The Earth Kingdom



The Earth Kingdom
The Earth Kingdom is one of the world's four nations. Spanning an entire continent as well as several subsidiary islands, it is the largest and most populated sovereignty in the world and encompasses much of the eastern hemisphere. The kingdom is ruled by a monarchy which operates under the rule of a king or queen. The last earth monarch was the 54th Earth King, Wu, of the Hou-Ting Dynasty, who desired to abdicate the throne in 174 AG in favor of splitting the nation into independent states with democratically elected leaders, akin to the political system used in the United Republic of Nations. The people of the Earth Kingdom are proud and strong and adhere to a philosophy of peaceful coexistence and cooperation with the other nations of the world. Earthbenders use their abilities for defense and industry and fiercely defended their cities against Fire Nation attacks during the Hundred Year War. It also has a large economy based on agriculture and limited industry, though it is not as economically powerful as the Fire Nation, which benefits from advanced technology.

The Earth Kingdom is characterized by significant ethnic and cultural diversity, a consequence of the country's vast territorial expanse. As a result, it suffers from high levels of local autonomy and ethnic conflict, both of which began accelerating as the central government grew weak. Despite this division, the people's recognition of the Earth Kingdom as a single political entity is largely strengthened through the communal belief in a shared history and identity.

The Earth Kingdom long withstood encroachments on their borders in the Fire Nation's century-long imperialist war. Other than the Avatar, the Earth Kingdom was the only real obstacle that hindered the Fire Nation from achieving world domination. Though the Water Tribe aided the Earth Kingdom in the War, the conflict progressed poorly and took a heavy toll on them as the years passed. This continued until the Coup of Ba Sing Se, when Princess Azula of the Fire Nation seized control of the Earth Kingdom capital city, Ba Sing Se. By the following summer, the metropolis was occupied by the Fire Nation military, and although it had previously been asserted that the fall of Ba Sing Se would lead to the disintegration of any remaining Earth Kingdom forces, rebel fighters continued to resist foreign rule. This warranted Fire Lord Ozai's decision of burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground upon the arrival of Sozin's Comet.

By the end of summer 100 AG, Ba Sing Se was liberated from Fire Nation control by the Order of the White Lotus, ending the Fire Nation occupation of the city. This, in combination with the decisive defeat of Phoenix King Ozai, effectively liberated the remaining Fire Nation-controlled regions of the Earth Kingdom. After the end of the Hundred Year War, numerous Fire Nation colonies throughout the western Earth Kingdom were transformed into the United Republic of Nations, a fifth nation founded by Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko.

Seventy years after the conclusion of the Hundred Year War, the Earth Kingdom continued to be influential in world affairs with a representative on the United Republic Council until the council was dissolved in 171 AG. At some point before 171 AG, Earth King Kuei was succeeded by his daughter, Earth Queen Hou-Ting. During her reign, roaming bands of barbarians destabilized the provinces, preventing the central government from efficiently raising revenues for the state coffers. Nevertheless, the prosperity of the Middle and Upper Rings of Ba Sing Se continued unabated, with the Dai Li maintaining tight control over the city as it had for centuries.

When the Red Lotus staged an insurrection and killed the Earth Queen, the Earth Kingdom capital was thrown into chaos and anarchy. This upheaval quickly spread to the rest of the nation, causing the Earth Kingdom to fall into disarray[16] with bandits roaming the lands and threatening states.

By 174 AG, the Earth Kingdom, through the efforts of Kuvira and her army, was stabilized enough to restore the monarchy. At the coronation of Prince Wu, Kuvira was supposed to relinquish her power to the reinstated crown. She refused, however, denouncing the king's authority and declaring the archaic Earth Kingdom abolished in favor of an "Earth Empire" under her leadership. After Kuvira's defeat following the conclusion of her attack on Republic City, King Wu decided to abolish the monarchy in favor of democratically elected leaders in each separate state, an idea for which he received the support of Avatar Korra.

History
Origin Earth lion turtle

In the era of Raava, most of the later Earth Kingdom was part of the Spirit Wilds, and its people were forced to survive the wrath of spirits and the untamed nature. The predecessors of the Earth Kingdom found several ways to survive these hardships: Some retreated into cities built atop lion turtles. They received the element of earth from these sentient beings that granted the bending art through energybending. The humans could request the ability whenever they ventured into the Spirit Wilds, to aid in the gathering of food and resources. Others chose a nomadic lifestyle, traveling the wilds and staying at one place only as long as they could. One particular tribe of nomads, however, was able to built a permanent city under the guardianship of the spirit Lady Tienhai in what would become the western Earth Kingdom. Several aspects of life and observances practiced by the predecessors of the first citizens of the Earth Kingdom later became part of the nation's shared culture, notably in the creation of fortified strongholds constructed out of earth, akin to the structures seen in lion turtle cities populated by early Earth Kingdom citizens.

Warring states period 

Wan's last battle

Since Avatar Wan's time, the states of the later Earth Kingdom were constantly at war, struggling for supremacy.

