[hider=Kosroq.][center][img]https://i.ibb.co/RBjxqnN/20200717-143817.png[/img] [h3][b][color=SteelBlue]KOSROQ[/color][/b][/h3] [sub][color=SteelBlue]'The spirits help those who help themselves. They're certainly not fond of charity, at least.'[/color][/sub][/center] [b]Character Age:[/b] 24. [b]Character Gender:[/b] Male [b]Character Race:[/b] Northern Water Tribe. [b]Bending:[/b] He is a skilled waterbender, above average but not a master. [b]Skills:[/b] •Weapons Training - From his mother he learned how to wield many weapons, most prominently the traditional spears and clubs of his tribe. What most people are unaware of is his skill with swords and daggers as well. He also has a passing knowledge of the Southern Tribe's boomerang and machete-and-shield tactics, but prefers to avoid using them. His preferred style is to use a long dagger, with one hand free to bend water (though some see this style of fighting as 'dishonorable'). •Drawing Water - After spending years in Si Wong City and the surrounding desert, he's become especially adept at drawing water from unusual sources, including from plants and moisture in the air. He's also very precise in his bending, allowing him to use small amounts of water to get a lot done. [b]Weaknesses:[/b] •Ego - While he's not overly arrogant and will generally let go of most small slights, he is prone to holding long-lasting grudges and isn't afraid of getting back at someone with a disproportionately large counterattack. He gets especially irritated with disrespect or humiliation in any form. •Superstition - Kosroq, like his father, goes a small step above reverence for the spirits. He regularly makes small prayers to his family's 'patron spirit', Kaita Hi. His arm wrappings are covered in ritual symbols and written prayers meant for good luck and supposedly to ward off evil spirits. If a town or city has a spirit totem, he will usually stop by to make an offering. He occasionally makes small paper talismans to place around any place he stays if he's feeling particularly unlucky. [b]Posessions:[/b] [hider=Kosroq's dagger.][img]https://i.ibb.co/c8ttbcf/d3d6dc4880cdef6e7b1ded8971cc84f6.jpg[/img][/hider] Kosroq owns a dagger given to him by his father. It's lined with serpent teeth, killed by a hunting party his father was a part of many years ago. He also owns a white mask that resembles a completely neutral face. On it there are prayers inscribed, Northern spirit prayers for forgiveness. He calls it the Daogao mask. [b]Biography:[/b] [hider=Kosroq's Biography.] In the Northern Capital, Agna Qel'a, there were once two families of equal renown. By Earth Kingdom standards, they would be equivalent to middling nobles. In one family, a Northern general had a conundrum - his only child was a nonbender female named Salla. Despite this, he loved her dearly, even defying tradition by training her in martial arts in secret. Still, a nonbender female would never be appointed General or likely any military rank without exceptional circumstances, and despite the tumultuous state of the North during those years, it seemed she would be relegated to be someone else's wife and nothing else. Luckily, a solution presented itself, or rather, the second family did. A male bender named Narokk had spied Salla and her father training in secret. Witnessing her prodigious talents with blades, spears, and clubs, an idea sprouted - instead of using the general's disregard for tradition as blackmail, they forge an alliance. Narokk proposed this idea to his father, a spirit shaman, who in turn proposed it to the general - as the general's only child was a nonbender female, it seemed unlikely she alone could climb the social ladder of the North, and her talents would go to waste. So, under the guise of the tradition of arranged marriages, the two families would merge, Salla marrying Narokk. Unbeknownst to the other prominent families, Salla was more than a wife - she was a capable assassin and saboteur, never suspected by others. After all, no one in the North would ever suspect the apparently harmless nonbender woman. The North, though outsiders likely never knew, had been very chaotic for a while. The chieftan was becoming unpopular with many of the well known merchants of the North and there were rumors that some of the Elders and Masters unhappy with him as well. Many of the families seemed to be gearing up for something - not outright war, but political maneuvering was certain at the least. Salla proved to be amazingly talented at her new work, and Narokk was a skilled speaker on the public front. To many, Narokk was a pillar of the community, spiritually and economically as Narokk's family gained influence with many merchants, especially