Deerington Application

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Korra
Canon: The Legend of Korra
Canon Point: The end of Book 4 when she steps through the Spirit Portal

In-Game Tattoo Placement: The antlers will be split between her inner upper arms
Current Health/Status: Healthy
Age: 21
Species: Human? Avatar.

History: History

Personality:
Korra knew exactly who she was going to be when she grew up by age 4: the best Avatar that ever lived. She spent her entire childhood and adolescence trying to be that person, training hard and mastering all the elements (except airbending) by the time she was 16. She excelled at everything physical, mastering fighting forms and beating even the most accomplished opponents. She’s brash and cocky and full of herself, she thought she was the best that there ever was. She thought she could take on the world.

But everything changed when she went to Republic City. She was shown that she wasn’t good enough: at pro-bending, at airbending, at meditation, and at love. At the beginning of the series, Korra isn’t able to master airbending. In fact, she can’t even create a puff of air. She can’t meditate. She can’t “move like the leaf” and complete a basic airbending training assignment. She leads her pro-bending team to lose through her inability to be a team player and follow directions, and she isn’t a good sportsperson, and can’t reign in her anger at the other teams. When she gets passed over by her crush, Mako (who instead dates Asami Sato, the rich and beautiful woman whose company becomes their pro-bending team’s benefactor), she rebounds with his brother, causing the rift in their team to grow even bigger.

Her expectations for herself are dashed again and again throughout the first season of the show: she learns that she isn’t as good as she thought she was, that she has more to learn, that she isn’t the best there is, that she can listen to others and still be respected. She fears being a failure, and when her fears come to fruition, she learns that she can overcome them. The Avatar she was supposed to be always hangs over her, but her determination to do better, to step back and listen, helps her when she faces a roadblock.

Korra has always had a very strong sense of justice. At the beginning of the series, she believed that some things were right and some things were wrong, and that’s all there is to it. As the series progressed, she was forced to contend with more and more grey situations: in season two, her uncle tried to take over the Southern Water Tribe by using her and claiming to the only one able to help her on her spiritual journey. She thought he was right, because he played into her preconceived notions and into her ego. She has to contend with learning over the course of the season (and the series) that the people who are in power, who she may put her trust in, aren’t always worthy of that trust.

During the series, Korra learns, through many trials, that people in power don't always deserve their power. When she is searching for new airbenders in the Earth Kingdom, the Earth Queen asks her to help protect tax money in a province from bandits and transport it to Ba Sing Se. When she and Asami arrive, the “bandits” attack the shipment. She and Asami fight them off, only to learn that the Queen is bleeding the province dry, living in luxury in Ba Sing Se while her people suffer. Understanding this, Korra is able to be more discern with who she believes and who she trusts, caring more about the person than the position.

Korra wants to carve her own path, trying to excel as the Avatar, but also to find out who Korra, the person, is. She rebels against being told who she should be as the Avatar. She was taught that everyone respects and loves the Avatar, but after Amon threatens all benders in season one, and particularly Korra as the Avatar, with taking away their bending, she begins to see that her vision of equality between benders and non-benders isn’t so clear cut. She learns that she is part of a system that supports oppression of those who are born without bending. This leads her to question her own place in the world, as a leader born into the role instead of one who earned it. She discovers that she needs to forge her own identity as Korra the Avatar, instead of as the idea of the Avatar that the world has. She becomes more confident in being that person throughout the series, but that also comes with losing her naiveté and innocence.

Her confidence is only bolstered by her stubbornness. After she makes the decision to keep the Spirit Portals open at the end of season two, the President of the United Republic, Raiko, disagrees with her decision in public, in front of reporters. And yet Korra stands by her decision, stubbornly so: she doesn’t want to admit that she may have made a mistake. Fortunately for Korra, the decision did turn out to be a positive one, on the whole, but it forced her to again deal with balancing the future of her world with the immediate needs and desires of the public. Korra cares about her public imagine, but she cares more about doing the right thing. She comes to believe firmly that the public will follow. In opening the Spirit Portals, she discovered that the Avatar is more than a figure: they are the embodiment of the spirit Raava, who brings light to the world. With this knowledge, Korra carries faith that she is on the right side of history.

