Character designs were developed through a series of drawings by one of the series' creators, Bryan Konietzko. The main sketch depicted a middle-aged monk with an arrow on his head and later included a flying bison. His partner, Michael Dante DiMartino, was at the time interested in documentaries related to the South Pole. They combined these ideas and created the concept of an "air guy" and "water guys" trapped in a snowy wasteland, with "fire guys" invading them. Additionally, the writers based the characters' different bending abilities on individual styles of martial arts.