Tau is tall, standing a 6'0" and weighs 235 pounds. Due to years of training, Tau is very solid and lean. He's muscular, and athletic, but his age is beginning to show. He has arthritis in his left knee and so he doesn't bend with it very often. His eyes are a deep golden color and his once raven black hair is now a silvery gray, which he keeps in a neat topknot on his head. Tau also sports a neatly trimmed beard (which he can be seen stroking when in deep thought). He has a number of scars running across his body, but the most predominant are the ones running across the inside of his arms from a failed attempt to redirect lightening. He normally wears a dark red haori with golden trim and a thick leather belt around his waist. His pants are black with gold trims and boots.

The Suyoshi family's history is often considered one of the strangest stories that could be heard. You see, the Suyoshi family is said to be cursed. The story starts with Tau's great grandfather. The man was said to have encountered a vengeful Earth Kingdom Spirit after a successful raid on an Earth Kingdom village. This spirit put a curse upon the captain and all of his surviving men: any and all Fire Nation soldiers who dared set foot in that particular province would suffer a terrible fate. Four days later, this troop disappeared without a trace. An investigation was launched and the official stance was that the troop was killed.

The missing captain's great grandson, Suyoshi Tau was born during Fire Lord Azulon's reign and these were stories Tau grew up hearing. By that time, they had been exaggerated to the point that will Tau had come to dismiss them as nothing more than an urban legend. In either event, it didn't stop him from aspiring to join the army and further the Fire Nation's interests.

When he was about five years old, he discovered his bending ability. He studied his bending discipline very diligently. By the time he was seventeen, he was considered one of the best benders in his family and on his eighteenth birthday, he enlisted in the army. He was stationed not more than two or three miles away from the original location where his great grandfather disappeared. As a part of a hazing ritual of sorts, Tau was dared to spend one evening there. He did so, fearlessly proclaiming that the story was just that: a story. He return the next morning unscathed and smug as ever.

Six months later, Tau had the privilege to serve under Iroh during the Siege on Ba Sing Se. He was gravely injured and came very close to death. It took almost a year to recover and he was transferred to some newly conquered backwater Earth Kingdom village. Before then, he had never really seen just how cruel soldiers could be. It was during this time that his opinions about the Fire Nation as a whole began to change. It was a gradual process, but his thinking began to change. He grew increasingly dissatisfied with the life he was leading. Yet, he bore it with a grim smile.

Tau was forced into early retirement at the age of 35 when an attempt to redirect lightning backfired and scarred his arms. He was given a “desk job” and taught rookies. He was away from the fighting and away from the cruelty and as they say 'out of sight, out of mind.' That is until he met one optimistic youth named, Xiaosi. Xiaosi reminded Tau a lot of himself and he ended up adopting the boy as a surrogate son of sorts.

Once Xiaosi was deployed, he wrote to Tau regularly for years, even sending him news about the return of the avatar, that is until Tau received a letter from Xiaosi's commanding officer, stating the boy had been killed in a raid. Angered and hurt by the news, Tau had finally had enough. He refused to follow an order and was arrested, charged with insubordination. Prison life did not suit Tau. He spent two years in prison before being released. The details surrounding his release, however, are conveniently sketchy to the former soldier. He became a wanderer of sorts. Tau took on all manners of jobs, his most recent being an performer in a small band of entertainers. He became much more carefree, having decided a long time ago that life was too short to be angry.

He's since left the band and continued his wandering, looking for his next big adventure, and evading capture every step of the way.

Over the years, Tau has become a sarcastic, yet happy hearty old man. He's cunning, witty, and usually not without some kind of snarky comeback. His mouth is often the source of his problems. He can talk his way right into a bar room brawl and out of it again in the same breath. He's smug, and often laughs at the misfortune of others. Because he can be extremely blunt and almost unmerciful in his teasing, Tau has a habit of alienating people. That doesn't mean he's incapable of having mature relationships. It's simply not that high on his list of priorities, because he travels so much and is very often alone anyway. He never intends to stick around a village or town long, so there wasn't much point in building meaningful relationships. Why bother when he was going to be gone in a week or two anyway? But when he's met a person he can consider a friend, that person has earned a friend for life. He's rather easy going and can be talked into shenanigans relatively easily. In a lot of ways, Tau has become nothing more than a big kid and he likes it that way. Tau often reflects on the misfortune he's had in his life and often wonders if this was what the spirit meant by a terrible fate, a life alone. Maybe it was, Tau doesn't know for sure. But he does know he's determined to make the best of it.