after he married the general's daughter. And most saw Salla as that - a connection to a well known general, not a secret warrior. The coup that everyone expected happened, though much more quietly than expected. The chieftan, sadly, was brought back from a hunting trip having been attacked by a young sea serpent he had pursued. A great funeral was held, where all the families expressed their deep sorrow at the loss. Having no children, the next chieftan was chosen from the Elders. Narokk was appointed to the position of advisor to the chief. Narokk had never wished to be chieftan - it was a dangerous position. Second to the top was where he and Salla could get work done best. Years later, after settling into a safer life with significantly less morally grey activities and discovering that they actually did like each other, Salla and Narokk had two children, brothers. The older one was Hanouk and the younger one was Kosroq. Both were benders. Kosroq grew up being told stories of spirits like Xaa, Widow Shinestalk, Wan Shǒu, Father Glowworm, and their family's patron spirit, Kaita Hi. While Hanouk generally seemed to be favored, Kosroq was never ignored, and his childhood was happy. He learned his waterbending from one of the Masters. Once he hit his teenage years, however, he and Hanouk began their training with their parents. Narokk and Salla, in secret, taught more than just the traditional forms. Narokk instructed them how to fight more pragmatically than the Masters would, especially against other waterbenders, and taught them the intricacies of Northern politics. Salla trained them in weapons and military history. They emphasized that, despite what they had done in the past to get to their position and despite the nature of what they were teaching them, they never expected or encouraged the brothers to participate in the darker side of the North. Hanouk grew up more like his father. He took naturally to being in the public eye and seemed a natural born leader. Kosroq, on the other hand, took more after their mother (though, ironically, he ended up being the more spiritual of the brothers). He excelled at combat and took an interest in her past adventures, though he was warned they weren't as glamorous as stories made them seem. Eventually he gained his parents' blessing to leave the North. Hanouk stayed home, following closely in Narokk's footsteps. For a while it was difficult - Kosroq left on a raft and for weeks stuck to the shoreline of the Earth Kingdom. It took him a while to get used to inland travel. His entire life he'd almost exclusively eaten fish, so even hunting animals on land proved difficult in the beginning. He had to adapt his waterbending training to the dirt of the mainland - in the North, everything was ice and water, even their homes, and they could bend practically anything, anywhere. He learned to carry a canteen for drinking water and one for bending water when going far inland. Eventually, moving to more populated locations in the Earth Kingdom, he took work as a caravan guard for merchants. Eventually, he caught the eye of a merchant who had worked with Northerners before and knew Kosroq's father. The merchant offered Kosroq a job 'keeping an eye on his competitor'. After the competitor's caravan mysteriously fell into a river when the bridge broke, losing most of their cargo, Kosroq was paid handsomely. Kosroq, over time, gained a sort of reputation among merchants as a dependable, if strangely superstitious, doer of dirty deeds. Even the occasional minor Earth Kingdom noble family would hire him for a job once and again. Eventually, Kosroq went to Si Wong City, where work was aplenty. [/hider] [b]Supporting Cast:[/b] •Salla - Kosroq's mother. Publicly the rather docile wife of Narokk, actually an accomplished warrior, saboteur, and military historian. She's calmed down considerably since her youth and now spends most of her time accompanying Narokk on official business and teaching Hanouk. She's learned to accept her status in life, though she often dreams of kicking the absolute hell out of one of the Elders next time they talk down to her. •Narokk - Kosroq's father. He's considered a future candidate for the council of Northern Elders. He is heavily spiritual. He currently serves as an advisor to the current chieftain of the North, Tarkol. While he enjoys his current status and the security it gives his family, he feels a little regretful about the shady business he and Salla did when they were younger. •Hanouk - Kosroq's brother. A great public speaker and competent fighter and teacher. The way things are going, he'll likely be the one to continue the family's legacy, unless Kosroq feels like coming back. [/hider]