It had been several years since Fire Lord Ozai had fallen. The world had returned to a balanced state, despite the longest bout of warring and hostility it had endured thus far. Everyone had gone on to do something else, whether it was just going back to their hometown, or moving on to do something new. Either way, they had all taken their separate paths from that point on. No one had even spared a thought to the events up to the last passing of Sozin's comet, save for those who would start minor resistances against the new Fire Lord from time to time.
In particular, the new Fire Lord, Zuko, had moved on to marry Mai, have three children, and bring the Fire Nation, and eventually the entire world, to one of the most peaceful and harmonious eras it had yet enjoyed. With the help of the Avatar, who had also had three children, he also managed to rebuild hundreds of towns and villages that had been previously destroyed, and had found his mother on a small island off the coast of Ba Sing Se. Lady Ursa now resided in the palace with the rest of Zuko's family, happily helping Mai tend to her grandchildren.
In even more good news, there is still hope for the airbending race, as two of Aang's three children are airbenders. One of them, the middle child, is actually capable of both airbending and waterbending, being a mix of the two races. No one knew why he was able to do so, they just assumed it was because his mother was a waterbender, and his father was the avatar. Either way, all of the avatar's children, two boys and one girl, were raised like normal air nomad children were hundreds of years ago, the only difference being the lack of other nomads and the extinction of the air bison, and the fact that the oldest of the three was merely a waterbender.
The Earth kingdom was restored to it's original state, though the Earth King decided he would rather continue traveling the world. Instead, he insisted on handing the Earth Kingdom over to King Bumi, who died shortly afterward at the ripe and inordinately old age of 124. Bumi, having no successor, had stated on his deathbed that he wanted Iroh to rule, but Iroh decided that he would rather have the Order of the White Lotus, which his nephew had recently become a member of, rule the Earth Kingdom. The Earth Kingdom became known as the Earth Republic shortly afterwards.
Not too long after the war was over, Fire Lord Ozai went blind, supposedly reaping the combined effects of losing his firebending abilities and having stayed in the utter darkness of his cell for years on end. Azula was taken to a high-security prison at a disclosed location. The only person in the world who knew her location is the now strapping young explorer, Toph, who, though she had been blind since birth, had still made great strides in the art of earthbending and explored many corners of the world. Toph had hidden Azula so well, not even the guards at her location knew what they were guarding. It is rumored that she is imprisoned in the remains of the secret bunker once discovered during a raid of the fire nation on a previous solar eclipse. It is even said that, when the palace city falls silent, one can still hear her laughing, as though she'd had one last trick up her sleeve that she was waiting for the right moment to pull out.
Everything was going along so well, it was almost scary. And yet, no one could have realized that the one thing that could have brought everything back into chaos, the key to overturning the entire world's state of harmony that the avatar and his allies had worked so hard to build, was lurking within Fire Lord Zuko's very own palace...
