Water. Earth. Fire. Air.
Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.
Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he vanished.



The Role Play

The role play is set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender; but with a few twists; Accordingly, it is best described as an alternate timeline to the television show. The differences are few but like droplets in an ocean, their rings radiate, able to affect all in major or minor ways. The exact minutiae of deviance is largely up to the respective role players. The individual role player's decisions and actions pushing the general direction of the role play along. Deciding the fates of any characters and the factions within the world. Will your faction be destroyed? Will your characters die? Will they triumph? Who will you ally or betray? The choice is yours on what happens.

The role play is designed to accommodate two different playstyles. The first is faction role playing. Role players will take control or be a part of a faction that is pursuing a goal. Whether, it be as head of a government, a warlord carving out his own state, or seeking to influence politics and the course of history. As such the role play hinges on collaboration among players to actively work towards their goals; while, opposing role players lay plans to counter. Now you may act independently without a faction. But I will only accept applications for that if I know full well that you will be able to handle the responsibility. As in, no application then flake when the IC gets up without a word, that'll end in death for your character engineered by yours truly.

The second play style is that of character POV. Player's will control a character (nominally if they prefer to take a more indirect style like being a faction leader and not wanting more micro-interactions) whom will act as their faction leader/member. You may have multiple characters if you wish, however, you only need to have at least one that acts more or less as your personification in the role play.

Theme

The first and probably major difference is that unlike the original television show. Is the presence of more adult content. As such probably more than a few characters will have their ages upped or adjusted. The theme of the role play still capturing the wonder of this world. But allowing for a more gritty theme. Courtly intrigue, political and military drama, along with more real world facets taking place. Such as political marriages. Character death in possibly unsavory ways (assassination/murder, disease, famine, execution, trial by combat, happen stance, et cetera).


As a point of reference. The length of the Fire Islands archipelago from West to East is approx. 2,000 miles

Bending

Bending is the ability to manipulate an element and is significant to many aspects of life in the World of Avatar. There are five known bending arts; four of them bend a specific physical element while the fifth bends the energy within the human body itself. The four elemental bending arts are based on the four classical elements, water, earth, fire, and air, and each is manipulated through certain martial art styles which are reminiscent of the qualities of the element itself. While bending is traditionally performed through the motions of one's hands and feet, certain benders are able to effectively manipulate their element with only minimal movement of their body, such as by using just their head or torso. In even rarer cases, benders are able to perform their bending without the aid of any physical movement at all, by instead using sheer focus and force of will, a skill known as psychic bending. Each element is also associated with a particular nation in the world; the Water Tribe corresponds with waterbending, the Earth Kingdom with earthbending, the Fire Nation with firebending, and the Air Nomads with airbending. However, other bending affiliated groups exist, such as the Foggy Swamp Tribe for waterbending and the Sun Warriors for firebending.

The fifth bending art, energybending, is unlike the other four in that little physical action is required to direct the bending itself. The four elemental bending arts are all dependent on the energy, or chi, within the human body, relying on its flow through the body to manipulate a specific element. A person is able to bend when they extend the influence of their chi beyond the body to interact with the environment. Energybending, on the other hand, is concerned with the manipulation of the energy itself and is able to remove or grant bending abilities.
Though each nation is affiliated to a specific bending art, not all citizens from any nation, with the exception of the Air Nomads, are born with the ability to bend an element. In the case of mixed marriages, the children may be benders of either element if they are benders at all; for example, firebender Mako and earthbender Bolin are brothers with parents from the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. The only case of any one person being able to bend multiple elements is the Avatar, who has the ability to practice all five bending

Each bending art is based off of a real life martial art style:
Firebending: Northern Shaolin
Earthbending: Hung Gar
Airbending: Ba Gua
Waterbending: T'ai Chi

