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| 侜刃 Zhōu Rèn |
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Zhou Ren (侜刃, Zhōu Rèn) is an airbender hailing from Wushan, a city state within the northwestern mountain range of the Earth Kingdom. Belonging to the branch family of the Zhou Clan, Ren serves Princess Chibi, the heir the main branch and the rule of Wushan, as her personal operative. He has been currently tasked with gathering information regarding the hostilities between the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom over the disputed status of Iroh Island and surrounding territories. Due to the covert nature of his endeavors, and the necessity to eliminate the association between himself and his master, Ren has been working under the name Oroshi.
Background[]
Personality[]
Abilities[]
Airbending[]
As a member of the branch family of the Zhou Clan, Ren is especially well versed in the art of airbending. Differing from the traditional skills utilized by the Air Nomads, Ren employs a style of bending that is far more aggressive. While still embodying an extensive amount of evasive maneuvers, Zhou style airbenders evade not to retreat from an opponent, but to advance toward them. Furthermore, having been developed culturally separate from traditional airbending, members of the Zhou clan's branch family are not restricted by any principle against lethal techniques. As such, the clan has developed and honed several maneuvers that specifically seek to extinguish life.
Among his clan Ren distinguished himself at an early age as a bender of exceptional skill, after which he was personally selected to serve the heir to the main family. With his control over the air he is able to enlist a variety of techniques into his arsenal to suit the situation. Generally preferring subtle application of his bending skill, he is quite adept in augmenting his body through the use of wind. In doing so he is able to cover cover ground at an exceptional rate, such that it becomes difficult to track his movements through visual acuity alone. Furthermore, his manipulation of air in this manner allows him to overcome physical obstacles with little effort, running up vertical surfaces, leaping across great distances, and even sprint over short distances of water with little inhibition. His physical application of the art alone have been likened to a demonic wind, incapable of being halted, as he rushes towards a target. Additionally, he can augment his blows in the form of point blank strikes of condensed air pressure, which possess enough force to fracture both stone and bone alike. Ren can also effect can also be applied to weapons, particularly in the form of his sword, delivering incredibly heavy strikes that far exceed the normal potential of such a weapon. His final notable skill in enhancement comes in the form of his masterful level of air fluctuation sensitivity. With this skill Ren can perceive the disruption of the surrounding air to such a degree that he can accurately sense the position and trajectory of multitudes of objects simultaneously. In doing so he is able to identify and address attacks from all directions with apparent ease, and can even locate a target over a great distance by recognizing their disruption pattern.
In terms of more apparent expressions of his bending arts, Ren can generate and project various constructs of air. The most common of these are his frequent use of crescent-shaped waves of condensed air. With less concentrated forms he is able to deflect and knock back targets of considerable mass. By concentrated the construct of air to a far greater degree he is able to manifest a focused razor edged current of air, capable of slicing through nearly any material without opposition. This technique is one of his favorite maneuvers, shown with both he ability to initiate it from the edge of his blade with a simple flick of his wrist and deadly accuracy of his strikes. A variation of this technique allows him to simultaneously manifest multiple blades of air at different trajectories. When paired with a well timed sword strike, this allows Ren to assault a target from multiple directions in a single instant. Other techniques he has shown favor towards include levitating light objects in a swirling projection of air, projecting omni-directional burst of concussive air, and projecting a razor-like blade of condensed air across the edge of his hand.
As a recognized airbending master among the members of his clan, Ren is also in the possession of several advanced maneuvers. The most notable of technique in his possession is the usage of Miasma. This technique, also known as Black Wind, was passed down to the branch family by a spirit of destructive winds, which is venerated by the Zhou clan. While seemingly identical in practice to normal airbending, the usage of miasma delivers a secondary effect upon victims. Not unlike the healing arts found within waterbending, this technique influences the flow of chi in the target's body. Unlike healing though, which enhances regenerative properties, this technique disrupts the victim's energy flow in order to impair, and in some cases halt, their ability to recover. Furthermore, prolonged exposure to miasma can interfere with an individual's ability to use their bending arts. While this interference isn't to the same degree as chi-blocking, which can outright halt target's abilities, it does degrade the efficiency of their techniques, such that the afflicted individual will exhaust themselves at an expedited rate. Despite the potential power of this technique, and the heightened resistance to the effects by the user, Ren has noted that extensive use of this technique can disrupt the user's own chi flow. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the healing technique used by waterbenders and alleviate the damage of miasma.
