Do you think that becoming prince of a fire nation with sanity issues had the potential to be a good outcome from a transdimensional consciousness shift, some may say yes. Some may say no. But it would be best if you made your own conclusion whether this stop in my jaunt through the multiverse was good.
This time I didn't have the heebie-jeebies of potentially taking over a maybe dead body, Ozai when to sleep contentedly on his brothers 40th birthday and I woke up in his place. There was no two ways about it, the entity that had put me in this situation straight up killed Ozai by placing me here and now. I could sense it and if I hadn't had, 500 years of life the heebie-jeebies would have overwhelmed me. Time lived has a way of blunting things most to a point of insignificants.
This time, there were differences from the last time I was shoved into a body. I could draw on magic, it was awfully weak. I could still detect the faint hints of a dead soul and the consciousness, was it being in a fully-fledged adult, with the accompanying developed brain or minimal magic. With my weakened mind magics, I was able to capture about half of the memories from my new body, I was Ozai, but the rest of his memories and experiences faded with his consciousness.
It was a poor effort on my part, I had hit a pinnacle with mental magic centuries ago, a little skill atrophy had occurred but my mind magics were still stellar. It was this weakened magic, it had put me off, it was like I had found my arms were half the length they should be, I was bumping and fumbling over everything.
What made up the life of this prince of the fire nation was hardly interesting enough for the main antagonist of avatar the last air-bender, leader of the evil and corrupt fire nation. He didn't do anything but scheme and be bitter over how his father was prosecuting the war, and his distaste might have even been warranted.
Azulon didn't do anything other than fail upwards, it was only due to the military doctrine that Sozin had put in place 80 years ago that kept the war apace, Ozai could not quite comprehend why Azulon had failed so badly with Sozin as his father. But it seemed that Sozin might have failed at the most important thing when ruling a dynasty, making sure that you have a capable heir.
Ignoring that blunder Sozin was a great fire lord, just look at his propaganda if you were to just accept what was known by the fire nation populous he would seem to be divinely appointed by a golden god, all people across the entire world would praise his existence from now until the end of time. Successful rulers had less, but Sozin was not just a great propagandist, he was a visionary that saw potential and capitalised on it.
Most of the stuff my new memories telling me Sozin did are part of the propaganda that Ozai believed. Fucking propaganda, was Sozin a commander that took all but the earth kingdom capital or was he middling at war and just good at making use of the military then spinning it to make himself look like a hypercompetent commander.
According to Ozai, It was not much of a surprise that Sozin had conquered halfway through the earth kingdom taking the north-western provinces for the abundant resources such as iron ore and highly valuable farmland, the strategy for those in conquered areas treat them better than the earth kingdom and less than fire nation citizens.
This strategy worked wonders for keeping the lands of the North-Western area of the kingdom compliant, it was a less than a feudal kingdom, so most of the population noticed little difference between there fire masters and earth masters. There was not any hint of guerrilla tactics from disagreeable citizens, and guerrilla campaigns are notoriously difficult to run if the people weren't verdantly on your side.
But Osai also believed that Sozin stole a potato from a nature spirit, I know I can do fire magic in this existence but it didn't stop me from wanting calling bullshit on Sozin pulling a potato out of nowhere.
But first I needed to deal with the throbbing in my head rather than analysing the memories I need to absorb. There was a magic potion that could make me feel like it had fixed this hangover, but I was in no state to be brewing and there might be a deficiency of magical ingredients, over more as much as I might have thought of myself when I was younger I was no potion master not having the nose for it.
The only thing I truly excelled in was my mental magics, runic arrays and the arithmetic math behind them not the more fluid, tangentially related to disciplines where a plants chemical component are less important than the conceptual meaning attached to the plant. And much as language and culture change overtime so does the meanings attached to things, even if it's a slower process it's not any less annoying.
But now it would be really great if I had come up with some trick other than push the pain down with mental magics, because this hangover was killing me and I don't know if fat, caffeine and water can fix this, it was time to get out of bed and find a kitchen.
And then there is this chi, the way I was experiencing chi this was not the magic I was use too, discovering more of this power is something I should be look forward to, but it was only good for a distraction as I made my way to food, muscle memory might be more valuable than real memory. Could chi make up for the missing magic, could I mix them together, could I conquer the world properly. And what was with this desire to rule, I had hated it.
Where had this one come from, conquest equalled administration duties and I had very little patience for administration duties. There was a 5-year stint while leading the magical democracy of Australia just after the move, I had ruled for 5 years when setting up the magical island state, it was an experience that leads me to be a travelling blacksmith for 500 years. 5 years making half of the top 10 worst years of my life.