The World as of 100 AG

It has been one-hundred years since the Fire Lord Sozin used the power of a comet, that now bears his name and granting Firebenders enhanced abilities, to suddenly attack the Air Nomad Temples and the Earth Kingdom. The start of the Hundred Year's War. Sozin, wishing to expand his realm at the expense of the other nations, struck a heavy blow. All but wiping out the Airbenders save for few scattered remnants; while dealing massive damage to the numerically and resource abundant Earth Kingdom, allowing colonization of its Western territories by the Fire Nation. The Northern Water Tribe proclaimed neutrality, while the Southern Water Tribe joined with the Earth Kingdom to repel the Fire Nation, however the war dragged on year after year. The Fire Nation winning many important victories but ultimately unable to defeat the Earth Kingdom. All the while the Earth Kingdom, weathering assault after assault, has survived in an increasingly decentralized state. It's vast size allowing it to survive numerous offensives, but the political power of the Earth King is greatly diminished, and its many cities act more as autonomous states than feudal subjects.

After the death of Sozin in 20AG, he was succeeded by his son Azulon, and the new Fire Lord initially makes great gains in the war against the Earth Kingdom. Allowing the Fire Nation colonies to flourish. Back in the Fire Islands, Azulon, orders the construction of the Great Gates of Azulon. Massive fortifications protecting the Royal City from attack by Sea and Land. Azulon also initiates a greater industrialization and mechanization of the Fire Nation's already impressive military. Its Navy operating steel, coal powered ships, and its land forced backed by tracked war machines. However, Azulon quickly showed himself to be a tyrannical ruler who cared little for those around him. Even almost executing his second born son, Ozai, for asking him to pass over his older brother Iroh in the succession. The grounds of which being the loss of Iroh's own son during the failed sieged of the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. As a result, in 94AG, Ozai and his wife Ursa conspire against Azulon, and secretly poison their monarch while fabricating Azulon's will. Ozai became the third Fire Lord after the beginning of the Hundred Year's War. Continuing the war with renewed vigor and matching his late father's cruelty. Even banishing his firstborn son, Zuko, for challenging him in a strategy counsel in front of major Fire Nation generals. But not before fighting his son in a duel, and finding his son wishing to not fight him, leaving a massive scar on the side of his face as additional punishment. This final act spurned Iroh, the Fire Lord's brother, to conspire. This was successful on the first day of the 100th Year of the War when Ozai died under sudden, mysterious, circumstances in his private chambers. Leaving the succession unclear as the world looks on.

The Fire Nation is currently run by an Interregnum Government headed by Iroh, older brother to Ozai, and a junta of Fire Nation administrators and military leaders. However, the government and nation is fracturing along lines of loyalty and who will succeed Ozai. Many royalists and Ozai supporters are promoting for Azula to ascend the throne. While, Iroh, and many of the Fire Nation figures wanting to end the absolutist autocracy centered on the monarchy wish to put Zuko on the throne or even Iroh. Though the later would never accept.

The Earth King is but a nominal figurehead. His rule outside of the environs surrounding Ba Sing Se is largely irrelevant. The disparate and far flung territories of the vast Kingdom operating more as autonomous polities than loyal subjects. Many of the major cities having their own King who is an independent monarch in all but name. While the Southern Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom's staunch ally, is a backwater and suffering under war exhaustion. The Air Nomads having been largely wiped out in the beginning of the war, while the Northern Water tribe has so far remained neutral.

CS (feel free to use your own that at least covers the same material)
Delete everything in parenthesis
Name Generator if you hit a wall on what to name your character.

Faction Name:
Parent Nation: (if part of the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes)
Head of Faction:
Government/Faction type: (Fire Nation is an absolute autocratic monarchy, Earth Kingdom is a feudal state, Water Tribes are tribal based as examples; what type of faction are you)
Faction Structure: (How is your faction structured? Are you a military unit? Running a city or territory/province? etc)
Population/Membership: (The amount of people who can Bend an element is at most 20% per faction unless other specified and cleared by an OP or CO-OP. Of those 20% less than half have an innate ability beyond 2. Additionally the total population of the Fire Nation is around 100 Million, Earth Kingdom is 900 Million, Water Tribes are 10 million each, and Air Nomads post genocide are probably several dozen at most with many in hiding or too old to do anything).
Military Strength/Armed Population:
Military Information:
Economy Information: (Major industries and resources)
Geographic Territory: (just sketch out claims for me to compile)
History:

