Chaeryu

Chaeryu was the ruler of the Fire Nation preceding Fire Lord Zoryu. Although he was physically strong and his reign was marked by bountiful harvests, Chaeryu was also guided by his passions, easily influenced, and often acted impulsively. Besides his official wife Sulan, he had numerous mistresses, most importantly Huazo. Him having two sons by women belonging to two noble clans eventually resulted in a succession conflict upon his death, called the Camellia-Peony War.
== History ==
As a teenager, Chaeryu fell in love with Lady Huazo of the Saowon clan, taking her as his mistress. They would often retreat from the pressures of the royal court, venturing to the countryside. Chaeryu greatly enjoyed these trips, as they distanced him from the politics. However, he and Huazo would also often bicker due to the trips, as Chaeryu took little interest in preparing them and thought that they would do fine without equipment. In contrast, his mistress believed it foolish to venture into the wilds without anything and often had to handle all of the preparations on her own.
Huazo was not well-received as a royal mistress, and Chaeryu became convinced that he could do better than her. During a royal garden party, he was introduced to Lady Sulan of the Keohso clan and was immediately smitten with her. Although this provided a great opportunity to end his relationship with Huazo, it turned into a great embarrassment for him when Huazo revealed she was pregnant with his first child, Chaejin.
Chaeryu married Lady Sulan, who also fell pregnant with a son. Although she was considered a wonderful person by many, others believed her to be hopelessly naive. She convinced Chaeryu to name their son Zoryu, whose name used a character that was traditional to the Saowon clan. This caused great offense to the Saowon, though Sulan had only believed that the name sounded nice. Sulan died giving birth to Zoryu. Chaeryu took several more mistresses, and Zoryu later suspected that he had many more illegitimate siblings. Unlike Huazo, however, none of these later mistresses had a high rank, and their children were not officially acknowledged as his.
Chaeryu's sons were playmates to each other in their youth, but after he ascended to the throne, Chaeryu decided to exclude his illegitimate son from the royal family and the line of succession. Chaejin was sent to live with the Fire Sages away from court, and Chaeryu forbade anyone to speak on the matter as long as he lived.
Despite being considered an unintelligent boor by his family, Chaeryu was remembered for the plentiful harvests during his reign, which came to an end after his death. People began referring to him as "Chaeryu of the green fields" and he was succeeded by his son Zoryu.
== Physical description==
Chaeryu's physical appearance was nearly matched by those of his sons, Chaejin and Zoryu, as Kyoshi described the two of them to have looked like copies of Chaeryu.
== Relatives ==
== References ==
de:Chaeryu
pl:Chaeryu
ru:Черью
Category:A to Z
Category:Characters
Category:Fire Nation characters
Category:Fire Nation Royal Family
Category:Fire Lords
Category:Kyoshi novels characters