Kyoshi

1. #1History

   Kyoshi was born in the year 312 BG somewhere in the Earth Kingdom. Her exact birthplace was unknown even to her. At the time of her birth, the country was destabilized by the Yellow Neck Uprising and marauding bandit groups known as daofei. One of the most powerful crime networks, the Flying Opera Company, was led by Kyoshi's parents, Jesa and Hark. Her parenthood was unusual, as her mother Jesa was a renegade Air Nomad nun, whereas her father Hark descended from a distinguished but impoverished line of Earth Kingdom actors. Following Kyoshi's birth, her parents opted to lay low and mostly refrained from participating in criminal activities. Along with their daughter, they traveled all across the Earth Kingdom in a wagon, never staying in one place for a long time. When Kyoshi was five or six, however, her parents decided to leave her in the care of a villager at Yokoya Port, an impoverished community of farmers and fishers located on a peninsula at the Whaletail Strait in the southwestern Earth Kingdom. They left her a chest with Jesa's signature metal fans, as well as a journal that contained information about the daofei and their customs. When her parents had departed, the villager immediately reneged on the deal, casting Kyoshi out onto the streets. As they were mostly poor themselves, the people of Yokoya had little sympathy for her and would have left her to die of hunger. Homeless and reduced to starvation, Kyoshi survived by eating garbage, making her even more of an outcast among the Yokoyans. Kyoshi later blamed her parents for her misfortune, and came to hate them as well as all criminals in general. Nevertheless, she grew extraordinarily tall, and was already taller than many teenagers at age seven. By chance, Yokoya was visited by Jianzhu and Kelsang in 305 BG. The two masters had been traveling the Earth Kingdom for seven years to find the Avatar. They presented the children of Yokoya with a test that included toys that had belonged to past Air Nomad Avatars, but all failed. Kyoshi spied on the event, and Kelsang invited her to pick the toys despite Jianzhu's objection that she was probably too old to be the Avatar. Though mistrustful, she took a clay turtle that had belonged to a past Avatar. When Kelsang told her that she could take three more toys to confirm whether she was the Avatar, Kyoshi believed this to be a lie or trick, not used to kindness, and inherently regarding promises of fortune as dangerous. As a result, the young girl fled with the clay turtle instead of partaking in the test. The two masters let her go, and went on to falsely identify an Earth Kingdom boy named Yun as the Avatar.

2. #2Servant Life

   Having realized that none of the Yokoyans were helping Kyoshi, Kelsang sought out her hiding place in the village and took her into his care. Used to being mistreated, the young girl was initially reluctant to trust the Air Nomad monk, but when she understood that he was honest, Kyoshi was overwhelmed by the Air Nomad's kindness, and came to see him as her adoptive father. Kelsang always provided for Kyoshi when he was in Yokoya, but often had to leave the village for long periods of time, during which he provided money to various farming families to look after her until he returned. Once, he returned to find she had lost weight and had not been taken care of properly, he promised Kyoshi that he would never leave her for such a long period of time again, which is when he got Jianzhu to grant her a position of work in the Avatar mansion that was being built to accommodate Yun's trainers and entourage. While the construction of the Avatar mansion was still ongoing, Kyoshi met Rangi, a firebender who had been appointed Yun's bodyguard, and who soon started to regularly yell at Kyoshi and order her around. After a few weeks, Kyoshi realized that the firebender expressed some emotions in a particular way; yelling at people meant that she liked them. The two subsequently became good friends. As a result of Kyoshi's desire for organization and cleanliness, the staff eventually decided that her talents would best be put to use cleaning up after Yun as his servant, as he tended to leave quite a mess wherever he went.[ She also would help out in the kitchen and sort through gifts sent to the Avatar from time to time. Enjoying her life at the mansion, Kyoshi fully adopted it as her home. Though she always remained somewhat apart from the rest of the staff due to her background and friendship with Rangi (who treated the other servants with open disdain), Kyoshi cared for the other staff members and had a good working relationship with several of them. Despite her greatly improved livelihood and overall situation, Kyoshi continued to face occasional harassment by local youngsters, most prominently by Aoma, the daughter of Yokoya's village captain, who along with her companions was jealous of Kyoshi's comparably better life as well as her proximity to the Avatar, despite being an orphan and outsider, while they had to toil on their parents' fields and fishing boats. Despite this, Kyoshi preferred to adhere to neutral jing and endure the bullying rather than strike back, although she was physically strong enough to do so. She also held almost no grudges against the Yokoyans who ill-treated her as a child and teenager. Once, when Rangi plotted to aid her in getting revenge on Aoma, Kyoshi even cautioned against it.[4] Her rejection of violence included the use of her own earthbending abilities. She was only able to bend very large pieces of earth without any precision; regarding these abilities as useless for her servant job, Kyoshi rejected Kelsang's urgings to get training and generally refrained from using her bending at all.

