Andreyich

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

Stumbled off the Path to Glory

Jin

_{"I returned from war to find myself a foreigner in my own home."}

_NAME

Temujin (affectionately, Jin) Jochi

_AGE

22

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se

_ELEMENT

Earth.

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Temujin is perhaps a few centimetres above average in height, mostly a product of exceptional diet and health that all high born people can claim the benefits of rather than any exceptional genetics. Jin's skin is the light brown of a river beach's sand with increasingly many minor scars from burns and cuts. His raven hair is left long, messy (sometimes bound up to not get in his eyes), and he has eyes that are dark brown, almost black like rich volcanic soil. He is clearly built to be a soldier, possessing an impressive musculature if on a somewhat average frame.

_PERSONALITY

Temujin is a person with very strong principles. He will not lie about who he is, what he plans to do, or really anything unless a very convincing case is made that the life of a good person depends on it. He epitomizes what nobility is meant to be, rather than what it is in the Earth Kingdom. As a joke he would often be told he belonged more in the Fire Nation, perhaps being adopted from a lost child of theirs. Though he has a certain haughty arrogance to himself that all people of privilege bear, he very deliberately makes a point of being charitable and kind to those less fortunate than he even now as he has little more than the clothes on his back, dropping silver pieces into the cups of beggars even as his stomach growls. All the while, he tries to do such good deeds as discretely and anonymously as possible, fearing that if he does it publicly he would be doing so insincerely, vaingloriously, for the spectacle of charity rather than its literal purpose.

Beyond that, Jin is a deeply hurt person. All of his values and beliefs that he assigned to the Earth Kingdom were brutally crushed as he was stripped of his rank and position and de facto exiled from anything but the recesses of the the nation's society. This fear of betrayal manifests almost as a paranoia, employers of the now mercenary treated with constant suspicion that they might not pay him out or will send him to his death with glee. This learned behaviour contradicts his natural predisposition to trust people and take them at their word, this conflict within leading to many a tearful night.

As a soldier he had always sung along with his troops when it came to marching songs, or stuck around with them to sing drunkenly at campfires. Now with great nostalgia those memories bring him yet more interest to that, and even now he oft hums tunes of the Earth Kingdom's army.

Though born a relatively powerful bender, and particularly well trained at it, he also takes a particular interest in martial arts. Thus Temujin in much of his spare time will practice swordplay, archery, javelin throwing and more. While not a legendary warrior, he has still come to appreciate the blade and be quite a duellist in his own right.

Meditation has come to be a rare solace to the warrior. He used to dismiss it as sentimental hooey for weaklings from the Air nomads or for some lily livered water benders. In public, he still does so. But when alone, it has come to at least clear his mind from his worst thoughts: the violent, the self indulgent, the self-destructive.

Usually, this meditation he masks as another favoured pass-time if caught in it: excercise. Since he was a teenager he was told he would have to maintain his physique, and he did not wish to become one of the rotund generals that rested on their laurels. He always believed he had to be a warrior-paragon, and this hasn't changed since.

Something that keeps him up at night, and often daydreaming, is a constant concern about the future. He is always afraid that it is too late for him to amount anything, that qualities he thought were good have lead him to abandon a chance at anything but being a vagabond. Is scraping by to be his entire life? Even as he joins the rebellion, this does not leave him. While he cares not for noble privilege that he once had, the thought that he can no longer influence the lives of so many people as he once had by worrying about his men brings terror and shame alike.

_BIOGRAPHY

Honour and duty above all, tell no lies, stand for your homeland, and many such platitudes well rehearsed in adolescence were taken dearly to heart in Temujin, even if the rest of the socio-economic elite of the Earth Kingdom tended to disregard such things the moment they were old enough to have a concern about personal finance. Perhaps ironically, even as a teenager he was seen as a black sheep of his family for his refusal to partake in all sorts of schemes and intrigue that the aristocracy of Ba Sing Se indulged in. He was a problem they knew not what to do with, but when he kicked up his first stone and sent it airborne there was a very obvious path for him.

