Fifth Nation

The Fifth Nation was an ethnically diverse faction of pirates who roamed the Earth Kingdom's southern and eastern seas for generations. They consisted of waterbenders, firebenders, and nonbenders, and claimed to transcend ethnic and social boundaries. Though dominated by people of Water Tribe origin, the Fifth Nation had a distinct culture and customs and existed for several generations as independent people. At the peak of its power under Tagaka, the Fifth Nation was the most powerful pirate group in the world.
The pirates were eventually defeated in a confrontation with Avatar Kyoshi, and most of them killed or captured. Several scattered bands of survivors continued to roam the seas, hunted by Kyoshi and the Fire Navy. In the next centuries, the Fifth Nation ceased to operate as a cohesive force. However, it remained well-remembered among international corsairs, and some families continued to track their descent from the Fifth Nation as a source of pride and prestige.
== History ==
=== Early history and Tulok's command ===
The Fifth Nation was a long-standing pirate group. Traditionally based in the Eastern Sea, it existed for such a long time that it transcended being just a crime group and became a distinct group of people with its own culture, although many of them hailed from the Southern Water Tribe. At some point, leadership of the pirates passed to a family of Southern Water Tribe origin that would provide its commanders for several generations. Avatar Yangchen signed a treaty with one of these pirate lords, securing that the corsairs would stay in the Eastern Sea and not attack the coastline of the southern Earth Kingdom. The Fifth Nation honored the treaty for three generations, but when Avatar Kuruk died in 312 BG and no new Avatar was found for seven years, pirates around the world grew bolder in their raids. One of the Fifth Nation's commanders, Tulok, consequently began to raid the southern Earth Kingdom in defiance to the treaty his grandfather had signed. One of Kuruk's friends, Jianzhu, met with Tulok to convince him to end his attacks and honor his ancestor's promise, but the pirate lord instead derided him.
Soon after, the Fifth Nation's overall commander, Tulok's father, decided to launch an expedition into the western seas. He took his entire family and a large splinter fleet with him. As the pirates rounded the Earth Kingdom's southern tip, they encountered the airbending master Kelsang, who summoned a storm to stop them. The storm became a horrible typhoon and destroyed much of splinter fleet, killing Tulok's father and brothers as well as grievously wounding his daughter Tagaka. As a result, Tulok became the undisputed leader of the Fifth Nation, but he and the other older Fifth Nation pirates remained terrified of Kelsang; thereafter, they never again dared to leave the Eastern Sea. When Tulok died, leadership of the Fifth Nation passed to his daughter Tagaka unopposed, as all potential rivals from her clan had died in Kelsang's storm.
=== Rise to power under Tagaka ===
In contrast to her father, Tagaka was determined to lead her people to new greatness. At first, she attempted to expand her fleet and assure the Fifth Nation's dominance over the Eastern Sea. Under her command, the pirate group defeated numerous rival pirate fleets, such as the Fade-Red Devils, and defeated the Earth Kingdom's navy in battle. The Fifth Nation became the most successful pirate fleet in the world. Nevertheless, the pirates initially stayed in the Eastern Sea despite it being a less profitable hunting ground than the western seas out of fear of incurring Kelsang's wrath. They did, however, expand their operations around the South Pole. Smaller expeditions of Fifth Nation pirates did dare to roam farther, however, as a force led by Taliriktug was sent to scout Yokoya.
In 296 BG, Tagaka decided to launch a large-scale raid against Zeizhou Province in hopes of capturing carpenters to expand the Fifth Nation's fleet. The operation was successful insofar as they enslaved over a thousand people, depopulating an entire stretch of the shore, though none of these captives proved to be a capable carpenter.
=== Downfall and splintering ===
In response to these bold attacks, the corsairs became the focus of Yun and his followers. At the time, Yun was believed to be the Avatar, and Tagaka decided to lure him into a trap. Her aim was to take the Avatar hostage, destroy his following, and then to capture his home, Yokoya in the Earth Kingdom, to set up a major naval base with access to woods. Some Fifth Nation pirates began to scout Yokoya, though they were soon driven away. 
Meanwhile, Tagaka publicly claimed that she wanted to sign a new treaty with Avatar, ostensibly to limit her raiding in return for some minor concessions. For his purpose, she met with Yun and his party at an iceberg near the South Pole. While it seemed like she had brought only a few pirates as bodyguards, the entire Fifth Nation fleet was hidden inside several nearby, smaller icebergs. In a surprise attack, Tagaka and her followers managed to capture Yun, incapacitated most of his companions, and launched their ships to attack Yokoya. Unknown to the pirates, Yun was not really the Avatar, but one of his friends, Kyoshi was. The latter confronted Tagaka and used her Avatar-powered earthbending to lift parts of the seafloor, destroying much of the Fifth Nation fleet. Many pirates were crushed or drowned, but some ships were able to avoid the upcoming crags of basalt. Some waterbenders on the sinking ships rallied as well, and a fierce battle ensued. Yun's companions prevailed and destroyed some more ships, forcing most of the surviving pirates into surrender.
