone makes a really good Airbender I'll take them in. Once we have a full team of six or November 16th hits, whichever comes first, I'll start the game up.

So, we have:

• Aang? Who's Aang? idk who you're on about, I'm an Earthbender! (Yifan)
• Ty Lee + Yamcha + Hol Horse = PROFIT (Xhao)
• A Girl And Her Possum (Leung)
• Mud Gaara (Suki)
• Man, People Are Racist Towards Knowledge Seekers. (Ling)

And if I remember correctly, Team Avatar usually has three benders hailing from non-Avatar styles, The Avatar, who reps the fourth style, and a few normies hanging around too, sometimes one of them with a specific counter skill. And a buncha allies, too.

Then again, this is usually the end-of-series roster as well, although Korra had a more diverse ability pool in her team starting out, I think.

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Nov 3rd 2018 at 2:16:42 PM

-laugh- I had to look up 'Gaara', but yeah... I think I might have been picturing him when I mentioned my character using a large jar to carry clay around. Her name is Suki, sorry for the Suki/Yuki mix up. Pretty diverse group, be interesting to figure out how we all got together as a group. Suki might have come looking for protection from the water bender running the underground fighting league, or joined up out of the group from an urge to help protect them.

Or she might have a crush on Ling, depends how Ling's player would feel about having a human woman attracted to a female fox spirit. I picture Suki having had a fox plush toy she loved growing up.

Edited by Nodrog on Nov 8th 2018 at 4:19:37 AM

After like a week of me thinking I posted this and apparently not having, voila.

• Name: Lin Xiao-Sun
• Age: 26
• Appearance: She has incredibly long black hair that comes down to her hips when in a high ponytail, generally held up by a moderately fancy hairpin. She has relatively sharp features, and grey eyes with hints of green. She has a wiry and athletic build. She tends to wear relatively traditional fire nation garb, both out of respect for her grandfather and because swishy robes look cooler when you're doing martial arts.
• Nationality: Fire Nation
• Bending Style: Fire
  • Substyle: She... can lightningbend, but is nowhere near comfortable enough to use it in any sort of life or death situation. Or even in sparring.
• Weapons: In addition to, y'know, fire, she is decently proficient in self defence without having to rely on her bending abilities. Her grandfather insisted.
• Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom: From an, ah, "socially, politically and economically convenient" (read: arranged) marriage between two rather rich and prestigious families of the Fire Nation, one a powerful trading family, the other a line of industrialists, her parents wanted little to do with each other and less with her. Which ended up with her being raised by her grandfather. A rather stern traditionalist, but one who accepted that blindly following tradition was never a good thing, debate, both intellectual and political, was common. With a distaste for social interaction, she spent much of her free time not spent training with her grandfather or studying under tutors for supplemental material to her schooling reading.
• Eventually, of course, her grandfather died, and, in a momentous act of spite towards his estranged son (while he wasn't exactly for the arranged marriage, he said little to oppose it, and Lin's father blamed him equally for it. Their relationship never really recovered), he willed his estate to Lin, on the condition that she spend a couple years travelling the globe, and bring back souvenirs, before she could collect. In a surprising burst of frugality, Lin decided the cheapest way to do that was by buying a camera and taking photographs, and off she went, starting in Republic City before making her way into the Earth Kingdom.

Name: Laghima
Age:23
Appearance: He's gaunt a little tall and extremely pale. He has straight, black and semi-long hair as well as eyes with a yellowish tint. His clothing consists of whatever this is.◊
Nationality: Water Nation
Bending Style: Water
Substyle:Bloodbending
Weapons:'Laghima is a skilled acrobat to the point that he prefers to rely on being quick, evasive and dexterous when fighting but he does wield Broadswords.
Reason for being in the Earth Kingdom:Laghima's mother was a skilled Waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe. A Terse Talker at best and irked by the slightest injustice, she was content to spend her days fishing and helping the tribe's elderly citizens whenever possible. All of this changed when her boat was caught in a storm. She was rescued and pulled aboard a vessel from the Fire Nation, one captained by a man named Jun. The two fell in love and were married after which Laghima was born. Despite lacking academic prowess he was very clever and had no trouble making friends. He also proved to be remarkably good with his hands. He dreamed of crafting everything from statues of great heroes to buildings that reached the skies, believing that it was the best way to bring people together as well as remember the past. One night, he arrived home to find that his parents had been murdered. As a result, he was raised by his uncle, a man who worked as a guard at The Boiling Rock Prison Facilities. Having inherited a rigid sense of justice, Laghima followed in his uncle's footsteps.His vocation deals primarily with helping the current warden of The Boiling Rock using his architectural and waterbending skills. This gives him various tasks, including acting as an informant and even keeping prisoners in line. With the increasing amount of prisoners however, Laghima sought to start another facility in the Earth Kingdom beneath the ground as well as run it himself.\\

Edited by Benthelame on Nov 16th 2018 at 9:29:18 AM

Alright so housekeeping. I'm going to work in a bit so I can't make the first post now. What I'm going to do is accept Lin as our resident Firebender and leave sign ups for Waterbenders and Airbenders open until I make the first post which will be either tonight or tomorrow. Once the first post drops, sign ups will be closed.

As for Laghima, I'd like it if their bio was fleshed out more. Even still, I won't be accepting them to the roleplay just yet but instead would like to put them on a waitlist to replace any of our nonbender teammates should their player have to drop out, if that's fine with you Benthelame.

Edited by Chariot on Nov 16th 2018 at 10:53:17 AM

Sure. I can wait, but there's no need to hide feelings. If you'd rather not roleplay with me, I understand. It's not going to kill me to be told "No."

Edited by Benthelame on Nov 16th 2018 at 11:44:10 AM

Ok, so we're still missing a water bender, but Suki could at least try to help the Earth Bender practice water bending moves, even if Suki can only use them with clay / mud.

Also, is it just me, or do we have a harem-anime vibe going on? Except for the Earth-Bender character, all the other accepted characters are either female or can be mistaken as female from behind.

Edited by Nodrog on Nov 16th 2018 at 7:13:51 AM

Yifan is likely too innocent, bring all the wimmins to Yamcha Expy

Edited by DefRevenge24601 on Nov 16th 2018 at 9:03:06 AM

x3

To be honest you signing up for a nonbender when I requested a bender was annoying and your sign up is a little too barebones for me but I don't think those are good enough reasons to reject you which is why I asked you to flesh out your sign up more.

Like I said, if you flesh things out I'm willing to put you on a waitlist but if not I'll have to reject your sign up since I don't really have a feel for her character like I do the others.

To be truthful I only signed up as someone who couldn't bend because I miscounted and believed all the bending spots were taken. I was also trying to respect the setting of the story because it was explicitly stated that bending has nigh disappeared. I didn't mean to annoy you but thank you for just telling me outright. I will work on my character's bio and if you'd like I can make him a waterbender because I've always thought bloodbending was an admirable skill. In any case, I'd like to thank you again for just being honest and telling me that I annoyed you and exactly how I did it.

If you make them a Waterbender than you wouldn't even need to be waitlisted though I still want it to be more fleshed out than it is currently. If you want to stay as a nonbender though you'll still need to flesh them out and be waitlisted.