Republic City

:This article is about the city. For the book, see "Republic City (Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game)".
Republic City is the capital city of the United Republic of Nations as well as one of the largest and most modern cities in the world,The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book One: Air, page 38. with a population of millions. Located on the shores of Yue Bay, it was founded by Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Aang after the conclusion of the Hundred Year War as a haven for immigrants from all across the four nations, growing from its origins as Cranefish Town in the territory of the former Fire Nation colonies. Being a modern urban center, Republic City boasts significant high-rise development as well as the widespread use of automobiles, motorcycles, and airships.
Republic City is home to a variety of iconic landmarks. These include a monumental statue of Avatar Aang in Yue Bay, a spacious city park, many suspension bridges, and skyscrapers. The Metalbending Police Force utilizes metalbending for civil law enforcement. Pro-bending is the city's most popular sport.
Republic City faced high levels of crime and civil unrest and during the time of Avatar Korra, several major events which occurred in the city, such as the Anti-bending Revolution led by the Equalists, the assault of the Dark Avatar, which created an enclave of Spirit Wilds within the city, and the invasion by the Earth Empire, which devastated the area of the Spirit Wilds and the surrounding cityscape, though also resulted in the creation of a spirit portal within the ruined remains of the downtown district.
== History ==
=== Development ===
The area which Republic City would later occupy was first settled by humans at some point during or after the era of Raava. Protected by a spirit, Lady Tienhai, the city-state of Tienhaishi was established which would prosper for thousands of years. However, the settlement had to be abandoned during the incident between Avatar Yangchen and General Old Iron, an ancient and powerful spirit who sought revenge upon the city-state. Scattered, small villages and other uninhabited wilderness areas were all that remained upon the land once belonging to Tienhaishi.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 7.
Centuries later, during the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation invaded the Earth Kingdom after the Air Nomad Genocide, and the area once known as Tienhaishi fell under Fire Nation control. Then, after the end of the war, Fire Lord Zuko and Earth King Kuei signed the Treaty of Yu Dao, the first step in giving the former Fire Nation colonies their own legal autonomy and identity. The area became increasingly cosmopolitan, as the older Fire Nation colonies in the region were granted autonomy, attracting new migrants and merchants from across the world.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Quickstart, Version 1.0, 2021, p. 5. As a result of the mixture of different cultures, business quickly began to boom in the old colonies. The world's first joint business venture between Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom citizens, the Earthen Fire Refinery, was set up to mine the large crystal depository under the area where Tienhaishi was originally located. The refinery attracted many workers, resulting in the development of a village.
In the subsequent time, the settlement grew as more factories were set up, and more people of different ethnic and social backgrounds arrived seeking work, allowing industry, trade, and innovation to quickly expand in the city. What had begun as a minor village rapidly expanded into a large town, nicknamed "Cranefish Town". Upon learning of this name and deeming it horrible, Sokka took it upon himself to come up with something better. Cranefish Town experienced much strife due to its expansion, including unemployment, crime, and violence between benders and nonbenders, a conflict that quickly evolved into a bender supremacist movement that was ended by Avatar Aang and his allies.
=== Early period of Republic City ===
Despite being affected by social tensions, ideological conflicts, and many other problems, Cranefish Town continued to grow and began to truly prosper. Meanwhile, Avatar Aang, Fire Lord Zuko, and Earth King Kuei agreed to transform the former Fire Nation colonies and associated territories, including Cranefish Town, into a fifth nation separate from the original four. This new nation would be a society open to anyone from the four nations to reside in and be governed by a council with representatives from each of the four nations, becoming a safe haven for those who wished to live together in a multicultural society. They named this unique sovereignty the United Republic of Nations and made Cranefish Town, renamed to "Republic City", the capital.
