Deep underground, beneath the sands of the Si Wong desert, in the vast caverns where the giant gilacorns live, there rests a great library. Hidden in the back of a musty shelf in the Corridor of the Pheonix, there is a sacred scroll. A scroll depicting the most powerful and ancient of all races, the race closest to the Great Spirits.

The Lion Turtle.

Beings of pure Fire, the Lion Turtles were the lords of the land. They ruled over the entire world, and controlled even the fates of the stars, which were things of Fire in their own right, as well.

Back then, the world was newly formed, and looked nothing like it does today. The sky was a powerful mix of crimson red background and ashen black smoke clouds which blurred the horizon. The beginnings of the continents were merely scorched red rocks that floated aimlessly on a constantly churning ocean of molten earth beneath. This was the Sea of Fire, the paradise of the Lion Turtle.

But all things change. The Spirits saw the land as not a paradise, as the Lion Turtles did, but a horrible barren wasteland. For you see, there was no life. Nothing could live in the Sea of Fire. Nothing but the Lion Turtles.

And so came the Great Change. The first thing to change was the sky. It transformed from its violent crimson to a light, calming blue. A strange wind began to blow across the landscape, and the world began to cool. Air. As the world cooled, the steam in the atmosphere began to condense and collect in areas across the globe. Water. From these pools sprang green moss and oxygen-producing plants, leeching the redness from the scorched rocks, and transformed them into sand and soil. Earth.

This change was terrifying to the Lion Turtles. They knew not what to do, and panicked among themselves. They turned to their leader and chief for guidance. He saw what was happening, and he knew who was behind it.

"Brothers!" he yelled to the crowd gathered around him. "We will not stand by and watch our land be destroyed! Our precious Sea is drying up, and strange and evil creations are sprouting amongst us like a plague! We cannot fight the change, but we can fight those responsible! Let us go forth, and wage war against the Great Spirits!"

Long did he speak, and so eloquently, too, that the other turtles had no choice but to be bent unto his will. And so they set forth, to march against the Kingdom of the Great Spirits.

But doomed were they, for the will of the spirits is law, and so the Lion Turtles failed.

For their treachery, they were to spend eternity bearing the weight of their shame, the once-small masses that had become the continents now weighing down upon their shoulders.

Forever would they spend, being slowly crushed beneath the weight of their sins against the Great Spirits.

This continued on for thousands upon thousands of millennia unti, one day, a lone mortal human stood before them…

xxx

"Hear me, mighty spirits! I have traveled far and wide in search of this place, and in search of you! I have gone deep into the earth and braved the Sea of Fire to seek your aid! Lend me your power over the stars, and I shall return this world to the power of Fire! Your race will be returned to its former glory, and together we will rule! This I can do, for I am FIRE LORD SOZIN!!!!!!"

A/N: Well, I saw the Lion Turtles in "The Library," and I automatically recognized that face… it was repeated five times on the head of five serpents in the Fire Temple. And as for the figure kneeling before them… He was wearing the headpiece of Fire Nation royalty. Since I liked the idea, I decided to expand on it. Let me know how you liked it!