felt like revisiting my atla au and now have a few Thoughts lol
i drew lief as a fire-nation avatar a million years ago, avatar for obvious reasons, fire mostly because i hadn't done a fire character yet at that point. i think practically an earth bender with metal specialisation makes more sense tbh but i was like hey he's the avatar he can do both
back then i was thinking about the AU fitting into the existing Four Nations but when i was sketching this piece i started thinking of it more in terms of keeping the Seven Tribes of Deltora but they have different specialties or focuses between the four elements which i've found more interesting
1. Diamond / Jalis / Earth
Earth because they're more grounded and strong and steadfast. one of their specialties is impenetrable rock armour where they create a mobile and durable and hardened outer layer. the cleverers of the lot will use it in offence plays too like shooting rapid fire little rocks or spikes before someone grapples or using it to propel themselves etc.
the Belt medallion (or adjacent lol) holds a simple rock. lief likes using it to remind him to stay grounded, but also how he can use basic elements in creative ways.
(i guess im imagining the Belt to be a link of "primal stones" that captures the Talisman/Symbol for each tribe. also looked up primal stones to see if that was the right word and seems like it's just what The Dragon Prince called it, but can't find an alternate quick enough. but basically capturing essence into an artefact. just a note because it gets crazier than a rock)
2. Emerald / Dread Gnomes / Earth
the gnomes are canonically fascinated and love gems, so i thought that they would specialise in gems and crystals and such. not sure if they specifically use it for anything or just like them, but they can find them with their bending if they are skilled enough to differentiate between earth and crystal.
and instead of boolong trees, they have a boolong crystal that is sharp and growing everywhere over Dread Mountain. it would probably be similar to the Creeping Crystal that King Bumi used, where it is growing wild. which begs the question what are the kin doing? (im not sure yet) maybe they like eating the crystal itself, or maybe it has a tasty core they like. but yeah functionally the same as canon dq with animosity between gnomes and kin and the boolong overgrows without the kin to keep it under control
more a headcanon of mine that jalis and dread gnomes get along but as the Earth Guys they have a bond <3
the Belt medallion holds a spiky piece of boolong crystal. it's alive and reacts to. some stimulus. might be different to dq canon.
3. Opal / Plains / Fire
so like. what is fire? did some poking around because fire isn't really like air, water, or earth which exist in the world as something for the benders to control. fire has to be created. fire is a process. fire is change.
the people who would be most in-flux and changing states and different would be the Plains people. on top of that, im curious about looking at it from the angle of Strangeness, that everyone else draws from the element existing but firebenders can create fire. you have to be a master to have the level of control to bend metal or blood for instance, but while a beginner will practice with existing flame it only takes an amateur to create a spark. the difference can create distance and taboo between firebenders and the others, especially pre-Adin days.
among the other fire specialties, a good firebender can make rainbow flame for that Opal flavour ;)
Belt medallion has a lil rainbow flame hanging out in there. lief still fears it but has a sense of wonder about it anyway
4. Lapis Lazuli / Mere / Fire
was homing in on the night sky and stars, and then focused on drawing from a star — which i guess would end up being the sun — and being a ball of fire in the sky. not sure how they make it their own yet, i'd like it to be beyond tricks and cons lol. but it does fit nicely with the idea that Tribes of the same base element would have a bond and also that the Opal and Lapis are canonically bonded and criminally unexplored lol.
the Belt medallion has a lil blue star, or what looks like a star at least. blue because lapis <3
5. Ruby / Ralad / Air
considered Ralads being focused on water for plants and nature and life but i actually preferred aligning with air nomad pacifism. the ralads are not typically fighters, but used the world around them and their connections to defend themselves.
if you haven't read Tales of Deltora, the ancient Ralads set traps especially around their border to keep hostiles out, even dug a huge pit in the big battle for the Land of Dragons against the Shadow Lord. so perhaps Ralads only use airbending in defence not offence, they don't go into battle or have soldiers but they will defend themselves with hostile designs.
