The Water Tribe



The Water Tribe
The Water Tribe is a collective term for the nation of people who practice the art of waterbending. It is one of the original four nations and its citizens primarily inhabit the northern and southernmost regions of the globe, near both poles. Many people of Water Tribe ethnicity also live in the United Republic and there is a small community of waterbenders that populate the Foggy Swamp in the Earth Kingdom, although they were isolated from their sister tribes for generations and others were largely unaware of their existence until they were stumbled upon by Avatar Aang, Katara, and Sokka.

Although in the past there was significant exchange between the North and South, contact between the two tribes was interrupted due to the chaos of the war. Though communication resumed afterward, tensions remained between the tribes, and worsened after Unalaq's attempts to reimpose Northern control over the mostly autonomous south via a military occupation, which threw the Water Tribe into a brief civil war. However, after the events of Harmonic Convergence and Unalaq's subsequent defeat, the Northern troops withdrew and the Southern Water Tribe gained complete independence from the North, with Tonraq chosen as its new chief.

The Water Tribe is less powerful than both the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation, due to its geographical location and the small size of its population and economy. The economy is dependent on the ocean, given the country's location and lack of arable land, apparent manufacturing capacity or minable resources.

The Water Tribe joined a global conflict known as the Hundred Year War against the Fire Nation during the life of Avatar Aang. The Southern Tribe was driven to the brink of extinction through a series of devastating raids, and the Northern Tribe proved unable to provide any resources for the War beyond its borders. With the War's conclusion, a reconstruction effort began for the Southern Tribe, consequently restoring contact between the two tribes.

Seventy years after the end of the Hundred Year War, the Water Tribe gained significant influence in world affairs, with two representatives on the United Republic Council, one for the Southern Tribe and another for the Northern Tribe. The latter's last representative, Tarrlok, was the council's chairman before his secret past was revealed in 170 AG. The Water Tribe lost its hand in the United Republic's government when the council was disbanded following the Anti-bending Revolution.

The Nothern Water Tribe
The Northern Water Tribe is an independent state located within the realms of the North Pole, ruled by a hereditary monarchic chiefdom. As the oldest division of the three Water Tribes, the Northern Water Tribe dominated both the North Pole as well as the South Pole for centuries. Its capital city, notable for being made almost entirely out of ice, is referred to by the same name. Even though much of its territory encompasses largely inhospitable tundra terrain, the Northern Water Tribe always thrived in its isolation, and grew into a major political and economical power after the Hundred Year War.[4] Unlike its counterpart, the Southern Water Tribe, the North never succumbed to foreign invasions like the massive Siege of the North by the Fire Nation.

The people of the Northern Water Tribe are traditionally conservative and very spiritual, but still open to change and reform. The Northern waterbending style is the most widespread form, practiced by waterbenders at both poles and in the United Republic of Nations, as raids on the Southern Water Tribe led to the southern style becoming nearly extinct during the Hundred Year War.

Culture & Education
Women become marriageable at the age of sixteen. Some marriages are arranged, with the bride in particular having no say in the matter. Engaged women wear "betrothal necklaces", navy blue chokers bearing blue stone pendants carved by their husband-to-be. Until after the Hundred Year War, it was forbidden by custom for female waterbenders to learn waterbending for fighting purposes. Instead, they were trained as healers, able to use bending to heal wounds and at least some illnesses and mental disturbances.

While the Southern Water Tribe seemed to have similar traditional roles, they were apparently much more strict in the North, as Katara, who was raised in the South, expressed surprise and anger when she was initially denied equal treatment in waterbending training. As a result, it can be concluded that female waterbenders are allowed to learn waterbending for fighting purposes in the Southern Water Tribe. Kanna, Katara's paternal grandmother, Hakoda, Katara's father and Bato, a Southern Tribe male and a friend of Katara's father, also showed no signs of disapproval when observing Katara's waterbending skills; Southern female waterbenders once used their bending to attack Fire Nation soldiers.

Like the Fire Nation, Northern schools include subjects such as history, strategy, reading, writing, music, waterbending, and others. This is apprent due to the fact that the population has shown to know quite a lot about these subjects. The city also boasts numerous medical schools and science institutions that teach young female waterbenders to hone their healing abilities and medical skills. Northern schools and institutions teach other subjects, like geography; this is apparent from the fact that they can read maps.