Some pirates managed to escape thanks to the Fifth Nation's waterbenders, who used their abilities to speed away with their ships' wreckage and surviving nonbenders who held onto the broken remains of the vessels. A few pirates such as Taliriktug's group also managed to hide on the icebergs and in the debris of the battle, waiting for a later chance to flee. The majority of the Fifth Nation was destroyed, however, and many of the corsairs were captured. Tagaka was subsequently transported to the Earth Kingdom prisons of Lake Laogai. The Fire Navy consequently raided the Fifth Nation's remaining bases and freed civilians who had been held captive there. As a result, it was believed that the remaining elements of the Fifth Nation would not be able to rebuild their strength and that the pirate people as a whole was effectively eliminated. Despite these search-and-destroy operations, many treasures of the Fifth Nation remained well-hiden.
Remnants of the Fifth Nation continued to roam the seas, and attempted to reorganize between late 296 BG and early 295 BG. These splinter fleets were targeted by Kyoshi during one of her first official missions as the Avatar. Jinpa later noted that the attack on the Fifth Nation's remnants had been "brutal business". Some splinter fleets still persisted past the Camellia-Peony War roaming the oceans looking for bounty, such as the splinter fleet commanded by Chukagnak. The fleets were no longer united as they had once been, with groups of pirates often competing against one another.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 43. Some pirates continued to seek freeing Tagaka from Lake Laogai in order to rebuild the nation.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 34.
=== Legacy ===
By the late Hundred Year War, the Fifth Nation had seemingly ceased to operate as a cohesive force. Though the Fifth Nation's existence and its infamy remained fairly well known, many details on the pirate nation's history and culture gradually fell into obscurity, even among researchers on the subject. Some pirates such as Kiwaq claimed descent from the Fifth Nation, regarding themselves as rightful heirs of the group's treasures and culture. Being descended from the Fifth Nation also earned anyone respect among international corsairs, as the pirate people's strength remained well-known among criminals.
== Culture ==
The Fifth Nation's members regarded themselves as an egalitarian people who had overcome the differences between the four nations and would treat all recruits who joined them equally regardless of their ethnic origin.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 43. The group even spread propaganda to this end, trying to attract new members by pointing out that riches were to be shared based on merit, not heritage. Despite this, the majority of Fifth Nation people were of Southern Water Tribe origin, and their culture was strongly influenced by Water Tribe customs. This included the use of typical Water Tribe dwellings and furniture, as well as a similar cuisine. Even those from the Northern Water Tribe were considered a rarity in the pirate world. Nevertheless, their culture had unique elements due to their nature as pirates, with looted items from all nations in their possession.
Even though the Fifth Nation portrayed itself as a society with "No Avatars, No Masters", it was led by a single dynasty by its later history. Its last commander, Tagaka, even took titles of nobility for herself and was revered with a fervor bordering on fanaticism by her followers. Conversely, Tagaka's status was not mainly based on her ancestry but her skills, and she continued to allow the Fifth Nation's sub-fleets some degree of autonomy.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 264.
At least one group of Fifth Nation pirates built a secret underground base at the South Pole's coast. This base, the "Icebound Labyrinth", included living quarters, an archive, a meditation chamber, and a hoard for their loot. At the archive, the pirates collected maps, star charts, codes, bending techniques, and recorded heists.
== Slavery ==
During the final years of the Fifth Nation, mass kidnappings were conducted along the southeastern coast of the Earth Kingdom, with Fifth Nation corsairs choosing to enslave the populace rather than killing them outright. Stolen villagers were taken to the corsairs' hidden bases in the Eastern Sea, several being made personal servants of Tagaka. Though they were not chained or restrained, Kyoshi observed that they carried out their duties in a hunched or clumsy fashion, as if they were fearing for their lives. Other hostages were used for specific purposes, such as personal scribes, though the Fifth Nation was really taking slaves in hopes of finding decent carpenters to help them build and maintain their ships. If a captured person was not useful to the pirates, Tagaka had no qualms to trade them for other favors, as evidenced when she readily agreed to Yun's demand to free all her Earth Kingdom captives, as she claimed them to be useless anyway due to a lack of carpentry skills.
Each fleet commander had their own policy on slavery. Some, such as Chukagnak, never engaged with the practice, but as part of the Fifth Nation, all who did not take slaves of their own had to work with those who enslaved others.
== Notable members ==
* Chukagnak
* Kiwaq
* Tagaka
* Taliriktug
* Tulok
* Tulok's brothers
* Tulok's father
* Tulok's grandfather
== Appearances ==
=== Chronicles of the Avatar ===
* The Rise of Kyoshi
=== Avatar games ===
* Avatar: Generations
== Trivia ==
* The Fifth Nation was loosely based on the 18th-century pirate fleet of Ching Shih, as well as taking inspiration from pirate history in general.
* The Fifth Nation's kidnapping of nearly a thousand people from an Earth Kingdom village was considered to have been the largest coordinated pirate raid on the southeast coast of the Earth Kingdom mainlands in over a century at the time.
* In the Fifth Nation hideout of the Icebound Labyrinth, the meditation chamber was adorned with a large metal statue. This statue resembled the Fire Avatar who lived eight Avatar-generations before Szeto.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Two: Spirits, page 36.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Piracy in the World of Avatar
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