| By Neo Bahamut | Part of the Republic City Renaissance continuity. |
Overview[]
Because Aroma and Thiera are primarily Healers, they needed to quickly encounter another character who could carry the fight scenes. A metalbending officer was a logical choice, and for that there could be no alternative to Euryale, a character who was literally made to be an Action Girl. Euryale also has other roles which become important later, as the topics of spirituality and love are explored further.
Background[]
Euryale's family history goes back to the days of Yu Dao, where they worked as unskilled laborers in various mining and refinery jobs. But as the family tree grew, their benders became more powerful, paving the way for Euryale to become an officer, particularly when Phorcys Rakshashi joined the force under Toph Beifong, who was looking for more metalbenders as the city expanded. He was, of course, responsible for recommending his daughter to Lin Beifong.
Euryale was born to Phorcys and his wife Ceto, a local spiritualist. She was the middle of 3 children and had a rather poor relationship with her older sister, Medusa, whom she unintentionally overshadowed by being the first bender born to the pair. This rocky relationship grew into a rebellious phase by the teenage girls, which Medusa took much further, eventually joining the Triads and running away to Zaofu after a particularly bad fight. She remains estranged from the family, while their younger sister, Stheno, still lives with their parents.
Growing up, Euryale idolized Keter Aurora, "Team Avatar," particularly Toph and Aang, and later, Lin Beifong. Her interest in justice, earthbending prowess, and competitive nature led Phorcys to believe that she would be an effective police officer, though Ceto wanted an apprentice. Training with both of her parents alongside traditional school work wasn't easy. She still managed a healthy social life, but unfortunately, lost touch with most of her friends when she attended the Police Academy at 17. She graduated in 3 years and was recently able to make detective due to a crucial role in busting the current leader of the Red Monsoons.
Book -1[]
After passing the entrance exam for the Metalbending Force, she was given a training position under her father, while formally working as a beat cop. During this time, they uncovered the mystery of a violent figure seeking to claim control of the Agni Kais. It was during an investigation gone bad that Euryale indirectly had her first homicide in the line of duty. But the most help in solving the case came from an unexpected source; Senthose, a man around her age who was suspected of being involved with the Red Monsoons. The pair even united to capture the criminal behind everything, though they disagreed on how justice should be carried out.
Due to the overlap in cases, the Rakshashis joined forces with Inspector Matsu of River Patrol, head of the Red Monsoon investigation. After the Monsoons had the would-be Agni Kai leader murdered at trial, the police shifted their attention to investigating Senthose, who had abruptly seized control of the suspected gang front when his superiors all died, disappeared, or went to prison. The stress of the job was taking its toll on Euryale, but she knew she had to see it through after he began targeting her friends and family.
Temporarily leaving the force, she tracked him to an old mill, and they finally clashed during a full moon snowstorm. Just as he was about to deal the final blow, her spirit guide protected her, allowing her to turn the tide of the battle. She personally arrested Senthose and went on to help save the police and the Dragon Flats from his plan to slaughter his opposition.
With her father retiring, she took on his old position and cases. It was while investigating a supposed turf war between the Agni Kais and the Triple Threats that she stumbled upon the case of the gang that would later become known as the Purists, a crossroads of destiny which led her to Thiera and Aroma.
Book 0[]
During her investigation, she took the healer girls in as witness protection. She was involved in several skirmishes with the gang, most notably rescuing the victims of the Dragon Flats Clinic arson and being a key player in Aroma's plan to infiltrate the gang's hideout. Though a good portion of the Purists escaped, including their leaders, she would help bring them down when they invaded HQ. During this time, she also started a relationship with Aroma.
Book 0.5[]
Though the Purists fell, her workload didn't decrease. While taking in a sandbender and starting a Pro-Bending team to help with the immigrant's financial troubles, she also secured a guilty plea from the Purist Leader and helped defeat the gang's remnants at an old mountain fort. Unfortunately, tensions flared between her and Thiera when she realized the depths the latter was going through for revenge. She was forced to detain the waterbender and threaten her with charges, but fortunately the tough love approach worked.
Though the team lost, they exposed Council candidates collaborating with the Red Monsoons. Thiera suspected another conspiracy within the RCPD, and when Purist weapons went missing from evidence, Euryale was forced to admit the healer was right. The team tracked them back to the fort, but Euryale turned against them, having been hypnotized months ago. After a grueling night of cat-and-mouse, she was finally healed, and joined the charge against the corrupt officers' attempted coup d'état.
Book 3.5[]
Appointed to a Red Lotus investigation task force, Euryale went to Zaofu to search for clues, where she and Stheno had a chilly reception with their older sister and became tangled in a battle against a dark spirit. She pursued the spirit to Foggy Swamp, where Senthose absorbed it. Tracking their new target to the Si Wong, the task force reunited with Ven and learned of the sandbenders' battle with the mercenary army Sekhmet, now led by Senthose.
