Tenzin's Profile

CHARACTER PROFILE:

Name: Tenzin (Armstrong)
Nicknames: Little Lady (Wenig Dame), Auntie Tenzin, Momma, Zenni, Ja
Age: Forty-Three
Date of Birth: August 28th, 1874
        Amestrian Zodiac: Virgo
Place of Birth: Bhasundara, Narayan
Residence: Giribaz Amestris
Occupation: Midwife, Wife, and Mother
Education:
• 3yrs – 7yrs : Traditional (Royal) Narayan Education  
       o Royal Etiquette: How to sit, hold a conversation in few words, how to elaborate the conversation, to not talk before your elders, the young ones must be seen and not heard, how to walk with the air of royalty etc.
       o Dance: This is a crucial part of any Narayan education as it has cultural and religious symbolism.
       o Arts: How to play an instrument (Tenzin chose to learn how to play a Dramyin; which is basically a lute)
       o Light Martial Arts Training: Bái Hè Pài (Tibetan White Crane) type martial arts.
       o History of the Narayan People:  with this most learn how Rasayan Shastra was derived from the ideals of the Sage of the West (Hoenheim). This is a very basic lesson though.
       o Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic,
• 7yrs – 12yrs : Scholarly Education (w/ Jangbu)
       o Governance of the People
       o Philosophy
       o Xingese (the language)
       o Politics
       o Theology
       o Diplomacy / Global Politics
• 12yrs – 15yrs : Education at an Educational a ni dgon pa
       o Taught how to use Rasayan Shastra/Dharmatic Alkhestry
          * The basics, the arrays, and the philosophy behind Dharmatic Alkhestry
       o Reading and Writing Ancient Narayan
       o Proper Meditation Techniques
       o A deeper look into philosophy and theology
       o Thourough training in Bái Hè Pài
       o Medicine / Healing
• At this point Tenzin receives her tattoo's showing her way to enlightenment. (This means she received her arrays that she developed and perfected over the four years at the a ni dgon pa. She also received the Azoth array as that is what she was planning on doing her life's work around.)
• 15yrs – 16yrs: Deeper research into Azoth at the a ni dgon pa and training to be her sister Choden's Advisor.
• 17yrs – 22yrs: How to survive and adapt her martial arts training to real-life situations.
• 22yrs – 23yrs: Great Desert Traveling with Isaac Baum and Sonam
       o How to write Amestrian
       o Basic Amestrian
       o How to file for Amestrian Citizenship 101
• 24yrs – 26yrs: Amestris
       o Culture – taught to her by Irene Jollenbeck
       o Etiquette – taught to her by Miriam Baum
       o Social Stigmas –  taught to her by Gabi Kahler
       o Language – deepened by  Vulferam Bach