Usually I found that when I was younger, I was wrong, there was a bit where I thought magic was all math and logic but by its very nature it's ineffable, another thing I did was spend a century refusing to partake in anything that could influence my mental functions. It's incredible how a childhood actively shapes you in ways you don't relies, but I got over my distain, social lubricant in the form of alcohol can be a way to hear the best stories.
As nice as it is to hear about run-ins with authority's, it didn't make alcohol any less painful the morning after, it might have been a crutch for the original Ozai but I was not going to suffer like this again. You know what fuck my current enlightenment, thousands of years and billions of people, young me was right, all fermented beverages are evil and should all be thrown in a bottomless pit. A crutch is fine if you don't become reliant on it, but a crutch is not a good comparison to alcohol because you can't get hangovers from using wood to support your upper body. For if alcohol was a crutch to those that cannot get the people around them to be open, then they need to up there socialising and not need social lubrication.
It was early, the sun not yet past the horizon but still illuminating the horizon a deep red, I was making my way to the kitchens of the palace, with a staff of 500 people it was an impressive kitchen, thanks Ozai's memories. Of course my memory didn't clue me in on the fact that once I was through the soundproof doors my senses would be assaulted in the worst possible way, the cacophony of the only twenty or so people preparing breakfast. It was crazy for me to assume the kitchen would quite in hindsight but the was no noise on one side and so much on the other it made me retreat with my hands rapidly trying to block out the noise with sound proof doors.
This effort was unsuccessful, I got unnoticed, head chef Chilter stopped the doors half way closed, "hello-"
"shhhhhhhh," I whispered cutting off her greeting. "very quiet." the command was heeded Chilter stepped through closing the doors behind, and then even squatted a little, coming eye to eye with my hunched form.
"My prince how can I help?" the question was whispered and I almost asked for a hangover potion before catching myself, I was no longer in the world of harry potter and it was his world even if he had died long ago.
"Water," I answered first because I desperately needed it, and so I would have time to peruse what food options my memories allowed me.
Chilter scampered off, there was nothing that stood out overly much there was not even bacon, could I just not remember that cut of a pig, ham did exist or could they just not have it. Some lower-level cook came out with a cup of water.
I had the cook send me a fried cheese, yes you heard correct fried not grilled, why because there was no grill, this is not ok and I would need to rectify it as soon as possible. The royal dining area was extravagant a table that could seat 20 made of a fine dark wood I couldn't even see the joins. The overhead skylight is an impressive mosaic of one ancestor or another doing a great deed but my memories didn't give me more than that generalisation.
I spent some time drudging up memories long past but very secure they were all of the media from my first life. Sifting through it to gather all I knew about the world of the avatar, and amalgamate them with what I have of Ozai's to begin making a plan. Iroh came back finished his training for his 40th birthday and was promoted to Grand Lord of The United Fire Nation Forces, this made him only one place lower than fire lord in the military.
Being crown fire prince did that, but not in an official capacity, Fire lord was more of a hereditary high office than a hereditary title, it imbues the fire lord officeholder with a lot of powers over the state but it gave them responsibilities as well. Responsibilities they could fail at and then be removed.
There were another 20 years before the original story started and avatar Aang came back to save the world from the fire nation. Now I had the power to change it, what would I do, knowing about the storyline and having enjoyed it as a kid I sure as hell was not going to follow the original timeline, losing fire powers no thanks.
Uplifting with new tech would probably help me conquer, I would predict a lot of spare time would be going on for me. What could I do? They already have got steam power 'straight from Sozin', I couldn't do electricity, 500 years and I still couldn't get my head around it, three-phase electricity, voltage, current, resistance I could do the theoretical physics of it but, when it came to the practical I was more likely to electrocute myself. So, a combustion engine it is, that gives me what? Powered flight, but these didn't even have lighter than air flight, I would start with that. My not grilled, grilled cheese was here it's time to stop assimilating all of my new memories, and eat.
Assimilating all of my new memories, was not going the best there were so many differing details, for example some the fire nation vehicles in avatar do look to have combustion engines, here steam or bust. It was harder to tell fact from fiction about Sozin, was even Sozin that accomplished it all? Why did I care, it doesn't matter if it was him or not, I need to know if had happened and I could not be sure that this amalgamation of Osai's memories events reflects reality, is just good propaganda or somewhere in the middle?
