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	Yona: Drawing a bow means taking and losing lives. My father hated pain. But, Father, if I do not take lives, I cannot live.
	APP HMD DANCER REN

Player Name: Ren
Age: 18+
Contact: blahblahren
Timezone: EST
Other character currently in game: n/a

Character name: Yona
Age: 16
Canon: Yona of the Dawn
Canon point: manga chapter 125
History: Wiki link

Three key adjectives: determined ; compassionate ; just

Influential Events:
Father's death
Yona's time in her castle was an extremely peaceful one, with her seeing almost nothing about life outside the walls of the palace. She was spoiled beyond belief with everything she ever asked for, and she took every single bit of it for granted. She was a princess, after all, and so the things she asked for were, to her, things she had every right to. Her father, King Il, only forbid her from using weapons, and while the rest of the kingdom called him a weakling for putting peace above all else, Yona simply accepted it.

Her first personal exposure to violence was seeing her father being murdered in front of her by her own cousin who, up until that point, had been one of her best friends and also her very first love. In that one instant she gets a brutal introduction to the fact that nothing about her life is what she thought it was, everything is torn away from her, and it sends her into a spiral of depression and near catatonia that it takes her quite some time to break out of. It teaches her that Soo-Won, her cousin, had been plotting this whole time to overthrow her father, and because of her being an emptyheaded and foolish princess she never even saw it coming. It's a harsh wake up call and an awful way to learn that even if you think you know someone, they can still have a side to them you'll never see until it's too late.

Exploring the kingdom
As she explores the area outside the castle, it becomes very clear to her very quickly that most people hated her father, or at least the way he ruled. There are no kind words for her from people who don't know she's King Il's daughter, and instead she gets a grim picture of a land filled with sickness, poverty, and corruption. Her father's subjects have fallen so far that most of them are starving to death and it rocks her to her core to think that during that time, when children were being killed in the streets, she was living a life of excess.

Her guilt but also her strong sense of justice and a desire to do what's right lead her to trying to help make things better, and she sets out on her journey to find ways to improve the kingdom her father left in an awful state. She demands to be taught archery and swordsmanship, and that sets her on her path of being more than just a spoiled princess.

Port city of Awa
In Awa, things really start to turn around for Yona. She has to confront for the first time how little agency and power she has, and when she's given a tast of retrieving a healing flower from a high, sheer mountain cliff, she leaps at the chance. The path she has to take is so thin that she has to press to the cliff to do it and she cries in fear the whole time, but even when she's given an out to give up she refuses. This is her one chance to be useful and it doesn't matter how dangerous it is, it doesn't matter how afraid she is, she is determined to help however she can.

After she's successful, her next big task is to infiltrate a human trafficking organisation by letting herself get captured, and she volunteers for this again without hestitation. She's seen by now just how the man in charge of Awa, Yang Kum-Ji, treats his subjects. His soldiers kill children and assault women in the streets with no repurcussions and this is her chance to stop him once and for all. In the end he almost escapes, but in her anger and with her final promise to the people of her kingdom, she's the one who draws her bow and shoots him straight through the heart.

Confrontation with Soo-won
Also in Awa, Yona comes face to face with Soo-won for the first time since he killed her father and caused her to have to flee from her home. After he learned of her apparent death he never attempted to find out if it were true, and when they meet again neither of them know how to act. That uncertainty proves pointless when they're interrupted by Soo-won's men and, rather than allowing them to see and capture Yona, Soo-won pulls her close to him and hides her under his cloak. In that moment Yona reaches for his sword, but before she can draw it he stops her with his hand over hers. He asks her if she plans to kill him and then tells her he can't die now, not until he's fulfilled his goal.

After they part, it takes some time for Yona to understand that Soo-won's goal is the same as hers: to restore their kingdom, end the corruption and restablish Kouka as a strong kingdom with strong citizens, and for the first time she has to consider what her goal is. She knows she isn't capable of ruling as she is now, and as torn as she is she has to admit that Soo-won is capable, and he's uniting the country in a way her father never could have. It's awful and she hates it, but she works with him in the final steps of ridding the water tribe of its drug crisis because she knows that trying to take her revenge won't do anything to help the country that she loves so much.


Link to Samples: Link to Sample 1; Link to Sample 2;

Chosen path: Dancer
5 Abilities:
Canon power: Archery - Yona has been training for months with a bow and it's a weapon she's finally feeling capable with. She has great aim, so if archery is too broad a term then from the Ranger path options I think Sniper is most applicable.
Path powers: Hidden Knife, Shocking Grasp, Hex, Calm Emotions
Why this path?: Growing up sheltered in a palace with a father who detested violence and never wanted her to pick up a weapon, Yona focused her studies on the things most princesses would and one of the things she was most accomplished at was dancing. It's one of the very few things she considers a skill, but she knows that it's a useless one in the world she's been thrust into now that values martial prowess more than anything. The ability to be able to use the one skill she has to actually fight effectively would be a huge morale boost for her, allowing her to feel like she's able to contribute in a way that's actually meaningful.

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