Lin Beifong is a pioneer of blending swordsmanship and bending, and her dao reflects that.
[ID: Two shaded pencil sketches of a dao sword labeled as Lin’s. The first sketch shows the entire dao laid sideways pointing to the left. The blade is labeled as 40 inches long and comprised of both an inner and outer part; they are respectively labeled as platinum and steel. The blade is curved at the end and features a point coming off of the neck, just before the quillion. The quillion is labeled as being made of titanium. The hilt is curved downward, capped on either end by what is labeled as gold. The cap on the pommel features the design of the earth kingdom. A cord hangs off the end of the hilt, curving under the sword to halfway down the hilt, and features two beads on either side of a charm in the shape of Lin’s chief badge. The cord ends in a tassel. The second drawing is a close-up of the handle in the first drawing, labeled as six inches long. End ID.]
Style: Single Dao
Length: 40 inches
Material (Blade): Steel with a platinum core
Material (Hilt): Steel, platinum core, gold capping
Details (Hilt): The pommel and ferrule are both made of gold. The ferrule is plain, and the pommel is engraved with the symbol of the Earth Kingdom on either side. The quillion is made of solid titanium, giving her access to a variety of metals at any given time. The outer steel of the grip is constantly bending to fit perfectly in her hand, and is left perfectly even when she’s not holding it.
Lanyard: A 5-inch braided green cord a tassel on the end. Set just above the tassel are two black beads with a single gold RCPD pendant between them. The pendant was made by Lin herself.
Sheath: Standard hip, no decorations.
Details: Lin is a pioneer of blending swordsmanship and bending, and her dao reflects that. Her entire sword is made of metal, down to the hilt. The core, showing through to the outside on the blade, is platinum. This ensures that even when faced with a metalbender she is not left weaponless. The gold capping on either end of the hilt is frequently weaponized and replaced, so much so that Lin now keeps metal blocks in both her apartment and her office.
Because she is able to manipulate metal, her dao is considerably longer than average, giving her extended reach without the usual problem of having to sacrifice strength to weight. Combining bending and swordsmanship is still relatively uncommon, and Lin is by far the best at it in the world. She constantly bends the grip so that it fits perfectly in her hands at all times. She can adjust the length, size, or shape on the fly to fit nearly any situation, and is even able to separate the steel and platinum components into two swords if need be. Her blade moves in fluid concert with her bending and occasionally even her cables.
Like most swords, her style was chosen as a reflection of her sword master, Zuko. She began learning swordsmanship as Izumi was finishing her training, and the two enjoy sparring together. Her style is also strongly influenced by that of Avatar Kyoshi, who was also known to use blades to complement her bending.
no need to get defensive, I was just trying to help. your concepts would be a lot more interesting and probably popular if you started drawing digitally. pencil is pretty outdated at this point- theres no color or shadow. nobody ever got popular by doing what theyre used to. if your art is still growing, theres no reason not to grow it digitally.
Oh goodness, anon. Thank you for explaining art history to me. I’ve got a fairly long reply incoming and no, I’m not adding a read-more for you to ignore :)
Pencil art is my home. To clarify my previous answer, it is what I enjoy doing. That’s where my comfort stems from. But you’re right, my concepts are interesting. Like these ones:
I can draw baby Lin Beifong. I can draw an OC. I can draw Lin in a suit and sketch out three options for a complex menuki design.
Pencil travels. It resists water. Paper does too, relatively speaking, when the relative comparison is electronic. I can take a sketchbook with me anywhere. On a dive boat:
Up a volcano:
Hey anon, how many volcanoes have you climbed recently? Let me tell you, when you move sixteen miles through the garua (do you even know what garua is?) and sulfur clouds, you don’t want a tablet with you. Your tablet will die. My pencil lives on.
Color, you ask for?
Shading?
Have you any mountains to miss? Any whales you’ve swam with? Any drawings you’d like to share?
I like my pencil, fucker. I can do more with it than you can probably do with your hands overall. Digital art is amazing, I agree. Perhaps it translates to the internet better. And for now, I leave it to the digital artists. I’m not switching media entirely because some rando on Tumblr-dot-fucking-com that can’t even talk to me off anon thinks I’ll get more likes for it. And I have much more to say, if I weren’t about to block your pompous ass.
