Tu Shanshu Reapp
Mar. 23rd, 2016 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whitelotustilePlayer Information:
Name: Stareyes
Age/18+?: 32
Contact: beccastareyes @ gmail
Other Characters Played: None; formerly Iroh, Zelgadis Graywords, Tazendra
Most Recent AC Link: N/a
Character Information:
Name: Iroh
Canon: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Canon Point: In between the TV series and the comics.
Age: 64
Type of Character: Canon
Reference: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Iroh
Setting Concepts: The world of Avatar is made of one large continent and one smaller one, as well as many islands and two polar landmasses. While undiscovered tribes and cities might exist in remote parts of the world, the major nations -- the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom (often with semi-independent cities such as Omashu), the four Air Nomad temples (which effectively operate as one unit), and the two polar Water Tribes -- are known and have existed for some centuries. Most of the cultures in Avatar resemble those in Asia, various Pacific Islands, and those around the North Pole.
Technology in the Avatar world varies, with the Fire Nation most technologically advanced at the point of Avatar: the Last Airbender, with mechanized factories and the ability to use coal-fired steam engines for various large machines (mostly in war). The Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe seem to have large public works projects, but rely more on supernatural abilities than technology to maintain them (as they are built of stone and ice respectively).
What the Avatar world is known for are the population of ‘benders’, people who can manipulate one of classical four element. Traditionally, it was based roughly on the portion of the world one’s ancestors originated; at the time Iroh was alive, it was rare to find, say, a waterbender who had been born in the Earth Kingdom. Bending is traditionally controlled by movement; the basic forms were rooted in martial arts, though masters could often control the elements with small movements of their face, or even by sheer will (though we only know of two examples, both with very specific uses -- the firebender nicknamed ‘Combustion Man’ and, well after Iroh’s death, the waterbender Noatak). Certain animals -- dragons, badger-moles and sky-bison -- are also capable of bending, and both fire and waterbending are responsive to events in the heavens, such as eclipses.
With one exception, benders are only capable of moving one element (though there are often overlaps for the clever; a waterbender or airbender can shape clouds, as clouds are water suspended in air, for example). The exception is the Avatar, a person invested with the Avatar Spirit and possessing the ability to bend all four elements (as well as other tricks). As there is a single Avatar Spirit, there is a single Avatar at a time. The Avatar’s role is one of mediator between nations -- often relying on connections formed while learning all four bending arts -- and between humans and the spirits that also occupy the world.
As the Avatar is born in one nation, that nation often seems to use that to push their luck. We know most of Avatar Kyoshi’s most famous exploits were within the Earth Kingdom, the nation of her birth, for example. This also proved to be a problem with Avatar Roku, the Avatar contemporary with Iroh’s grandfather. During Avatar Roku’s life, Firelord Sozin, Iroh’s grandfather, started colonies in Earth Kingdom-held land. After Roku’s death, Sozin grew even more ambitious; when a comet that boosted firebending appeared in the skies, Sozin staged a multipronged and genocidal invasion of the Air Nomads’ temples seeking to remove the next Avatar (who would be an airbender).
Sozin failed, but the next hundred years involved portions of the Earth Kingdom placed under Fire Nation control and a campaign of elimination against the waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe, killing or capturing all of them. Both Ba Sing Sei, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, and Omashu, a semi-independent city-state, were conquered by the Fire Nation and Firelord Ozai (Sozin’s grandson and Iroh’s brother) planned on using the return of Sozin’s comet to firebomb the Earth Kingdom until the people were dead or totally demoralized.
During this last year leading up to the comet, however, the next Avatar had begun his own training and campaign to stop the Fire Nation. He fought Ozai to a standstill, stopping the firebombing and removing Ozai’s bending to allow him to be captured. A coup in the Fire Nation put Ozai’s son, Zuko, an ally of the Avatar on the throne. The Order of the White Lotus was also able to retake the major cities of the Earth Kingdom.
Currently, the world is at an uneasy peace. The Fire Nation is not trusted, but Firelord Zuko is doing his best to make amends. The Fire Nation colonies are being removed, but this is contested by the older settlements who have started to intermarry, and citizenship is no longer clear.
Personality: Usually the first impression of Iroh is that he’s a jovial old man who dispenses proverbs and tea. More than one person has underestimated Iroh because of it, or assumed that he’d lost the edge that made him such a feared or admired (depending what side you’re on) general. Iroh is aware of this, and generally doesn’t care -- after having lost his son and spent a long time reflecting on this, he focuses on what he finds important in life (his nephew, a fulfilling job, a good cup of tea, a game of pai sho and weekly music nights).