Character Information
Character Name:
Physical Description: (Image and any other pertinent details)
Age:
Title(s):
Able to Bend an element: (Yes or No and indicate what element)
Bending Skill: (Novice, Apprentice, Learned, Adept, Master and largely correspond with skill and knowledge)
Innate Ability: (1 through 5 and portrays their raw innate power; however because skill is based on age with it often taking a couple decades to master an element, higher ability can lead to self-harming results)
Likes:
Dislikes:
Background:

(Seeking approval)

Faction Name: The Totalists
Parent Nation: Earth Kingdom
Head of Faction: General Cho Xin
Government/Faction type: Vanguard Fascist Organization

Faction Structure:
The structure of the organization is closely resembling military hierarchy but upon closer inspection, it can be seen that it is actually a network of acquaintances and cells of people working together. For example, General Xin has many other generals under his command but still gives more responsibility to Captain Bei than most and likewise a capitalist like Fan Song who doesn't hold a military rank is still extremely well placed to orders some people around. As the organization isn't public (Yet), there thus isn't any official rank system as of now and people generally obey orders based on how much they like the person giving it and if it makes sense to them.

Population/Membership:
-1292 'Key Members'
-112,000 'Members'
-2,800,000 'De Facto Soldiers'
-390,000,000 'Supporters'

Military Strength/Armed Population:
The Totalists can muster about 3 million soldiers under their command, but most of their forces merely follow orders of nobles and officers that are themselves totalists and while most are sympathetic to their ideas, they aren't really members of the organization, instead going along with the orders they are given. This however is only the tip of the iceberg as many totalists are rather ex-soldiers who have been demobilized now that the war is seen as over. They thus went back home with the Totalist ideals of unity in their heart and have generally become pillars of the community. They along with their veteran bending abilities, families and friends are waiting for the call for national revolution and the great change that is to come.

Military Information:
The core of the Totalist forces are a mix of active soldiers and war veterans around the Earth Kingdom that are the veterans of many battles against the Fire Nation, these expert benders truly believe that they are fighting for something greater than themselves and are willing to lay down their lives for the cause. These main forces are thus divided into the Active soldiers, armed by the king in traditional Earth Kingdom ways, the Deactivated soldiers, generally poorly equiped and acting as recruiters and trainers for the local militias around the kingdom, and the Vanguard Army, equiped privately by the capitalists siding with the Totalists with metal armor similar to elite fire nation soldiers.

On the periphery of these forces are the more standard soldiers that merely serve under Totalist officers who will follow orders but lack the moral of true believers in the cause.

And the bulk of the Totalists forces are the militias. Peasants trained by military veterans who are angry at the king and hate the fire nation. They are numerous but poorly equipped and generally unwilling to leave their native lands to fight in the wider world.

Economy Information:
The Earth Kingdom outside of Ba Sing Se is often seen as a backwater compared to the Fire Nation, but its industry and resources is still crushingly powerful by sole virtue of the amount of land and of people working it. Still, things are changing. The demands of war created, slowly but surely in the last hundred year, a class of wealthy merchants seeking to provide for the demand and who experimented to adapt to the Fire Nation's industrial warfare and new technologies. The Fire Nation leads the industrial revolution, but the Earth Kingdom isn't far behind. With the war seemingly over soon though, the wealthy people who have thrown everything they had into weapon production found themselves in trouble. Where the crown's money stopped coming in though, the Totalists came in, not with money, but with promises of wealth and mining and industrial rights once the king is deposed. This, and a little strength to convince those relunctant to join the cause, was all it took for the Totalists to take over the new industries of the kingdom.

Geographic Territory:
All around the Earth Kingdom, though with no 'official' territories in their control... for now.