With the resources of all four nations, Republic City developed into a metropolis within a few decades. Despite its prosperity, the city continued to face internal strife. Bending criminals greatly grew in power, eventually forcing Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko to intervene personally.Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy of the Fire Nation, Letter: "Greetings from Republic City!". Around 128 AG, the crime boss Yakone used the outlawed ability of bloodbending to terrorize the city, but was eventually tried by the United Republic Council and dealt with by Avatar Aang after his attempted escape from punishment.
In the mid 150s AG, Yinuo and Wakkanai invented a new way to desalinate the water around Republic City. Wakkanai looked to the investment of Iknik Blackstone Varrick, who tampered with Yinuo's experiments to have him banned from further research by city regulators. Varrick helped Wakkanai strike a profitable agreement with the city, where she would manage the city's water treatment facilities in exchange for generational rights to their profits.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 168.
=== 170 AG ===
By 170 AG, Republic City began to experience demographic and political problems as a direct consequence of its nature as a large city. Organized crime became rampant and the Anti-bending Revolution commenced as a result of growing inequality between benders and nonbenders. During the revolution, Amon and the Equalists threatened the city and its benders, eventually using a fleet of airships to bomb the city in an attempt to gain control. Following the abduction of all Council members and the destruction of the United Forces' First Division during the resulting battle, the Equalist forces assumed control of Republic City. However, due to Team Avatar's continued effort in the war, the Equalist forces were soon crushed and Amon's true identity as a bender was revealed. These events eradicated the morale of the revolution's combatants, resulting in a ceasefire and eventually ending the Equalist rule in Republic City.
In the aftermath of the revolution, it was determined that the former parliamentary political system was flawed due to the failure of the Council in representing the interests of the majority. The government underwent a major reform, in which the United Republic Council was dissolved and an elected president was placed at the head of the Republic City government.
However, in light of the Equalists' defeat, the bending triads resumed their usual criminal activities, forcing the Republic City Police Department to deal with them once more.
=== 171 AG ===
As the Water Tribe Civil War ignited, news of it reached Republic City and tensions grew between the Northern and Southern residents of the city. The Southerners held a peace march outside their cultural center, supported by Avatar Korra, while the event was being deplored by Northerners supporting Chief Unalaq. The same night, the Agni Kai Triad bombed the cultural center, though many, including the Avatar, assumed the Northerners to be responsible.
On the night of Harmonic Convergence, the city came under attack by the Dark Avatar, a fusion of Unalaq and Vaatu. The United Forces attempted to drive him off, but their attacks proved ineffective, and they were quickly defeated by a massive display of waterbending. Unalaq proceeded to destroy the city, toppling Aang's statue before infesting the metropolis with vegetation. Republic City was spared destruction when an astral projection of Avatar Korra intervened and managed to purify and destroy the Dark Avatar.
As a result of Korra leaving the spirit portals opened, Spirit Wilds began to overtake the city, thoroughly disrupting city life by forcing many people out of their homes, tampering with the public water service, and blocking several streets. For two weeks, Korra attempted to remove the vines from the buildings and streets though discovered that, when agitated, they simply regenerated quicker and stronger than before. Eventually, she concluded that the spirits and vines should stay in their place. However, this was not to the liking of President Raiko, who, fed up with the destruction that followed in the wake of the Avatar, ordered her to leave the city. A few weeks later, Raiko welcomed the Avatar, debilitated by injury after facing the insurrection of the Red Lotus, back to the city.
=== 171 - 173 AG ===
In the three years following the Harmonic Convergence and the Red Lotus insurrection, Republic City began to grow accustomed to the Spirit Wilds. It eventually became a cultural tourist attraction of sorts where both the people and spirits coexisted harmoniously. Republic City Park was renamed Avatar Korra Park in honor of Korra and with the help of Asami Sato and Future Industries, Central City Station was modernized to link the city with the Earth Kingdom. With the spirit vines overgrowing many of the city's buildings and roads, the city's infrastructure underwent several changes to accommodate to this new landscape; as such, Future Industries built several elevated roads to circumvent the vines.