3. #3In 296 BG

   Kyoshi's life drastically changed in 296 BG. Kelsang began to suspect that she might be the actual Avatar, although Kyoshi considered the assumption ridiculous. The monk initially agreed to not voice his assumptions publicly. Over the following days, she initially tried to continue to live as if nothing had happened, going on some minor quests with Yun and Rangi. She subsequently joined Yun's team as he ventured to an iceberg near the South Pole, where a treaty was supposed to be signed with a pirate people known as the Fifth Nation. For this occasion, Jianzhu provided Kyoshi with an impressive green, armored kimono that later became part of her iconic look. In the course of the tense, two-day long negotiations with the pirates, Kyoshi grew closer to Rangi but remained otherwise a mere onlooker. When Fifth Nation leader Tagaka revealed that the meeting was a trap to capture the Avatar, however, Yun was only saved thanks to Kyoshi's intervention. Using a combination of raw power and the Avatar State, she destroyed much of the Fifth Nation fleet in an amazing feat of earthbending. This event caused Kelsang to reveal his belief in Kyoshi's Avatarhood to others. With the identity of the Avatar being called into question, Jianzhu tried to learn the truth by presenting Kyoshi and Yun to an evil spirit known as "Father Glowworm" in the southeastern Earth Kingdom. The creature identified Kyoshi as the true Avatar. To her shock and horror, Jianzhu then left Yun to the spirit's wrath while taking Kyoshi to safety. Shortly after, Kelsang unexpectedly arrived and tried to rescue her, only to be murdered by Jianzhu. Overcome with emotions, Kyoshi triggered the Avatar State and was able to flee back to the Avatar mansion. There, she revealed the events to Rangi who vowed to protect her from then on. The two consequently escaped into the inner Earth Kingdom on Kelsang's flying bison Pengpeng. The two tracked down the Flying Opera Company, joining them to be safe from Jianzhu. Kyoshi quickly deduced that one gang member, Lao Ge, was an infamous assassin. He agreed to become her teacher in spirituality and assassination. Despite hiding their true identities, she and Rangi also gradually formed bonds with the other gang members, Kirima, Wong, and Lek. Traveling with the criminals, Kyoshi ended up in the daofei town of Hujiang, where the Flying Opera Company was forced to agree to assist a more powerful crime network, the Autumn Bloom Society led by Mok. While staying at Hujiang, Kyoshi realized that she was in love with Rangi; to her relief, the firebender shared her feelings. After fleeing Hujiang due to an attack by a shirshu sent by Jianzhu, Kyoshi was forced to reveal her true identity to the rest of the gang. To her pleasant surprise, the criminals refused to abandon her, considering her a comrade and friend. Kyoshi then earnestly began her training, being taught firebending by Rangi, waterbending by Kirima, and earthbending by Wong as well as Lek. Lao Ge also continued to share his knowledge, including his self-proclaimed method to achieve immortality. After several weeks of preparation, the Flying Opera Company travelled to Zigan Village. There, the group was supposed to help the Autumn Bloom in rescuing a prisoner from the dungeons of the corrupt Governor Te Sihung. To test her mettle, Lao Ge secretly enlisted Kyoshi to also murder Te. The operation succeeded in freeing the prisoner, although Kyoshi chose to spare Te's life after threatening him into becoming a better official. To the Flying Opera Company's shock, however, the freed prisoner turned out to be Xu Ping An, a mass-murdering and deranged rebel leader. Xu promptly declared the Yellow Necks restored, and prepared to restart his destructive insurgency. Realizing that she could not allow Xu to walk free, Kyoshi challenged him to a lei tai duel. The duel almost resulted in Kyoshi's death, as Xu turned out to be a powerful lightningbender. However, Kyoshi eventually entered the Avatar State and killed Xu. The Yellow Necks consequently scattered, while Kyoshi's friends nursed her back to health. However, Jianzhu had finally located her and ambushed the Flying Opera Company, kidnapping Rangi and inadvertently causing Lek's death. Vowing revenge, Kyoshi confronted Jianzhu at Qinchao Village. After a tense conversation and Kyoshi's refusal to become the sage's pupil, the two started to duel. They proved to be evenly matched until Yun unexpectedly reappeared, ruthlessly killing Jianzhu before leaving without another word. Kyoshi then fled the town, leaving its inhabitants - the Chin clan - furious at the destruction caused by the duel with Jianzhu. Kyoshi subsequently reunited with Lao Ge, Kirima, and Wong who had rescued Rangi in the meantime. The group decided to split up, with Kyoshi venturing to the Southern Air Temple in order to safely reveal her identity as the Avatar to the public.

