| abstract
| - Since the logical Fantasy Counterpart Culture for Air Nomad nonbenders are Flying Mongols (Tibetian Buddhism spread like wildfire through the Mongolians after they were driven out of China by the Ming Dynasty) or mounted archers of some sort, it must follow that they must have tried for world domination at least once. Knowing the Mongol's historical attempt at it, they would have been very successful, considering their obvious advantages (Ba Sing Se? No match for those Sky-Bison mounted raiders with composite bows and gliders). However, it would have been reasonably more interesting to have the Fire Nation, with it's Industrial-level technology; be the first of the four peoples to try to take over the world. There is also the elemental symbolism: Air has traditionally been seen as one of the "good" elements, while Fire is usually the opposite (and no, I do not mean any malice in that statement). In short, the Fire Nation was the much better choice for "attempted world dominator", and This Troper has made his peace with that.
* It's possible that this happened at some point in the past. For a world that's been at peace up until the Fire Nation invaded, they seemed to be pretty well set up to, you know, fight eachother.
* True. Also, it's well known that the steppe nomads were great archers in their day. Could this be replicated in the Avatar World too? Maybe the Yu Yuan Archers were remnants of the Nonbender takeover attempt who managed to settle in the Fire Nation and keep their archery skills, making them useful when the Fire Nation decided to have imperialist ambitions. Just a thought...
* Well, we know for a fact that in Avatar Kyoshi's lifetime, there was a conquering tyrant who may have had designs on world domination who originated in the Earth Kingdom. Considering how long the Avatar has been around (Roku implies that there have been at least a thousand Avatars, which would suggest a period of tens of thousands of years), it is likely that the history of the world means that the four nations have not always been in the state that they were when the war started by Sozin began. Indeed, the Word of God has said that the spirituality of the Fire Nation by the end of the war was low enough that the ratio of Benders to Non-Benders was lower than any other nation (in contrast to the 100% Airbender Air Nomads), so it has probably waxed and waned for the other nations. Also, "The Avatar and the Fire Lord" implies that the prosperity and unity of the Fire Nation in Sozin's time was a fairly recent development. We can probably assume that there has been war between (or within; nation is not necessarily the same thing as state) the different nations throughout the Avatar's history.
* A water-empire also seems likely not too far back in the world's history, judging by the distinct populations of physically and mystically similar people at opposite ends of the world. With their more fortified and sophisticated architecture, the Northern Water Tribe probably represents the core of the former empire; the Southern Tribe and the Swamp Tribe are remnant of colonies.
* Maybe the Air Nomads are like the Levites of Ancient Israel. The ancestor of that particular tribe (Levi) went on a killing spree. Therefore, while all the other Israelites received a tract of land, the Levites were scattered all over the nation. However, they were given the task of being a priestly class. Though they could never really have land as a tribe, they were the most spiritual people of the land. So the Air Nomads tried to take over but failed. They were forced to be scattered among the nations, doomed to forever wander the earth (Frankenstein or Prometheus -like). But to ensure no one looked down upon them, they became the spiritual leaders of the whole world.
* It should be noted that there are airbending weapons. Not just tools like Aang's staff, which can be re appropriated as weapons, but there is at least one airbending weapon mentioned. It's in the episode Sokka's Master, Aang mentions that there is a kind of weapon that's usually just a hilt until you bend air through it and make a blade. Seems like an odd thing for a nation of pacifist monks to have. So it's not unreasonable to assume that sometime in the past there was some form of airbending civilization or sect that was willing to use deadly weapons.
* Also, the nations have proven to change over time. The Sun Warriors apparently preceded the Fire Nation as... well, the nation of Fire. And there are a lot of ruins in the Earth Kingdom.
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