Ba Sing Se

Ba Sing Se is the capital of the Earth Kingdom as well as one of its constituent states, encompassing a large portion of the nation's northeastern corner. After the Surrender of Omashu, the city became the last great Earth Kingdom stronghold during the Hundred Year War.
The city is by far the largest in the world,Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy, p. 28.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 22. essentially being more of a small country than a mere city. As a testament to its grandeur, the Earth Kingdom's roadway network is centered on the city. Ba Sing Se means "Impenetrable City"; it is so named for its world-famous walls, the gates of which have no hinges or other hardware and are opened by the use of earthbending. Within the Outer Wall lies a large expanse of farmland, Lake Laogai, and several mountains. The Inner Wall encloses the city itself. The metropolis is also notable for having a unique system of walls dividing the populace into different parts of the city based on social status.
Ba Sing Se was the safest place for refugees displaced by the Hundred Year War because of the Fire Nation's failure to penetrate its walls. One of the main reasons it stood strong during the Hundred Year War was that the city relied on itself. However, it was eventually captured by the Fire Nation after Princess Azula's play in the Coup of Ba Sing Se. The city was later liberated by the Order of the White Lotus in the final battle of the War. In 171 AG, however, Ba Sing Se fell again, this time to anarchy after the Red Lotus, led by Zaheer, assassinated the Earth Queen. A few weeks later, the situation in the metropolis had been stabilized by Kuvira and her army, which led to her being appointed by the world leaders as the temporary head of the kingdom. Wu was later reinstated as the Earth King after the failed invasion of the United Republic of Nations and Kuvira's surrender.
== History ==
=== Rise to prominence ===
Ba Sing Se is one of the oldest settlements in the world,Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy, Greetings from Ba Sing Se. dating back thousands of years. A five-thousand-year-old map of the city was found in Wan Shi Tong's Library, which suggests it is at least that old. Early in its history, Ba Sing Se was a small subterranean city carved out of rocks by earthbenders. As the benders excavated further, they came across beautiful luminous crystals and began to mine them. The crystals currently serve as a common light source for cave inhabitants and other peoples, resulting in flourishing and prosperous trade that spanned the entire world.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Varney, Janet & Faustino, David (March 10, 2015). "Beyond the Wilds" commentary. Book Four: Balance Blu-ray. The settlement became the center of a massive trade network, and grew wealthy.Basco, Dante (host), Varney, Janet (host), Konietzko, Bryan (guest). (December 6, 2022). "City of Walls and Secrets" with Bryan Konietzko". Avatar: Braving the Elements. Episode 78. iHeartRadio.
Eventually, as the metropolis' expansion reached the surface, the catacombs were abandoned. Afterward, Ba Sing Se grew increasingly powerful, and its monarchs began to wage wars of expansion against other neighboring states. At the time, the city greatly profited from its strategically favorable location, as it was protected to the south by the treacherous Taihua Mountains. When Ba Sing Se was still young, several armies of rival polities attempted to march through this mountain range, only to be destroyed by its horrible blizzards. After the construction of its seemingly insurmountable fortifications, the city was widely regarded as unconquerable. The city continued to grow and eventually became the capital of the unified Earth Kingdom.
After becoming the center of the Earth Kingdom, the city remained firmly under the control of the Earth Monarchs, in sharp contrast to the rest of the country which was often just nominally ruled by the central government. In addition, Ba Sing Se was less affected by the sophisticated outlaw societies called the daofei that plagued most of the Earth Kingdom. Instead, crime groups in the capital mostly remained mere street gangs.
During the reign of Earth King Feishan, the poorest citizens of Ba Sing Se were relatively well looked-after, either because it appealed to his sense of authority, or because he was aware that the Lower Ring essentially formed a siege line around the Middle and Upper Rings. After the Platinum Affair, some of Ba Sing Se's mercantile class in the Middle Ring left to become shang merchants in the cities open to international trade. Several refugees from Tienhaishi also resettled in the capital after their city was ruined and evacuated following the battle between General Old Iron and Avatar Yangchen. When Yangchen apprehended the members of the Unanimity project, she met with Feishan in the Middle Ring, assuring her that the situation in Bin-Er had merely been a spiritual disturbance, and petitioning to take over and reform the city into a more equal place, that would provide greater revenue to the Earth King; this was granted after she said she would rely on the advice of Avatar Szeto. She also suggested that the reformed Bin-Er may serve as a model for the Lower Ring, which Feishan said he would take into consideration.
==== Era of Kyoshi ====
Ba Sing Se remained mostly unaffected by the widespread unrest that followed Avatar Kuruk's death. Many of the capital's nobles and bureaucrats allied themselves with the Earth Sage Jianzhu, although the latter never firmly controlled the capital due to the continuing influence of the Earth King. The outward appearance of stability was deceiving, as Ba Sing Se was engulfed in a series of secretive wars among the Earth Kingdom's royal family. Royal princes employed assassins and waged bloody feuds in the "dark corridors" of the massive city, mostly unbeknownst to the local population and the world at large. From 306 BG, the waterbending assassin Amak killed several royal family members in Ba Sing Se.
