Post by Quirbles on Feb 8, 2022 13:33:58 GMT
GIVEN NAME: Commander Daro Shen, commonly known as Firehawk among the top brass within the Fire Nation’s armed forces. It is also a title his enemies come to know quite well.
AGE: 58
BIRTHPLACE: Harbor City, Fire Nation Capital.
BENDING ABILITIES: Daro Shen employs traditional firebending disciplines, as is standard with most soldiers within the Fire Army. His particular style of bending, however, is largely unique. Shen has placed a great emphasis on graceful “flowing” movements and fluid, defensive stances, most likely owed to his upbringing amongst waterbending circles; as a result, the manfiestation of flame from his technique appears with a more fluent and wider profile. Often times, attacks from Daro Shen’s arms— particularly sweeping overheads and swings— expel fire with a motion that drags the flame behind the hand and forearm, not unlike a pair of wings. This analogue, along with the elegant aesthetic of his bending earned him his title of Firehawk.
Daro Shen has devoted a large amount of his life to the mastery of firebending. This training has, predictably, led to the discovery of adjacent disciplines. Though the fabled myths of Combustionbending elude the aged Commander, he has managed to train himself in one sub-bending technique in particular: the art of redirecting and generating electricity.
RELEVANT SKILLS: An admirable tactician, Daro Shen rose to the position of Commander within the Fire Army due to his prowess in armed combat and the direction of troops beneath his command. Key military victories against remaining Air Nomad enclaves and Earth Kingdom rebel cabals earned Commander Shen the reputation of a particularly driven and ruthless soldier, doing his part for the unification of the world under the Fire Nation— whatever that cost may be.
BIOGRAPHY: Born to a family of impoverished sailors within Harbor City, Daro Shen spent much of his early life away from the Fire Nation mainland. As he belonged to a family of merchants, he was able to spend much of his childhood travelling the world-- in the process, gaining practical experience in oceanography and sailing alongside exposure to earthbending, airbending, and waterbending cultures. At the age of thirteen, Shen demonstrated the ability to firebend; from that day forward, he was no longer an assistant to his parents, but their protector, as hired muscle for protecting shipments was a luxury too expensive for his family to afford. Thus began the sleepless nights in which he trained. With no master to teach him, Shen took matters into his own hands, using what funds he had saved to purchase firebending scrolls that had changed hands among merchants. They had found their way to him, and he used them well. What he could not learn from the rare scrolls of his nation he borrowed from other sources-- namely, the waterbending disciplines of which he observed during his trips to the northern and southern tribes. Scrolls purchased from the north also helped him fill the gaps in his knowledge, resulting in a technique that was wholly his own.
When pirates attacked or threatened to raid their small vessel, he would be prepared. Ready. Or so he thought.
His parents died under the full moon. Waterbending raiders used the cover of night and their enhanced ability to make short work of the young bender-- in the process, sending his parents overboard into the frigid waters of the southern seas. The only thing that kept him alive was the fire trapped within his soaked palms and the steam which blew from his nostrils, warming him enough to keep him from dying in the throes of hypothermia. For days, he drifted-- surviving on the rations meant for three was not difficult-- until he was discovered by waterbenders again, though these were of the far less aggressive sort. It was this village within the southern water tribe that raised him as their own, and it was during these years of adolescence that his talent for bending grew-- as did his appetite for revenge.
This hunger would not be satiated until years later, when he was old enough to leave the tribe on his own. Ignorant, was he, of how much the cold limited him-- for to firebenders, ice is anathema. For him to train all those years and unknowingly overcome the handicap of winter meant even he was unprepared for the power held in every kick, jab, and strike of his abilities. When he finally tracked the raiders to warmer waters, short work was made of the entire band under the light of dusk.
And so his family's honor was reclaimed, and he was without purpose. So, it was inevitable that he turned his sights to the Fire Nation proper-- the last tie of kinship he held, in his eyes-- and enlisted in the Fire Nation Navy.
The decades of service that followed carved out Commander Daro Shen's legacy within the might of the Fire Nation. A notoriously ruthless soldier, then lieutenant, then Commander-- never quite achieving the rank of Admiral, given his lowborn blood and conspiracy to keep him out of full leadership. He was a dangerous man-- extremely composed, driven, and loyal, which made him a valuable subordinate to those who truly held power. Daro Shen found that he did not care; prestige was a fleeting and useless thing. His value as a fighter and tactician came first. It was for this reason that he never truly took himself further, instead finding the rank of Commander to keep him as connected as possible to the men he guided.
It would come as no surprise, then, that his expertise was eventually guided elsewhere. Though his prowess had always fallen under naval combat, the careless disregard and abandonment of duty by a peer left a vacuum of power and command within a key region of the Earth Kingdom territories. It was there that Daro Shen proved himself not just as a competent naval commander, but a valuable resource to the army as well-- not a savant like the man who came before him, but filling the boots well enough. Decisive blows to surrounding towns following the burning of Xiagu were a result of Commander Shen's expertise, much to the satisfaction of his superiors.
All that remained was finding the craven Xianzu Shu and delivering him the fate he deserved. Commander Shen would conduct operations upon the mainland throughout the next year with this purpose in mind, though his loyalties forever remained to the Fire Nation-- and whatever they willed of him.
No matter the cost.