not only are they often underestimated, they are seen as less of a threat, weaker than the others. this is due to them holding back the full extent of their power and choosing not to engage. but as we saw in Legend of Korra, airbending can be deadly with the way anarchist Zaheer bent the air out of people's lungs. (makes you wonder like how a skilled waterbender can control the water in people's blood, could a skilled earthbender control the minerals in blood? a firebender the electricity in one's brain or nerves?) i think this was analysis not directly from the atla shows, but the idea that air nomads are pacifists precisely because of how dangerous a violent airbender could be, and i think that aligns with the Ralads
im imagining the air monasteries and decoy Raladin (Tales) and bunker Raladin (DQ1). something something air Raladin in the sky, unreachable except by airbenders (or dragon i suppose but i would maintain the idea that only the Ralads really had a relationship with dragons) (although now that im thinking about dragons im not sure if they would be split into seven or four types? thoughts for another day)
Belt medallion holds a lil tornado
6. Amethyst / Toran / Water
thought about airbending for Torans as well because of the calm atmosphere and kinda mythical status it has, since they were almost extinct in Aang's time and miraculously returned in Korra's time, not even going into the fact that it's technically invisible.
i prefer the idea that they are waterbenders. in Theory, going with the flow, fluid, lifegiving. but first question first. would Tora still be made of marble? no, it doesn't make sense for waterbenders. then what about ice? instead of a carved marble mountain, a frozen city raised on a big lake. not even that much of a stretch because Tora is built beside a lake. it's also perfectly symbolic of how Torans became stuck and frozen and unchanging. they created a beautiful and unique city but it imprisoned them over time as they decided they didn't need to leave.
the magic of Tora can be found in the healers, it continues to be a wonder. healers inside Tora are top of the line, but aren't the most useful during the time when Tora was shut off. people use to travel to Tora for miracle cures, then over time they became colder and distant and elitist becoming more about technique than compassion until eventually they shut their doors to outsiders, a fertile breeding ground for "us vs them" mentality among them. they didn't like hearing about the outside, being challenged about their ideas, questioned about their methods, compared to others etc so they cut it off at the source.
not all agreed of course, and were invited to leave, so some did. this allowed for waterbending healers to exist outside Tora, but many make do with traditional first aid and surgery. beyond that, non-Toran waterbenders have the opportunity to be more innovative. they are higher skilled among them are the equivalent of a wizard with a stained and messy exercise book vs a Toran elite wizard with an antique technical tome. outside Tora there are plantbenders and weatherbenders and bloodbenders among the unhinged. these guys aren't taught from the elitist Toran school that is all about technique and a "correct" way of practising, they learn from instinct and observation. they sense water and it calls to them and there isn't anyone but themselves to say no.
oh my god lmao just remembered i drew Verity as a waterbender and it fits in with this. she <3
more of a joke but the idea that Torans made the magic highway to Del to be like the minecraft boat on ice zoomies is sending me
Belt medallion is a snowflake, one of the Toran artisanal arts is creating snowflakes. it's about the detail and uniqueness and the patience.
7. Topaz / Del / ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Del is a diverse place, on account of their love of travel and adventure and as an ideal seaport in canon. People of Del fell in love with others and brought them home, other people visited Del and decided to stay. so in my head this Del is like Republic City (Legend of Korra) but not at the tech level during Lief's time.
im not sure if they are primarily non-benders or if they are also earth oriented. this could also be influenced by most of atla-world people were part of the earth kingdom which was the biggest landmass (and like earth is everywhere lol) so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
but being of earth can bring in metalbending to align with Adin the blacksmith which i do like! idk if he would be the first bender to start diving into the potential of bending or not, perhaps he was just one of the more famous ones of ancient times since he's the first avatar
there's analysis about how the fire empirical family might not have been divinely gifted, but just gatekeeping elitist techniques. like Azula is supposed to be 14 in atla with prodigious skill beyond average firebenders and there is no doubt that she has been studying and practising all her life with personal tutors. this is like how im imagining Tora, which creates an interesting antithesis to Del. Tora is elitist and technical and isolated. Del is common and practical and interconnected.
i want to maintain the flavour of commoner becoming king from canon, so i like the idea that metalbending was shared and easy to come across. Adin is just Some Guy who dreams of a united country. (oh! on that note that could mean that Jalis can have their gold armour after all?? it got shared!)
Belt medallion is a magnetic needle, acting like a compass. for metal bending and symbolising travel.
