Name: Kyoujin
Age: 110
Appearance:

Kyoujin is, to put it plainly, an ugly customer and he is strangely proud of that fact. His ancient, wrinkled face is inhabitated by a nose that looks like it had been broken countless times. Around his dry lips and sunken cheeks grows a short, neatly trimmed grey beard and moustash. One of his eyes is a deep brown colour while the other is a milky white, a cataract rendering it useless. His hands have thick, stubby fingers, of which the right ring finger is missing. In his youth, he possessed a broad muscular frame, but old age and countless injuries have withered his body into the slight and weedy frame he has today. Despite this, Kyoujin is still surprisingly spry, although he is far more prone to self injury if he pushes himself too hard.

Hiding his bald head is a bowl shaped straw hat, strapped to his skull with a simple strip of cloth. His usual attire consists of a plain black keikogi and hakama, tied at the waist with rope. Over this he wears an apron of weaved fabric that covers his torso. When travelling he dons a simple back pack and goes barefoot like most other earthbenders. The only thing he carries that seems remotely interesting is his walking cane. Made of polished onyx, it is beautifully crafted and something that Kyoujin oft uses as an earthbending tool.

History:

Childhood

[/u]
"How do I think he'll do in life? He's ungraceful, ill-mannered and as ugly as sin itself... I think he'll do just fine".
Kyoujin's adoptive father, on his son

Kyoujin never knew his real parents. At the young age of two he was found and adopted by a man called Gasiki, an Earth Sage. Raised in the temple, the young foundling grew into a rude, bad tempered child but seemed to have a natural gift when it came to earthbending. Gasiki began training him to become an Earth Sage, teaching him their values and way of life. When he was ten, however, something happened that changed everyones lives forever.

The Fire Nation began the Hundred Year War.

Teenage Years[/u]
"When we are young we always know better. Only when we are old and grey do we bother to look back and despair at how wrong we really were".
Kyoujin, on his youth

Sheltered in the Earth Sage's temple, Kyoujin knew little about the war except what the odd merchant told the Sages when they came to trade. Eight more years passed by, with the war dragging on and on and the young man continuing to train, growing more and more disenchanted with the life of a Sage. Finally, Kyoujin had enough of the life the Sages had offered him, wanting to take the fight back against the Fire Nation that was wantonly cutting deep into his country and hurting his people. Gasiki tried to dissuade him, but he knew that the young man would not change his mind now that he had made it up. Instead, Gasiki wished him luck on his travels and gave him a walking cane made of granite cut from the temple itself. With visions of beating back firebenders with the might of his skills, Kyoujin set out on the path to war.

It only took him a few days before he had his first taste of combat. The Fire Nation were assaulting a small village that was putting up a fierce but quickly faultering defence. Approching the raiding force from a hill at their rear flank, Kyuojin unleashed all his earthbending power. The hill he stood upon rose up and smashed into the Fire Nation's men in an avalanche, devastating their forces. The villagers, seeing the tide turning, hastily took up the offence and it was not long before the invading soldiers were quiting the field. The people showered Kyuojin with thanks, giving him gifts and supplies in their gratitude. But that was not all the young earthbender gained with his victory.

Upon departing from the grateful village, Kyuojin found a bunch of people following him at a distance. After a couple of miles, he turned and asked why they where pursuing him. They replied that they wanted to help him travel the Earth Kingdom and give assistance to other belegered towns. He knew that, despite his abilities, he would not be able to fight the Fire Nation alone all the time, so he agreed to fight with them and they formed their team. For the best part of three years they defended the people of the Kingdom and their homes while ambushing Fire Nation convoys and collums with hit and run tactics, gaining a few new members on the way. They even found another earthbender at the start of their second year called Fushi. It was all going well until they were brought down from within.

