Asafu [Expert]

Full Name: Asafu of the Hami tribe
Gender: Male
Age: 20
Element: Earth
Birthplace: Si Wong Desert, Earth Kingdom
Position: Trader
Training: Earthbending - Intermediate, Sandbending - Expert, Scimitar - Intermediate

Personality:

Being born and raised in the endless expanses of the Si Wong desert breeds a certain amount of solitude in any person. Asafu is no exception to this. While alone, he tends to be an extremely introspective person. The mind, to him, is a landscape that is initially just as sparse and desolate as the desert he was born in. It is the role of a man or woman to populate that realm with ideas and landmarks. To create, as it were, an oasis in the desert of life.

Asafu's focus, as a young man, was on the survival of himself and his tribe in the desert. After his extended trip to the South Pole, however, he came to see the potential for the desert tribes to come together and form a nation as cultured and unified as the Water Tribe.

In social settings, Asafu tends to become embarrassingly excitable, though he struggles to keep this under control. The problem isn't so much with anger as it is with being obnoxious as times. He often deems this behavior "rude and regrettable".

His attitude becomes more somber when dealing with issues that concern the safety and survival of his family or the politics of the tribe, issues that often spring up in the harshness of the Si Wong desert.

Asafu was in love once, but doesn't talk about that.

The concept of yin-yang is not lost of Asafu, whose mantra "sand is water" directly reflects the contradictory nature of earthly balances. He is a spiritual man who considers himself in tune with the desert spirits.

Abilities:

Having been raised in the Si Wong desert, Asafu has a proficiency in bending sand to his whim. His father, also a sandbender, initially instructed him in the techniques that Asafu perfected by himself. The ability is extremely important to him. As a trader on desert caravans, sandbending is used to propel sand-sailers across the landscape - a primary mode of transportation. Earthbending/sandbending is also used to create homes and shelters for the people.

It occurred to Asafu during his trip to the South Pole that sandbending had more in common with waterbending than with traditional earthbending. Sand is a fluid, but it seemed that sandbenders for centuries had been using common earthbending techniques to control it with inefficient results. He stayed for years to study among the waterbenders. As such, he has a greater control over the movements of sand than most sandbenders do.

Asafu can earthbend regular stones with basic skill, but is less as home on solid ground. To train himself, Asafu uses an ancient technique where the user compresses the sand into a compact, singular structure, much like a rock that can be bent with traditional methods.

Asafu cannot metalbend or lavabend.

For protection, Asafu likes to carry a scimitar - a traditional weapon of the Si Wong desert often associated with pirates and bandits. His skills with this weapon are still developing.


Appearance:
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 160 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Skin: Brown

Physically, Asafu is not a particularly intimidating person. He stands less than six feet tall and is not notably muscular. He considers this a strength. Less bulk means less need for water and nourishment that can oftentimes be hard to come by in Si Wong. It has taught him to depend on his environment and skills as a bender rather than on his bodily strength.

Like most sandbender tribesmen, Asafu has dark hair. He keeps it longer to protect his scalp from sun damage. It's generally kept in a ponytail. His dark skin has been tanned by the sun like most of his fellow sandbenders.

Clothes are simple but important in Si Wong. Not having adequate protection can lead to blindness or skin damage from the sun's rays. His head is generally covered in a red cloth while his body is draped in simple nomadic garb. Fashion is not a priority, though Asafu makes an attempt to blend in with any foreign land he might be visiting.

During his time in the South Pole, most natives never gave him a second look. His appearance was very close to that of a local waterbender and he is often mistaken for one when out of context.

Among the sandbenders, he is unremarkable.

Weaponry & Other Gear:

Item Name Scimitar
Materials: Iron and bronze
Description: A fairly normal weapon. No distinguishing history.

History:

The Hami tribe has a long history in the Si Wong desert that dates back to the dawn of recorded time. They'd been everything from traders and merchants to pirates and smugglers through the years. They had been reduced to little significance by the time Asafu's father was born into their ranks.

The ending of the Hundred Years War put most of their smuggling operations out of business. The Hami existed as pastoral nomads, shepherds to the few animals that did survive in the Si Wong. The industries of the world had long surpassed them, but were in need of a material not easy to come by in the "civilized" world - glass.