By 295 BG, numerous daofei groups fled to the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se, taking control of the local crime scene. Mok and the Triad of the Golden Wing occupied Loongkau, a critical city block in the Lower Ring, and began to influence native, less sophisticated gangs until being tracked down and destroyed by Avatar Kyoshi. Surviving members of the Triad of the Golden Wing formed the Fanged Mercenaries under Lei Fang and Hana, and kept a low profile for the next two years, working with other daofei gangs in the shadows.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 73. Around this time, Earth King Yi Ming ordered the construction of a monorail in the city. Earthbenders worked tirelessly to raise an arching structure over major roads, and had various sites in the way of the route to be demolished.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 80.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 81.
Kyoshi returned to the city after the Camellia-Peony War and created a task force to deal with the most dangerous daofei and violent criminals, acting like a scalpel to carefully cut out the most dangerous elements from Ba Sing Se's underbelly. However, Kyoshi had to leave the city to deal with other issues elsewhere, leaving the task force in the hands of the Earth King, who began using the task force to label any criminals, malcontents, or personal threats as daofei.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 71.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 78. Ordinary citizens were sometimes targeted, and many in the Lower Ring began to bear a grudge toward the task force.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 72. A crisis threatened to unfold when the Fanged Mercenaries kidnapped the children of Ambassador Quin of the Fire Nation, setting up an ex-daofei called Mengyao to take the fall, while the task force and Quin's personal guard fell into a dispute over who should search for the children. Rangi, Kyoshi's bodyguard and girlfriend, left Tao, Masaru, Sarnai, Jing, and Quartz with keeping the Lower Ring stable until she could return with the Avatar.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 71.
During Chin the Conqueror's largely successful campaign to unite the Earth Kingdom under his control, Ba Sing Se was the only territory to remain unconquered besides the peninsula where Avatar Kyoshi lived. Apparently, Chin would rather face the Avatar herself than try his luck at the Great Wall of Ba Sing Se.
After Chin's death, a peasant uprising erupted against the corrupt and inefficient government of the 46th Earth King. The peasants felt that the Earth King's role was outdated and that he did not represent their interests. Avatar Kyoshi managed to quell the revolt by forcing the King to accept the peasants' demands and created a constitution to create a constitutional monarchy, in exchange for creating the Dai Li to protect the government's interests and cultural heritage.
Soon after Kyoshi's death, the Dai Li became a corrupt force, siding with Earth King Jialun when he ordered them to arrange the Night of Silenced Sages, purging the order of sages who had attempted to maintain the period of peace and prosperity from Kyoshi's later life after they spoke out against the Earth King's changes to the constitution.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 46.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 54. During this period, Ba Sing Se and Omashu began to greatly vie for prominence, with the Queen of Omashu being fiercely opposed to the Earth King and his corrupt government. When the southern Earth Kingdom experienced floods, the Earth King did not send aid, but instead promised military support to those affected on the condition that they provided work on the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, and many had no choice other than to accept.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 55.
==== The Hundred Year War ====
The city's Outer Wall has been breached on only four occasions: The first was by Fire Nation military forces led by General Iroh, the legendary "Dragon of the West". This attack, a part of his six-hundred-day siege of the city, was quickly driven back by the city's guardian forces after he was disheartened by the death of his son, Lu Ten. Years later, the Fire Nation used a great drill to bore through the Outer Wall, but Aang and his friends stopped the machine before the army could take advantage of the hole. By the end of the spring of 100 AG, however, Ba Sing Se had fallen into the hands of the Fire Nation through an internal coup d'état led by Princess Azula, who allied with the Dai Li and subsequently had them destroy a portion of the city's wall to allow her troops to enter. Finally, at the end of the summer, the walls were again breached by Iroh, this time leading the Order of the White Lotus, using a colossal fire blast strengthened by Sozin's Comet.
Prior to Team Avatar's arrival in the city, the Earth King had become a figurehead as Long Feng took control of the Dai Li and created a conspiracy to strengthen his power. On the surface, the city was a safe haven against the Fire Nation, but in reality, it was an increasingly weakened state wreaked by political corruption.
Princess Azula and her allies, Mai and Ty Lee, disguised themselves as Kyoshi Warriors in order to enter Ba Sing Se as the Earth King's honored guests. Azula allowed her group's true identity to be uncovered by the Dai Li, who forcefully took her to speak with Long Feng. The two allied with each other in order to stage a coup against the Earth King and the Council of Five. As part of the deal, Azula took command of the Dai Li and coordinated the simultaneous capture of the Earth King and the Council of Five, gaining control over the city. Long Feng was in turn released from his prison cell. He attempted to double-cross Azula, but the Dai Li sided with the Fire Nation princess. Without the support of the Dai Li, Long Feng realized any such effort would be futile and submitted to her will. By the following summer, the city was firmly controlled by Fire Nation forces, who gained access to the city as the Dai Li tore down large sections of the Outer and Inner Walls. The citizens could only look on in horror as the Fire Nation military seized control of the city. Following the coup and her imminent return to the Fire Nation, Azula placed one of the Joo Dees in charge of Ba Sing Se as Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator.
With the arrival of Sozin's Comet, the Order of the White Lotus attacked and liberated Ba Sing Se from the Fire Nation. Iroh personally burned away the Fire Nation banner that concealed the original emblem of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace. After Zuko was crowned Fire Lord, Team Avatar celebrated their victory at the Jasmine Dragon, a tea shop owned by Iroh. Kuei returned to Ba Sing Se and re-assumed his position as Earth King.