At the age of eleven he was signed up for cadets of the Earth Kingdom's army, the future profession of a soldier increasingly prestigious as the culture of the nation shifted. Excelling in both theoretical and practical lessons of the military academy, young Temujin was able to graduate ahead of schedule with honours straight into an officer's position without his family even having to pay the bribes they were already setting aside money for.

Marching proudly in the Earth Kingom's army it was not very long before war came, and Temujin was called straight to the front. He swiftly made a name for himself there. While a highborn officer he ate meals with his troops, listened to their concerns, and marched and sang together with them rather than haughtily looking down on them from the back of a mount. Where other officers threw their troops to their deaths to complete an objective, the mere suggestion of such a practice sickened Jin.

But he did far more than merely respect his men. He always honoured his promises to treat surrendering foes well. He respected the property of civilians in conquered villages, and made sure to pay off any farmers and the like for food and other supplies requisitioned from them. The foemen that fell to his commands were always given proper burial.

Some would have claimed this was sympathy to the enemy, but this was far from the case. Temujin did his duty with brutality, ferocity, and efficiency. To go about this he quickly gained a reputation for inventive stratagems. From using tunneling engineers and Earthbenders to bypass the waters that defended an enemy stronghold, to using captured Waterbenders to heal both his troops and other prisoners he quickly earned the respect of more senior military staff.

Yet, as impressive as his career was with all the medals and promotions he got, it would come to an abrupt end when he quarrelled with a General Long after the destruction of a Fire Nation colony. The refugees leaving the burning ruins were accosted by the troops of Long, shaking them down for anything from jewellery to cutlery that could be sold and made Long wealthier. Temujin put an abrupt stop to this, believing that was the end of the matter. After all, looting the defenceless and defeated was a dishonourable thing to do, and as far as he was concerned he was in the right.

He was very, very wrong.

What he didn't know was that just as for anybody in his family, there were rumour-mongers compiling lists of everything he did that somebody in the Earth Kingdom might object to from the trivial to the most egregious. General Long in his rage obtained this, and published it to the Dai Li and anybody else wishing to defame and harm the Jochi family.

A dishonourable discharge came, and to avoid ruination his family disowned him. He was de facto exiled from any meaningful part of the Earth Kingdom's society. Thus he wandered briefly, a bitter, lonely, hateful sellsword scrounging up money the only way he knew how. He was so young, and yet he felt his entire life and future were stolen away from him as punishment for doing the right thing. He raged at himself, his people, his family, his friends, his oaths and duties and the entire world.

When the Avatar awoke, so too did some semblance of hope in Temujin. He cleaned himself up, shaved, sobered, and sharpened his blades. Perhaps he wouldn't be welcome by those that recognised his face. But his hopes were high that his practical knowledge of the workings of the Earth Kingdom's armed forces would be much appreciated in the coming struggle. But just as much as he sees opportunity, Temujin is deeply scared of the future. What if for who he was, and who he is, he will be betrayed again? What if he fails to find belonging, and is simply cast out? With rage and fear simmering in equal proportion within, Jin has a concern that if he fails now he will never get a chance at anything again.

_TRIVIA

Going for a more Manchu & Tungusic feel with the fella, i.e. his sword is a Mongol sabre.
listened to this while making him

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

Man War Criminal to the max! I'm very interested in his mortal slider here. Why is poisoning a settlement and forcing prisoners of war to work for you more acceptable than looting and stealing? What implications do you think this has on his interactions with the rest of the group and dies he/will he acknowledge that he is in fact, a war criminal?

