The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits 
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 18:35:59 GMT -5
Original works complied by UhchakuhlakWelcome to the Profile Aid. Originally all separate posts, Uchakuhlak (former Chamir), has combed the site to gather up all our available resources to offer you the best help we can. The following posts are tools for your use. Use them in any way you may find helpful. These resources were complied by Feng Shui Members for you to make the character creation process more enjoyable, to answer questions and to encourage you to step beyond your comfort zones.
Index of Resources[/u]
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The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
Posts: 0
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 18:39:22 GMT -5
Below you'll find a repeat of our Profile Rules and Guidelines for your convenience.
If there is anything you have questions about or are uncertain of or need clarified, then just ask a moderator. :3
Name:
Names in the Avaverse are strongly Asian in origin, primarily leaning towards Chinese. Our definition of Asian refers to any traditional names originating from the Middle East all the way to Japan, Indonesia, and even Hawaii (excluding Russia). If you have a good Americas (Check out the Native Languages!), European (Scandinavian!) or other names that are uncommon or fitting, then please, try it by us. We just do not want characters named Sarah or Chris for example.
Players and staff here at Feng Shui are encouraged to continue that trend where possible. In fact, each of the three factions has their own cultural trends when it comes to names.
Names among the Northern & Southern Water Tribes tend to include the sounds “K,” “OH,” “AH,” or “AW” and are cultural derived from Americans about the arctic circle and pacific northwest, such as the Inuit and Yupik. The names of their kinfolk, the Foggy Swamp Tribe, are often monosyllabic and sometimes end in a vowel or double vowel while their names are speculated to originate from countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. People of the Earth Kingdom have names that can be pointed towards not just China but Korea and some Southeast Asian countries, such as India with Kyoshi Island inhabitants possessing Japanese names. Meanwhile Fire Nation names use strong consonants or sometimes the letter “Z” and their cultural name influence is not just Chinese but some Mongolian and Japanese as well.
Though we do encourage these naming conventions, you are not forced to use them. You have many options within the range of a fitting non-western culture or region. If you are not sure of a name you would like to use, then feel free to ask a moderator or another player. How many names a character has (i.e. given name, middle name, style name, martial name, surname, alias, etc.) is up to you but try not to go too overboard with it.
Age:
Simple enough, yes? You are more than allowed to create a character of any age, yet remind yourself what their age will mean the Avaverse society and here at Feng Shui. Sure you can have your nineteen year old wuxia-style soldier, just don’t expect them to be a high-ranking officer or a five year veteran or G.I. Joe uber-recruit. Of course that eleven year old can be the ‘twenty for a penny’ hard-luck story on the mean streets of Republic City, but don’t expect us to allow the kid to be some street rat with uber-skills.
Gender:
Just as easy enough, yeah? Much like with the age field, try to remind yourself of the constraints and options open to your character based upon their gender, class and nation even with the changing times and cultures.
Nation of Origin:
There is NO NEUTRALITY ‘round here. We have Water Tribe, Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and United Republic. Identify your character with one of these based on their birth or current citizenship (e.g. though both were living in Republic City, Korra was still a member of the Southern Water Tribe, but Tarrlok became a member of the United Republic though born in the Northern Water Tribe).
If you wish, your character can culturally identify with a nation outside of their citizenship. You can go on about it in the background section. Here, it's not that important to note. Just keep in mind that even though 70 years and at least two generations since the war's end, it was a hundred year long war with one faction not only gaining global domination (temporarily) but also committing colonial annexation and at least two acts of genocide. That doesn't suddenly go poof from cultural consciousnesses even with that much passage of time and new blood.
Keep in mind of such things with your characters and their interaction, it can help develop a more nuanced roleplay for you and the other players. In fact, the show hints to us already, in at least Republic City, firebenders have a negative stigma attached to them. Try to avoid any "born from all nations" nonsense and try to remember that cross-nation births may not really be that common. Likely rare during the hundred year war, very very few occurances during Tenzin's generation but still not that common in Korra's generation though the world begins to mingle once more. If you want to have a character with a multinational lineage then the pairings from most to least likliest would probably be: Earth & Fire, Earth & Water, Water & Fire.
Bender? What Element?:
The only elements you have to chose from are water, earth and fire. Nothing else!
Much like canon we want to attempt to have benders as a very small part of the population, if possible. And if your character is a bender give us and other players some idea of their ability and skill level with it; how the character treats or uses their bending. If your character is born from parents of different nations, then please choose an element from one of the parent's heritage. You can only bend ONE element!