History
The Divide

Long before the Hundred Year War, the predecessors of the Water Tribe relocated to the North Pole from the tropical regions they originally inhabited. There, they formed several independent tribes. Eventually, a group of waterbenders united to build the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe in an attempt to bring all the tribes of the North Pole together. The waterbenders used their icy environment to create the various temples, villages, and canals that comprise the city. After a time of civil unrest, this newfound unity declined, and a group of secessionists journeyed to the South Pole to engender a new tribe. Despite these initial difficulties, the relations between the Northern Water Tribe and the secessionist Southern Water Tribe improved over time. The South reaccepted the authority of the Northern chiefs as long as it was granted autonomy and a Council of Elders to govern itself. To strengthen the tribal ties and political harmony, the Northern ruling family began to take Southerners as their spouses. Additionally, the New Moon Celebration was established in order to reunite the two Water Tribes. This status quo was maintained until the outbreak of the Hundred Year War centuries later.

Around 345 BG, Avatar Kuruk was born into the Northern Water Tribe.When Kuruk wanted to marry Ummi at the Spirit Oasis, Koh the Face Stealer lured her into the Spirit World to punish Kuruk for neglecting his Avatar duties. Over 250 years later, Roku learned waterbending at the Northern Water Tribe during his Avatar journey.

The Hundred Year War

Prior to the Hundred Year War, the Northern Water Tribe was an open port city that was accessible to any visitors. However, when the Fire Nation declared war on the Water Tribes, a thick wall of ice was erected at the mouth of the city as a means to keep the Fire Nation out of the Northern Water Tribe. When the War began, the Northern Water Tribe became increasingly isolated, cutting off most of its contact with the outside world and eventually losing touch with the Southern Water Tribe, leaving the battered tribe to fend on its own.

While the Northern Water Tribe did fall under attack from the Fire Nation, the attacks did not succeed as they did against the Southern Water Tribe. After a while, the attacks ceased entirely. The last time Northern warriors recovered Fire Nation uniforms was eighty-five years before Team Avatar's arrival, and Chief Arnook referred to an impending attack as the day feared for a very long time.

Fire Nation siege Northern Tribe

The Fire Nation besieged the city during the final stages of the Hundred Year War.

In the Siege of the North, the Northern Water Tribe was nearly destroyed when Admiral Zhao led a massive naval assault on the capital city in an attempt to destroy the Water Tribes and kill the Moon Spirit, Tui, in an attempt to eradicate waterbending. The tribe was saved when Avatar Aang, merged with the Ocean Spirit La, destroyed the Fire Navy fleet and when Princess Yue gave up her life to revive Tui, thus becoming Tui's successor.

The Southern Water Tribe
The Southern Water Tribe is an independent state at the South Pole and the southern division of the Water Tribes. A federation of several smaller tribes, the South is ruled by a Council of Elders, who also elect the tribe's chief. The Southern Water Tribe achieved its independence only after the Water Tribe Civil War in 171 AG; before, the tribe had been an autonomous tribal confederation under the Northern Water Tribe's jurisdiction. The South is a major economical power, with its people mostly living in its coastal capital and several villages nearby. The people of the Southern Water Tribe are modern, progressive, and focused on commerce and trade, but lack in spirituality.

The Southern Water Tribe had an eventful history and saw times of prosperity and freedom as well as decline and genocide. Before the Hundred Year War, the South was thriving and had a unique culture and waterbending style. After a series of brutal Fire Nation raids, however, the South Pole was left devastated and almost without any waterbenders. By 99 AG, the Southern Water Tribe was on the brink of extinction, with its culture shattered, its main city largely abandoned, and its unique waterbending style effectively erased. This changed when Katara and Sokka discovered Avatar Aang in 99 AG and began to travel together with him in order to end the war and save the world.

After this group's involvement in the Siege of the North, the Northern Water Tribe administrated a relief effort led by Master Pakku, who brought along a number of warriors, waterbenders, and healers to aid in the Southern tribe's redevelopment. This mission proved to be successful, resulting in political rapprochement between the two tribes. Nevertheless, after the North began to undermine the South's traditional autonomy, resentment grew among Southern tribesmen that eventually escalated into a civil war that Avatar Korra ended with the South's independence.