@Achronum

I'm trying to go by vaguely pre renaissance perceptions, where anyone not surrendered is fair game. He was ordered to take a city and thus any means were a-okay. To take an example from the Mongol that inspired me for this character, when they invaded the Khwarezmian EMpire any city that surrendered had its people treated well. Any that didn't had its people destroyed to the last. He wouldn't exactly have a conception of a warcrime in that sense. There would also be some emotional undercurrents I haven't written where a hard to take fortress would have inevitably had a large amount of his men dead, and thus momentary rage would have more savage measures less problematic for him, and bring some impulsive desire to avenge his comrades he came to cherish; at the same time, people who already surrendered, and were of no threat being harassed is just cruelty for its own sake, especially since hypothetically everyone robbed would probably die on whatever their long road was but not even having enemy combatants in their number. Thus general Huo would have been seen as a person that is just greedy and violent rather than trying to be a good soldier. And, regarding the getting the waterbender healers to work for him, I figured that one would have been somewhat of a mercy as under him they'd be treated better than in a prison camp, rather than true coercion. While also being able to heal people of both sides rather than their talents of helping people being squandered in some sort of forced manual labour. I was also hoping to write this out IC, but I was thinking that he might have seen one of the waterbender healers tending to one of his own wounded men in the midst of battle which would have been a spark that got him much more interested in decent treatment of the foe; seeing people of the Water Nation humanize his countrymen would have certainly made him think twice about the dehumanization of his foe's people.

I think it would definitely cause some hypothetical issues with people who might know of this, though my character would bank on nobody harming him for this because he would believe that his practical knowledge in helping overcome the Earth nation army would be too useful to throw away for an admittedly dark past. But, as long as it didn't lead to maiming or killing him, I think he would accept and understand any abuses he suffers for what he had done. If someone walked up and sucker punched him over it, he would probably stand and take it rather than fighting back. If it was a merely verbal confrontation, I guess it depends on how far the party progressed in trust. Early on he might try to deflect, bringing up some war crime he saw his foe do on his own countrymen. If confronted when he trusts people of the party more, I think he would probably concede that it was wrong, and that if he had been more worldly and had met the peoples of the other nations before rather than just listening to jingoistic stuff about them being invaders on earth nation soil he would never have done it, and hopes his current efforts stop it from ever happening again.

But this doesn't really make or break the character to me, I can get rid of the savagery/brutality if its too problematic & edgy for the rag tags. I figured it would be fun to butt heads over the past in somewhat of a zuko-esque way but I suppose having fought for the bad guys before should be enough for that

Andy's hunt for kin-spirit dreggs

Me getting home from work

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Andreyich I can see where that wasn't direct enough!

Thank you for the seriousness of that response and after some discussion, we think that this character is good but not quite the right vibe for this particular RP. You're right, he does present perfectly as a Jong Jong type character but that role type is filled by NPCs. While we do want characters to help each other grow, we're aiming for people being on a similar maturity level in the beginning.

So while I think k this character is solid in the way it is now, it's not quite the character we are looking for I this rp.

@Achronum

All fair enough, and in light of this he was reworked while keeping some of the same vibe.

Stumbled off the Path to Glory

Jin

_{"I returned from war to find myself a foreigner in my own home."}

_NAME

Temujin (affectionately, Jin) Jochi

_AGE

22

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se

_ELEMENT

Earth.

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Temujin is perhaps a few centimetres above average in height, mostly a product of exceptional diet and health that all high born people can claim the benefits of rather than any exceptional genetics. Jin's skin is the light brown of a river beach's sand with increasingly many minor scars from burns and cuts. His raven hair is left long, messy (sometimes bound up to not get in his eyes), and he has eyes that are dark brown, almost black like rich volcanic soil. He is clearly built to be a soldier, possessing an impressive musculature if on a somewhat average frame.

_PERSONALITY

Temujin is a person with very strong principles. He will not lie about who he is, what he plans to do, or really anything unless a very convincing case is made that the life of a good person depends on it. He epitomizes what nobility is meant to be, rather than what it is in the Earth Kingdom. As a joke he would often be told he belonged more in the Fire Nation, perhaps being adopted from a lost child of theirs. Though he has a certain haughty arrogance to himself that all people of privilege bear, he very deliberately makes a point of being charitable and kind to those less fortunate than he even now as he has little more than the clothes on his back, dropping silver pieces into the cups of beggars even as his stomach growls. All the while, he tries to do such good deeds as discretely and anonymously as possible, fearing that if he does it publicly he would be doing so insincerely, vaingloriously, for the spectacle of charity rather than its literal purpose.

