Role: The Firebender
Gender: Female
Nickname(s)/Alias(es): Ju Kwan
Age: Seventeen
Love Interest: N/A
Appearance: In truth? Xue is a lovely young woman whose appearance reflects her heritage and bloodline. Her skin is very light, the color of ivory, her hair is dark, while her eyes are a distinct color of amber. Every bit of her appearance screams that she is of Fire Nation blood. Her petite frame also serves to suggest that she is not just a common Fire Nation girl either, no; it gives Xue the appearance of a girl born of nobility. And . . . everything foretold by the girlâs looks and traits are completely true. Born of a family of nobility in the Fire Nation, she inherited all of the telltale signs of her birthing. Her dark hair is sleek in texture, itâs straight, thick and healthy in appearance while the longest of it falls to the girlâs hips. While Xueâs hair is cut in layers, the longest of it stops right at her hips while some of it is at her waist, other parts at the shoulder blades, shoulders, and then her jaws. Despite the varying lengths of her hair however, she is not able to wear it down as she would wish, because of her position in life as a servant to an Earth Kingdom general, Xue has to keep it up in an intricate sort of style. Most of her hair is pulled up and back, kept out of her face by the wishes of her, âMaster.â Those parts of her hair are then fashioned into long braids, which are pulled back and wrapped around the head, while the longest of her hair is left to hang over her shoulders. In this style, Xueâs bangs are kept out of her face completely, and it almost makes her look like a different girl.
While her face is normally completely visible thanks to the hair style she has to wear, you can clearly see every defining trait of Xue which marks her as an obvious Fire Nation childâthe skin upon her face is clear, free of any imperfections while she has defined cheekbones, color in her face, a small nose, thin lips and intelligent, honey colored eyes that sharply contrast her black hair. While she has her hair down however, it is left to frame her face and it obscures some of her more obvious Fire Nation traits.
As far as her body goes, Xue lives up to her linage as aristocracyâshe is simply a small girl. Sheâs thin, a bit on the bony side, but more so she is a lithe looking lass. She has a figure, but sheâs just built small, her body frame shows that enough. Also, sheâs on the flat-chested side of the spectrum, so, Xue has a bit of a slender pear shaped body going on. But still, sheâs pretty and the youth that she is shows in her skin, she looks every bit of seventeen despite her small size.
Preferred Clothing: Xue is a girl who really has less refined tastes than what one might expect out of her. She would rather keep her clothing casual, simple and uncomplicated if anything else, and also, if she could, she would prefer to be wearing the colors of her home nation. For everything she has gone through in her lifetime, Xue is a girl who still bears the proud blood of the Fire Nation, as far as she is concerned, she is privileged to have such blood going through her veins, even if there are aspects of the Fire Nation society and aristocracy that she is not at all proud of. As far as things go, however, Xue is not really allowed to show off her tastes and individuality given her current position in life, against her wishes, the clothing she is made to wear is picked out for her by her Mistress, the woman married to the man who keeps her as a servant. The womanâs tastes leave Xue wearing rather dulled down Earth Kingdom colors, and in attire she does not feel comfortable in.
Height: 5 ft (152 cm)
Weight: 85 lbs (39 kg)
Hair Color: Jet Black
Eye Color: Amber
Personality: A bit of an odd girl, Xue is someone that is not at all easy to define. . . . Given her upbringing and the last few years of her life, she has developed quite an interesting and complicated personality. Reared as a noblemanâs daughter in the Fire Nation, Xue is someone who seems to present themselves with pride, strength and the upmost certainty of their heritage, person and self. Looking at her, Xue seems like sheâs a very strong young woman, someone who can carry their own weight and shoulder a multitude of burdens without batting an eyelash. She seems as if sheâs haughty, prideful and almost arrogant, even the expressions she carries upon her face cause her to be written off as such. Hereâs the reality though . . . sheâs not really any of these things. Sheâs not full of any sort of pride in herself or her lineage, and sheâs not strong in any sense of the word. Her mentality and emotional state are rather fragile, and in truth, the slightest of overloads can be enough to send her into a spiral of depression, anxiety and a fit of tears. Xue is really a timid young woman who merely presents herself as a being full of strength so that no one would have the chance to think otherwise, she fears what people might think, or do, if they discovered that she was actually a very weak girl. Not wanting to end up being used, or taken advantage of, Xue does her best to hide her many weaknesses and her fragile state of self.
