Born of blood where death means life. The blood moon claims its sacrifice.
A baby cries, his mother dies. Her pain, his fame; Her fight, his plight.
Born of blood, forged in fire. Hope burns to ashes on a funeral pyre.
Die to live or live to die, the blood moon claims the entire sky.
It's true that Fire Lords carry a long legacy of dominance and destruction. But if the Avatar hadn't returned when he did, the Phoenix King would have buried the entire world with his fiery wrath. This is the story of how it all began.
Prince Ozai has never liked the sight of blood. Even the mere mentioning of the word has always made him a little squeamish. He won't entertain the thought for long, but he knows this is because his father has told him repeatedly about his birth—how he claimed his own mother's life. A blood sacrifice, the Fire Lord called it. And hardly worth it, he would sometimes add.
As much as he loathes the idea of blood or being called a mother killer, he hates being teased for his fears even more. His older brother, Iroh, has a friend, of sorts, named Satoru who is the worst. Satoru's father is a Fire Sage—the High Sage who conducted the late Fire Lady's funeral. And while Azulon refuses to relive that day, Satoru remembers it and doesn't hesitate to torture Ozai with the details.
Iroh has mentioned the blood moon eclipse before, but it is Satoru who spells it out for him. The teenage menace says there's a saying to go with the omen. Born of blood where death means life. The blood moon claims its sacrifice. Ozai pretends this doesn't affect him because it's not like he hasn't heard it before, although perhaps not in poetry form. But then Satoru says that a certain young Fire Prince has inspired an addendum. Ozai thinks his blood actually freezes as it's quoted to him.
A baby cries, his mother dies. Her pain, his fame; Her fight, his plight.
Born of blood, forged in fire. Hope burns to ashes on a funeral pyre.
Die to live or live to die, the blood moon claims the entire sky.
Satoru becomes even more ruthless after Iroh leaves for military training. So, without his brother around to intervene, Ozai challenges his tormentor to his first ever Agni Kai. No adults try to stop them since Iroh ended up parenting his younger sibling more often than their father did. Ozai is a talented bender for his age, but even an eight-year-old prodigy is no match for a seventeen-year-old future Fire Sage. Ozai tries his best to put on a brave face during his recovery, but it doesn't help that his burns are blood red in their appearance.
Ozai has no interest in joining the army like his brother, but he tells himself it has nothing to do with the blood. And to prove it, he practices. It starts out with small animals, hamster mice and elephant rats mainly. He thinks if the heat of his fire is intense enough, they will simply turn to ash. The smell of burning fur and flesh makes him feel sick at times, but he keeps at it with unwavering focus until one day, he discovers something new altogether. Lightening bending is a messy affair with his first attempts, but once Ozai hones his craft, at the mere age of ten, he is able to stop a heartbeat without leaving any outward trace.
No blood. No burns. No blemishes.
Perfection.