History
Founded In Ice

Originally, the Water Tribe existed as one nation, solely based in the North Pole. However, following civil unrest, a large group of warriors, waterbenders, and healers journeyed to the South Pole to engender a new tribal confederation of several autonomous chiefdoms. The Southern Tribesmen eventually agreed to reaccept the Northern chief as their ruler, as long they were granted autonomy and their own government for internal affairs. As such, the chiefdoms of the South were governed by a supreme Council of Elders that in turn answered to the Chief of the Water Tribes. Over time, Southerners married into the ruling family of the North, strengthening the tribal ties.

Despite this political rapprochement, the enormous geographical distance between the two sects caused them to evolve differently. Even though their cultures were still similar—as they maintained common customs and celebrations until 40 AG—the people of the North and South developed completely differently in regard of society and politics. The Southern Water Tribe was far less hierarchical than the North, enjoying a high degree of gender equality. The Southern tribesmen eventually built a massive inland city as their political and cultural center and the tribe began to prosper, even though it never reached the size and importance of the North. During these years, a tradition of celebrating the Glacier Spirits Festival began, during which the people would fast and meditate, and the tribal elders would commune with the spirits as they danced in the sky to create the southern lights; it ended on the day of the winter solstice.

The Southern tribesmen also began to travel around the world. One group of Southern waterbenders discovered the Foggy Swamp in the Earth Kingdom thousands of years before the Hundred Year War. They decided to stay because of the abundant amounts of water there, engendering the Foggy Swamp Tribe in the process. However, as the Foggy Swamp tribesmen maintained isolation, the people of the South Pole never learned of these events. By the beginning of the Great War, the Southern Water Tribe had grown into a strong nation, with its capital filled with hundreds and hundreds of capable waterbenders of both men and women.

Raids on the South

With the outbreak of the Hundred Year War, the Southern Water Tribe took up arms against the Fire Nation, though the tribe itself remained rather unscathed until around 40 AG. By then, Fire Lord Azulon began to perceive the South as a threat for his expansion and ordered his navy to annihilate the tribe's military strength. Consequently, the Fire Navy employed raiding forces of firebenders and cruisers in order to capture or kill as many Southern waterbenders as they could. By doing so, the Fire Nation hoped to destroy all resistance in the South. Despite being outnumbered, the waterbenders and nonbending warriors were able to defend themselves against the raids through fierce resistance, boasting minor victories such as successfully trapping a Fire Nation ship which eventually developed into the shipwreck. However, their determination was not enough and a systematic set of attacks eventually left Hama as the only waterbender left, prior to her eventual surrender. Following the widespread destruction and loss of life that the raids had caused, tribal unity declined and the capital city was largely abandoned. The small chiefdoms and tribes that formed the Southern confederation divided and scattered throughout the South Pole and all contact to the Northern Water Tribe was lost.

Even though the South was virtually defeated, the raids continued by the Southern Raiders, who attacked the minor tribe of Chieftain Hakoda in 94 AG; they had been informed that one waterbender remained in the Southern Water Tribe and were subsequently assigned to eliminate that person. Knowing that the remaining waterbender was her eight-year-old daughter, Katara, Kya gave her life by confessing to Captain Yon Rha that she was the person they were after. Her death provided the Fire Nation with the impression that the Southern waterbending lineage had been completely eradicated, which left Katara as the sole survivor.

Southern Water Tribe village

By 99 AG, the Southern Water Tribe's unity was broken, its people spread over a collection of small villages.

In the final years of the Hundred Year War, the Southern Water Tribe was in dire straits and teetering on the brink of extinction. As its population struggled to survive, many old traditions to appease the spirits were abandoned or forgotten, rendering the land spiritually unbalanced as well. As a result, angry spirits turned dark and formed the Everstorm.

Many remaining male warriors left their chiefdoms for the Earth Kingdom to aid them against the Fire Nation, leaving the population of the tribe to be consisted mostly of elderly, middle-aged women, mothers, and very young children.

In 99 AG, Katara and Sokka discovered Avatar Aang, which resulted in Fire Prince Zuko raiding their village and capturing Aang. Sokka and Katara subsequently left the village as well in an attempt to save the Avatar and began to travel together with him to end the war. After the Siege of the North, a group of waterbenders and healers from the Northern Water Tribe were sent to the South to help rebuild it, one of whom was the waterbending master Pakku.

