r/Avatarthelastairbende 1d ago

If there where more nations besides the ones shown, what would you have in mind?

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If I had to pick one new group, that would be vikings. Since the water tribes are based off of first nation/inuit and they have a very interesting culture, it would be cool to see them interact with these new land people.

126 Upvotes

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42

u/NostrilLurker 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some kind of Mongol/Dothraki horselord culture that are airbenders on the other side of the world that the Air Nomads split from and migrated to the known Avatar world to practice their spirituality without persecution since the horselord culture is one of violence. Air is the element of freedom and thats what steppe cultures are all about. The Air Nomads just wanted to practice that freedom differently. Plus ancient Mongols worshipped a sky god named Tengri.

Or a witchy culture on some far flung side of the planet that's extremely insular. They bend dark energy kind of like Raven from Teen Titans but also study forbidden magic like curses and hexes. There aren't many people there because the land is cursed by some kind of cosmic force unknown to anyone who lives today, but there are a few curious people that travel there to learn forbidden mysteries. Only a few people have ever returned and from eyewitness accounts, they seem to have gone mad.

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u/KenseiHimura 1d ago

I had a similar idea of a Heretical Air Nomad monastery based off the Sohei and Ikko ikki. Japanese isn’t exactly new to Avatar, but I liked the idea enough for there to be an AU on it I only have concepts of.

Namely that when Aang is told the Sohei air monks are alive, he continues to lament he’s the last Air Nomad and has to explain to Katara and others that Sohei are philosophically antithetical to how air nomad culture is supposed to work. And when they do finally meet the group, the feeling is mutual. (With the ending having several of them come around and others soften their hardline stance of militarism.)

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u/NostrilLurker 1d ago

That works too and I like it. All I know is that there's so much room for lore expansion if they create more land on the other side of the globe.

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u/MaxTheGinger 16h ago

A horse-horse culture?

Not like a raven-horse? Or a dove-horse? Or a zebra-horse culture? Not even a bear-horse culture?

That's just weird.

/s

That sounds awesome.

1

u/Right-Truck1859 18h ago

We already got Sand nomads, who bend sand... Mongols should be some kind of Earth benders.

18

u/Repulsive_Airline_86 1d ago edited 1d ago

Arab-inspired Earth Kingdom people, or Lakota-inspired Air Nomads.

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u/jeanluuc 1d ago

Hell yeah. I think if they expanded on sand benders they could develop an arab-inspired nation

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u/Jazzlike_Savings2414 1d ago

We already have fire, water, earth, metal, and air. So why don’t we do a subbending nation if we already have metal?

Like bloodbending would be witches or lavabenders are all forgers or blacksmiths that live inside volcanoes. Lightning bending would be all wizards type people living in towers or in the air.

5

u/klauszen 1d ago

Incas could pass as Air Nomads.

Mexicas, specially in their lagoon city Tenochtitlán, could pass as Water Tribes. BTW, not all Water Tribe should be artic/ice themed. Pacific islanders could also make for a wonderful waterbending civilization.

A Middle eastern civilization, such as the umayyad or ottoman, would make an excelent Fire Nation. Greek fire, mass production, exqusite metalwork, grand bazaars, learning centers and emporiums.

Eastern Island-themed civilization of gigantic monumental architecture could make a fine Earth Kingdom.

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u/Proper-Emu1558 1d ago

A far-north outpost of the fire nation near hot springs or a volcano. Iceland-style.

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u/CreditClarka32 1d ago

with fire-themed Iceland metal-benders and lava-benders. They're both traders for foreign people on the main world and the other side while the others are warrior-like vanguards who protect the island. They have red/fair hair with Celtic/Norse Tattoos with HTTYD dragons on it.

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u/Mallardguy5675322 1d ago

Some sort of hidden swamp nation separate from the foggy swamp tribe. Like a Aztecy(or if we talk Asia, perhaps Khmerish) group living out in the jungle in their own mini world

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u/_Deny_005 1d ago

The Sun warriors are based on Aztec and MesoAmerican cultures!

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u/CreditClarka32 1d ago

They're also based on Thai and Southeast Asian Countries

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u/SpaceNorse2020 1d ago

The 5 Chinese elements are water, earth, fire, metal, and plant. Imagine a nation that can bend plants as well as the average water bender can bend ocean water.