8. Adin's Heir / The Avatar
naturally Adin's heir would be the Avatar.
im currently thinking that Malverlain was dipping deep into the Spirit World, researching and practising and it was corrupting him a bit — whether or not it was Vaatu-equivalent spirit of Darkness or combination of external factors that planted seeds that ≈Vaatu cultivated. either way Malverlain gets banished from Dorne as per canon and as he's sailing around ≈Vaatu is whispering in his ear until he takes over Pirra and eventually becomes the Dark Avatar; could be either order, ≈Vaatu wants Malverlain to prove himself before bonding or maybe he bonds first and his first act of chaos was to establish himself in Pirra.
this kinda becomes an "always a bigger fish" scenario, since the Shadow Lord was also a whisperer in your ears guy.. guess he had to learn it from somewhere right? but dq-atla plot would've been going from fighting grey guards and ols to hidden spies and planted authorities to the Shadow Lord to ≈Vaatu.
not sure if the Light and Dark spirit had agreed not to bond and ≈Vaatu broke it, if it's like in atla where the two spirits are in constant battle and were severed..?
whatever the reason, Adin becomes the first Avatar by bonding with Raava-equivalent spirit in response to the rise of darkness in the Shadow Lord. it's an equilibrium, a balance, a harmony, a dance. maybe instead of having a dream, Adin and ≈Raava meet and she tells him to unite the seven tribes? ≈Raava was roving the world looking for someone worthy and Adin's honest heart, earnest work, compassion, amiability. he's a hardworker and connected with everyone he met, so she thought he was perfect.
the Avatar cycle continues as normal, so instead of Adin's heir being literally his blood heir, it's his reincarnation that cycles through the elements — unsure whether it's through the seven tribes or the four elements. either way discovering the next Avatar does get harder as time goes on since everyone starts to mingle more.
9. Lief
im not exactly sure how Lief's story would go because something has to change. either we go dq route and Lief doesn't know he's the Avatar and the quest is about uniting, or we go the atla route and he does know and the quest is about training.
ive let it marinate and im leaning towards him learning he's the Avatar and his parents send him off with Barda to train, mostly because if he united the people and then found he was the Avatar he probably would have to take another trip round the country or the most intense training montage with everyone drilling him in a short time lmao. basically meaning that his arch would be similar to Aang's story, but instead of the sudden shock of loss and constant grapple with creating balance while maintaining his ideals — he deals with being born under the Shadow Lord's rule and his heart cries out and grapples with the sudden pressure of the world on his shoulders. it's like the weight of DQ3 hitting Lief in DQ1
so Sharn and Endon have set the foundation for Lief, they have taught him the soft skills he needs that the previous Avatars were lacking. they've guided him into developing the social skills, the connections, acts of service, kindness.. now he needs the bending skills and he has to go find the masters to teach him amongst a razed land.
oh lmao i forgot about the Belt. we can completely disregard it, the Avatar's multibending capabilities is kinda a symbol of the united peoples. or we can keep it to stay in line with dq, but then that means.. what does it do, why is it important ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ they could just be symbols. or even they could be like The Dragon Prince primal stones which allows the person holding do bending they couldn't before? like a nonbender could become an earth bender if they held the Jalis rock gem. i dont think i like this because it like feels unearned, but maybe incentive to get the gem is to unlock the different specialties, like if Lief gets the Dread Gnome gem it'd help him figure out how to bend crystals. seems to make narrative sense but worldbuilding vibes is 👎👎👎 muchhhh prefer it a skill to learn, to hone. baby sense the earth in the metal. sense the flowing water in the ice. figure it out babe.
oh my god. 😔😔 i forgot. i 100% was imagining that Endon was the previous Avatar. maybe he wasn't and he's just Lief's dad, or he was but died before Lief was born?? oh my goddd 🙃😭 dad ghost </3 connecting with someone you hadn't met but you are his and he is yours, being able to talk to him but only when you are vulnerable.. orrr maybe Endon is descended from one of the Avatar's himself so has seen the effects first hand?? and tries to set Lief up for better, for his son and for the people. oh. so i guess the small print is that lil Lief probably did minimum two different bending but then doesn't again so doesn't remember; or Del has a test like the air nomads did where lil Lief had to pick certain objects out of a group which once belonged to previous Avatars.
ANYWAY. was thinking that Avatar Lief and Avatar Shadow Lord can have a big showdown like in Legend of Korra Book 2, which makes me laugh because that's just the anime finale.
