Sep

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

Xonsu walked around the halls of Monastery, and the information Sila had given him still rattling around his head. Toz was coming to Si Wong chasing the Avatar, the Avatar hadn’t been seen for over seventy years with nought but rumours ranging from anywhere between the Fire Islands, Southern edges of the Earth Kingdom and the wastes at the south pole. Now Toz was coming here to ‘garner support for his rightful rule’ of the Fire Isles if all rumours were to be believed he actually thought that the Avatar was either hiding out or being hidden within the city. Such an idea was preposterous, if the Avatar was truly in the city he’d know about it, wouldn’t he? After all, he was considered by many as the spiritual expert within the confines of the city. He had faced several spirits and worked to restore the balance, and he was even recognised within some Sandbender Tribes for his usefulness.

Xonsu sighed, his body more or less returning him to his quarters on autopilot. Sitting on the edge of his bed, he lay back into it a sigh escaping his lips venting all his frustration in one deep breath. He heard a knock at the door, sitting up he took a second to close his eyes and breathe. In, and out. His worries were unfounded, he would continue on his mission to bring balance and enlightenment to the world, while many other monks and nuns sought to only bring enlightenment to themselves he differed in that he saw his place to bring balance and enlightenment to others. Walking to the door his heart started pounding in his chest as in the doorway stood Tuo Po. A thin layer of dirt on her skin, barely visible on her tan skin except for those that knew her. Her hair tangled together as it was caked in dirt and sand, while there was the sweetness of her perfume there was also the muskiness of the Earth she caked herself in on a regular basis. Detatched from the world. Falling for an Earthbender, again, was the opposite of his vows.

“Hey, Windwalker.” While Xonsu was in the middle of his respectful bow when her fist collided with his shoulder knocking him back slightly

“Tuo Po-” Xonsu brushed the dirt off his robes. “-I told you not to call me that anymore. I’m a monk now, there’s a certain respect that’s expected of a man of my particular station.” Her warm smile quickly went cold and faded from her face. In the end, this is what had broken their relationship, and in many ways their friendship. Whatever warmth remained always faded whenever their respective duties were addressed. Since splitting from the group Tuo Po had made her own way around the Earth Kingdom until eventually settling in Si Wong City as one of its rangers. A group of militia that didn’t just protect the city, but the many caravans and travellers that made their way through the harsh desert. Despite their proximity to one another, they had not seen each other, except in passing, for many years. Last he had heard she had married and had a child.

“Yeah, how could I forget? Excuse me.” She bowed her head, her bow crooked and hands in the incorrect positions. He didn’t rise to it though, he wouldn’t stoop down to her level.

“So, what can the Monastery do for the Rangers today?” Tuo Po looked past Xonsu to the room and made a move to enter, he raised his hand onto the frame of the door to stop her. “You can’t enter, a woman cannot enter a monks personal quarters and vice versa. It is improper.”

Tuo Po rolled her eyes and groaned, as she slammed her fist against the wall he was sure he felt a slight tremor in the ground. “You’re impossible, look I’m not trying to seduce you. It’s just what I have to say is important, but it’s for you and you alone. I don’t need everyone in Si Wong City knowing about it.” Xonsu just stood unmoving and unflinching. That’s when he noticed the sadness in her eyes, in honesty he should have noticed it sooner. They weren’t bright and piercing as they should be, but there was an emptiness within them, a deep sorrow. “It’s important Xonsu, I don’t know where else to go.”

Xonsu moved his arm, leaning out of the room to make sure nobody was watching. It wouldn’t do good for the Head Monk to be seen allowing a female, and not even an Air Nomad at that, entering his private quarters. Once he was sure it was clear he stepped aside allowing her entry. Ignoring the smell of her as she passed him, he wondered what trouble she was going to get him in this time.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

Derp

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

@Malchives we've had a couple of drops so we still have some space if you wanna go for it.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

Monastery // Si Wong City

Leather Sandals scuffing on the cold stone floors, the sound echoing through the corridor of the monastery. Xonsu walked with purpose, his robes flowing and billowing as he moved as fast as possible without breaking into a run. He had to remain dignified, the middle-aged monk bowed his head in respect as he passed acolytes and nomads. He passed a window, the sounds of the city assaulted his senses as did the heat of the desert. There was a strange energy int he air, it had been building for months now. Looking down into the courtyard he saw several of the local children playing on his Skybison Peng. Climbing up and down, the Bison groaned playfully as it blew little tufts of air at them. There was something so innocent about the mind of a child, a far cry from the different world he was responsible for now. As the Lead Monk behind the Monastery in Si Wong he was also the Air Nomad representative on the ruling council that governed the city.