With the war over, some of the refugees from the rest of the Earth Kingdom living in the Lower Ring decided to return to their original homes and rebuild. Others chose to stay in Ba Sing Se, finding little in the way of relief immediately after the war. The area was overcrowded and poorly sanitized, and the government did not provide enough resources. Some felt forgotten as the world began to heal, and crime lords and some government officials tried to take advantage of a power vacuum, although corruption was less severe than when Long Feng had been in charge.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 75.
=== Rule of Hou-Ting and descent into chaos ===
By 171 AG, Ba Sing Se and the rest of the Earth Kingdom came under the rule of Kuei's daughter, Hou-Ting. Though the Upper and Middle Rings were still prosperous, the Lower Ring, though modernized, had reached a state of decay. In the weeks following Harmonic Convergence, airbenders started appearing across the city and the Earth Queen had the Dai Li abduct them to form the first airbending regiment in the Queen's army.
The capital city was thrown in chaos and left at the hands of a plundering horde after Zaheer assassinated Hou-Ting and Ghazan used his lavabending to bring down the outermost internal wall of the city, unifying all the rings of Ba Sing Se, much to the Lower Ring citizens' pleasure. However, the ensuing chaos reduced parts of the city to ashes. Currently, the citizens of Ba Sing Se are adapting to navigate without the wall between the Lower and Middle Rings. While many who lived in the Lower Ring despised the wall, many in the Middle Ring enjoyed it, because they felt that it improved their quality of life. Now the well-off are forced to mingle with the lower-class citizens. It is an unprecedented time of integration in Ba Sing Se and a hard transition.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 86.
A few weeks after the insurrection of the Red Lotus, the situation in the city had calmed down as Kuvira and her army took control over the capital and placed it under military protection. Kuvira's actions also helped to initially improve the standard of living for the lower class residents. However, as time passed by, the citizens were forced to work as slave labor and dissenters were sent away. Kuvira lost control over the city after her attempted invasion of the United Republic of Nations led to her imprisonment, with Wu subsequently being restored as the Earth Monarch. In the weeks following Kuvira's surrender, the city recuperated sufficiently to be able to send shipments of food and supplies to Republic City in order to help the damaged city recover from Kuvira's attack.
== Government ==
As the capital of the Earth Kingdom, Ba Sing Se is home to the Earth Monarch, ruler of the Earth Kingdom. However, for a period of time after the death of the 51st Earth King, true power belonged to the city's Grand Secretariat, Long Feng. As Head of the Dai Li, he enforced strict laws within the city, designed to keep him in power and keep knowledge of the war from the king. It was absolutely forbidden to mention the war with the Fire Nation within the city, and those who did were arrested and re-educated in secret Dai Li facilities to believe that the war did not exist. According to Long Feng, his measures were necessary to maintain Ba Sing Se's cultural heritage and to ensure that the city remained a thriving utopia. In truth, however, they were merely tools used to uphold his totalitarian dictatorship.
Though the Earth King had Long Feng arrested, Long Feng allied himself with Azula to engineer a coup d'état. He was eventually betrayed by his own Dai Li and ultimately surrendered the city to the Princess of the Fire Nation.
The position of the Earth Monarch was abolished after the Fire Nation took control of the city, forcing Earth King Kuei into exile. He was replaced by Joo Dee, a puppet ruler with the title "Supreme Bureaucratic Administrator of Ba Sing Se". The Earth King's position was reestablished when Earth King Kuei returned from his exile after the city was liberated. The position was later held by his daughter, Hou-Ting, up until her assassination at the hands of Zaheer in 171 AG, after which the throne remained vacant for three years. Kuvira united most of the kingdom, and in 174 AG, Hou-Ting's great-nephew, was formally crowned king of the Earth Kingdom. Kuvira denounced his claim to the kingdom, however, and transformed it into the Earth Empire. Only after her surrender was Wu able to truly ascend the throne, though he planned to abolish the monarchy and attempt to establish Ba Sing Se as an independent, democratic state.
=== Law and order ===
By the early 3rd century BG, law enforcement in Ba Sing Se was entrusted to the so-called "peace officers". Although highly regulated, this police agency was deeply corrupt and generally served the interests of wealthy citizens or officials, abusing the inhabitants of the Lower Ring. In general, petty crime was rampant in the city's slums, although large crime syndicates were relatively uncommon.
After their creation by Avatar Kyoshi, the Dai Li became the most prominent police organization in Ba Sing Se. Consisting of elite earthbenders, the Dai Li worked to capture, interrogate, and imprison political dissidents. Even though they were intended to protect "the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se", factually serving as the monarchy's secret police, the Dai Li grew corrupt over time. Through the careful political manipulation of Long Feng, they became the illegitimate governing force of Ba Sing Se. After the Hundred Year War, the Dai Li swore undying loyalty to the monarchy, returning to the Earth Kingdom and resuming their duties as Ba Sing Se's secret police. When airbenders began appearing in the city, the Dai Li began capturing them on the Earth Queen's order, conscripting them into her army.
== Military ==
=== Royal Earthbender Guards ===
The Royal Earthbender Guards of Ba Sing Se serve as personal protectors of the Earth Monarch. They wear dark green armor with a green plume on the top of their helmets and are not affiliated with the Dai Li or the military. They are seen guarding the Royal Palace and acting as the gatekeepers of the outer and inner walls of Ba Sing Se. Their weapons include surface-to-surface or surface-to-air rocks against intruders, which they displayed when Team Avatar was storming the Royal Palace.