They sought help from a New Airbender who turned out to be the Purist Leader, and the unlikely alliance ransacked the enemy base, but Senthose had escaped. Discovering his new target was a summit in the Northern Water Tribe, they used a Spirit World rift to take a shortcut there, but she and Roatha became separated from the rest of the group.
With Euryale's spiritual knowledge and a little guidance, they found themselves in a city of Sun Warrior Spirits, where Euryale learned lavabending. Soon after, the group reunited and reentered the human world to help defend the Northern Tribe. It was Euryale's spiritual and seismic senses that told her the former Red Monsoon had entered the city under cover of his cavalry, and she chased him to the Spirit Oasis. She helped battle him, and then the Dream Spirit, contributing to the Element Sphere that was used to purify it.
Legacy[]
Evidence of the Red Lotus remained inconclusive and she was "encouraged" to stop investigating the Earth Kingdom, lest she become one of the troubling reports coming out about Kuvira, some of which she broke herself. She and her wife assisted in the evacuation and combat when Kuvira invaded the URN and later adopted her older sister's unwanted children, whom she taught self-defense. She decided to leave the race to become the next chief behind and retire for herself, taking over her mother's spiritual wares business. She helped educate the budding new spiritualist community and one day even introduced her younger sister to the Spirit World.
Personality[]
Euryale has many personality traits "typical" of earthbenders, but also many deviations. She puts on a tough front, doing her best to avoid showing "weak" emotions like sadness or anxiety, or talk about things which bother her. On the other hand, she often fails at this task, tending to wear her emotions on her sleeve. A change in her demeanor is even more noticeable in contrast with her usual bubbliness, enthusiasm, and open displays of affection.
Other than happiness, she is most comfortable displaying aggression. She is not afraid to get into a shouting match when she feels unjustly insulted, but the worst of her temper is felt mainly by criminals. She is often the first to make amends or mediate conflicts between friends. She may have gained a desire to seek tranquility and humility by frequently meditating to connect with Spirits, especially those of her ancestral lands. Because of this, she of course values traditional ceremony, but tends to be pulled in opposite directions between the commitments of spirituality and more secular pleasures.
Clearly loving her job, she makes frequent use of cop lingo both on and off the beat. She asserts herself within the organization through small talk and by seeking difficult cases to prove herself. Of course, her interactions with her superiors are more subdued—Euryale does not have difficulty following orders and showing respect, though her behavior is a little unrefined at times. However, on rare occasions, she's willing to go behind the Chief's back if she believes it's for a greater good. She also enjoys the city's vibrant night life, where she emphasizes her femininity and is openly flirtatious to men and women alike. She believes that, with honesty and respect, love can be shared between many people.
Abilities[]
Bending and Combat[]
As with most Metalbending Police, Euryale can use long spools of cable to adapt to a variety of tasks, whether that be swinging around the city or shaping them into blades to engage in melee combat. Due to the way it's complemented by her spiritual abilities, she was able to quickly refine her seismic sense to a level near that of the Chief's, and even learn truthseeing as she gained detective rank, a rarity for the department.
Her skills translate to other martial arts besides just bending. She's developed refined hand-eye coordination for her cable manipulation, which serves her well when required to use other projectile weapons. She can even defeat bigger and stronger opponents by strategically weaving and attacking their weak points. She prioritizes closing in and overwhelming opponents with powerful attacks and grapples. Like most metalbenders, she's developed a "move and root" form of fighting, allowing her to take advantage of powerful stances while not being too much of a target.
While she's long mastered basic earth and metalbending forms, softer techniques posed a challenge well into career. Tunneling maneuvers took a long time and left many debris behind, while she was able to exert only the barest control on fine particles of earth, such as sand or dust clouds. It was only through training with a sandbender that she overcame these weaknesses.
In a journey to the Spirit World, she connected to her ancestral origins, figuratively combining principles of fire and earth, and even some influence from her friend's waterbending, to produce lavabending. Though she had little time to train with the technique, her sandbending prepared her to use the skill to devastating effect when the Northern Water Tribe was invaded, effectively controlling the terrain using a lava moat and fighting with arcs, plumes, and waves.
While she did learn a small amount of chi blocking while undercover as a Purist, it's unlikely enough to be reliable, however she could augment her effectiveness using tools. As with all truthseers, her talents are ineffective on psychopaths.