Physical Appearance:
Please, no pictures. And no crossovers. Pretend that you have commissioned someone to draw your character, and you want that picture accurate to what you have in your head. Give as much detail about your character as you can, from the features of their body to shape of their head to the shade of their skin to the look on their face for example. Try to avoid ranges such as “not skinny but not muscular either,” instead give us something moderately specific.
Some matters you should also take note that the speculative average height around here for both genders is between 5’3” and 5’10” when not including hair. Let’s try keeping within that range. Also try to maintain a character’s appearance within the Avaverse’s environment both by the era referenced and each nation’s culture: Water Tribe folk have blue eyes, brown and black hair with the darker skin tones on average compared to other nations. Earth Kingdom folk have eyes ranging from green to brown with black or brown hair. And Fire Nation folk have the lighter skin tones on average compared to other nations, eyes ranging from brown to amber and gold with brown or black hair.
Clothing/Armor:
No pictures here either. Much like physical appearance, detail this section well enough as if an artist needed to create an accurate picture of this character. Also, even if you know the name of an outfit, pretend the lot of us are stupid, and describe it for us anyone so everyone can recognize it. Thank you. And when using colour, please, branch out and apply the variety of shades and hues a colour. Instead of terms like “grey,” “light blue,” and “dark green” try something like “slate grey,” “robin egg blue” and “emerald.” While you’re at it stick to each nation’s general colours first. Water Tribe being blues, Earth Kingdom taking up greens and yellow, Fire Nation taking up the reds and pinks. Once you have that primary down then you can try branching into complimentary colours of each faction.
Try to veer outside of the easy choice for outfit colors, like grey, brown, black, grey—even if they are poor we've seen characters with more than just a single color for their outfit.
And with the addition of the United Republic of Nations, at least in Republic City, we have seen the adoption of oranges, which are usually associated with the Air Nomads. There are also some amount of purples and shades of greys popping up amongst the Republic City denizens too—perhaps UR's particular nation colors?
Equipment?:
One more time: no pictures. Don’t give us just the item's name. Tell us about it. Its appearance, size or length, weight or material, history, etc. Anything you can about and how it relates to the character, such as an sentimental attachement, modification, proficiency or use of techique of an item.
Items for the equipment section doesn't necessarily mean things like jewelry or personal accessories that can fit under clothing, but such things as vehicles, weapons, tools or toys often utilized by your character.
Personality:
Describe how your character acts and thinks. In fact, as Muqali wrote it, there are two aspects to personality: exterior and interior. The first is how they interact towards others like how they speak, how they treat strangers and people they know, the relations they have with others and the world around them, how their behaviour changes depending on their mood, what causes them to change their mood etc. Interior is how they will feel inside, their motivations and dream and fears and hobbies and such. Detail how these aspects make up your character, and try to keep it consistent to avoid conflicting quirks and traits.
Background:
Go through each stage of their life and give us what you can of it in as much detail as you can. Consider yourself writing the character’s biography in brief but give yourself an omniscient point of view with it. Start with early childhood and gradually go through their life—adolescence, tweens, teens, young adulthood and further on until you bring us up to speed at where the character will begin from once they’re approved. We do not expect a short story from you but enough detail to point out major parts of this character’s life. You might also find help and inspiration in linking the character’s personality and their background together because those two sections tend to play off and compliment one another.
Now, while your character's lifestory is keeping in step with Avatar source material, there are a tropes and clichés and nonsense and laziness we here at Feng Shui encourage you to avoid.
Among them include but are not limited to orphans, hard-luck cases growing up on the tough streets doin what they can to survive, family deaths, characters turning their backs on their people/nation, runaways, tepid antagonist/villain faction characters not willing to play the part, kids with very high authority ranks (e.g. general, council member, chief), personal tragedy heaped upon tragedy, unsupervised minors becoming wanderers and travelers, characters with unreasonable canon level character skills or greater, white hair before their time, silver or blonde hair, european arms and armour and culture, characters who do little more than train in their bending/martial arts from a young age to be supa-POWAH-full, characters that are hitmen/women, bounty hunters and/or assassins—just to name a few.
And there is Chamir's 'favourite' which is way way~ too common in profiles for various RPGs: kill your parents! Sure a parent could expire because of war or disease or accident or incident (often vaguely described if at all) or child birth but it becomes a problem when seemingly nine out of ten new profiles from new members has one parent die (often the mother) before the character is even twenty-one. And maybe half of that number the player kills off both parents before the character is an established adult. Why you writers no like parents? Please, let the parents be! ;_;
Chamir, wanting to grow up to be a character's parent that lives to see great-grandbabies alongside spouse.
