The Air Nations are the most inclusive term for the polities of people who lived in the lands controlled by the great cardinal Air Temples or were otherwise culturally affiliated with them or actually considered their citizens.
This terminology may be confusing. For clarity:
Term |
Explanation |
Airbender |
Someone who has telekinetic power over the element of air, and who almost always has a significant proportion of genetic background within the Ethnic Air Nation. |
Air National |
A person recognized as a citizen or subject of the theocratic government of one of the Air Temples, whether or not they live in the recognizing Temple's territory, or, historically, citizens of other culturally-affiliated airbending civilizations. |
Air Nomad Religion |
The religion of the Air Nation theocracy, also practiced by some non-Air-Nationals. |
Monk or Nun of the Air Nomad Religion |
An ordained member of the Air Nomad religion, a small subset of which are spiritual and temporal leaders of the Air Nation. Usually required to be celibate. |
Airbending Master |
A very skilled Airbender, almost always a Monk or Nun because the most powerful airbending techniques were developed by the clergy of the Air Temples and they do not train non-ordained people in them. |
Air Nomads |
A culture characterized by nomadism facilitated by flying bison, airbending, and adherence to the Air Nomad religion. |
Ethnic Air Nomad |
Someone sharing genetic background with the majority of people who originated as a distinct group in the lands now controlled by the Southern Air Temple. |
Settled people of the Air Nations |
People who are Air Nationals but not Air Nomads. They may or may not be Ethnic Air Nomads, may or may not practice or be ordained in the Air Nomad Religion, and may or may not be airbenders. |
Some clarifying examples and edge cases (concerning the situation prevailing before their late misfortune):
It is unlikely for someone to be an Air Nomad without airbending, because it would be very dangerous for them. But there are many, many air nationals who are not airbenders. For example, the many Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom colonists who were living in the lands of the Great Treasure Donation, who were not airbenders, but came to be air nationals because of the Donation.
Not all adherents of the Air Nomad Religion are monks or nuns. Not all airbenders are monks or nuns. Not all airbenders are air nationals, though the vast majority are; the number of ethnic air nomads capable of producing airbenders but living outside the Air Nation was very small even before the Air Nomad Genocide. Many non-Air-National airbenders are people who left the Air Nation for some reason and associated with some other elemental Nation instead.
Not all clergy, even monks and nuns, live in one of the four Air Temples. These are by far the largest, but there are many secular clergy who live among settled people or live among air nomad groups.
You can be a member of the Air Nomad Religion without any Ethnic Air Nomad heritage. Missionaries of the Air Nomad religion were more than happy to allow non-airbenders, settled people, and non-ethnic-air-nomads to participate in their spiritual tradition. There are even non-airbending, non-ethnic-air-nomad clergy of the air nomad religion, though they are rarely resident in the Air Temples which are optimized for habitation by airbenders. Rather, they are usually clergy tending non-ethnic-air-nomad believers outside the Air Nation.
There are many settled people of non-ethnic-air-nomad descent living in the Temple endowments, paying tithes to the temples. They may or may not be adherents of the Air Nomad religion.
There are ethnic Air Nomads who are settled. Some of them are from groups of similar genetic background who were never nomadic - most of these live in the lands of the Southern Air Temple - and others are of air nomad communities that have decided to settle in one place for one reason or another. The latter is relatively uncommon.