Ordeal By Fire: An Avatar the Last Airbender GSRP

[DanBaque]

​

ORDEAL BY FIRE​

Dragon Against Dragon​

The Coffin of Zuko and Azula​

Intro

It is scarcely a few months since the Avatar defeated Phoenix King Ozai and returned peace to the world. Balance has not yet been achieved, but the world's new leaders are working dedicatedly towards it. Thousands of prisoners have been freed, entire armies have returned to the Fire Islands, and the world's economy begins to adapt. Hope springs forth and blooms in humanity's breast.

It is, then, a bad time for the actions of the Great Spirits. Angered by the constant interference of humanity into their realms, they have conjured a storm that cuts off the Fire Islands from the rest of the world. Only the Avatar- bridge of the material and spiritual world- has a chance of solving this situation, but it will take time.

In the interim, the Fire Islands are alone. And they are angry. Fire Lord Zuko's reforms have been beyond radical to many within the nation, and no matter the necessity of demobilization, it has meant hundreds of thousands of soldiers swarm the home front, overstretching their capacities to the full. In this situation, Ozai loyalists have struck the capital, failing at their goal of capturing it but successfully freeing Fire Lord Azula from captivity and catastrophically destabilizing the nation.

All over the islands, contradictory orders arrive at every position of power. Old and new loyalties are called upon, conspiracies emerge into the spotlight, and even rebels kept controlled for decades reappear. A civil war is undoubtedly upon it, the full force of the military that conquered the world unleashed against its home.

Welcome to Ordeal by Fire. Here's the discord! 100% obligatory for you to be on it.

Lore

Islands in general:

The Fire Islands are famous for their volcanoes, which have made them rich in both mineral wealth and crops. Fishing compliments this double group of primary job creators, but in recent imagery the most inspired has been industry. Resting upon coal and oil (much of the first coming from the more efficient earthbender mines of the colonies), it damages the country but makes it wealthy.

The islands majoritarily do not have names in setting, but for ease of playing they do here, being the following: Jimmu, Kuza, Dragon Island, Boiling Rock, Ember Island, Shuhon, Yosor, Toz, Kofun, Yayoi, Nakon, Shu Jing, Crescent Island, and Jang Hui. Major cities and local capitals have also been added to the map, thanks to the Avatar mod for ck2.

The last century and a half have seen a massive increase in general prosperity and industry, as well as in pollution, spirit-issues, and forced uprooting. The nobility still has vast estates and has managed to intensify its control and power over farmers even as legal protections have increased. Poverty is a spectre in every town and city, though even the poor in the Fire Nation have access to goods undreamt of by the Earth Kingdom.

Industry has been primarily directed by the state and military, in conjunction with entrepreneurs rising from the ranks of artisans and merchants to marry impoverished nobles. This joint management and regulation has made many rich beyond their wildest dreams, and has continually overhauled and improved the Fire Nation. Nationalism too has ballooned through a century of war and state education, so that most every subject of the Fire Lord recognises his face, loves their country, and knows the nation's unassailable destiny to lead the world into the future.

Nonetheless, in this game the Fire Nation is finally growing tired. So many generations have fought and bled, at such high costs, that the youngest are being called to fight. Ozai's grand strategy was not only a vainglorious genocide, but also a desperate masterstroke to silence anti-war dissidents. This is sourced upon the vague basis of the 41st Division being green and yet called upon to fight, and also upon the fact that otherwise this civil war would be more like a Zuko guerrilla campaign from the start.

Organized groups active in the nation are generally grouped around the army, navy, and noble factions. Industrialists and bureaucrats also hold outsized influence to their legal status, while the peasantry, urban workers, marginal classes, and fire sages remain relegated from most politics save when manipulated by real powers.

Avatar tech

Technology in the series is very intentionally janky, fitting a specific theme. In game, it will keep to this theme, but players will be allowed to develop technology, such as how in just a few months the Fire Nation is able to turn hot air balloons into airships. Starting off, however, here is a list of the technologies 'around' at the time of the game:

'Artillery': catapults, ballista, and trebuchet, in that order of ascending quality, are the main firepower of the Fire Nation. Making use of coal and firebending to create explosive ammunition, it is powerful and deadly whether aimed against a city's walls or its people.

'Blasting jelly': a highly explosive semi-liquid substance ignited by fire. Capable of destroying buildings, walls, and even punching holes in mountains. Fairly portable.

'Coal-powered ships': unquestionably the main weapon of war for the Fire Nation, without these its conquests might have been impossible. Still beyond any of its foes, these vessels steam at speeds and for lengths better than anyone but advanced waterbenders.

'Tanks': metal beasts used primarily for protection of ranged assets in battle, they are costly but effective, whether armed with a ballista or firebender, and can be adapted for most any terrain. The behemoth known as a 'tank train' is a much costlier type, vulnerable in difficult terrain, and close to invulnerable to the average foe. Earthbenders have also been able to create their own version of these thanks to the Mechanists, being less resistant but far more adaptable and easy to repair.

'Refrigeration': still highly complex and expensive, it is only used in a small number of situations, but remains very useful for containing perishables and firebenders both.

'Airships': now used as a general term for all air-going hot-air powered vessels, it includes both balloons and airships. The ready supply of coal and firebenders available to the Fire Nation makes them highly cost-effective technologies, but their use is primarily limited to reconnaissance, transport, and fixed-position battles.

'Gliders': a technology stolenimported from the Air Nomads, it has very high casualty rates, but provides a quick and cheap method to "fly".

'Jet skis': small, fast, and effective vessels of very modern technology primarily for use in coastal or riverine waters. Possibly named after an Earth Kingdom martyr.

'Submarines': designed by the Mechanist and Sokka of the Water Tribes, it is only capable of being used by waterbenders, and essentially artisanal at this time in terms of production. However, it is nearly undetectable, and a terrible threat to ships if paired with ice-torpedoes.

Military conditions

The Fire Nation military is the world's finest and most advanced. It has extensive, century-long experience in fighting both conventional and counter-insurgency campaigns. Its technology is the peak of modernity, and it has immense numbers of veterans. However, it has a great deal more experience in fighting Earth Kingdom forces than any other, and is not particularly accustomed to fighting itself.

For players, you should understand that your first 'intake' of manpower is likely to be your largest and most-qualified, given the large numbers of demobilised soldiers. As time goes on, desperation may make players recruit less apt candidates to replenish their ranks, and it is very possible given the militarization of the Fire Nation that total army numbers will go down as the game goes on.

Politics

Ideologies:
Fire Imperialism: "Life is conquest. To live is declare war on all that would deny you life. Even the lowliest peasant, the gentlest pacifist monk, exists by asserting himself and dominating his inferiors. The least of men dominates hemp, cotton, and silk to clothe himself, crops to fill his stomach, wood and stone to cover his head. When lesser beings resist, they must be broken. That's the natural order, the way things should be. And for the Royal Family, for those divinely selected for greatness, domination isn't simply over nature but over ourselves, over lesser men, over nations, and finally over the earth. We exist to rule, to shape the entire world according to our will. And if the world doesn't like it, we just have to teach it its place. That's how you get perfection. That's how you get lightning. By dominating yourself, as we're destined to dominate everything else."

Fire Colonialism: "When we look out upon the world, what do we see? The Water Tribes, mired in primitivism and want, freezing in the desolate reaches of the poles, sabotaging themselves with obsolete beliefs and pointless taboos. The Earth Kingdom, where the king and his brood cower behind their walls, hoarding what riches they possess and abandoning their own people to the depredations of famine, disease, war, and endless grinding poverty. Uncountable children die daily of diseases and hunger, for want of cures we perfected long ago! I ask you: can we truly sit back on our prosperous islands, content to ignore the misery of the people so far from our shores? Fire Lord Sozin did not think so."

Enlightened Absolutism: To bear the country's disgrace is to rule the shrines of soil and grain. To bear the country's misfortunes is to be the king of the world. A true ruler must serve the people and lead them forward into the future. This ideal fuses the traditional monarchism of the Fire Nation with the teachings of the other three, including a good deal of White Lotus philosophy. In principle it does nothing to reject the absolute rule of one, but demands that that one be good and just; if the Fire Lord is good, then the people shall prosper.

Traditional Constitutionalism: A nation is like a body: it has arms, feet, lungs, a heart- and a head. The head rules, but it listens. Even as men follow their body's advice, so does a ruler his nation's. He may command, and must be obeyed, but cannot ignore their will or risk collapse. Not that long ago the Fire Lord was not absolute, and the nobility held more power, as did regional leaders, but war and bureaucracy have ebbed those away. Some still yearn for a time where there were more liberties, a more separate form of rulership, and greater participation among the elite.

Clannic Rule: All tradition vanishes under the weight of progress. To forget the past is to be doomed to fade away. Only in life is root and reason found, and the base of it is family. Not that long ago, before industrialization and mass urbanization, one's life revolved around the extended family, the clan, and they still remain important to politics and life, but in a manner much demeaned. That time was better, for patriarchs and matriarchs took care of their own and all were loved and protected. The destruction of the family in the service of coin has also destroyed the heart and soul of the people. We must return before we are lost.

