Chapter Text
In the year After Comet 195, the world faced chaos and war on an unprecedented scale. Even the war 195 years prior, when Avatar Aang had defeated Fire Lord Ozai in the battle that became the most pivotal moment in history, paled in comparison. Avatar Aang had fought against a dangerous man's agenda and a Fire Nation bent on domination and destruction. But in the end, his defeat of that one man, and the simultaneous defeats around the world of that one agenda, had wrought peace.
In a world with no Avatar, there was no voice to unite the fracturing nations.
The conflict had begun generations earlier, almost at the same time as the birth of Republic City. For centuries, the world had existed in a balance of four nations – the Air Nomad peoples, the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, and the Fire Nation. With the merging of borders after what had become known as "The Fire Lord's War," those four boundaries became more and more meaningless. Not only in cities, but even families might have representatives from multiple origins. Whole lineages merged and split and merged again until the Old Four were but a portion of the world. Republic City, founded by Avatar Aang and Fire Lord Zuko as a haven in occupied territories for those peoples no longer truly of either the Fire Nation or the Earth Kingdom, had become a diverse and multicultural nation in its own right, as powerful as the Northern Water Tribe. Dozens of other cities, islands, valleys, and the like boasted of different benders living side-by-side for the betterment of all.
The map of the world could no longer be drawn in the colors of the Old Four; now, it was a true rainbow of peoples and cultures that had grown up as the world came together.
It should have led to a time of peace, and for the first century or so after Avatar Aang, with the exception of a few moments of darkness, peace had been realized. The world no longer stood divided by blood and bending. When Sozin's Comet returned 100 years from the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, it was to a worldwide celebration in which every firebender made use of their powers for purposes other than war. And yet old resentments lingered, festered, and found new fertile ground in the struggles of this new reality.
By After Comet 150, the majority of the world's population lived not under the Old Four, but under the many new factions that had arisen and had begun their clamoring for recognition and independence. The Old Four largely resisted such efforts (excluding the Air Nomad peoples, who had regrown in strength and had no intention of maintaining a nation – their people were free to do as they wished as ever) and calm discussions gave way to furious confrontations. The Avatar of the time, Avatar Yuy, urged all peoples to work together towards a peaceful solution.
For twenty years, Avatar Yuy managed to keep the political situation of the world more or less under control. He advocated for the right of self-determination for those conclaves that wished it, pressed for equal regard for all people, benders or not, and maintained a message of prudence and patience with the ever-spreading influence of the independents. He argued that change was inevitable after The Fire Lord's War, but that such change should be approached respectfully and cautiously on all sides. He kept a council of friends and advisors with him, including members of the Order of the White Lotus, and began laying the groundwork for a world in which the Old Four made way for the new nations without bloodshed; he was a peaceful earthbender at heart and led with steadiness.
But a force rose up from an unknown source, and even Avatar Yuy could not find its roots. He only knew that men and women, benders and non-benders alike, had taken up arms and threatened a war, even as their goals remained shrouded in mystery. They became known as the Order of the Black Lotus for their divisive acts and their ruthless mentality. Yuy was hard-pressed to keep them in check and conflicts erupted all over the world as suspicion and violence grew and fostered amidst the political mistrust.
At last, Avatar Yuy called on the Black Lotus forces to face him fairly, that he would attempt to arbitrate their concerns and address their grievances. But for all his canny knowledge of the politics of the Old Four and the emerging nations, Yuy could not have anticipated the lengths to which his opponents were prepared to go.
Before dawn the day of the meeting and while still traveling to the meeting-place, Avatar Yuy was ambushed by an overwhelming force. He fought back valiantly, but he was desperately outmatched. Many of his friends and advisors fell in the battle, and their spilled blood angered the even-tempered earthbender as little in all his long life. Avatar Yuy invoked the Avatar State and rose to put an end to the conflict once and forever.
But history is a repeating dance, and some things return at the worst possible time. In perfect mimicry of a once-princess's attack on Avatar Aang, a bolt of lightning struck Avatar Yuy as he rose into his cosmic self. This time, where before Aang had been rescued and saved by the waterbender Master Katara, the waterbenders who might have saved Yuy were already dead or scattered. Avatar Yuy was killed in the ascended Avatar State, and like a mountain splintering in two, the Avatar Soul was broken.
The Order of the Black Lotus rejoiced in a frenzy of triumph, but with their work now done, they vanished from the public eye. The world raged and mourned and quaked in terror for a future with no Avatar, and the Old Four rose up to comfort and protect their people, strengthening their holds and quelling the desire for self-determination in many lands. The independents were silenced as fears about security and safety overrode freedom, and the rainbowed colors of the world were pushed back into the more-regulated red, blue, and green that had always dominated.
But true peace was no longer possible. Even without the Avatar, there were those who hated the Old Four more than they were now afraid, and they turned to even greater desperate lengths to liberate themselves or to strike back. The world was heading for a war unlike any ever seen before, a war of nation against nation, family against family, some fighting for freedom, others for revenge, and like a panicking flock of birds they scattered and cared not what they struck in their fear and fury. Even the ancient Order of the White Lotus seemed powerless against the coming strife.
And so, a few members of the Order gathered together to hatch a plan that, they hoped, might be the saving of the world. The Avatar was long dead and the line of rebirth broken, but perhaps there was another way to unite the world once more and defeat the forces of divisiveness. They acted without the rest of the Order, for their plans were intricate and could not bear even the well-meaning influence of their compatriots. Five old men spread across the world and quietly prepared.
Until, in After Comet 195, the signal from their leader reached the others.
"Begin Operation Meteor."