If you are planning on making a character who has a relationship to or an unRP'd history with another character (especially a canon), take our advice, and just don't. It's perfectly okay to create characters with backstory and ties to other characters so long as it has already been agreed upon by the player of the character. Similarly, we cannot accept any more characters who are, for example, Iroh's long-lost son or Pakku's most special student. There is no problem with forging a relationship with a canon in-game, so long as they have a logical reason to meet. Don't be discouraged if the canon's player has to decline--it's not personal; sometimes canon characters have a lot going on. :3

Since dead characters have no players, pming the owner is obviously a moot point. Part of the reason the guidelines call for asking a canon owner is because establishing a relationship requires incorporating a brand new character into a lot of RP that has to then be implied. In this case, you should contact one of the admins to see if setting up a relationship with the character is viable.

The basics (name, gender, age, basic appearance, short biography) and a few RP-specific pieces of information, such as bending type - if your character bends - and affiliation, such as The Dawn, Jade Shark, Original People of the Flame, or Groupless). After that, you can be as creative as you want to be, as long as the basic information is right up front.

When determining your character's height, keep in mind your character's heritage. A Fire Nation character would be on the tall side, men and women, whereas Water Tribe would be short. Here is an estimation to help you when deciding:

--Fire Nation Male: 5'11"' to 6'4''.
--Fire Nation Female: 5'6'' to 5'11''
--Water Tribe Male: 5'8'' to 6'0''
--Water Tribe Female: 5'0'' to 5'4''
--Earth Kingdom Male: 5'10 to around 6'3''
--Earth Kingdow Female: 5'4'' to 5'9''
--Airbender characters in Hou Tian are essentially of whatever country they have been born into and should abide by those estimations.

This is by no means the be all, end all, kind of thing - just a reference! Obviously, your character can be a little taller or a little shorter than normal - we just ask that you stay aware of your characters' racial attributes when you're getting all in-depth with 'em... ;3

I wouldn't. Spirits generally are rejected on the grounds that they're "supernatural" and that often attracts unwanted Godmoding and Powerplaying from people new to the game. Unfortunately, that sort of ruins the opportunity for the rest of you, but there are plenty of other options out there, so go wild!... if you still can ^^;

Blonde? You mean straight up yellow? No. There are restrictions dependent on nationality and lineage. If your character lives in the canon of ATLA’s world, then it is a definite no… Your character who is from the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation or the Water Tribes may not have blonde hair. It is impractical, impossible, and downright senseless.

…However there is one Hou Tian exception.

The Scepia People of of Jibade have a very distinct desert appearance. Their hair tends to be a light dusty or platinum colour, and their skin very dark. If you wish to partake in the blonde hair club of platinums and yellows, then create a character of the pure Scepian race. More Info Here

The closest thing you'll get to a redhead is auburn. Suki's hair is a perfect example.

If you guessed the answer was no, you guessed right. Remember, we are going for authentic here.

Has it/can it feasibly occur in the Avatar universe? If the answer is yes, then you are golden.

We honestly cannot accept any more characters like this. This RP only takes place 6 years after the end of the war, meaning your character’s parents would have had him or her during the war. Considering that they were enemies at the time, what are the chances that they got to spend enough time together in peace to fall in love and conceive a child? We have several mixed-heritage characters like this already that have been accepted but any more would just be unrealistic. This isn’t to say no more mixed-heritage families period: let’s just try to limit this to children born after the war, okay?

On the note of mixed heritages, there will be absolutely no mixing of the natives of Hou Tian canon kingdoms such as Jibade and the Plains area. Likewise, Sun Warriors should not be mixed heritage either. This isn't to say it would never happen, but it would all need to have been Roleplayed out. Ie; No one adult character will be of a mixed race/lineage from one Ancient tribe to the next.

Initially, no. In order to keep the level of chaos to a minimum, we cannot have characters that start out more powerful than the canons, bending-wise. Your character cannot have learned the art simply “because they are amazing.” He or she must have learned it from someone who is already a master (Katara or Hama for bloodbending, Toph for metalbending, and perhaps Azula for lightning) either through roleplay or through mutual agreement with the person currently roleplaying the master character.

Do note, that this only applies to members with seniority. You must have actively roleplayed here for at least a year.

We prefer our characters to "level up," so to speak, in the game. A child/adolescent character should be a beginner, a late teenager/twentysomething should start at intermediate, later twenties and into thirties is advanced, and mastery would not be reached until a character was much older. Remember, mastery is absolute perfection, not just the ability to do everything.

That's not to say your character can't have a definite aptitude and a very large talent. If they've been taught from the first moment possible, they may be "ahead of the curve." We'll consider this on a case-by-case basis when you post your profile. The only time this isn't applicable is airbending; since it was considered a lost art until after Sozin's comet and Aang is the only teacher, your character would more than likely be behind the curve when they're first created.

