Pregens to follow.

鯺遠言 ZEI Yuanyan, 19 year old woman, and 鯺遠社 ZEI Yuanshe, 19 year old man. The children of Professor Zei, an up-and-coming junior faculty member in the department of anthropology, Yuanyan and her twin brother Yuanshe are unusually well traveled for their age. Their mother was a talented Jiangke singer who entertained their father back when he was an enthusiastic and adventurous graduate student Zei, sowing his wild oats in the Southern Earth Kingdom. On his return voyage to Ba Sing Se, the professor discovered he had become a father, and brought the twins and their mother with him. However, the social circles of Ba Sing Se's middle ring refused to accept a Jiangke, and the twins' mother left acrimoniously to return to her own people, professor Zei insisting on keeping the children with him to receive an education. Yuanyan and Yuanshe are fascinated by their father's work, but feel a deep resentment toward the Ba Sing Se society of which he is a part, for not accepting their family, and consider themselves more as world citizens. Although this expedition is their sixth in total, it is the first one in which their father is not accompanying him, as he is occupied doing research about the Si Wang desert in Omashu.

Both twins are very knowledgeable about the cultures and languages of the Earth Nations and have a good classical education. They are also familiar with the political currents active in the Earth Kingdom at this time. Neither are benders, but Yuanyan is skilled in Hwasalbujok archery, and Yuanshe is a keen swordsman.

平孝通 PING Xiaotong, a 31 year old man, a former student of of professor Zei, and now a sort of "postdoctoral fellow." He is an earthbender who spent years winning the trust of the Sandbender tribes of the Hanwang desert, and learning their bending techniques. Besides his published studies of comparative earthbending, Dr. Ping also uses his unique skills in archaeological digs, using his subtle and precise bending to carefully excavate sites without damaging fragile artifacts. He has had an adventurous life - not surprisingly for someone lived in the notoriously lawless Hanwang - and is also an excellent combat earthbender. He is the informal leader of the expedition.

鄧悌忱 DENG Tichen, a 25 year old woman, a graduate student of professor Zei, who hopes to write her anthropology thesis on the Heke people and their unique festival. She is from an upper-ring background in Ba Sing Se. The Deng family are old money who made a vast fortune in land speculation during the Earth Kingdom Civil War - an ancestor bought up the legal title to land near Ba Sing Se occupied by Qin's troops for absurdly low prices from fleeing refugees in desperate need of money, correctly predicting that Qin's rebellion would be defeated. He then rented the land back to the returning refugees when Qin was turned back, eventually amassing wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. It is said that the combined fortunes of the Deng descendants make them the richest commoners in the Earth Kingdom. Rather than becoming an upper-class wife, though, Tichen - always intensely curious - decided she wanted to be a scholar and see the wider world. Her family are not keen on her participation in the expedition, but are tolerating it as a youthful eccentricity.

For her protection, her family insisted that Tichen be trained in Qi-blocking and non-bending martial arts, as she is not a bender. She is also equipped with a crossbow, with which she is reasonably proficient.

蜑麥富 DAN Maifu, a 28-year-old woman of mixed Heke and Zhongzu descent living on the southern coast of the Western Lake, Maifu was hired by the expedition as an interpreter, as many Heke do not speak the Common Language proficiently enough to convey subtle details. Maifu is a practiced interpreter, as well as a budding lawyer; she is reading the law under the supervision of a local Hao Ting official. The yamen officially employs her as a translator for when cases involving the Heke come before the court. However, the officials felt that the expedition was sufficiently important to allow Maifu to go with them, as there are also a few other interpreters available to do her work. She has devised a phonetic writing system for the Heke language based on a simplified version of the Common characters.

Maifu is a waterbender, though she is not very practiced at it and thinks she doesn't have much native talent.

牛雨桐 NIU Yutong, 18 year old woman. The daughter of the owner of a low-class brothel in the Northern port city of Beigang, she is of mixed ethnicity and from the Southern Earth Kingdom. Despite her low origin, the adventurous girl had the benefit of a decent education, upon which her mother spent much of her profits. Yutong was determined not to squander this opportunity and was an apt student, eventually getting the notice of a visiting scholar from Ba Sing Se University, who invited her to become a student. Though not always fitting in well with the capital elites, she earned the respect of her professors for her intellectual acumen. She is a non-bender, but has cultivated the "internal martial arts" and spiritual discipline along with her academic studies. On a past expedition, she secretly visited the Fire Nation colonies - a risky mission for an Earth Kingdom subject - and learned about the new technology of photography, which she has been working to develop back at the university with the Alchemical Department (some progress is being made, but it remains far from portable.)