Harmonism: Avatar Aang has started us on the right path, but we must continue on it. The Four Nations must be renewed, their borders returned, and a regulated system of peace instated. Radical conservatives who wish to return to before the Hundred Years War but in a manner demeaning to the Fire Nation, they are hardly popular but hold some influence among ex-colonials and migrant workers.

Draconic Rule: The Fire Nation is no more. It, and the world, has fallen to Sozin's comet and the Avatar. All who live now belong to the Kingdom of Harmony, of he who rules in the name of the spirits and the world. All glory to Avatar Aang, protector of the world! All glory to Dragonlord Zuko, herald of Agni!

Rejuvenationists: All men and women are born unequal in strength but equal in value. A bender and a non-bender have the same rights to seek life and happiness, as do those noble and vile. Only through merit may difference be found, for some will be able to achieve more than others, and must be rewarded for it. Though not a republican ideology, rejuvenationists are a highly radical beast that wish to overturn the vast majority of Fire Nation institutions, and are usually split on matters of war and imperialism.

Sage Rule: Once the Fire Nation was free, and peaceful, and prosperous. Then the Fire Lord attacked. They swept away all tradition, all connection to the spirits and the people, and shattered the rightful governance of the realm. The Fire Sages once dispensed wisdom that all heeded, and that was how prosperity began in the nation. But the Fire Lord struck at the Avatar and the Sages at the same time, and devastated a peaceful glory that was turned into war. How much more would the nation be if industry was in harmony with the spirits, and turned to the development of the countryside and not war?

Anarchism: Do away with government, bring forth administration. If the greatest ruler is he who governs the least, then why have a ruler at all? The only way to order is through freedom. Spiritually beginning from Air Nomad traditions in Ba Sing Se, it has become an enemy among enemies within the Four Nations- concentrating majorly on assassinations, urging unprepared revolts, and conspiratorial thinking. Always minor, who knows what the future holds.
https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Map_of_the_World_of_Avatar

Character creation

This game is going to be a civil war gsrp with, initially, two sides. On one side, the peace faction led by Zuko, and on the other the war faction "led" by Azula. However, the influx of demobilized forces, the chaos caused by so much upheaval in such a short time, and Ozai loyalist sabotage has weakened the Fire Islands' stability in a major way, so that third forces now begin to rise. These may be anything from garrison commanders declaring themselves independent warlords to republican rebels taking over a region, but will not start in a faction along the islands and will therefore probably have a more difficult game.

Creating characters will require you to choose an archetype, a set of stats, a starting location, say whether you are a bender (and which type) or not, and write a short biography:

Archetypes

The concept around archetypes is that your characters have already lived a life, and are now applying it to the world; as such, they are already people in full. These will decide your basic prior knowledge, skills, and experience. The majority of your abilities will come from your archetype rather than your stats, so choose wisely.

Artist: Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder, but most everyone conforms to the traditional canons. Calligraphy, sculpture, tapestry, painting; writing, poetry, song; in one word, culture. You are a cultured one, and have risen while remaining steeped in it.

Bureaucrat: Despite the claims from Ba-Sing-Se, the Fire Nation is the most bureaucratic nation in the world. Countless clerks and officials collect numbers, fill out forms, report to superiors, and are the eyes and ears of the state. This, naturally, gives them great power and influence.

Criminal: A century of war has always allowed for crime in every town and village, and the recent dislocation has meant a concomitant rise in it. You may be a small mob boss, a simple thief, or a long-lived murderer- but you live in the world of crime as a fish in water.

Entrepreneur: Whether a traditional merchant, a state-tied industrialist, or an influential banker, your money is your life. And just as you would protect your life, so would you your fortune.

Engineer: Invention has led the Fire Nation to glory, whether at home or elsewhere, and invention may yet solve its current problems. Traditionally immense sums have been spent on your lot, ensuring education, testing, and mass production of all things deemed viable for the Long March of Civilization.

Monk: Years of service to the spirits and the people have made you respected in your wisdom, though your position may well be ceremonial. With the sudden and great spirit-caused crisis, your talents are much-valued and sought out.

Officer: Noble-born or not, you have held a high military position and never anything else. You were commissioned and taught, and hold experience whether minor or major in war. Perhaps more importantly, you know how an army works, and how to get it moving.

Noble: The highest of the high in the Fire Nation are the nobility, who serve the Fire Lord's will as governors, courtiers, generals, advisors, and the myriad of positions only one of high rank may aspire to.

Nomad: Unable to find your place you have been a wanderer of the globe having seen much in your time. Now you can take advantage of whatever wisdom, skills and connections you made to survive, perhaps even make a home for yourself along the way.

Peasant: While technology has greatly advanced the Fire Nation, the mass of its people remain farmers and fishermen, subsisting off their work but little more. You are or were one of these, and it shows entirely: in your accent, in your penmanship, in your weakness- and in your shrewd knowledge of what the people want.

Revolutionary: Always suppressed by the efficient machinery of war and state, chaos breeds opportunity for you. Your luck has finally turned.

Sailor: The world's finest armada (some catastrophic defeats to waterbenders aside) rests upon the base of the world's largest merchant fleet, the most developed ports, and the most knowledgeable sailors.

Scholar: You are a well educated individual having read many scrolls and books about a variety of subjects who served in academia, an advisor or another position.

Soldier: A small-time soldier to start, you may have risen or not in the war, but you kept your roots to the common ranker and hold the experience burnt in your mind. You may not cherish it, but you are a soldier through and through.

Spy: A century of war and internal jockeying for position has meant a great deal of trained agents exist. They may serve a noble house, or perhaps be informants for local police. The majority of them, no doubt, serve the Fire Nation and the Fire Lord first, but they carry out intrigues in service of those who pay them.

Worker: Alone of the four nations, this country has industry. Men and women swelter in factories with little protection from pollution or chemicals to build armored ships and tanks that might conquer other lands. They use coal mined from the colonies to produce at rates never seen before, and die sooner of illnesses than they would have otherwise.

Base Character Sheet
Name:
Bronouns:
Archetype:
Politics:
Earth: Water: Fire: Air:
Bender:
Starting Location:
Bio:

Now, as to canon: the following characters below are merely a list of canon characters which may be around at the present time, not obligatory; I will be selective about who, if anyone, gets them. The only quasi-required characters are Zuko and Azula, for whom I will be very selective in choosing players. If any of these canon characters below are not chosen, they will not be present in the Fire Nation at game start, so as to not take up any screentime from player characters. Iroh is specifically in the colonies on a mission of Zuko's orders.

Expressly-available characters:
Fire Lord Zuko (10 pts, Zuko)
Fire Lord Azula (10 pts, Azula)
Mai (9 pts, Zuko)
Ty Lee (9pts, Zuko)
Fire Sage Shyu (Zuko)
Liutenant Jee (Zuko)
Piandao (Zuko)
War Minister Qin (Azula)
Admiral Chan (Azula)
Colonel Mongke (Azula)
General Bujing (Azula)
Combustion Man (Undecided)
General Shinu (Undecided)
Ukano (Undecided)
Chit Sang (Undecided)
Hama (Rebel)

Stats

Please be aware of 'canon bias', that is, of writer bias in favour of canonical main characters. This does not mean they are unbeatable, but that one way or another they are likely to be more difficult opponents, require more planning and thought to defeat, and will have to be carefully managed.

You will have a total of 8 points to put into your stats.

Tiers
0 = Children laugh at your failures in this regard.
1 = Your adequacy is stunning in this regard.
2 = Your peers acknowledge your strength in this regard.
3 = You are an era defining individual in this regard.
4 = Your abilities are beyond but a handful of beings. [Cannot start as unless born of Sozin and Roku]

Earth: Substance. Related to the strength of your body, your roots to the world, and your ability to confront trials. Health/Stability/Survivability

Water: Change. Related to the quickness of your mind, your connection to your environment, and your capacity to respond to adversity. Wit/Finesse/Adaptability

Fire: Power. Related to your steadfastness in seeing things through, your independence, and your closeness to life and energy. Willpower/Intensity/Soul

Air: Freedom. Related to your insight and creativity, your powers of evasion, and your spiritual touch. Genius/Artifice/Wisdom

Stats may change during the game but not due to orders to improve them, instead in response to events as decided by fiat, whether up, down, or around.

To pull from the avatar wiki and series, Earth is about "brute action and confrontation, firm root", water is about "push and pull, fluid and graceful, flow", fire is of "overpowering force tempered by the unflinching will to accomplish tasks and desires; intense, aggressive, energy and life", and air is "flexibility, defensive, intangibility".

State Stats

Legitimacy: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Note: how much of a right to rule you are perceived to have over your people.
Stability: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Note: How effectively your polity functions both on the home front and war front.
Supply: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Note: How well supplied your forces are. You can increase this by plundering, manufacturing them yourself or being given them by third parties.
Army size: Nonexistent / Tiny / Small / Medium / Large / Huge
Army quality: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Army firepower: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Air force size: Nonexistent / Tiny / Small / Medium / Large / Huge
Air force quality: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Air force firepower: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Navy size: Nonexistent / Tiny / Small / Medium / Large / Huge
Navy quality: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent
Navy firepower: Terrible / Poor / Average / Good / Excellent



Navy stats may be changed later on to model the difference between deep-sea and coastal vessels. There will be a more detailed stat version available.