Another advanced technique that Ren employs is the fine manipulation of the surrounding air, a maneuver developed by the branch family due to their close association with their earthbending relatives. As this technique draws greatly on focusing on the stillness of the air, it is a maneuver that is difficult for many airbenders to master. Even Ren, one of the most impressive airbenders the clan has produced, had to diligently practice this skill for many years before he had completely gotten the hang of it. Taught and honed through quiet meditation, the use of this skill allows Ren to manifest drastic changes in the surrounding air pressure. The most notable of these are the sudden evacuation of air in a given location. While only temporary the effect can induce symptoms similar to altitude sickness upon a victim, such as dizziness and nausea, which can limit their ability to guard against incoming attacks. Conversely, he can also increase the air pressure in a specific area, generating a forceful pressure that may immobilize individuals caught within the confines. More subtle applications of fine air manipulation utilized by Ren include regulating the vibration of air in the surroundings, allowing him to silence his own movements, or enhancing the same quality to magnify certain sounds.
Developed as an extension of air pressure manipulation, Ren has honed the ability to manipulate solely the oxygen in the surrounding environment. Dubbed Oxygenbending, for convenience, this technique offers him several functional abilities. One of his most common uses of this technique is to lower the amount of oxygen available to nearby candles or torches. By doing so he is able to extinguish the flames near instantly, shrouding the area in darkness. As someone who often is engaged in covert operations, the ability to alter aspects of the environment in this manner are very useful. Additionally, by rapidly increasing the concentration of oxygen near a source of heat Ren is able manifest produce the necessary conditions for a spontaneous explosion. These maneuvers have also proven to be useful against firebending, extinguishing or prematurely detonating their techniques as necessary.
Swordsmanship[]
In addition to becoming an accomplished bender, Ren has also been recognized as an individual of prodigious talent in swordsmanship, the clan's second honed art. Particularly, he has chosen to develop his abilities with the rarely utilized Shuangshou Jian. This two-handed sword, possessing a straight double-edged design, offers Ren an expanded moveset on a simple sword design. By extending the range of his attacks over the average blade his use of this sword allows him to hold an opponent outside of attack range, giving him a degree of relative safety. Combined with the increased range offered by his use of airbending in conjunction with his swordsmanship, he's able to fight at distances normally impossible for a swordsman. Furthermore, Ren has demonstrated the occasional use of his sword while sheathed, wielding it much like a makeshift staff. While far less deadly in this manner it offers him an armed option that permits him much more flexibility when the objective is to merely incapacitate an enemy.
In terms of combat style Ren employs an intense barrage of attacks when utilizing a sword, known as the Sword of the Dancing Swallow. Coupled with the sensory and evasive benefits of his other forms of training he shown the necessary skill to expertly weave through a veritable volley of enemy strikes, parrying and and evading incoming projectiles and melee assaults from all directions while simultaneously cutting down his targets. His favored mode of striking is precise and swift, bolstered to an unnatural level by subtle uses of airbending to produce attack combinations that would normally be physically impossible. Additionally, he also uses a form of attack aversion known as irregular blocking, in which he will use portions of the sword other than the blade to intercept an attack. This method in particular allows him to generously compensate for the size of his the sword he wields, a feat that has surprised uses of smaller blades who thought he would be unable to shift from attack to defense at such a rate. Overall, his use of the sword grants him a balanced and formidable method to face nearly any opponent.
Other Skills[]
In addition to his two notable combat styles, Ren also possesses a keen intellect when it comes to tactics and investigative work. An ability honed as an operative of Princess Chibi, Ren is an especially perceptive individual. In battle he continuously seeks out flaws in the maneuvers of both his allies and enemies. As such, he's able to develop and incorporate new strategies on the fly, allowing him to adjust to changing circumstances as needed. Outside of direct confrontation, his sharp senses and analytic mindset have allowed him to ascertain intricate details from seemingly mundane observations. While his airbending and swordsmanship skill may have been the reason Ren was selected as the direct subordinate of the clan's future head, his intellect has solidified his use to the heir apparent. Additionally, though less commonly employed, Ren also has notable skill in unarmed combat and tracking, which has been proven to have situational use.