Beyond that, Jin is a deeply hurt person. All of his values and beliefs that he assigned to the Earth Kingdom were brutally crushed as he was stripped of his rank and position and de facto exiled from anything but the recesses of the the nation's society. This fear of betrayal manifests almost as a paranoia, employers of the now mercenary treated with constant suspicion that they might not pay him out or will send him to his death with glee. This learned behaviour contradicts his natural predisposition to trust people and take them at their word, this conflict within leading to many a tearful night.

As a soldier he had always sung along with his troops when it came to marching songs, or stuck around with them to sing drunkenly at campfires. Now with great nostalgia those memories bring him yet more interest to that, and even now he oft hums jingoistic tunes of the Earth Kingdom's army.

Though born a relatively powerful bender, and particularly well trained at it, he also takes a particular interest in martial arts. Thus Temujin in much of his spare time will practice swordplay, archery, javelin throwing and more. While not a legendary warrior, he has still come to appreciate the blade and be quite a duellist in his own right.

Meditation has come to be a rare solace to the warrior. He used to dismiss it as sentimental hooey for weaklings from the Air nomads or for some lily livered water benders. In public, he still does so. But when alone, it has come to at least clear his mind from his worst thoughts: the violent, the self indulgent, the self-destructive.

Usually, this meditation he masks as another favoured pass-time if caught in it: excercise. Since he was a teenager he was told he would have to maintain his physique, and he did not wish to become one of the rotund generals that rested on their laurels. He always believed he had to be a warrior-paragon, and this hasn't changed since.

Something that keeps him up at night, and often daydreaming, is a constant concern about the future. He is always afraid that it is too late for him to amount anything, that qualities he thought were good have lead him to abandon a chance at anything but being a vagabond. Is scraping by to be his entire life? Even as he joins the rebellion, this does not leave him. While he cares not for noble privilege that he once had, the thought that he can no longer influence the lives of so many people as he once had by worrying about his men brings terror and shame alike.

_BIOGRAPHY

Honour and duty above all, tell no lies, stand for your homeland, and many such platitudes well rehearsed in adolescence were taken dearly to heart in Temujin, even if the rest of the socio-economic elite of the Earth Kingdom tended to disregard such things the moment they were old enough to have a concern about personal finance. Perhaps ironically, even as a teenager he was seen as a black sheep of his family for his refusal to partake in all sorts of schemes and intrigue that the aristocracy of Ba Sing Se indulged in. He was a problem they knew not what to do with, but when he kicked up his first stone and sent it airborne there was a very obvious path for him.

At the age of eleven he was signed up for cadets of the Earth Kingdom's army, the future profession of a soldier increasingly prestigious as the culture of the nation shifted. Excelling in both theoretical and practical lessons of the military academy, young Temujin was able to graduate ahead of schedule with honours straight into an officer's position without his family even having to pay the bribes they were already setting aside money for.

Marching proudly in the Earth Kingom's army it was not very long before war came, and Temujin was called straight to the front. He swiftly made a name for himself there. While a highborn officer he ate meals with his troops, listened to their concerns, and marched and sang together with them rather than haughtily looking down on them from the back of a mount. Where other officers threw their troops to their deaths to complete an objective, the mere suggestion of such a practice sickened Jin.

But he did far more than merely respect his men. He always honoured his promises to treat surrendering foes well. He respected the property of civilians in conquered villages, and made sure to pay off any farmers and the like for food and other supplies requisitioned from them. The foemen that fell to his commands were always given proper burial.

