A creative project dedicated to the journey of the second earthbender of Korra’s new cycle, Leaf, and the family he builds in a post-apocalyptic 1980s aesthetic setting. Currently a fan novel to be hosted on Ao3 with concept art and mini comics. Features sociopolitical issues mirroring the real world, LGBTQA+ representation, and deeper worldbuilding without appropriation. Directed and written by an LGBT team of 5, led by a fellow Chinese diaspora author. This project is not monetized nor affiliated with Bryan and Mike or Avatar Studios. Likes and follows from @umbraphage (@yueqqi’s main)
[Image ID: A header image with a low opacity painted background of the Fire Nation at sunset and text that reads “So, what is Avatar: From the Ashes?” //End ID]
Hey everyone! @yueqqi here, but I respond to anything including “dumbass (friendly).” 💙 From the Ashes has been a project I’ve been working on over the course of the last 8 months, first incepted in late May 2020 as a small Dungeons & Dragons campaign between friends. After the campaign ended with the first arc, I was inspired by the awesome fancomic work by @legendofgenji, @avatarhanami, and @niikocomic (please check them out if you haven’t already!) to realize all of mine and my friend’s (massive shout out to Magpie and Josh) worldbuilding and plot building into this project starting late fall of 2020. It might not be a fully fledged comic since we’re new with only a small team of worldbuilders/writers and 1 main writer/artist, but for now we will focus on sharing our story in the form of fic writing and concept art.
This is a fun project done on our own time, first and foremost. It is also an important project, for me anyways, to build on what Avatar could be, written by POC for POC, written by LGBT for LGBT, and to be shared with people who want to learn more about our communities and support us. The story’s narrative is supposed to expand on Chinese and other Eastern cultures and address serious topics that mirror our real world problems. As a Chinese diaspora author from a family who immigrated from post-war Vietnam, those topics are what I hold with importance and I hope to be able to share it with you. I love interacting, so the askbox is officially open! ☺️
What is your story?
From the Ashes, also titled Tian Hui Yuan (天灰園, meaning “garden that grows from the sky’s ashes”), is set during the time of the second earthbending Avatar of Korra’s cycle in a world ravaged by the Great War—which, wasn’t as “great” as it says on the tin until the end of the 36 years of battles with long intermittent periods of silence, when it devolved into an all-out nuclear war between the democratic Earth Republic and the Fire Nation. Who instigated the war? If you live in the modern Earth Federation, history lessons at mandatory school left it pretty fuzzy until recent years but everywhere else, including the remaining Southern Air Temple and the Northern and Southern Water Tribes, agree that it was President Qin Namyao of the Earth Republic who first developed nuclear technology for non-peaceful purposes and his successors that dropped the first bomb, the effects rippling even today in 539 AG, the rough equivalent to the 1980s era.
The three-month-long catastrophe led to tragic losses not only in the initial blast and ensuing fallout, but the generations of famine it triggered after the decade-long nuclear winter. With the first airbending Avatar’s help, society managed to rebuild itself within a century, though still long ways away from returning to how things used to be in peace times in between turf wars and fighting over resources. With the rise of Avatar Niraq, the second waterbender, the period of warring factions was put to an end—at the great cost of destroying autonomy and bringing down the working middle class in the act of rebellion against the upper class with the creation of the (now Old) Order to unite all the nations and their factions under a single banner.
After Avatar Niraq’s assassination and the New Order taking over and returning control to world leaders, 18 years later the new Avatar is (still) missing and the original plan to take the Avatar young to prevent another tragedy becomes more loose as tensions rise and the New Order has to reconsider their game plan on how to handle the Avatar—including arrest at best, or making them “disappear” at worst.
As for our new Avatar? He has no idea what’s coming, nor that he’s even the Avatar.
FtA focuses on Leaf’s story years after all hell broke loose, where things seem better, but the picturesque peaceful times keep unraveling to reveal a very ugly truth where what seems to be the right path is one in darkness and the seemingly amoral one is the only one that can make a change.
Who is the Avatar?
[Image ID: A young man in motion appearing to be in mid brake while running, earthbending shards of grey rock and kicking up a dust cloud. He is lightly tanned with slight pink undertones to his skin, with hazel eyes that lean more deep green, and he wears his brown curly hair in mullet, sadly missing the hair spray and mousse, with a slight chin scruff and a ratty mustache. The man wears a red shirt with its sleeves ripped an a v-neck ripped to expose his collarbones and a part of his chest, paired with a silver dog tag on a chain necklace, light wash skinny jeans with a brown and brass belt, and green canvas high tops with drooping flaps that look suspiciously like Converse. //End ID]
The Avatar is this idiot right here and his name is Leaf (Ye in Chinese, but to emphasize strangeness of his name, it stays in English except for nicknames) because he never knew his birth name. He hasn’t even mastered his birth element yet, smh. (Backstory? Well, that will be revealed. :) All you need to know is that he has a stack of crimes hiding there.)