Iroh also seems to have a great deal of empathy and people skills. While he occasionally screws up, and is no saint (most of his relationship with Zuko was trying for both of them), he seems to get people. He is hurt by Zuko’s decision to side against him, but forgives Zuko readily because he sees the actions as those of a confused teenaged boy who desperately wanted Daddy to love him. He also figures out exactly what sort of person his brother is and what kind of person his niece was raised as, and, while he might still genuinely love them both, he also is quite frank in that both of them shouldn’t be allowed to run a daycare, let alone a country.
At some point in his life -- implied as after his son’s death -- Iroh took a long trip around the world, and actually interacted with many sorts of people. This both gave him an appreciation of other cultures that broke him out of the Fire Nation imperialism he’d been raised with. It also gave him some knowledge of the spirit world. We also know he has a devious mind, in that he managed to talk the hidden sect of Sun Warriors into letting him speak to the last surviving dragons, and using his own reputation as a shield for the dragons, letting the rest of the Fire Nation think dragons were extinct. We also know he fooled a group of prison guards into thinking he was a broken old man, while training in secret for a jailbreak.
This isn’t to say that Iroh doesn’t care about what people think about him. When he was recognized as a talented tea-maker, he was overjoyed, for instance. But that Iroh has decided his reputation (or how others view him) is a tool. This may be because Iroh’s reputation for being a brilliant general and Dragon of the West existed well past the time he decided he was done with war. Or it may be earlier, when Iroh earned the title of Dragon of the West via deception (claiming to have killed the last dragons, when his real act was persuading them to accept his charade to protect themselves).
This also speaks to Iroh’s dignity; he didn’t care how senile or disgusting he looked to his jailers, because their opinions didn’t matter as long as they were fooled. He also showed a remarkable degree of patience in this scheme, knowing he’d have to tolerate abuse until he could escape. Iroh had a slight weakness in that he obliquely warned a guard who was kind to him that she should stay home the day of his jailbreak -- an act of compassion, but one that could have gotten him caught if someone had decided that Iroh was faking harmlessness. Iroh is a compassionate man, and believes in nurturing this compassion, especially as the climate of the war-era Fire Nation, compassion was seen as a weakness.
Iroh’s goals in life are to continue his retirement, and he sees no problem with that happening in Keelai versus Ba Sing Sei. He wants to serve people delicious tea, make friends, maybe meet a nice woman, play board games, and have weekly music nights. Iroh is not averse to politics, but it’s mostly as a favor to friends or his nephew. Especially as he has played a role in freeing the Turtle from Malicant, he’s going to be quite willing to stay retired or assist friends.
Most of Iroh’s fears relate to other people. Iroh has accepted that he’s an old man, and life is full of mysteries that are often out of his control, and the best he can do is live in the moment and take things as they come. But he does worry about young people: he wants his nephew and people his nephew’s age to have a long, peaceful life. After spending so much time with Zuko, Iroh is aware of how troubled teenagers can be, and how adults’ poor choices can mess them up. And, well, Iroh worries that he might have done better by Zuko so the poor kid didn’t end up so messed up.
Appearance: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130626131916/avatar/images/c/c1/Iroh_smiling.png
Iroh is an older man, with graying hair and a receding hairline (worn long, with a portion put in a topknot), an impressive beard and sideburns, and wrinkled skin. While he’s not from Earth, he looks similar to a man of East Asian descent. He has a stocky build, though recently he has spent a lot of time building up muscle. He retains most of it. He’s likely to adopt local clothing, both because Keelai is not too dissimilar in style to clothing he’d worn in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, and just generally part of his desire to blend in.
Abilities: Iroh is a master firebender. While technically his title of ‘Dragon of the West’ was not earned by killing a dragon as is reported, he is good enough that no one is going to claim he’s lying. Thanks to his time with the Sun Warriors, Iroh knows both the modern forms (centered on the image of fire as aggression) and the ancient ones (centered on the image of fire as the source of life), though it is likely he couldn’t use the modern forms as effectively any more. Iroh’s firebending is sufficiently skilled that he can breathe fire, which required minimal motions to do so. He can also do small-scale manipulations, like warming a cup of tea to drinkable temperature. Basically, when it comes to manipulating heat or fire, Iroh can probably manage it. Note that this doesn’t involve controlling anything beyond heat -- Iroh can melt stone or ice, but can’t shape it.
