The Lore of Avatar: The Last Airbender - The History of ATLA
Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.
Hello, and welcome to the first of four parts of lore articles for Avatar: The Last Airbender in preparation for the Magic: The Gathering Standard set that is being released soon. These articles are geared at giving those who are unfamiliar with the lore of this amazing series an understanding of the world, the bending, and the characters that make up the Avatarverse.
We are going to begin with a lore dive into the history of the world, with a focus on Avatar: The Last Airbender (but sprinkled in with a little of the expanded lore from Legend of Korra). The world of ATLA is based in a world divided into the physical realm and the spirit world, and these two realms often intermingle with each other throughout history.
Timelines in the Avatar world are often referred to by official sources and fans through the events of the genocide of the Air Nomads by the Fire Nation that started the series. Events before this are referred to as BG (Before the Genocide) and events after it are referred to as AG (After the Genocide).
The Spirits and the First Avatar
In the beginning, there were the Spirits. While the physical world manifested the powerful spirits Tui and La (the Moon and Ocean Spirits respectively who assumed mortal forms as koi fish), the story truly began with two major entities: Raava and Vatu. Raava embodied the purest light and peace, while Vaatu embodied darkness and chaos. (Legend of Korra S2 E7: Beginnings, Part 1 and S2 E8: Beginnings, Part 2)
The two Spirits battled each other across existence itself. Their battle was so massive in scale that it pierced the barrier between the Spirit world and the physical realm. This act created the Northern and Southern spirit portals, allowing spirits to cross over to the physical realm through them.
Raava and Vaatu’s battle culminated in an event known as Harmonic Convergence, when the planets in the solar system would align and the battle between the two would determine the fate of the world until the next Harmonic Convergence, which took place every ten thousand years. Raava was successful in restraining Vaatu during the first known Harmonic Convergence.
At some point in the physical realm, humans began to appear. These fledgling humans built great cities on the shells of the giant lion turtles, who desired to protect humanity from danger. Outside of the lion turtle cities, the Spirit Wilds were filled with spirits who were ultimately wary of the humans and their warmongering ways.
Whenever the humans would need to leave the lion turtle to hunt for food or supplies, the lion turtle gave the humans the power to control an element attuned to the turtle. This is the first form of primitive bending that exists within the world. The ability to grant this sort of elemental control was known to the lion turtles as energybending.
A young homeless man named Wan, desiring a better life and food to feed his friends, stole the power of fire from the lion turtle and used it to steal food from the wealthy Chou family. As punishment, Wan was banished to the Spirit Wilds, being allowed to keep the element of fire in order to protect himself. In his time in the Wilds, Wan befriended many spirits there.
In his travels, Wan came across the warring spirits of Raava and Vaatu. Tricked by Vaatu, Wan severed the link between the two spirits, unleashing Vaatu into the world and chaos with it. Raava chastised the young Wan for his actions, but the young man resolved to stop Vaatu and to help Raava, whose essence was shrinking with Vaatu’s strength.
Wan traveled to the other lion turtle cities, meeting other humans and using Raava’s power to attempt to learn the other elements. Over the course of a year, Wan and Raava trained to master all four elements to prepare for Harmonic Convergence. Raava continually weakened during this time.
During Harmonic Convergence, it seemed that Vaatu had the upper hand against Wan and Raava. Refusing to give up, Wan permanently bonded his spirit with Raava’s, creating the very first Avatar. The Avatar was a spiritual being that could master all four elements and was known as the bridge between the physical and the spirit worlds. Utilizing his newfound powers and a state of enhanced senses known as the Avatar State, Wan trapped Vaatu in the hollow of the Tree of Time in the Spirit World. In addition, Wan separated the physical and spiritual realms by sealing the portals at the North and South Poles.
Wan attempted over time to bring balance to the world, but this task proved difficult. Many years later, Wan lay dying on a battlefield. Wan apologized to Raava, wishing he could bring peace to the world. Raava however, simply reassured him that they would always be together. As Wan passed on, the Avatar Cycle began and his soul was reincarnated into a new body.
Over time, many different Avatars existed, as each time one perished a new Avatar was born in the cycle of bending elements. Fire, Air, Water, Earth.
Because of the Avatar’s existence, the lion turtles decided to allow humanity to live on their own, no longer needing their protection. Humanity began to co-mingle, forming four distinct nations. Each one of these nations was based on one of the elements and bending disciplines: The Air Nomads, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation.
Era of the Avatar
After Wan's passing, the Era of the Avatar began to take form. Multiple Avatars served over many years as humanity took shape around them.