The Reunification
In the aftermath of the Fire Nation's siege of the North Pole, select benders and healers from the Northern Tribe left for the South Pole in an effort to rebuild their ravaged sister tribe. They succeeded, and eventually, the North restored its rule over the Southern Water Tribe, even though the South maintained its autonomy under the jurisdiction of the Northern chief. At the same time, the Northern capital city began to grow significantly, becoming a large metropolis in the process. The tribe went through a social reform as well, as women were no longer restricted by law. After the foundation of the United Republic, the Northern Water Tribe was given a seat on the United Republic Council. Many Northerners migrated into the republic in course of the following years, becoming a significant minority in Republic City.

After undergoing a surgery to alter his physical appearance, Republic City's most notorious crime boss, Yakone, made his way to the Northern Water Tribe to start life anew. There, he married a woman and had two children, Noatak and Tarrlok. After Yakone forced his children to bloodbend each other, Noatak ran away. Yakone and Tarrlok assumed that Noatak had perished in the ice. However, Noatak survived and made his way to Republic City, where he assumed the alias of "Amon", and started the Anti-bending Revolution in an attempt to rid the world of bending.

Northern capital city under attack

The large metropolis came under attack by barbarians in 151 AG.

By 151 AG, the tribe came under attack by a horde of barbarians. Tonraq, general of the troops at the time, defended the city and expelled the invaders. However, by destroying a sacred spirit forest in his quest to apprehend the Barbarians, he brought the wrath of the spirits in the city, and the entities laid waste on the capital city. The metropolis was saved by his brother, Unalaq, though Tonraq was banished by their father, chief at that time. As a result, Unalaq took over his older brother's birthright, and became chief after their father.[4] In 158 AG, Chief Unalaq and Fire Lord Zuko collaborated to build a secret maximum security prison in the western tundra of the North Pole to hold the criminal P'Li.

Over time, the Southern Water Tribe became prosperous, with its economy growing remarkably. As its suzerain, the Northern Water Tribe urged the South to share its wealth, referring to the North's support after the war. The Southern tribesmen yielded, but these taxes remained unpopular, and resentment began to grow. By the time Unalaq ascended to the throne, many Southerners questioned the Northern authority.

In 170 AG, Tarrlok served as the Northern Water Tribe's representative in the United Republic Council, and was crucially involved in the Anti-bending Revolution. Later, he revealed Amon's history in the Northern Water Tribe to Avatar Korra and Mako. Following Tarrlok's death, and the dissolution of the United Republic Council, the North lost its direct influence in the republic.

Even though the initial Northern relief expedition aided the Southern Water Tribe greatly in the slow process of rebuilding, the living conditions and economic situation of the South remained dire, forcing several Southerners to seek work abroad. Over time, the North restored its rule over the Southern Water Tribe and sent many more waterbenders and resources to aid its sister tribe. Eventually, the South grew prosperous again, prompting the North to demand taxes in return for their help.

Southern Water Tribe harbor city

The Southern Water Tribe returned to former glory.

With the South's economic and social resurgence, its tribal unity was also restored and the old Council of Elders resumed their rule over the South Pole, maintaining the tribe's autonomy under jurisdiction of the Northern chief. Following the creation of the United Republic, the South was given a seat on the United Republic Council, charging one of its residents with helping to oversee the sovereign state. Some of the Southern Tribe's citizens also emigrated to the United Republic over the years, where a cultural center was built for them in the capital itself.

In 153 AG, the next Avatar in the cycle, Korra, was born in the Southern Water Tribe. A large compound was built for her to train under the Order of the White Lotus in waterbending, earthbending, and firebending. By this time, the tribe's villages had grown into cities and the formerly uninhabited tundra became colonized. With its growing economic power, the Southern tribesmen became more independent and discontent with the North's rule and its taxes. Support for independence became widespread and the Northern chief was seen as little more than a figurehead, as opposed to the Council of Elders and the local chieftains, who were more readily accepted as rightful rulers of the Southern Water Tribe. In 170 AG, Avatar Korra left the compound and the Southern Water Tribe to help the world.