Tara Lin

Tara Lin is an Airbender and a player character in the first generation chronicle, Wilting of the Lotus. She is one of the last known air benders alive, along with Ailis, Xian, Xirrou, and Fi. She returns as Mentor to her daughter Fi and an NPC in the second generation chronicle.

Physical Attributes
Tara has long, dark brown hair like most air-benders (she naturally has a high widows' peak like her mother), dark grey eyes and pale skin. She never grew very tall, with a height of 5' 4", all her children are expected to outgrow her at some point.

Prior to the festival she favoured a skirt and tunic with the customary cloak of air benders on top. Since the festival she tends to wear whatever is appropriate for the culture during extended stays, though she has a mild distaste for the Southern Water Tribe furs, she will discard them for other clothes at her earliest convenience. At all times she will be seen with her staff on her person.

Personality
Tara has a very upbeat personality and is quick to laugh and joke. She forms attachments quickly and those that hang around her even longer will note an almost suicidal desire to lay down her life for her friends. Most prominently she always has a desire to travel, though in later years since gaining a family she has tempered this. Realising that it is safer for her family, to the point that some might say fearful for their well-being. If she had a favourite of her children it would be Fi, this may be out of guilt for asking the spirits to make her an air bender. But she loves the twins almost as much. Since building a life with Terhal she cannot imagine one without him.

Airbending

 * Able to fly with long bo staff
 * Preferred method of fighting is buffets of air
 * Create tornadoes
 * Used air slice once to cut the saddle of a sky bison
 * With aid of the Dragon Sprit able to create vacuums

Before the Festival
Tara has lived in the Western Air Temple most of her life, though she has had frequent trips with her mother, Lien, to the surrounding Earth Kingdom settlements and in particular, frequent visits to the Festival which encompasses multiple nations. Her closest friend at her air temple is her cousin Yua, via her aunt Yan, who also lives at the Western Air Temple. Lien has achieved the 36 Air Bending Methods when she was quite young and Tara would love to be as good as her mother one day. Lien aims to be on the Council of Elders and often converses with the Elders on various topics, but, since she isn’t among them yet she helps to teach the younger members Air Bending techniques when they are at home.

Tara has also travelled with Lien to the Northern Air Temple via Lien's sky bison, Chuu, to meet her elder brother (Dan), eldest brother (Tai), and father (Chih). Tara vaguely recalls Dan from when she was young but he left to be with their father at the Northern Air Temple when he was 6, stopping via the Western Air Temple where Dan received his own sky bison, Tsuika, while travelling with Chih's bison, Um. Dan is very similar to his father, who has a strong spiritual side and who didn't achieve the 36 Air Bending Methods until he was older than most, preferring meditation, something Tara finds to be boring.

Tara has also travelled to the Western Air Temple, but she did not receive a sky bison because none of them chose her since they had already paired up with other air benders. This was after visiting the Northern Air Temple to see Chih, Tai and Dan. They (Lien, Tara and Tai) travelled to the Southern Air Temple to drop Tai who wanted to study further at the Southern Air Temple. Tai has a strong love of Air Bending too.

Four years ago on achieving the final methods Tai had invited the family to the Southern Air Temple and from there Lien and Tara are travelled to the festival that year. Chih and Dan had been at the temple a month, when they were travelling they noticed a lot of boats around the Fire Nation, and when they stopped at a village for food there were no young men because the villagers said they had had a conscription over the past year. Lien and Tara were at the temple for two weeks and didn't see anything while arriving. When they arrived they learnt that Aang was the new Avatar, both Tara and Dan were so awed they never spoke to him. Tai said he was amazing and learnt impressively fast, but he too is over-awed with the boy now that he has learnt he is the Avatar. However, the day they left was the day after the Avatar disappeared.

Tara has not seen the rest of her family in four years neither have they visited any of the temples, something her mother has neglected to explain, which worries Tara.