The group of rebels were planing on ambushing a Fire Nation convoy as it took supplies to other camps. The food and other items in the convoy's possesion would of fed countless refugees, so they decided that despite the heavy guard it would be worth the attempt. When the ambush finally took place, the team were quick and brutal. They managed to take out many of the troops with the first attack, but after that things became very grim. A second wave of Fire Nation soldiers appeared unopposed despite the fact that Kyoujin had set up a counter measure should this happen, lead by the other earthbender Fushi. The remaining group of fighters fought for their lives but were steadily cut down one by one. Kyoujin was the last man standing, still fending off countless fire blasts and weapons, his skills at breaking point. He might of been able to win or at least escape if it had not been for the well timed rock thrown at him... with earthbending as its guide. Kyoujin roared in anger as Fushi stepped before him wearing his true red colours, a Fire Nation emblem adorning his chest. Attacked on all sides, his granite cane destroyed, Fushi was able to deliver the final blow. Smashed directly in the face with a large rock and blinded in one eye, Kyoujin went down and everything went black.

Coming back too, Kyoujin realised he had been left for dead along with the rest of his group. Fury pounding through his veins, the earthbender tracked the convoy until nightfall when he came upon their camp in the shadow of a mountain. Fueled by his rage, the Fire Nation soldiers stood no chance against him as Kyoujin brought down almost half the mountain on top of them. Launching rock after rock, Kyoujin fought his way through the camp until he had found Fushi. Without any backup this time, the backstabbing earthbender was quickly taken down. Begging for mercy, Kyoujin looked down at Fushi coldly and said "No mercy for traitors" before striking the final blow. Vengence taken, Kyoujin knew that he would not be able to carry on his freedom fighting days and decided to travel the world, hoping to gain wisdom and find peace.

Adult Life[/u]
"We laugh, we love, we lose, we lament, then we lie down and languish. That's the circle of life. A pity we rarely learn from it".
Kyoujin, on his observations of life

After his freedom fighter days, Kyoujin found wandering the world to be quite a pleasent change, much to his surprise. He would rarely be attacked by Fire Nation troops anymore. Bandits, however, were a constant annoyance, although thanks to his earthbending abilities nothing ever came of them.

Kyoujin's first planned stop was an Air Temple, the Northen one. It took the young man some time to find it but he eventually prevailed. Climbing the mountain with his earthbending, he found the ruins of the Temple completely empty, just as he had expected. He sat in one of the chambers for a few days and meditated before moving on, praying for the return of the Avatar so that they would sort out the mess the world had gotten itself into.

Next on his list of places to go was the Northen Water Tribe, since he was north at that point.

After some searching he finally found a Water Tribe boat that was heading back home. Sneaking aboard, Kyoujin stowed away and waited for his opportunity to escape when it docked. Unfortunately, the earthbender was found when they arrived and was punished with two hundred hours of community service to the Tribe, which he happily accepted since it would permit him to stay for a while.

While serving his sentence one day, Kyoujin, still not used to the snowy weather and icy services, slipped and fell into the freezing water. As he could not swim, he thought he was surely doomed, but luckily he was rescued by some waterbenders and brought steadily back from the brink of death. Despite his less than striking appearance, one of the healers of the tribe, a woman called Raia, took quite a shine to him and for the next few weeks the two became inseperable. He told her about his spiritual upbringing in the Earth Sage's temple and she told him stories about the Northen Water Tribe's Oasis.

One night, Raia came to Kyoujin and told him to follow her. He did so without question and soon found himself at the entrance to the Oasis. Leaving some offerings at the door, Kyoujin felt something inside of him that he had not felt since he had left the Sage's temple, a sense of spiritual deepness. Leaving the Oasis's entrance, the two of them shared a moment before heading off to their respective beds.

Knowing that it was time for him to move on soon, Kyoujin booked passage on the next ship to leave the North Pole but with a heavy heart as he would be leaving Raia behind. He went to her home to bid her farewell to find her arguing with some men, who the young man remembered as being waterbenders. He discovered that, against the traditions of her people, Raia had been teaching herself how to waterbend for offensive purposes. One of the older waterbenders was just talking about her punishment when she spied Kyoujin on the edge of the crowd looking confused. Raia announced then and there that there would be no need to punish her because she was leaving the North Pole with Kyoujin. Only to happy to have her for company, the earthbender and the waterbender left together about an hour later on a ship headed for the Earth Kingdom.

After travelling back to his homeland, the two benders came across a small mining village that had been taken over by the Fire Nation. Learning about the chokehold they had on the villagers there, Kyoujin and Raia decided to free them and, with their combined bending abilities, they managed to drive the Fire Nation out very quickly. As a reward, a young boy named Shing gave Kyoujin some onyx that he had hidden in defiance against the enemy soldiers, which the earthbender hastily made into a new cane.

