Unanimity project

The Unanimity project was the codename of an attempt by the shang cities to break free from the formal authority of the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Water Tribes.
The plan was to use the first three combustionbenders in recorded history as human weapons, orchestrating a great display of might and power in order to make the armies and governments of all sovereign nations submit to the shangs.
Although the combustionbenders were brought to Bin-Er and did begin their display, they were apprehended by Avatar Yangchen and her allies before they could cause a great deal of damage, and before others had a chance to figure out what was going on. The members of the project in Bin-Er were confined to the Northern Air Temple, while the incident was publicly covered up as a result of spiritual imbalance.
== Prelude ==
As a result of the diplomatic blunder known as the Platinum Affair, international trade between the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation, and Water Tribes had been restricted to the cities of Bin-Er, Jonduri, Port Tuugaq, and Taku. The rulers of these cities became known as shangs, and were an extremely influential socio-economic and political class. However, the charters that gave them their power stipulated that they could have no military power, and were completely unable to raise a fighting force. Although the shangs were therefore a powerful group, some were conscious that they were unable to defend themselves at all, and were aware that they were completely vulnerable to the Earth King, the Fire Lord, or the Chief of the Water Tribes in potential conflicts in the future.
As a result, key figures started to research how they could obtain a weapon of mass destruction that would be able to put power in the hands of the shangs rather than the governments of the world's sovereign nations. Zongdu Dooshim of Bin-Er began the project along with Zongdu Chaisee of Jonduri, the latter of whom proved crucial to the development of the project. Chaisee discovered and obtained a number of ancient documents, including extremely rare Air Nomad acupuncture maps.
== Experimentation ==
After Chaisee had done enough research, she and her collaborators set up a center of experimentation on an isolated island of the Natsuo Island chain. They recruited many nonbenders, several firebenders, and a few earthbenders, promising good pay and chances of advancement. Most recruits were enlisted from among the local islands, which were generally ignored by state governments across the world. A few recruits came from other places such as the Earth Kingdom's Kolau Mountain Range. Once the recruits arrived on the island, they were split into several groups, as Chaisee and her collaborators had developed several different series of human experiments to create new combat techniques or rediscover ancient ones.
One experiment involved most of the nonbenders. They were forced to endlessly fight each other in unarmed duels, striking crucial areas shown on the acupuncture maps. Through brutal trial-and-error, the nonbenders in this group began to gain a kind of proto-chi-blocking ability. Those who were too often defeated in the duels or injured were taken away by the guards. Though the other recruits were told that these people were sent back home, in truth they were subsequently tortured to death at a nearby bunker, with the overseers trying to learn more about the human body and how to correctly use brainwashing.
Meanwhile, the earthbenders were taken to the island's volcanic interior, possibly in an attempt to train them as lavabenders. The experiments with the earthbenders failed completely, and all died. Another experiment involved a randomly selected collection of recruits who were subjected to something euphemistically termed "herbalism" involving "strange flowers and bushes"; the trainees of this experiment also all died.
Finally, there was an experiment solely involving firebenders. Among other steps, this operation forced the firebenders to spend long periods underwater. There, they were supposed to firebend, not to produce flames but great pressure in a single burst. Ultimately, the firebenders were put into chains and forced to stay in the water until they either drowned or were able to use the mental pressure technique: Combustionbending. Only three known firebending trainees - Yingsu, Xiaoyun, and Thapa - developed full-scale combustionbending. When Avatar Yangchen later looked to her past lives, none of the memories contained anything like the power she had seen, meaning that this was possibly a completely new form of bending.
Yingsu, Xiaoyun, and Thapa were eventually subjected to brainwashing and then relocated to Jonduri. With them gone and the other older recruits mostly dead, the project overseers increasingly recruited young replacements including children who were about 12 years old. It is unclear how many people were recruited for the experiments overall. Just one camp on the island was large enough to host at least a hundred people at the same time.
The successful combustionbenders practiced their abilities on Shimsom Big Island, just outside the shang city of Port Tuugaq. They had a large target range set up for them, and their bending caused a lot of evenly spaced out depressions in the area. The bright lights and noise attracted the attention of the Order of the White Lotus, though they speculated that the problem was likely spiritual in nature. Leading shangs of several cities knew of Unanimity, but they were not sure what it was exactly, with many doubting if it actually existed.
When Zongdu Henshe later partially revealed Unanimity project's existence in Bin-Er, Chaisee quickly ordered the experiments on the secret island shut down. All remaining trainees were abandoned by the project personnel. With no more supply ships incoming and no adequate food sources on the island, the about two dozen recruits quickly focused on their own survival. The adult trainees took all fruits they could find and tried to escape using a few rotting longboats, refusing to take the child recruits with them due to an alleged lack of space. Soon after, a large storm hit the region, and the adult escapees probably all drowned. On the island, the remaining children died one-by-one until only two were left: A firebender, Raitei, who had begun to develop combustionbending skills, and a nonbender, Hsien, who had developed a rough chi-blocking technique.