Life after the Phoenix Spirit
Tara returned with Raikana and the Lotus Blossoms to the Southern Water Tribe, whereupon Tara actually takes the time to learn Raikana’s family, she greets Reelan, the twins – Tezana and Kelyss, Myro and, of course, Terhal. With Terhal, Tara finds that there is something there. She certainly made an impression. However, when Raikana leaves in the middle of the night, Tara is reminded of her desire to travel and leaves about a month or two later.

As she travelled alongside her sky bison, Lieu, it could be lonely, especially after six years of constantly being surrounded by the other Lotus Blossoms, but she made do and took her time seeing the Earth Kingdom. Whenever Tara heard rumours of other air benders, sky bison or air nomads, she had a tendency to deviate from whatever plans she may have had to investigate the forlorn hope of finding any who might still be alive. These destinations invariably led her into finding members of the White Lotus path and on occasion Tara would find herself back at Omashu.

Whether it was out in the field or within the confines of the Omashu barracks, Tara meets a slightly older trainee of the White Lotus, Seung-gi. Seung-gi never travelled with Tara, but their paths had a tendency to cross with such frequency that some might say the spirits were involved, and the two got along very well. It takes some time, but even Tara can tell they’ve developed and when she was with Seung-gi he would whisper plans of making a home together when the war was over. Tara never could tell him she knew she would die before that ever happened.

Time passed, and when the three year memorial of the defeat of the Phoenix Spirit comes around Tara joined the Lotus Blossoms in Omashu. Tara stayed a while afterwards as Seung-gi was also currently based near Omashu. However, her stay ended rather abruptly when she was pulled aside by a White Lotus leader who informs Tara that Seung-gi died in a raid.

Her movements then took a wide berth of Omashu and she probably would have stayed like that had she not eventually realised she was pregnant. Tara can be rather stupid sometimes and it is perhaps during the pregnancy where this rather shines. She made her way to the Western Air Temple where she'd had previous interactions with the spirits of the wife of the first Avatar, the wife's son, and the first Air Bending Avatar. Upon finding these spirits again she demanded that her unborn child be an Air Bender like her, knowing that a choice was given to Ailis. Afterwards, Tara began to notice the coastal storms and chased them in the hopes of finding Raikana. It is in the middle of one such violent storm she finally made contact. Just in time too, as labour had already begun due to the stress of not being able to find her.

As such Fi was born in a non-descript coastal Earth Kingdom village’s inn with the best healer in the world.

Life with Fi
In some ways, life with Fi was similar to before. It is the caution that Tara begins to take that really marked any difference. If Fi got ill, Tara would stay until her little one got better. If Tara was looking into Air Bender rumours, she was more careful and didn’t look into the rumours that would've been more dangerous.

Following years of travelling everywhere but the South, Tara finally ventured to the Southern Water Tribes. Where, as it turned out, she had left a rather large impression on Terhal. Terhal was very much taken a back and discouraged when she returned, Fi’s presence to him meaning that Tara must have got a husband. On finding out she doesn’t, Terhal realised he still had a chance and took it. However, even with Fi and Terhal, Tara couldn’t curb her desire to travel and though she stayed a long while, she left. But this time, Terhal went with her.

<p class="MsoNormal">It became evident when Fi was about five that she took after her mother and while Fi’s manipulation of the air was, and is still, a delight to Tara, it worried her. Not long after Fi’s emerging talents, Tara realised she was pregnant again and she let Terhal convince her they should settle down, if only for a little while.

<p class="MsoNormal">The twins, Kaidas and Taidan, named for their uncles, are born in the Southern Water Tribe.

Life with family
<p class="MsoNormal">As the three children grew up, the stay in the Southern Water Tribe extended, despite the war growing around them. Tara teaches Fi in the ways of the air benders as best she can. In the South Pole this is difficult. Tara was known to make rounds with supplies and take short trips North with Lieu to gather food for her vegetarian diet. After all seaweed and sea prunes can only entertain you so long. Sometimes her family would join her, sometimes she would go alone. (An alternative to going North is Tara managed to cultivate a small vegetable garden in the outskirts of the Southern Frozen Forest.)

