Successors to the Blue Spirit: Prologue
By Violent Vi
A/N: It has been a decade since I last posted anything on FFN.
Since then, I acquired a couple degrees, a career, and a daughter who just entered preschool. Wild me traded in my '03 Suzuki GXSR race bike for an SUV...Wild partying for pretend tea parties and Disney movie marathons.
In that time, I lost my old email account and the passwords. Thus, I restarted my account under the name Violent Vi Rebooted. It's the same Violent VI that posted over a decade ago. Just a little older, fatter (try keeping the weight down after having a kid), and starting to get a few grey hairs on my head. For now I intend to finish my stories. Maybe afterward, I hope to start, and hopefully finish some more.
In short, it's me. I am not stealing anyone stories...just trying to finish stories I left hanging unfinished for over a decade.
If you wish to see my old profile, search for Violent Vi.
Thank you. Let's get on with the story.
Introduction
Rise of the Fire Nation Remnants: How philosophical differences altered history and shaped the Second Elemental War
Kwan Bo, Divus Guan Chair, History Department, Yuncheng University
Traditionally, historians agreed that the Battle of the Black Sun marked the end of the Hundred Year War, later known as the First Elemental War, between the Fire Nation and the Alliance of the Earth Kingdoms and Water Tribes.
Led by Avatar Aang, the last of the Air Benders, a small strike team of Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe forces used submersibles to sneak into the harbor of the Fire Nation capital, struck down the Fire Lord, capture its leadership, and force an end to the war.
The battle was known for its savagery. With less than three hundred men and perfect timing, the Avatar-lead forces killed over ten thousand Fire Nation citizens. However, the battle was not without its cost.
In the end, the Avatar was killed along with most of his forces. Among the dead included his key lieutenants:
* Katara, daughter of Hakoda, Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe and the Avatar's water-bending master;
* Hakoda, Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe and Admiral of its fleet;
* Bato of the Southern Water Trible;
* Hu; Chieftain of the Foggy Swamp Water Tribes;
* Smellerbee of the Freedom Fighters;
* General Kam Tong Chun of Ba Sing Se;
* Colonel Bao Ji Huan of Omashu; and
* The Mechanist, Leader of the Exiles at the Northern Air Temple.
Leadership of the Alliance strike team fell to Sokka, the Destroyer. Upon the death of his father, Sokka became the new Chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe. Angered by the deaths of his father and sister, Sokka waged a no-holds-barred campaign of destruction against the Fire Nation. Historians agreed that the winners of the battle drank down battle lust and madness in big gulps of blood. It would be the results of this madness that would eventually seed the savagery of the Second Elemental War
Once reinforced by a fleet from the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom land forces, Chieftain Sokka decreed that the Fire Nation will be no more. All Fire Nation citizens would be divided up and banished to the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes where they and their descendants would be slaves for the victors.
Fire bending would be outlaws upon penalty of a slow, painful death.
Lastly, the line of Sozen would be destroyed.
Crown Prince Zuko managed to escape his prison cell literally minutes before his scheduled, public execution. However, Princess Azula would not be so lucky. Angered by Prince Zuko's escape, every indignity was inflicted upon Azula. What was left behind was cast out so the remnants of the Fire Nation could see how far it had fallen. Azula was reduced to a mass of madness by the hand of Sokka the Destroyer of the Fire Nation.
One day, Azula vanished. Many suspected that the princess in her madness cast herself into the boiling waters of Boiling Rock Prison, her boy never to be seen again.
Thee months later, the earth benders of the Earth Kingdom loosened the seals and let the volcanoes of the Fire Nation erupt. Any Fire Nation citizen who avoided capture and did not make it off the island was doomed to perish in the lava flows. The ash hung in the sky for three years choking out the sun. As slaves, those of the Fire Nation starved and many died. Only one of four survived to suffer the lot of slavery. However, in the chaos, a few escaped and hid in the woods, mountains, and wild lands.
At first, the Earth Kingdom was not worried. A few, ragtag survivors living at the edge of starvation posed little threat to peace and the new order.
Soon, the Earth Kingdom learned the hard way that ignoring a smoldering ember was to invite a wild fire in their midst.
The Fire Nation escapees did not forget nor did they forgive. They grew up in a Fire Nation built upon a philosophy that suffering builds strength…that the gods answer their prayers by giving them challenges to make them stronger. They never forgot that they were a proud people and vowed to become strong enough to gain their vengeance.
An Earth Kingdom farmer typically pray for soft, gentle rains that lead to a bountiful harvest. The Fire Nation escapee prayed for strength and embraced challenges. In the end, historian agree, this philosophical difference would one day lead the Fire Nation Remnants to eventually become a powerful empire that would conquer the known world.