While the Water Tribes separated into both the Northern and Southern respectively, the warring peoples of the fledgling Fire Nation were finally brought to heel under the rule of one man. This man, the leader of the Fire Sages, became the Fire Lord who commanded the Fire Nation as a sovereign leader. The office became hereditary, being passed down via bloodline after bloodline throughout history. In the Earth Kingdom, the city of Omashu was founded by Oma after the death of her lover Shu.
During the Era of the Avatar, there were a few important Avatars that arose. The first is Avatar Yangchen of the Air Nomads, born and raised at the Western Air Temple. Yangchen became a fully realized Avatar at the age of Seventeen, and became heavily involved in matters of the Spirit World, to the point where she made multiple deals and treaties with spirits, but many of those treaties were broken after her death. She was also greatly entrenched in the world's political spectrum, working with and against nations as it suited her.
Avatar Kuruk was born into the Northern Water Tribe in 345 BG. Kuruk was famous for attemping to kill the spirit Koh, the Face Stealer as revenge for stealing the face of Kuruk's love, Ummi. He perished in 312 BG and gave way to Avatar Kyoshi.
Perhaps one of the more recognizable Avatars was Avatar Kyoshi. She grew up an orphan after her parents died of fever before being confirmed to be the Avatar in 296 BG. Kyoshi adopted the Yokoya peninsula as her homeland and began training the very first Kyoshi Warriors. However, the warlord Chin the Conqueror attempted to gain control of Yokoya soon after. Kyoshi responded to this by separating Yokoya peninsula into two halves as Chin the Conqueror fell to his death of his own hubris and stubborness. The separated island became known as Kyoshi Island on one half and Chin Village on the other. Both islands celebrated the day this occurred in different fashions with Kyoshi Island celebrating the day Kyoshi saved lives, while Chin Village hosted "Avatar Day" by wishing the destruction of the Avatar.
Kyoshi was also responsible for the creation of the Dai Li, a secretive force of earthbenders who acted as a sort of secret police for the city of Ba Sing Se.
Kyoshi died in the year 82 BG at the age of 230, and afterwards Avatar Roku of the Fire Nation was born. Roku became confirmed as the Avatar at the age of Sixteen. His best friend, Sozin, ascended to the title of Fire Lord in 58 BG following the death of his father, Taiso.
The two men were indeed best friends but Roku's absence in his Avatar training only bolstered Fire Lord Sozin's extremist views on power and expansionism. At some point during his rule, Sozin organized Dragon Hunts and nearly obliterated all of the Dragons from the world. The fabled Sun Warriors fled into hiding with the remaining dragons.
The Hundred Year War
In 12 BG, Avatar Roku was killed while fighting off a volcanic eruption at the age of seventy years old. In his place, Avatar Aang of the Air Nomads was born in the Southern Air Temple.
Aang became an airbending prodigy, receiving his tattoos at a very young age, making him the youngest airbending master in recorded history. He is later confirmed by the monks of the temple that he is the Avatar at the age of twelve. Aang, scared of his destiny, flees the Southern Air Temple with his flying bison, Appa. After being caught by a massive storm and being pulled underwater, Aang entered the Avatar State for the first time, using this power to encase both himself and Appa in a large ball of ice. (Book One: Episode 12 - The Storm)
Fire Lord Sozin, fearful of the next Avatar being born in the cycle, began what would come to be known as the Hundred Year War. The Fire Nation began attacking the other nations, using the power of a comet (a celestial body that increases the strength of a firebender by a thousand-fold) to subjugate the world. Sozin focused especially on the Air Nomads, knowing the next Avatar will be an airbender. All of the Air Nomads are killed in his attacks, save for Aang. The comet would come to be known as Sozin’s Comet.
Over the next one hundred years, the Fire Army established footholds in the Earth Kingdom and raided both the Southern and Northern Water Tribes. The Fire Nation primarily focused on the elimination of other benders, especially within the Water Tribes, raiding the Southern Water Tribes to eliminate any waterbenders that could threaten the Fire Nation.
Fire Lord Sozin lived to 102 before passing rule to his son, Azulon.