After Avatar Wan closed the spirit portals and most spirits left the mortal world, the lion turtles renounced their roles as protectors of mankind. At this point, the predecessors of the Earth Kingdom left the lion turtle cities in favor of establishing settlements throughout the mainland, while most of the nomads settled down. Soon after, the ancestors of the first Earth Kingdom citizens began to wage wars, inventing the large earth coins as primary weapons for their earthbender warriors to use. Avatar Wan died after intervening in a battle of Earth Kingdom predecessors. Unlike the other nations, where one culture eventually prevailed, the later Earth Kingdom was so large and diverse that several cultures and ethnicities emerged and survived to fight for independence and dominance. In the northeast, earthbenders carved a small subterranean settlement out of rocks. Mining and trading beautiful illuminated crystal, the agglomeration began to grow into a city until it reached the surface. Soon after, the catacombs were abandoned and the new metropolis on the surface became the mighty city state of Ba Sing Se. In the west, the two earthbenders in love, Oma and Shu, learned the earthbending techniques from the badgermoles, becoming exceptionally powerful benders. The villages the two were from were at war, however, and eventually Shu was killed in battle. Heartbroken, Oma used her abilities to ensure peace and force the villages to unite. The city they built was named Omashu, and became a powerful city state in its own right. The city of Lady Tienhai prospered and continued to grow as well.[18] In the south, some earthbending nomads made the Si Wong Desert their home, learning to sandbend and finally forming the Sandbender Tribes. They were predated by the beetle-headed merchants, who had lived in the desert since ancient times, and continued to roam it for coming centuries.

Rise of the Earth Kingdom

Over time, the kings of Ba Sing Se became increasingly powerful and began to unite and subjugate the numerous kingdoms and peoples of the later Earth Kingdom. They left some kings and nobles in power, however, as long as they submitted to Ba Sing Se. Eventually, one king of Ba Sing Se ended the unification wars in victory and crowned himself the first Earth King, not to leave his capital city until his death. Despite Ba Sing Se's victory, the earth monarchs were unable to establish a centralist or authoritarian regime due to the kingdom's sheer size. As result, the Earth Kingdom became a confederate monarchy, divided into several semi-autonomous provinces.

Some successive Earth Kings distinguished themselves as brilliant and far-sighted rulers, such as Yi Ming who constructed the Ba Sing Se monorail. In Avatar Yangchen's time, the Earth Kingdom flourished. The city of Lady Tienhai had grown into the grandest city of its time, but the metropolis was struck with disaster when its king caused the guardian spirit's death.

Civil War

The 46th Earth King, however, decided that the vassal rulers and provinces around the kingdom had too much power. Strong-willed and imperious, he intended to change the Earth Kingdom into an absolute monarchy with himself as supreme monarch. This aroused his subjects' anger, and eventually one warlord from the northwest named Chin took up arms to seize power from the unpopular king. His revolt quickly escalated into an open civil war, while the Earth King proved incapable of stopping him. Chin's armies conquered the whole kingdom, including mighty cities such as Omashu, until only Ba Sing Se and the home peninsular of Avatar Kyoshi remained free. Chin attempted to force Kyoshi into submission as well, but this led to his death and the creation of Kyoshi Island. Without his leadership, the revolt was suppressed and the Earth King resumed his rule over the whole kingdom. Nevertheless, his inability to deal with Chin's rebellion had repercussions. The peasants of Ba Sing Se, believing the monarchy to be an outdated regime only oppressing them, rose up in defiance. The Peasant Uprising in Ba Sing Se threw the capital into chaos, and only when Kyoshi forced the 46th Earth King to accept a new constitution that limited his power while empowering the common people, the peasants dispersed. In return for the king's reluctant cooperation, Kyoshi created the Dai Li as secret police of Ba Sing Se. These elite earthbenders were intended to defend the Earth Kings' interests by suppressing and imprisoning subversive individuals and groups.

Conspiracy & Fall

In 79 AG, the 51st Earth King died, leaving only his four-year-old son to succeed him. The ambitious Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se Long Feng recognized his chance to seize power over the kingdom, and made child-king Kuei his puppet. Using the Dai Li, Long Feng suppressed knowledge about the war in order to maintain social order and a stable economy. However, outside the safety of the walls and away from the watchful Dai Li, disorder in the midst of the war was pervasive; in some areas, various officials and soldiers sometimes abused their power by bullying and extorting the local population. In other areas, citizens were largely left to fend for themselves.

The war, meanwhile, went increasingly bad for the Earth Kingdom. The Fire Nation advanced east and south, subjugating the west, the shoreline of the West Lake and much of the south. In 94 AG, the Fire Nation Army under Crown Prince Iroh reached the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se, and began the six hundred-day Siege of Ba Sing Se. Even though the Crown Prince's troops breached the Outer Wall, they retreated after the commander's son Lu Ten was killed in action. Nevertheless, the siege was a disaster for the Earth Kingdom, as it had not only lost large quantities of resources and manpower, but also received a crushing blow to its population's morale after Ba Sing Se was proven not to be impenetrable.