As she is now, and as she has been for many years, Xue is one who does her best to detach herself from the happenings around her. From peopleâs plights, to their words and to any situation at hand, she prefers not to let her emotions get mixed up in anything; she knows her own frailty and realizes that if she allowed herself to be open to the misery of the world around her, and to her own situation, that she would break. Honestly, what is keeping Xue from breaking now is uncertain, even to her, she even wonders why it is she is trying to look strong to everyone around her now. Her situation seems utterly hopeless, so why? The only answer to this whole matter that she can form is that inside of her, she wants to retain some sense of self, something that will remind her that she is still her own person, and that she will not break to her keeper. . . . Even still, there are undoubtedly times when Xueâs nearly lost it, become overwhelmed by her own situation, the mounting hopelessness and wound up crying herself to sleep, curled up in the fetal position.
She tries to act as strong as she can, she doesnât want to submit to the reality of her life, but the truth is that her façade is slowly, slowly crumbling and with each day, Xue is coming closer to breaking.
Underneath this mask of hers, this seemingly emotionless girl who seems a pillar of certain strength, maturity and pride, Xue is really something else. . . . With that emotional frailty of hers, Xue is certainty a very sensitive young woman. The plights of others cling to her heart and have become a heavy weight upon her, part of the reason she seems so insensitive toward everything and one. She feels a lot of guilt for what the Fire Nation is doing to the world, and has done . . . especially to the Air Nomads. In reality, she despises her heritage, and her nationality. Sheâs utterly ashamed of what she is and whom. But still, she doesnât want to break in front of others, so she never lets them know of how she feels. Xue is certain that they would not sympathize with her, and would only seek to truly harm her if they realized how deep her guilt traveled.
With that sensitivity she has, Xue is honestly a kind soul who is scared. Though she can seem off-putting and rude, sheâs really just anxious of the world around her. She was a sheltered child, in a word, and she never saw the truth of the world as she grew up, and because of that, everything around her is still very much alien and frightful. Though sheâs lived as a servant to an Earth Kingdom general for the last two years, she still fears the world. By isolating herself from everything she feels like she can cushion those uncertainties of hers and keep her heart sustained. Honestly . . . thatâs even beginning to fail her. Xue led an isolated existence up until her marriage at fourteen, and even after, she never had a friend or true companion. Her husband was an unpleasant man whom his servants feared, and as such, they were dreadful of interacting with his wife, Xue, and did much to avoid her.
So, what things boil down to is this . . . sheâs lonely. Xue is a girl who is very lonesome, though she doesnât do anything to try to make friends. In a way also, she sees herself unfit to befriend those around her, given her heritage and what the Fire Nation has done to the world, in a word, she feels sheâd be a burden to another. She knows of her own shortcomings and as such, she doesnât want someone else to have to deal with them. However, just to say, if Xue were ever able to make a friend, or find herself becoming close to another, the heavy mask she wears, the one that makes her look so haughty and strong, itâd come off, and the girl underneath would awaken. The truth of her feelings would come to surface, sheâd be unable to hide her tears from a friend if they came to her, should her worries overtake her, those would consume her in their presence, and in a word . . . Xue would become heavily dependent upon that person. Sheâd be needy, want attention, and might even feel a need to cling to her friend.
Really, sheâd seem completely childish, as in that if she did not get these things from her friend, sheâd be prone to pouting. . . . But, there would definitely be a bright side to being Xueâs friend, after some time, youâd begin to see a rare side of her, the true her. Yes, she seems a lot like a child, but thatâs because part of her still is, Xue is honestly an innocent soul full of curiosities and wonderment. She has dreams, fascinations, hopes and even believes in things that most view as nonsense, such as making wishes on stars. . . . In these moments of seeing the true side of her, it wouldnât be out of the question that one would even get to see her smile, and laugh.
Oddities: Xue sleep talks, although sheâs not been witnessed walking around before, she does evidently speak in her sleep. Sometimes about her dreams, other times sheâll even engage in conversation..
Despite going through a sort of âfinishingâ school when she was younger, Xue remains something of a klutz. Sheâll fall over, run into things/people, drop stuff, knock things and such over. . . . Honestly, sheâs a bit of a mess, grace and such are not her strong points.