Iroh is also capable of both creating lightning directly -- drawing on his acceptance of the world to still his emotions to the degree required -- and redirecting it, a technique he himself developed through study of the principles of waterbending. This also shows Iroh’s general ability to adapt other forms of bending to his actual abilities. It’s possible Iroh could learn to manipulate electricity more finely -- Iroh is from a pre-electronic era, so has never needed to.
Iroh is also in superb physical shape, able to fight off multiple trained opponents and engineer a prison break without use of his firebending. His ability to plan things from a single encounter to an invading army made him one of the Fire Nation’s most respected generals, even after his retirement. (It also means he plays a mean board game.) He’s widely travelled, fond of music (and able to play several instruments), and knows something about plants. Not enough to avoid poisoning himself with a look-alike plant, sadly. His tea is said to be excellent, enough that within short order he had gone from refugee to running a popular tea shop in Ba Sing Sei’s Upper Ring.
Iroh is capable of seeing spirits that most others can’t; it’s never explained why or how he got that particular power, but he seems to have other knowledge of spirits.
Inventory: His clothing, including an apron, a flask of tea, and some tea leaves. He also has a small amount of juulan on him.
Soul Gem: A gold bracelet with a red fire opal. As a result of an incident last spring where it was stolen, it is chipped and loose in the fittings. http://tushanshu-ooc.dreamwidth.org/391711.html?thread=16620319#cmt16620319
Writing Samples:
Third Person:
http://tushanshu-ooc.dreamwidth.org/439723.html?thread=18257579#cmt18257579
Network:
So, I am back. What did I miss?
[Of course, Iroh can’t leave it at that.]
Ah, my apologies. My name is Iroh and I used to run a tea shop with my nephew here. Months ago? One day, I stepped out to get some lunch and the next thing you know…
[Iroh shrugs]
... I feel like I just arrived, and all the dates on the calendar have changed. And the nice volunteers at the welcome center told me that we’re no longer drifting.
I do wonder what happened to my pai sho set. I’m sure it will turn up eventually, but this is the third time I’ve had to look for one on the turtle. This is starting to get a bit frustrating; how can a man enjoy his retirement if he can’t play pai sho?
Name: Stareyes
Age/18+?: 32
Contact: beccastareyes @ gmail
Other Characters Played: None; formerly Iroh, Zelgadis Graywords, Tazendra
Most Recent AC Link: N/a
Character Information:
Name: Iroh
Canon: Avatar: the Last Airbender
Canon Point: In between the TV series and the comics.
Age: 64
Type of Character: Canon
Reference: http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Iroh
Setting Concepts: The world of Avatar is made of one large continent and one smaller one, as well as many islands and two polar landmasses. While undiscovered tribes and cities might exist in remote parts of the world, the major nations -- the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom (often with semi-independent cities such as Omashu), the four Air Nomad temples (which effectively operate as one unit), and the two polar Water Tribes -- are known and have existed for some centuries. Most of the cultures in Avatar resemble those in Asia, various Pacific Islands, and those around the North Pole.
Technology in the Avatar world varies, with the Fire Nation most technologically advanced at the point of Avatar: the Last Airbender, with mechanized factories and the ability to use coal-fired steam engines for various large machines (mostly in war). The Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe seem to have large public works projects, but rely more on supernatural abilities than technology to maintain them (as they are built of stone and ice respectively).
What the Avatar world is known for are the population of ‘benders’, people who can manipulate one of classical four element. Traditionally, it was based roughly on the portion of the world one’s ancestors originated; at the time Iroh was alive, it was rare to find, say, a waterbender who had been born in the Earth Kingdom. Bending is traditionally controlled by movement; the basic forms were rooted in martial arts, though masters could often control the elements with small movements of their face, or even by sheer will (though we only know of two examples, both with very specific uses -- the firebender nicknamed ‘Combustion Man’ and, well after Iroh’s death, the waterbender Noatak). Certain animals -- dragons, badger-moles and sky-bison -- are also capable of bending, and both fire and waterbending are responsive to events in the heavens, such as eclipses.
With one exception, benders are only capable of moving one element (though there are often overlaps for the clever; a waterbender or airbender can shape clouds, as clouds are water suspended in air, for example). The exception is the Avatar, a person invested with the Avatar Spirit and possessing the ability to bend all four elements (as well as other tricks). As there is a single Avatar Spirit, there is a single Avatar at a time. The Avatar’s role is one of mediator between nations -- often relying on connections formed while learning all four bending arts -- and between humans and the spirits that also occupy the world.
