Bin-Er

Bin-Er is a city in the northern Earth Kingdom situated on a key trade route between the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. Following the Platinum Affair, Bin-Er was designated as one of the four shang merchants open to limited amounts of international trade.
With the rise of the shang system, Bin-Er became a corrupt city full of spies. On her official visit to the city, Avatar Yangchen requested that the city implement charitable reforms, or else she would expose the failure to control the flow of traffic to the Earth King. In response, the panicked shangs sought to implement the Unanimity project, hoping to unleash a display of terrible power that would give them leverage over the Earth King. While three combustionbenders unleashed great fireballs in the sky, they were soon apprehended by Yangchen and her team of companions. The incident was covered up as a spiritual phenomenon, and Yangchen was granted the administration of the city after the fall of the shang system in Bin-Er.
== History ==
=== Early history ===
Bin-Er's history dates back to the ancient days of the Earth Kingdom. Much of the city has been rebuilt several times through successive generations, and the oldest architecture of Bin-Er resembles the buildings found in Omashu.
=== Platinum Affair and aftermath ===
After the Fire Nation and Water Tribes conspired to back General Nong over the reigning Earth King, Feishan, the Earth Kingdom closed its ports as part of the diplomatic blunder known as the Platinum Affair. After the Fire Nation and Water Tribes responded by declaring similar states of isolation, the three nations involved only came together to agree that four cities would be open to limited amounts of international trade. Bin-Er was one of these cities, located at the crossroads of trade between the Earth Kingdom and Northern Water Tribe. The city was put under the purview of noble and merchant families, who became known as shangs.
The new status of Bin-Er meant that the city saw a large amount of migration from other nations and from other parts of the Earth Kingdom, with people looking for a better life. Ayunerak, a member of the Order of the White Lotus who had lived in the city before the Platinum Affair, saw the city more than double in population. The city became cosmopolitan and international. Around three years after the Platinum Affair, the family of Ujurak, Tapeesa, Kalyaan, and Kavik migrated to the city from the Long Stretch region of the Northern Water Tribe after hunts started souring across the region. While the city welcomed new migrants, the corrupt control office made it almost impossible to leave the city unless the move would benefit the shangs in some way, as they were deemed a security risk. Some were so desperate that they illegally left without clearance, trying to reach the Northern Air Temple. Many were injured or fell sick on the long and dangerous trek.
At the time of Zongdu Dooshim's administration, he realized that Bin-Er was susceptible to the whim of the world leaders, and worked in secret with Zongdu Chaisee of Jonduri on the Unanimity project, trying to create a secret form of leverage that would put political power in the hands of the shangs. After Dooshim stepped down, Henshe was selected in his place as zongdu. He had risen from a low-level administrator to the city's ruler with the help of his informant, Kalyaan, who was soon sent into Jonduri as a deep plant into Zongdu Chaisee's association of errand runners.
=== Unanimity project ===
Avatar Yangchen began her first official visit to one of the shang cities at Bin-Er, taking up residence in the Blue Manse. In the time before she met with the shangs, she scouted the docks from above on her flying bison, Nujian, and noted how many more ships had docked at the city than were officially permitted by the city's charter. She was also assigned new guards, and had the etiquette of the shang cities dictated to her by Sidao, the Minister of Special Territory Relations. Around this time, the tensions between the shangs and their workers came to a head after Shang Teiin canceled construction one on of his projects and decided that he no longer had to pay for it, enraging the locals.
Just before she was due to meet with the shangs, Yangchen saw Kavik breaking into the Blue Manse and trying to steal a piece of information from her. After letting him go when she bought his ruse of being an impoverished orphan, she followed him to his family home and recruited him as her personal informant in the city, thinking that he would be the perfect candidate due to his limited network of connections and broad skill set.