Orders

We will use the Shattered Stone system of three orders and 200 words total. Given there was a number of confusions in that game, however, I am going to elaborate on a few things.

Firstly, archetypes will usually boost orders more than stats. If you want to go around doing research, start as an engineer. If you want to command a complex conventional military campaign, have a military background.

Secondly, you only have so many resources to go around. If a single person controls half the islands, each of their orders will have a lot more heft than a large faction with little power behind it. The main strength of more people is diversity and flexibility of action.

On this point, simply stacking orders won't inherently make things better. Orders should be thought-out, work to support each other, and planned properly. If three people in a faction all order to conduct a reform of the army, the end result may well be chaos; as opposed to each covering the part they are most suited to for the final end. But, again, there are only so many resources to go around, so sometimes working together and sometimes working alone is essential.

Reports

Now, I have an issue. I am neither Triumph nor Turtle and also highly busy. Therefore I am going to use the tried and tested method of report writers. People, players or not, are asked to apply to write reports each turn once orders are in. Around 400 or so words per turn will be expected, with more if eager and less as circumstances appear.

They will write parts of the update, posted as they are finished and reviewed, with the GM dictating the general line of events and watching for bias. They will be held in high trust by the GM and will be given early knowledge of what will occur in the update, but cannot misuse this or they will be permanently kicked from the game. I encourage everyone to consider participating in this way to ensure the game flows smoothly and swiftly.

Fun

Very much hope we'll all have it! Treat each other right, ask whatever you like. The links in this are simply stuff I've read or heard that interested me/amused me/made me think of this setting.

Dan, this is too long to read

Avatar character game. 8 points split between 4 stats. OCs wanted. Update-helpers wanted. 3 orders, 200 words max. Have fun. Join the discord.

 

[DanBaque]

Reserved,

 

[DanBaque]

You may post!

 

[FantasticMsFox]

Name: Aroye
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Engineer
Politics: Enlightened Absolutism
Earth: 1 Water: 1 Fire: 3 Air: 3
Bender: No
Starting Location: Hida Springs
Bio: Aroye is not concerned with what is not in front of her. Her past or other minor events struggle to hold her attention let alone her interest. When pressed, it is a simple recounting of basic facts. She was born to parents whose wealth, built off of Fire Nation Industry, allowed her to achieve a top-notch education at the Royal Fire Academy for Girls. Classes on various topics and military knowledge would be recounted dispassionately, perhaps a tinge of distaste at difficulties navigating social circles whose family was freshly en-nobled.

When she begins to speak of the classes detailing how industry can be used to strengthen the Fire Nation, then will energy begin to enter her voice. Speaking on her admittedly tangential involvement in the program to develop Airships from some backwoods inventors fooling around, she would begin to be excited. And when discussing the matter of nature and how it might be learned from before being surpassed, you have lost control of the conversation altogether.

Eager and devoted are the words that describe Aroye. The words slavish devotion might apply to her views on how nature must be processed before being turned into the product of human invention.

Certainly groundbreaking, in her own humble opinion, would be applied to her theories on how to bridge the gap between the knowledge of nature and the possibility of industry. If the two can be brought together, imagine what can be done! Flight, coal power, heavy mechanical industry and more have been brought into the world by human hands alone. These developments derived from nature are but the beginning of a new era of advancement. Eventually, nature itself may be replaced with industry forming the bedrock of the era beyond this one, continuing endlessly as humanity ascends.

To Aroye, new devices and technologies built off of the most cutting-edge of human artifice are a purpose unto themselves. The further she and her research team can reach, the more the boundaries of what is possible may be pushed. The building speed of their and others progress is exhilarating, a beautiful thing to behold. What is becoming mundane was so recently unimaginable. So the boundaries of today must be ignored, for the future is coming.

And so inside her research office amidst Hida Springs, she learns of a brewing civil war. A troubling development, it could jeopardize the progress that had been won up until now! Which side won would be immaterial as long as progress was not stopped. Some of the projects under her direction might be desired by one faction or another, so she would need to move up the timetables for their development. A great amount of thought would have to be spent on how to navigate this new situation.

 

[AKuz]

Name: Shiho Arai

Pronouns: She/Her

Archetype: Entrepreneur

Politics: Traditional Constitutionalist/Rejuvenationist

Earth: [1] Water [3] Fire [1] Air [3]

Bender: Yes, Fire

Starting Location: Caldera

Bio:

The start of the Hundred years war signalled not just the start of military conquests, but commercial ones as well. And in the vanguard of that conquest was Juro Arai, a minor travelling merchant whose skill and luck saw him exploit the uncertainty and opportunities of the newly established colonies for his own gain.

A supplier of both military necessities and dubiously legal luxuries to the Fire Lord's armies, Juro returned to the Home Islands a decade after the start of the war a very wealthy man. Not a man to rest on his laurels, Juro reinvested his grey market earnings into weapon and armour manufacturies, textiles, mining, and other industries necessary for the prosecution of the war.

Juro Arai died wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, and his heirs continued to expand the family holdings until the Arai family was one of the largest merchant houses operating out of Caldera -and perhaps the entire Fire Nation itself.

While Juro's grandson Maki oversees the operations of the Arai's various holdings, his clear successor is 24 year old Shiho Arai. Juno's eldest great granddaughter, and a woman who is said to have inherited Juro's creativity, quick wits, ruthlessness, and commercial acumen.

Despite growing up in a wealthy household respected and feared by the common citizens of Caldera, Shiho learned early on that to the nobility she and her family were commoner parvenus accorded little respect despite their attempts to enter the nobility via marriage or outright purchase of venal office.

From birth intended to be the bride of some impoverished noble, from an early age Shiho was put under the instruction of the best scholarly, domestic, and martial tutors that money could buy, the Arai family intending to make Shiho the equivalent of any Royal Fire Academy for Girls graduate.

Headstrong and clever, Shiho excelled in everything but the attempts to turn her into a docile young lady. Even an attempt to send her to a finishing school in the countryside for the last years of her minority merely tempered Shiho with fine manners and finer speech instead of taming her.

Returning to Caldera, Shiho hit the Arai family like a firebomb, identifying inefficiencies and missed opportunities across the extended clan's operations. Quickly making herself the right hand of an aging Maki Arai, Shiho swept through her family's operations modernizing, economizing, and cutting away deadwood while identifying dozens of new business opportunities.

Along the way the outgoing Shiho made friends and allies with up and coming youths from Caldera's rising middle and upper class commoners. Too rich and well connected to be called a gang and too base to be a noble order, the "Patriotic Commercial League" founded by Shiho found its ranks swelling with Caldera's radicals, academics, merchants, and fallen nobility. Under her leadership the League began issuing calls for sweeping aside archaic tariffs and taxes, pursuit of technological advancement, and the rationalization of the commons, nobility, and monarchy under a formal written constitution.

Originally the Commerce League's demands were couched as patriotic advice to the throne to modernize and rationalize the Fire Nation during the latter years of Ozai's rule. After the self-proclaimed Phoenix King's fall Shiho brought the Commerce League into the court of the weak and hesitant Prince Zuko out of a desire to exploit the monarchy's weakness and use his unstable political position as a vehicle for the ambitions of the disrespected merchant class.

Among the first to learn of the sealing of the Home Islands from fast couriers and traders, Shiho and her allies moved quickly to secure the interests of Caldera's middle and upper class by raising militias of urban poor and foreign guest workers who kept order in Caldera's streets even as uncertainty grew and incredible rumours of all kinds roamed rampant.

As the certainty of civil war grows Shiho and her wealthy backers are willing to offer Zuko both the industrial might of Caldera's leading manufacturers and the wealth of its financial titans in exchange for post-war… Considerations.

 

[Weygand]

Name: Tarok Kazuo
Bronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Soldier
Politics: Enlightened Absolutism
Earth: [3] Water [1] Fire [3] Air [1]
Bender: Yes, Fire
Starting Location: Tottori

Bio: Colonel Tarok Kazuo was reared in the countryside during the first years of the Hundred Year War. As Ozai's conquests ground on, he had dreamed of nothing more than achieving fame and status in the Army, from a boy playing with swords to the awakening of his bending potential. He rose quickly through the ranks as crisis engulfed his homeland, serving without significant qualm or question under the deteriorating Azula, and only submitting a formal surrender when Fire Lord Zuko commanded it.

Kazuo is a patriot, in the narrowest, legal sense. Years of war have shorn him of idealism and softness: for him, the greatest expression of service to one's country lies in complete adherence to the Fire Lord, no matter who occupies that position. Conveniently for him, in the slow descent into factionalism, this steadfastness and reservations to declare a personal opinion have made him a steadfast servant of Fire Lord Zuko in the military, and won him a Colonel's commission.

The War faction must be crushed, the ringleaders arrested, and examples finally made of those that would undermine the Fire Lord's rule.

For if we do not respect our rulers, what is truly left to us?