4. #4Her identity

   After revealing herself as the Avatar to the Air Nomads, Kuruk appeared to Kyoshi in a vision, pleading for her help. Kyoshi did not fully connect with him, however, leaving the content of his request vague. She also learned that Jianzhu had left all his lands and wealth to her in his testament. Over the course of the next months, Kyoshi began to assume her Avatar duties. Before she left the Southern Air Temple, Jinpa was assigned to the Avatar as her personal secretary by the Council of Elders. He subsequently became her confidant and friend, although their working relationship was often strained due to Kyoshi's unwillingness to do what was expected of her: namely, to aid and work with the four nations' elites, despite many of them being corrupt as well as self-serving. Kyoshi found it difficult to be an approachable or diplomatic Avatar and failed to hide her disgust at the Earth Kingdom's rampant corruption. As she could not solve issues by talking, Kyoshi tended to resort to force and manipulation to carry out justice. She could do so, as her abilities as a bender and strategist grew steadily, also thanks to her studying the writings of her old nemesis Jianzhu. Feeling unable to properly influence the Earth Kingdom's elites, Kyoshi eventually launched a one-person crusade against the Earth Kingdom's worst daofei groups, destroying several. She also searched for Yun, but found no trace of him. Overall, her demeanor and opinions alienated many members of the country's elite, while the common people came to fear her. To Kyoshi's own unease, she increasingly employed tactics similar to those of Jianzhu, and began to feel deeply conflicted about her way to do things as the Avatar.