The following day, Yangchen paraded through the city on Nujian, though the locals of Bin-Er showed their displeasure by throwing rotten fruit, and an elderly man hit Yangchen's guardian, Boma, with a clay jug. Yangchen was furious that they had hurt her friend, and sent the fruit into the crowd, stating that she was only trying to help them. When she reached the gathering hall, she was formally introduced to the shangs, and greeted with various platitudes. Yangchen pushed against the idea of the shang system, politely at first, speaking of the misery and suffering in the city, and how they could implement various charitable reforms. The unresponsive shangs soon began to laugh at Yangchen when she talked of generosity being something the spirits valued. After the shangs stated that the Earth King did not care how they managed things as long as he received his share of the revenue, Yangchen revealed that she knew that the shangs had failed to keep traffic within its proper limits, and openly speculated that there was a large, unofficial economy that the Earth King did not know about. After the meeting concluded, the shangs met with Henshe, with many panicking that the Earth King would raze the city to the ground if Yangchen exposed what they had done, as the shangs were forbidden from maintaining a fighting force. Henshe told them to stay calm, as he was planning to implement Unanimity in order to gain an enormous amount of leverage over the Earth Kingdom government, and sent Sidao to Jonduri to bring word to Chaisee that it was needed. Yangchen spied on this meeting, and learned of the mysterious project.
After planting a letter on his information broker, Qiu, Kavik met with Yangchen and discussed the situation, agreeing to help her investigate Unanimity so that his family could get exit passes to leave the city. They left for the Northern Air Temple, with Yangchen officially moving on to her next stop on her tour of the shang cities. Meanwhile, Chaisee sent a response to Henshe via messenger hawk, simply telling him "no" about the implementation of the project. Bin-Er's zongdu personally travelled to Jonduri to extract Unanimity. While he threatened Chaisee with getting her removed as zongdu, he realized that she still was not planning to follow through, and got his spy, Kalyaan, to send the three combustionbenders who made up Unanimity on a ship to Bin-Er.
Yangchen had been redirected from Kavik betraying her at the urging of his brother Kalyaan. Realizing that he could still make amends, he sent a bird to Port Tuugaq confessing what he had done. In the meantime, Henshe had started to coordinate his great display of power, staying with Thapa on the outskirts of the city, who was tasked with keeping the Earth King's army at bay. Meanwhile, Xiaoyun and Yingsu shot fireballs into the sky to intimidate the people of Bin-Er. However, Yangchen returned to the city with Tayagum, Akuudan, and Jujinta, and met up with Kavik. With Kavik having found the locations of the three combustionbenders, Yangchen and her allies conducted a swift raid on Xiaoyun's position by removing the air from the room so that he became unconscious, restoring it in enough time for him to survive. Meanwhile, Thapa attempted to gain the upper hand on Henshe by renegotiating his payment, and a panicked Henshe egged him on to draw blood and fire into the Water Tribe Quarter. However, before he could kill anyone, Yangchen and her allies arrived and repeated the same process. Deducing that something had happened to her allies, Yingsu fell back to a secondary position at the gathering hall. While Kavik tried to tail her, he fell into Yingsu's line of sight. Before she could fire, Yangchen sped toward Yingsu and bellowed at her to stand down. While she still fired, Yangchen was able to get away with her airbending-powered speed, providing an opening for Jujinta to strike Yingsu with an arrow. Yingsu accepted Yangchen's healing, thereby surrendering to her and ending the Unanimity project.
With the city in a confused chaos, the shangs soon stayed out of sight. Monks from the Northern Air Temple soon arrived to provide alms and blessings to the city. All members of the Unanimity project in Bin-Er were secretly apprehended by Yangchen's allies and confined to rooms or inaccessible mountaintop locations on the territory of the Northern Air Temple. Yangchen soon left for Ba Sing Se to explain the situation, which she covered up as spiritual imbalance. She petitioned for and was granted administration of the city by Earth King Feishan after she lied that it would be Avatar Szeto who would be making all the decisions. Meanwhile, the Water Tribes came close to discovering the truth of Unanimity, with Chief Oyaluk sending one of the Thin Claws into the city. The Thin Claw tracked down Kavik, though he was defeated by Ayunerak, who subsequently had the young waterbender join the White Lotus in the city.