APPEARANCE

Height: Five foot Two inches
Hair:   Greying Black
Eyes: Violet – a traditional Narayan trait but it is recessive.
Skin: Olive
Body type: Small in stature with an thin but athletic build Tenzin has never really had a hard time losing weight, or gaining weight for that matter (during her pregnancy at least she gained fat in her breasts and hips finally.) Growing up Tenzin was always considered too small for her age and then around the time of the Xingese Invasion, in 1891, she finally shaped out a bit with a proportionate amount curviness needed to make her look like a woman instead of a feminine little boy. Then, when Tenzin got pregnant in 1913 with twins she gained more stomach fat, giving her a bit more cushion for a time and of course her hips spread to accommodate the children and her breasts grew again. However, after the birth of her children Tenzin shrank back down, but not to the size she was before pregnancy. She is still just as muscular though as she has two, very hyper, three year old to take care of.
Tattoos: Tenzin has quite the array of tattoos that cover her from the back of her shoulder blades to her wrists on both of her arms (in other words Tenzin sports duel sleeve tattoos.) Each arm contains her personal Dharmatic Alkhestry arrays that she uses or created (the one's she created are on her shoulders themselves.) Further down her arms, near her wrists, are the arrays that are the stylized into Dharmatic uses but are still reminiscent of the pure alkhestry style brought to Narayan by Hoenheim when he was traveling around Xing and teaching about alchemy.
On her lower back is the Narayan high crest, showing her heritage as one of the royal household and a daughter of the Great Empress Brag-Srin-Mo. This tattoo is a lotus flower that is the symbol of the Empress and then it is surrounded by a faint outline of flames, the symbol of the first husband. This signifies that Tenzin is the daughter of the Empress and her first husband, but since the second outline is faint, the one of the husband, it shows that Tenzin is of a lower standing in the line of succession.
Then in her upper-mid back Tenzin has the array for the creation of Azoth. This was gifted to her as she was planning on dedicating her life to the study of Azoth and its properties. However, this did not come to fruition but she still has the ability to make Azoth but she no longer wants to study it as she wishes to help people – her plan for her life changed.  
Piercings: Tenzin has four piercings in each ear that she wore fully in Narayan but that was a long time ago and she only wears the lower set now with simple metal ball earrings.
Markings: Tenzin has stretchmarks covering her stomach area, hips, and thighs as these areas stretched the most when she was pregnant with Raphael and Miriam.
Style: Tenzin is a very conservative dresser and all her dresses are tailored so the reach just at her ankles or lower. The collars can either be a princess cut or have a high collar and the sleeves must always cover her arms till the very bottom of her wrist area. This is not because she is ashamed of her body but because she was raised in a country that was very conservative in dress and very bundled up due to the coldness in some regions (including Bhasundara and Ekadzati.)
Jewelry: Tenzin has in her possession a bracelet, a simple silver one with very little embellishment, that her mother Empress Brag-srin-mo gave her for completing her education at the palace. Then after Tenzin dropped the title of 'Lesser Princess' from her signature Empress Brag-srin-mo gave her a ring of the royal family, a small little one with very little embellishment that signifies that Tenzin is a scholar of the royal house – not a titled princess any longer. Then when the fall of Narayan happened Tenzin gathered up the other two rings from the bodies of her eldest sister Choden and her lesser, but favorite, husband Jian Yao. She plans on giving the two rings to Sonam and the man Sonam marries.
Ethnicity: Narayan

Family:
   Sangs-rygas-mkhá – (Grandmother) – Deceased…?
   Brag-srin-mo – (Mother) – Deceased
   Chogyal – (Father) – Deceased
   Dorje – (Step-father/ Uncle) – Deceased
   Gyaltso – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Gyalwa – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Jalus – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Jetsan – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Je-tsun – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Jungney – (Step-father) – Deceased
   Rabten (Half-sister) - Deceased
   Kurukulla (Half-sister) – Deceased
   Pema – (Half-sister/cousin – Deceased
   Tseten (Half-sister/cousin) – Somewhere in Xing – Spoil of War
   Rinchen (Half-sister) – Somewhere in Xing – Spoil of War
   Jangbu (Twin Brother) – Traveling Monk – Whereabouts Unknown
   Nyima (Sister) – Somewhere in Xing – Spoil of War
   Choden (Sister) – Deceased
         Jian Yao (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
         Heng Chu (Brother-in-law) – Traitor – Whereabouts Unknown
         Senge (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
         Thokmay (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
         Yeshe (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
         Dawa (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
         Gephel (Brother-in-law) – Deceased
   Miriam Choden – (Daughter) – Alive – three years old
   Raphael Alexander – (Son) – Alive – three years old
    Louisa Sabine Bach – (Great Niece)– Alive – eight years old

Friends:
   Abraham Baum - He is the brother to Issac Baum and gave her shelter when she and Sonam needed shelter.
   Elizabeth Louisa Bach - The daughter-in-law of Vulefram Bach.
   Abigail Bachman - Just a woman Tenzin helped with the birth of her son and they became friends.
   Christian Bachman - Husband of Abigail.

Best Friends:
   Miriam Baum - The wife of Abraham and has Ishvalan heritage. She is a good friend of Tenzin's who Tenzin writes to a lot.
   Gabi Kahler - Helped Tenzin settle in and is overall a very friendly woman. She is married to Adolf Kahler who is the town blacksmith.
   Irene Jollenbeck - What is called a 'spinster' or a woman firmly on the shelf. However, she is a great help to Tenzin and someone who is very interested in becoming a midwife herself. She is only thirty but Tenzin considers her a best friend.
   Isaac Baum - The man who helped Tenzin and Sonam cross the desert. His wife is of a mixed Narayan and Xingese descent and that is how he was able to help Tenzin learn written Amestrian.