5. #5295 BG

   By 295 BG, Kyoshi was in Ba Sing Se, where she defeated Mok and the Triad of the Golden Wing, as well as rooting out the corruption of the city's peace officers. She decided to pause her work in the Earth Kingdom when Jinpa notified her that Rangi and Hei-Ran had returned to the Fire Nation. As she journeyed to the capital, she began to confide in Jinpa about her recurring visions of Kuruk, after an intense pain caused her to fall into the Mo Ce Sea. Kyoshi arrived in the Fire Nation, where she was formally greeted by Chancellor Dairin, and used the opportunity to grow close with Rangi again. Kyoshi's appearance at the festival seemed to prove a catalyst for the political tensions in the unstable Fire Nation after she confused Chaejin for his half-brother Zoryu, the rightful Fire Lord. Although Hei-Ran helped Kyoshi smooth over tensions in the palace, the event was plunged into further chaos with the shocking appearance of Yun, who held the attendees hostage by burying half of their bodies in the floor with his earthbending. Yun managed to assassinate Lu Beifong, as well as killing Dairin and injuring his guards when they tried to confront him. As the earthbender managed to flee the scene, Kyoshi was left to deal with the political implications of the evening, as Chaejin's faction and the Saowon clan would use it as a sign to prove the weakness of a Fire Lord whose reign had been plagued with bad luck. Kyoshi and her allies came to the conclusion that Yun was likely possessed from his experience with Father Glowworm. Hei-Ran advised that they seek out Nyahitha, an old ally of Kuruk and herself. Shortly before they left for North Chung-Ling, Hei-Ran ritualistically cut her top-knot to demonstrate her lost honor, and made Kyoshi promise to allow her to sacrifice herself for Yun. When they arrived, Nyahitha told Kyoshi that he did not know what the spirit had done to Yun, but promised that he could help her commune with Kuruk. The group also bore witness to the escalating tensions between the clans in the Fire Nation, giving them a sense of urgency to resolve the conflict before the nation descended into civil war. That evening, Kyoshi and Nyahitha reached a bluff in the hills where Kuruk had once meditated, and she experienced a vision of Kuruk mastering the elements, although the memories did not provide her any help for what she should do with Yun. As they looked down on the city, the pair were shocked to find a large message supporting Chaejin as Fire Lord, which caused the rival clans to start descending into a brawl in the village square. Although Kyoshi tried to intervene and beg for peace, she began to realize that the battle was proving to be a distraction, and returned to Hei-Ran's lodgings just as Yun was ready to stab Hei-Ran through the throat. Although Hei-Ran managed to badly burn Yun, he still escaped, and Kyoshi chose to have the headmistress brought to her doctor, Atuat, instead of leaving to follow after him. As Hei-Ran healed, Kyoshi found that Rangi was now furious with her after discovering Kyoshi's promise to sacrifice Hei-Ran, though she soon showed that she still truly loved and cared for Kyoshi. Hei-Ran and Kyoshi then noted that the fight in the square would be a pretense for war. Kyoshi deduced that Yun was working with the Saowon, as she confirmed that the town's crops that spelled out the message had been poisoned with salt, which was now owned by Lady Huazo of that clan. Kyoshi then made a plan to force a confession from Huazo, and came to the docks with Atuat, where she apprehended the noblewoman before she was due to depart Shuhon Island, although the woman agreed with her terms, believing that the Avatar was making a huge mistake. Kyoshi did not inform Rangi of her plans, and instead lightly pushed her down in the ground before she left so that her lover could not come after her and stop her plans. Jinpa and Kyoshi flew Huazo to an Avatar-owned safe house on Capital Island, before taking off and informing Zoryu of the situation. Although the Fire Lord was shocked, he gave her his permission to kidnap Chaejin. When she flew back to the safe house with Chaejin, she bent away the foundations of the property and intimidated the pair into revealing Yun's location; when they refused to answer, she threatened to drop both of them into the sea. After Kuruk's voice reminded her that going this far was not who she was, she realized that both of them were truly innocent, and let the pair go free. When Kyoshi returned to the palace, she bore witness to an assembly in the Fire Lord's private theater, where a double of Yun confessed to conspiring with the Saowon clan, ruining the honor of the Fire Lord's rival clan and causing an immediate purge of the Saowon to break out across the nation. In a private conversation with the Fire Lord, she pointed out that the ruse would be exposed if the real Yun showed up, and the Fire Lord agreed, stating that he had bought the Avatar more time to find the real Yun. In return for apprehending the real Yun, Kyoshi demanded that the Saowon and false Yun should be spared from death. Before dismissing the Avatar, Zoryu advised her to accept the truth that he was driven by revenge for his stolen Avatarhood. Kyoshi then departed the capital on a small royal pleasure craft, Sulan's Smile, ordering the crew to take her to the ruins of Yangchen's island in the Mo Ce Sea. Although she almost drowned in the sea water, Kyoshi managed to cross over to the Spirit World, where she had an emotional meeting with Kuruk. She received an extensive vision of his life, and realized that his own life had been shortened by his quest to hunt down dark spirits. Kuruk also informed her that spirits could not possess humans, and that Yun had been acting out of his own accord the entire time during his quest for vengeance. In the physical world, she was dragged out of the sea water by Joonho and his crew, saving her life. After spending a month learning advanced healing arts from Atuat, Kyoshi made her way to Yokoya, meeting Yun in the Avatar mansion. After excusing Mui, Kyoshi confronted Yun, telling him that she had to bring him to justice for the sake of the world. Yun refused to be locked up by Kyoshi, and started the fight by bending up a stone pillar between the pair. Kyoshi managed to rip up the dining room in the fight, but Yun escaped the area and hid himself from Kyoshi throughout the rest of the estate. Kyoshi was caught off guard when Yun managed to liquefy the stone floor without heat to trap and encase Kyoshi, but then she revealed that the rest of the Flying Opera Company had come with her. Wong bent her out of the trap while Kirima attacked Yun, while Rangi sent a violent blast of fire in Yun's direction. After Yun hurled stone spears to fend off a potential rescue by Jinpa, he broke Kirima and Wong's legs by creating pitfalls when they tried to sneak up on him. After crudely using blood to complete their signature makeup, Kyoshi and Rangi used fire to destroy Yun's earth barriers, though Yun tunnelled down and stabbed Rangi with an earthen spike. Kyoshi attempted to apologize to Yun when he began to chastize her, but she made use of the opportunity to freeze Yun's heart and lungs when she could get close to him, while immediately turning back to Rangi and using the Avatar State to heal her grievous wounds. After Atuat came to the peninsula to give more specialist care to Kyoshi's wounded friends, she buried Yun in Yokoya, and held a small funeral with Rangi, where they promised to stay beside one another forever. At that moment, a "fox" guided Kyoshi to a forest spring, where she met with Yangchen for the first time. The previous Avatar explained her own failings to Kyoshi, and that every Avatar had to make the right decisions for themselves. After the meeting, the fox guided Kyoshi back to her friends, and later became her animal guide. Following her battle with Yun, she sent Lao Ge to intimidate Zoryu into keeping his promise to spare the Saowon and the false Yun. Despite the turmoil in her personal life, Avatar Kyoshi remained steadfast in her mission to see the four nations rise above the conflicts plaguing them. She was not a popular Avatar at the time, as her closest allies were daofei and she sometimes fumbled in diplomatic situations without hesitating to resort to violence.