 

[AMTurtle]

High General Shinu

​

Bronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Enlightened Absolutism
Earth: 1 Water: 2 Fire: 2 Air: 3
Bender: Yes
Starting Location: Imperial City
Bio:
A pragmatic figure within the Fire Nation military Shinu always considered himself a realist on the issues of the Hundred Year War. He avoided the flights of fancy that many officers had encouraged by the policies of Fire Lord Ozai would engage in hoping to gain the attempt of the Fire Lord. Slowly but surely he became a well respected commander and administrator with his Yuyan Archer becoming a legendary unit during the war. His command even temporarily securing the Avatar before the Blue Spirit saved him largely due to the fumbling of the newly promoted Admiral Zhao. An open critic of Admiral Zhao considering his invasion of the North Pole doomed to fail to anyone who would listen. He was rewarded after its failure with promotion to High General to stabilize the war effort after Zhao's blunder much to his public annoyance and secret pleasure.

The lone dissenting voice of reason on the council his proposed request for additional forces to complete the occupation of the Earth Kingdom was overridden by Ozai planning instead using Sozin's Comet to wipe out the Earth Kingdom. Seeing no point in arguing on the matter with Ozai openly passionate about the project. The later revelation that the Avatar was indeed alive made Shinu privately believe that this operation was doomed though kept quiet his skepticism for obvious reasons. As Ozai declared himself Phoenix King and Azula planning her coronation as Fire Lord while whispers of her mental stability became more frequent Shinu made a point of visiting a barrack's a day's ride from the capital to avoid the drama occurring there. Missing the entirely of Zuko and Azula's agni kai and Azula's complete mental breakdown Shinu would return to the capital shortly before news of Ozai's defeat reached the Fire Nation.

There were open critics of Zuko's declaring of peace within the high command yet Shinu became an supporter of the need for it. Sozin's gambit of using the comet and removing the Avatar from the equation with the wiping out of the Air Nomads had failed. The Fire Nation had made impressive gains in the Earth Kingdom during the Hundred Year War yet as reports of the Ba Sing Sae garrison were defeated by the White Lotus and the wiping out of the entire fleet of the Phoenix King it proved to be too much. Even with the comet magnifying strength of the fire benders had failed. Avatar Aang could continually perform North Pole tier military disasters upon the Fire Nation with them having no answer to it. Fighting to the last would see the Earth King landing his troops with the assistance of Water Tribe tribe pirates upon the home island. Accepting the peace would see the Fire Nation be able to make concessions to sustain their nation instead of them losing everything.

Shuni would become a prominent figure within the military high command with many of the Ozai loyalists retired or arresting becoming one of the key figures of the demobilization much to his annoyance. Zuko's reforms gained the ire of increasing segments of the country who felt he was an illegitimate ruler. Another factor Shuni would often bring up was that the economy and society had been linked to the war effort with demobilization ensuring massive unemployment without proper planning and massive public investment in creating jobs for the returning veterans. Seeing demobilization as a powder keg he often spent meetings trying to stall the efforts until the situation had stabilized. Now the spirits have damned the Fire Nation cutting them off from outside assistance while critics against Zuko have stolen away the catatonic Azula declaring her their Firelord. Shuni has once again to his annoyance been proven correct....

---

Name: Hama
Bronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Revolutionary
Politics: Anarchism
Earth: [3] Water [1] Fire [3] Air [1]
Bender: Yes, Water
Starting Location: TBD

 

[Thiccroy]

I hate you

 

[Bias]

Name: Akemi Cho
Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Monk
Politics: Sage Rule

Spoiler: Stats

Earth: 2
Water: 2
Fire: 2
Air: 2

Bender: Firebender
Starting Location: The Mountains of Kuza Island

Spoiler: Bio

The One Hundred Year was a time of intellectual and industrial revolution for the Fire Nation. As Sozin's line conquered most of the known world. Yet the birth of such industries came at several costs. The beautiful vistas of the Fire Islands were torn away, as war camps and factories rose up in their place. Villages turned away from the guidance of the Sages and the wisdom of the many Monks. A new zeal, new faith was born around the will of Sozin, then Azulon, and then Ozai. After all, what use were Sages and Spirits when the world was at war?
The line of Sozin has done many horrible things. The Genocide of the Airbenders had broken the natural balance of the world, the pollution of the homeland had drove the spirits to darkness, the relentless pursuit of the Avatar was the straw that broke the Dragon Moose's back. The line of Sozin has done nothing but anger the Spirits, and thus the Mandate of Agni was stripped from their line, and the Fire Nation was fated to lose.

Yet it seems even then, the Spirits have deemed their people have not paid penance enough for their crimes. The Spirits have expressed their wrath in the natural world, the Fire Nation is cut-off from the world, a mighty and ceaseless storm of fire has engulfed the people who have claimed to master it.

The line of Sozin has strayed too far, even with the Avatar's guiding hand, Zuko has failed to regain the Mandate of Agni. Thus, Akemi Cho looks down from his mountain monastery, thinking on how to act. Let nobles posture and soldiers squabble. The people need guidance, the Spirits need appeasement. So, from the mountains up high, a monk meditates.

 

[Scrivener]

Qatun Tsagaan​

Age: 25
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Soldier
Politics: Fire Imperialism/Sage Rule (for all the wrong reasons)
Earth: 2 Water: 2 Fire: 3 Air: 1
Bender: Yes (Fire)
Starting Location: Hida Springs​

Nine years before the end of the Hundred Year War, a proposal was brought forth to War Minister Qin. Although the Fire Nation was making good progress in its campaign to subjugate the Earth Kingdom, the immense cost of suppressing myriad guerilla movements and maintaining lines of supply was slowly taking its toll. A solution was needed, and quickly; in order to hunt down and destroy guerilla fighters, as well as harass and destroy Earth Kingdom army units, a new all-firebender light infantry unit was to be formed, modeling itself off of the Yuyun Archers and the disgraced Dragonfire Legion. This unit was designed the First Special Operations Force, and after numerous candidates were selected from the cream of the crop of the Fire Army, they were immediately sent into action.

58% of their rank would promptly die in two months of terror, as the unit fought a desperate hit-and-run war of attrition in an attempted maneuver behind enemy lines.

The next nine years would see them fight in heat and cold, in deserts and tundra and jungle and mountains and every environment one could think of. In each engagement with the Earth Kingdom, the unit was used as a highly mobile long-range penetration force, which meant that its members were often put through highly dangerous combat situations that even they couldn't contend with. This, coupled with the fact that the unit was seen as disposable by many of the Fire Nation's generals, resulted in an extremely high casualty rate and immense frustration within the unit's ranks, only relieved by venting their rage on defenseless Earth Kingdom villages. A new culture took hold within their ranks, one influenced by Fire Sage theology and the propaganda pumped out by the Fire Nation. The role of the Avatar was obsolete, as only the Phoenix King had the power and authority to bring balance to the world. After all, was the natural order not one with the Fire Nation at the top of the food chain? They were civilized, they were spiritually pure, they were superior. Why else did the Fire Nation and the Ashwalkers triumph against all odds?

When Qatun Tsagaan, a young recruit from a military family noted for her exceptional firebending skill and analytical thinking, was offered the opportunity to be transferred to the First Special Operations Force straight from basic training, she immediately accepted, eager to prove herself to her nation and seek glory in combat. The next seven years of her life would thoroughly shatter any illusions she had about war, and by the time Qatun was named commander of the unit, four others had died before her. And under her command, the First Special Operations Force would acquire a new name; the Ashwalkers. Over time, they became infamous for having the highest casualty rate in the entire nation, for their policies of no quarter, the brutality they had in combat that was needed just to survive another day. Their soldiers, although seen as low-class conscripts, were grudgingly considered the best of the best, the Fire Nation's answer to the expert Dai Li. And under Qatun, the Ash Walkers would finally gain the respect they deserved. She participated in the crushing of Omashu's last defensive armies, forcing the city to surrender, and the Ash Walkers would destroy what little resistance there was to the conquest of Ba Sing Se. By the time of Sozin's Comet, the Ash Walkers had been personally selected by Ozai to assist in his great burning of the Earth Kingdom. Qatun herself was granted the highest honor of participating directly.

So it was that Qatun, in the midst of escaping from a crashing airship, bore witness to the defeat of the great Phoenix King by the Avatar, and the traitorous Prince overthrew his sister to claim his ill-deserved throne.

Now she and the Ash Walkers seethe in rage back on the homeland. Their nation had been betrayed at the cusp of their victory, the victory they had rightfully claimed! They had brought the Earth Kingdom to its knees, only to be stabbed in the back. The Phoenix King, the righteous man that he was, was going to lead the world to an era of unforeseen prosperity and pure spiritual harmony… and it was ruined. Their people had failed them, choosing instead to follow a false savior rather than the rightly-appointed Fire Lord Azula. Their nation was impure.

Only one thing now remains on Qatun's mind: vengeance. Vengeance, and the defeat of the traitor Prince. Vengeance, and the spiritual cleansing of the nation and the world beyond. Vengeance, and the restoration of Azula, the new, rightful, Phoenix King.

