1. Well, however long Ozai has been on the throne in the show is how long he has been here. ;] timeline wise, we're pretty canon, but not completely.

2. It would really depend on a lot of factors - your character's age, military experience, a plausible backstory, etc. The highest you could go would be Colonel, if I recall correctly, but again that would be completely dependent on those other factors. High ranking officials are a no-no, as outlined in the chaacter FAQ.

3. Ozai himself? Probably not. You forget, Ozai is the Fire Lord, and doesn't really leave the palace for any reason. If you recall the show, the first time we see him outside of the capital city is at the very end, where he has decided to become the Phoenix King. Generally any low-scale atrocities, even one as despicable as that, wouldn't have been a direct order from Ozai, but rather the people "on the ground" so to speak, that run the day-to-day operation. Ozai has bigger fish to fry than worry about what happens to a handful of people.

As for your plan, again, it would really depend on backstory, but I'm leaning more towards that it wouldn't have been Ozai he would've witnessed. As far as the FNR, you'd have to ask Karena. =]

I thought that the rank of Colonel was one away from general?

Nope. We're using US Army/Navy ranks, and Colonel is actually four ranks below general. A general is, in the army, an 0-10 pay grade, and the highest you can achieve outside of wartime. Colonel is an 0-6 pay grade.

If you'd want to be one of the founding members, first of all, I'd keep him closer to Makino's age or older. Someone younger would be a tad bit of a stretch, at least if more than a few years or so. Personally - and this is just advice - I would maybe think that either he started to disagree with Ozai, and maybe noticed the sort of brainwashing that we saw in that one episode when Aang went to a FN School. Makino didn't think about creating it after his daughter was banished with Zuko, so that was 3 years ago... perhaps they're old friends, and Makino knew he could trust him, so let him in on what he was planning?

If you have anything else related to this that you'd like to ask/talk about, then please PM me. I can pass along all information to Kanea - who plays Makino - as we're roomates.

That's fantastic, Karena.

I had planned on having him be close to Makino's age, but I had not intended for them to be old friends. It does make a lot of sense though, and it would be a convenient way to work it out. Thanks for the idea.