[hider=Batu][center][img]https://puu.sh/G9Xe0/16dc6386c8.png[/img]
[h3][b]B A T U[/b][/h3]
[sub]’Times are not always the same; the grass is not always green.’
-Bataaran proverb[/sub][/center]



[b]Character Age:[/b] 28
[b]Character Gender:[/b] Male
[b]Character Race:[/b] Bataar Nomads (Earth Kingdom)
[b]Bending:[/b] Non-bender

[b]Skills:[/b][list]
[*][i]Mounted Warrior:[/i] Batu is a trained cavalier of the Bataar Plains Nomads, proving himself formidable when in the saddle of an ostrich horse or any other similar mount. Using a recurve short bow with remarkable accuracy on the move and a short sabre for in-close encounters are both major facets of his training, rooted in the pursuit predation tactics necessary for survival in the open steppes.
[*][i]Hardy:[/i] The reality of the open plains which stretch from the Kolau Mountains to the Si Wong Desert is a near-tundra of permafrost and high-altitude cold, creating a lifestyle of scarcity. While not adapted to the swelter and heat of the Si Wong Desert, Batu’s upbringing instilled survival principles which allow him to cross swathes of uncivilized land with little issue.[/list]

[b]Weaknesses:[/b][list]
[*][i]Poor Defense:[/i] The doctrine of Batu’s fighting style emphasizes a decisive overwhelming onslaught, a stark contrast to the Earth Kingdom Army’s overall philosophy, with his fighting style more in line with the Fire Nation’s ethos. However this proves a significant disadvantage against any opponent who presses the attack effectively, making Batu likely to give ground rather than press a defense.
[*][i]Heedless & Lighthearted:[/i] Batu is a very carefree and rather gullible individual. His ruggedness and passing abrasiveness easily give way to an unserious and humor-minded man. His lackadaisical attitude and arrogance often become his downfall in both matters of war and peace.
[*][i]Non-Bender:[/i] While the ‘shamans’ of the Bataar Nomads tend to be Earthbenders themselves, Batu is one of the majority who have no such special inclination. While normally a non-issue for most, in a melting pot which includes an abundance of benders, it puts him at a significant combat disadvantage.[/list]

[b]Possessions:[/b][list]
[*][i][url=https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-04eba65ce3ba553589308b1dc29fa564.webp]Sabre:[/url][/i] A curved blade single-handed sword designed for use while mounted on ostrich horses, but it can be used to some effect on foot as a slashing weapon. Carried in a yak bone and leather sheathe as Batu’s choice sidearm.
[*][i][url=https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51YsaQB1SuL._AC_SX425_.jpg]Composite Recurve Bow:[/url][/i] A shortbow also designed for use whilst mounted, it is made of birch wood hardened by the cold steppes and reinforced with joints of yak and goat bones. Carried in a removable leather sheathe either on his thigh or the side of his chosen mount.
[*][i]Quiver:[/i] A medium-sized arrow quiver made of animal skins either carried on his back or the side of his mount.
[*][i]Lamellar Cuirass:[/i] A long coat of boiled leather reinforced with iron lamellars (small rectangular overlapping plates) along the front and back of the torso. It is rarely worn except in overt battle, otherwise stowed on his mount.[/list]

[b]Biography:[/b] The Bataar people are an ancient nomad culture inhabiting the steppes and coniferous forests which stretch from the Kolau Mountains in the shadow of Omashu to the western edge of the Si Wong Desert. Tangentially related to the tribes of Sandbenders which inhabit the inner spheres of the desert, the Bataar trace their lineage back to a splinter tribe which did not continue the migration into the sand wastes, instead settling in the colder high-altitude plains around the desert.

Some time within the last three decades, a boy named Batu was born. His name meant ‘Strength’ in the language of the Bataar, given such a name due to surviving a birth in which his mother did not. His father, an Earthbending shaman and important advisor to the Chieftain of the tribe, took great pride in his only son despite the grievous loss of his wife. Batu would have a troubled infancy due to complications from his botched delivery, but by the age of four developed into a rather normal child of the tribe.