Asami’s family dagger was largely destroyed when fighting her father in a mechasuit in Book 1. Uncomfortable going into a fight without a blade, she designs a retractable blade to fit inside her electrified glove.
[ID: a pencil drawing of two views of Asami’s electrified glove from the back of the hand. The first is the standard glove, with the addition of a hard-looking slat running from the wrist to the bottom of the knuckles, and a rectangular brace extending about three inches from the rear of the glove, stabilized by an extra strap. The second drawing shows the same style glove with the fingers clenched into a fist and the knife extended. The knife is labeled as reaching five inches from the back of the wrist. The blade is comprised of two triangular sections, a smaller one resting on top of a larger one. Below the two gloves, a dagger with a labeled five inch blade lies horizontally. The blade is a simple rectangular style with a point, and the hilt is dark, rounded, and curled at the bottom. The top is shaped like a rounded triangle. Five gemstones are set into the hilt, two large ones on either end and three smaller ones between. The composition of each blade is labeled in script, and Asami’s name is written vertically to the left of the image. END ID]
Dagger
Style: Knife
Length: 5"
Material (Blade): Zirconia
Material (Hilt): Mother of pearl
Details (Hilt): Black; inlaid with several rubies inside a curling pattern.
Sheath: Black metal thigh or bicep sheath, depending on her outfit.
Details: Despite years of childhood training in how to use a dagger, the one her father gifted to her at thirteen was mostly ornamental. As such, it was all but destroyed in the fight with her father’s mechasuit. She left it that way for several years, unable to look at it and unable to throw it away. After reconciling with her father and in the wake of Kuvira’s attack, Asami asks Korra to help her repair the dagger in his memory. It is a relief to be able to display a blade at prominent functions once again, as her glove is usually unfit for such occasions.
Glove Blade
Style: Hidden
Length: 5"
Material (Blade): Stainless steel
Material (Hilt): none
Details (Hilt): none
Sheath: Built into back of glove. Requires an extra brace below the elbow
Details: Designed by Asami after the loss of her family dagger, this mechanism keeps a spring-loaded blade in the back of the electric glove. The stainless steel in the blade is a composition specifically designed to be as minimally conductive as possible. Even considering this, the design of the glove and the electric components meant that it was nearly impossible for Asami to build without extreme risk of frying herself, so she asks Lin Beifong for help. The metalbender agrees, but adds approximately six safety mechanisms to protect from electrocution and to keep Asami from "cutting her head off."
As unique as its owner, Kya’s sword is a mix of modern and traditional styles that fits her blended family and largely nomadic lifestyle.
[ID in alt text]
Style: Pana
Length: 24”
Material (Blade): Steel
Material (Hilt): Seal bone
Hilt Details: Carved traditionally from a seal bone, deeply curved. Polished white with darker stained coloration near the end of the hilt. Terminates in a rounded shape that curves back toward the blade.
Sheath: Hangs loosely over one shoulder to rest at hip height
Details: As unique as its owner, Kya’s sword is a mix of modern and traditional styles that fits her blended family and largely nomadic lifestyle. Modeled after a pana, or “snow knife,” it is designed as a tool before a weapon- the wide, flat steel blade is better suited for cleaving blocks of ice than for dueling. Preferring to bend in her fights, Kya mostly relies on the knife for utilitarian functions including preparing materials for healing. However, she is also well versed in using it defensively, and can wield several other styles of sword well enough to hold her own. When choosing her sword, Kya was extremely invested in preserving cultural tradition in the hilt. She carved the bone herself with help from her Uncle Sokka and Grandfather Hakoda. To this day she remains proud of the result.
Mako stole his katana from a sword shop at eight years old. Even after they make it off the street, he keeps the blade, finding comfort in the familiar weight of it against his hip.
Style: Katana
Length: 24"
Material (Blade): Steel
Material (Tsuka): Wood; leather
Details (Tsuka): Mako’s tsuka is straight along one edge and curved on the other. The adornments on the tsuka are all plain steel. Currently, the tsuka-ito is a soft red color, having replaced his original worn brown wrapping. There is one silver and gold menuki on the lower end of each side, a flame and fire lily motif given to him by Lin Beifong.
Saya: Lacquered black wood with black leather sageo
Details: Mako stole his katana from a sword shop at eight years old. The blade is far too large for him at that age, but he eventually learns to wield it well enough to protect himself and Bolin. Even after they make it off the street, he keeps the blade, finding comfort in the familiar weight of it against his hip. He’s not exactly sure why he’s never considered replacing it; the thought just feels wrong.