 

[Red Robyn]

LORD HAN SHINWOO
"This country, this empire, these "people"... exist solely for the sake of men like me."​

FIREBENDER
AGE 15
NOBLE ARCHETYPE
POLITICAL LEANING: FIRE IMPERIALISM/TRADITIONAL CONSTITUTIONALISM
STARTING LOCATION: TOTTORI
STATS:
EARTH 2, WATER 2, FIRE 2, AIR 2


The history of the Shinwoo is a proud and ancient one. They date back to the times of the first Firelord, the founder of the clan and one of the many retainers of the man who united the islands. Their power only grew in the following eras, and even the centralizing reforms of Zoryu and his descendants did not fully extinguish their strength. When Lord Sozin launched his righteous crusade to vanquish the old order, there was a Shinwoo by his side too.

To be born into such an illustrious family is to be blessed. To shoulder the Shinwoo name is to carry a thousand years of history. It is to be naturally born better than any other being in this world, aside from the royal family itself. These were the truths Han believed. He alone could see the self-righteous bullshit of a "Great March of Civilization" for what it truly was; a lie made to convince the unwashed masses to die for their sake. The Fire Nation was meant not to enlighten the other nations, but to enslave them as the strong rightfully do to the weak. The Earth Kingdom, the Water Tribes… and even those pitiful Air Nomads, existed solely to provide kindling for the fire of their Nation's overwhelming ambition.

Any offense against the Fire Empire is an offense against the nobility that should rightfully rule it. Zuko's reign is a vile atrocity against everything that made their great nation great in the first place. He will deliver the charred corpses of Zuko and Iroh to the Phoenix Queen's feet. And then they shall turn together the fangs of the Dragon to the exposed neck of the Earth Kingdom and teach that bald child the truth why his people were so effortlessly vanquished.

 

[DeathslilHelper]

Name: Goro
Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Peasant
Politics: Peace and Rice (Enlightened Absolutism)
Earth: 2 Water: 2 Fire: 2 Air: 2
Bender: Yes (Fire)
Starting Location: North of Hida Springs

Bio:

When I was seven my father was conscripted. He returned with only one arm and a broken mind. When I was eighteen I was conscripted. They told me I'd be fighting for only two years. It was another lie, I spent five years fighting rebels before being swept up into a failed assault on Omashu that where I saw thousands die for nothing. When I came home the nobles had stolen half my family's land. But I endured, I believed in the Fire Nation, I trusted the wisdom of Fire Lord Azulon, if only the good Fire Lord knew how his people were mistreated.

Back home, I got married and raised a five strong sons. Each day was a struggle. The taxes were always heavy, the demands for crops to feed the insatiable bellies of the army and navy, money to make machines, and even labour to build infrastructure. Again and again I saw neighbours leave for war and return broken. I was glad my service was done, but I feared for when my sons would go to war.

Eight years ago that fear came true, but I took solace in the fact that I was conscripted again as well. Prince Iroh had a great siege in mind and needed every soldier he could get. For a year we fought just to reach the walls. Then spent six hundred days fruitlessly dying against the stones and rocks. Spirits I hate those walls. Spirits I hate the generals who sent us at them again and again and again. Four of my sons died beneath those walls.

When I returned home, the bureaucracy had stripped me and many others of our meagre veterans benefits for our failure at Ba Sing Se. My heart burned with rage, but what could I do? If only the good Fire Lord knew how his people were mistreated.

Again I endured. Times grew harder, the hand of government grew more brutal. After two years on the brink of famine I travelled to the Capital to neg an audience with the Fire Lord, as was my right as a free man. I never saw him but I learned the truth. The Fire Lord did know how his people were mistreated, for he was the cause. Every hated edict came from Ozai's will.

My last son died a year ago at the Siege of the North and there was nothing of him to bury. But still I had hope, when Sozin's Comet came the war would end. And end it did, but not how I thought. The Avatar defeated the Fire Lord. Zuko was crowned and then... and then he ended the war. He undid the edicts if his father and grandfather. We the peasants for the days of conscription, forced labour, and brutal taxation was over. The Fire Lord knew how his people were mistreated, and he cared.

But now war has come to the Islands. I hear that the mad princess wants to continue the war against the world. That brother and sister now fight. I remember all the things I did in the wars in the Earth Kingdom. The homes I burned the people I slaughtered. All of this will come to the Fire Nation now.

So I say enough. I gather my neighbours, my siblings, my nieces and nephews. The war is over and like the kemurikage of legend I will not let this civil war take my family from me again.

We want peace and rice and Fire Lord Zuko will deliver both, and if he doesn't we will find someone else who will.


________________________



Name: Jin Aya-Kun
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Fire Colonialism
Earth: 2 Water: 3 Fire: 2 Air: 1
Bender: Yes (Fire)
Starting Location: Burning Point

Bio:

Members of the Aya-Kun family have fought on both sides of the Hundred Years War. Jin is a scion of the firebending branch of the family, lacking the vast wealth and estates of their Earth Kingdom cousins the Fire Aya-Kuns have made their mark in the army and navy instead. Jin is the latest scion of the family and the first to join the new air force. Jin commanded an airship during the Day of Black Sun and the Day of the Comet. So Jin was there she saw the battle between Ozai and the Avatar. Jin saw him lose, but knew that she could have won, not directly of course but raw strength is far from the only path to power.

After the Comet Jin took her barely functioning airship and landed at her ancestral estates in the colonies to take on supplies and make repairs. The scent of opportunity was in the air though when asked Jin couldn't say exactly what she sensed. After a lengthy delay Jin returned to the Fire Nation just in time for the spirits to seal the islands away from the rest of the world.

The Aya-Kun family claims descent from many historical figures but most importantly for Jin's ambitions that includes the ancient Fire Lord Yosor. The Line of Sozin has clearly proved themselves unfit for rule Ozai failed to win the war, Zuko betrayed the Fire Nation by surrendering, Azula is just insane, and the Spirits have shown their disproval. It is time for a new dynasty to rise.

 

[Glassware]

I would be willing to do report writing if needed.

Name: COMBUSTION MAN
Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Criminal
Politics: Draconic Rule
Earth: 3 Water: 1 Fire: 3 Air: 1
Bender: Yes (Combustion)
Starting Location: Fire Capital
Bio:

The mysterious assassin known as Combustion Man (and sometimes Sparky Sparky Boom Man) has soaked his hands in ash and blood. Ascending to prominence in a series of brutal and one-sided duels, he offered his skills to the highest bidder. But everything changed when Prince Zuko, redeemed by his father, requested his aid in a secret task vital to the survival of the Fire Nation: the assassination of the Avatar.

He was a murderer, an honorless man, but before all else he had always been a patriot. He answered the call of the royal family with all his might, but was defeated-first evaded by the Avatar and his companions, and later fought by Prince Zuko himself, who attempted to cancel his contract to no avail. He served a cause greater than coin now. Defeated and left for dead, he returned to the Fire Nation only to find that Prince Zuko had defeated his sister in Agni Kai, that Fire Lord Ozai had been broken by the Avatar, and that the war was at its end. Zuko had triumphed despite the odds-and now he understood that this was right. Dragonlord Zuko would lead them to new glory, tempered by his trials.

Now the spirits themselves lash at the land. Now Azula, the failed Fire Lord, has escaped her prison, as if her claim still means anything in the wake of her dishonorable conduct in Agni Kai and Zuko's ascension.

Now Combustion Man is needed once again. He will reduce the enemies of Dragonlord Zuko to ash.

Name: Maizu
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Fire Imperialism
Earth: 3 Water: 2 Fire: 2 Air: 1
Bender: No
Starting Location: Sandu

Bio:

Maizu's short life has been a bloody one, and it did not have to be.

Born to a family of wealthy merchants in Caldera, her parents had the brilliant idea to secure a place for her at the Fire Nation Royal Academy for Girls. There, she would be able to make contacts to further their social climbing, and be honed into an honorable weapon for the Fire Nation. Maizu blossomed there, becoming an eager minion and social backstabber for her higher-class friends. She also excelled at combat training, which sealed her fate.

As the war continued to intensify, more troops were always needed, and the upper classes were not exempt-indeed, it was expected that they would show their loyalty. The Academy underwent an accelerated graduation for its best students, commissioning them as officers and dispatching them to the occupation zones. Maizu, aged thirteen, was upset by this, as it separated her from many of her friends (who would receive commands of their own across the vast Earth Kingdom under occupation), but she took well to leadership, fighting against remnant Earth Kingdom forces and guerrillas. But it was always bloody-no matter how hard she brutalized the Earth peasantry, they never seemed to lose the will to resist, and her soldiers died in ones and twos. Worse, her letters from her friends began to slow, then stop-a lost Agni Kai here, an assassination there. The bold young officers she had last seen at graduation died one by one, and she was fortunate if she got to attend their cremations.

Then, the impossible: they had been defeated. Betrayed by the Fire Lord's own son, who now sat the throne, a puppet of the Earth Kingdom and the Avatar. He ended the war.

All their sacrifices, all their dead, all the pain they had inflicted and taken, were for nothing before Zuko, the Burned Prince.

Maizu refuses. Zuko will not take the meaning from her friends ashes. He will not further humiliate the Fire Nation with his cowardice. And he will die by her blades.

 

[Laplace]

Name: Colonel Sikai
Bronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Fire Imperialism (What if we just burned them all?)
Earth: 2 Water: 0 Fire: 3 Air: 3
Bender: Fire
Starting Location: Shu Jing

I can no longer sit back and allow Air Nomad infiltration, Air Nomad indoctrination, and Air Nomad subversion, and the international Air Nomad conspiracy to sap, deenergize, and weaken our precious qi channels and steal our sperm.