6. #6Protecting Ba Sing Se

   Kyoshi returned to Ba Sing Se soon after the Camellia-Peony War, and over the next two years, she helped establish a task force which swiftly dealt with the most dangerous daofei and violent criminals in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se. Kyoshi received support from Ambassador Quin of the Fire Nation in this endeavor, and the ambassador convinced the then-ruling Earth King, Yi Ming, to officially adopt the task force. Kyoshi was needed elsewhere, and left Rangi in Ba Sing Se to keep an eye on things, while the task force was given over to the control of the Earth King. Soon after Kyoshi left, the Earth King began to use the task force to threaten criminals who stood in the way of his power. When Ambassador Quin's children were kidnapped, Rangi saw the turmoil growing in the city, and worried that things would turn violent, and left the city to inform Kyoshi of the situation. During this time, Kyoshi was contacted by Wan Shi Tong, a spirit who kept a vast library of knowledge. The spirit's Knowledge Seekers informed the Avatar that a daofei group known as the Paper Knives had stolen a tome of great value and importance. Kyoshi did not fully understand what was in the book, and she had no time to rescue a book when she was dealing with people and their lives. She ultimately set the task to recover the book to her friends and allies, who turned to their contacts.

7. #7Making of Kyoshi Warriors

   Eventually, Kyoshi mastered the Avatar State, becoming feared and effective while restoring order in the world. She managed to maintain a "tense equilibrium" between the four nations. Kyoshi also did not hide her bisexuality and attempted to effect greater tolerance for non-heterosexual people in the notoriously conservative Earth Kingdom. Nevertheless, these efforts had little impact. When she visited the ports of her adopted homeland peninsula, she constantly had to put carousing men in their place after they caused trouble to the female villagers. Eventually, she decided to train the women in defensive combat so that they could defend themselves. These women later formed the first band of the Kyoshi Warriors.