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u/Kaiser-Bismark 1d ago

Polynesian water benders. Need I say more

2

u/Prior_Passenger_128 21h ago

I was thinking the exact same thing!

1

u/Excellent-Compote135 21h ago

Honestly surprised this subject was never touched on. You'd think a tropical island surrounded by water would be the perfect place for water benders to set up shop.

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u/jeanluuc 1d ago

Are those the jomsvikings from VS?

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u/CreditClarka32 23h ago

Yes. My head canon for the other side of the world in avatar where the water tribes have to deal with Quasi-European tribes like the vikings. Avatar already discussed about ww2 japan so why not American colonization.

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u/PuzzledConcept9371 2h ago

I do believe the show was based on asiatic cultures however

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u/Anime_catgirl_asses 1d ago

I feel like their might be a secret Nation of no benders off the grid that are tired of benders making their lives hell

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u/numbersthen0987431 1d ago

I think the Druids would be a perfect match for the series.

They could introduce a new form of "nature magic" aside from the Avatar, which would kind of line up with the Spirit World in a different form. I've read some stuff on Druids, and it seems very similar to the kind of stuff that Iroh talks about, just a little different.

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u/Prior_Passenger_128 22h ago

Polynesian water benders

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u/Prior_Passenger_128 21h ago

Snowbending Sami

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u/Excellent-Compote135 21h ago

Two concepts I would have loved to see but would have simply to metal and Rated-R for a kids show would be:

  1. Mongolian-style Air Benders.

Essentially your stereotypical nomadic steppe people who constantly raid and plunder permanent civilized settlements. They would also use gliders like the Airbender monks in cannon but instead of them being staffs they will be 'Naginatas' (curved spears that warrior monks used in Japan). As well as your typical nomad arsenal like bows-and-arrows and curved swords, and just sheer physiological terror. They'll ride around in herds of air bison that they treat like war elephants, basically just Appa during the Battle of Black Sun.

  1. Aztec-style Water/Blood Benders

North & South Water benders are just Inuit people. So these water benders would just be Mesoamericans. They would be located in a much warmer climate like a jungle/rainforest. In real life Tenochtitlan was located in the middle of a massive lake so we'll keep that detail as well. They'll have large city states that control smaller local tribes, that probably have the same abilities as the swamp people of controlling plants. And like the North & South poles they're located near a holy site that has a strong connection to the spirit world...

However, these are the Aztecs we're talking about so the spirits they worship tend to be more malevolent, and demand sacrifices. Maybe they worship Koh the Face-Stealer. Somewhere along the way they learned how to blood bend and they fully embrace this ability. They already control plants by moving the water inside of them why is controlling people any different?

(Actually Polynesian water benders could have definitely worked in the show. Maybe they could have also been colonized by the fire nation and their home islands treated like a vacation resort. It could've been a similar situation that Haru was in. I'm surprised we never saw them. The closest thing we got were the Swamp people)

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u/Tytoivy 18h ago

I would love to see more a more Polynesian inspired culture. Waterbending is kind of the obvious choice for them, but I actually think fire bending would work really well. The spiritual power that flows through firebenders reminds me of Mana. The fire nation is made up of many islands, which can’t be homogenous culturally. It would be great to see some of the fire bending cultures of these islands, free from, or resistant to, the empire of the fire nation.

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u/CODMAN627 1d ago

A Nordic inspired water tribe, a Aztec inspired fire nation, Arab inspired earth kingdom

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u/Excellent-Compote135 18h ago

2/3 isn't bad

We got sand benders which were clearly inspired by middle eastern culture

The lost fire bending civilization guarding the last two dragons looked like stereotypical Mesoamericans.

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u/RingwraithElfGuy 1d ago

I think either the Monguls or Greeks. I think adapting the Greeks to be the newly founded metal and/or lightning nation could be really cool. I think the Monguls could work well as a new nation of Airbenders.

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u/Haldrada0 19h ago

Polynesian Bases Water Tribes.

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u/Eblowskers 18h ago

The 5th nation, although more similar to pirates than anything else in history, kinda have Viking vibes

1

u/Montirop 14h ago

Warhammer40k imperium, good Lucky gaang

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u/RomaInvicta2003 2h ago

Polynesian-themed Waterbenders