The Colonel Sikai is the commander of the Shu Jing Airbase. He had a previous posting as a commander of a mixed unit of firebenders and archers in the conquest of the Earth Kingdom, with many of his veterans following him to his current posting. He considers the fact that he was taken away from the burning of the Earth Kingdom during the time of the Comet the greatest failing.

He's not a traditionalist, by any means. He's one of the many new petty nobility/professional officers that the Fire Nation raised up in their attempts to conquer the world. He considers the old nobility helplessly weak to the insidious ways of the Air Nomads, and the peasantry no more than walking talking walking earth hewers. He just wants the war back, and it's all the fault of the damn peacenik air nomads for taking the war away from him, and the more he thinks, the more he's forced to conclude that somehow 'Avatar' 'Aang' used some damn spiritual magic to weaken firebending in some way.

 

[CobaltCloyster]

Ikanu Sho
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Artist
Politics: Draconic Rule

Earth:1
Water: 2
Fire: 2
Air: 3

Bender: Yes (Fire)
Starting Location: Susong​

Some may look down on Ikanu for being a professional dancer. Some deem her art as being "degenerate," or a "waste of her talents." They claim that she's corrupting the youth and encouraging listlessness and anti-national tendencies.

This is, of course, ridiculous, and there aren't a whole lot of other options for an orphan born on the streets of Caldera City. None that Ikanu found tolerable at least. Certainly she could have sold her body to men of power, and her skills, sharp wit, and, if she's being modest, amazing looks, would have brought her great success. But the army life never appealed to her, and she refused to kill in the Firelord's name.

Thus, Ikanu chose the life of a performer. She started out in cramped, dingy taverns, showing off her skills for rowdy crowds of laborers. Eventually she discovered that locations frequented by the nation's soldiers and sailors made particurally nice venues. Men on shore leave have money to burn and spending weeks on a ship makes them bored and incredibly susceptible to a pretty face and some pretty words. Then there are the officers. The Fire Nation's stratification means that much of it's officer corps is noble, and most nobles have coin and influence to spare.

It only stands to reason that Ikanu eventually impressed one such noble officer, a man who believed that slumming it with his soldiers in their preferred taverns made him more relatable, enough that he decided he wanted her on retainer. The high and mighty in the Fire Nation may look down on such a flamboyant career as Ikanu's but they can still enjoy a good show. Ikanu stopped performing in dockside taverns and began her career as a minor socialite in the court of Susong. There she mastered a new art; that of whispered promises you aren't supposed to keep and empty platitudes which mean nothing but sound pretty damn nice.

Rumors abounded, of course. Ikanu was a dancer, born to nobodies, who came into her liege's good graces through, some said, less than proper means. But Ikanu knew how to manipulate rumors, and soon the woman people whispered about was more than some up jumped peasant, but someone mysterious, persuasive, and perhaps even dangerous.

Now the Nation enters a new era, and Ikanu is excited by the possibilities that it may bring. Zuko's star seems ascendant. Anyone who can catch it on the way up will probably go far, and the higher it rises, the more his own political power increases, the more the people who supported him on the way will be rewarded. And if making him powerful takes convincing him that the whole "Dragonlord," thing some folks are going on about is a good idea, then that's what Ikanu needs to do.

Maybe Ikanu's fire will fizzle and die, but that seems unlikely. Ikanu has worked her way to where she is, she had a plan, and her fire will burn bright in this new age. She has the skills, smarts, and charm to make it happen.

Long live Dragonlord Zuko, Ikanu's ticket to the top!

 

[Thiccroy]

"You all ready?" The Lieutenant asked. His men had gathered together, wearing masked helmets with a long, red stripe across it and with white armbands around their arms, haphazardly pulled around them and tied. Fifty five swords, ten pikes, two grenadiers and a tank will do, the Lieutenant thought. he had to stop Colonel Kushe.

"For the Firelord. For Zuko!" They roared against his warcry, as they charged up the commanding hill. Paesants opened their windows to watch them, and soon, by the time their screaming mass reached the gates, they were closing, and a bell was ringing from within. "Pikes!" The Lieutenant roared out, fall onto one forward left leg and then, with the inertion of his stomp, extending two conjoined fists towards the gate. A massive flame, the size of a dragon's mouth, shot forth and blasted the gate with heat, pushing it open and forcing the men trying to close it back.

"Take prisoners! Grenadiers, towers! Pikemen, swords, with me! For Zuko!"
"For Zuko!" The pikes formed an arrow shape in front of him as they charged in. As they kept men at bay, the Lieutenant blasted forth a cloud of smoky fire into the air, forcing the archers to send their arrows at the men wildly, much of them being reflected by the armor they wore. Sensing heat incoming, Kaizawa smoothly deflected the incoming fireball from a tower up on high of the Barracks. Pushing it apart, he looked up and glared.

"Lieutenant Kaizawa! You lowborn maggot, fool- idiot! What do you think you're doing!?"
"Taking control of this base, in the name of the true Firelord, Zuko!"
The Colonel barked out a laugh. "You coward. Azula was named heir, you fool! Zuko is an upstart- dishonored, discredited and discharge of his royal rank as Prince during the Eclipse! I will not let this stand, not in Ozai's memory!" The Colonel soon dropped down to the ground, stopping his fall with a bout of flame from his hands. The older mans tumbled, off balance, and that's when Kaizawa parted his pikemen to approach.

"Agni Kai!" Kaizawa swiftly demanded, and the Colonel scoffed as all the fighting around them seemed to freeze up.
"I accept! HRAGH!" The man charged first, sending forth a downward kick, blasting forth a crescent bout of flame that Kaizawa swiftly deflected by crossing one arm over the other and then expanded his stance, letting his inner rage douse the Colonel's, before rolling his arms about and remaking the prior attack- sending forth two blindly shot fireballs.

The colonel smoothly danced around both, ducking underneath the second one, but this was expected, as Kaizawa jumped forth, dropping a firey knee onto him. He stepped bakc just in time, as the shockwave of fire burned hotly forwards, licking at the Colonel's thick beard. Patting it from cinders, he then made a circular kick towards the Lieutenant, who rolled under it, coming up to wrestle with the Colonel- their armored forearms clashing and a hot bowl of flame expanding around them. Then, Kaizawa swiftly tripped the Colonel.

Sending him toppling down to the floor, Kaizawa used swift jiu-jitsu to break the man's wrist. He screamed out in pain, raising his other arm to the Lieuetant. "Wait! I surr--...!"

Kaizawa silenced him with a fireball-covered fist towards his face, burning it and the man's skull.

---

KAIZAWA
OFFICER ( Lieutenant ) | He/Him | Firebender
DRACONIC RULE | DA ZHEN
Earth - 3| Water - 2 | Fire - 3 | Air - 0​

• A diligent lowborn officer having been recruited due to a shortage of noble-born signing up as officers as the war in the Earth Kingdom increased in volume. Having been raised on virtues of honor and tradition, the installing of a woman as the heir of the Fire Nation and the genocidal plans of the Phoenix King opened Kiazawa and other's eyes. While stationed at Da Zhen after the Avatar's defeat of Ozai and Azula, Kaizawa found out about his commanding officer's wish to turn Da Zhen to the side of Azula's rule, though she was deposed. Finding that the rule of Zuko would bring greater peace and honor to the Fire Nation, Kaizawa has recently taken control of Da Zhen in a bloody counter-coup.​

 

[Fingon888]

Ukano
Former Governor of New Ozai​

Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Noble
Politics: Fire Colonialism
Earth: 2 Water: 3 Fire: 2 Air: 1
Bender: No
Starting Location: Caldera City
Bio: A noble of one of the great families of the Fire Nation, only below those families known to produce strong firebenders, Ukano was raised to be loyal to his Family, the Fire Nation, and the Fire Lord, in that order. He was exceptionally loyal to Fire Lord Ozai and served as the governor of New Ozai, the renamed Omashu. His term as Governor was fraught with conflict and Ukano did not impress the Princess Azula with his strength or ability in handling the problems of occupation, his foremost concern being his son Tom-Tom and daughter Mai. During the defeat of the Phoenix King Ozai, King Bumi's forces ejected Governor Ukano and his army from Omashu. Ukano and his forces returned to Caldera City.

Upon returning to the Fire Nation he found his Lord imprisoned and Zuko proclaiming himself the new Fire Lord, with his precious daughter on his arm. Ukano's loyalty to Ozai and political disgust at joining forces with the Avatar warred with his concern for his daughter and opportunity for familial advancement. In the end his training won out, family came first. Mai made her position clear, she would fight with Zuko, and besides it was no small thing to have one's likely son-in-law as the Fire Lord. He had after all encouraged the relationship between Zuko and Mai, as well as Mai's friendship with Princess Azula, for this very reason. With Ozai's mighty bending removed and Azula's support base fractured, was it not wise to join the new regime and steer Fire Lord Zuko away from his more foolish and unpatriotic inclinations. Yes, Ukano thought, he could work with this.

Ukano has sworn himself to the service of Fire Lord Zuko as a political advisor and potential general.

