Earthbending is an elemental bending discipline capable of manipulating the Earth element. Stone is the prototypical earthbending material, and is considered easiest to work with by most practitioners, but dirt, clay, soil, silt, mineral dusts and sand are all valid substrates for earthbending. The manipulation of fine particulate inorganic matter - sandbending - is a kind of specialized bending. The manipulation of metals considered is a theoretical possibility, but as yet, no one is known to have invented metalbending.

Earthbending is, unsurprisingly, the forte of the Earth Kingdom, who employ it extensively in architecture, transport and war. Ethnic Earth Nationals in other states (including minor states of the Earth Nation that are not part of the Earth Kingdom) may also have earthbending, though opportunities for formal training in it are mainly found in the Earth Kingdom.

Earthbending Traditions

Befitting a country as large as the Earth Kingdom, there are many styles of earthbending with different emphases and traditions. The great majority of earthbenders with formal training are only familiar with one.

Middle Way

The most prestigious bending schools of the Earth Kingdom are those espousing the Middle Way, associated with the Earth Sages, the Royal Earthbending School, and the royal court of the Hao Ting dynasty. However, the Middle Way also encompasses a variety of rustic traditional schools in the countryside of the central plains of the Earth Kingdom, the rural regions surrounding Ba Sing Se and forming the ancient heartland of the Kingdom.

Court School

The Court School is a form of Earthbending that emphasizes precise and aesthetically pleasing stances and forms over practical results; it is even practiced by non-benders as a form of exercise or performance art. It is considered to nourish and strengthen the qi, promoting longevity and a calm nature through careful, smooth, coordinated movements and breathing exercises. Practices often involve many practitioners. Although practical bending is deemphasized in the Court School, practitioners who are actual earthbenders can use its techniques to create extraordinarily precise effects. The Court School's development was associated with the Hao Ting, who were, from the start, a mainly nonbending dynasty; before them, the great majority of Earth Kings had been earthbenders, and some modicum of bending talent was seen as requisite for a crown prince. Developments in the Court School allowed nonbender members of the dynasty to participate in court traditions involving earthbending, with any actual bending being done by the actual earthbenders participating in the ritual.

Orthodox School

The Orthodox School is the form of Earthbending taught by the Earth Sages. Like the Court School which it influenced, it emphasizes internal martial arts and spiritual development, as well as ritual practice in groups, as it is the responsibility of the Earth Sages to orchestrate state religious praxis. However, unlike the Court School, the Orthodox School is also a practical martial art. It is very conservative, with the foundations of the school being a reconstruction of Ting dynasty Earth Sage practices; the modern orthodox school was founded alongside the Hao Ting, as the Earth Sages who participated in the dynastic transition deliberately purged state religious practices of Yonggan, Abka and Air Nomad influences accrued under the Ri Dynasty.

As a practical art, the Orthodox School emphasis a balanced approach and the development of endurance, wearing down enemies by attrition and solid defense. Teaching methods involve spiritual exercise and learning techniques in the context of their usually-allegorical mythological origins.

Royal Army School

The Royal Army school is the school in which the Earth Kingdom's military earthbenders are trained. It is essentially eclectic in nature and draws from many schools, but the foundation is the Orthodox School, stripped of its mysticism. The school aims to reliably and quickly train militarily useful earthbenders. Although it includes some basic internal martial arts, the main focus is on drilling practical techniques. In the past, the school was more open to including new ideas and free-styling moves, but it now tends to emphasize rigid adherence to forms and techniques which are known to work and to be easy to teach, even if these aren't the best. Drilling routines with other practitioners and cooperative bending to e.g. move large objects or rapidly build defenses is emphasized. Training often crosses over with military engineering and fortification techniques. Unlike the Orthodox school, the Royal Army School retains many techniques inherited from the earthbending banner armies of the Great Ri, though during the dynastic transition, it renamed most of them so as to disguise their origins.

In a large scale combat setting, the Royal Army School is generally considered to have the best defensive moves.

Many small public bending schools are run by veterans of the Royal Army Earthbending Corps, and teach a version of this school, adapted for small group or individual practice and the needs of civilian earthbenders.