Some would have claimed this was sympathy to the enemy, but this was far from the case. Temujin did his duty with brutality, ferocity, and efficiency. To go about this he quickly gained a reputation for inventive stratagems. From using tunneling engineers and Earthbenders to bypass the waters that defended an enemy stronghold, to using captured Waterbenders to heal both his troops and other prisoners he quickly earned the respect of more senior military staff.

Yet, as impressive as his career was with all the medals and promotions he got, it would come to an abrupt end when he quarrelled with a General Huo after the destruction of a Fire Nation colony. The refugees leaving the burning ruins were accosted by the troops of Huo, shaking them down for anything from jewellery to cutlery that could be sold and made Huo wealthier. Temujin put an abrupt stop to this, believing that was the end of the matter. After all, looting the defenceless and defeated was a dishonourable thing to do, and as far as he was concerned he was in the right.

He was very, very wrong.

What he didn't know was that just as for anybody in his family, there were rumour-mongers compiling lists of everything he did that somebody in the Earth Kingdom might object to from the trivial to the most egregious. General Huo in his rage obtained this, and published it to the Dai Li and anybody else wishing to defame and harm the Jochi family.

A dishonourable discharge came, and to avoid ruination his family disowned him. He was de facto exiled from any meaningful part of the Earth Kingdom's society. Thus he wandered briefly, a bitter, lonely, hateful sellsword scrounging up money the only way he knew how. He was so young, and yet he felt his entire life and future were stolen away from him as punishment for doing the right thing. He raged at himself, his people, his family, his friends, his oaths and duties and the entire world.

When the Avatar awoke, so too did some semblance of hope in Temujin. He cleaned himself up, shaved, sobered, and sharpened his blades. Perhaps he wouldn't be welcome by those that recognised his face. But his hopes were high that his practical knowledge of the workings of the Earth Kingdom's armed forces would be much appreciated in the coming struggle. But just as much as he sees opportunity, Temujin is deeply scared of the future. What if for who he was, and who he is, he will be betrayed again? What if he fails to find belonging, and is simply cast out? With rage and fear simmering in equal proportion within, Jin has a concern that if he fails now he will never get a chance at anything again.

_TRIVIA

Going for a more Manchu & Tungusic feel with the fella, i.e. his sword is a Mongol sabre.
listened to this while making him

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Andreyich I guess my concern about the age is the heart of the story -

At the end of the day, ATLA is a coming of age story where characters who have experienced things one way are thrown into situations that force them to look themselves in the mirror and make hard choices, growing as they do into the people they are at the end. It feels like this older character has already gone on this journey and come out, unfortunately, the worst for wear as a result.

Talk to me more about how he'll grow and what your end goal is for his character arc as he embarks on this new chair in his life.

@Achronum

I suppose, in that I have somewhat mistook the RP's intent for while in the setting I didn't think we'd follow quite the team avatar dynamics (especially with the minimum character age being 18 xD)

My answer then, I think I would make twofold.

His own journey begins as a jaded person unable to trust, because he feels that nobody in the world matches his own standards of being duty-oriented, loyal, truthful, etc. he will have to come to terms with the fact that people aren't evil just because they are not flawless exemplars of these things. At the same time, fighting against former comrades, he will be conflicted on if he is doing what is best since he still believes in a lot of the Earth Kingdom's supposed ideals. Moreover, he is now a traitor, doesn't that make him a hypocrite when he's all about duty and honour? In a sentence, his journey will come to be about realizing it is okay to believe in something, even if you can't live up to it. That he must tolerate imperfections both in himself, and in others. On a similar but not identical note, his journey will be about learning to let go. From family that is now possibly happier without him (and would be endangered if he visited them as a rebel, and his wife probably would have remarried as instructed by Temujin to further safeguard their children), to slights real or perceived from other characters (as well as getting over the fact many of them would have been enemy combatants just a few years ago), to possibly forgiving some of the people that helped bring his ruination as the party or he personally captures them, Temujin must let go. Just get over things, leave them in the past. Maybe also somewhat of a Zuko-esque journey in convincing everybody (and himself) that despite the fact he probably burned villages that their friends once lived in, he's a decent guy beneath it all.