=== Army units ===
Ba Sing Se is protected by sections of the regular Earth Kingdom Army.Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy of the Fire Nation, page 22. One of the most elite Ba Sing Se military units was the Terra Team, commanded by General Sung by the late Hundred Year War.
== Culture ==
During Long Feng's conspiracy, law and order was maintained under the strictest of police forces to ensure that the city's populace remained loyal to the government. Nevertheless, the people of Ba Sing Se have a variety of recreational activities available to them including spas, poetry houses, shops, restaurants, and the Ba Sing Se Zoo. Tea-drinking is one of the most common ways citizens relax after work. Earthbenders are highly valued and operate many civic projects, from the monorail system to the city's gates. A higher education can be gathered at the Ba Sing Se University.
The architecture of Ba Sing Se is slightly different from standard Earth Kingdom designs. The majority of the buildings are made of stone, with wood supports and plaster covering the outside. The color of roofing tiles on buildings indicate their prestige and vary by ring – Lower Ring buildings have black or dark green tiles, Middle Ring buildings have vibrant green, and the Upper Ring nobility uses yellow tiles as a sign of class. Earth Kingdom symbols are often placed on gates, government buildings, and military sites. Roads in the Middle and Upper Rings are made of flagstones, while the Lower Ring has muddy dirt paths for most of its streets and alleys. The citizens of Ba Sing Se sport considerably more color variation in their clothing than citizens from other locations—blues, turquoises, browns, and golds can all be seen among the aristocracy, while the lower class usually wears browns, greens, and off-whites, although other colors can be seen.
The city is divided between its various social classes; the peasants and refugees live in the ghettos of the Lower Ring, which is walled off from the rest of the metropolis. Society in the city is so heavily controlled that, during the Hundred Year War, the conflict was not allowed to be mentioned inside the walls. This was meant to maintain order and the cultural heritage of the city, allegedly making it the only remaining "Utopia" in the world. The people of Ba Sing Se considered their city to be impregnable, and thus they often deluded themselves into pretending that all is fine in the rest of the Kingdom. In the past, those who attempted to disrupt this fantasy were promptly brainwashed by the Dai Li into believing that the world was at peace, instilling loyalty in the victim.
== Layout ==
Ba Sing Se is divided into several major districts, with inhabitants sorted in various walled "rings" based on economic and social class. These range from the Lower Ring, a place of ghettos inhabited by refugees and the poor, to the Upper Ring, home of the Kingdom's ruling classes and the rich. Travel throughout the city, in addition to entering and exiting it, is provided by large, earthbending powered monorails, constructed during the reign of Earth King Yi Ming. The monorails meet in large transit stations, are free to the general public, and make travel within the city much easier. Citizens are free to travel between the Agrarian Zone, the Lower Ring, and the Middle Ring. The Upper Ring is a particularly exclusive area of the city; it is restricted to citizens with the personal invitation of a citizen of the Upper Ring, the government, or the Earth King himself.
=== Outer Wall ===
At six hundred feet tall,DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan & Hamilton, Joshua (May 22, 2007). "The Serpent's Pass" commentary. Book 2: Earth, Volume 3 DVD. Ba Sing Se's Outer Wall is the city's first, and thickest, line of defense. This makes it the largest man-made structure in the world. The wall encircles all of Ba Sing Se, along with the vast Agrarian Zone and a medium-sized lake. It is considered indestructible and is commonly incorporated on maps as a terrain feature. In fact, it has only been breached three times: twice by General Iroh and once by the Fire Nation drill. The Dai Li mandates that soldiers and sentries be placed on the wall at all times, with many of them living in built-in homes inside the wall. After the Coup of Ba Sing Se, Dai Li agents tore a hole in the wall to allow Fire Nation soldiers through. The tear had not been repaired by the time the Order of the White Lotus attacked and the wall was not being monitored at the time.
=== Agrarian Zone ===
Just outside of the Lower Ring, between the Outer Wall and the Inner Wall of the city, is the Agrarian Zone, a large underdeveloped area that consists of wide open plains of land. It is used mainly for agricultural purposes, but citizens may visit to have nature walks and it is a valuable refuge for wildlife. Along with its vital wildlife and crop resources, the Agrarian Zone functions as a massive land buffer between the Outer Wall and the Inner Wall, where all of the Ba Sing Se residents dwell, widening the gap between invaders and citizens if perchance the Outer Wall was ever breached. This area in the city houses many farms belonging to citizens, mostly of the Lower Ring, who live behind the Inner Wall and travel outside to tend to the land every day.
The Agrarian Zone served as a station for earthbender rebellions following Ba Sing Se's capture. The Order of the White Lotus had a camp here prior to the arrival of Sozin's Comet. The Agrarian Zone is also the location of the new Ba Sing Se Zoo.
=== Inner Wall ===
The Inner Wall is a massive earthen barrier that serves as the primary protector of the actual city of Ba Sing Se after the Outer Wall and the vast Agrarian Zone. During the war, it was constantly guarded by earthbenders who could create an opening in it to allow incoming and exiting traffic. Due to the limited space the wall allowed for the expanding city, some of the Lower Ring houses were built directly against the wall. When the city fell during the Hundred Year War, dozens of Dai Li agents brought this wall down along with the Outer Wall to grant the Fire Nation Army access to the entire city. By 171 AG, the wall had been restored.
