Introduction
This is an atlas and gazetteer of the version of the Avatar world depicted in the HICU-RPG Avatar campaign and its associated one/few-off sessions. It is meant as a reference (rather than to be read "cover-to-cover") and is organized to facilitate looking things up as needed.
Index by Place
Earth Nations
The Earth Kingdom, conceptualized as a unified polity under the Hao-Ting Dynasty, is the nominal hegemon of all Earth Nations, though many are nowadays de facto independent or affiliated with secondary centers of power outside the Hao-Ting royal court in Ba Sing Se, and significant parts of the historical Earth Kingdom are currently occupied or colonized by the Fire Nation. The Earth Nations are highly diverse in both geography and political organization, ranging from vassal monarchies to directly-administered provinces controlled by the bureaucracy of scholar-officials and monastic theocracies.
Fire Nations
The Fire Nation ruled by the Avatar/Fire Lords in Caldera City, claims to be a singular, unified nation-state, though there are some very minor firebending polities that could be considered Fire Nations, besides isolated tribes within the dense jungles and remote islands claimed by the Fire Lords. In the past century, the Fire Nation has expanded its territorial control and begun to colonize lands that were historically part of the Earth Kingdom or the territories of the Air Nations.
Air Nations
Largely destroyed in the Air Nomad Genocide, the Air Nations were a loose affinity grouping of related but independent polities. They can be placed into three major categories: Air Nomads, Settled Air Nations, and Celedonians. The Air Nomads were highly mobile flying bison pastoralists whose governments were theocracies, organized around the great Cardinal Air Temples of the North, South, East and West and their grazing lands and other endowments. The Settled Air Nations were, as the name implies, airbending peoples with a non-nomadic lifestyle. There territories were in the West of the Beryl archipelago and are believed to be the first Air Nations, from which others, including the Air Nomads, arose. Finally, the Celedoninans were people of various origins who became part of a political Air Nation under the control of the Western Air Temple as a result of the Great Treasure Endowment.
Nowadays, most of the land occupied by Air Nations is abandoned, controlled by the Fire Nation, or colonized by settlers unaffiliated with a major power.
Water Nations
The Avatar/Water Tribes are the major Water Nations of the world. In the present day, the Northern Water Tribe is preeminent, and is believed to be the historic origin of waterbending civilization. The Northern and Southern Water Tribes are actually independent tribal confederations with complex directorial governance. There are also minor Water Nations of varying significance, some of which are tributaries of the dynasty in Ba Sing Se and therefore may be politically classified with the Earth Nations despite their usual bending being Water.