Due to her upbringing, Xue speaks in a very formal manner, almost insanely so. She doesnât really ever use contractions in her speech, so instead of saying something like, âIâmâ sheâll instead say âI am.â
Though her size is somewhat small, she has a good appetite. Xue is a girl capable of piling the food away if she has the chance to, and honestly, she loves a good meal. She tends to eat a lot, and gets hungry often.
Likes: Flowers, good food, sweets, warm days, the sun, animals, sewing, the stars, books/reading, singing, and writing.
Dislikes: Blood, death, pain, the idea of marriage, being crowded, thunderstorms, bitter/spicy things, and complete darkness.
Hobbies: Sewing, floriography, flower arranging, stargazing, cooking/baking, singing, and reading.
Fears/Phobia(s):
Agraphobia â Fear of sexual abuse
Dishabiliophobia â Fear of undressing in front of someone
Aichimophobia â Fear of sharp objects
Keraunophobia â Fear of thunder and lightning
Cleithrophobia âFear of being locked in an enclosed space
Entomophobia â Fear of insects
Arachnephobia â Fear of spiders
Febriphobia â Fear of fever
Hematophobia âFear of blood
Nyctophobia â Fear of night
Iatrophobia â Fear of doctors
Skills/Talents: If there is anything she can do, itâs book. Xue has a natural knack for being able to make good food, given her upbringing this should not be a surprise, also, given the last two years of her life, it also makes sense she can do this so well.
She is gifted with song, vocal lessons were a part of her âschoolâsâ required learning, and as such, Xue was taught how to sing from a young age. Thanks to that, she could easily be a songstress.
Also, while not much of a skill, Xue is skilled in the ways of domestic work due to being the servant of an Earth Kingdom general for the last years of her young life, she can clean well, sew and such. . . .
Preferred Weapon: None, she was never taught to fight with a weapon due to her upbringing.
Fighting Style: Because she is a bender, Xue does rely on her bending arts to a degree when it comes to the aspect of combat. The problem here though? Itâs the fact that sheâs not apt to fight, with her light frame, close quarters combat is dangerous because sheâs kind of fragile, and she can be knocked away easily. A far as her bending goes anyway, itâs not very well developed, she wasnât given much training on how to properly execute an aggressive attack, and instead, her style formed to be rather defensive. She knows how to blast fire from her hands like any Firebender, but when it comes to more advanced techniques, sheâs helpless . . . best she can do in battle is dodge, provide some support, and block.
Her teacher was an aggressive man, her parents were not kind when selecting someone to train her, and as such, she learned how to block attacks due to his rigidness.
Personal History: She was born before the war began, seven years beforehand into a Fire Nation ruled by an aging Lord, Sozin. Due to how Sozin viewed his people, the pride of Fire Nation nobility could not have been at a higher point in the nationâs long history, all those of high-class blood viewed themselves as being something greater than the normal population. That was simply it. Xueâs parents were no exceptions to this view. Given how Fire nation aristocracy functioned, her parents desired not a daughter, but a son, to carry on the namesake and honor of their family. All nobles wanted a son; daughters werenât desired, perhaps wanted for the sake of marrying to a family, but to marry off? No, simply no. Girls were seen as more trouble than they were worth among the nobles. And, it was into this that she was born. Her mother and her father were aging, getting older and older while they had no children yet, despite having tried time and time again. Her motherâs pregnancies always ended in miscarriages, or she just never could conceive. Of the pregnancies her mother succeeded in bearing, Xue was the sixth of them, and the only child to live to be birthed alive, and even then, she was born a month and a half earlier than she ought to have.
Xue, however, was not born with the surname âYi Song,â however. No, Xue was born to Xiang and Jia Liu Zhang, with the same last name as her parents . . . âXue Liu Zhang.â
Being the only child born to her parents alive, they were disappointed. Xiang was angered by the fact that his wife could not give life to a son to carry on his familyâs name, and did not take to Xue well. Jia, even as her mother, she did not look upon her newborn daughter with much love, no. She could only look upon the baby girl with questioning, a wondering of why it was she was only able to bear a single infant to the world, and why it was that it was a girl. Suffice to say, neither of her parents looked upon Xue with affection, she was simply there, their blood-daughter, someone who they would raise and just marry off someday. . . . In line with this, Xiang and Jia continued to try to conceive another child, hopefully a son this time, but after Xue was born, Jia never even got pregnant again. Xue was all they had.