Rustic School

Rustic schools represent the indigenous earthbending traditions of the Central Earth Kingdom, and are the matrix from which the preceding schools emerged. Rustic masters operating small schools or just taking a few disciples preserve the traditions of their bending lineage. Many of them are in the countryside and emphasize bending that is of practical use to the farmer or village guardsman. They tend to be practical in nature and to be taught without much philosophical talk or emphasis on spiritual development, though there are exceptions. In particular, the traditions of many minor Earth monasteries not affiliated with the orthodox Earth Sages are classified as "rustic schools" by the government.

Southern Way

The schools of the Southern Way are diverse and storied, and sometimes bitter rivals of the Middle Way, reflecting the centuries of strife between the empires of Ba Sing Se and Omashu. Much as Middle Way practitioners boast of the walls of Ba Sing Se, the Southern Way lays claim to the great city of Omashu, second city of the now-unified Earth Kingdom.

Omashu Martial School

The earthbending traditions of Omashu are embodied in its Martial School. Perhaps the strongest Earthbender in the world is and the greatest living practitioner of the Southern Way is King Bumi, who was previously Grandmaster of the Martial School. (And indeed, the Grandmaster of the Martial School is ex officio Crown Prince of Omashu, making the current government of Omashu an elective monarchy, with the earthbending masters of the Martial School effectively choosing the crown prince.) It incorporates powerful lower body movements and kicks, either directly to enemies or to impart force to levitated earthen objects.

The Martial School, as its name implies, has its origins in Omashu's famed earthbending corps. However, civil earthbending is also included. The Omashu Martial School emphasizes well-timed, powerful strikes; practitioners must learn to wait for the optimal moment and then act definitively. Although Martial School earthbenders in the service of the Omashu military do group drills, more emphasis is placed on individual action than in the school's Northern counterpart.

Gaoling School

The Gaoling School, though grouped in the Southern Way, is significantly different from the Omashu Martial School. It has in common an emphasis on timing, but whereas the Omashu school urges few and powerful strikes, the Gaoling school favors fast, rapid-fire attacks. Practitioners often practice coordinating their attacks and developing an innate sense of timing with the use of music, and this "earthbending practice music" has had an influence on the musical culture of the region. Spiritual practice receives more attention than in the other Southern Way schools. The Gaoling school has been influenced by cultural contact with the Fire Nation in centuries past, and incorporates some adaptations of firebending forms.

Eastern School

The Eastern School is something of a synthetic category, encompassing various and sundry traditions of the Southeast. This is a diverse region with many unique traditions. As with the Rustic School in the Central Earth Kingdom, the Eastern School is mostly taught by small local schools and monasteries. Eastern masters are often eclectic and widely-traveled, with few generalizations being possible, though the cultures in which it exists tend to agree on the importance of timing and to draw upon the techniques of the Omashu Martial School for self defense. They tend to be defense-focused. The technique of wrapping oneself in an stone shield originates with an Eastern School.

Northern Way

The Northern Way is associated with the peoples of the North and West, and is more distinct from the Middle and Southern ways than those two are to each other. The Yonggan and Ganjinese schools have an extensively intertwined history and share a common system of formal degrees named after stones.

Yonggan School

The Yonggan school of earthbending is practiced by the ethnic minority of the same name. During the Nara ascendancy, in which a Yonggan conquest dynasty ruled in Ba Sing Se, it also influenced the Royal Army School. Rapid movement in concert with the Earth is a focus of the school, as is trapping and burying enemies rather than directly damaging them. When practitioners do make ranged attacks, fast strikes with small, hard stones are favored; these are believed to be harder to notice and therefore dodge or block. This probably reflects the legacy of the Yonggan in fighting lightly-armored, mobile Abka tribes. It also emphasizes features for crowd control and defending against multiple oppontents.

The Yonggan school is less spiritual than the related Ganjinese school, and tends to a practical focus, but it does include internal exercises to strength the qi. The taming and training of badgermoles is considered an important adjunct, and this school incorporates some techniques that require the participation of one's partner badgermole.