The Earth Kingdom finally fell five years later, after a time of hard fighting that saw the loss of Omashu, the last stronghold in the west. After Avatar Aang had forcefully ended the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se, Earth King Kuei's power was briefly restored and Long Feng imprisoned. Despite this, the Dai Li remained loyal to Long Feng, as the secret police feared that the king would deprive it of its power. At the same time, the Fire Nation Crown Princess Azula and her team infiltrated the capital. Long Feng and Azula began to cooperate to end Kuei's reign and the Avatar's life, culminating in the Coup of Ba Sing Se. Azula and the Dai Li forced the king into exile, only to betray Long Feng and claim the city in the name of the Fire Nation. The Dai Li's betrayal thus led to the fall of Ba Sing Se, and with it, the Earth Kingdom.



The Rebellion!

The Fire Nation military used this opportunity to invade the remaining Earth Kingdom, but despite the fall of the central government, Earth Kingdom citizens continued to resist. Rebellions began to spread, while remnants of the Earth Kingdom military remained a threat to Fire Nation rule. The Fire Nation was unable to suppress the revolts, and on the Day of Black Sun the rebels managed to liberate several cities such as Omashu. Soon after, Avatar Aang defeated Fire Lord Ozai, ending the Hundred Year War with the victory of the Earth Kingdom.[11] Kuei returned to the throne, and the Earth Kingdom government was reformed with the Earth King regaining the power his predecessors had lost.

Together with the Avatar and Fire Lord Zuko, Kuei started the Harmony Restoration Movement to remove the Fire Nation colonies from Earth Kingdom soil and resume peaceful cooperation between the different nations. The announcement of the Harmony Restoration Movement triggered a great celebration in Ba Sing Se. Initially, the decolonization was successful and without incidents, but after one year the oldest colonies were to be disbanded. As these cities were over one hundred years old, their population was by then ethnically mixed and deeply rooted in the country. As result, there were political complications that threatened to restart the Great War when Kuei attempted to forcefully remove the colonies, believing the lands to be rightfully part of the Earth Kingdom. Only when Avatar Aang intervened the conflict was resolved by granting the colonies complete autonomy. Eventually, the colonies were transformed into the United Republic of Nations, and the Earth King agreed to cede large parts of the northwestern kingdom to the new sovereign country. Fomented by increasing social conflicts under Earth Queen Hou-Ting's authoritarian regime, the Red Lotus' assassination of the Earth Queen in 171 AG sparked an open revolt of Ba Sing Se's lower class citizens. As a result, the central government collapsed, with violent unrest soon spreading throughout the whole kingdom. Many loyalists to the monarchy went into hiding and almost all royal artifacts were lost in the looting that pursued, with a single earring being one of the few remaining items. Despite international efforts, the anarchy led to the complete fragmentation of the kingdom into independent states, while massive, well-equipped bandit groups began to terrorize the people.

Culture & Education
From the enforced culture of Ba Sing Se, to the initially isolationist inhabitants of Kyoshi Island,[49] the culture of the Earth Kingdom is far less defined than those of the other nations, a result of its immense size and diversity. Due to their manipulation of earth, which Iroh refers to as the "element of substance", earthbenders are virtually immovable, as reflected in the personality of the Earth Kingdom's citizens.

Earth Kingdom architecture varies by province. Like the other nations, it is based on its elemental color, in this case, green. The majority of the buildings are made of stone, wood, and plaster; these may be used in conjunction with one another or separately, depending on the available resources. Most buildings have sloping roofs covered with dark gray or green tiles; yellow tiles denote wealth and are used by aristocrats in Ba Sing Se. The Earth Kingdom insignia is often put on important buildings and fortresses as a symbol of the government. Roads vary considerably – in the country, they are usually made of well-worn dirt, while cities have well-made flagstone streets.

The population of the Earth Kingdom is among small villages, larger towns, and the capital city of Ba Sing Se, which contains a significant portion of its citizens. Tiny villages of ten or so inhabitants dot the landscape; larger towns, such as Chin Village and Gaoling, are found more infrequently. Because of Fire Nation assaults, many of the once great cities of the Earth Kingdom were either destroyed, as was Taku, or taken over, as was Omashu. Smaller towns are usually forced into slave labor by the Fire Nation, to mine coal and ores to build and fuel their warships.

After the Hundred Year War, several people from the Fire Nation and Water Tribes made their home in the Earth Kingdom.

The Earth Kingdom has one of the poorest reputations for acceptance of same-sex relationships out of the world's nations; despite having been the home to powerful and influential citizens such as Avatar Kyoshi, who was known to have engaged in relationships with both men and women. The Kingdom struggles to accept same-sex relationships in everyday life and has historically been militaristically repressive toward people who engage in relationships with people of the same gender.