=== Lower Ring ===
The Lower Ring is home to the poor classes of Ba Sing Se's society and the majority of its population. In the time of the Hundred Year War, these consisted of newcomers to the city, including its multitude of refugees. Most of the Lower Ring residents work with their hands as artisans, laborers, and craftsmen, while the rest are merchants and food vendors. Due to the impoverished state of the citizens of the Lower Ring, as well as the influx of refugees, the crime rate is significantly higher. The Lower Ring is also the most densely populated area of Ba Sing Se, with the most crowded area being the City Block, a haven for the very poor. Buildings in the Lower Ring are generally small, because the Lower Ring houses the majority of the populace and many people need to be crammed into the space available. The roofs of most buildings in the ring are brown tiled, indicating the poor status of the owners. The Lower Ring's status and poverty have remained unchanged over centuries. While parts of it were modernized after the Great War, mainly transportation and communication, the Lower Ring has further deteriorated into an overgrown, overpopulated slum with a foul odor, detectable from an airship overflying the area. It is impossible to travel from the Lower Ring into the Upper Ring without a valid passport. Lower Ring citizens can be issued work passes to facilitate their travel to the other rings for labor purposes; such individuals act under a curfew, and must return to their dwellings at certain designated times.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Hedrick, Tim & Hamilton, Joshua (December 2, 2014). "The Earth Queen" commentary. Book Three: Change Blu-ray. After the assassination of the Earth Queen in 171 AG, Ghazan used lavabending to take down the wall that separated the Lower Ring from the rest of the city.
=== Middle Ring ===
The Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se contains the city's middle-class populace. Inside this ring are a vast assortment of shops and restaurants as well as the financial district and Town Hall, one of the oldest buildings in the Middle Ring. Ba Sing Se University, a great repository of knowledge and a key landmark of the city, is also located in this area. The buildings of this Ring are larger than those of the Lower Ring, and the roofs are tiled green. It is generally wealthier and has a more peaceful atmosphere than the Lower Ring, and there are many flowers and trees. Citizens of the Middle Ring are free to enter the Agrarian Zone, Lower Ring, Middle Ring and the Upper Ring without needing permission. The Middle Ring is also the area where the Flying Koi Carnival takes place.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 267.
=== Upper Ring ===
The most affluent of the three rings, the Upper Ring contains the city's upper class population, as well as military and government officials. The most important citizens of the city reside here, protected against criminal activity by the presence of the Dai Li. By the time of Queen Hou-Ting, most Upper Ring residents descended from families that had been rich for so many generations that their members no longer understood what "honest work" actually meant.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Three: Change, page 64. The Royal Palace is located in the center of the Upper Ring, within its own walls. Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph received a home positioned in the Upper Ring. The buildings of the Upper Ring are generally huge walled compounds, much like small versions of the Earth Kingdom Royal Palace itself, and the roofs are done with yellow tiles to symbolize the richness of the building and its owners. Upper Ring citizens are free to go wherever they please within Ba Sing Se.
== Locations ==
=== Ba Sing Se Monorail ===
The Ba Sing Se Monorail system has many stations around the city that have served as the backdrop to several events. Team Avatar first met Joo Dee at a monorail station. These stations are also located in nearly every part of Ba Sing Se, ranging from the Outer Wall to the heart of the city. One such location is Poh Kong Station.
=== Ba Sing Se University ===
This university is a prominent feature of the Middle Ring and a great center of learning. Although it was somewhat tainted by the interference of the Dai Li and Long Feng, it is still one of the greatest centers of learning in the world. The university offers many degrees and classes, such as engineering, architecture, science, anthropology, zoology, and astrology.
=== Ba Sing Se Zoo ===
The Ba Sing Se Zoo was originally located in the city, but was moved by Aang to the Agrarian Zone during the final months of the Hundred Year War. It is managed and maintained by Kenji.
When Aang was traveling through Ba Sing Se, he saw a variety of animals that seemed miserable in their cages. Kenji, the zookeeper, informed the young Avatar that the Dai Li had ceased funding for the zoo because it was no longer popular with the children, which was a result of the poor condition of the zoo that could not be fixed unless he received the proper funds. After some degree of chaos, the animals were relocated to the zoo's new location. Several domesticated animals were caught up in the chaos of the move, winding up enclosed with the zoo animals.
=== Council's War Room ===
The Council's War Room is a large room located in the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se where the Council of Five meets to discuss war plans before sending them to the Earth Monarch for final approval. Prior to the Earth Monarch's revelation regarding the war, the Generals would send their plans to Grand Secretariat Long Feng for approval. On the floor of the room is a large map of the world, with colored stone tokens spread across it to represent military units. The Generals move these tokens around with earthbending to deduce the most effective battle strategies. It is here where General How and the others made the decision to use General Fong's base as the launching point for the Fire Nation invasion.
=== Crystal Catacombs of Old Ba Sing Se ===
Underneath the palace, and possibly much of the city, lies Old Ba Sing Se, an ancient underground city deep within the earth. These catacombs are the remnants of the first settlement in the area, carved underground by earthbenders. As the old city spread to the surface, the caverns were abandoned and eventually buried beneath the new city. Inside the interior of Old Ba Sing Se still lie ancient stone structures, a waterfall and pool, and the luminescent green crystals that gave Ba Sing Se its fame.