=== 174 AG ===
Feeling threatened by Kuvira's Earth Empire, President Raiko fortified the borders of the United Republic and ordered his troops to guard the rail lines into Republic City. He also agreed with Wu to start evacuating the city, entrusting the royal with coordinating the effort together with the police force. Considering it was a voluntary evacuation, it was initially going slow, with only eighteen families responding to the request. However, when Raiko made the evacuation mandatory due to Kuvira's imminent attack on the city, the citizens flocked to Central City Station and other transportation hubs to leave the metropolis. Although Mako initially created a panic by confusing the people with his evacuation instructions out of the manual, Prince Wu managed to calm everyone down and coordinate the exodus in an organized manner with Pema's help.
A week later, Kuvira and her army arrived at the city that was now largely deserted. When President Raiko ordered her to retreat, Kuvira demonstrated the power of her spirit energy cannon by destroying the United Forces' battleships, which prompted the president to surrender the city to her rule. However, before Raiko could officially turn over Republic City, Team Avatar intervened and kidnapped Baatar Jr., who was on his way to present Raiko with the Earth Empire's terms. Kuvira later blew up a Future Industries factory in an attempt to take out Korra, before marching her army into the city. Much of the city was devastated during Team Avatar and their allies' attempt to destroy the Colossus in the final battle against Kuvira.
When Kuvira attempted to use her discarded cannon in a last-ditch attempt to kill Korra, the weapon began absorbing energy from the surrounding spirit vines, the influx of energy causing it to spin out of control. As the energy beam threatened to kill Kuvira, Korra deflected it with her energybending. The resulting reaction created an explosion, however, that devastated the surrounding area and created a new spirit portal. When Korra and Kuvira emerged from the portal, the latter ordered her forces to stand down and surrendered to face justice for her crimes, restoring Republic City's autonomy. In the aftermath of the battle, Raiko and Tenzin agreed to expand Republic City rather than reconstruct the downtown area.
The major infrastructural damage caused by Kuvira's failed invasion, as well as having to relocate the government and recruiting additional police officers to deal with the growing unrest in the city, quickly depleted the city's funds. Keum Enterprises bought the land surrounding the spirit portal and intended to turn the area, as well as the Spirit World itself, into an amusement park, which intensified the already tumultuous balance between the humans and the spirits. At the order of President Raiko, the United Forces came to occupy the spirit portal as the conflict began to escalate.
Asami Sato and Zhu Li Moon worked on construction projects to house evacuees displaced by the invasion. Raiko visited the evacuee camp during his reelection campaign, where the Avatar disagreed with the policing of the spirit portal. The president's unpopularity led to Zhu Li entering the race as a presidential candidate.
Tenzin and the Air Nation arrived at the portal to protest the United Forces occupation, refusing to leave until the military withdrew. Raiko arrived at the portal, and a futile attempt to have the airbenders leave led to the president ordering the army to hose them with water. Zhu Li and Varrick soon arrived on the scene, with the former hoping to open a dialogue with the president about the portal, and professing that it was a symbol of peace.
At that moment, Tokuga arrived on his airship, declaring that the portal was a symbol of destruction, and that he would restore Republic City to its former glory. He ordered the United Forces to withdraw, threatening to release poison gas if they did not comply, and had Asami and Wonyong as hostages to prevent any attack on his airship. The president ordered General Iroh to stand down but secretly send planes to take down the airship in spite of the risk to the hostages. After being warned by the general, Korra flew to the airship with Oogi to rescue Asami, while the industrialist sabotaged the pump to flood the ship with poison gas. Asami piloted the ship through the portal and into the Spirit World, while Zhu Li coordinated the evacuation of civilians on the other side.
Three weeks later, the results of the presidential election were announced, and Zhu Li was revealed to have won the election with sixty eight percent of the vote. The president-elect gave a speech at the Republic City Four Elements, where she called upon them to support one another and not let their differences divide them, and promised that she would continue working to help rehome the evacuees. She also revealed that Wonyong had donated the land around the spirit portal to the city, and she would grant it to the Air Nation.