As the Avatar is born in one nation, that nation often seems to use that to push their luck. We know most of Avatar Kyoshi’s most famous exploits were within the Earth Kingdom, the nation of her birth, for example. This also proved to be a problem with Avatar Roku, the Avatar contemporary with Iroh’s grandfather. During Avatar Roku’s life, Firelord Sozin, Iroh’s grandfather, started colonies in Earth Kingdom-held land. After Roku’s death, Sozin grew even more ambitious; when a comet that boosted firebending appeared in the skies, Sozin staged a multipronged and genocidal invasion of the Air Nomads’ temples seeking to remove the next Avatar (who would be an airbender).
Sozin failed, but the next hundred years involved portions of the Earth Kingdom placed under Fire Nation control and a campaign of elimination against the waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe, killing or capturing all of them. Both Ba Sing Sei, the capital of the Earth Kingdom, and Omashu, a semi-independent city-state, were conquered by the Fire Nation and Firelord Ozai (Sozin’s grandson and Iroh’s brother) planned on using the return of Sozin’s comet to firebomb the Earth Kingdom until the people were dead or totally demoralized.
During this last year leading up to the comet, however, the next Avatar had begun his own training and campaign to stop the Fire Nation. He fought Ozai to a standstill, stopping the firebombing and removing Ozai’s bending to allow him to be captured. A coup in the Fire Nation put Ozai’s son, Zuko, an ally of the Avatar on the throne. The Order of the White Lotus was also able to retake the major cities of the Earth Kingdom.
Currently, the world is at an uneasy peace. The Fire Nation is not trusted, but Firelord Zuko is doing his best to make amends. The Fire Nation colonies are being removed, but this is contested by the older settlements who have started to intermarry, and citizenship is no longer clear.
Personality: Usually the first impression of Iroh is that he’s a jovial old man who dispenses proverbs and tea. More than one person has underestimated Iroh because of it, or assumed that he’d lost the edge that made him such a feared or admired (depending what side you’re on) general. Iroh is aware of this, and generally doesn’t care -- after having lost his son and spent a long time reflecting on this, he focuses on what he finds important in life (his nephew, a fulfilling job, a good cup of tea, a game of pai sho and weekly music nights).
Iroh also seems to have a great deal of empathy and people skills. While he occasionally screws up, and is no saint (most of his relationship with Zuko was trying for both of them), he seems to get people. He is hurt by Zuko’s decision to side against him, but forgives Zuko readily because he sees the actions as those of a confused teenaged boy who desperately wanted Daddy to love him. He also figures out exactly what sort of person his brother is and what kind of person his niece was raised as, and, while he might still genuinely love them both, he also is quite frank in that both of them shouldn’t be allowed to run a daycare, let alone a country.
At some point in his life -- implied as after his son’s death -- Iroh took a long trip around the world, and actually interacted with many sorts of people. This both gave him an appreciation of other cultures that broke him out of the Fire Nation imperialism he’d been raised with. It also gave him some knowledge of the spirit world. We also know he has a devious mind, in that he managed to talk the hidden sect of Sun Warriors into letting him speak to the last surviving dragons, and using his own reputation as a shield for the dragons, letting the rest of the Fire Nation think dragons were extinct. We also know he fooled a group of prison guards into thinking he was a broken old man, while training in secret for a jailbreak.
This isn’t to say that Iroh doesn’t care about what people think about him. When he was recognized as a talented tea-maker, he was overjoyed, for instance. But that Iroh has decided his reputation (or how others view him) is a tool. This may be because Iroh’s reputation for being a brilliant general and Dragon of the West existed well past the time he decided he was done with war. Or it may be earlier, when Iroh earned the title of Dragon of the West via deception (claiming to have killed the last dragons, when his real act was persuading them to accept his charade to protect themselves).
This also speaks to Iroh’s dignity; he didn’t care how senile or disgusting he looked to his jailers, because their opinions didn’t matter as long as they were fooled. He also showed a remarkable degree of patience in this scheme, knowing he’d have to tolerate abuse until he could escape. Iroh had a slight weakness in that he obliquely warned a guard who was kind to him that she should stay home the day of his jailbreak -- an act of compassion, but one that could have gotten him caught if someone had decided that Iroh was faking harmlessness. Iroh is a compassionate man, and believes in nurturing this compassion, especially as the climate of the war-era Fire Nation, compassion was seen as a weakness.
