[Female | 16 | 'Northern Water Tribe']Xu Shui Yi is a seemingly serious young woman 'from' the Northern Water Tribe. Her resting expression often draws questions on her mood, despite having a more than pleasant personality. She occasionally has difficulty maintaining her composure when interacting with highly extroverted types, as they tend to put her on the spot, not allowing her to utilize her honed and practice patience. She is very concerned for the welfare of others, having spent much of her young life travelling between the Northern Water Tribe colonies and the Northern Water Tribe itself.
Her mixed lineage and travels from an early age has given her a wide breadth of experience to draw upon, which has leaked its way into her Waterbending. She often draws from the experiences of others, in particular elders who she sees great value in, having learned much of her bending from her grandparents. She often spends a good amount of her spare time with the elderly.
Xu Yi often keeps her own problems to herself, wanting to not burden her friends and family with her own struggles.
She dislikes being called her full name, preferring to be called Xu Yi, or Yi to a particular few.
TraitsXu Yi is well trained in the medical arts, drawing from arts more prevalent within the Earth Kingdom as classical techniques of the Northern Water Tribe. Due to influence from her grandmother, who lives in the Northern Water Tribe colonies, she has been able to learn waterbending beyond simply healing and is capable of many of the water bending fundamentals.
Xu Yi is capable of a unique form of healing utilizing elements of blood bending. Due to her rare bloodtype, Xu Yi is able to further enhance her healing with the use of her own blood through transfusions. The combination of this unique skill, rare blood type and particular set of knowledge allow Xu Yi to heal far more complex injuries than that of normal healing, cleanse blood of most taint (pathogens, dirt, loose fabric) and even heal certain near-fatal injuries with the use of her own blood.
Xu Yi has a significant knowledge of plants (especially in medicine) and is a skilled tea brewer.
RelationsHer Grandparents on her mother's side are both alive and both capable Earthbenders.
Her Grandparents on her fathers side are both alive. Her grandmother is a waterbender from the Northern Water Tribe colonies while her grandfather is an Earthbender.
Her father is alive and a Waterbender.
Her mother is alive and also an Earthbender.
HistoryXu Yi has spent much of her childhood moving back and forth between the Northern Water Tribe and it's colonies. Born in the Northern Water Tribe, she spent her early years there. Her father had an equally complex childhood. Her great grandparents on her father's side, now dead, brought her father's mother to the Northern Water Tribe from the colonies in an effort to protect her from the threat of the Fire Nation. Despite that thought, the fall of the Northern Water Tribe made things challenging. Her father lived a similar life of bouncing between the colonies and the Northern Water Tribe due to nature of their family, which some of the traditionalists of the Northern Water Tribe did not respect or understand. As a result, Xu Yi's childhood was very reminiscent of the old traditions of the Northern Water Tribe, which her father readily adopted.
Xu Yi would spend summers with her grandparents in the colonies. Both her mother and father's side spent a significant effort trying to impart their views on the young Xu Yi who absorbed them rather voraciously. Her mother's side even went so far as to spend three years tricking her into thinking she was an Earthbender in an effort to 'kickstart' her career as an Earthbender. When her Waterbending was revealed, much to the displeasure of her mother's parents, she was given the traditional Northern Water Tribe treatment in that she was only able to learn how to heal - for which she had an innate talent for. Upon returning to her summer with her grandparents, her grandmother began to teach her how to waterbend beyond healing, much to the ire of her father, resulting in tension between the mother and son. She believed the Northern Water Tribe's views on female benders was incredibly archaic.
Xu Yi's dual life continued until her fourteenth birthday, shortly after she returned home from the summer with her grandparents. The relationship between Xu Yi and her best friend Jizhang changed - Xu Yi's feelings being much stronger. The two had been close for years, Jizhang being more open minded than some of the others in the tribe. As they approached her sixteenth birthday, Xu Yi was informed that she was to be married with Jizhang, that fall, before Jizhang's eighteenth birthday. Xu Yi was thrilled, but Jizhang was surprisingly not.
Jizhang explained to her that he only ever cared for her as a friend and that why he loved her, it was only as a friend. He confessed that his seeming reciprocation on her feelings were a product of him drinking the sake he slipped off of his parents. Jizhang explained he had feelings for another girl, who didn't come with the complicated relationships Xu Yi had with the Northern Water Tribe from her lineage and her grandmother teaching her Waterbending - and that while he could be her friend, he didn't want a complicated wife. However, a man of the Northern Water Tribe, Jizhang presented her the betrothal necklace anyway, stating he would marry her because of the arrangement.
Xu Yi was devastated, but said nothing to anyone about the confession of Jizhang, deciding she needed to take time to evaluate. She returned to the colonies to consider her decision and continue her training with her grandmother, who served as the village's healer, whom she often assisted during the summers. When a man who was severely wounded was put in their care. When he took a turn for the worse that evening, the injuries being beyond what either of them could deal with, Xu Yi became desperate, Her grandmother out to gather herbs for a last ditch effort of classical medicine, and pulled out a small bit of her own blood with her waterbending, something she had learned to control on accident years ago, utilizing her own blood for the healing instead of water. When her grandmother returned, Xu Yi explained what she had done to save his life. She was advised that Xu Yi's technique and the nature of her ability be kept between them.
MiscellaneousShe has a pet messenger hawk. She had found it injured one summer when visiting her grandparents and nursed it back to health, utilizing her healing to allow its badly injured wing to be used once again.