History:
The Earth Kingdom really always was more of a collection of smaller states under the dominion of a nominal king, someone from Ba Sing Se saw nothing in common in him and someone from the backwater of the swamps for example. The war however forced people from all walks of life and all regions of the kingdom who were normally kept separated to fight together, becoming brothers in arms and really, forming something more. They were not so different and the fire nation threatened them all. A certain Captain under the name of Ma Bei saw something in this: Unity. True unity of the likes only the Fire Nation really had, a common identity. He had always been a vocal speaker of reforms and it wasn't long until other more powerful men caught on to these ideas.

They named themselves the Totalists. Those who wanted...
TOTAL VICTORY
And who were thus willing to do...
TOTAL WAR
And who to do so demanded...
TOTAL UNITY OF THE STATE
And...
TOTAL CONTROL OF THE STATE

To them, the King had failed them as he was cloistered in Ba Sing Se, using massive resources to protect the capital as he left the provinces to fight for themselves. They of course didn't know the conspiracy of the Grand Secretariat general to keep the war hidden from the king, but when this was revealed, the damage was done and the image of the king being an incompetent blind idiot was made and support for the Totalists only grew. The generals should lead the country, establish a true meritocracy that promoted people based on their competence, not because of their birth rights!

The war came to a stand still shortly after of course and the king, in an effort to put order in the economy of the nation, demobilized most of its costly army, peace appears to be near after all. But people were outraged! The taxes were still high in order to repay many debts and most crucially, the fire nation still holds the land it invaded! The Totalists thus spread in the kingdom as the soldiers came back from the front, to educate their fellow peasants about how the people from the kingdom aren't so different from them and really want the same thing: Prosperity. And how they should all work together to get it along with Total Victory even if it demanded Total War, and do so with a state that had Total Control.

Rebellions happen all the time in the earth Kingdom, but this time, it seems the stars are aligning. The Totalists and its spokesman Ma Bei had managed to make a global movement at a time where the king couldn't be weaker while his tool to deal with such things, the Dai Li, had fallen out of grace in his eyes, making him blind to the threat hiding among its own soldiers.

Character Information


Character Name: Cho Xin
Age: 46
Title(s): General of the Earth Kingdom, Member of the Council of Five
Able to Bend an element: Yes, Earth
Bending Skill: Master
Innate Ability: 3
Likes:
-Captain Ma Bei
-Order
-Nationalists
Dislikes:
-General Li Feng
-Nobles
-Cowards
Background:
A top general of the Kingdom, he originates from a noble family but never liked this part of him, instead joining the army and climbing the ranks. Some say he could never have made it this far without his family and this is partially true but when his father died and he inherited his domain, rather than leave the army to administrate it as was his right, he simply wrote back home that his estate was a gift for the local peasants who were now free from any feudal obligation while he used his own money to the last penny to equip his men with better protective gear. This gave him a great deal of admiration from his fellow subordinates.

He was ultimately tasked to judge Ma Bei for causing unrest in the ranks but realized he admired his cause and joined it. With his rank and reputation this gave much credit to the cause and was really the default leader. With the war ending, he received a final promotion and was transferred to Ba Sing Se to join the Council of Five in charge of the whole military. His Totalist views are known but the king hopes to sooth them by giving their leader power and a voice to be heard.


Character Name: Ma Bei
Age: 24
Title(s): Captain of the Earth Kingdom, Totalist Ideologist
Able to Bend an element: Yes, Earth
Bending Skill: Apprentice
Innate Ability: 2
Likes:
-Philosophy
-Helping others
-Revolutions
Dislikes:
-War
-Stuborn people
-Opportunists
Background:
Born from wealthy merchants in Ba Sing Se, he proved himself an impressive intellectual and rich enough to pursuit his interest in philosophy rather than a more 'practical' pursuit. Still, he was not connected enough to escape the Dai Li who caught him preaching ideas about unity and a new form of government based on meritocracy rather than aristocracy and so, was forced out of the city and into the army to hopefully die or at least be away from the Capital.

Unaware of the reason he had been thrown out, his commander, upon hearing he had a form of education, immediately gave him a rank of officer where he proved to not be a complete imbecile and to care about the life of his men. He continued to preach his ideas but they changed with his service in the army. He had always been a civilian but seeing the harshness of war hardened his ideas somewhat, making his view of a new society go from utopic to more realistic.

