Avatars

The **Avatar**, formed initially when Wan permanently fused with Raava during the Harmonic Convergence of 9,829 BG, is the human embodiment of light and peace through the connection with the Avatar Spirit. As the only physical being with the ability to bend all four elements, it is considered the Avatar's duty to master the four bending arts and use that power to keep balance and peace among the four nations of the world, as well as between mankind and spirits. Upon death, the Avatar Spirit causes the Avatar to reincarnate into the next nation, dictated by the cyclic order: fire, air, water, and earth. Mirroring the order in which the first Avatar, Wan, learned the elements, this is also the traditional order in which any one incarnation is to master the elements, beginning with the bending art of the Avatar's birth nation. The reincarnation cycle can only be broken if the Avatar is killed while in the Avatar State, Raava is removed from the Avatar and severely injured, or the Avatar Spirit is compromised by a spiritual infection.

As part spirit, the Avatar possesses an innate connection to the Spirit World and is at their strongest in that realm, due to being surrounded by spiritual energy. The Avatar used that connection to the Spirit World to be the bridge between the two worlds in order to keep peace between them and ensure harmony.

The Avatar also possesses the ability to bend energy itself, although few Avatars have learned this technique, and even fewer have used it. Avatar Aang learned it from the last living lion turtle and used it to remove Phoenix King Ozai's firebending, ending the Hundred Year War. He later used it to end Yakone's reign of terror in Republic City by stripping him of his waterbending.

Upon mastering control of the Avatar State, after having learned to bend the four elements, an Avatar is referred to as "fully realized".

## Avatar Cycle

The Avatar Cycle is based on the passage of the four seasons, which coincides with the order in which Wan first learned the elements; fire related to summer, air to autumn, water to winter, and earth to spring.

When an Avatar dies, the next Avatar will be born into the next nation in the Avatar Cycle. For example, Avatar Yangchen, an Air Nomad, was reincarnated as Avatar Kuruk from the Northern Water Tribe, followed by Avatar Kyoshi from the Earth Kingdom, and Avatar Roku from the Fire Nation.

The Avatar Cycle also determines the order in which each Avatar is supposed to learn the four bending disciplines. The nation into which the Avatar is born identifies the first element that is to be mastered, often prior to the bender being revealed as the Avatar. For instance, an Avatar born into the Water Tribe first learns waterbending, before attempting to master the three remaining bending disciplines in the order of the cycle: earthbending, firebending, and finally airbending. There are instances, however, of an Avatar learning the elements out of order. Kyoshi, having begun with her native earth, trained in firebending with her bodyguard and friend, Rangi, while simultaneously learning waterbending from her friend, Kirima. However, in order to keep some semblance of order in how she mastered the elements, Rangi made Kyoshi summon a breeze to at least get a taste of airbending before she began waterbending in earnest. Similarly, due to his unique situation, Avatar Aang tried to learn fire as his second element under the tutelage of Jeong Jeong, who originally objected because of the cycle. Aang did learn to create fire, but he did not have the spiritual maturity to control it well enough, and after Jeong Jeong's camp was attacked by Zhao, Aang's firebending training ended. He eventually learned to bend the element under Zuko's tutelage, after learning the other elements in their proper sequence. Similarly, Korra, despite already being able to bend water, earth, and fire to some extent at the age of four, was actively discouraged by Katara to hone her bending skill of the elements until she mastered waterbending.

Each Avatar has a particular element with which a low affinity is established, dictated by the personality of that Avatar. This element can be difficult to learn, sometimes proving impossible to control until faced with a situation in which the Avatar is forced to reach within and manifest the power. The bending discipline is often the opposing element to the one of the Avatar's birth nation: Avatar Roku found mastering waterbending particularly difficult, and earthbending was difficult for Avatar Aang due to his predisposition to indirectly engage in combat and evade problems as often as possible.

## Identifying the Avatar

Each nation has a method of recognizing the new Avatar. Among the Air Nomads, this involved presenting infants with a selection of toys and watching for a child that selected the exact four that had belonged to past Avatars, known as the Avatar relics. Earth Avatars were traditionally identified by directional geomancy, a series of rituals designed to winnow through the largest and most populous of the four nations as efficiently as possible. A special set of bone trigrams was cast and interpreted by the earthbending masters, ruling out half the Earth Kingdom as the location of the newborn Avatar. This ritual was repeated in the remaining territory, with the possible locations shrinking by halves each time until the searchers were brought to the doorstep of the Earth Avatar child.

The methods used by each nation for identifying the next Avatar are not unfailing, however, as there has been at least one instance in which a normal individual was misidentified as the Avatar: Yun, instead of Kyoshi, was named successor to Avatar Kuruk. Traditionally, the child is told of their identity as the Avatar on their sixteenth birthday, though Avatar Yangchen was told by age eleven, as she had extremely strong visions of past Avatar companions, Avatar Aang was told at age twelve, in fear of an impending war due to the Fire Nation's growing aggression.

## Bending

The Avatar is capable of bending more than one element simultaneously. Avatar Aang first demonstrated this ability while stranded in the desert, when he bent water from a cloud into Katara's water pouch while flying with airbending at the same time, and again in Ba Sing Se when he used his earthbending to recreate a zoo while traveling on the air scooter made by his airbending.

## Known Avatars

* Kiyoshi
* Kuruk
* Roku
* Aang
* Yanchen