Sure we see those examples overused, often just not working out or coming across as forced BUT[/i] on a profile-by-profile basis, if you can make it convincing enough, it could be accepted. No guarantees, yet we're game in you proving why it deserves to be there both in your explanation and in the profile itself. However, profile moderators will not give reconsideration to such elements that involve domestic violence, abuse, neglect, rape, etc. Such portions are in need of automatic editing.
RP Sample:
This is just your basic RP post pertaining to Feng Shui’s Avaverse and at least 150 in words in length. This portion of the profile is practically a culmination of all the other fields you filled out.The scene can be about anything but try and remain in the character's present. This sample should give other players some idea to what you character is like as a person, the sort of person their own characters may have to deal with in time. In some ways this is your character’s proper introduction and starting point into the RPG—so work it! Sure it is good to know the character’s surroundings but this sample is more about the character—focus on them, not just their environment, their abilities and thoughts.
Whew! Quite the roadmap. It may seem like you have your work cut out for you to just to get in, but not to worry. You’re not expected to make something hideously long—the profile moderator has to read, review and semi-critique it more than once after all—so keep in mind length will not always equal quality work.If you want to make it lo~ong, that is your choice. If you can pastry stuff in all the necessary that will pop a creative, original and approval character from the oven then we are done with that too. We treat each profile as is on an individual basis so you have no need to try and score points with us or get on our good side.
Remember dearies, the profile moderators are here to work with you and help improve your characters in hopes of giving you and everyone else the best RP experiences that we can possibly provide. If your character is not approved immediately or your review comes back to you rather lengthy looking—DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED because that is really very common around here. Talk to your profile mod and figure out where you can improve. You are even welcome to talk to other members of the staff and even other players for help too. One of the intended traits of Feng Shui is our effort in being a high quality roleplaying environment and that also means open communication between the applicants, profile mods and even the audience. We like to help if we can so do not be shy in asking questions or seeking a dialogue.
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The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
Posts: 0
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 18:42:35 GMT -5
In addition to the obvious types of characters that we've already seen (Bender.. Pro Bender.. Triad.. Equalist) there are a million other roles your character could fill in Republic City. Originally developed to encourage people to see non-bending characters, the following is a corroboration effort between many of the members of Feng Shui, brain storm various ideas for their character throughout the years. We hope you find it useful!
- Academic researcher and explorer – Become an Avaverse Indiana Jones, much like Professor Zei. Just be careful… learning can be dangerous. If its not the giant boulders it’s the damn giant owls.
- Air Acolyte- Your character may not be able to air bend, or be an Air Nomad, but they... can cosplay as one? Or at least learn, preserve and experience the Air Nomad culture.
- Air Nomad- Humor us?
- Animal Tamer/Trainer - Do you absolutely love Saber Toothed Moose Lions?! Train one!
- Artisan - Such opportunity! Make fabulous carvings, or weavings, become a glass blower! All with Royal warrants to the Fire Lord, The Earth Kings and lesser kings, and even Cheif Arnook.
- Blacksmith - Someone's gotta make all those blades and spears and armor we see, not to mention common household items! With the rise in metal usage due to technology's recent development, you'll surely make a killing.
- Chef - You can either serve slop hardly worth consumption to the masses or cook a meal of fine turtle duck roast fit for a king!
- Council wo/man -
- Doctors and Nurses - People get sick and hurt all the time, and someone's got to care for them, it could be you!
- Dog Musher/Sledder - It's Balto all over again!
- Earth Kingdom Noble - You've worked your way up in the world and now you've got a seat "this close to the bear!"
- Engineer - With all the new technology running about, there are plenty of people on that cutting edge, designing the next big thing.
- Equalist - Those rotten benders! You just can't stand them, and as it turns out, you're not alone. You've sworn your allegiance to your hero, your savior, Amon.
- Farmer - Someone's gotta do it. Raise crops, Ostrich-horses or even Rooster-pigs! Whatever you want!
- Fire Fighter – A dangerous profession, they were both looked up to for their courage and looked down upon for their behavior. In various cultures on Earth, they were at times a VERY rowdy lot. Often got into it with people and each other, even at the site of a fire and would brawl over territory. Some would even set fires so they could be paid for putting it out.
