The History Of The World Of 'Avatar: The Last Airbender'

TV & Film

Oct 30

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Aang is tasked with taking down the Fire Lord and saving the world. But what caused the world’s need to be saved? In Avatar, the world is divided into four nations. The Air Nomads live simple aesthetic lives on floating islands. The Water Tribes hunt and fish in the North and South Poles. The Earth Kingdom build and trade on the largest continent, and the Fire Nation lead proud patriotic lives. Each nation is home to a certain type of bending, which lets people born as benders control one of the four elements. The Avatar is born with the ability to bend all four elements and is a reincarnation of the previous Avatar.

Before Aang was born, Roku of the Fire Nation was the Avatar and was best friends with Fire Lord Sozin. Sozin was misguided and convinced himself he wanted to share the prosperity of the Fire Nation. However, his method for going about this was more about conquest than distribution. Roku attempted to intervene but was betrayed by Sozin as the pair fought off a volcanic eruption.

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Roku’s death led the Fire Nation to begin their hunt for the Avatar. The Avatar Cycle pointed to the Air Nation being the next place for the Avatar to be reborn. However, the Avatar is typically not aware of their status until their 16th birthday.

However, with the threat of war, the Air Nomads tested Aang on his 12th birthday and revealed that he was Avatar, causing him to run away from the responsibility. Aang and his flying bison Appa got caught in a storm near the South Pole, and his Avatar State defense mechanism activated creating an iceberg around both of them that functioned as cryo storage. In the meantime, a comet granted the Fire Nation great power and Sozin used it to wipe out all the Air Nomad. The Fire Nation laid siege to the world for a century, capturing many parts of the Earth Kingdom, and dwindling the Water Tribes to a few survivors. Toward the end of the century, Katara’s mother offered herself as the waterbender to protect her daughter, the true waterbender. Years later, Katara and her brother Sokka discovered Aang in the iceberg, when Katara’s accidental waterbending freed him and Appa.

Iroh was one the Fire Nation’s top military personalities, earning the nickname the Dragon of the West. Iroh laid siege to Ba Sing Se, the Earth Kingdom’s capital city, long thought to be impenetrable. The Earth Kingdom fought back and Liu Ten, Iroh’s son, became a casualty of war. Afterwards, Iroh lost his will to fight and retreated to the Fire Nation. Iroh was next in line for the throne, but Azulon granted it to his brother Ozai with his dying wish. Iroh did a complete 180 after that experience and connected with the spiritual world as well as other cultures. In the Earth Kingdom, King Bumi held control of Omashu but Ba Sing Se was captured by the Dai Li. The Dai Li was a corrupt organization that gaslit the Earth King and the capital city into believing there was no war. However, several smaller Earth Kingdom properties were conquered and made Fire Nation colonies.

In the meantime, the Fire Nation learned that the Avatar was still alive. Fire Lord Sozin sent his son Zuko on a hunt for the Avatar after he was banished for disrespecting the Fire Lord. Zuko’s disrespect was simply raising concerns that a wartime move would sacrifice several loyal Fire Nation soldiers. Zuko and the Fire Nation believed that the Avatar was hiding away and spent a century mastering all four elements. The reality was Aang was still 12 after being frozen in the Avatar state for a century.

The Fire Nation also transformed its schools into places of indoctrination. Students were taught that the Fire Nation went to war with the Air Military, but the Air Nomads had no military force. The students were led to believe that the Fire Nation was fundamentally good and those opposed to its takeover were on the wrong side of history to speak. By the time Aang was released from the iceberg, years of propaganda meant the teachers fully believed what they were teaching, as they were brought up in the same system.

The Fire Nation was well prepared in their hunt for the Avatar, but they overlooked a crucial organization, The Order of the White Lotus. The White Lotus is an ancient secret order, dating at least as far back as the time of Avatar Yangchen. The Order, much like the Avatar, seeks to maintain balance, but the Order is willing to apply much more sinister means to an end. At the time of Avatar Aang, the Order is much more benevolent than its former incarnations. In the Avatar’s 100-year absence the White Lotus sought to preserve history and philosophy from all four nations. Iroh would become a key member of the White Lotus in the years between the failed siege of Ba Sing Se and the final showdown between the Avatar and the Fire Lord. This is the world Aang would have to save.

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