The Fire Nation continued their sieges, with Azulon giving way to his two sons Iroh and Ozai. The former, a respected general in the Fire Army, began a long siege of the Earth Kingdom city of Ba Sing Se before his son died in the battle, causing Iroh to abandon the operation. His brother Ozai succeeded his father Azulon. Ozai’s children, Prince Zuko and Princess Azula, became heirs to the throne. Prince Zuko would later be banished by his father after an Agni Kai (a fire duel) that left the young Prince scarred. He was given the task to capture the Avatar in order to regain his honor and departed alongside his Uncle Iroh. (Book One: Episode 12 - The Storm)
The Return of the Avatar
One hundred years after Aang was frozen in ice, a pair of Southern Water Tribe siblings named Katara (a fledgling waterbender) and Sokka found Aang and cracked the ice, freeing and waking him. (Book One: Episode 1 - The Boy in the Iceberg)
Aang, forced to acknowledge that when the world needed him, he ran, comes to terms with the genocide of his people. He set out with Katara and Sokka to learn the other bending disciplines and defeat the Fire Lord to bring balance to the world. Along the way, the trio are hounded by Prince Zuko, who sought the Avatar to regain his lost honor. Aang began the task of learning each discipline as Katara also eventually becomes recognized as a waterbending master and Aang’s primary teacher in the element.
Upon arriving at the Northern Water Tribe, the Fire Nation’s armies attempted a siege of the city that nearly resulted in the death of the Moon Spirit Tui at the hands of the crazed Admiral Zhao. Aang entered the Avatar State at this time and repelled the army, while the Northern Water Tribe’s Princess Yue sacrificed herself to become the new Moon Spirit. (Book One: Episodes 19-20 - The Siege of the North)
Upon leaving the North, Aang and his friends became targeted by Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, and began looking for an earthbending master. They found a teacher in an unlikely companion, the earthbending prodigy Toph Beifong, a young blind girl who was rough and tough as they come, but was eventually recognized as one of the greatest Earthbenders in known history and the inventor of the art of Metalbending. (Book Two: Episode 6 - The Blind Bandit)
During this time, “Team Avatar” attempted to communicate the state of the war to the Earth Kingdom’s capital city of Ba Sing Se, only to find that the city had not only fallen to propaganda stating there was no war, but also a coup orchestrated by Azula with the help of the Dai Li, an elite branch of earthbending spies and secret police. Aang was supposedly slain by Azula during a battle, but Katara was able to heal him with spirit water from the North Pole. Prince Zuko is welcomed back into his father’s graces and Iroh was imprisoned by the Fire Nation. (Book Two: Episode 20 - The Crossroads of Destiny)
Aang survived his mortal injury, and the group is forced to lay low while the world believed he had perished in Ba Sing Se. The group traveled about the Fire Nation, continuing to gather allies and friends while Zuko, having all he had desired, spent his time being angry at himself for betraying his Uncle. (Book Three: Episode 1 - The Awakening)
The group discovered that there was an eclipse coming that may turn the tide in their favor, as being cut off from the sun would weaken the Firebender's powers substantially. The attack failed however, resulting in the defection of Prince Zuko, who had spent much time finding out and understanding that he needed to bring balance to the world himself, and the escape of General Iroh, who would leave to locate comrades within the Order of the White Lotus, a secret society of “old people”. (Book Three: Episodes 10-11 - The Day of Black Sun)
Zuko defected fully and offered to teach Aang firebending. In the process, Aang and his friends grew to trust the former Prince, and welcomed him into their friendship. Aang finally learned how to firebend, completing his goal of learning all four elements. (Book Three: Episode 12 - The Western Air Temple)
Sozin’s Comet returned, with Ozai crowning himself the Phoenix King. He prepared an assault on the rest of the world in order to obliterate the Earth Kingdom by using massive airships that could raze the very land with fire. He also appointed Azula as Fire Lord before leaving to embrace his destiny as the Phoenix King. (Book Three: Episodes 18-21 - Sozin's Comet)
Aang, unsure about violating his pacifist beliefs to defeat Ozai for good, wandered off and met with a lion turtle. The turtle communicated to Aang about the art of energybending and disappeared. (Book Three: Episodes 18-21 - Sozin's Comet)
The Order of the White Lotus, led by Iroh, liberated Ba Sing Se from Fire Nation rule during the Comet’s passing, while Prince Zuko and Katara confronted and defeated Azula in the Fire Nation. (Book Three: Episodes 18-21 - Sozin's Comet)
Aang eventually confronted Ozai in battle, but refused to kill him. Instead, Aang utilized energybending through the Avatar State to strip Ozai of his firebending, single-handedly putting an end to the Hundred Year War. Prince Zuko ascended to the throne and became the Fire Lord, dedicating his rule and life to helping the Avatar to rebuild the world. (Book Three: Episodes 18-21 - Sozin's Comet)
Wrapping Up
And there you have it, our first Lore Article on Avatar: The Last Airbender! I hope you enjoyed this look into the history of the show (and if I am feeling it I may expand it into The Legend of Korra if folks want to see a more expanded lore dive, but I tried to keep this brief for people new to the show).
Now get out there and drink some cactus juice! It'll quench ya!