Asafu's father realized the potential for selling sand to make glass. The process had been long established, but wasn't in fashion. When tastes demanded glass for their architecture, he cornered the market. He partnered with trading associates from Ba Sing Se to form a business that exported sand to factories in the city. Firebending factory workers blasted the sand into glass and exported it across the nation.

Business was booming when Asafu was born. His father was, by then, an important and successful man in the Hami tribe. The riches brought in by the company wasn't by itself useful to the desert tribesmen, but he used that money to import water and medicine, earning him a position of high regard in the community.

It was during this period that Kuja Sakaiza unified the sand tribes into the first Harena, or Sand Nation. Although it quickly dissolved into obscurity, Asafu would later in life become very nostalgic for the Harena and the potential it had.  

From the time he was old enough, Asafu and his siblings were put to work on the massive sandsailers that transported huge amounts of sand from mining pits all across the Si Wong desert. It was imperative to their father that his children wouldn't become lazy with their wealth. And so, they worked.

Even as a child, Asafu helped defend the caravans from plunderers and wild creatures. These served to both desensitize him to the violent world and make him strong enough to survive in the brutality of the deep desert.

Around age eleven, Asafu accompanied his shipment all the way to the factory in Ba Sing Se. It was his first time leaving Si Wong. The technology, diversity, and sheer size of the city overwhelmed him. What struck him most, though, was the disparity in conditions between the rings of the city. The process of desegregating rich and poor was still in infancy. It astounded him that so few could live such grandiose lives while so many were in squalor.

There is an anecdote among the Hami about when the young Asafu met the factory owner. The rich executive shook the boy's hand and asked how he was enjoying Ba Sing Se. Asafu quipped that he was "looking forward to getting back to civilization" in Si Wong.

Arguably the most influential event in Asafu's life was his long trip to the South Pole at age fourteen. By this time, Asafu had been taking a greater hand in his father's business and helped secure a major deal with a Southern Water Tribe business magnate from the Misty Palms Oasis. The businessman was part of a project to revitalize and modernize the South Pole to compete economically with an industrializing world.

Asafu and his father made the long trek to the Southern Water Tribe's harbor capital. Again, the city life was overwhelming to the young man. Over a stay of several weeks, the long-term deal was finalized and Asafu's father was ready to make a satisfied return home.

The stay had made an impression on Asafu, however. He noted the parallels between the water tribes of old and his own sand tribes back home. Despite the (literally) polar opposite climate, he recognized similarities between the desolate landscapes of the South Pole and the Si Wong desert. Yet, while the sand tribes could barely feed themselves, the water tribes were building gleaming cities and stable governments. How could this be?

So, Asafu's father made the voyage home, but Asafu resolved to stay in the South Pole and study their culture. Not only was the knowledge of the water tribe at his disposal, but that of the world at large. He studied classical literature, history, politics. He became a student of life.

It occurred to Asafu that sandbending had more in common with waterbending than traditional earthbending. Sand, like water, acted as a fluid. He found that utilizing waterbending techniques was a more efficient way of controlling the element, giving him a distinctive edge over other sandbenders.

Asafu also fell in love during this period, but he keeps that detail to himself.

Three years later, Asafu made the decision to return home. He maintains a deep respect for the Water Tribe and their accomplishments. His "pilgrimage" where he made his "great awakening" convinced him that his people could be unified into another Harena, a great nation of cultural achievement.

Si Wong was just as he had left it. He was welcomed home, albeit with some initial skepticism of his newly found intellectualism, and set about his work to unite the tribes of the great desert under one banner...

Character Box

Asafu

He awoke in the night to the crackle of fire and the drunken carousing of his tribesmen nearby. They alone were the inhabitants of the great slumbering desert. His aching bladder afforded him no rest and Asafu arose, groggy, and stumbled between vacant tents to a place out of sight. His water dissipated into the ground the moment it made contact - an offering to the desert, he mused. Off in the distance, a stranger stood lonesome among the dunes...

Mood: Condition:

"Sand is water."

Spoiler:

this looks like a great and promising character. glad to have him aboard.
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