Name: Ren Lau 
Nicknames: The Striking Elephant Lion
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Appearance: 
[img=http://www.anime-planet.com/images/characters/houtarou_oreki_38725.jpg] 
Bending skills or fighting style: Versatile Intermediate Level Earth Bender
Weapons/Instruments/Armor: Silver Colored Pro Bending Uniform

Personality Calm and collected Ren is never one to scream or shout or rant unless extremely angry, frustrated, or upset and even then it is controlled. He displays a sense of annoyance with many people and is more accepting than friendly with others outside of his core group. He has a strong sense of morality that does not let him cripple or harm people unless he feels they deserve it or in self defense. He is not one to beat around the bush but does try to be kind to others by not spitting his own ideals directly into the face of others. Much to his own admittance he is poor at making new friends but can be casual around almost everyone almost apathetic in nature to the world around him. He likes to describe himself as 'cold as the stone beneath his feet'. However this has not stopped him from being dragged from place to place due to his inability to really care about where he is going as long as there's a destination. He has a fondness for animals despite his more loner type attitude. He prefers to have a plan before going into a situation but is not afraid to go into a fight without one. In combat he is shown a quite calmness that does not betray much of any emotion unless the fight is intense. He is not one to be bother by mental games and it takes someone of profound ability to be able to intimidate him. He is not one to crack jokes and when he does they are normally very generic or 'lame' as Hana has started to call them.
History: Born in the city of Omashu to a merchant mother named Sun Xiang and an Earth Kingdom Soldier named Wan Lau whom was assigned to guard her but impressed her so greatly that the two fell in love and got married. Ren was noted for his calm demeanor even as a child. Unlike most kids, and his own parents who were boisterous in their own right, he grew up with a chilly and down right eerily calm sense of mind. He was never one to throw fits and he disliked being spoiled as he liked to be treated as an equal more than some sort of leech as his grandfather had termed it. While his father guarded the King Of Omashu and his mother worked in the fields and often traveled to nearby settlements young Ren quickly discovered his Earth Bending which was very blunt but eloquent in it's own right. Due to his mother not being around he was often taught and taken care of by his grandfather whom imparted knowledge of his own earth bending skills to the younger lad though his own father disapproved despite his grandfather's insistence. He also learned how to read, write, and do some basic acrobatics and climbing in the summers and winters when his grandfather was around him more. His mother imparted a strong sense of justice towards his grandfather's sense of ruthless judgement and hardness that would make up the core of Ren's style of fighting (more precision and crippling accuracy than flamboyance). His father however taught him that while people should be respected no matter what he agreed with his dad that some people needed to be dealt with turning him more towards his father's side of the family but still retaining his mom's and aunt's sense of morality. Overall Ren grew up as a conflicted young man whom was more calm than not. 

As he grew into his teen years he experienced the working world as a market guard keeping rougher customers from getting over zealous and preventing fights from breaking out which he excelled in. His mother and father were having issues at the time so he ended up spending time with his mother's grandfather whom also moved to Omashu where he would show him some hand to hand fighting techniques that made him known as a great warrior back in his day during the war between The Fire Nation and The Earth Kingdom. Improving on his already formidable skills in Earth Bending for a kid his age and his already physically and mentally strong abilities, Ren proved to be a worth successor to both his families by the judgement of his two grandfathers and a decent writer by his living grandmother's admission. One day a fight broke outside the city gate when a group of raiders attempted to attack the market and steal some supplies to sell in the black market where he and a group of benders and guards stopped the fight before it got anywhere. The benders were a group of travelers whom were looking for an Earth Bender. Ren told them that he wasn't interested but later that day the two found their way to his house and introduced themselves. His mom's father impressed on the boy that he should try and help them when he found out that they were the newly formed Pro-Bending team known as The Silver Shark Whales. Much to his annoyance he at that point had chosen to accept it if only to earn some decent money. Thus he met his new friends Hana, a water bender from the Northern Water Tribe, and a strong willed fire bender named Lee whom was their leader. The trio traveled around the world becoming fast friends and buddies, much to Ren's annoyance more than once having to pull either or both of them out of the per verbal hole they've dug themselves into. Ren however grew out of his more cold nature and become much more...ambivalent than he had before becoming accepting of others if only by a small margin. They made a name for themselves as multi-time championship holders and found themselves near Republic City in an attempt to gain the gold once more.