Eventually, the pair found themselves at Ba Sing Se, which had been the next stop on Kyoujin's list of places to travel to. Life in the city was hard, but it had it's rewards. With Kyoujin getting a job as a bouncer at a bar and Raia as a cook (a job she found demeaning but carried on with anyway for the money) they lived comfortably together in a small flat above a resteraunt. Living in such close quarters brought the two even closer together and they fell madly in love. For once in his life, Kyoujin was truly at peace.

Kyoujin did not just spend his time wrangling with the Lower Ring lowlifes. His time in the Earth Sage temple had kindled a love of reading that he had not been able to fufill on his travels and even in the Lower Ring there were more books than he could ever want. He even found a gem amongst the rubbish, a rare book about the Spirit World and its inhabitants. While most of the stories in it seemed far-fetched, it made for cracking read. Unfortunetly, not even two months passed when Kyoujin dream was broken, when General Iroh began his six hundred day seige of the great city.

Both of the couple were drafted into the Earth Kingdom army to fight off the advances of the great Fire Nation general and both fought valiently. Then the time came when Iroh's troops managed to break through. Raia, tending to some fallen earthbenders in the shadow of the wall, was crushed to death by the falling rubble. Kyoujin flew into a rage, lashing out at the firebenders that tried to bring him down. Even after he was horribly burned he refused to back down, roaring his lost love's name as he sent rock after rock at the seemingly never ending flow of Fire Nation troops, killing more than a few. It looked as if he would be killed by exhaustion when reinforcements arrived and pushed the enemy back.

In time, the army of the foe broke and fled the field of battle. The day was won, but the cost had been dear to everyone. Kyoujin, unable to even find Raia's body to bury her, sliped away from Ba Sing Se, another unnoticed missing body in the countless others. He resumed his wandering bleakly, no longer seeking knowledge or wisdom, but to forget.

In his aimless wandering, Kyoujin found himself at the edge of a very forboding looking forest that rested in the shadow of a twisted mountain. Even in his state of despair, Kyoujin felt a familiar chill go down his spine, like when he had stood at the Oasis in the North Pole. Only this time, instead of a warmth, he felt a shiver of dread pass through him and lingered deep within his bones. The ageing earthbender decided to move on without passing under its dark, dead looking trees.

In the end, tired in the body, mind and soul, Kyoujin created a hut with his abilities so that he could rest about thirty miles away from the forest, just outside of a Earth Kingdom town. He ended up staying here for several decades, occasionally wandering around but always returning to that one spot. He went into town a few times and took to learning some new skills, rock polishing and gardening grabbing his attention mostly. It was at this point in his life, with age creeping up to him, that something new happened.

He found his first student.

November Days[/u]
"The youth of today only ever think about strength of arms. They have forgotten that such power means nothing if one lacks the strength of will to use it, and use it right".
Kyoujin to his student, Shing

When the boy first came to him, Kyoujin did not know what to make of him. A scrawny young man in his mid twenties, he came to his door and asked to be taught earthbending, claiming to know him from a long time ago. He said that his name was Shing and that he had given him the oynx that the older man had made his cane out of. Remembering the man's face, albeit much older, Kyoujin reluctantly invited Shing in. Twenty years of grief and isolation had made the older man very ill tempered and weary of the world.

Shing explained his desire to become an earthbender, to take his home back from the Fire Nation. Confused, Kyoujin asked what had happened and Shing explained that after he and Raia had freed them, they came back with even more numbers and, despite their best efforts, the Fire Nation had taken away the earthbenders in the village one by one. Feeling a small spark of sympathy for the young man, Kyoujin decided to teach Shing what he knew. The older man went through the basics with him, giving him the knowledge to use the skill. Whenever Shing got something wrong, Kyoujin would dryly mock him and ask if he really wanted to be an earthbender at all. Driven to improve, Shing soon managed to get a good grasp of the basics over the passing months.

The Fire Nation soon attacked and took over the nearby town. This understandably greatly angered Shing, who asked his master if he was going to do something to help. Kyoujin simply shrugged and said no. Furious, Shing stormed off toward the town, claiming that he would retake the town himself. When he got there, he was not only severely outnumbered but severely outmatched. Training with the old man had boosted his ego far more than his skill and there were plenty of experienced firebenders willing to put him in his place. Within five minutes of entering the town, Shing was beaten down, tied up and in the process to be dragged off to an earthbending prison when Kyoujin turned up out of the blue.