Xonsu reached the end of the hallway where a large Wooden Door stood. Pulling his hands close to his face he took a deep breath in, letting the air fill up his lungs. As he pushed his hands out before him the air bent with it. The air coursed into the door, going through the vents and the tubes. A musical note resonated throughout the hall, the note changing as the air progressed. Parts of the doors spinning to push the air back out towards Xonsu pushing the door open in the process. Walking in, the room was simple. A table in the middle that held a map of the city and the surrounding area.

Sila bowed her head in deference to him as he flashed her a smile. The smile didn’t last long as he saw the look on her face as he handed him a letter. Opening the letter Xonsu made sure to take his time processing every little detail when he finished the letter he handed it back to the nun. Bowing his head slightly in gratitude he weighed his words before speaking. “So what this means is that-”

The nun nodded her head. “Warlord Toz is coming to Si Wong. Apparently he wishes to broker some form of alliance with the city, and the Earth Kingdom.” She looked at the note and cleared her throat, directly quoting the letter. “In order to help bring peace and stability to the FIre Islands under his rightful rule.” She shook his head. “Councillor Metsong believes he’s coming to look for the Avatar.”

Xonsu tried to contain his surprise. “The Avatar? Si Wong city hasn’t seen an Avatar since, well. Si Wong, the last rumor I heard about the Avatar was on the edges of the Earth Kingdom. No matter, there isn’t an Avatar here and there hasn’t been since Si Wong herself.” Xonsu sighed, taking a deep breath to compose himself. “The Air Nomads have long had ties with the Avatar, we should ready the temple for his visit, it will come.”

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

Book 1:

A V A T A R L O S T

In the times after Avatar Si Wong, there was an Avatar who never wanted to be. Once his true power was discovered his parents sold him to a Warlord half a world away, the Warlord eager to have the most powerful bender in the world on his side. One who could master all four elements, one who could summon unfathomable power in times of need. Yet no manner of abuse, no amount of pain or punishment can break the spirit of someone as pure as the Avatar, someone who was destined to do good not solely through one but multiple lifetimes. On the eve of his sixteenth birthday, the spirit of Si Wong appeared as a guide for the Young Avatar Gitso. Having no mastery of the elements, the only way for the Avatar to escape was through unlocking the power of the Avatar state, destroying the compound he was held in and fleeing. While the world as a whole never learned what happened to the Avatar rumors spread of the destruction of one of Warlord Tozs compounds within his lands. A being sold into slavery escaping using unfathomable power, this individual was never heard from again as Avatar Gitso fled towards the south and into the wastes of the South Pole.

There he spent many his days in quiet isolation and meditation. Si Wong preached to him the duties of the Avatar, and how the dark spirit Hēi'àn sought to bring an end to humanity's ability to bend. Though Gitso wouldn't listen, he never asked to be the bridge between the spirit world and the physical world. He never asked to be the one to bring balance between the four elements. All he had wanted were parents that would love and nurture him, and the ability to chose his own destiny. Now as tensions rise again in the world, seventy years after the death of Avatar Si Wong. The question everyone wants the answer too is this: Where is the Avatar?

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

@Dusty Just to double-check, you're not on the Discord, are you? Just making my way through reviews.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

I'll be around a little more tomorrow, to start the review process Monday and make my decisions Tuesday.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

I'll put here as-well. I'm going to start the IC with Ten PCs, excluding those by me and @Inkarnate. After those currently under review (everyone before and including Reedes sheet) have been reviewed I'm going to wait until next Monday/Tuesday to review any and all sheets. I'll read them but not comment unless explicitly asked. Feel free to alter/adapt things during this time.

I will eventually open up to more players once we've become established, however, I just don't want utter chaos of twenty + people trying to start all at the same time.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

@vancexentan for reasons I'll happily discuss via PM I am denying this particular concept.

Avatar - The Fall of Si Wong City

Xonsu

X U N S U

_{'It is not just the duty of the Avatar to bring balance to the world, all of us together must work to unite the world and make it a better place.'}

Character Age: 35
Character Gender: Male
Character Race: Air Nomad
Bending:

• Air Bending Mastery: Xunsu was born and raised in the Northern Air Temple and has devoted his life both through spirit and through the body in order to master the element of air. While he is six feet tall and not by any mean thin or lithe he is remarkably light on his feet and nimble. His movements always fluid and precise, every move calculated to perfection. Xunsu has reached such a skilled level that he has both his tattoos and the ability to project his spirit through the physical world.
  
