@candlelitcraft Preferably before Korra's story - I haven't watched it all yet, though I am aware of her final relationship. Perhaps in Roku or Kyoshi's time? So we'd already have some stuff to go off of, and there'd definitely be some fights.

EDIT: Removed part of the post that no longer made sense after my proposal.

@CollectorOfMyst, Kyoshi's time. Chin the Conqueror is a ready-made villain and it's nice to have the Earth Kingdom (or part of it) as the villains.

This still got room? Because this sounds hella fun.

If we go a whole Avatar cycle after Korra, it would be an Earth Kingdom Avatar, and it would likely be something close to a modern setting. This also means we don't have to worry about stepping on the toes of canon.

This also means we have airbenders again, and members of any nation could reasonably exist on any side of a conflict we'd have.

Ya that sounds interesting

If we go a whole Avatar cycle after Korra, it would be an Earth Kingdom Avatar, and it would likely be something close to a modern setting. This also means we don't have to worry about stepping on the toes of canon.

This also means we have airbenders again, and members of any nation could reasonably exist on any side of a conflict we'd have.

That's a fair point. We even have evolved organisations in specialized bending, such as Metal Benders, Lightning Benders, Spirit Gurus (air benders), and even things like Chi Blockers.

@December You mean energy bending? That's an avatar exclusive.

@December, I do like the idea of neutral chi-blockers.

But what's our plot? Are we the new Team Avatar or a bunch of people in a (nearly) modern Republic City?

What was the rough tech level of Korra? 1940? Give that the average life of an Avatar, and we have near-future, actually.

@Regitnui It was steampunk.

@CollectorOfMyst Hardly. Republic City had an electrical power plant (supplemented by lightning benders), and there were internal combustion engines powering cars, trains and motorbikes. The early mecha suits and planes were also internal combustion engines, though I couldn't tell you what the later Earth Empire ones were powered by. If it's any -punk, it's dieselpunk, which is 1920s-1950s.

Given that Avatar Aang lived for just about 66 years, and that was young, we can safely say Korra's lifespan would be somewhere around 90-100 at most. Taking the earliest date (1920) and the youngest possible "old age" death for Korra, we're looking at roughly 2000-2010. If the Avatar world follows a similar technical path to our own, they have modern or better technology. If there isn't a major technological boost, like WW2, we're looking at 1980's level technology in Republic City, with other cities close to or equal that.

Avatar "Rosai", the earthbender after Korra, would live in a world not unfamiliar to people in their 20s or 30s grew up in. We'd have an Earth Federation (United States of Earth?), two independent water tribes, an Air Nomad society with nonbenders (classism?), a (partly speculation) Fire Nation grappling with constitutional monarchy, and a democratic United Republic. On top of that, you'd likely see an almost complete homogenization of bending, with your place of birth being almost entirely unrelated to the bending skill you possess. A firebender born at the South Pole, for example.

So if we go into the "next Avatar", we have to do our own worldbuilding. A unified idea of the world would help with that.

Thinking about this a little more, and extrapolating on the end of LoK, we might have winged 'jetpacks', civilian mechasuits, and maglev bullet trains as standard. Spirit Vine energy might be developed into a clean power source, or more likely abandoned/academic only after Kuvira blew a whole between dimensions accidentally, that technology taking a similar path to nuclear in our world. Cars would be probably still rely on internal combustion, if cleaner, and there would be a large-scale passenger airplane industry (KorraSato Airlines, anyone?).

They might skip guns, though, if only because bending and electrical 'tasers' were already in place and that was more or less accidental in our own timeline.

@December You mean energy bending? That's an avatar exclusive.

I'm pretty sure you're referring to the Spirit Gurus I mentioned, and actually, there is a large variety of energy manipulation that non-Avatar characters have performed in the past. From the Banana Guru Aang encountered at the Western (?) Air Temple (I really don't remember which one), who led Aang through a spiritual journey to unblock his Chakras (granted, he never directly performed any energy bending), to the spiritual powers of entering the spirit world (I would say Tenzin but, y'know, he never did), to Jinora's astral projection powers to even Unalaq's spirit manipulation powers. Manipulating the spirits is typically seen as an Air bending ability, however, that does not limit it to a single element (@Unalaq). Even when Korra was attacked by a spirit in the middle of the ocean when she was being chased by Desna and Eska, she washed up on a Fire Nation island where a spiritual fire bending guru was able to discern what was happening to her spirit by use of fire bending.