Spiritual and Deductive[]
Euryale had a natural sensitivity to spirits from a young age, being able to sense presences where others couldn't. Training under her mother, she refined this talent, and by young adulthood could precisely feel spiritual auras, and even project herself into the Spirit World. This occasionally leads to helpful spirits or visions that provide her with wisdom related to her struggles, and she knows enough to avoid most dangers. Finally, with some practice, she can take another individual with her to the Spirit World, provided they've achieved some small connection to spirituality. However, strong emotional turmoil, such as the stress from an unusually dangerous case, can close her off from her spiritual talents.
Her day job calls for more grounded skills, which she's no slouch at either. She has a keen eye for evidence and intuitively understanding an individual's motives and habits through observation, even when she can't rely on truthseeing. She also has the intellect to put this information together and deduce where to find her next lead, her most notable example being tracking down Senthose even as he led the rest of the department on a red herring, due to having spent the most time around him. On the other hand, she can let her strong emotions get the better of her, easily tipping off her intentions and not always thinking things through when angry or excited.
Other[]
While citizens who are wealthy or have certain specialized jobs tend to be capable of driving, Euryale is specifically skilled at maneuvering in high risk situations like chases through busy streets and can even maintain her course while using bending. She is also resourceful and forward-thinking, as when deprived of her armor, she'll keep around spare metal like gauntlets or copper wire spools, in case of emergency.
Origin[]
As the name "Medusa" might imply, Euryale's family is named according to Greek mythology. Euryale, Stheno, and Medusa are the gorgon sisters, while Ceto and Phorcys are sea deities who sired the gorgons. I picked Euryale's name because the mythological Euryale was a beautiful woman turned ferocious creature with bronze claws. This references Euryale's physical attractiveness, warrior nature, frequent Bronze Age theme, and preference for katars as a weapon. Her family was devised to continue this theme, and the family name is a misspelling of "Rakshasi," which is too ingrained into the story to correct. Rakshasi are female monsters in Hindu mythology (the males are Rakshasa), usually malevolent but sometimes not, who often serve as warriors.
Euryale herself was created to be a contrast to Thiera, and because I wanted to try writing a woman who was a brawler. Her initial role was also as a love rival to Thiera, an aspect which quickly disappeared as I realized it was boring and predictable. However, they continue to rival each other in other ways, and just as frequently offer each other support as they do scorn. As I researched polytheism, an early trait of Euryale's, I found that it is correlated with willingness to explore romance and sexuality. This also seemed to fit her well.
Trivia[]
- Like Kori Morishita, she and the rest of her family favor colors that reflect their dual ancestry. Usually red and green for her, red being her favorite color. She dislikes sleeves.
- In addition to the styles used in the show, I sometimes use capoeira and krav maga as reference for her attacks.
- Unlike Lilith, her two-piece bathing suit is intentional. It's an older Fire Nation style, representing pride in her heritage and a lack of concern for fashion trends (unless maybe if Keter approves of them....)
- Pronunciation is a common question. I've always said "Yur-EE-ail" or "Yur-EE-uhl," but apparently the "proper" pronunciation is "Yoo-RYE-uh-lee."
- Having dug up some of the old LoK RP files, it seems that her father originally died of a lung illness while she was young, a plot point that was recycled into Out of Ashes. In that version, she joined the force first as a phone operator, and taught herself the seismic sense there. She also had a firebending partner, but this was another person's character.
- This is the first appearance of Euryale's family all together. Her parents only appeared once before, and her father was not the same character. Stheno has appeared a few times, but this is her most prominent role by far. Medusa appeared once over a decade ago.
- Her skillset was decided before it became apparent how rare truthseeing and seismic sense are even among metalbenders.
- The arc of her learning lavabending was an adaptation of an unused concept from the climax of the RP. Ladon the Spirit Dragon replaced Ran and Shaw, which ended up feeling more appropriate anyway, due to how it became connected with her family line and the origin of her spirit powers.
- I'm five years late on this, but I guess I promised to put this on her character page, so for the purpose of this universe, Euryale's middle name is Aoqin, which is derived from the Japanese version of the red dragon of the south sea. I needed to have her mother scold her with her full name, but Euryale doesn't have an "official" middle name.
Reflections[]
I wish I had just a little more time to explore her lavabending, but that's really the only regret I have with Euryale's portrayal in this story. Of course, the events didn't come together to explore that until very late in the game, but Euryale's lineage was always very informative to her character and it was great to be able to tie all that together. I think it really echoes the franchise's mix of themes. Her spiritual powers were a destiny handed down to her hereditarily, thousands of years removed from legendary ancestors she could scarcely imagine, almost like the Avatar or bending itself. On the other hand, she chose to become a cop and worked her way up to detective through determination. It wasn't something she did just because her dad wanted it, and she even had her resolve tested early in her career. That open-mindedness is ultimately what made her such a powerful bender, more than her distant connection to an ancient Sun Spirit.
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