Korra cares, deeply, about people. She cares about her family, her friends, and really, everyone in the world. While Korra is a confrontational person, throughout the series she becomes less willing to hurt anyone, and she was never willing to needlessly kill. At the end of the fourth season, Korra threatens Baatar Jr, trying to get him to turn against Kuvira, and Baatar Jr calls her bluff that she won’t hurt him. He’s right: she won’t, because he is no longer a threat to the greater good. Her conviction and sense of justice is what wins her her best friends: Mako, Bolin, and Asami. These three would do almost anything for her, because they can see that Korra is the future. They see her through her good times and her bad. They forgive her when she hurts Bolin by kissing Mako, when she reveals that Asami’s father was on the side of the Equalists, they stick together through the whole love triangle with Korra, Mako, and Asami, all because they believe in Korra and love her. She is the glue that holds their friendships together, and she is the reason why the three of them have been elevated from their roots to being three of the most important people in the world.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:
Korra is the Avatar, which means that she can bend (manipulate) water, fire, earth, and air. She's highly accomplished at all of these types of bending:

Waterbending: Korra can manipulate water, turn it into ice, and use it to heal. She an bend water through tai chi like movements, connecting with the flow of the water. She's able to create water whips, to catch herself if she falls into a body of water, to create tall walls of ice, and to create geysers of water. She can also use water to spirit-bend: to change an unruly spirit's negative energy into positive energy, calming them.

Firebending: Korra can create fire through her hands, feet, and mouth. She can bend fire both traditionally, which is more like martial arts, and in the style of pro-bending, which is very similar to boxing, controlling the element through quick punches and kicks. She can also deflect and control fire, and can use the fire from her hands or feet to propel herself into the air. Korra is particularly adept at firebending, and uses it more often for fighting than any other element.

Earthbending: Korra can manipulate the earth and metal around her. Earthbending requires strong, solid movements, and Korra can control the element by seeking the earth within it, thus how she learns to metal bend. With metal bending, she can control metal cables, which can be used to latch on and swing between buildings, or to catch someone by wrapping around them.

Airbending: Korra is a non-traditional airbender, she controls the element similarly to how she fire bends, through boxing-like movements. She can control the air around herself to use a glider to fly. She can also use air to create a protective bubble around a person’s head, protecting them from water or gas.

Energy bending: Korra has the ability to control spiritual energy. In the series, this allows her to return people’s bending to them after it was blocked, and to manipulate people and energy within the Spirit Realm. I’m not sure what the applications would be in Deerington, as Korra’s connection to the Spirit Realm will be severed.

Avatar state: Korra has the ability to enter the Avatar State: a state in which she connects with all of her past lives. The Avatar state enhances all of her existing abilities, making them stronger than they are without it. The consequences of using the Avatar state is that if Korra were to die while using it, the cycle of Avatars would be broken and she would not be reincarnated.

Physical skills: Korra is also very strong, fast, and agile. None of these are abilities or powers, per say, but they are skills that she possesses. She is very strong, lifting up four people at once on several occasions in the series. She can also essentially run up walls, scaling them in strides and then leaping off of them again. She’s also a very good unarmed fighter: her bending skills lend well to many different types of martial arts.

Naga, Korra's polar bear dog and animal guide, has no powers except that she is in fact a polar bear dog, and she is very large, can run quite fast, and is strong enough to throw a man using her teeth.

Warping
To warp her element bending, I'll use the magic warping tactic. Sometimes her bending just kind of backfires. The bigger the bending she's trying to do, the more likely it is that it will go poorly. When she earth bends, the earth goes the wrong way. When she water bends, it might just make a big splash. When she fire bends, it might blow up in her face. And when she air bends, she might accidentally push the air out of an area instead of pushing it into that area. Airbending will be the least changed, and will work as intended when used in a non-destructive way, because of the pacifist culture that surrounds it in the Avatar world (really I want her to be able to use her glider).

For her healing abilities, they will backfire and hurt the person she's healing.

Korra won't have access to the Avatar state or spiritual energy in Deerington because she won't have access to the Spirit World.

She (and Naga) will retain her physical abilities.

Inventory: 

• Naga (polarbear dog) + her saddle
• Glider
• Winter coat

Writing Samples:
TDM top level
TDM sample 2

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Mads
Player Age: 28
Player Contact: PM (preferred) or spudbud

Other Characters In Game: None
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Korra: Mads
Permissions for Character: Permissions
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: Yes
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Having characters grapple with their own mortality and the mortality of others, particularly in a world like this where death doesn't mean what it does in our world. Having characters be forced to make decisions that go against their moral compass in order to survive.
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: No
Additional Information: N/A