| By Neo Bahamut | Part of the Republic City Renaissance continuity. |
Overview[]
The Avatar world frequently features background characters with high levels of prestige—politicians, celebrities, role models—Keter fits all these roles, since there's so little information about famous Republic City figures. Because the United Republic Council has so little information for me to base their personalities on, Book 0 is set during an election, allowing me to bring in new characters.
Background[]
Born to Abba, then a Fire Nation Captain, and Imma, then a Fire Sage with a passion for firebending art, Keter is part of a long lineage of upper-class firebending soldiers and politicians. Though her eye color is a clear indicator of Water Tribe genes from the Hundred Years War, the details of the union are unclear. In any case, from an early age, she was driven to prove herself, and was dead set on becoming either an advisor to the Fire Lord or a similarly ranked official in the United Republic, where the Fire Nation also has a lot of sway.
She never deviated from these goals, and her firebending and leadership skills allowed her to be noticed by her superiors and appointed at 26 to replace her retired father. She then gained recommendations from both her superiors and the populace of her province that she be appointed to governor when the current occupant retired, a request which materialized when she was 28. With the position of Advisor to the Fire Lord seeming impregnable at the time, she instead garnered the support of her community to be recommended as the Fire Nation Delegate in the next Republic City Council Election. Her second-in-command became governor in her stead.
There are rumors of a strained relationship with her parents, but the Aurora family insists that Keter is simply a very private person and, whatever her faults, they both love and are proud of their daughter.
Book 0[]
After arriving in the city to great fanfare, she contributed to the effort to stop the Purists, first with funding and her own private officers, then stepping into battle herself. She even helped battle Amon, but was ultimately defeated. She returned to the campaign trail soon after, more popular than ever.
Book 0.5[]
Wanting to help their new sandbender friend, Euryale and company sought out Keter as a Pro-Bending sponsor. She agreed, on the condition that Euryale would "keep an eye on Franz," a promise she was forced to make good on when their first-match loss angered the Fire Delegate. Keter's instinct was right, but she went down along with her political rival when the Southern Water Delegate, who worked closely with Keter, was also implicated in the criminal conspiracy. She left the city after losing the election, reluctantly agreeing to keep the team afloat.
Book 3.5[]
At the Northern Summit when Sekhmet attacked, Keter joined the battle with her airship and Fire Police. After being shot down, she rescued many of her crew and escort police, destroying several Dark Spirits in the process. The repeated lightning attacks left a toll on her hands, forcing her to sit out the rest of the battle.
Legacy[]
The fall of Sekhmet saw Keter promoted to a security advisor at the Royal Palace. Though against overt warfare, Fire Lord Izumi saw the threat the Colossus represented and the need for superior intelligence as a deterrent against conflict. Because of this, Keter was allowed to study the Sekhmet-Red Lotus case files and used their tactics to create a covert security force. This force was eventually put on detail protecting Fire Nation scientific secrets. Keter's celebrity faded and the anxious advisor returned to her province, where she still held some notoriety, to live out her days in relatively peaceful retirement post-midlife-crisis.
Personality[]
Keter has internalized the Fire Nation teachings of destiny and divine providence with a notable lack of humility. Some of her wilder claims include that her silvery hair is proof of being chosen by the Spirits and that she has received instructions from Avatar Roku. Related to this is her vanity, an obsession with both herself and anything connected to her appearing perfect at all times. This got Keter into trouble a few times throughout her career, but fortunately, she has the diplomatic and firebending skills to back up her claims. She is regarded as one of the greatest firebenders of her generation, and despite being arrogant and quick to anger when she doesn't get her way, she is not markedly unkind, being famous in her home province for giving significant portions of her wealth to charitable and pro bono projects, both of and not of her own design. Keter is also highly intelligent and adept at finding opportunities to wow an audience or make a rival look foolish.
Abilities[]
Keter is famed as having nearly flawless firebending. Not only are her attacks able to travel for hundreds of feet while maintaining their accuracy and power, but they take the form of unusually energetic blue flames. Her control is so fine that she can burst her strikes even from their maximum range, so a favored display of hers is to create a one-woman firework show. Though not quite as extreme, she also has exceptional abilities with the fire breathing technique, able to bathe her front arc in flames from nearly a dozen feet away or shape them with her mouth to form concussive fireballs. She can generate amounts of lightning large enough to mimic a natural storm and even shape it to an extent, by using simultaneous generation and redirection techniques. These skills make it trivial for her to defuse the attacks of most firebenders, while her stamina allows her to sustain long battles against waves of foes.
Aside from her bending, Keter's resourcefulness and nerves are not to be underestimated. During the Purist Crisis, she swiftly dealt with her own life-threatening wound through pinpoint cauterization, transitioning seamlessly into an attack even as she was still crying out in pain. She also knows how to take advantage of people, such as when she used Euryale's obvious adoration of her to turn police resources toward digging up dirt on her worst political rival.
Origin[]
Keter was conceived of as the leader of a group of characters, each named after a Sephirot, the attributes of God in Jewish mysticism. Fittingly, "keter" is the "crown" of the Sephirot. Binah and Netzach were also in this group. You may or may not see some or all the others, but they may or may not be affiliated with each other. Her last name simply means dawn, relating to her association with light and rebirth.
Befitting her God Complex, Keter makes frequent use of divine symbolism, and her overall design is meant to be evocative of Hellenistic portrayals of goddesses. Abba and Imma are simply old Hebrew terms for "father" and "mother," respectively, because I'm clever like that.
Reflections[]
Unfortunately, you just can't focus on every character, but I'm glad I got to bring Keter back in Book 3.5 for one last hurrah. With so many things going on in the story, I could only touch on her political aspirations and religious views. I could also only barely hint at what happened to her later in life. Even what's in the Legacy section is a little watered-down. I didn't want everyone to get a generic happy ending, and it made sense that Keter would have a mid-life crisis, but I also didn't want to go too far into it and ruin the uplifting tone of the finale, to say nothing of making a giant tangent. At that point in the story, I thought it made sense to redeem Keter's image by having her finally be recognized for all of her services to her nation. As such, it was very convenient that General Iroh also happens to be the son of the Fire Lord and can therefore theoretically award her with Fire Nation HONORS!
See more
For the collective works of the author, go here.