PERSONALITY:

Tenzin is a very gentle and forgiving woman. She never has a negative thing to say about anyone and she believes that all evil deeds will come back to those who preform them tenfold. However, she also believes in the necessity of making decisive actions to protect those under her care. She is haunted, but not detrimentally, by what she did to protect her niece Sonam.
Overall Tenzin is very mothering, but like all mothers she can be as tough as nails when need be. She will do all it takes to take care of children, that is why she became a midwife. It is also why she fled to Bhasundara from Ekadzati to warn her family, however, she was too late and she was only able to protect Sonam. However, Tenzin does have the ability to get angry, but she is predominated by patience and thirst for education.

Likes:
• A clean home.
• Light green things to promote tranquility and peace.
• Chocolate especially dark chocolate.
• Dre-Se
• Khapsey
• Shab-tra
• Tea
• Cooking

Dislikes:
• Alcohol
• Sonam's unnecessary hatred of Xing
• Warm weather
• Red
• Blood
• Invasion of her personal space
• Dishonorable actions (that she herself makes on occasion.)
• Hoopskirts

Fears:
Tenzin's greatest fear is losing her two little children. She fought to carry them to full term and she cannot think of not having them in her life. They are her sunshine's and they bring her such peace and fulfillment.
Tenzin is also afraid of getting pregnant again as she does not want to leave her family behind, even if her baby's father is not around that much she still cares for him and doesn't want to leave him saddled with two, three year old children. Her first, and hopefully last, pregnancy nearly killed her due to her age; she was forty when she had Raphael and Miriam.
Thirdly, Tenzin is afraid of fire, not like insanely afraid of it, it doesn't classify as a phobia by any means and it is more of an apprehension of being around open flames than anything. However, at one time it was a bit worse than it is now and it took forever for her to actually learn how to cook over a fire. This apprehension stems from when she was older and she, along with her sisters, watched as a woman and man were burned to death as they were found in an adulterous relationship. For some reason, being forced to watch this at a young age as it was her 'duty to show her face and condone such action' caused her to have nightmares about being burned and open flames. But that died down to a deeply rooted apprehension that does cause her to be extra-wary and cautious when cooking or burning trash or the like.
Another apprehension of Tenzin's is being around men, alone, in general. She only talked to Major Armstrong to get directions for the Military Hospital her niece was in and then she only went to tea with him as she told him she would and a promise is a promise. Overall though she mainly keeps away from men and when a male actually earns her trust she is very loyal to them, friend-wise. However, for some reason she became, really close to Major Armstrong – mainly because he is so forthcoming with his emotions.
Also Tenzin is quite scared that her husband, even though he loves her, will one day leave her for a younger woman as she is about three-to-five years older than him. This is more of an insecurity on her part than anything but it does lead to her getting moody and quite upset.

Hobbies:
• Cooking
• Weaving
• Studying Dharmatic Alkhestry
• Meditating (This is a rare luxury now days.)
• Singing
• Gardening

Dreams:
Tenzin's greatest dream, currently, is to eventually retire from being a midwife, move to Central to be with her children's father, and enroll her children into a proper Amestrian Academy.

Flaws:
• Tenzin shares way to much information at times; she loves to talk and when she talks sometimes she lets things slip and that slippage does, at times, lead to a lot of trouble.
• Though Tenzin is quick on her feet, so to speak, she does jump to conclusions very easily and that does lead to some fights with her significant other.
• Tenzin is very smothering, overprotective, and overall a worrywart when it comes to Sonam, her two children, and her husband.
• At one time Tenzin cared too much about her reputation and failed to notice what's really important to her. She nearly lost her entire family due to that…though she realized that fault and was able to save Sonam.
• She beats herself up over only being able to save Sonam and not the rest of her family. She fails to realize, to this day, that if she saved everyone they could have all died when they were traveling.
• Tenzin cannot dance to save her life, she might be very coordinated otherwise but dancing just so embarrassing for her to be up against another person.
• She is easily shamed by her actions and that leads to her being reclusive when she feels she has done something that would shame her.

