Summary

Karani grew up in the Northern Water Tribe the only child of non-benders: A Water Tribe mother and a Fire Nation father that fell in love at sea. Though her father renounced the Fire Nation, her family had been the target of much local gossip and scrutiny over the years, and that persisted even when he passed away from sickness. When Karani started bending fire from the fireplace at age seven, her mother made her promise that she should never bend again and live a life as a non-bender, lest her future in the tribe be jeopardized.

Watching the men in her tribe hone their waterbending skills and sometimes brag while she was left to do menial tasks, however, got to her quickly. Disobeying her mother's orders and almost grasping for something to connect her to her passed father, she snuck out of her home city of Agna Qel'a onto the tundra plains with matches to hone her skills in silence. Though it could never pale in comparison to having a true firebending master, she was able to incorporate some waterbending styles in order to bend defensive and redirective techniques. As she continued to practice tirelessly in the cold, her flames often burning out quickly, she also came to realize she had an affinity for sensing other people's body temperatures - a trick that would come in handy for protecting the secret of her true nature as a firebender.

Despite the local rumours, Karani still physically appeared the same as the rest of her tribe, and her mother consequently managed to set her up into an arranged marriage with a Water Tribe man. Even though she knew it was part of their culture, something felt wrong to Karani - how could she just sit here and spend the rest of her life pretending she was a nonbender? Desperate to learn more about her Fire Nation half to fully understand herself, she set sail with her pet crococat in tow under the cover of night, hoping to find the answer in journeying across the other nations.