=== Fancy Lady Day Spa ===
The Fancy Lady Day Spa is an Upper Ring establishment for pampering noblewomen that has a university attached to it where students can experiment with new ideas on actual customers who, in return, receive a discount on their spa day. Its popularity attracted Katara and Toph during their day off, and they both enjoyed their experience there despite the latter's early misgivings.
=== Fighting Cliffs ===
South of Ba Sing Se, the fighting cliffs, one white and the other red, face each other with a wide ravine between them. Early Earth Kingdom natives noticed that the ground of the ravine was charred and black, and legend holds that the cliffs were created in an ancient battle between earthbenders and firebenders, the conflict being so awesome that the very ground they fought on soaked up their power and animosity. The cliffs are currently mined for spark rocks, small stones used by Earth Kingdom citizens to start fires.
=== Firelight Fountain ===
Located in the Lower Ring, the Firelight Fountain is popular with citizens who come to feed the turtle ducks in the day, and considered by Jin to be the most romantic spot in town at night. Jin's mother and father sneaked out to meet here as teenagers, and Jin took Zuko here at the end of their date. The fountain is encircled by lanterns that brighten the entire area. There is a stone structure in the middle with a top center lamp and a lower level of lamps, and lanterns floating in the water.
=== Gan's Noodle Shop ===
Gan's Noodle Shop is an easily overlooked hole-in-the-wall nestled amid other such shops in the Lower Ring. The outside is unremarkable, with a single grimy window cut into the stone facing and a cloth drape in place of a proper door. Lei Fang and his Fanged Mercenaries used the shop as one of their hideouts while Gan kept their cover for them.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 81.
=== Iroh and Zuko's apartment ===
A multi-level Upper Ring apartment provided by Quon for Iroh and Zuko as part of his business agreement with Iroh over the Jasmine Dragon. It is an average Upper Ring building with a nice lawn and view. It comfortably housed Iroh and Zuko and even had a large kitchen for Iroh to brew tea in.
=== Jasmine Dragon ===
An Upper Ring tea shop created, funded, and stocked by Quon for Iroh after Quon managed to poach Iroh from his original employer under whom Iroh gained notoriety as the best tea maker in Ba Sing Se. Staffed by several hostesses and waiters in addition to Zuko and Iroh, it gained huge popularity under Iroh's management and flourished until the fall of Ba Sing Se when Iroh was forced back to the Fire Nation as a prisoner. After Iroh reopened his shop it regained its former popularity and served as a meeting place for Team Avatar after the War's end.
=== Loongkau's Lucky Pocket ===
This area of the Lower Ring was once completely overtaken by the Triad of the Golden Wing. After Avatar Kyoshi took the triad down, other groups moved into the area and set up shop. While the quarter housed a good number of daofei gangs, a diverse market with cramped hallways dominated the zone. The anti-corruption task force liked to make regular stops at the Lucky Pocket, but the warren of underground market stalls made it hard for them to single out daofei. This place became a great spot for clandestine meetings, under the table deals, and other illicit business, all beneath the notice of the task force's watch. The Lucky Pocket had a diverse range of stalls, such as noodle shops and cabbage stands.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 80.
=== Lowtown Laundry ===
Lowtown Laundry was one of the largest washing facilities in the Lower Ring. Here people could purchase bars of laundry soap, wash their clothes in the heated spring the site was built over, or drop off laundry for cleaning services at a hefty fee. When Tan and his firebenders were looking for a place to set up shop, they chose Lowtown Laundry for its central location, but also to put pressure on Hop to give them information about the local residents.
=== Middle Ring Earthmarket ===
The Middle Ring Earthmarket is a bustling farmers' market that boasts all the Earth Kingdom has to offer: bean curd puffs, braised turtle duck, deep-fried pickled radishes, cozy jook, and dumplings. The cabbage merchant owned a booth in this market, where he sold his famous cabbage cookies. Booths of fresh produce and culinary delights are arranged in a ring befitting Ba Sing Se itself, around a circular courtyard with a large bronze bear statue in the center. Like spokes of a wheel, streets extend through the Middle Ring in all directions from the courtyard.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 276.
=== Middle Ring restaurant ===
Located in the Middle Ring, this "hidden jewel" may never rise above its "B" rating to attract the oval-ring set, but is considered a "charming", "reasonably priced" place with "real bistro atmosphere", and a "rare find" popular with the Ba Sing Se and Spa University sets. The Middle Ring restaurant offers a "Tourist Menu" and an "unbelievably complex" fried appetizer sampler platter. Jin took Zuko here for dinner on their date.
=== Moon Peach Inn ===
Located in the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se, Moon Peach Inn used to display a more charming appearance before its original owner passed away and left the property to a frantic son trying to live up to his mother's memory. All the inn's rooms overlook a central courtyard filled with moon peach trees; peeling patterned wallpaper and pilling velvet canopies are hallmarks of the inn's glorious past. While older clientele still visit the place to reminisce, the Moon Peach Inn is otherwise a place for those who would rather be forgotten. It is rumored that the original owner's ghost still haunts the halls at dusk, offering moon peach cakes before an early retirement to the Spirit World.