  While some Airbenders are said to have mastered the ability of flight, Xunsu has not and must use his glider or flying bison in order to fly. That said he has earned the name 'Windwalker' for the ability to create dense pockets of air for him to walk on. It's not as efficient as flying and is tiring but it allows him to cross chasms and help him climb walls where there is no other way up.

Skills:

• Spiritual Guru: Xunsu is a spiritual guru. He has spent his life meditating and gaining spiritual enlightenment. He is fully capable of entering the spirit world, and while he is no great bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds he has interacted with spirits on occasion. As a spiritual leader within Si Wong City, he aims to guide the populace to bring about understanding and compassion.
• Artistry: Art is a form of meditation, he has spent years perfecting his skills in artistry.

Weaknesses:

• Air Nomad: Air Benders can be one of the most lethal types of benders. Air Nomads however try to avoid violence and use their bending for peaceful pursuits instead. As such fighting is a last resort.
• Guillible: Xunsu trusts people and believes in them, so much so that should someone tell them that they will change their ways he will believe it and give them another chance.
• Indifferent: Xunsu is indifferent to the worldly concerns between the nations of the world and the reasons too why they fight. He's a spiritual guide, and some would consider him 'aloof' as he never takes into account the reasons for strife or conflict.

Posessions:

• Airbender Staff: Like most Airbenders he carries a staff that can expand out into the orange glider associated with his people.
• Monk Robes: He only ever wears the robes of his people, being a spiritual guru and in charge of the chapter in Si Wong city he has been given the bead necklace to denote him as a monk within the Air Nomads.

Biography: Xunsu was born within the Northern Air Temple and much like all the other Air Nomads he was immediately separated from his family and taken under the tutelage of the monks. He took to the spiritual side of the training with relative ease. While other children struggled with the necessary focus to enter and maintain a meditative stance. While like with many Air Nomads he took to understanding the forms and the beginner levels of Air Bending he found the spiritual work and connection far easier. Under the tutelage of Monk Chen by the age of seven, he was taken to a grove near the temple that had strong ties to the spirit world, together the two of them ventured into the Spirit World for the first time to Xai Bau's Grove. Xunsu would learn to interact with the spirits, nowhere near the level the Avatar could reach but he still found the entire experience enlightening.

Soon after the young Xunsu was taken away to the Eastern Temple to pair with a Sky Bison calf. Chosen by the calm, but somewhat skittish, Peng the two became fast friends and journeyed together between the Air Temples, a pilgrimage most young Air Nomads undertook in order to learn the thirty-six levels of Airbending. By the age of eighteen, he earned his tattoos and became recognized as a true Airbender. From there the desire to help others and spread the teachings of the Air Nomads.

His Journey as a Spirit Guru began in the Northern Earth kingdom, moving from one town to another. While he would usually assist in matters of the spirit, guiding others in meditation he would often be called to help during Bandit Raids and as gangs of criminals plagued towns outside the reaches of their local lords or the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. While initially during his younger years he found these adventures to be exciting, as he joined up with other noble hearts on their journey to assist others and bring balance to the world he felt a real sense of accomplishment. Though he soon became tired of the senseless violence, and the repetition.

Xunsu soon stopped answering calls to help with bandits and raiders, instead of resorting to tackling issues that had arisen between the Spirit and Physical world. Traveling from town to town in order to bring people the balance they sought in their lives. Spiritual enlightenment. Eventually, Xunsu found himself in Si Wong city in the local Air Nomad chapter. He quickly found his calling, rising up through the ranks of the local chapter so that he eventually became a monk. In recent times he has felt the balance shift. Dark forces loom near Si Wong, and Xunsu fears for the worst. Now he knows his new mission, he must find the Avatar.
Supporting Cast:

• Peng: Peng his Xunsu' trusty Skybison. They have been together since they were both kids, growing up together they have a strong spiritual bond and one is not often seen without the other.
• Tuo Po: A skilled Earth Bender. She is one of Xunsu's first friends that is not an Air Nomad. The two shared a brief romance while fighting off bandits though as Xunsu sought a more spiritual existence the two ended the relationship. They still remain close, albeit awkward, friends.
• Dai: Dai is a cunning swordsman. Brother to Tuo Po, he wasn't born with any bending ability but has made up for it in his mastery with swordsmanship. The Two have not spoken much since Xunsu broke up with Dais sister.
• Si Wong Air 'Temple': While not a full-sized temple, Si Wong has a chapter off Air Nomads seen as spiritual leaders of the city. Over his time presiding over the chapter Xunsu has seen many new Airbenders come and go to experience the life of a city unlike any other.