Two months after Zhu Li's election, Kuvira's trial began in Republic City, at the same time that Earth King Wu announced the first democratic elections in the Earth Kingdom in the State of Gaoling. Kuvira initially pled not guilty, but following her temporary release to confront Guan and the remnants of the Earth Empire's military, she came to admit her responsibility and entered a guilty plea. In light of her genuine remorse, President Moon and Suyin Beifong agreed that she would be sentenced to house arrest in Zaofu.
=== c. 176 AG ===
The Terra Triad began to become more prominent in Republic City once more thanks to the backing of San Ho, a wealthy and elusive Earth Kingdom businessman with ties to the criminal underworld. They began to extend their reach into the Dragon Flats borough.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 175.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 177. San Ho was actually Yinuo, who bore a grudge against Varrick and Wakkanai, and wanted to take revenge. He managed to kidnap Varrick, now the First Gentleman of the United Republic, and planned to kill him in an explosion that would force the Utilities Commission to remove Wakkanai's rights to the water treatment plants. Since the police no longer took Varrick's disappearances seriously, President Moon enlisted a group of her contacts, Enuk, Changunak, Zhu Song, Slate, and Pianchir Jing, trusting them to find her husband.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 167.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Wan Shi Tong's Adventure Guide, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 182.
== Cityscape ==
Republic City can be divided into a series of very diverse areas, each having distinct population, traditions, structures, and problems. These disctricts and boroughs include the Central District, Downtown, the Yue Bay port area, Old Cranefish Town, Harmony Park, Roku Plaza, Green Meadows, and the Dragon Flats borough. Furthermore, there are less traditional zones such as the Spirit Wilds district around the spirit portal and the extensive tunnel network beneath the city.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 19.
== Culture and demographics ==
Republic City is diverse, with citizens from every other nation, every other major city, and countless smaller cities and villages who now call Republic City home. The city, though young compared to the rest of the world, has existed for long enough that there are new generations who grow up calling the city their home. Their unique cultural identity they experience, growing up among such a diverse place, is something that belongs only to Republic City.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 12.
The population of Republic City is large by world standards, and the mass influx of immigrants from the four nations has caused considerable demographic challenges. The foremost of these challenges is inequality: the gap in wealth is considerable. Newcomers to the city appear unaware of these phenomena until their arrival, when they are presented with a considerable surprise. The Avatar herself believed its citizens to all be "living it up" and was shocked to discover vagabonds in the city park. With these difficult conditions, the populace seems ready to be stirred into a revolt against the perceived bending elite. A protester expended relatively little effort in arousing anger in a crowd against an annoyed Korra.
As the center of commerce throughout the nations, organized crime appears to be very common in Republic City. Gangs such as the Triple Threat Triad lay claim to certain boroughs of the city, which they call "territories". In these areas, the control of triads appears to be considerable, with shopkeepers forced to pay them in order to secure their safety. This power over local business is significant considering the regular and frequent airship patrols by the city's police forces.
== Law ==
For the most part, Republic City's laws define a structure to disallow harmful activity and to support the citizens of the city. There is plenty of discussion about individual laws and their effects, but that all happens within an ever-improving, active political system. The most common troubles with the law in Republic City revolve first and foremost around those who most often flaunt the law: the triads.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 13.
== Public safety ==
=== Republic City Police ===
The Republic City Police is in charge of law enforcement in Republic City. It is made up of a chief, detectives, regular officers, and an elite metalbending police team, which was founded by Toph Beifong.San Diego Comic-Con 2011 The Republic City Police monitors events in the city through the use of several airships and police cars. The chief of police leads both the Republic City Police and the Metalbending Police Force.