@Regitnui Well someone did their research. XD

If we were to go ahead and place ourselves in the time of an Earth Nation Avatar, I think some things would be different regarding technology. I'm also just now realizing I never finished the last season with Kuvira. Idk why but I stopped around the time of Kuvira beating Korra in a 1v1. I suppose I can't say much regarding technology because I don't know how the spirit vine harvesting ended.

Do you guys think there would be artificial bending at that point? We already seem some rudimentary forms of lightning bending in Asami's lightning glove, as well as faux metal bending in the magnets Asami's father employed. Hell, there's even fire bending gadgets among some of Amon's radicals (the flame thrower guy).

I don't think it would be too hard for them to replicate bending in that era (excluding earth and water bending). For fire, they just have fuel tanks on their backs and gloves and boots that can expel fire. Air bending would be more difficult to replicate as it would require manipulating the air pressure by either having tanks of compressed air that would expire quickly or giant fans. Earth bending wouldn't really be possible, but magnets faking metal bending would. Maybe lightning gloves would be ranged by that time.

@December, Artificial bending would likely be a pipe dream. While the lightning gloves and the mechasuit's electrified bolas may hint towards an increased use of electric weaponry, a flamethrower would be nowhere near as versatile as true firebending, and practically useless against any firebender. Electrical weapons, after all, are difficult to handle. We've seen them fail to subdue people once, maybe twice, and Mako had Plot Armour. Any technology that would have to rely on "giant tanks" to replicate bending would be more of a liability than an asset. So I'd put my money on electricity or chi-blocking being the nonbender's weapon of choice against benders.

We already have tasers, so I'd say that either an equivalent or Asami's joybuzzer would be freely available to civilians as self-defense weapons. Ranged lightning, seen in LoK season 4, is a definite possibility, but on military mechasuits, which is incidentally the only place where I'd say a flamethrower would be at all practical in that world; after all, the tank would be protected and the pilot hopefully less likely to be killed by shrapnel. Explosives, sure, but industrial and military. _{Were there fireworks in LoK?}

In conclusion, I'd call it a possibility, but impractical. Unless it's electrical gloves or "bolt slingers".

Though, I'm not the GM. @candlelitcraft, what do you think?

@collectorofmyst @regitnui @december I'm so excited that you guys took off with all of this. I'm in class right now so I'll read everything after (so expect a better response in 2 hours or so). I skimmed some stuff and the idea of setting it in a more modern setting gives us so much potential. We'll have to decide if the new avatar will be part of our cast and build our own plot which will probably take awhile. I'm really excited about it, though. We could really build something amazing based on all this :)

Edit: sorry if I repeated anything anyone said btw. Like I said I just skimmed

@collectorofmyst @regitnui @december @pandapolio @gisk @sassy1085 @duoya (I'm tagging everyone who's shown interest bc this is important)

Okay! So I really like the idea of setting this after Korra's cycle with technology resembling that of the 80s (but cleaner since I feel the benders would care more about protecting the environment than us). I think it would be really interesting to look at how the culture of the different nations will evolve. Again, I love the potential we have to build our story. Of course, this means coming up with a plot from scratch, but I think we're capable of it. Also, we should decide if the new avatar will be an important character (and if so who plays as them). I agree with @regitnui that artificial bending wouldn't really be much of a thing and non-benders mainly use chi-blocking and electrical weapons. I think all of the other extra technology discussed (like the jet packs and stuff) would be a really good feature.

I should tell you though that I've only seen the first two seasons of Korra (and that was a few years ago). I plan on watching the whole series ASAP but I'm a full-time college student so it'll probably take me awhile to get through. If I veer off of the canon technology or newly discovered bending techniques, just let me know.

I also made a discord so we can brainstorm easier. Anyone who comes across this thread in the future and is interested in joining/contributing, feel free to jump in and we'll catch you up.

@December I was referring to the Chi Blockers you mentioned, actually. IIRC, Chi is what allows the benders to bend, yes? And blocking it is either from energy bending, learned from the Lion Turtle by Aang, and from Aang by Korra. Or there's a specific form of blood bending.

Note: Only watched Book 1 of LoK.

Kooloo Limpah! Did someone say feel free to jump in? :D

@CollectorOfMyst Well, in the Avatar universe, Chi Blocking is a teachable art to any skilled athlete. It involves using precise jabs and attacks at various parts of the body to block a Chi and disable a bender's bending and any human's ability to move. Tai Lee was a Chi Blocker, and in LoK, many of Amon's followers are also Chi Blockers.

Is that what you were referring to?

@December Oh, Tai Lee. No, I thought you were talking about something entirely different. You know, the power Aang uses against the firelord?

@CollectorOfMyst

I don't think that power is Avatar exclusive. After all, wasn't that Amon's whole thing?