- Fire Nation Noble - Do you like Glamor and Glitz? Political intrigue? How about back-door ongoings if you catch my drift? Then this positon is for you! Bat your pretty eyes as you play the war of jewels and compete for higher social status! Or even a throne!
- Fisherman/woman - Deadliest catch, avatar style!
- Foreign Tourist - Surely there will be a big ol' camera around your neck and a fanny pack too.
- General/Admiral - Naturally this is a high power position, but who's to say you can't? Command a few troops, take a boat ride, you know, military stuff.
- Guru - Do you dispense helpful, yet confusing as hell, advice? Can you put your feet behind your head? Do you have awesome dance moves and get all the ladies? Become a guru! Advise our dear little Avatar won't you?
- Herbalist- Do you like being crazy? Do you like being a hermit? Than become a reclusive herbalist! Or not!
- Hired Goon - You've got a talent for beating people up, and you know exactly how to capitalize on that.
- Ice sculptor – Sure a waterbender or three can easily rebuild a bridge or gate, but can their bending create ornate objects and carvings from the snow and ice? Just make sure you have some thick gloves.
- Itinerant gambler – Your character like money? Likes money? Is rather lucky or know how to cheat without being caught? Make a career out of it then. Moving from town to town to stay out of trouble. Maybe get yourself hired by a legitimate employer who wants you to gamble away the earnings of his employees every payday and return to him the money. Surely you’ll get your cut for a job well done, and maybe shave off a little extra for youself.
- King/Queen - It's pretty much assumed that the Earth Kingdom is a Empire made up of smaller kingdoms and city-states. Why not rule one!?
- Kyoshi Warrior - You get fabulous hair and makeup automatically! And kickbutt fans too!
- Lumberjack – Someone's gotta get all that wood moved around. Hei Bai will not be your friend..
- Magistrate/Judge- Be a judge, and decide life or death court cases.
- Martial arts instructor – The core of bending revolves around the martial arts, so surely plenty of people will be needing a teacher!
- Messenger – The Marvelettes’ Please Mr. Postman jokes aside… well someone somewhere needs their mail.
- Military instructor – Yes, Drill Sergeant!
- Miner – Work deep underground gathering precious metals, ore and jewels. Perfect for Earth Benders too.
- Monk/Nun –
- Monster Hunter – Lock Ness Monster anyone? Unagi eel? Serpent? Elephant koi! The Lion Turtle exists, I KNOW IT!
- Musician – Entertain the masses.. or the courts.. or simply be a wandering bard!
- Naval Captain - Command a ship for any of the three nation's navies!
- Ostrich-horse cowboy - Sexy. Need I say more?!
- Performer - Become a dancer, a sword swallow, contorsionist, a gypsy! We even have a group, the Flame Dancers, already set up with heavy influence from Cirque Du Soleil! You don't have be Fire Nation either.
- Pest Exterminator - These nasty buzzard-wasps just wont leave me alone!
- Pilot - Daredevil? Risk-taker? Why not try out these fancy new flying-thingamajigs?
- Pirate Captain - You can command your own ship and travel the world! Also, all the rum you can ever want! Unless someone named Elizabeth decides to burn it all for a signal fire.
- Pirate Crew - Fed up with the Captain? Mutiny! Or simply get drunk and throw a party! Whatever you perfer.
- Poet/Poetry teacher – Roses are red, violets are blue, poetry is fun, this doesn't rhyme.
- Police Officer – Grab your trusty nightstick and patrol the town, you'll surely have your hands full with all the gangs running about!
- Probender - Become a bending star! Have your name broadcast all over Republic City and have legions of fans. Or, maybe you'll lose, but that's ok, right?
- Puppeteer – Shadow puppets, string puppets, hand puppets, clay puppets, sock puppets. Come on! Make the children smile.
- Racer - Wanna go fast?
- Radio Personality/Celebrity - Got a golden voice? Know just the right ways to keep people listening? Be that voice everyone knows and loves, and listens to every night.
- Singer/Songwriter - Surely with the invention of the radio, music is on the rise as well, be the next Frank Sinatra!
- Solider - Bring honor to your family name! Be a solider of any rank! Participate in daily marches, and and tom foolery!
- Spirit- Sure.. we're a bit harder on spirits than we are humans. And we like to see that you are a good and regular RPer before we give you one.. but feel free to try out if you know you'll be around for a while!
- Storyteller – Children love to hear stories.