As for the combustion engine, I compared what I knew of human social development rates with Avatar the Last Air-bender and The Legend of Korra. I only had one human social development rate for this period, but say the fire nation Capital in London and the City in Korra is New York then there should already be a combustion engine under development considering the industrial revolution began almost a century ago. But the industrial revolution production effects have already began to be felt for about 150 years if this is a one to one with earth but Avatar happens in 20 years that's a combustion engine at 170. 70 years, this was no help at all.
At least by assimilating I could deduce where this desire for global conquest was coming from. My brains networks gave me a vicious satisfaction at the idea of showing up Azulon by properly concurring the world. To do this I would need solid information rather than propaganda filled memories. Sozin was a top-notch propagandist, I was only aware of this dew to my royal status but I would still need to sift reality, from Sozin's narrative that has become part of the fire nation's collective perspective.
Being the top of the social structure even if it was an underdeveloped social structure did have its perks, like the not 'grilled' cheese and a bunch of servants that I would eventually figure out the purpose of. For example there is a girl that was just waiting, I thought she was waiting for me to finish the cheese and then collect the dishes. Somebody's job being to clean up my cutlery, it feels over the top, but when I finished my 'Fried' cheese, and the girl didn't take the plate, she was there to call another servant to take the plate. It seemed like a bad joke, she was there to call for another servant. As long as my assimilated memories of social norms was correct, the waiter was propositioning me. Hold on is that where that term comes from? As much as I wanted to take her up on the potential offer, I was in no state to go about it even with her stunning behind. Then there is how I was going to need to do an in-depth analysis of these norms I had to navigate.
Ozai's maternal figure of this world Uma, she isn't Ozai's mother, the actual biological mother of Ozai, Ilah. She died giving birth to him. I don't know what Ilah was thinking having a child at 40 in this world without a Water-bender to heal any complication she was asking for a tragedy, and got one. Uma was my nursemaid, turned nanny, turned 'maternal figure'. She was not very effective, her position on everything was 'listen to your father', she was not a very good counter balance to Azulon's influence in the slightest.
I drew on Ozai's memories to greet her but my natural bodily responses beat me to it with a hug, she took a seat for a second before jumping like it had scolded her. If there was anything off, I'm sure it was blamed on the hangover, Ozai had got this body very drunk on some bastardised vodka. Uma more than likely she probably had also got drunk and with her braking social convention by sitting in the royal dining room, I was not that worried if my micro mannerisms where different.
She had some authority but it was not nearly enough to get away with this stunt, she was born and bred fire nation, depending on Azulons mood she could end up on the chopping block for implying she was an equal to royalty. She knew this, it was the reason that she jumped out of the seat only moments after sitting.
"…" she opened her mouth probably to apology's or share greetings but didn't say anything, I was fine with this, I had a hangover the less noise the better. The not 'grilled' cheese was nice-ish even if the bread was too thick, I could have them use a flat piece of metal as a weight to flatten it for next time, a panini grill still counts until I can get to a forge to make a proper cheese griller. The cooks did excel with the temperature, it was a mediocre cheese but the temperature was perfect the cheese was melted but the bread was not steaming. Cooks with fire magic already showing some perks.
As I let my food digest and take the edge off the hangover I used Ozai's memories to try and map out the palace, and I was noticing the holes. There were places I knew existed like the pond because there were memories of being there, but I couldn't get there without a thorough exploration, I knew a thrown room existed but I didn't know where it was or what it looked like. But I did know places that Ozai was at consistently and the directions to them, I think that I got the memories that had the strongest neural pathways.
I was configuring a pre- exploration map, how far was my bedroom from the main hallway, when Azulon came from around the corner, the usually tall and intimidating man was bleary eyed looking older than I expected, wrinkled, he had a liver spot and was even bolding. He looked at how I felt, "father." I greeted in just above a whisper.
"Son," he acknowledged before taking the seat at the head of the table. He reached over and took a bite of my cheese, then chased it with some of my water. I was still trying to get a sense of this relationship dynamic, the show had always presented the royal family as sticklers for propriety.
But then again Iroh, was the son of this guy, so after he sent the severing girl that was making eyes at me away to get him some of his own food. I tried to start a line of banter by asking him if he should be having tea, but I was not feeling it and that's when I noticed a commiserating look on his face, for a man that has a son with so much distain for him there relationship is really strong.