Team Avatar??
The team is called the Vine by the writers (ha, get it? Leaves from the... *crying*). You’ll see them around as I post their finished sheets! They aren’t the only main characters, though. :)
Who are the villains?
For now, all you need to know is that the Order acts as antagonists (obviously), but it gets heavily into some grey areas on who’s right and wrong here. There are bigger sharks in the sea, eventually.
Okay, so we know the rough backstory of the story. What about the plot?
Now, that would be spoilers. :) But if you want something to start guessing with, many game changing events can be described with Bon Jovi, Metallica, and Bonnie Tyler top hits. Here’s a Jon Bon Jovi pic from the 80s who may or may not have been the inspiration for Leaf’s aesthetic. 💙
Practiced some photo realistic painting using Leaf! First one took 7:35 and the second one took about another 40 minutes trying to make him actually look semi scary in that Avatar state and not puppy pouting sjdjfjd. He finally has mousse for that 80s mane...
[Image ID: Two photo-realistic paintings referenced from Jon Bon Jovi and Aaron Kwok are side by side. The first one is of Leaf, a dark brunet with a curly, fluffy mullet, hazel-brownish green eyes, and a shadow of a beard, smiling closed-mouthed at the camera with a muted dark green background. The second one is the same but with a frowning expression and eyes glowing white in the Avatar state. Both paintings are overlayed with image noise to resemble an old photograph. End ID.]
Reference and extra details under the cut.
So this here is the reference I used. FaceApp has this lovechild feature and I was messing around with it while I was bored as fuck, and apparently when Bon Jovi and Aaron Kwok do a DragonBall Z combo, it results in this attractive hot mess and I just had to use this as Leaf’s faceclaim to paint. Did I say I was gay
So this here is the reference I used. FaceApp has this lovechild feature and I was messing around with it while I was bored as fuck, and apparently when Bon Jovi and Aaron Kwok do a DragonBall Z combo, it results in this attractive hot mess and I just had to use this as Leaf’s faceclaim to paint. Did I say I was gay
Just four left to go on our cast of main characters! This here is Sen, the first and only character who has never committed a crime... Yet. Getting swept up in this Avatar business, even on the rival’s side, makes it very difficult to stay an upstanding citizen. He’s a bit late to the game, having avoided the mandatory draft in the North Pole for a year until he was finally tracked down by Commander Tashra just a couple months before the start of the story. He might not be allowed to carry a loaded gun (for very good reasons, namely his coworkers keeping him from shooting his foot on accident), but he makes for a loyal and valuable team member as a trained medic and having a good mastery over water healing, and lobbing a ball of solid ice at someone’s head before yelling “Sorry!” right afterwards.
Chapter 1’s Ao3 link has been posted to our blog and chapter 2 is 25% completed!
[Image ID: A dark-skinned man named Sen appears to be skating across ice using waterbending, leaving behind skate trails, while bending snow from the ground and funneling it into a ball of ice in his right hand. His eyes are heterochromatic where his right eye is brown and his left eye is ice blue, and his long, full wavy black hair is tied back with bangs, modified hair loops, and two thick locks of hair framing the sides of his eyes, tied with a twin blue hairpieces. He wears a grey and black hanyuansu military uniform with light grey-blue details designating his division, with brown leather brackets and boots plus a gun holstered to his belt. At the other side of his belt hangs a suede waterskin with the Northern Water Tribe symbol painted on its center. End ID]
[Sidebar ID: “Ensign Sen of the Northern Water Tribe, Order Skyfleet Division, Lion Turtle 1. b. 14th of the 12th Month, 519 AG. 19-20 (book 1), 22-23 (book 4). 6’0” (183 cm).” End ID]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
After some waiting, chapter 1 is finally here!
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, (somewhat) Graphic Depictions of Violence
Length: 8k words (expected goal: 100k+)
Summary: The year is 539 AG in a world still slowly recovering from a devastating nuclear war and winter triggered by the old Earth Republic and Fire Nation several generations ago, and the human and spirit worlds remain at a disbalance after collateral damages. After the last Avatar, Niraq of the Northern Water Tribe, wreaked havoc upon an already unstable world, the new Avatar remains missing since birth. A tentative peace has settled, but tensions can only be ignored for so long...
