Rashi: The Spirit with Four Faces
All it wants is death...
In the Air Nomads’ Watcher branch, two individuals have spent a great deal of time obsessing over a relatively unknown spirit: Rashi, the black and white being with four forms. High Watchers Jinpa and Lhili have been telling and retelling the story since they were keepers, not wanting to lose any detail. This tale begins far back, back to the beginning of this universe. Millions of years ago, as spirits poured into the Human World, one entered with trepidation and fear.
This spirit would come to be known as Bono I. As a cautious and curious creature, millenia passed before he felt comfortable in this rapidly changing realm, finally choosing a cozy lake to spend his days in. Bono was a wise and kind soul, and his compassion for the creatures around him was a pillar of his personality, however it was one that would soon crumble. While the years passed, seemingly without much change, the rapid industrialization of the nearby humans was beginning to infect nature.
The lake's wildlife had begun to gray, deteriorating into the mud that lay around its banks. It all fell apart roughly 250 A.G., when Avatar Gan Shao broke much of Ba Sing Se. Tremors caused by his earthbending sent shockwaves through the lands surrounding the city, completely covering the lake in dirt and stone. Now, without an environment to protect, Bono was left with no purpose. Cracks began to spread, form began to shimmer, and then?
Then he broke...
Three falsities were created, born of Bono and his crumbled dreams.
In one, his kindness. Bono’s joyous and loving little turtleduck soul was reborn in Bono II, a being also carrying with him the ignorance and willing-naivety of Bono I.
In another, his playfulness. Rashi is a lanky and humanoid figure with a bright smile, xer long, black and white-striped arms and legs bending like noodles as xe moves. A trickster through and through, xe never gives up an opportunity to be mischievous. However, xe seems to take nothing seriously, laughing xer unsettling laugh with every taunting, mocking word xe says.
Finally, Bono’s numb, bitter denial of his emotions. Run-Ha-Shu feels no obligation to emotion, their behavior and mindset is logical and cold. Her spider-like form helps to create her unnerving presence; her many eyes lock onto her prey as they survey it, moving terrifyingly fast, yet somehow smoothly...calmly… With their unmatched cruelty, and her sharp senses, she has an uncanny ability to get under their subject’s skin...into their minds.
Legend & Myth
Type: Spirit Mythology Spirit: Rashi Form: Four Faces Spirit Origins: The Earth Kingdom
Rashi: The Spirit of Four Faces
Rashi: The Spirit with Four Faces is said to be a spirit so ancient and distraught, it wreaked havoc in the Earth Kingdom. Its changing forms are due to the betrayal of mere mortals, abusing the land and nature with the advancement of technology. This caused the spirit to take on the burden of the land, forcing itself into pain and agony, destroying its own common sense and understanding of the world in the process. It had become a viciously unstable spirit... and all it wants is death...
For almost forty years, they continued their own lives, with no complete picture of their previous self. Until…
Ra-Xaishu. When Avatar Ullaq opened the Southern Spirit Portal in 299 A.G., each separated form was drawn to its counterparts, colliding like magnets. However, this wasn’t meant to last. The intelligence of Run-Ha-Shu was the only reason Ra-Xaishu would remain alive. It feels only terror at itself. Quickly shifting from the Rashi form to Run-Ha-Shu to Bono II, it chose to continuously reform to take the burden off of the others. Ra-Xaishu is a massive creature, a monstrous amalgamation of Run-Ha-shu and Rashi, constantly jumping, flailing, thrashing, writhing in confusion and pain. Just as Bono I was a combination of all three spirits, Ra-Xaishu is the mirrored form. Broken, shattered, torn apart by painful memories of humanity’s betrayal, it’s a tormented soul. All it wants is death...
10 years later while exploring the Outer Rings of Ba Sing Se, a group of Keepers journeying from the Air Temples encountered this wandering apparition. Stealing the souls of Master Yua and Keeper Jinpa, it was a battle of wit and tongue when Keepers Lhili and Gavien went toe-to-toe with all four forms. It was clear that these travellers were on dangerous ground.
Going along with Rashi's conversational lead, Lhili continued to push for her friends’ return. Run-Ha-Shu, seeing the agitation in her eyes, decided to use their spiritual aptitude to shift through Lhili’s memories, attempting to hit a nerve. Finding their perceived mistreatment of her flying bison, Wesley, she went in for the kill. Believing that the Air Nomads had given up their spiritual and natural values for the sake of catching up to the modern era, and feeling this was a cardinal sin, she quickly lunged for and captured Gavien, leaving the last keeper to defend herself alone. The spirit then turned on Lhili, interrogating her on her values as an Air Nomad. The mention of Lhili’s treatment of her bison angered her to point of outburst, and this flash of emotion caused every form to try to show itself again, forming Ra-Xaishu.
However, after Run-Ha-Shu peered into Lhili’s soul, she left a scar in the young keeper’s mind. As she gazed apprehensively upon Ra-Xaishu, the scar split once more, opening her mind’s eye. She saw something she’d never even read about before: airbenders using their bending to calm and relieve spirits, changing the surrounding air pressure and letting it relieve its tension. This vision gave her an idea, and she encouraged her fellow keepers in the spirit world to follow her lead as she replicated the movements of her ancestors. The ritual was successful, and Bono II emerged from the swirling winds, his other forms suppressed...for now. Within the admittedly cute form of a black and white turtleduck, lurks an angry, heartbroken, and unstable soul.