=== Firefighting ===
The Republic City firefighters form an official organization recruited from waterbenders that provides fire protection, technical rescue, and the primary response to fire hazards in Republic City. The firefighters typically wear distinctive carmine red and dark gray protective clothing as well as helmets. Operating in teams of four, the waterbenders have access to fire trucks to reach their destination, where they use their bending abilities to extinguish the fire. In doing so, the fire engines, hydrants, and water ponds around the city serve as sources for firefighting water. The Republic City firefighters also have their own logo, depicting a red flame that is to be extinguished by a blue wave.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Two: Spirits, page 68.
== Companies ==
=== Cabbage Corp ===
Cabbage Corp is a leading automobile manufacturer. One of its most popular models is the Cabbage Car, a cheaper and more compact alternative to vehicles produced by Future Industries, the company's main rival. Cabbage Corp's current owner is Lau Gan-Lan. The company is also the airship supplier for the Earth Kingdom Air Force.
=== Future Industries ===
Future Industries is a manufacturing company founded by Hiroshi Sato and led by his daughter, Asami. Using state-of-the-art technology and the assembly line, the factory is able to produce over a hundred luxury Satomobiles on a daily basis. Although the automotive industry is where the company primarily does its business, it has the resources to also manufacture weapons and airplanes. Despite high demand, Future Industries' only known competitor is Cabbage Corp.
== Transportation ==
The use of modern transportation methods such as automobiles, motorcycles, and airships is widespread in Republic City. The city also has invested considerably in advanced transportation infrastructure, with feats of engineering such as an elevated mass transit system and several suspension bridges connecting the city center with its outlying boroughs.
== Technology ==
Republic City is the vanguard of industrial and technological development. The diversity at the heart of the city helps new ideas grow and improve quickly, and the leaders of Republic City have always shown interest in adopting technological innovations to aid the city. Spirit vine energy, in particular, is a new area of contention around technological development in Republic City. The access to spirit vine technology and resources means Republic City is the focal point of the greatest potential to build and research more, but Avatar Korra and President Zhu Li Moon have publicly opposed to continue such investigations.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 14.
== Entertainment ==
Republic City hosts many examples of the oldest, most traditional entertainments from across the four nations. Art in all its many forms — song and dance, drawing, painting, sculpture, calligraphy — all of them have homes in the capital. While many of the older cities may have a claim to history and tradition in their art forms, Republic City's theaters and galleries are a new vibrant melting pot of ideas and creativity. People interested in art will find plenty to entertain them across the districts of the city, and in particular in Harmony Park. Performers from around the world have come to recognize Republic City's rising importance in art and culture, and newer performers hoping to make their mark often come to Republic City with hopes of breaking into its performing scene more easily than they might in older cities, not least because of a new form of entertainment distinctly associated with Republic City: movers. The capital remains the home of such industry, having recently gained popularity across the globe.
Another product of Republic City's uniquely blended culture is the advent of pro-bending, the most popular sport in the whole city. Pro-bending requires each team to have a waterbender, earthbender, and firebender, meaning it could only have become such an important part of the local culture when benders of all kinds lived closely together in harmony.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Republic City, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 15.
== Notable figures ==
* Avatar Aang
* Mayor Ailani
* Akemi
* Amon
* Asami Sato
* Bolin
* Butakha
* Buttercup Raiko
* Daw
* Hiroshi Sato
* Ikki
* Iknik Blackstone Varrick
* Jade
* Jargala Omo
* Jinora
* Juniper Kim
* Katara (relocated)
* Kiitsu Uwir	
* Avatar Korra
* Li Yaquin
* Lieutenant
* Lightning Bolt Zolt
* Chief Lin Beifong
* Lin Li
* Little Yang
* Mako
* Meelo
* Metog
* Pema
* President Raiko
* Rinchen
* Rohan
* Saikhan
* San
* Shady Shin
* Shiro Shinobi	
* Skoochy
* Councilman Sokka (relocated)
* Suyin Beifong (relocated)
* Tahno
* Councilman Tarrlok
* Tenzin
* Tokuga
* Chief Toph Beifong (relocated)
* Toza
* Two Toed Ping
* Viper
* Wonyong Keum
* Xiaolan
* Yakone (relocated)
* Yasuko Sato
* Yoshiro
* Yulan
* President Zhu Li Moon
== Trivia ==
* The concept of Republic City is inspired by several real world past and present locations from the late 1800s to the 1930s. This includes Shanghai circa 1920s, Hong Kong, and Western cities such as New York, Chicago and Vancouver. In particular, the statue of Aang in Yue Bay, Avatar Korra Park, and the Silk Road Bridge are inspired by the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and the Brooklyn Bridge, respectively, in New York City.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book One: Air, page 60.