Tl;dr Summary: A handful of himbos, the oblivious Avatar, and an annoyed designated driver lesbian go on an adventure. They very quickly discover they are different iterations of “be gay do crime” and “be crime do gay.”
Art by @yueqqi. Title screen version under the cut.
Just like the character pages got updates, the pages about Genji's world and how things have changed have been updated too! We've got a new page about the Ocean Folk, new events that have happened, and more!
The sandbenders 🏜️
The Ocean Folk 🌊
The Earth Federation 🌏
The United Republic 🏙️
The Air Nomads 💨
The Fire Nation 🔥
The Northern Water Tribe & The Southern Water Tribe 🌊
A political map on a Mercator-projection just dropped!
A couple important worldbuilding points to know:
The current state of the Fire Nation is fairly recent starting from 18 years ago (officially splintering into 3 citystates: the first that retains the original royalty, the second that is ruled by a royal relative who claims the right as the true Fire Lord, and the third that claims to be democratically led but for the most part is a pirate state that operates more like anarchy). The seeds of instability had already been cast shortly after the end of the Great War when there were large population losses in the nuclear fireball(s) and the fallout when different surviving groups began to challenge the Fire Royalty’s claim to rulership, before eventually leading to the Royalty’s temporary victory over insurgents shortly before Avatar Niraq came into power and demolished most of their efforts.
The United Republic was unfortunately the most effected by the War, utterly decimated beyond several scattered settlements that turned into gang and turf wars. Under Niraq, it was easy to take the territory and use it as a secondary base of operations after the Northern Water Tribe, growing his influence over the span of 20 years to control the unstable world under a banner of peace.
The Air Islands used to consist of protected land in the north and south before the Great War and the northern islands had been caught in the crossfire after a temporary alliance with the Fire Nation when it had been targeted by the old Earth Republic, leading to mass evacuations southbound. Due to the damages and the traditional Air Nomad population shrinking as more Air Nomads chose to live in the Sky Cities, they never returned to try resettling in the northern wastelands and agreed to a treaty with the Order under Niraq that the islands would remain a protected land. Under the current leader, Grand General Varka, things remain tense between the Order and the Fire Nation as the citystates race to claim territories in their squabble for the right to the Fire Throne.
The Sky Cities were formed by migrant Air Nomads that either never joined the traditional Air Nomads led by Tenzin and succeeded by Jinora or evacuees from the northern islands, first built on rickety airships before exploding with expansion years before Niraq. The floating cities are a mixing pot of cultures, accepting migrants from everywhere, but you’d find the culture is still mainly influenced by the Air Nomads and coastal Earth people who share a common ancestor with the Foggy Swamp.
In the aftermath of the War, a few different waterbending groups found themselves displaced from the Foggy Swamp, the Southern Islands, and the Northern Water Tribe to escape the effects of the nuclear fallout and ensuing winter. They eventually formed underwater settlements after using preexisting submarine technology and expanding on it to build entire cities (albeit on a small scale) using water pressure differentials along the coasts of small islands in the Southern Hemisphere. The new Deep Sea Settlements remain a mystery to most, as they typically dislike outside contact beyond their close associations with the Southern Water Tribe and the Southern Air Islands.
While you might find traces of the Foggy Swamp long ways away from the actual swamp itself, no one knows what happened to it. It was never hit directly in the nuclear crossfire, but its proximity to Omashu made it unsafe to travel due to the radiation for several years. Almost all of the spiritual energy that saturated it has disappeared, including the Spirit Tree and the people along with it. For now, it is still considered an x-file, but some who frequent the Spirit World may know what happened...
Ft. The Vine’s flight path for book 1 under the cut.
A protagonist? Antagonist? You’ll see after the fourth arc of book 1, but Commander Tashra of the Northwestern Fleet has his own story to tell as the youngest Order officer to have been promoted to the commander position and captain his own war-class airship, the Lion Turtle 1. You’d be hardpressed to find out about his history and he seems to have no ties to anything, no family, no friends (unless you count his coworkers). He seems so serious, it’s a little scary, especially when he has a reputation as one of the most dangerous waterbenders you’ll ever meet, and he doesn’t even need bloodbending or traditional waterbending for that.
An explanation on his name: the way his name is written (太時喇) should be read as Tai Shi La in Mandarin (it is also very pretentious, meaning “a wind instrument of a great era”), but given Chinese is the written language everywhere in Avatar-verse, I’m sorta winging it to adapt some fictional conlang regional differences.