Ganjinese School

The Ganjinese school of earthbending is a proud and conservative tradition, but one originating in the cosmopolitan Ganjinese empire. Like the related Yonggan school with which it has a long history of mutual influence, it emphasizes mobility and subtle traps rather than direct damage. Practitioners of this school often focus on the signature techniques of the Stone Blade, using their mobility in the Earth to close rapidly and make deadly attacks with sharpened stone. It is a considered a good school for fighting multiple opponents at once and for terrain control, similar to the Yonggan school.

Training is long, with spiritual strength and moral purity being weighted very heavily by masters, who are often strict disciplinarians. The high lethality of the Stone Blade techniques are cited as a reason why masters must choose very carefully who should be instructed in them. Training with non-bending weapons, such as the Ganjinese sword, is considered a useful adjunct, helping to develop the fluid upper body movements characteristic of style.

The famous Earth Sage Jianzhu, earthbending tutor of Avatar Kuruk, had mastered his native Ganjinese school alongside the Orthodox school, which probably contributed to his notorious effectiveness in combat.

Sandbending

Sandbending was developed largely independently of other Earthbending in the great deserts of the Earth Kingdom. As the name implies, it focuses on fine mineral particulates. Rather than being passed on in formal schools, they are usually passed on by spiritual leaders within one's tribe. They are seldom taught to outsiders, though there are exceptions, at least if the outsider offers respect... and plenty of money. Sandbenders usually have masks or veils available to them as breathing large amounts of fine dust and sand is recognized as unhealthy.

Southern Sandbending Style

This style was developed in the Siwang Desert. It is used more for mobility than combat, and adroitly handling the traditional sand-sailer vehicles is considered an integral part of the Southern Style. Like any sandbending, it is useful for blinding and disorienting foes, or trapping them in shifting sands.

The tradition is passed along orally, usually without written aids or illustrations. The spiritual practice is intimately linked with sandbender tribe religious practices, but it is mainly of a practical orientation. Solitary meditation is considered important.

Northern Sandbending Style

The style developed in the Hanwang, from sandbending tribes who were forcibly relocated there by the Earth Kingdom many centuries ago. It is similar to the Southern style, though it features sharp blasts of sand as a signature move; in the hands of a master, these blasts can rapidly erode through armor.

Other Earthbending Schools

Southern Mountain Way

Influenced by Air Nomads spiritually and philosophically, the Southern Mountain Way is in many ways a union of opposites. It is a very spiritual tradition, but is practically useful. The practitioners are mobile, rivaling those of the Northern Way, but they emphasize powerful ranged attacks with prepared stones rather than found rocks.

Cabbage Sprout Way

The Cabbage Sprout Way is practiced by the Mau Dai people as their traditional form of earthbending. The Mau Dai, a highland people often considered warlike by their lowland neighbors, developed their traditions in the context of terraced rice cultivation and vegetable farming; many of their training methods and techniques are steeped in agricultural lore. However, the Cabbage Sprout way is also noted for its lethal effectiveness in combat. There, benders de-emphasize moving projectiles in favor of raising up obstacles to trip and confound enemies; they move swiftly by earth-surfing through protected trenches. The school emphasizes observation of terrain and practical geomancy, as it considers understanding the local environment to be of paramount importance in both war and farming. Mau Dai bending masters attach importance to the defensive preparation of the environment, if the opportunity exists.

The Mau Dai generally do not teach their art to those who are not ethnic Mau Dai.

Forest Way

This style is associated with the jungle-dwelling peoples of the far south, and is an adaptation to the use of impure earth, such as forest soils and mud. Direct attacks are emphasized, often with waves or fault-lines rather than flying earth, as rocks are less available as projectiles in some areas.

Rivers-and-Lakes School

Associated with the River Guest People (江客) ethnic minority, and also with the criminal underworld. Besides practical combat earthbending with an emphasis on street fighting rather than war, it includes stealth techniques and sleight-of-hand enhanced with earthbending, suitable for grifting and tricks.

Practitioners are often secretive. Daofei groups may have secret schools for all sworn members, but more reputable Jiangke teachers will generally only teach students who come with good recommendations from their community. It is an eclectic and diverse grouping, drawing on many traditions, and has been influenced by waterbending by way of the Swamp Villagers, who have some cultural contact with the wide-ranging Jiangke.