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• Chenbao State

The State of Chenbao (塵暴國) is an Earth Nation and one of the constituent polities of the Earth Kingdom. As reflected in its designation as a guo (國) rather than a province, Chenbao was formerly a sovereign state that paid tribute to the Earth King as its suzerain. Straddling the Northern and Western regions of the Earth Kingdom and isolated by formidable mountains, yet ideally positioned to conduct seagoing trade on both the Inner Seas and Northern Ocean, it remains culturally and ethnically distinct from the rest of the region and has a strong sense of national identity. Chenbao has remained relatively isolated from the invasion of the Fire Nation; there are rumors of collaboration between its 'de facto hereditary governorate and the Fire Nation.

WORK IN PROGRESS

, The Chenbaozu 塵暴族 are the primary inhabitants of Chenbao. They derive from Zhongzu, Western Beituzhu, and Nogoi ethnic stock. The Western Beituzhu, now entirely assimilated into the Chenbaozu, were culturally and genetically distinct from the Eastern Beituzhu who are still a distinct (and fairly populous) people in the North. They have mostly green eyes and Fitzpatrick II skin color. Many Chenbao people have brown hair, which is thought locally to have come from the Western Beituzhu. (Archaeologists from Ba Sing Se University debate this view - the Western Beituzhu are depicted in ancient Yonggan art found in the Nara Ancestral Tombs with an ochre pigment for their hair in contrast to the Eastern Beituzhu and Yonggan whose hair is depicted with lampblack. However, it's uncertain if the ochre was originally mixed with some other, non-light-stable pigment - the art's current location in a grotto shrine was probably not its original location.)

The Chenbao language is similar to Common, but with some archaicising characteristics (preserving final consonants lost from Common during the early Tu dynasty, and having a simplified tonal structure). At the nadir of cultural contact, the spoken language was no longer mutually intelligible with Common, although the written language remained so. However, over time - and particularly since the imposition of direct rule in the Era of Kyoshi - the language has drifted back into marginal mutual intelligibility, and Common is the language of administration. (Dialects of dubious intelligibility to common speakers are still spoken in some rural areas.) It also has a number of loanwords (particularly place names）from the Nogoi language.

The Chenbao are mostly settled - the State of Chenbao has nomadic peoples, particularly in is Southern steppes, but they identify as Northern Nogoi more than Chenbao people.

Nogoi