=== Palace grounds ===
Located within the Upper Ring, at the center of Ba Sing Se, the Earth Monarch's palace and surrounding grounds are the spiritual and military center of the entire Earth Kingdom. Here is where the Earth Monarch spends all his days. The palace is structured around a meridian line that cuts through the center of the city, from west to east. The meridian line leads directly to the Earth Monarch's throne. The grounds consist of numerous ceremonial temples, quarters to house the monarch's servants, elaborate gardens, and the monarch's menagerie of exotic animals.
Common citizens are forbidden from entering the Earth Monarch's walled domain unless they have a personal invitation from the king or queen.
=== Pao Family Tea House ===
This Lower Ring establishment is where Zuko and Iroh were able to find work when they first came to Ba Sing Se. Soon after joining, Iroh greatly improved the quality of the tea and became the official tea maker of Pao's restaurant. Pao would later lose Iroh to the wealthy merchant Quon, who offered Iroh and Zuko their own tea shop and house in the Upper Ring. Despite Iroh leaving and the quality of tea declining, Pao's tea shop would survive and would later serve as a hiding spot for Pao, Jin, and several of Pao's customers when the Fire Nation took Ba Sing Se.
=== Radio Ba Sing Se ===
Radio Ba Sing Se is an Upper Ring radio station known for playing an eclectic mix of news and music for the entire city. It also broadcast a fair amount propaganda in favor of the Earth Monarch during Hou-Ting's reign.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Three: Change, page 135. Zaheer used the station's citywide communication system to announce his assassination of the Earth Queen and the fall of the Earth Kingdom government.
=== Royal Palace ===
The royal palace, located in the Upper Ring of the city, houses the seat of government of the Earth Kingdom, including the Earth King or Earth Queen. It has been the seat of power for every known Earth Monarch. The palace is large and houses not only the Earth Monarch and their family, but their several hundred guards and servants as well.
=== Stone Kettle ===
A dingy little tea shop, the Stone Kettle is tucked in an alley off a boisterious restaurant row in the Middle Ring, not far from where the Flying Koi Carnival takes place. It is a spot that tourists might overlook, but local workers know they can get good black tea there between shifts. While it appears to be a simple storefront, large enough for a small counter, a shelf of tea canisters, and a single dine-in two-top, hiding under the counter there are stairs that lead to the large basement headquarters of the Paper Lantern Gang. The headquarters is spacious and lush, its walls intricately decorated in framed papercut art pieces made by Cong, the leader. One of several doors off the main headquarters leads to Cong's small art studio. The tea shop was once tended by Hua or another Paper Lantern Gang member.
=== Team Avatar's Upper Ring house ===
A single story Upper Ring house provided by the government of Ba Sing Se for Team Avatar to use during their wait for an audience with the Earth King. It has a large main hall, three bedrooms, and one washroom, as well as a beautiful porch and yard. The house was damaged when Toph got excited and earth bent when Aang had announced Team Avatar would no longer play by the rules of Ba Sing Se. The destroyed corner was covered up and repairs began promptly.
=== Wood Frog Lumberyard ===
The Wood Frog Lumberyard was once a small woodcutting operation on the south side of the Lower Ring. When construction on the monorail started, Wood Frog Lumberyeard lost their bid to have the monorail located a mile west to preserve their operation. City officials built a low stone barricade around the site and posted signs warning trespassers before the owners could remove all their belongings. Desperate for funds, the owners accepted a small stipend from Hana to use the site for daofei meetings. Lei Fang and his Fanged Mercenaries later used the lumberyard as one of their many hideouts to evade the anti-corruption task force.
== Food resource ==
Ba Sing Se's greatest secret to its staying a power in the war was the farmlands of the Agrarian Zone behind the Outer Wall. These fields supply the entire city with food to enable them to survive a siege for any duration, so long as the Outer Wall remains intact and, due to earthbending, can be quickly repaired. It was apparently breached during Iroh's siege, however, the city survived, as the siege broke shortly thereafter. A small fraction of food in Ba Sing Se comes from the butcher shops within the city.
== Real life references ==
Ba Sing Se's design resembles that of Beijing, China, in that there are several inner districts which each host a separate social class, with the Royal Palace area being based upon the Forbidden City,DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Hedrick, Tim & Hamilton, Joshua (December 2, 2014). "In Harm's Way" commentary. Book Three: Change Blu-ray. and each outer district being reserved for each respective class in an organized status system. The Great Wall of China's size and scale was also an inspiration to the design of the Outer Wall.Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Art of the Animated Series, page 86.
Apart from this, the fact that Ba Sing Se was ruled by Long Feng and his Dai Li secret police resembles how Imperial China was ruled in the later dynasties: controlled from behind the scenes by the Emperor's servants, the eunuchs. The Dai Li resemble the Jinyi wei, the Imperial Chinese secret police who were specialized in stealth, persecution, and elimination of undesirable members of the society. The title of Grand Secretariat was a Ming dynasty title to indicate the person who commanded the Six Ministries. However, since they screened documents before the Emperor's approval, many tried to seize power from within the system, much as how Long Feng did to Kuei.
Ba Sing Se's rooftiles resemble the colors commonly found in ancient Chinese cities, where brown tones were used for commoner housing, green tiles for bureaucrats, minor officers, and civil servants, and gold-yellow ones were reserved for nobility, temples, the Palace, and other important members of ancient Chinese society.
Ba Sing Se also resembles Constantinople, which was known for its autocratic leadership, massive size, and huge population. Both cities were also packed with refugees during major wars. The two metropolises also boasted nearly impregnable walls that thwarted all invaders.
