Introduction

One hundred years before the start of the series, a twelve-year-old Airbender named Aang learns he is the new Avatar, the only person in his generation capable of controlling and manipulating all four elements to his will and the one tasked with maintaining peace between the Four Nations of the world. Fearful of the heavy responsibilities of being the Avatar, coupled with the coming separation from his beloved mentor Monk Gyatso (to complete his training), Aang flees from home on his animal guide, a flying bison called Appa. Caught by a fierce storm, they crash into the ocean, and Aang's protective Avatar State freezes them in a state of suspended animation inside an iceberg. Right after his disappearance, Fire Lord Sozin, realizing that according to the Avatar cycle the next Avatar will be born an Air Nomad, launches a genocidal campaign against the Air Nomads. This way he can ensure that the next Avatar will not try to foil his plots for world domination as the last one of his kind.