Royal Procession

The Royal Procession, also known as the Imperial Firebenders or Imperial Soldiers, was a unit of elite firebenders who served as personal and ceremonial guards for the Fire Nation Royal Family, and also worked in close association with the Fire Lord's military maneuvers.
== History ==
The Royal Procession already operated during the early reign of Fire Lord Sozin.Avatar: The Last Airbender: Heart of a Hero, p. 13.
During the six hundred-day Siege of Ba Sing Se, two Imperial Firebenders stood at Iroh's side while he wrote a letter home to Zuko and Azula.
Five years later, while Azula was attempting to capture her brother and uncle, she was accompanied by at least thirty of these soldiers on her ship. Iroh and Zuko were able to defeat these soldiers easily after discovering that the former two were about to be taken prisoner due to the captain accidentally revealing Azula's plan. The captain was banished by Azula for his failures. When later advised by Lo and Li, Azula decided to leave the Royal Procession in favor of a smaller, elite team, and set off to enlist Mai and Ty Lee. These soldiers were subsequently ordered to help garrison "New Ozai", where Azula later subjected them to an intense training regime due to being dissatisfied with their inability to suppress unrest. Not long after, the Imperial Firebenders helped the princess to defeat a local uprising.
During the Day of Black Sun, they were seen in Fire Lord Ozai's secret bunker, serving as protection during the eclipse in the event that an enemy managed to breach the underground facility. As they were deprived of their bending, they were carrying polearms.
The Royal Procession took a small role in the coronation of Phoenix King Ozai, holding up the banners of the Phoenix King.
Before her coronation as Fire Lord, Azula slipped into a case of severe paranoia and ended up banishing nearly all her staff, including the Imperial Firebenders present at the palace, as mentioned by Lo and Li. Imperial Firebenders were seen as part of the crew of the airship fleet, burning a large section of Wulong Forest and defending the ships from intruders.
== Uniform ==
Under Sozin's early rule, the Royal Procession wore helmets that had a three-point theme. There were three small red spikes on the top of the helmet, three eye holes, and shard-shaped mouth holes. The unit's armor and clothing was red and black with gold trimmings. 
By Azulon's late reign, members of the Royal Procession still wore helmets with a three-point theme, though the helmet's spikes were larger and the eye holes smaller than those Sozin's era. The helmets had also become more bell-shaped. The rest of the uniforms had become completely dominated by red, with little gold or black remaining. Captains were distinguished by the fact that their helmets had the same general design, but a lack of face masks. This uniform design continued to be used during Ozai's reign, aside of one instance: When Ozai declared himself the Phoenix King, the uniforms of the members of the Royal Procession were a black inverted version of the original, i.e. whatever was black was red and vice-versa.
== Trivia ==
* The bell shaped helmets of the Royal Procession with its extremely small eye holes and mouth holes bear some resemblance to the Italo-Corinthian helmet, a version of the famous Corinthian helmet.
* At the time of Fire Lord Zoryu, there already existed a guard unit that protected and was firmly loyal to the Fire Lords. In addition, Fire Lord Sozin employed a small bodyguard unit led by Mio.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. An Urgent Request, Version 1.0, 2023, p. 9. It is unclear whether these guards were part of the Royal Proccession.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Military of the Fire Nation
* Organizations in the World of Avatar
de:Imperiale Feuerbändiger
es:Procesión Real
fr:Procession Royale
pl:Orszak królewski
ru:Императорский кортеж
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