The katana is a decidedly simple one, not uncommon among firebenders. The blade is made of plain steel, and received a nick in his teens that he never got fixed. His original saya is a dark, unadorned wood that’s received its fair share of scratches and has a crack along its center. Repairs were a luxury he couldn’t afford for most of his life, and even when they begin probending he keeps the habit of making sure Bolin’s blade is in good condition at the cost of his own.
When Mako and Bolin join Team Avatar, and when Mako eventually joins the RCPD, his new family begins to take notice of his sword’s disrepair. Mako isn’t exactly sure what to make of it when Asami Sato surreptitiously replaces his saya with a newer, higher quality one, or when Pema hands him a new tsuka-ito because she "accidentally bought the wrong length" for her own sword. Suyin Beifong off-handedly offers to fix the nick in the blade one day, but he’s fairly certain she assumes it’s a recent injury, but when he gets it back, the wobble that’s been in the tsuba for as long as he can remember is gone as well. Lin Beifong gifts him a pair of hand-made, gold and silver menuki for the tsuka on his first anniversary of joining the Force. Despite the changes to the item that’s been his security for most of his life, he can’t help but feel touched whenever he looks at his sword.
Rather than maintaining the same blades from youth, Suyin created a new meteorite pair upon completing construction in Zaofu.
[ID: a pencil sketch of two swords, mirror images of each other, laying next to each other vertically. The hilt of one sword is beside the tip of another. Below the pair, Suyin’s name is written in script. Outside of the pair are two close-up drawings of the sword hilts, showing the details of the hand guards. The guards feature a series of black circlets in a swirling pattern relying on concentric splits of each line into three more. The length of the hand guards and the swords is marked to the far right of each sketch. The composition of the blades, meteorite and silver, is written in script beside the center sketches. End ID]
Style: Twin Jian
Length: 28"
Material (Blade): Meteorite
Material (Hilt): Meteorite
Hilt Details: Intricately designed black handguards wrap around each hilt in a mirror image of each other. The pommels are capped in silver.
Sheath: Two strapped to her back
Details: Suyin’s jian, like her sister’s dao, are a reflection of her swordsmanship master, in this case Sokka rather than Zuko. Likewise, the meteorite composition is a reflection of both Sokka and her mother, Toph, and their powerful friendship. Her preference for dual weapons is a derivative of her earthbending style, comprised of grace and fluidity uncommon to earthbenders, and did not emerge until well into her teenage years. Though she is both a skilled bender and swordsman, she rarely crosses the two, relying on swords for close combat and stealth and earthbending for more direct action.
Rather than maintaining the same blades from youth, Suyin created the new pair shortly after completing construction in Zaofu using a meteorite she had found while traveling the world. The rare metal and intricate handguards immediately identify her as a person of extreme wealth and stature. Replacing her original blades marked a clear separation for her, breaking with her past self and preparing to do better from hereon out.
Korra’s sword was given to her at a young age by the White Lotus, rather than made herself. The handguard is meant to reflect her heritage, but the standardized design draws from the United Republic military to reflect the Avatar’s stance as a member of all nations.
[ID in alt text]
Style: Cutlass
Length: 32"
Material (Blade): Steel
Material (Hilt): Wood, silver
Details (Hilt): Standard wood grip with a basket handguard fashioned in a stylized water tribe symbol
Sheath: Standard hip
Details: Korra’s sword was given to her at a young age by the White Lotus, rather than made herself. The handguard is meant to reflect her heritage, but the standardized design draws from the United Republic military to reflect the Avatar’s stance as a member of all nations. Korra is well-trained in swordsmanship and occasionally employs it at close combat, but largely prefers the brute force of bending to fight her battles. She keeps her sword drawn in hand and toys with it to relieve excess energy.
While traveling alone between books 3 and 4, Korra relies solely on her sword for protection in order not to give herself away. In doing so she refamiliarizes herself with the weapon she had almost never used outside of training. On returning to Republic City, she begins to learn how to better incorporate her swordsmanship with bending, drawing on the ideas of both her father and Lin Beifong in order to forge her own style. This makes her the first avatar since Kyoshi to incorporate a blade in regular combat.