<p class="MsoNormal">When Fi was about ten and Tara left on one of these trips, Fi asked her father to take her on a hunting trip. This was a conversation Terhal and Tara have already had and Tara conceded that should the children ask, then they could go. Fi’s reaction to the hunt was much like most people’s reaction to a dead animal being killed in front of them, but Fi listened to her father’s philosophy, if an animal has to die then it should be swift.

<p class="MsoNormal">The twins got along as brothers do and most of the time they are the best of friends, even prone to mischief on occasion but the boys are generally cowed by either their father or mother when their trouble making has been found out. If they are caught by their great-grandfather their behaviour improves dramatically. Their sister even holds some sway, but usually not enough. The two boys both take after their father and have some skill with water bending though not nearly as talented as any of their aunts are.

<p class="MsoNormal">Taidan and Kaidas asked to go hunting after a bit of encouragement between themselves, they asked at a slightly younger age than Fi was, perhaps eight. While Taidan expressed interest in the process. Kaidas’ reaction was a quick evacuation of his stomach contents.

<p class="MsoNormal">Fi was taught to fight in the village, not with her bending but with her hands and with her staff. Her mother’s own staff will not be hers until her mother has quite finished using it. However, despite the precautions taken to allow Fi to fight without having to reveal her bending, Tara becomes very nervous and after much consideration Tara decided that it would be best if Fi moved North.

The move North
<p class="MsoNormal">As such, two years before the game begins, Tara and Fi returned to Omashu on Lieu where Tara had been in correspondence with Inanna. Fi began training under Inanna’s guidance and learned about her biological father’s culture while Tara returned to the South.

<p class="MsoNormal">It takes another year before Tara returned to Omashu this time accompanied by the rest of her family, the twins and Terhal. Fi has settled into life at Omashu and was then residing in the barracks. Being taught much like the other non-bender soldiers, despite having a late start, she managed to fit in well.

<p class="MsoNormal">The family reunion is cut short when Tara discovers some information and leaves Omashu in the middle of the night with Terhal. The only explanation given was that it was something Tara had to do. The twins have also been left in Omashu alongside their sister in the care of Inanna.

Relationships
Lieu

Tara's sky bison one of Ailis' sky bison's, Tichi, fatal litter. Tara was very close to her sky bison for many years and after the dismantlement of the lotus blossoms she continued to travel with Lieu. It wasn't until she agreed to settle in the Southern Water Tribe in 16AG that she finally said goodbye to the sky bison. Tara is unaware of where Lieu currently is, only that she is out there.

Seung-gi
A former lover of Tara, she knew him when she was 18-19. She knew very little about his heritage, only aware that he was, in his early years, a ward of Omashu having moved there from Ba Sing Sei. At the time of their relationship he served in the protection of Omashu and took part in some White Lotus missions. They would likely have formed a long term relationship had it not been for his death in 10AG. After his death, Tara found out she was pregnant with his child and she would later give birth to their daughter, Fi.

Terhal
Terhal is Tara's long term partner and father of their two children, Kaidas and Taidan. Tara had met Terhal intermittently during her life, generally when visiting with his sister, Raikana, who was a close friend of hers. Terhal has been in love with Tara long before she returned his feelings, and on finding out she had a child decided to be a friend rather than a lover. However, as he later left to travel with Tara around 11-12AG, she eventually realised his aptitude at being a father to Fi and later began to return their affectations. Their twins, Kaidas and Taidan, were born in 16AG in the Southern Water Tribe.

Fi
Tara's daughter and child of Seung-gi who is named for a former White Lotus member, Efio, a Earth bender who was known to have loved and married another Air Bender. Tara asked the spirits of the Western Air Temple to make sure Fi was an Air bender, and has later come to regret this situation. To protect Fi from the dangers of the Southern Water Tribe from the ongoing attacks of the Fire Nation, Tara took Fi to Omashu to be safe.

Kaidas and Taidan
Tara's twin sons and children of Terhal. They were named for their deceased uncles: Kaidas, Terhal's brother, and Tai and Dan, Tara's brothers. The twins have boundless energy much like their mother, and she and Terhal struggle to cap the twins pranks.