=== Under Yangchen's protection ===
With Earth King Feishan still suspicious of the shangs in Bin-Er, he dispatched Gu as royal inspector who could report back on all new developments. Over the next half year, the shangs came to see the wisdom in partnering with the Avatar. With Yangchen present to check the shangs' worst practices, the commonfolk saw considerably better lives, while business increased by a third. The city quickly began to turn its reputation around, and became known as a place of fair dealing.
However, the city began to face new challenges, with its rapid population growth exceeding all expectations. The city's budget also proved to be a problem, as much of Bin-Er's wealth had been tied up in arrangements and loans that had been made under Henshe, with the city owing various outstanding dues to the other shang cities. These financial difficulties were explained to Yangchen when she proposed building four new wells, hoping to prevent any potential plagues by ensuring the city's populace had reliable access to fresh water. Once Yangchen was assured that the shangs were not simply refusing to pay for it, she announced that she would donate her staff to pay for the costs, while also pulling a stunt that compelled Teiin and Noehi to give up their own assets. This caused a wave of shangs to give up their own valuables for the project, with observers viewing this as a true show of generosity inspired by the Avatar.
Yangchen also bore witness to how a culture of devotion had sprung up around her in the city. The people of Bin-Er had come to adore her for supposedly silencing the terrors in the sky, while also lingering in the city as their Avatar and bringing boons of food, healing and care with her. As she left the gathering hall from her meeting with the shangs, she bore witness to the largest crowd that she had yet seen in Bin-Er. Many wept joyously upon seeing her, with the crowd growing more frenzied as she approached. In spite of her victories in the city, Yangchen held deep worries that her successes had only been superficial. She worried that the adoration would all come crashing down if she was found out for being a "fraud", with many of the city's problems being deferred instead of truly solved.
Yangchen later left the city for the upcoming convocation in Taku, where the zongdus and other world leaders would discuss the shang system that year. With Chaisee defeated and the threat of Unanimity truly neutralized, Yangchen had originally planned to end the Platinum Affair once and for all. However, she had come to believe that dismantling the shang system would only lead to a new set of problems that she would not be able to solve as easily. Thus, in a private meeting with Earth King Feishan, she asked to take up the administration of all shang cities, citing her success in Bin-Er. She insured the Earth King's endorsal of her proposal via intimidation, and then subsequently planned to control all reins of power so they could properly be let go of.
== Layout and description ==
Bin-Er is located in the northern Earth Kingdom, making it one of the primary ports of trade between the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe. The Northern Air Temple is located close to the city, being around five days away by wagon train. The city's northerly and mountainous geography makes winters in Bin-Er remarkably harsh.
The city's International Quarter (called the Inner Corridor before some years into the Platinum Affair) is a very diverse place after it was made a shang city, and used to be full of ambitious young people, many of whom were errand runners.
The Gidu Shrine is a shrine where the wealthy people of Bin-Er can pay their respects to their ancestors and leave offerings for the spirits. The stone steps of Gidu rise fifteen feet into the air and culminate in a double-roofed hall.
=== Blue Manse ===
The Blue Manse is a guest house located at the edge of shang territory in Bin-Er. It is made entirely of ice, a grand polar residence that fails to mimick Agna Qel'a's architectural traditions.
== Notable figures ==
* Ayunerak
* Choi
* Do
* Gu
* Zongdu Henshe
* Kalyaan (relocated)
* Kavik	
* Lan's mother
* Miki
* Noehi
* Qiu
* Tapeesa (relocated)
* Teiin
* Ujurak (relocated)
== References ==
Category:A to Z
Category:Earth Kingdom
Category:Locations
Category:Settlements
Category:Yangchen novels