Captain Kaiyuza
The Sword of Zhao
​

Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Fire Imperialism
Earth: 2 Water: 1 Fire: 3 Air: 2
Bender: Firebender
Starting Location: Amagi, Yosor
Bio: Kaiyuza was born to a family of minor merchants with little prospect in life, but she had Firebending and an indomitable will. She entered the training academy of the Fire Navy. She rose through the ranks quickly due to her power and skill as an officer and a Firebender, commanding the gunnery on a cruiser. During the course of the Hundred Years War she eventually was raised to the rank of Captain and given command over her own cruiser the Dragon's Breath. She was put under the command of Admiral Zhao and fought alongside him, consistently proving the most brave and aggressive of the Admiral's captains. Upon executing a daring maneuver, crossing the T of an Earth Nation squadron, Admiral Zhao was said to have exclaimed, "And my sword strikes true!" Ever since she has been referred to in the Fire Nation Navy as the Sword of Zhao.

She fought with distinction during Admiral Zhao's daring assault on the Northern Water Tribe and was able to extricate the Dragon's Breath from the battle when the rout began. With the death of her patron and the shame of the failure in the attack on the Northern Water Tribe the moniker "Sword of Zhao" became mocking on the part of her rivals in the Fleet. Still, she served well in the remainder of the war. She is violent, fierce, and utterly devoted to the prosecution of the war against the other nations. She believes that the Fire Nation colonies must be expanded and the Water Tribes confronted and defeated, as vengeance for the lost pride of the Fire Nation Navy. She is currently at anchor with the Dragon's Breath in Amagi harbor, chafing against the misrule of the usurper Prince and hoping for the leadership of Phoenix King Ozai or Fire Lord Azula to restore the might of the Fire Nation.

 

[bookwyrm]

Name: Equerry of the Royal Court, Chamberlain of the Third Rank, Lord Pechin
Archetype: Noble
Pronouns: Thee/Thy
Politics: Sage Rule
Stats: Earth: 1 Water: 3 Air: 2 Fire: 2
Bender: No
Starting Location: The Fire Nation Capital, in the Royal Palace of the Fire Lord of course!

Biography: EDIT: added now

Six hundred years ago, Pechin's family were all but exiled to the furthest western edge of civilization, provincial gentry of the outer islands practicing who knows what crude Sun Warrior superstitions. But nestled inside those narrow mountainous valleys and claustrophobic highland jungles where the ancient roosts of the Messenger-Hawks, and so Pechin's ancestors were charged by royal warrant to capture, breed, and train the birds for shipping lanes and lighthouses. Four hundred years ago, the now scattered kin were recollected under one banner as the main Pechin lineage were ennobled by royal patent for their good service, and so as to more efficiently organize and set standards for the now Nation-wide Messenger-Hawk courier services. Two hundred years ago, the Fire Lord's personal writ granted them the privileges of the royal court, to sit in his august presence, to hold rank of peerage inside the palace, and to be titled postmasters and chief messengers of the Fire Nation in his councils of state.

And it was a hundred years ago, that Fire Lord Sozin first began the trend of setting aside the royal household to embrace all these crude and unrefined admirals and generals as the royal family's new instruments of choice. The Royal Messenger-Hawk Mail was soon locked out of naval coaling stations and the Earth Kingdom colonies, and all the vital garrisons and war industries of the burgeoning Fire Nation military even inside the Fire Nation, bought out and replaced by all these 'professional' and 'national' services- whose couriers don't even have the good breeding and refined culture to automatically earn several degrees in courtly rank no matter the results of their civil service exams! Pechin became the heir of a ceremonial remnant, the respectable place to note weddings and funerals and introduce new members to court society, little more than the heraldic rolls of active nobility and of the new generals and industrialists of more genteel tastes (and sufficient wealth to pay out the nose for it).

Yet there was power in not being a threat. The stipends Pechin was still paid in forgoing his rights as royal postmaster, the fees and licensing for the use of his family crest in the military post, and centuries of his family building their own private collections and libraries of the rare and the strange, all formed a not insignificant fortune, one that Pechin was able to use to commission himself higher not just in courtly ettiquite, but in direct access to and authority over the even more rare and bizarre collections of the royal archives. Pechin wraps himself in almost extravagant old timeyness, for that is what his world wants to see, archaic mystery, exclusivity, and discretion- the perfect persona of one of the greatest gossipmongers and mudrackers in the history of the Fire Nation. A play that is only ever half-pretend, a gloss of ancient heroics to color the world and hide the soot and slag which ruins Pechin's pictaresque vision of his beloved Fire Nation, now, at last, made real and true by the Avatar and by Fire Lord Zhuko.

 

[Gladsome]

Name: Shāngbā

Pronouns: She/Her

Archetype: Revolutionary

Politics: Anarchism

Earth: 2 Water: 1 Fire: 2 Air: 3

Bender: Firebender

Starting Location: Shuhon Island

Bio: "Only from ashes can a new fire rise!"

Originally thought to be just another common bandit, the masked woman known as Shāngbā proved herself to be something else entirely in the last days of Fire Lord Ozai's rule. Striking at Military convoys and luring pursuers into deadly ambushes, stealing food and weapons not simply for her own followers but also to feed struggling local commoners, she proved herself to be a firebender of some talent, and an unusually principled bandit, with an ideological message she is keen to have heard, her words spreading through graffiti and posters across the region.

Her seeming past with the Fire Army, and the battle wounds that cover her body, suggest she may be a deserter, and Shāngbā certainly has no love for the Army.

She blames the system of Fire Lords and their absolute rule for setting the Fire Nation on a path of self-destructive imbalance with the other Nations, and the nobility and military elites for helping the Fire Lord drag the Nation into shame. All around, one can see the imbalance brought by the Fire Lord's War. The Spirits are enraged, the land is poisoned, and the people suffer.

Around her she has assembled a small but loyal crew of deserters, dissidents and paupers turned bandit, naming themselves the Ashen Scarves, for the simple, grey cloth adopted by the poor bandits as a symbol of their movement.

For now, Shāngbā is content to hold territory on the periphery in Zuko's name, working to fight against those who fight on for the cause of Ozai, but she is thoroughly intent on having her message heard. She has no quarrel with Prince Zuko, but if he does not consent to becoming the last Fire Lord, he must be moved aside, with force if necessary. Another Fire Lord with absolute power could just as easily plunge the Nation into tyranny once more. The flames must be free, if there is to be balance again.

 

[Noco]

Zong the Ostrich-Horse King​

Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Criminal
Politics: N/A
Earth: [2] Water: [2] Fire: [3] Air: [1]
Bender: Firebender
Starting Location: Laotie
Bio: From birth, Zong had to scrap for what he needed. Naturally, he fell into a crowd of toughs who worked for bigger fish in the criminal underbelly of the Fire Nation. But crime was harshly punished and Zong was one among his crew thrown away for their transgressions. Used as a scapechicken-goat by his crime boss, Zong received the blame for all he had done and then tenfold. But in short order, he was freed for a price - military service within the newly-formed Jukeng Squad.

Effectively a penal battalion, the Jukeng Squad was comprised of hardened criminals under the ruthless leadership of Captain Xang. Zong both prospered and chafed in this environment. Proving himself competent in command and violence, he was given control over a force of Ostrich Horse light cavalry that quickly became the central scope of the organization, a source of highly-mobile terror against rebels. Before long, Zong was known as the Ostrich-Horse King, a moniker for his criminal undertakings while ostensibly serving the military objective of maintaining control over the locals. But Zong despised his commander and often openly conspired against him. Denied advancement and roughly treated, Zong more and more defied the command structure of the Fire Army. Near the end, a court-martial was expected against Zong, prompting him to act.

The chaos following the Fire Lord's defeat and the retreat from the Earth Kingdom was the perfect opportunity. Zong mobilized his peers against Captain Xang and had him executed, before usurping his position, stealing whatever assets could be taken, and setting sail for the Fire Islands. Having now arrived in Laotie at the helm of blooded convicts, Zong plans to give no credence to any supposed superiors. The Ostrich-Horse King will serve no master again.

 

[Etranger]

Name: Hiroshi Zan (Hsien-liang Zhang)
Bronouns: He/him
Archetype: Engineer
Politics: Traditional Constitutionalism
Earth: 3 Water: 1 Fire: 1 Air: 3
Bender: Earth
Starting Location: Shuhon Island
Bio: A third-generation Earth Kingdom "immigrant," young master Zan is the unofficial leader of the sizable guest-worker population of Shuhon Island. Descended from Earth nobility, the "young master" is regarded highly by his fellow "immigrants." His community consists of both the integrated and unintegrated descendants of those who came over from the former colonies, whether voluntarily or not.

A young prodigy as both an engineer and mechanist, Zan has spent much of his youth employed in the Fire Nation's war industries, where he's parlayed his skills, status, and ability to organize his workers into better conditions and rights for his community. The burn scars on his face and arms are a testament to his hands-on approach and dedication to his work, as well as his occasional clashes with his firebender overseers.

Zan himself is more or less integrated into Fire Nation culture, but his Earthbending talents mark him out as a permanent outsider, leaving him split between two worlds. As such, he advocates a pragmatic line, seeking to enhance the status and rights of his community without embroiling them in conflict. Unfortunately, the Azulites are frothing at the mouth, and so he finds himself with little choice but to pick a side and fight.

