#zhang tribe

[captain-azoren]

So here are some territories that, as far as I know, are never really visited in either AtLA or Korra. Maybe in the Kyoshi novels, but it’s a bit hard to discern locations.In any case, I have some headcanons concerning these places; 

We see a handful of characters that appear to be based on people of South Asian and/or Indian descent, these being Guru Pathik and Jargala from the comics. I believe they come from the chain of islands that span from the Southern Air Temple to the Eastern Air Temple. It’s possible that these people may have mixed Air Nomad and Water Tribe ancestry

The coastline and the mountain chain along the south of the continent I think may be the Zhang Tribe homeland. Their dress and rugged lifestyle seem like they’d be suited for a very harsh and untamed region. This is around the area where Toph trained Aang in the quarry. I also thought that maybe the northern mountains of the United Republic would be where the Zhang hail from, but logistically is makes more sense for them to come from the South-East as that’s where they seemed to be coming from in The Great Divide. 

(EDIT: Now that I look at it, I think the Zhang might come more from the Eastern side of the mountain range, which I found out are called the  Xishaan Mountain Range)

The North-East peninsula is where I think the Gan Jin tribe come from. They would be close enough to the Zhangs to have had a long history with them. It may have been an area that saw a lot of travel and trade, and I imagine the Gan Jin to have been a wealthy merchant class, as opposed to the Zhangs. The area where their territories intersected might even be where the legend of Jin Wei and Wei Jin took place.

[captain-azoren]

More headcanon about things no one cares about. I'm getting into Korra canon, so if that's not your thing, just ignore it.

Remember the Zhang Tribe? From The Great Divide? No? Well anyway, I headcanon that the Zhang are traditionally non-benders and have been that way since the beginning, for a very important reason; they did not live on the lion turtles.

The Zhang were humans who ventured into the spirit wilds and learned to survive without bending. They are the descendants of humans who either never found the turtles or were cast out from the cities.

Now, here's another idea I had; the Zhang Tribe generally respects the spirits and nature. Every so often, when in dire need, they would call on the aid of the spirits through prayers and/or offerings. One such way was for the spirit to merge with a tribe member, granting them otherworldly powers tied to nature. This would not be unlike what we see Aang do with the ocean spirit, but generally on a smaller scale.

Another idea; the Gan Jin worshipped Wan Shi Tong in the past, and the owl spirit humored them for quite some time, giving them knowledge and culture before he grew dissatisfied with human greed and destruction.

Their rivalry with the Zhang went back much further than a single century, perhaps because the Zhang refused to follow Wan Shi Tong. Perhaps the spirit's reason for forsaking humans is tied to the feud between the tribes, the Gan Jin blaming the Zhang for Wan Shi Tong leaving. Just some fanfic ideas.

[captain-azoren]

I revised the map I did earlier using the big detailed map (thanks @the-messenger-hawk​ for the file). Here is where I think the Zhang and Gan Jin homelands are. 

It’s mentioned in The Great Divide that these tribes were attacked by the Fire Nation, and I think this lines up with Hakoda’s fleet being in the Eastern Sea; the Southern Water Tribe warriors sailed to the Eastern Sea and are station in Chameleon Bay when we see them towards the end of book 2. This would mean that the Fire Nation has been raiding these lands, even if they haven’t gotten a foothold, likely coming across the ocean from the East (the Fire Nation’s West side).

The Gan Jin live on a large peninsula, rich in resources and with a river that flows directly to Ba Sing Se. The Gan Jin are supposed to be from the Northern Earth Kingdom, and this is one of the only lands in the North that we know nothing about.

The Zhang live in and around the Xishaan Mountain Range and the smaller peninsula near Chameleon Bay. The Xishaan mountains have a lot of mining settlements, which the Zhang were able to adapt to as the world became more industrialized. This mountain range had an abandoned mining town where, in Rise of Kyoshi, Jianzhu takes Kyoshi and Yu to identify the Avatar.

[captain-azoren]

The Legend of the Sacred Crystal Orb

This is the Sacred Crystal Orb. The Gan Jin tribe used it in their yearly redemption ritual to purify their connection to the spirits. This involved carrying it from the Eastern gate of their land to the Western gate, to symbolize the rising and setting of the sun. The light of the sun would shine through the a hole atop the gate and on to the orb.

The sacred crystal orb was, in actuality, a conduit of spiritual energy, able to both absorb and unleash it and empower those who were spiritually attuned. Every year, it gathered more power from the sun. The redemption ritual itself has changed greatly over the many generations it has been in human hands.

The Gan Jin carry out the ritual out of tradition, but long ago, it was used to cure those who had been corrupted by spirit possession. Those who had been mutated by a spirit passing through them could be purified by carrying the orb and allowing it to absorb the corruption, thereby curing them.

However, the ritual goes back ever further, before even the time of Avatar Wan and the Lion Turtle cities, to a time when the earth was ruled by the Four Great Ones. The sacred orb was carried by their human subjects across the world. The orb would absorb a portion of their life force, and this sacrifice was offered to each of the Great Ones in a yearly cycle, keeping balance and harmony in the land.

Order was kept for thousands of years, until one day when one of the great spirits, the Cosmic Phoenix, grew dissatisfied with the meager offerings the humans gave him. He and his followers, the Gan Jin Tribe, demanded human lives be sacrificed. When these demands were refused, the Phoenix retaliated by dropping a meteor onto the earth, creating what would become the Si Wong Desert.

Having had enough of the Phoenix’s wrath, the other three Great Ones fought him in a battle that changed the world. Using the sacred orb, the Mountain Liger and his subjects, the Zhang Tribe, defeated the Phoenix, driving it into the depths of space. 

In order to redeem themselves, the Gan Jin were punished with carrying out the ritual alone every year in order purify the Phoenix’s influence within them, lest they incur the wrath of the spirits once more.

While the myth would be lost to time, the Gan Jin and Zhang tribes would remain bitter enemies for centuries to come, hostile towards one another for reasons long forgotten.

Thousand of years passed, and the sacred crystal orb would continue to absorb more power long after the rule of the Great Ones ended. The fate of the orb would be decided in the tragic tale of the twin brothers Wei Jin and Jin Wei...

My prrrrecious....