[Image ID: A digital drawing of a man with long, slightly wavy near-black hair and long locks to frame his face. He is dark-skinned with deep aquamarine eyes with a serious intent on his face. He wears a black and grey hanyuansu military uniform with a pale blue-grey detail on the collar’s trim denoting his division, paired with brown leather bracers and laced boots. He is equipped with a holstered gun on his left hip, a metal canister as a waterskin on his right hip, and a knife holster on his thigh. In mid motion as though spinning on his foot, he is bending water from vapor in the air with his right hand, and holding a menacing spear of ice in his left as though he intends to throw it. End ID.]
[Sidebar ID: “Commander Tashra (太時喇) of the Northern Water Tribe, Order Skyfleet Division b. 4th of the 1st Month, 521 AG. 18-19 (book 1), 21-22 (book 4). 5’10” (179 cm).” End ID.]
[Image description: Linh, an Avatar the Last Airbender OC, poses in the center of the image. His clothes are all varying shades of green. He wears a halter top which has a long front flap extending down to his calves and black shorts underneath. A dark green-gray outer robe with yellow embroidery is worn loosely off his shoulders and is secured by a sash around his waist. A blob of water hovers over one of his hands; the other holds two beige packages shaped approximately like banh tet and banh chung. He has armbands and leg wrappings similar to Foggy Swamp tribesmen from ATLA canon. His sandals are black.
Behind him is a seal showing a stylized Great Foggy Swamp tree surrounded by mist. End of ID.]
Now that the main 4 of Team Avatar in book 1 have all been introduced, here is our second airbending main character who has her own arc: Li Ming, a feisty woman who makes the extra yuan from wandering That Place to help innocent civilians as an aide, a guard, and an investigator. Coming from a family of mixed Air Nomads and Earth Federation migrants who have lived in the floating cities for the past few generations, she’s a bit of a rebel to have become the direct disciple of an excommunicated Air Temple monk and learned all of her airbending over the past five years—at the expense of straining her relationship with her nonbender parents.
[Image ID: A woman with wavy black hair tied in a messy bun with green eyes and warm skin. She wears pastel hanyuansu consisting of a sky blue short sleeve jacket with a greyish purple scalloped trim over a pastel pink tank top, a navy skirt with three pleats reaching just past her knees with a wide eggplant purple belt with golden yellow rope details swaying in the wind, and brown heeled lace-up boots reaching her mid-calf with navy crew socks. She is sitting and snapping her fingers with her left hand, launching a swirling airbending attack at the camera. End Image ID.]
[Sidebar ID: “Li Ming (利明) of That Place, Sky Cities. b. 7th of the 3rd Month, 516 AG. 23-24 (book 1), 26-27 (book 4). 5’7” (173 cm).” End Sidebar ID.]
They say the day you meet Đường Quân, he changes your life—by stealing your wallet and ownership of all your assets, your bank account, and the mattress you sleep on. It’s nothing personal, really: it’s all part of his job as the #1 conman (or so he likes to claim) in That Place, a floating city in the northern hemisphere originally haphazardly tied together with rope and a handful of rickety airships to escape the effects of irradiated land, before growing into the biggest of all the floating settlements. He’s had years to hone his thieving and stealth skills from dealing with the local syndicate known as the Maelstrom and might just be the guy who knows the right things to help Team Avatar... Even if he has ways to go before being able to earn a single airbending master tattoo.
Not enough proper viet rep, so here’s some direct action. 💙 I hc that there must have been some Vietnamese and/or Champa predecessors to the Swamp Tribe that diverged a long time ago and there are more Vietnamese names in other, more advanced Earth Kingdom settlements that eventually picked up Air Nomads from the Harmonic Convergence. After the war and losing their home, they were the first to live on airships and form the Sky Cities—hence why That Place draws inspiration from SE cultures while being a bit of a mixing pot of everything else due to migrant populations.
[Image ID: A digital drawing of a trans man with long black hair in a ponytail and light skin. He wears red earrings and a matching red hairtie, a purple/blue hanyuansu crop top, the ugliest mustard pleather pants w/a green snakeskin belt with black and white stripe details, and black canvas shoes that look like guzhuang martial artist shoes if they were Vans. Affixed to his belt loop is a red and white chain hanging from his side. He appears to be blowing a kiss, but falling back with a tornado-like bout of airbending. End Image ID.]
[Sidebar ID: “Duong Quan (唐軍) of That Place, Sky Cities. b. 22nd of the 4th Month, 520 AG. 19-20 (book 1), 22-23 (book 4). 5’9” (177 cm).” End Sidebar ID.]