Ba Sing Se also resembles ancient Mesopotamia, where a wall surrounded the city, and other walls divided it inside. This trait of walls for defense and separation was shared by almost all of the important cities in Ancient China as well.
== Notable figures ==
* 46th Earth King
* Cabbage merchant
* Captured agent
* Chow (relocated)
* Dai Li sergeant
* Earth King Feishan
* Feng
* Gun
* Hana
* Hark (relocated)
* Head of the Dai Li (relocated)
* Hei-Won
* Zongdu Henshe (relocated)
* Earth Queen Hou-Ting
* General How
* Hua	
* Earth King Jialun
* Jin
* Joo Dee
* Kenji
* Earth King Kuei
* Kuji
* Lei Fang
* Li
* Liling (relocated)
* Li-Mei
* Long Feng
* Madame Macmu-Ling
* Mengyao
* Mok
* Organ grinder	
* Quon
* Rose
* Ru (relocated)
* San (relocated)
* Star
* General Sung
* Tu (relocated)
* Minister Wo
* Won-Yee
* Earth King Wu
* Yaling (relocated)
* Yanran
* Yee-Li
* Yin (relocated)
* Detective Ziming
== Trivia ==
* Ba Sing Se's sunsets are considered by some to be the most romantic in the world.Avatar Extras for "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang" on Nicktoons Network.
* The Earth Monarch's palace in Ba Sing Se was based on the Forbidden City of China.
* The first known military official able to penetrate the Outer Wall was the Dragon of the West, or Iroh, who reached the Agrarian Zone during his six-hundred day siege. According to General Sung, his forces were "quickly expunged", meaning that all the recorded information of that event was removed, as opposed to "expelled", which is being physically removed from a place.
* At the arrival station where Zuko and Iroh got their passports stamped is a large sign above that says which translates as "Welcome to Ba Sing Se." Ba Sing Se () means 'perpetually strong city', not impenetrable city as General Sung stated. The words also appear in front of the word 'university' (), at the entrance of the university seen in "City of Walls and Secrets". However, an alternative etymology for the city's name is 不城碎, translated 不碎城 as Unbreakable CityGoogle translator on Ba Sing Se and pronounced Ba Sing Se in Cantonese dialect.
* "Middle Ring" is written in Chinese as and "Upper Ring" as .
* Ba Sing Se's walls show up on all world maps.
* Aware of the social division in Ba Sing Se, Aang, despite his love of seeing new places, deliberately avoided visiting the city until he had no choice as this was in direct opposition to the Air Nomads' teachings of equality for all.
* Earth King Yi Ming once noted that it would take him two full days just to walk from one end of Ba Sing Se to the other.
* Ba Sing Se's division of social level by the inner and outer rings could be a reference to the inner and outer courts, inner being more exclusive, in the Forbidden City, or the same inner and outer rings used to divide many ancient Chinese cities.
* The physical appearance of the wall is based on the Great Wall of China, with the creators wanting to make their fictional one even taller than its source inspiration. It also serves a similar purpose, as the Great Wall of China was used to keep the Mongols out, and the Outer Wall is used to keep intruders out.
* While the aesthetic of the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se in Avatar: The Last Airbender was inspired by several Chinese towns, especially in the Yangtze Province,DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan & Garagarza, Elsa (May 22, 2007). "City of Walls and Secrets" commentary. Book 2: Earth, Volume 3 DVD. in The Legend of Korra, the state of the Lower Ring was modeled after Kowloon Walled City, a former slum in Hong Kong that was once the most densely populated location in the entire world, and was known for being plagued by triads.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Three: Change, page 48.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan & Heck, Colin (December 2, 2014). "The Ultimatum" commentary. Book Three: Change Blu-ray.
* Besides Kyoshi Island, Ba Sing Se is the only place in the Earth Kingdom that was not conquered by Chin the Conqueror.
* Toph appeared to have disliked going to Ba Sing Se, as it was just "a bunch of walls and rules".
* After the Hundred Year War, three citizens of Ba Sing Se formed a pro-bending team named the Ba Sing Se Badgermoles.
* Ba Sing Se being seen as a utopia and the outside world being ignored is comparable to the setting in the dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
* Historically, Ba Sing Se has been defined by its isolation from the rest of the world, even though it is the capital of the Earth Kingdom, the largest of the four nations. This characteristic dates back to ancient times, when the city was still an underground settlement. In later eras, the isolation was furthered by the construction of the massive Outer Wall as well as Long Feng's conspiracy, in which information about the invasion of the Earth Kingdom was suppressed within the city limits. The concept of the city's seclusion was inspired by the history of the Forbidden City, a former center of Chinese governance.AvatarSpirit.net interview: An Avatar Spring Break with Mike and Bryan; April 6, 2007.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Earth Kingdom
* Earth Kingdom Royal Palace
* Fire Nation Capital
* Earth Monarch
de:Ba Sing Se
es:Ba Sing Se
fr:Ba Sing Se
he:בה סינג סה
id:Ba Sing Se
nl:Ba Sing Se
pl:Ba Sing Se
pt-br:Ba Sing Se
ru:Ба Синг Се
vi:Ba Sing Se
Category:A to Z
*
Category:Earth Kingdom
Category:Locations
Category:Settlements