Yes and no.

Recipients of the The Plains may create master, intermediate, or beginner Tribal Benders if they so wish. These characters are secluded to the Si Wong Desert boards, however, and are only permitted elsewhere with the Head Mod's approval.

Other Airbenders (Monks, Nuns, Nomads) are also allowed, but more in the sense that they have the potential to learn the art. Aang is the last airbender of his kind -- that's it. We won't have any new characters who are amazing airbenders of the show's variet; the Avatar is the only master alive. Though luckily he takes on students! If you'd like your character to learn airbending, send a private message to Aang's player requesting the tutelage and make sure you note in the profile that the character is learning from him, if you are accepted.

First of all, we do not accept any waterbenders from the southern tribe. Katara is, as we all know, the only waterbender from the South. It is possible, however, to have a waterbender from the northern tribe who is currently living in the South. For the northern tribe:

These conditions are keeping with the known customs. It is possible however, for your female character to learn combative waterbending. If you’d like to do this, you should contact Katara’s current player with the request. However, since Katara is prone to travelling around a lot lately, Pakku is also available for lessons. He is training both male and female benders in combative waterbending in the Southern Water Tribe during Katara's absence, so you can send off a training request to Pakku's current player also; whichever suits your character's needs better. As with airbending, both genders may have the potential to learn the other gender-specific art: it must be obtained through roleplaying.

OH WAIT! LOOPHOLE!
Gosh darnit! you saw right through our facade, didn't you? From now on, advanced waterbenders from the Foggy Swamp will not be accepted if that is not their current living location. Swamp benders trekking along the Earth Kingdom as freelance artisans will be rejected at the post.

We agree. Our faction on board, the Jade Shark, utilizes this method in their efforts to battle bending worldwide. But because it's a skill that would have to be taught and honed just like bending, it does have a few stipulations. First of all, we see no evidence in canon that anyone but Ty Lee knows it. We're going to go out on a limb and say it probably came from the Fire Nation, being a military and strategical powerhouse, needing a way to outfit their non-bending citizens and still use their service and duty during the war. If everyone else knew it, why wouldn't they have used it against the Fire Nation armies to disable them? Secondly, it requires a lot of training to "master," just like bending. Third, it was still relatively exclusive. The fact that Ty Lee is the only one practicing it would imply it's not standard education even for the nobility. All of that aside, however, since the war ended, the art has spread. Any character can have learned chi-blocking in the last seven years, no questions asked.

Again, we are going to have to go with no. Like it says in the F.A.Q, we consider it to be highly distasteful to create a character that is to the detriment of a canon character.

Yes, but only as a casual acquaintance. In the case of a character involved in politics, it is obvious that he/she would have a pre-established relationship with any of the canon leaders of his/her nation. However, we would prefer any closer relationships be developed through roleplay. Since we are further into the roleplay itself now, it would be odd if some new character claimed to be, say, Katara’s BFF out of nowhere. So please, form it through actual interaction with the characters! It’s more fun and makes it more believable to everyone else. The one exception here is if your character had any kind of past relationship with our man Touda (just be sure to warn him if you create another ex for him to deal with!)

Go for it! We don’t mind you making up new animals; it occurs fairly often around here, either via casual mentions or a detailed character biography If you wanted to come up with some animal combinations outside of those chronicled Avatar-Wiki, by all means go for it. Just keep in mind that hybrids are combinations of two animals; please do not make hybrids of hybrids (combinations of three or more "regular" animals) as that's excessive and we see no evidence of it being possible in canon.

Also, please keep in mind that animals will not bend, unless they are direct descendants of the original bending animals. (Badgermoles taught earthbending, dragons taught firebending, sky bison taught airbending. As dragons and sky bison are now considered "extinct," be careful when planning your animal hybrid around these animals.) No animal can waterbend. And for the record, animals do not advance through stages of mastery as human benders do. For the sake of keeping things simple, we'll say there's one "level" for all descendant hybrids and it's intermediate or low advanced. The original animals are masters.

Whoa now! As a general rule, the older civilizations (the Fire Sages, Jibadians and the Ukemanem) don't just up and leave their homes, as doing so would technically expose the rest of their tribe or village; especially with the latter two. You should contact an admin and see if it's a viable plan first.

One very key thing we've noticed during our years of operation is that sometimes people come up with elaborate backstories for their original characters. We love that! But you need to tread carefully when you do so. You cannot create forum canon history without prior approval. In other words, if you come up with some fancy shmancy new bending move for earthbenders, please run it by us. If you want your character to be part of some elite fighting squad that we don't see existing in canon, please run it by us. This is basically so we don't have contradictory characters running around and so we're all on the same page about what can and cannot have happened given where the board is today. Remember, this is what we see in the series plus seven years. For some things, the ship has just already sailed.

You can head on over to The Character Index to post your profile.