In times, he made powerful friends in high places, being taken out of the fight and instead to whisper words in the ears of General Xin, Feng and others, becoming an advisor to everything theoretical to them. Some say he leads the movement from the shadows but really he just wants to make a difference and make things better for his people rather than be their overlord.


Character Name: Li Feng
Age: 32
Title(s): General of the Earth Kingdom
Able to Bend an element: Yes, Earth
Bending Skill: Adept
Innate Ability: 4
Likes:
-War
-Being in Charge
-Winning
Dislikes:
-Peace
-Taking Orders
-Losing
Background:
The hot head, the courageous, the victorious. Feng was one of the rare person to make it from soldier to general without prior contacts in the army. He joined because he liked to fight and some say, to kill, but his ability to organize said mass killing of enemies made him popular and one of the rare officer to have more victories than defeat against the Fire Nation. To be honest, he doesn't care much about the Totalists greater ideals about a united nation, but he cannot stomach letting a single fire bender alive on the continent and is one to always see (and be able to make the others see) a victory just around the corner.

To him, the king betrayed his people by halting the hostilities and the 'Total War, Total Victory' part of Totalism is music to his ears.



Character Name: Atla Kye
Age: 19
Title(s): None
Able to Bend an element: Yes, Earth, Lava, Chi Blocking
Bending Skill: Master
Innate Ability: 5
Likes:
-Feeling Accepted
-Diversity
-Being praised
Dislikes:
-Rejection
-Anything Ma Bei dislikes
-Nobles
Background:
Born in a Fire Nation colony from an earth bending mother and fire bending father, Atla's mom was pretty much the pet girlfriend of a Fire army officer. This allowed her some comfort in her youth despite being rejected by both kids from the fire nation and earth kingdom. This went from bad to worst when the new military governor decided to put an end to the abomination that was half breeds. Her father left her to die as her mother protected her, being scorched before Atla's eyes as she herself lost an arm as she played head under the head body of her mother. She escaped and found refuge in the flood of refugees escaping from the fire nation occupation.

She became a small time criminal, stealing and using her bending to get away until she was finaly caught, only 14 years of age, and conscripted in the army like many criminals. She was good, extremely so, and found herself enjoying having friends, people who depended on her and vice versa, making a name of herself as 'Stone Armed Kye', fighting off legions of Fire Nation soldiers with her almost unique Lava bending. Eventually, she was asked to join the elite Terra Team of Ba Sing Se, the most elite benders of the nation as they were being reformed after Azula and her team crushed them entirely. It was when she learned that most of them were defeated by a Chi Blocker and, intending to impress her new team mates, studied all she could about it to add another string to her bow.

Her new team was honestly a bunch of haughty asses, most of them who didn't come close to Kye in bending abilities and were there because they were connected but again, things went from bad to worst when people learned she was a half breed. They threw her out of the team, how could they trust her? Her old unit she couldn't return too because it had been demobilized but still she caught up with some friends, hoping she could crash at their homes to try and lead a normal life, though she admitted to them her origins. They didn't care, she had saved their lives so many times after all, there was no doubt to them she was an Earth Citizens through and through, some even called her lava bending kind of a giveaway. Still, one of her friends thought it'd be a shame if such incredible powers were wasted and so, pointed her to the Totalists, saying they also believed in equality and that their cause was just.

Her abilities made her climb the ranks until she served as the body guard of Ma Bei. She fell in love with him, with how much of an intellectual with big ideas he was. To this day, she serves as his hand, a representative and hitman to set things up for the big day and although Ma Bei doesn't care what people think, Kye still prefers to remain discreet with her relation with him as many called him out on having a pet half-breed.

Question: does the Avatar have a role in this RP? I mean, much of the setting is based around him so it feels there's something missing without an AVATAR.

@Grijs the avatar may have a role, kind of depends on the course of the RP really, but nothing absolutely set in stone thus far.