** The concept for the city's underclass of orphaned, hardened street kids like Skoochy was inspired by photos of children living in American cities during the 1920s that Bryan Konietzko found on the online archive Shorpy.com.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Dos Santos, Joaquim & Blum, Steve (July 9, 2013). "The Revelation" commentary. Book One: Air Blu-ray.
* The rapid urbanization and technological advances of the World of Avatar mirrors that of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the real world, in which automobiles, towering buildings, trolleys, and other great engineering feats came to be.
* The park in Republic City resembles Hyde Park in London, with its "Speaker's Corner", where anyone can stand up and speak to the public. In Avatar Korra Park, a man is speaking to the public with a megaphone about the Equalists' views against benders.
** Similarities can also be traced with other European landmarks; the Harmony Tower is reminiscent of Paris' Eiffel Tower, and City Hall closely resembles Berlin's Reichstag.
* The city is divided into boroughs. The only one known is the Dragon Flats borough, home of Hiroshi Sato's family.
** The city also contains at least one ethnic enclave, referred to as the Little Water Tribe, which is further subdivided around the communities of citizens descended from Southern or Northern Water Tribe immigrants.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Hedrick, Tim & Hamilton, Joshua (July 1, 2014). "Peacekeepers" commentary. Book Two: Spirits Blu-ray.
* Of the six members of the original Team Avatar, four of them are known to have statues located in Republic City. 
* Republic City is located near Makapu Village and Taku.
* Republic City has a zoo that houses at least two badgermoles.
* The elevated railway transportation can be compared to the elevated railway system, or EL, built in Chicago during the early 1900s, and the street trolley system can be compared to San Francisco's street trolleys also built during the early 1900s.
* Tarrlok's seizing of control of major law operations and using the police to oppress nonbenders makes Republic City appear to operate like a police state, just as Ba Sing Se was before the end of the Hundred Year War.
* It appears that during the time of Yakone's trial, Republic City's citizens were still using animals for transportation, as evidenced by the lack of motor vehicles and Yakone utilizing an ostrich horse carriage as a method of escape.
* In "And the Winner Is...", a Cabbage Corp advertisement on the radio describes the company as "Republic City's trusted name in technology for over fifty years". This would mean that Republic City was, to some extent, up and running by 120 AG, a mere twenty years after the end of the Hundred Year War.
* In the German dub of The Legend of Korra, Republic City is called "Republica"; in the Greek dub, it is called "Democratic City"; and in the Dutch dub it is called "Republicasia".
* Republic City has at least five newspapers: the Yuan News (), the Republic News (), the United Daily News (), The Elemental Times, and The Republic Reporter.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Hedrick, Tim & Hamilton, Joshua (July 1, 2014). "The Sting" commentary. Book Two: Spirits Blu-ray.
== References ==
ca:Ciutat República
de:Republica
es:Ciudad República
fi:Republic City
fr:Cité de la République
he:עיר הרפובליקה
id:Kota Republik
nl:Republic City
pl:Miasto Republiki
pt-br:Cidade República
ru:Город Республика
vi:Thành phố Cộng Hòa
Category:A to Z
Category:Legend of Korra
Category:Locations
Category:Protected
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Category:Settlements
Category:United Republic