Abilities:
• Tenzin can speak Amestrian, Narayan, Xingese, Ancient Narayan, and write them as well.
• Tenzin can cook like a fiend. She can make anything that she can set her mind too.
• Tenzin knows martial arts as well as Dharmatic Alkhestry along the path Rasayan Shastra which is just a branch of the overall study of Alkhestry.

Fun facts:
• Her name means Protector of Dharma; keeper of bond/teachings. I didn't know this when I picked out her name from a list I found of Tibetan names.
• Rasayan Shastra is a specialized type of Alkhestry like Flame Alchemy is part of Alchemy but specialized. Tenzin studied hard to acquire this knowledge and she practices her Alkhestry in secret so she will not get rusty.
• Tenzin never talks about her heritage except to her husband. She wants the knowledge of who she was to die with her.
• She goes by Tenzin for the most part. She finds it hard to be called Mrs. Armstrong as it is like giving part of her heritage up. However, for her husband she does sign most papers now-a-days as Mrs. Armstrong.
• She's married to Alex Louis Armstrong. The height difference provides a lot of … inconveniences.
• Tenzin is very adaptable to her surroundings and the culture she is forced to live in.

Back story summary:
Tenzin is the fourth child and third lesser princess of the Narayan nation. From a young age it was noted from her governesses and the Imperial scholars that Tenzin had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge, wisdom, and truth. It was noted to the Empress Brag-srin-mo that her fourth daughter would make a great advisor to the High Princess Choden so the Empress, hearing this, decided to make this so. She always wanted her daughters to be closer than she was to her siblings and thus she was having them trained in various things so that they could all work independently and cohesively together.
So when Tenzin was nine she was allowed to drop her title and royal privileges for the most part and travel to Ekadzati to study under the great a ni and gra pa of that time. She was an ample student, her brain absorbing the information like a sponge. However, after her admission into the ranks as a scholar, not an a ni as it was still her duty to marry into alliances, the Invasion happened.
The Xingese invading force swept over the land with brutal force, destroying towns, cities, and villages alike. Most men were killed and the women were either killed for fighting back or if someone took a fancy to them they were taken back to Xing as concubines. The children were also killed or carried off. When news of the Invasion reached Tenzin she fled from Ekadzati to go to Bhasundara all the way there the Xingese force was nipping at her heels. So, when she did make it to the Capital of Bhasundara she only had a short period of rest to make it to the actual palace before the walls were breached and Xingese soldiers flooded the city. The slaughter was horrendous in the eyes of Tenzin. It was only worse when she was actually able to slip into the palace.
As she raced through the palace sites of her sisters, cousins, fathers, and nearly all her extended family being slaughtered met her. These images haunt her still as she feels it was her fault for not being able to save them but, in all actuality she did all she could to protect her family she was just one woman trying to save an empire that was crumbling under the weak rule of her sister .
When she made it to the Empresses chambers she found her sister and her sister's favorite husband brutally murdered and a Xingese soldier, she couldn't detect his rank, getting ready to kill Sonam. Acting out of pure aggression and fear Tenzin killed the solider and scooped up her bleeding niece. She hadn't the time to find out why her niece was bleeding the thoughts racing through her head were how she was going to save her niece and how was she going to get the bleeding stopped. Thankfully she was able to find temporary shelter in one of the few secret chambers in the palace for a few minutes, just enough time to seal the wound shut and wrap it up. At that time she noted that her niece had lost her right hand and some of the arm as well. However, there was no time to go back and she was soon on her way again, dodging the many celebrating Xingese soldiers, nearly being found out once, and all this while she was trying to keep her only family alive.
After a few months they made it to the actual Xingese border where, thanks to Sonam's Xingese features Tenzin was able to pass as a 'caretaker' and she set about teaching, and healing Sonam, but most of all try to get them out of Xing before they were found out. This was a volatile time for anyone that came from the south now; the Xingese government was on the lookout for any royals from the Narayan Empire. Tenzin didn't stop to consider why at all, and over the course of two years she was able to finally get her niece across the Great Desert and into Amestris.
Once in Amestris they settled down and Tenzin slowly began to build the best life she could for her niece and herself. However, thanks to the move to Amestris Tenzin was finally able to get close to a man at an age in which she was considered to be firmly 'on the shelf' and out of that grew a great love for him and out of that grew her babies.