The second part of the answer is that perhaps he can be the one to help facilitate the growth of some of the other characters as he gets closer to them, using age and wisdom or simply being there for them when they suffer, not wanting them to go through pain that he has gone through alone. A more recurring version of Iroh, Paku, Guru Patek, Jong Jong, etc. Although perhaps you were wanting to leave that entirely to NPCs/GMPCs.

P.S. I edited the sheet to account for your first two points.

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Achronum
Roger for the first two, but is the third negotiable? I think the youngest I could go without putting the 'old soldier' vibe I'm gunning for into shaky ground is 41 or so

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

No rest for an old soldier.

Jin

_{"I returned from war to find myself a foreigner in my own home."}

_NAME

Temujin (affectionately, Jin) Jochi

_AGE

41

_BIRTHPLACE

Ba Sing Se

_ELEMENT

Earth.

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

Temujin is perhaps a few centimetres above average in height, but a leg ruined in battle makes his posture bring him a little lower than most people. Jin's skin is the light brown of a river beach's sand with increasingly many wrinkles and a collection of minor scars from burns and cuts. His raven hair is tinted with streaks of grey, and he has brown eyes of a light tint that could be likened to gold. Once mighty musculature has been somewhat withered away with age and some disuse but still good tone remains for a man in his early forties.

_PERSONALITY

Temujin is a person with very strong principles. He will not lie about who he is, what he plans to do, or really anything unless a very convincing case is made that the life of a good person depends on it. He epitomizes what nobility is meant to be, rather than what it is in the Earth Kingdom. As a thinly veiled slight, he would often be told he belonged more in the Fire Nation, perhaps being adopted from a lost child of theirs. Though he has a certain haughty arrogance to himself that all people of privilege bear, he very deliberately makes a point of being charitable and kind to those less fortunate than he even now as he has little more than the clothes on his back, dropping silver pieces into the cups of beggars even as his stomach growls. All the while, he tries to do such good deeds as discretely and anonymously as possible, fearing that if he does it publicly he would be doing so insincerely, vaingloriously, for the spectacle of charity rather than its literal purpose.

Beyond that, Jin is a deeply hurt person. All of his values and beliefs that he assigned to the Earth Kingdom were brutally crushed as he was stripped of his rank and position and de facto exiled from anything but the recesses of the the nation's society. This fear of betrayal manifests almost as a paranoia, employers of the now mercenary treated with constant suspicion that they might not pay him out or will send him to his death with glee. This learned behaviour contradicts his natural predisposition to trust people and take them at their word, this conflict within leading to many a tearful night. Unfortunately, he often downs these sorrows with drink or other substances, though he has so far been sufficiently disciplined that after consuming them he ceases for at least a week to ensure he does not become dependent on them. Sometimes, when he is not looking, he writes letters to his lost family. To his former wife, to his children some of whom would now likely have forgotten his face, his name. He never sends them, but he reads and rereads them and edits them before inevitably burning them. Over time this has passed into somewhat of an appreciation of poems, prose, poetry. As a soldier he had always sung along with his troops when it came to marching songs, or stuck around with them to sing drunkenly at campfires. Now with great nostalgia those memories bring him yet more interest to that, and even now he oft hums jingoistic tunes of the Earth Kingdom's army.

The familial nostalgia also has him often search for newspapers, books, and any sort of gossip so he might learn what is happening with his children. Sometimes successful he manages to read their name in a list of students graduating from some academy or the likes, but this is rare and far from enough to stifle his ever increasing homesickness.

Though born a powerful bender, and particularly well trained at it, he also takes a particular interest in martial arts, a fact that has intensified when the injury in his left foot much worsened the precision if not quite the power of his bending. Thus Temujin in much of his spare time will practice swordplay, archery, javelin throwing and more. While not a legendary warrior, he has still come to appreciate swordplay and be quite a duellist in his own right.