Iroh’s goals in life are to continue his retirement, and he sees no problem with that happening in Keelai versus Ba Sing Sei. He wants to serve people delicious tea, make friends, maybe meet a nice woman, play board games, and have weekly music nights. Iroh is not averse to politics, but it’s mostly as a favor to friends or his nephew. Especially as he has played a role in freeing the Turtle from Malicant, he’s going to be quite willing to stay retired or assist friends.
Most of Iroh’s fears relate to other people. Iroh has accepted that he’s an old man, and life is full of mysteries that are often out of his control, and the best he can do is live in the moment and take things as they come. But he does worry about young people: he wants his nephew and people his nephew’s age to have a long, peaceful life. After spending so much time with Zuko, Iroh is aware of how troubled teenagers can be, and how adults’ poor choices can mess them up. And, well, Iroh worries that he might have done better by Zuko so the poor kid didn’t end up so messed up.
Appearance: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130626131916/avatar/images/c/c1/Iroh_smiling.png
Iroh is an older man, with graying hair and a receding hairline (worn long, with a portion put in a topknot), an impressive beard and sideburns, and wrinkled skin. While he’s not from Earth, he looks similar to a man of East Asian descent. He has a stocky build, though recently he has spent a lot of time building up muscle. He retains most of it. He’s likely to adopt local clothing, both because Keelai is not too dissimilar in style to clothing he’d worn in the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom, and just generally part of his desire to blend in.
Abilities: Iroh is a master firebender. While technically his title of ‘Dragon of the West’ was not earned by killing a dragon as is reported, he is good enough that no one is going to claim he’s lying. Thanks to his time with the Sun Warriors, Iroh knows both the modern forms (centered on the image of fire as aggression) and the ancient ones (centered on the image of fire as the source of life), though it is likely he couldn’t use the modern forms as effectively any more. Iroh’s firebending is sufficiently skilled that he can breathe fire, which required minimal motions to do so. He can also do small-scale manipulations, like warming a cup of tea to drinkable temperature. Basically, when it comes to manipulating heat or fire, Iroh can probably manage it. Note that this doesn’t involve controlling anything beyond heat -- Iroh can melt stone or ice, but can’t shape it.
Iroh is also capable of both creating lightning directly -- drawing on his acceptance of the world to still his emotions to the degree required -- and redirecting it, a technique he himself developed through study of the principles of waterbending. This also shows Iroh’s general ability to adapt other forms of bending to his actual abilities. It’s possible Iroh could learn to manipulate electricity more finely -- Iroh is from a pre-electronic era, so has never needed to.
Iroh is also in superb physical shape, able to fight off multiple trained opponents and engineer a prison break without use of his firebending. His ability to plan things from a single encounter to an invading army made him one of the Fire Nation’s most respected generals, even after his retirement. (It also means he plays a mean board game.) He’s widely travelled, fond of music (and able to play several instruments), and knows something about plants. Not enough to avoid poisoning himself with a look-alike plant, sadly. His tea is said to be excellent, enough that within short order he had gone from refugee to running a popular tea shop in Ba Sing Sei’s Upper Ring.
Iroh is capable of seeing spirits that most others can’t; it’s never explained why or how he got that particular power, but he seems to have other knowledge of spirits.
Inventory: His clothing, including an apron, a flask of tea, and some tea leaves. He also has a small amount of juulan on him.
Soul Gem: A gold bracelet with a red fire opal. As a result of an incident last spring where it was stolen, it is chipped and loose in the fittings. http://tushanshu-ooc.dreamwidth.org/391711.html?thread=16620319#cmt16620319
Writing Samples:
Third Person:
http://tushanshu-ooc.dreamwidth.org/439723.html?thread=18257579#cmt18257579
Network:
So, I am back. What did I miss?
[Of course, Iroh can’t leave it at that.]
Ah, my apologies. My name is Iroh and I used to run a tea shop with my nephew here. Months ago? One day, I stepped out to get some lunch and the next thing you know…
[Iroh shrugs]
... I feel like I just arrived, and all the dates on the calendar have changed. And the nice volunteers at the welcome center told me that we’re no longer drifting.
I do wonder what happened to my pai sho set. I’m sure it will turn up eventually, but this is the third time I’ve had to look for one on the turtle. This is starting to get a bit frustrating; how can a man enjoy his retirement if he can’t play pai sho?
