Elder Lhili
"Nobody is born worthy of knowledge. It’s a choice every keeper makes every day."
Introduction
Guru Lhili is a woman committed to her work. She loves exploration and new ideas, and has an unmatched level of ambition and creativity in her projects. A spectacular leader, Lhili has nurtured and loved the Watcher Branch since her first day as a Keeper and as an Elder, and will continue to do so during her time as Guru.
Table of Contents
Character
Appearance
Short (roughly 5 ft), with short, asymmetrical silvery blonde hair. Her hair is usually up in buns on the back of her head, with blue beads wrapped around them to secure them. She wears blue eye makeup because she likes to bring the blue from her watcher tattoos into her face.
Clothing
She wears a yellow, flowy-sleeved shirt underneath a red and gold-trimmed wrap, and at her waist are more blue beads to keep the wrap secure. She wears light brown pants which she keeps tucked into her knee-high airbender boots, around which there are some white wrappings to help her keep her form when she airblasts. Obviously, she still wears her lapis keeper necklace, she loves the keepers with all of her heart and cares deeply for each and every one of them.
Personality
Lhili isn’t much of a fighter. She’s pretty useless at practical airbending, and mainly only knows how to airblast and fly around. She’s also very sentimental, and loves to frame every little thing that’s given to her, like her first book, or her old broken gliders. She’s insanely proud of being a Keeper, keeping the lapis pendant that she always wears around her neck shiny and sparkly. Maybe it’s because being part of a group makes her feel like she’s finally become vaguely important to someone? Or maybe it’s because she feels like finally her more bookish talents and interests will be useful to her. She loves to spend time in the library at the Western Air Temple, sorting books and organizing boxes. She just likes feeling useful, y’know? Like she’s done something to make life a little easier for her fellow Air Nomads. That’s not to say she’s smart. She is literate, but she’s pretty stupid when it comes to things that aren’t her pool of interests. Considering her pool of interests is more of a puddle of conspiracies, the list of things she knows nothing about is long and...concerning.
She can be a little intimidating sometimes, but that’s just because she’s not good at being friendly. She wishes she was, but her internal monologue is kind of cynical and mean. She's also unbelievably stubborn, and does not back down easily. If there's something she believes in, she'll defend it to the end. Her stubbornness leads to bravery far surpassing her own actual skills, and it's what's lead to quite a few injuries and bad decisions in her lifetime. She's learned to be more patient by exploring a more spiritual side of herself, and the older she gets, the more she values sentimentality and spirituality. Being a keeper has taught her to see life, value, and memories in everything she owns, which is one of the reasons she doesn't eat meat. Lhili sees a lot of her physical possessions as extensions of her own soul and her connections with others. Every gift she is given, she keeps, protects, and treasures.
Life
Like most Air Nomads, Lhili never knew her parents and was raised with the other air children by the monks and nuns. The elders told her she was born somewhere on Air Temple Island, and she was raised there until she turned 18, and became a nun. As a young novice, and then a slightly older apprentice, she felt like an outcast among the other children. They seemed to all have a connection that she somehow missed out on. After she became a nun, she decided the only way she would feel confident enough to actually connect with the other nomads was to travel the world, learning about the other cultures, and having a more spiritual and deep sense of self. She set off, carrying only her glider and a blank notebook, determined to document her travels and understand the world around her better.
She travelled for about a week on her glider, stopping to sleep only twice. As you’d expect, she fell asleep in the air and fell off a cliff. Fortunately, this cliff was the top of the Western Air Temple, home to many flying bison. A baby bison had wandered from the herd and spotted her falling form in time to save her. She woke up to the sound of Western’s fountain and saw the bison that saved her watching over her with concern. As she focused more, she noticed the bison’s horn was broken slightly, as though it had been damaged while she was carried to the fountain. The temple’s elder, Jinji, gave her a new glider and told her that the bison needed a companion air nomad.
Lhili had finally made a connection, naming her lifelong companion Wesley, after the temple she found him in. She borrowed some supplies from the Western Temple’s storage and flew Wesley around the world. She stopped at each air temple, getting food, meeting each elder, and even making new friends. The Northern Elder offered her some milk, and they had a pleasant chat about what milk really is. The then Eastern Elder, Nilak, offered her a painting from their archives which he thought looked like her. Also at Eastern, she met and befriended a white fox, whom she named Ro-Ki. The Southern Elder remarked on her height, saying she was shorter than most nuns her age, but offered her a fire lily, which he called a fire Lhili. It was time to go home now. Before she left Southern, Lhili hugged her new friends goodbye. She loved her time at each temple, and she treasured each memory she’d made, feeling like she had, at last, found her place in the world.
It had been a year since she flew away from Air Temple Island, and she returned wiser and happier than when she’d left. Lhili greeted the monks who raised her with a hug, not realizing how much she’d missed them until she saw their faces again. She told the novices and apprentices all about her journey and introduced them to Wesley, who had grown bigger since he’d saved her from certain death a year before. As she read from the little notebook she wrote about her travels in, she showed them her new glider, which had been reinforced with meteorite, the “fire Lhili”, and the painting which she now agreed looked quite a bit like her. The younger airbenders listened intently, and happily petted Ro-Ki.
Lhili spent her apprentice years watching the monks and nuns become Guardians, impressed but also intimidated by their skill. She was very nervous about the Master test, as she’d never been very good at air bending, but she thought it was really the only choice she had if she wanted to make a difference. After meeting the other elders and gurus, though, she learned that there was another way for her to do something with her life. The Keeper path was all about learning, documenting, and sharing your experiences with other nomads, as well as working towards being a Watcher. It was something she knew she was capable of.
All throughout her nunhood, she obsessively put together little books about her favorite topics, forcing her friends to listen to her go on and on about whatever she decided was her new passion that week. Upon learning about the Keeper option, she chose not to forget about the Guardians’ impressive airbending skills and zeroed in on the real, raw power of airbending. Now, as a Watcher, she’s actually encouraged to write her books and to share her knowledge with others.
When Lhili became a Keeper, she and her companion Wesley moved to the Western Air Temple. It was partially for Wes’s sake, he seemed kind of homesick at the Island, but Lhili also felt a certain softness for the place that she’d almost died in. It was like she’d been reborn there, and it felt more like home than the Island ever had. She now spends her early 20’s working her way towards becoming a Watcher and planning new ways to share history and information with her fellow Keepers.
In Spring of 308 AG, Lhili married her longtime friend Yoshi, whom she'd known on Air Temple Island since they were children. Their wedding ceremony was held in the All Day Echo Chamber at the Western Air Temple and was officiated by Elder Jinji. All their closest friends were there, and their love was celebrated until dawn.
In the Summer of 311 AG, while off on a small adventure with some other keepers, Lhili encountered a ghost who was revealed to be an ancient relative of hers, and she discovered that she had a sister. Keeper Avia, who her friends often affectionately called "Mash", and Lhili were already good friends, and upon discovering that Mash was her little sister, they grew closer and were overjoyed to know some family, as both never knew their parents growing up.
In the Fall of 311 AG, Lhili finished the Watcher test, finally becoming a watcher at the age of 25 and moving into a tower at the Western Air Temple.
In the Fall of 315 AG, Lhili, alongside her dear friend Jinpa, was promoted to High Watcher, fulfilling a goal she'd had in mind since she was a keeper.
A Collection of Short Stories
Relationships
Lhili
Political Figure:
High Watcher Reign:
315 AG - Present Predecessor:
N/A Nation:
The Air Nomads
Appearance
Year of Birth
287 AG
30 Years old
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Hair
Silvery blonde
Height
5'0