Meditation has come to be a rare solace to the warrior. He used to dismiss it as sentimental hooey for weaklings from the Air nomads or for some lily livered water benders. In public, he still does so. But when alone, it has come to at least clear his mind from his worst thoughts, the violent, the self indulgent, the self-destructive.

_BIOGRAPHY

Honour and duty above all, tell no lies, stand for your homeland, and many such platitudes well rehearsed in adolescence were taken dearly to heart in Temujin, even if the rest of the socio-economic elite of the Earth Kingdom tended to disregard such things the moment they were old enough to have a concern about personal finance. Perhaps ironically, even as a teenager he was seen as a black sheep of his family for his refusal to partake in all sorts of schemes and intrigue that the aristocracy of Ba Sing Se indulged in. He was a problem they knew not what to do with, but when he kicked up his first stone and sent it airborne there was a very obvious path for him.

But Temujin refused an officer's comission that his family wished to give him right away, instead enlisting as a simple soldier. Still, with the combination of his privileged education, his natural talent for earthbending and his disciplined determination he was able to assume the position his father Altan Jochi wished to fast-track him to anyway.

Dutybound, as an officer he grew through the ranks of the Earth Kingdom's Marines participating in engagements both on land and sea to expel the occupiers of Earth Kingdom soil be they taking orders from the land of Fire or from the two poles. Brutal, efficient, he still had a strong code of honour. Any promises of clemency to surrendered foes were followed through with. Slain enemies were always given proper burials, and he thoroughly respected the property of people living in 'reclaimed' territories. Honour and glory were his, medals on his uniform gleaming proudly all the while he was free to not partake in political nonsense.

This was changed when his family had arranged for him to be married, his status as a then-Captain that had got there on his own quite endearing to other prospective families. He flailed and raged to be forced into such a thing, until he met the lady. Their love was instant, and the marriage soon followed.

But though he was happy, this meant quite bad things for him. His wife was of a similarly powerful family, and now he had far more scrutiny upon his every action. Every mercy given to the foe, every time army supplies were used to feed starving captives after a siege, all was quietly recorded into a ledger of blackmail that might one day be used against him.

That day inevitably came when on a campaign wherein refugees of the Fire nation were accosted by troops of another general, things from jewellery to clothes and utensils stolen to be pawned off for his personal wealth. Temujin found such to be a disgrace, and put an immediate end to it. Incensed, General Long immediately paid the rumour-mills to obtain the compilation of these transgressions and had it delivered to the Dai-Li and every important person that would be interested in it. His refusal to partake in courtly life had finally caught up to him.

A dishonourable discharge came, his family was ruined, his name in every black book on the continent. He divorced his wife in a vain effort to preserve her name and to let his children bear one that wouldn't bar them from any opportunity in life. Still in uniform, he became a roving mercenary ever more bitter towards his own countrymen, his oaths, the uniform that kept him warm in the lone rainy nights.

When the Avatar awoke, so too did some semblance of hope in Temujin. Washing, shaving for the first time in years, he marched proudly as perhaps now there was a chance to pay back all those that stabbed him in the back. Perhaps he wouldn't be welcome by those that recognised his face. But his hopes were high that his practical knowledge of the workings of the Earth Kingdom's armed forces would be much appreciated in the coming struggle.

_TRIVIA

Going for a more Manchu & Tungusic feel with the fella, i.e. his sword is a Mongol sabre.
listened to this while making him

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

Has metalbending been invented in this timeline? Has the earth kingdom managed to take over the Si Wong tribes?

S t i l l A l i v e (looking for GM as well!)

portal and half life is deep within as classic game core. Would be fun to play a somewhat misanthropic scientist who shacks up with the pro-AI humans / AI rights group because of a cynical belief in AI being the future and not wanting to stifle their growth rather than meaningful ethical concerns.

Andy's hunt for kin-spirit dreggs

DRG has to be one of the best renditions of "fantasy stuff in scifi setting" I have ever seen.