Mayna

Mayna is a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe and an NPC for the first generation chronicle, Wilting of the Lotus. She died seven years before the chronicle begins, although she does appear in flashback and as an apparition during the episodes "The Poisoned Healer" and "A Memory of Storms". She has yet to appear in the second generation chronicle.

Physical Attributes
Mayna was very short (5"0 at full height) and physically very small and fragile, as she frequently suffered from illness as a child and in her early teens that is implied both stunted her growth and interfered with her fertility. She wore her hair long, with a blunt fringe, and had cyan blue eyes and straight brown hair. She was stated to be very physically attractive, an attribute that caused her daughter Raikana a good deal of grief partially because she looks almost nothing like her mother.

Personality
Mayna was very headstrong, although significantly less hot-tempered than Raikana-- ironically, she becomes irritated at Fu Zen for treating her as if she has a short fuse. She was also very intelligent and a talented waterbender, and a loyal wife and mother. In addition, she mentored Raikana for the first ten years of her daughter's life, showing a very philosophical attitude about life, death, and her failures as a healer in the form of the words "The best way to honour the dead is to prevent the living from joining them". It is also heavily implied that she was rather rebellious as a young girl, and as an adult she retained a considerable mischeivous streak.

Waterbending
Mayna was an extremely gifted waterbender, although she did not make it as far in her studies as she could have largely due to falling pregnant with her first child at the age of 16 and giving birth at 17. Despite this, she always made an effort to find the time to practice bending, although less for her own benefit and more for the benefit of her daughter Rai Kana, who although capable of bending had nowhere near the amount of natural talent Mayna did.

Healing
Mayna was also a capable healer. Whether she exhibited Raikana and Keidanai's accompanying abilities is unknown.

Chibending
Mayna knew a single chibending move passed down her family line, which she then taught to her husband Reelan. It is a few simple motions designed to increase the chi flow of a bender, making their usual bending an order of magnitude more powerful. When used, the eyes of the bender glow for a brief instant.

Backstory
Mayna was the only child of Uran and Kelyss, mainly due to the latter also having difficultly with her fertility. She showed a considerable amount of raw waterbending talent as well as precocious intelligence, coupled with a cheerful and obliging disposition. As far as anyone else was concerned, she was born lucky, and she was in many ways the perfect daughter for the first twelve years of her life. This lasted until a chance conversation with her mother and one of the other healers led to her coming to the realisation that she would likely never be able to have children-- Kelyss had only had one, Mayna herself, and the pregnancy and labour has been so arduous that she had been lucky to survive.

This realisation impacted Mayna hard. Although she was a talented waterbender, she had little interest in pursuing that to mastery-- what she had wanted for as long as she had remembered was to have a large family. Mayna had keenly felt the lack of siblings in her family since early childhood, and although she was an exemplar of filial piety socially she had difficulty connecting with her peers, partially due to her considerable intellect. This realisation only made matters worse. Mayna became solitary, uncaring, and abrasive, dismissive and aloof towards her peers and on occasion outright disrespectful to her seniors. Her parents had no clue how to deal with this, partially because although they were aware their daughter was completely miserable she refused to disclose the source of her aimless anger.

A few months later, after a shouting match with one of the tribe's Healers, Mayna ran away from her training and hid in a strange underground area that had lay beneath her village for as long as she could remember. Nobody ever went down there, so she figured she could safely collect herself down there. However, she was so wrapped up in her own feelings she failed to notice that the area has been cleared out somewhat and various tools and items of ice furniture now scattered the area.

Indeed, she failed to notice Reelan completely until he was standing in front of her, offering her something to wipe her nose on. Reelan, three years her senior, was the closest the tribe had to an outcast-- a withdrawn teenage boy who spent most of her time whittling strange things out of wood and ice. He was descended from a long line of great warriors, however he had no interest in fighting whatsoever. Instead, he was constantly creating minor contraptions out of junk, usually with the purpose of aiding with some small household task. He and Mayna cut a deal: she could hide down here whenever she wanted, and if he needed the aid of a waterbender Mayna would provide.

It wasn't until several months later that Mayna and Reelan began to talk to each other at all. Mayna rapidly discovered that despite Reelan's poor reputation, the older boy, although outwardly cold and distant, was in fact a very kind and gentle person, albeit deeply hurt by his father's repeated assertion that he wanted a warrior right up until Keirun's death in a hunting accident the previous year. She also found for the first time her intellect was outclassed by somebody close to her age-- despite seeming almost dreamy, Reelan was in posession of a brilliant intellect, possibly even genius.

In turn, Reelan recognised that under her abrasive demeanour Mayna was ultimately kind, even vulnerable, and eventually after a particularly gruelling day, Mayna stormed into his workshop, flopped down in the pile of blankets Reelan had gathered to provide her with a more comfortable spot to sit in, and began to talk to somebody about her internal turmoil for the first time since the day she found out she was likely barren. It was a massive weight off her shoulders, and she left the workshop that day feeling genuinely relieved.

There was a remarkable improvement in her behaviour subsequent to that. Mayna resumed her studies in earnest, and began socialising more freely with her peers, and her parents were almost started by the speed at which the spring in her step returned. Her father Uran questioned her on this, only to find himself introduced to Reelan. Like his daughter, Uran recognised Reelan's intellect, and provided him with a few resources in order to further his studies. During the course of the next couple of years, Reelan and Mayna developed feelings for each other, and they were married in -14 AG.

By this point, Mayna had given up on the idea of ever having a child, which is why her conception shortly after her marriage she did not have high hopes of the pregnancy and birth being a successful one. However, much to the surprise of Mayna and everyone around her, the pregnancy proceeded just fine and not only did Mayna's child lived, she thrived. Mayna dubbed her Rai Kana, or Kana for short, after the woman who bought her family line from the Northern Water tribe to the South, the woman considered to be the progenitor of her family as it stands today.

Following this, Mayna had several other children: Kaidas (born -11 AG), Terhal (Born -9 AG), Myro (Born -6 AG) and Kelyss and Tezana (born -3 AG). She fell sick during her pregnancy with Kelyss and Tezana, and died shortly after giving birth.

Reelan
Mayna was one of the first people to genuinely attempt to understand Reelan's interest in machines and the artificial replication of natural forces, and the first to attempt to help him. Aside form their romantic connection, the two were also fast friends, and spent a good deal of their early/mid teens in each other's company. They were extremely happily married.

Raikana
Mayna doted on her eldest daughter, partially because she was the only girl and partially because although not naturally talented as a bender, Raikana had a strongwilled dedication to mastering her own abilities and an ambitious nature that Mayna found simultaneously startling and admirable. Although the sheer magnitude of the world and her tiny space in it frightened Mayna, Raikana was always curious of the unknown rather than scared of it. During her encounter with her daughter 10 years after her death in the Poisoned Healer, Mayna expresses shock and regret that her impact on Raikana's life has been so negative, and tells her daughter that no matter what path she chooses to follow Mayna will always be proud of her.