We settled in to a silent piece, as I reconstructed the opinions Ozai had about his father from the memories I had access to, it was an interesting dichotomy, there was genuine affection covered with distain, I can easily believe that in two decades this distain could completely obscure the affection. The distain was due to Azulon's war failures Ozai was privy to as a member of the royal family, Azulon had caused failures that weren't from, 'no plan survives contact with the enemy', these failures where I'm going to be a fucking idiot and then not learn from my mistakes. I was feeling this distain, his incompetence is arguably the reason the world is not united behind the fire benders. And the conquest objective deep in these bones to spite Azulon was making a ton of sense.
Objectively I would want to have sympathy, Azulon took over the army at twenty and had no idea what the fuck he was doing, his strategy could be summed up as 'never stop attacking', even at a disadvantage ATTACK, it was the only thing to do. All of the factories that we're focused on making new factories were changed to war supply's stalling the exponential industrial growth that had been such an integral part of Sozins long term goals.
This ATTACK strategy worked momentarily, the northwestern conquest was delivering food, finished military supplies, weapons and armour, he took a great swath of the eastern earth kingdom territory the lands south of Ba Sing Se, the was no water nation navy to contend with.
It was a great victory, then he neglected to get nobles or raise wealthy traders that would treat the earth kingdom citizens well, there was a marked difference between these fire masters and earth masters and not a good one. This was compounded by being closer to the capital, the people generally were more loyal to the kingdom, the earth kingdom fighters began to use guerrilla tactics rather successfully.
This time the people in the 'conquered' area began helping the fighters use guerrilla tactics against Azulon, soon enough the rapid offensive petered out with all the troops brought back to keep the peace and the swath of territory 'conquered was slowly took back, village by village'.
Skirmish after Skirmish and Battle after Battle was lost, to be attacked from a dozen Earth-benders behind their lines using their powers to fling boulders, they were artillery, the worst was Azulon didn't even learn from his mistakes.
The earth kingdom offensive did retake the land Azulon had taken but was not able to get past the competent leaders Sozin put in place. These commanders could tell Azulon they could not sustain major losses and stalled any offences ordered, thus a stalemate ensued, in the earth kingdom.
The southern water tribe eventual fell with Azulon's constant onslaught. I understood he was being petty the southern water tribe was the weaker one without a capitol, so Azulon uses all new forces to ware down the tribe and stopping the earth kingdom Generals from getting the manpower they needed to fill up the fallen gaps in there ranks.
Azulon started to get what he wanted the commanders from Sozin's time started to die off and with southern water tribe 'pacified', Azulon focused back on to the earth kingdom, he specifically focused on the areas where these commanders were dying of old age.
If nothing else about these military men's competence is remembered they died of old age during a war should be used to note their impressiveness.
Azulon came from the south with the majority of the experienced forces from the southern water tribe and began another grand offensive. He learnt nothing from the last grand offensive he smashed all the armies threatening his hold over the western earth kingdom, there remanence becoming the seeds for more guerrilla fighting and now without to Sozin's Generals to stop him he turned the somewhat loyal earth kingdom citizens against the fire nation and began to lose some of the western earth kingdoms.
It was only when he was finally pushed back to the coast of the west and northwestern earth kingdom, losing territory this his father had conquered he had an epiphany or was threatened with removal from his position to be replaced by a much more pliable 20-year-old Iroh. So he made one of the few Sozin commanders still alive as his right hand and main advisor for the war and current leader of the earth kingdom areas, and the other as the commander for Iroh to learn under.
Azulon's ignorance of logistics, a refusal for national improvement and basic big picture war strategy had made this man, the father for this body I inhabit, responsible for the needless death of about a sixth of the army twice. They were mostly grunts, but considering the army makes up about 17% of the 14 million population of the fire nation, he had killed half a million of the nation's loyal people two times. Original Ozai was right to try and strip Azulon and his image of failure from the public consciousness, and the great line of the fire lords. If this was accurate.
It's the story of a man who wanted to live up to his father but couldn't, so he was petty, spiteful and willing to gamble whatever it takes to get a taste of what it would have been to be Sozin. It's not a man who chose to be petty and spiteful because he liked how it felt and was willing to gamble it all cause, YOLO.
For all of the good propaganda that Sozin created, it seemed like Azulon had bad, no one should have been able to be responsible for the death of a million people without losing their position even the fire lord. Azulon couldn't be completely ignorant of logistics if part of the knowledge I have of the first grand offensive is waiting for food, supplies, arms and armour.
Frowning over this I noted Azulon didn't comment.
A.N.
Ten chapters
Ten days
Ten months of writing, well and life but that's not important.