Ningka

NingkaAvatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 5. was a Fire Warrior and later the leader of the Crimson Sails Armada, a coalition of corsairs and rebels. In this position, she served as the Head Captain of Crimson Sails, the pirates' island base, and the commander of the corsair ship Pyre Howler.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 6. Under her leadership, the Crimson Sails Armada launched a renewed campaign of piracy against the Fire Nation's shipping, causing not just great damage in lives and goods, but also threatening international peace by robbing reparations promised by Fire Lord Zuko to the Earth Kingdom.
== History ==
=== Early life and operating as Fire Warrior ===
When Ningka was a young girl, she could not control her firebending and was prone to violent outbursts of frustration.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 10. At one point, she fought off a group of bullies and lashed out with a blast of fire to keep them from hurting her.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 16. This was the final straw that led Ningka's parents to send her to a secure mental health facility to treat her instability. Her anger and despair only increased at the institution, however, as more care was placed in keeping her subdued than getting to the root of her problems. Her teacher at the facility would often punish her. Little by little, the young girl's vibrant gaze diminished after repeated admonishments, until she became a tired young woman quietly sitting in the corner of an institution, too exhausted to keep fighting.
Ningka's life changed once more around 101/102 AG. One day, Azula broke into the mental health facility, freeing many of the young women kept there. The princess kicked down the door to Ningka's room and, with a lightning bolt, fried the guards, freeing her. Ningka subsequently joined the Fire Warriors, a group whom the rogue princess organized to wage a secret campaign to force Fire Lord Zuko into adopting autocratic policies. To do so, Ningka and her comrades masqueraded as the Kemurikage and began abducting children of high-ranking officials in the Fire Nation Capital. Ningka was later present when one of the Fire Warriors, Zirin, voiced her dissatisfaction about the Fire Warriors' operations to Azula. The princess urged her followers to be patient and keep following the plan.
Ultimately, Azula's operations were discovered by Zuko, Team Avatar, and their allies who subsequently attacked the Fire Warriors' headquarters at the Garden of Tranquil Souls. Facing not just the Fire Lord but the Avatar himself, Ningka fled and deserted the Fire Warriors. She felt that Azula had put them in harm's way and betrayed her just as everyone else had betrayed her in the past. Now alone and without allegiance, Ningka was initially unsure about what to do. Eventually, she found herself at Crimson Sails, an island ruled and inhabited by pirates and other criminals.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 5. There, she found a new purpose, as the local corsairs were as disoriented and insecure as she was.
=== Leader of the Crimson Sails ===
Crimson Sails had previously enjoyed relative prosperity due to a deal it had made with the Fire Nation government under Ozai: its forces, the Crimson Sails Armada, would stop attacking the Fire Navy, and in return the Fire Lord secretly financed and supplied them. Unaware of the deal's existence and in the process of cutting excess military spending, Zuko unknowingly terminated the agreement after the Hundred Year War's end, making Crimson Sails' future uncertain. The island's Head Captain, Kangana, still hoped to find some middle ground with the new Fire Lord, but the corsairs were getting restless as they no longer received their money. Ningka stepped into this volatile situation. She claimed that she was part of a long line of successful corsairs and accused Kangana of being responsible for the broken deal with Zuko. Rallying the other captains to her cause, she then ousted Kangana, becoming Head Captain herself. With Kangana vulnerable, her own crew also voted her out as a captain and instead appointed Ningka in her place, effectively exiling the former leader of Crimson Sails from the corsair community.
With her position in the armada secured, Ningka then ordered Crimson Sails' pirates to launch a massive piracy campaign against Fire Nation shipping, satisfying not just the criminals' lust for plunder but also her own desire to hurt her hated homeland. In addition, Ningka allowed the crew of her new ship, the Pyre Howler, much more freedom than Kangana had, thus gaining their loyalty. However, her bloodthirsty leadership style and the abuses committed by the emboldened Pyre Howler crew soon caused a substantial number of pirates to question Ningka's regime.
Eventually, Ningka's fleets seized money and supplies from the vessel Zeisan's Hope which had been promised by Zuko to Earth King Kuei as part of the Treaty of Yu Dao, thus threatening to cause an international crisis. This was a tipping point for the Fire Nation leadership. The Fire Lord sent a team of adventurers,Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Starter Set, Adventure Booklet, pg. 1. consisting of Xi, Honu, Kahola, He Xing, and Bin to investigate Crimson Sails to recover the stolen goods and uncover what was happening in the pirate domain.
== Personality ==
Ningka's experience at a secure mental health institution and under Azula's influence made her hate the Fire Nation. She was a dangerous individual, and despite her flaws, she was also exceedingly smart and charismatic. She used these skills to manipulate the pirates into doing what she wanted them to do, without too many questions. However, at her heart Ningka acted out of fear rather than malice; winning her trust was exceedingly difficult because most of the people she had initially trusted, like her parents, failed her time and time again.
== Abilities ==
Ningka was a firebending master, and was able to pour fire on a target and lash out from a distance with a fire whip. However, she was not able to control her firebending in her youth.
== Appearances ==
=== Graphic novels ===
=== Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game ===
* Adventure Booklet: The Pirates of Crimson Sails
== References ==
Category:A to Z
Category:Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game characters
Category:Characters
Category:Characters with disabilities
Category:Crimson Sails Armada
Category:Fire Warriors
Category:Firebenders
Category:Fire Nation characters
Category:Graphic novel characters
Category:Major characters (Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game)
Category:Minor graphic novel characters
Category:Neutral characters
Category:Smoke and Shadow characters
Category:Pirates