Imerging from the ground, the old earthbender beat down many of the surprised soldiers before they even had a chance to react to his sudden appearance. Using his cane, Kyoujin was able to cut Shing free and fend off the fury of the firebenders before creating a tunnel and leading his young student to safety. He did not get away unscathed however, taking a blow to the hand from a sword moments after creating the tunnel and losing a finger. Now safe back at Kyoujin's hut, Shing apologised profusely to the older man but he shrugged it off, retrieving some herbs from his garden and bandaging the wound. Kyoujin asked if he was ready to continue his training and Shing agreed.

With Shing badly hurt he could only do limited earthbending, so Kyoujin decided to train him mentally instead, teaching him that it was all well and good to be strong of body, but that it would not help him if he was weak of mind. Many lessons focussed on learningto pick the best moment to strike and how to maximise his earthbending ability by using the terrain to his advantage. After a month had passed, Shing was ready and willing to try and eject the Fire Nation from the town again, but not before he had found his moment. During some scounting (wearing some hooded clothes so that he was not recognised), the young man learned that they soldiers were planning on moving the townspeople out of the town to a nearby mine to dig for coal. Knowing that would be the best time to strike, Shing went to Kyoujin with a plan.

The Fire Nation locked the townspeople in moving cages within the next week, moving them out of their homes and towards slavery in the mines. When they had reached the open road, the ground rumbled around their feet and several large holes appeared, swallowing a chunk of the soldiers before closing up. The convoy tried to flee with the prisoners, but the beasts pulling the cages were severed from the people when sharp rocks jutted up and seperated them. Sending several small rocks flying into the locks and smashing them open, Shing rallied those who could fight and lead an assualt on the guards. The skirmish was soon over, with the Fire Nation men fleeing. Kyoujin appeared moments later, congratulating Shing on his growth. When Shing asked why it sounded like he was saying goodbye, the old man replied that the boy had learned everything he need from him and should make his own way. With that, Kyoujin was swollowed by the earth.

Returning home, Kyoujin got some things together and wandered around a little but found that he was getting homesick for his hut and his garden. Returning after a month, he found that there were some young people camping outside his door. Shaking his cane at them and yelling at them to scram, they tentively held their ground and asked if he was the old man who lived in the hut. Frowning a confirmation, they explained that a man named Shing had sent them to him to learn from the powerful Kyoujin. Cursing his student, he waved the group of youths into his hut irratably.

Thus began his career as an earthbending teacher.

Present[/u]
"In the end, do you think this war will make any difference to anyone? The heroes and villians of both sides are fighting in vain; life has a way of sorting this kind of thing out in its own way, in its own time".
Kyoujin, on the Hundred Year War

Currently, Kyoujin has no students and is happy that way. He still lives in the hut nearby the town and is considered as a grumpy old recluse, although the townspeople respect his skills as a herbalist and he comes to the market to trade for supplie once a month or so. He spends most of his days in his garden, seeing to the plants or polishing rocks (of which he now has a fine collection of).[/blockquote]Personality:

Kyoujin is a cantankerous old man, often rude and condescending to anyone younger than himself (which includes just about everyone). He is inflexable and stubborn and once he has set his mind on something he sticks to it through thick and thin. There has only been a few times in his life when he has chosen to stop following a path he had taken. Kyoujin is commonly harsh when critising someone, not holding back at all, which is a trait that has planted him in trouble many times in his life.

However, his many years of experience have gifted him great wisdom that he is willing to impart on those he thinks are willing and able to listen to him. He has travelled all over the world in his lifetime, and has been from the great city of Ba Sing Se to the ruins of the Northen Air Temple to the city of the North Pole. Kyoujin has had ichy feet his entire life and even in his advanced age he travels whenever the urge takes him.

In his spare time when he is not wandering the Earth Kingdom he enjoys gardening and rock polishing, the latter evidenced by the beautiful cane he fashioned for himself, made with polished onyx using his formidable earthbending abilities. He also is sensitive about his age and has clipped many young people around the ear for asking how old he is.