 

[Random Member]

Name: "Lee Dai"
Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Spy
Politics: "Anarchism" (With Harmonist & Rejuvenationist Characteristics? Let's just call it Harmonic Anarchism to make it easy!)
Earth: 2 Water: 2 Fire: 2 Air: 2
Bender: Yes (Earth)
Starting Location: That peninsula that's part of the dark-red province in the south, right across Kuza Island

Bio:
Okay, so…

Following Long Feng and pretending that there was no war going on didn't work out.

Following a mentally insane teen girl and betraying Ba Sing Se to the Fire Nation worked out even less.

So where does that leave the cultural guardians of the Earth Kingdom?

Stranded in the Fire Nation, that's where.

Well, not all of them. Some were already repatriated home, but many more find themselves stuck in foreign, and most likely hostile, territory due to the recent spiritual kerfuffle.

Current events may provide us with a golden opportunity however. All these royals and generals are distracted fighting each other, and there is no Avatar here to stop us. We are thus free to move in the shadows and direct this conflict to cause as much damage to our hated enemy as possible, and hopefully get back in the good graces of the Earth King.

But for that, we'll need local collaborators and useful idiots. Which means we need to come up with some kind of political idea that can unite a sufficient mass of people behind us. These "anarchists" seem like a particularly violent and destructive bunch. Just what we need!

 

[Theaxofwar]

You would trust this face, right?​

Name: Commander Zai
Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Soldier
Politics: Whatever Pays
Earth: 1 Water: 3 Fire: 3 Air: 1
Bender: Yes (Fire)
Starting Location: He Ye, Kuza Island
Bio:
Zai was born a simple farmer, but he was always ambitious. One bad harvest was enough to convince him that farming was a fool's errand, and so he scrounged up everything he could and moved to the city to get a better paying industrial job. Of course, he sent money back to his family, and the conditions were awful, but he still made more money than ever. However, the conditions were bad enough he started looking for other options, and the military was always recruiting.

Zai was a fire bender, and was therefore given an elevated position in the army. He leveraged this to the fullest extent, always standing out and climbing ranks as quickly as possible. Sure his life was at greater risk than ever, but he was getting paid more too, and he was rapidly moving up in the army. It was all going perfectly.

At least, it was all going perfectly until the Phoenix Emperor had his bending removed by the Avatar and the Fire Nation broke out into civil war.

Zai remained loyal to Fire Lord Azula, and as such was appointed Commander of the He Ye Garrison. On paper, this was his perfect position, but in practice it was riskier than any before. When Zuko ascended to the throne, Zai was quick to change sides in exchange for maintaining his position. Yet, with the destabilizing reforms and Azula broken out of prison, Zai is left in a remarkably precarious position.

There is only one thing Zai knows for sure: the only side he's on is his own.

 

[Another Amoeba]

Fire Lord Zuko

​

Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Noble
Politics: Enlightened Absolutism
Earth: 3
Water: 2
Fire: 4
Air: 1
Bender: Yes
Starting Location: Caldera City
Bio: He will blot them out. He will tear down the Imperial war machine he inherited. This is Fire Lord Zuko's oath to himself.

The monarchy has not been kind. Zuko executed even the simplest of reforms only with the support of the Avatar, by the grace of the Fire Lord's immortal prerogatives, and with the force of a will that will not yield. He knew it would take years of strangling still to put the leviathan to rest, but Zuko would fight for the rest of his life if that was what it took to wretch his nation's feet back onto the path of peace and harmony.

Then, Azula broke free.

Iroh, gone, the Avatar, gone. In a moment of weakness, the demons escaped, and his sister now heads a coalition powerful enough that she might just plunge the world back into barbarism. Zuko will never let that happen, and it is almost as if the Spirits themselves have declared that her madness will never be allowed to spread beyond the shore of these islands. The Fire Nation's darkest evils are mustering all their power against him, and this time, Zuko puts them down for good.

---

Colonel Hino Kuroe

​

Pronouns: He/Him
Archetype: Officer
Politics: Traditional Constitutionalism
Earth: 2
Water: 2
Fire: 2
Air: 2
Bender: No
Starting Location: Sandu
Bio: Colonel Hino Kuroe, commanding officer Fifth Battalion, Fifth Division, officer with twenty years of service interrupted by two year medical absence and one year bereavement. Hino remained in service on the Home Islands until a four-year rotation to garrison duty to an area of operations bordering the Si Wong desert, where he saw no major military action. It should be noted that this area of operations lay on a straight-line path between Ba Sing Se's Inner Ring and the Fire Nation's Royal Air Muster Yard.

With the conclusion of the war, Colonel Kuroe returned to the Home Island garrisons under the authority of Lt. General Heki Lang. Two days after the release of Princess Azula, at 1725 hours, Colonel Kuroe arrived to a staff meeting called by Lt. General Lang. Colonel Kuroe was ordered to take two brigades and move in support of the Third Combined Arms Regiment, who had raised the Phoenix Flag early yesterday morning and were advancing on Sandu city center.

Colonel Kuroe immediately denounced the order as treason and placed Lt. General Lang under arrest. No other present officer intervened out of shock, but one was burnt across the face when Lt. General Lang lashed out at them for failing to defend him. A further two were injured during the arrest. At 1909, the meeting dispersed with Colonel Kuroe nominally replacing Lt. General Lang as Fifth Division's head.

At 0643 hours, two platoons advanced on the garrison prison, succeeding in breaching the building before they were repulsed by Fifth Battalion elements. Lt. General Lang was reportedly killed in the escape attempt. Subsequent inquiry would reveal it was probable he was executed by his guards near the start of the fighting. At 1340, other elements dispatched from Fifth Battalion would engage the Third Combined Arms Regiment's advance forces, prompting a retreat towards Tottori. Eighty-four were killed in the day's fighting.

Fifth Battalion and the garrison units under Colonel Kuroe openly proclaim for Fire Lord Zuko as the Nation's only legitimate authority, and comprise a hardened knot of loyalists far removed from Caldera City.

 

[Carol]

Name: Bashira Sawa
Pronouns: Saving/You
Archetype: Monk
Politics: Anarchist
Earth: 2
Water: 2
Fire: 2
Air: 2
Bender: Non-bender
Starting Location: Dhimi
Bio:

Bashira Sawa
A deadly disciple of the Immortal Tieguai

"Exactly one year from now will be the anniversary of your rebirth."
​

Bashira Sawa is the last remaining member of a firebending sect that worshiped the Immortal Tieguai. The sect was housed on the island of Toz and claimed a lineage dating back to the time of Fire Lord Zoryu. They had a tenuous relationship with the powers that be, and it was not uncommon for waves of oppression to fall upon them. The last under Ozai was particularly effective. Bashira survived because she was insignificant. What danger could a child, let alone one who could not bend, pose to the Fire Nation? She still had to lose an arm to escape. A shame considering the other held on to as many treatises as she could carry.
​

Those who tried to kill her failed to understand how strong her will was.

Seeking to restore the lost knowledge of the sect, she believes that self-cultivation requires the elimination of those who disturb "non-doing" in the Mortal World. It can be compared to the exorcism of fiendish entities. In order to put this ideology into practice, she studies the martial art of the Fire Island, the bugei jūhappan.

She is ruthless in her beliefs, combining the confidence of Shoken and the dispassion of Laghima. The creations of humanity like a lord or a state only hinder their connection to the Dao. A survey of the Spirit World would reveal the absence of such artificial trappings. Emancipation then lay in their destruction.
​

She operates in the shadows with a strong sense of paranoia given the dangers of her profession. The Fire Lord's spies hold an omnipresent place in her mind. Poverty is a well-known friend and hunger nips at her insides. Her targets have been the pettiest tyrants scattered throughout the Fire Islands. Villains no one would miss. She has taken pains to conceal herself. They do not notice the "beggar" and her "package" until it is too late.

Bashira considers both sides in the civil war as reprehensible. They perpetuating the system of exploitation and misery all the same. Their hour of reckoning would come sooner or later. Outside of her worldly pursuits, she is invested in becoming a "true person," not allowing either the cosmos or human action to overcome one another.​

---

Spoiler: Coffin

Name: Azula
Pronouns: She/Her
Archetype: Noble
Politics: Fire Imperialism
Earth: 4
Water: 2
Fire: 4
Air: 0
Bender: Fire Bender
Bio:

Phoenix King Azula
Nothing but fire and blood
​

Azula has suffered every indignity imaginable. Her throne was stolen by Zuzu. With her brother leading her people, the dream of a hundred years smoldered. While he sat on her throne, she lay in a dark and empty room with no friend but herself. As she pondered this nightmare, she realized it had always been this way, ever since mother had conspired to undermine her.

Every setback could be traced back to that damned woman. She had captured father long ago. She empowered Zuko. She whispered betrayal to Ty Lee and Mai. She empowered the snow peasant. She even turned Azula's own mind against herself.

But mother made the mistake of thinking Azula would break under the strain. Mother's fear of her was correct. She had all the power in the world.

After all, is it not the nature of the phoenix to burn?
​

​