Though bitter about it, Xiang and Jia took to rearing their daughter as society saw fit, molding the girl into a would-be someday perfect wife, a girl who was intelligent enough to be interesting, but also subservient enough to conform to the whims and wishes of her spouse. She was kept from true education, subjects that were thought best for boys to learn only were kept away from her and she was cultured in the ways of how to be a âwoman.â Maintaining elegant speech, how to stay in line with the wishes and beliefs of a man . . . etc. This was her education, the way she was instructed on how to live her life, and she was told that this was the proper way to do so. Yet still, there in Xue remained a certain spark that couldnât be extinguished by this sort of rearing. Her mind was ever active, and she wasnât so simply made to relinquish her sense of self. No, not entirely. . . . As she grew up, Xue was not treated with any affection by her parents, at all, she was regarded and acknowledged, but that was all. Love from Xiang and Jia werenât something she ever got, and as such, Xue grew up a lonesome girl who passed her idle hours alone, perhaps sewing or even arranging flowers, and even thinking. Though she was not given a heavy education, Xue was not stupid at all.
She was a smart enough girl to understand topics of deep thought, of philosophy, history, light politics. . . .
While she mightâve formed such thoughts upon her own volition and in isolation, Xue never once uttered a single word of her ideology to her parents, or to anyone because she was reared to not do so. She was taught that there was no reason for a woman to weigh her head down with such serious thoughts. That was how it was for the daughters of Fire Nation nobles at the time. Under Sozinâs rule, girls were left with little schooling and were simply molded to be girls of leisure. Although, it was considered standard practice to still have a girl gifted with the ability of Firebending trained to an extent. And this was what happened with young Xue at the age of six. Her bending abilities were discovered when she managed to manifest flames upon her own control. Even with her inexperience and lack of instruction, she had still managed to figure out the basics of Firebending on her own; patience, breathing and how to circulate the energy within her body to summon fire to her control.
It was a slightly impressive feat, even to her unloving parents. And as such, they quickly began to have her trained by a rather harsh instructor. The man showed no tolerance or laxness for any student, not even a small, six year old girl. He was hard on young Xue, forceful and impatient, he did not at all care that she barely understood what it was she could do, no, all he cared about was getting the fire out of her. Day after day, he forced her to spar with him, and while he never hit her with any blasts of fire, that didnât stop him from knocking her around. While heâd shoot fire at her, controlling it to not injure her, he would still come in close and suddenly slam her in the torso and send her small self flying.
Because of how her teacher was, Xue never really learned how to bend properly, and as such, she is not a skilled combatant. No, what little control she managed to ascertain over her abilities fell into a method of self-defense, preservation. She only ever learned how to defend herself from being attacked rather than how to attack another.
This life went on for the next eight years, even after the Fire Nation began the Great War and nearly decimated the whole of the Air Nomad populace. Xue was instructed on the ways of how to be a proper woman, a good wife, and she was rigidly trained by her bending master. She knew little about the War, only that Fire Lord Sozin had âdone a good thing,â and that he âwas an amazing man with a wonderful vision.â Both things were said by her father. As far as Xue knew, what Sozin was going to the rest of the world was indeed a very âgoodâ thing, being who she was and what, she was never told anything about the War. The horrors and cruelties of it, the fact that so many people were killed. . . .
So, while the war progressed outside of the Fire Nation and Xueâs normal life proceeded, Xiang and Jia began to make preparations for something unknown to Xue when she was still thirteen. . . . The news and relevance of just what it was her parents had been up to for the last odd months, with their meetings of the same people over and over again, all of it was revealed upon her fourteenth birthday. Much to their own satisfaction, her parents announced her engagement. Xue Liu Zhang was going to be getting married in only a few short weeks to come. Yes, at age fourteen, Xiang and Jia had set up a marriage for their still-young daughter, and to whom?
Her marriage was to be to a man more than twice her age, a reputed Fire Nation general in the army, a man who was looked upon well due to the victories heâd earned the army during the war. She was to marry Qiu Yi Song. . . . .and it happened, Xue became a wife at a very young age, and came to live with her new husband right after. Qiu was not a very kind man, not by any means, he was a scarred up fellow from the battles heâd seen, and had only married Xue for the simple fact that he knew heâd be needing a wife in the coming years in order to have himself an heir to his name, so really, it didnât matter to him what woman he married, so long as she was able to have children for him. . . . The only thing Xue was regarded as to him, was a future childbearing . . . thing. That was all. Given the fact that she was fourteen, young Xue was fortunate that she was someone who was late to develop in many senses of the word. Due to this, she was spared any treatment that would have truly left her emotionally scarred by Qiu.