8. #8Chin the Conqueror's Fall

   Keys: Death

   During Kyoshi's life, the 46th Earth King's rule was unpopular among the populace of the Earth Kingdom. Using this to his advantage, a warlord named Chin launched a war to conquer the continent. He was successful until he reached the peninsula where Kyoshi lived, finding the Avatar waiting for him. Standing before his army, Chin demanded their immediate surrender, and Kyoshi warned him that she would not sit idly by as he took her home. When he refused to back down and assumed a challenging earthbending stance, she unfurled one of her fans and fired a powerful air blast at him, leaving the humiliated warlord down to his underwear. Kyoshi subsequently entered the Avatar State and separated the peninsula from the mainland by using a combination of earthbending, lavabending, and airbending, forming Kyoshi Island and thereby protecting her homeland from subsequent threats. An indignant Chin was left standing on the edge of the newly-formed cliff, which began to crumble beneath his feet and, as he refused to budge from his unstable position, caused him to fall into the sea and drown, ending his campaign and ushering the world into a great era of peace. Though Kyoshi was only tangentially responsible for Chin's death, she herself saw little difference between causing the circumstances of his death and actually striking him down, and would claim to have personally killed him for generations afterward. Because of Kyoshi's act, the people of Chin Village on the mainland founded Avatar Day to vilify Kyoshi, and all succeeding Avatars, for the death of their leader. The people of Kyoshi Island, meanwhile, founded "Kyoshi Day" on the same day as Avatar Day, to honor her creation of the island and the restoration of peace to their village. The same year, they erected a large totem, topped with a statue of Kyoshi to honor her.

9. #946th Earth King

   Sometime after her final confrontation with Chin, Kyoshi was summoned to Ba Sing Se upon the request of the Earth King, since his unpopular rule had led to a peasant uprising in the city. By the time Kyoshi reached the city, the peasants had already destroyed everything that represented the "old government", including ancient and valuable artifacts that held historical and cultural importance. The King demanded that she stop the uprising by whatever means necessary. However, Kyoshi staunchly refused, stating that it would not be right for her to do so. Incensed by her defiance, the Earth King ordered his guards to arrest her. However, the King was left cowering on his throne as Kyoshi dispatched his guards in a single move and admonished him in turn for daring to defy the Avatar. Held at the point of Kyoshi's war fan, the quivering monarch agreed to a compromise: the Earth King would give the peasants a voice in his ruling, while Kyoshi, in turn, agreed to protect Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage from further desecration. She proceeded to train an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Dai Li, though their subsequent corruption weighed heavily on Kyoshi in her afterlife.

10. #10Later on

    In her later life, the Earth Kingdom entered an age of peace and prosperity. Kyoshi helped implement various bureaucratic policies to aid the poorest of the kingdom, and strengthened ties between the fifty-five states of the Earth Kingdom. The constitution that she drafted with the 46th Earth King was upheld by her for nearly two hundred years until her death. The Earth Sages that had once been against her began to seek redemption after seeing their order embarrassed and diminished in status, and they began to regain the people's trust they had lost, embracing their true role as wise advisors and academics. Many young people in the Earth Kingdom looked to Kyoshi and idolized her, such as princess Guo Xun of Omashu, who later became the city's queen. Kyoshi had a series of companions throughout her life. Her final airbender companion was a nun from the Eastern Air Temple named Disha, who joined her when Kyoshi was already more than two centuries old. Their last mission together was in 84 BG, pursuing a daofei leader in the Earth Kingdom. Kyoshi and Disha learned that the outlaw was the son of a man the Avatar had executed many years prior, and that he had his band commit various atrocities for the sole purpose of drawing Kyoshi's attention and to have the chance to face her himself. After they challenged the daofei, Disha told Kyoshi how the man's actions had been shaped by her own decision to kill his father years ago. The nun believed that too many of the problems they had faced had become the direct consequences of the Avatar's earlier actions, and that she feared what Kyoshi might become if she lived another century. Kyoshi deeply misliked her companion's advice, and Disha chose to part ways with the Avatar as a result. When Disha told the Council of Elders about her concerns, word spread, and soon no airbender master was willing to assist Kyoshi any more.

11. #11Death

    Kyoshi died in the year 82 BG at the age of 230, two years after she and Disha parted ways. She was the oldest confirmed Avatar and human in history, though some other individuals were rumored to have lived even longer. It is possible that Kyoshi learned the secret of immortality from her spiritual teacher, Lao Ge. Her daughter Koko succeeded her as the leader of Kyoshi Island, and she reincarnated as the Fire Nation noble, Roku. While news of Kyoshi's passing would spread across the world, no one was sure how death had actually managed to catch up with the Avatar, not even her close companions.

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