it's 5:30AM. I'll do fancy things with this later.
Full Name: Marian Sandega Shanza
Alias: Shanza
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Element: Earth
Birthplace: Eastern Air Temple
Position: None
Training:
Dual-daggers: Expert
Earthbending: Expert
Throwing Knives: Expert
Spirituality: Extremely High
Hand-to-hand: Basic
Metalbending: Lol
Marian also possess a small handful of other skills, but the aforementioned are the list of combat-related skills she possesses.
Personality: (297) Marian, often referred to by her surname, Shanza, is a cunning and resourceful individual who will use whatever she has around her to help win a fight. Outside of battle though, she's a bit of a playful trickster who enjoys using her charms, both feminine and charismatic, to have a little fun. She is not exactly manipulative, (although can be pretty swaying when she tries) but she tends to get dragged into events way over her head. She blames this on the spirits.
Shanza has a passion for good humor, and enjoys drawing, dancing, and telling stories. She usually has an upbeat attitude as long as she is in an okay state, although even when she's not, she is just straightforward in saying that she does not feel well--for she suffers from frequent headaches, and for these, she also blames the spirits.
While she is honest in that field, Shanza is also something of a compulsive liar sometimes. She usually embellishes her stories to the point of pushing against the audience's suspension of disbelief, and when recounting real-life stories, she sometimes adds those similar embellishments just to see if it is believable or not. She also has a secret love of clothes with frilly hems and when people scratch her head.
Shanza's seeming fondness for blaming the spirits comes from, ironically, a very high spirituality. She definitely believes in them, and firmly believes that they are toying with her life. She has been to the spirit world before--as sometimes, meditation is the only way she can clear those headaches. She is pretty sure that there is a connection between these pains and her spirituality, but she generally tries to dismiss it and live as normally as she can. She is only marginally successful at this.
Abilities: (257) Shanza is an adept fighter. She can use her bare hands if needs be, but she prefers to be armed with something--a knife, a rock, or some sort of sharp or blunt object. Really, anything will do. She prefers a weapon in both hands unless she is throwing knives, where she doesn't mind only having one hand full at a time.
She is also rather charismatic and charming. Blessed with some good looks, she uses them and her own personality wiles to play with people in entertaining ways. Usually they have fun too, so it's a victimless crime. When she explains this to people, she says it as is, letting them interpret it as they will.
She is also a very skilled liar because she is a very good storyteller. She is good at collecting information and good at embellishing when she needs (or wants) to, which means she seldom tells a story the same way twice.
Ironically, while she may not look it, Shanza is actually very spiritual to the point where she has visited the spirit world before. She doesn't have any control over the spirits--if anything, they have a "property of the spirits" tag on Marian's ass. The exact relation and connection is unclear, although she has deducted that her frequent headaches may be because of a spiritual issue.
Other than fighting and storytelling, Marian also enjoys dancing and drawing. In a fight, she will likely use her weapons, or if she is disarmed, she will utilize whatever practical objects are nearest.
Appearance: (270)
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 144 lbs
Eyes: Cyan
Hair: Black
Skin: Brown
Marian is a creature from quite the many walks of life. Born in the Eastern Air Temple as an Earthbender, wearing Firenation clothing, and her body adorned with Water Tribe Tattoos, the most noticeable of which are on her face. She wears shimmering red makeup around her eyes that is red in color and clearly Fire Nation in its origins, and her clothing, usually consisting of a red skirt and shirtsleeves (and the occasional jacket) are also Fire Nation in make, as are her boots.
Her ancestry almost suggests Water Tribe given her brown skin, but the shocking blue of her eyes screams Water Tribe. Perhaps it just goes to show the diversity of the Earth Kingdom folk.
Shanza is girl with meat on her bones, being somewhat curvy and toned in terms of physical fitness. her bronzed skin sees plenty of sunlight, and her black hair falls to her shoulders in waves. Her body has intricate tribal tattoos on her upper back and arms (which is why she wears long sleeves) and some on her face as well. These are believed to be similar to the designs seen more often in the south than the north.
She often has a playful smile on her face, and when she's not wearing her jacket, her shirt has a large crest emblazoned on the back, which Shanza claims is her family crest. However, given her nature as a storyteller, there is no telling how accurate this is.
Shanza has no noticeable scars or markings apart from the tattoos, all of which are normally kept covered up except the ones on her face.
[bonus
IMAGE, as is customary]
Weaponry & Other Gear:
Item Name Twin daggers
Materials: Steel
Description: A simple pair of blades that Shanza has used for years. She maintains them well, so they are still sharp.
Item Name Throwing Knives
Materials: Various; usually iron or steel
Description: throwing knives; sometimes purchased, other times made. creating blades with small pieces of metal is the extent of Marian's metalbending, and even then, she usually has to sharpen them manually and add the handles herself.
History: (610) Marian Sandega Shanza was born the 2nd of four children to the now widowed Kiera Lynn Shanza--although the eldest had been a stillborn--and had been Marian's twin brother, tentatively going to be named Garrett. Whatever the case, Marian survived, and her mother Kiera did as well, and did not suffer any further complications with her own body nor with Marian's. Thus, Marian Sandega Shanza lived in the Eastern Air Temple with her two twin siblings, Daioke and Jinzao. Marian was 3 years their senior. they travelled now and again, but for the most part, the tranquility of the Eastern Air Temple appealed to them to the point where they stuck around.
The family got along well, despite that Daioke and his father were not benders, while Jinzao, Marian, and Kiera all were. with their father's early death, it made Daioke distance himself a bit from the rest of his family.
However, when Marian was 14, it was her that got distanced from the family, as that was the first time that her spirit world shenanigans began. She did not wake up that morning, and nothing anyone could do would wake her. It took consultation from one of the Air Elders before they discovered that their daughter was trapped in the spirit world. the Avatar might have been able to help, but whoever she was, she was only 19. Avatar Zulera's history of being known as the Avatar was very short at the time, after all.
Marian did wind up returning, but this was the beginning of her headache spells as well as her spirit world episodes, none of which she understood since she didn't ever really accomplish anything there.
Over the years, what ended up happening was that Marian and Jinzao became closer friends, while Kiera tried to keep Daioke from getting too distant. This all actually worked out rather fine until the day the Fire Nation tried to attack the temple again just as they had almost 200 years ago. now this was a story.
However, it did come with great tragedy, for Daioke was slain as the family had attempted to flee. There was nothing they could do to bring the boy back, and so they continued their journey northward to Ba Sing Se.
Kiera, Marian, and Jinzao ended up finding a little place in Ba Sing Se, although with Marian's spirit world episodes continuing and her headaches still present, she agreed to split off for a while and seek her fortune. Besides, she was 24 at the time, and was a strapping young lady who could support herself.
This was exactly what she did. Occasionally she'd recruit Jinzao to help her out, but for the most part, Kiera and Jinzao remained together, while Marian did things on her own. During her misadventures, she decided to keep a permanent memory of her mother and family with her at all times, and so adopted the alias "Shanza", being her surname. She does not mind which name is used in the long run, however.
One of the primary reasons for Shanza striking out on her own was because she had a personal quest to fill somehow, and that was to one day and somehow figure out what was the deal with her and spirits, and what sort of connections there were, if any at all. However, just because she was on some life-changing quest like this, did not mean she couldn't stop and have fun every now and again... and Marian took those words to heart. Thus, she roams the streets, and coins flow when she opens her mouth--just as they flow when she keeps it shut.
**OPTIONAL**Sample RP:
Character Box (Required):
| 
Marian Sandega Shanza
|
Shanza's Character Box
| Mood: Happy
Condition: Perfect | |