A year after her marriage to Qiu, when she was fifteen, Xue was still physically unable to have children, and as such, she remained spared, for it was soon after this that her connections to the Fire Nation would be severed. Qiu and Xue lived upon an outcrop bit of land claimed by the Fire Nation during the Great War, an island off the coast of a beaten and battered Earth Kingdom city. It was one of the first colonies claimed by the Fire Nation. It happened in the night, the island was invaded by a small legion of Earth Kingdom soldiers, and in a bloody struggle which would cost Qiu his life, the once-colony was reclaimed by the proud people of the Earth Kingdom, and Xue herself was taken away by that legionâs general; Iseul Yu.
Now technically a widow, Xue was taken into Iseulâs home as a servant girl. She was young, but lovely to look upon, and as such, she was kept around the manâs home as a bit of eye candy, and something of a prize for his victory against the infamous Qiu Yi Song. Xue had been the manâs wife, what a better trophy for a won battle than a slain foeâs own wife. . . ? From the day she was brought into the manâs home, she was met with disdain as a daughter of the Fire Nation, and it was in this time that she came to learn the true horrors of the war waged by her home Nation, by her people. It disgusted her, and it made her so ashamed of her place in the world, and to whom she had been married. It was when Iseul had taken Xue to Omashu that her personality would come to the point it is currently at. . . .
Iseulâs wife looked upon Xue with disinterest and annoyance, but she abided by the wishes of her spouse, provided ideal clothing for the girl, and instructed her on how she was to wear her hair, so that her face could be seen. If anything Xue was lucky for when it came to Iseul, it was the fact that he never laid a hand upon her. She feared him, and remembered what it was Qiu had wanted from her, but Iseul never saw such a thing from her, only he viewed her as a trophy of victory. And in essence, the very notion of seeing the girl in such a way disgusted him, for he thought her tainted already, after all she was a wife for a year. . . .
Now, it has been two years since Xue was made into the servant of an Earth Kingdom general, and since that time, the man has shown her off as what he views her as, a trophy, and boasts of her presence in his home proudly. And, in those two yearsâ time, Xue has made attempts to flee from Iseulâs home, and to make her way to freedom, only to be seize and returned to him soon after. . . . After several failed attempts in gaining her freedom, Xueâs spirit has begun to degrade to the point that sheâs become resigned to a fate as the fallen daughter of a noble family, left to a life of servitude to Iseul Yu.
This how Xue Yi Song has come to live her life, resigned to an existence as a servant. . . .
Theme Song: Mamoritai ~ BoA
âThis is the end,â is what I thought on that distant day
But now I can say that it was the start of my flight
Your warmth fills the gap between the palm of my hand and chest
Weâll search for our destination with our hearts joined as one
I want to protect you like you protected me
Even in times when we canât meet
Because with each second, we will . . . become stronger
While staring up at the huddled stars in the vast night sky
Beyond an irreplaceable today, tomorrow is born
I want to cherish this atmosphere between us
From our honest hearts, we can become kind
I wonât forget being with you and the warmth we share
I feel that youâre the only one that illuminates the future
Itâs like the sadness that piles up is gently melting away
For always and forever more
I want to protect you like you protected me
Even in times when we canât meet
Because with each second we will . . . become stronger
I wonât forget when we met each other
The wish that was reborn
I believe in it and thatâs why I want to protect it all
I want to protect it all
Other: By standards, Xue has been married and widowed already, and she is only seventeen years old.
Her alias was thought up on the spot during one of her attempts to run to freedom from Iseul.
The man to whom Xue was married to, Qiu Yi Song, he was a reputed general in the Fire Nationâs Army . . . he was responsible for the raid upon one of the four Air Temples and also for the deaths of countless Air Nomads, to his people, he is a hero for his deeds. To Xue, he was a monster, a heartless man who slaughtered many innocents. To the world, Qiu was also a monstrous thing, being responsible for what happened to many Air Nomads. After his death was announced to the people of the Earth Kingdom, there was actually much celebration.
Currently speaking, Xue is unaware that a reward of sorts has been placed upon her head by her parents. After she was nowhere to be found after Qiuâs death a reward was issued by them for her return âhome.â The reasons for her wanted return are unknown since her parents didnât even really desire a daughter anyway, and they had already successfully married her off despite this.