The tribespeople by culture raised children as a collective. Even as family units and clans were separate in all other cases, children were the responsibility of all. But in particular, Batu took up with a young tanner’s apprentice named Xanadu. Xanadu, along with Batu’s father, schooled the young child in the arts of horsemanship, archery, and tannery, until the age of ten.

At that young age, custom of the Bataar people dictated that every child, male or female, was to be tested for bending potential. This test is perhaps the only point where Batu disappointed his father, showing no proficiency whatsoever, despite being a direct descendant of such a powerful Earth shaman, a ‘mountain mover’ as they were called in the native tongue. Nonetheless, Batu was enlisted as a tanner’s apprentice under the now master tanner Xanadu, albeit Batu also showed little skill in that field.

Sometime within Batu’s childhood, riders dressed in elegant robes and bearing the seal of the Earth Kingdom rode into the encampment of the tribe, carrying news of a rebellion against the Earth King. While the Bataar never maintained exemplary relations with the Earth Kingdom, they were at the very least cordial so long as the sovereign allowed them to live freely on the steppes. The men of the tribe were to be levied as soldiers for an army to put down a rebellion in Harushima province to the northwest. Their best riders were to make up the cavalry arm in the left wing of the Earth King’s army, with the rest of the able-bodied men as foot archers.

Batu, too young to serve, was left as one of the few remaining males in the tribe, now key to ensuring the survival of their people while the rest fought the war. Batu’s story lulled as grander things were at play:

The Bataar horsemen arrived in Harushima province to find a beleaguered army, hearing tales of a fearsome commander of the rebellion who managed to turn back the Earth Kingdom forces in a series of decisive early battles. Indeed this streak may have continued had the Bataar peoples and the reinforcements they brought with them not arrived. But the maneuverability and hit-and-run tactics of the horsemen became an integral part of the effort to bleed the Harushima Rebels of supply and morale, culminating in the final siege of Harushima City, where Bataar dismounted archers played a key role in the numerous attacks on the outer wall, until Beifong’s pride (and leg) was crushed.

The war was not without losses. In the two and a half long years of combat, Batu’s father was among the dead, dying along with his unit of fellow Earthbenders to a man. Xanadu lost a leg and an arm, held in a Earth Kingdom field hospital for the duration of the war thereafter. The Earth King, ever paranoid after the failed rebellion, gathered the various auxiliaries of his forces in the walls of the destroyed city. In an unprecedented act of cruelty, the wounded were slaughtered, and the able bodied were disarmed forcibly and imprisoned, sent on death marches to Ba Sing Se, reasoned as the Earth King feared closeted traitorous indigenous soldiers bringing the spark of rebellion back to their homes.

Batu was utterly devastated. The tribe practically dissolved over the incident, the wholesale killing and imprisonment of the male population making survival untenable. Some left to assimilate into other tribes who had larger and more sustainable populations. Others stayed put to live in squalor, praying to the spirits to deliver them from their suffering. And finally, a fringe group, in traditional nomad fashion, packed their bags and saddled up their ostrich horses, striking out from the steppes. Among them was Batu, now of a practically dead lineage and without much marketable skill other than hunting and fighting, untested in combat and utterly inexperienced with any cultures outside his own.

[b]Supporting Cast:[/b]
[i]Uyanga:[/i] Batu’s trusty ostrich horse, his chosen beast of burden and war mount. A mare, she is of the plains variation, measuring at a much smaller size than the average specimen. She has a golden brown coat and a light gray undercoat, matched by a completely gray face and head.

[i]Wangu:[/i] A stubborn camelephant currently possessed by Batu in order to carry his heavier supplies. The beast and its master are not at all bonded, and the last-minute purchase of the animal may have been more trouble than it was worth. [/hider]