- Tax/census wo/man – Not the most thankful of jobs by a long shot. Make sure you have a few hired goons to help. The locals might not be all that friendly to someone legally taking away their money or recording their households to know how much many to take from them.
- Taxi - Hey, wassa matta wit' you? *bad New York accent*
- Teacher – They say that children are the future, and it's your job to make that future, or perhaps even be a professor at a university?
- Thief - Robin hood-esque, or simply a Ladies' man out for a midnight panty raid? Keep an eye out for random fans though! *Whack!*
- Trader/Merchant - The countries trade between eachother. Where else do you think the Water Tribe gets their cloth? From the Earth Kingdom! Some has to organize this.
- Treasure Hunter/Graverobber – Forget that thirst for knowledge crap! What’s in it for you? Why bother having something collect dust in a museum or Ba Sing Se University when you can sell it to the highest bidder or keep the trinkets for yourself.
- Triad Member - The largest and most famous gang in Republic City. Go rough up a poor shop owner for some protection money or maybe pull off a heist somewhere.
- Water Tribe Noble - Days of advising the Chief and overseeing the important civil matters of the Water Tribe are in your schedule. No more of that hard work fishing or hunting, you've got it pretty easy now!
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The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
Posts: 0
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 18:52:46 GMT -5
Canon ResourcesFirst created by Sekar and incredibly useful, just like the Fashions post. We hope to continue to update this as Canon Information is released by the creators. Did you ever want to know something specific about a particular nation? Or anything about a character or a place? Having a hard time picking up from the show, or just want to double check? It's hard to be accurate, and a lot of the mods don't have all the answers about every little nuance the show has to offer. Here, I will list a collection of links to various reliable sites that have information about the show that you can use for Profiles and Games. This is a boon to anyone that strives to keep to canon All around info - Nickelodeon's The Legend of Korra page
This is your best friend when it comes to canon. Not only is it straight from the horse's mouth, but it also has a lot of facts and tibits not mentioned in the show.
- Avatar Wiki
Collection of in-universe information that can be edited by anyone
- Avatar Spirit
A renowned Avatar fansite & community for the Aang and Korra periods with news, information, screenshots, transcripts, etc.
- A:TLA Annotations
Notes, commentary and reference information for ATLA & TLOK series. Thanks goes to host, Jin, for the what she brings to the greater fan community.
- The Fashion Trends of Republic City
A screencap blog of the various clothing styles found in Republic City.
Scans & ScreencapsInterviews - Interview collection
This is a collection of interviews from AvatarSpirit. This is probably another awesome resource since these come straight from the creators and producers and all of the wonderful people that make this show.
MiscellaneousSince the Korra timeline calls back to the 1920s, in places like Hong Kong and the USA, I've decided to add a few links to some slang of the era.
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The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
Posts: 0
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 18:58:19 GMT -5
Sekar's Awesome Name ResourceNOTE:This resource has been condensed down for space due to our conversions over the year. Instead of linking specific pages, we will link you to the main page. Please, if you see Sekar around, offer him your gratitude.
20,000 NamesAsian NamesBaby Name GuideBaby Name NetworkBabynologyBehind the NameBubba Boo Baby NamesCalifornia State Polytechnic University, Pomona Asian Name Pronounciation GuideCool Baby NamesKate Monk's Dictionary of Names
Need help figuring out which names to use? Well here's how it works: Names among the Northern & Southern Water Tribes tend to include the sounds “K,” “OH,” “AH,” or “AW” and are cultural derived from Americans about the arctic circle and pacific northwest, such as the Inuit and Yupik. The names of their kinfolk, the Foggy Swamp Tribe, are often monosyllabic and sometimes end in a vowel or double vowel while their names are speculated to originate from countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. People of the Earth Kingdom have names that can be pointed towards not just China but Korea and some Southeast Asian countries such as India with Kyoshi Island inhabitants possessing Japanese names. Meanwhile Fire Nation names use strong consonants or sometimes the letter “Z” and their cultural name influence is not just Chinese but some Mongolian and Japanese as well. Though we do encourage these naming conventions, you are not forced to use them. You have many options within the range of a fitting non-western culture or region. If you are not sure of a name you would like to use then feel free to ask a moderator or another player. How many names a character has (i.e. given name, middle name, style name, martial name, surname, alias, etc.) is up to you but try not to go too overboard with it.
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The Lion Turtle
Ishvara Spirits
"Your own spirit must be unbendable."
Posts: 0
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Post by The Lion Turtle on Aug 20, 2012 19:12:52 GMT -5
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