== Implementation ==
The combustionbenders were moved from Port Tuugaq and Jonduri, where they would be under the secure control of Zongdu Chaisee. Around the same time, Avatar Yangchen made her first official visit to Bin-Er. While meeting with the shangs, she revealed that she knew that they had violated the terms of their charter by failing to limit the flow of traffic, and said that she would expose this to Earth King Feishan unless they made charitable reforms to remedy the obscene divide between rich and poor in the city. Not wanting to give up any of their wealth, the shangs panicked that the Earth King would raze the city to the ground. Instead, Zongdu Henshe spoke of the Unanimity project, and promised that he would get Chaisee to implement it in Bin-Er. Yangchen was personally spying on the meeting, and learned of the project and its existence. Meanwhile, Henshe entrusted the Earth Sage Sidao with delivering the message that Unanimity was needed in Bin-Er.
After he arrived in Jonduri, Chaisee had Sidao killed for his potential to leak Unanimity to the Avatar, who he was advising. She sent a curt reply to Henshe via messenger hawk, simply saying "no". Henshe personally travelled to Jonduri and threatened to have the Fire Lord remove Chaisee from her position unless she agreed to send Unanimity to Bin-Er. While she did agree, Henshe knew she was bluffing, and planned to use his personal spy within Jonduri, Kalyaan, to retrieve the project for him. Meanwhile, Yangchen and her new informant and companion, Kavik, went to Jonduri in order to investigate the Unanimity project. With Kavik getting inside Chaisee's association of errand runners, he was eventually trusted to raid a warehouse in Jonduri that was speculated to have a logbook with details about Unanimity. Kavik was unable to find a solid lead, but was reunited with Kalyaan, who was his older brother. After a long conversation where he expressed the predicament he was in, Kalyaan got Kavik to betray the Avatar by having him tell Yangchen that Unanimity was still in Port Tuugaq. After that, Kalyaan arranged for Kavik to accompany the members of Unanimity on a ship to Bin-Er. Kavik was unaware of the nature of Unanimity until the three combustionbenders caused a diversion and were able to get away at the Bin-Er docks.
Wanting to set things right, Kavik wrote to Yangchen in Port Tuugaq, confessing that he had betrayed her. However, she had already concluded that she was wrong, as she had only found the traces of the target practice on the island, investigating the incident with "Mama" of the White Lotus. After returning to Jonduri, she picked up Tayagum, Akuudan, and Jujinta, and brought her allies to Bin-Er in order to prepare and put a stop to Unanimity.
Henshe organized the display of might, posting the three combustionbenders across different locations in the city, with Thapa firing a warning shot to keep the Earth King's forces at bay, while Xiaoyun and Yingsu intimidated the people of Bin-Er. After Kavik tailed the combustionbenders and pinpointed their locations, Yangchen was able to conduct a swift raid on Xiaoyun's position by removing the air from the room until he passed out. In the meantime, Thapa had begun a powerful display, though tensions erupted between him and his employer, as he bargained for a much bigger rate than he was getting, as it was the combustionbenders who truly controlled Bin-Er, and not the shangs. In response, Henshe directed Thapa to destroy the Water Tribe Quarter, but just as he was about to do so, he felt dizzy, as Yangchen had arrived, using the same technique on him as she had used to take down Xiaoyun. After her allies dragged away the perpetrators, they moved on to Yingsu, who was able to combustionbend the fastest out of the three. Tipped off that something had happened, she moved to the gathering hall, a secondary fallback location. Kavik found himself in the immediate range of Yingsu, and Yangchen was deeply concerned. Just then, Tayagum arrived with a bow and arrow for Jujinta. Yangchen leapt forward in order to confront Yingsu, and sprinted clear of the oncoming blast. This gave Jujinta the opportunity to make his shot, striking Yingsu just below the collarbone. Yangchen ended up healing her instead of removing the air from the room, apprehending her as well.
== Aftermath ==
The shangs stayed out of sight in Bin-Er after the incident, as if they were shamed by the extra attention upon the city. Monks from the Northern Air Temple arrived, tending to the city with alms and blessings.
After the incident, Yangchen met with Earth King Feishan to report of the situation, warning him against marching into Bin-Er with his army. She told him that the disaster had been a spiritual incident, with Bin-Er falling out of balance due to its greed. Noting that the Earth King had allowed the shangs to become as corrupt as they were, Yangchen petitioned for the administration of Bin-Er, promising she could ease the burden of its residents while increasing the Earth King's revenue. She was granted this after she lied that Avatar Szeto could advise her on her every move. The Avatar and the Earth King agreed on the way forward for the time being, although Feishan was unsure if everything was correct, having received a cryptic letter from Henshe before the incident. He threatened that he may do something terrible to the four nations if he learned that the incident was the work of a man.
The members of the project in Bin-Er were taken to the Northern Air Temple. The combustionbenders were confined to hamlets that were inaccessible without the use of flying (such as via bison), while Henshe was confined to an ordinary room. Abbot Sonam was disappointed in Yangchen having made jailers of the monks, warning her that if the men who guarded the perpetrators got a taste for domination, they would lose what made them Air Nomads. The combustionbenders were unwilling to give away too much information, and Henshe could only offer that which Yangchen already knew. Covering up the incident also meant she could not act against Chaisee, the chief mastermind of the project.
Unanimity risked being exposed to the world when Chief Oyaluk of the Northern Water Tribe sent one of his Thin Claws into Bin-Er, and had him follow Kavik. However, the Thin Claw was apprehended by Ayunerak of the Order of the White Lotus.
== References ==
pl:Projekt Jednomyślności
Category:A to Z
Category:Earth Kingdom
Category:Events
Category:Fire Nation
Category:Water Tribes
Category:Yangchen novels