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Healing via waterbending.
Waterbending Symbol
Appearance
Ethnically homogeneous, members of both tribes typically have light or deep brown hair, blue eyes and light brown/tan
skintone. Water Tribe clothing is typically a set of blue anorak and trousers lined and trimmed with white fur, and worn with
mittens and mukluks. Men wear their hair in short ponytails (also known as "warrior's wolf tails"), while women
plait and braid their hair in various styles, sometimes with accent beads, and many sport "hair loopies" in various
styles.
National emblem
The national emblem of the Water Tribe is a circle comprised of a waning (if up is taken to be north and the orbit of
the show's moon assumed to be the same as the Earth's Moon) crescent moon and three wavy horizontal lines representing water.
It is displayed on the pennant of the watchtower in the Southern Tribe Village, and in the architecture of the Northern Water
Tribe.
Government
The Southern Tribe operates on a patriarchal tribalist system of government. The Northern Tribe is a patriarchal monarchy.
Labor division is dependent on gender: men serve as hunters, fishermen and warriors, and women serve as homemakers. These
gender roles do not appear as imposed in the Southern Water Tribe as they are in the Northern Water Tribe. If a Southern Water
Tribe woman wanted to Waterbend or fight, she is allowed to do so. In the Northern Water Tribe, she will be denied her wishes.
Though, it is possible that the gender restrictions on the south were lessened in order to provide more people to help with
the tribe, due to a lack of workers. Compared to their sister tribe, there is no apparent monarchy (at least since the fall
of the city).
History
Southern Water Tribe members
The Southern Water Tribe was once a beautiful city, like the Northern Water Tribe, but is currently in dire straits, teetering
on the brink of extinction. Its remaining population is dwindling due to Fire Nation raids and currently left defenseless,
as its warriors left for the Earth Kingdom to aid in the century-long war against the Fire Nation two years ago. With the
departure of the sole remaining Waterbender, Katara (if there are other waterbenders, they probably left to help the Earth
Kingdom) and warrior, Sokka, with Aang the Avatar, the people consist mostly of elderly and middle aged women and very young
children. Recently a group of waterbenders and healers from the Northern Tribe have been sent to the Southern Tribe to help
rebuild.
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Games
Penguin sledding is a game played amongst children of the Tribe, consisting of catching a penguin, and riding its back
as a makeshift sled.
Customs
The Tribe has a unique rite-of-passage called "Ice Dodging." When a male tribemember turns fourteen, he is taken
out on a boat with his father, and challenged to steer it through iceberg-studded waters. If and when the boy succeeds, he
receives a mark on his forehead symbolizing his defining trait, and is declared a full member of the tribe.
Certain Southern Tribe members are more than willing to liberally adapt the ritual to new situations. In one instance,
tribemember Bato took the fifteen-year-old Sokka, his younger sister Katara, and Aang, a twelve-year-old Airbender, on an
"ice dodging" expedition in the rocky waters of the Earth Kingdom. When all cooperated in the ritual, he marked
and declared them all full members of his tribe.
Village
Southern Water Tribe village
The Village, positioned on a northern shoreline, is surrounded by a low, roughly circular snow wall, broken up by a snow
watchtower (built by Sokka) to the north, and an ungated entrance to the south. Inside are eight residential tents, arranged
semicircularly around a communal fire pit. A giant igloo hugs the east wall, while a handful of smaller ones cluster at the
north wall. Outside, to the left of the entrance, is a small igloo-structure that serves as the village outhouse. The remaining
population stands at less than two-dozen, with ten married and/or elderly women, ten young children, and one domesticated
polar bear. It is currently unknown if this village is the only village in the South Pole.
The Shipwreck
West of the village lies a Fire Navy ship, torn open on jutting ice shelves. Though the shipwreck is a relic of the Fire
Nation's long-ago first strike, its booby-traps are still in working order. In "The Boy in the Iceberg", Aang accidentally
set off a flare that was meant to signal the Fire Nation.
Warriors
All adult male tribemembers are fully-trained warriors. Their weaponry includes clubs and spears made of bone (also used
in spearfishing), bladed metal boomerangs and machetes with whale teeth on the dull side of the blade. Water Tribe warriors
typically wear black and white warpaint before going into battle. Waterbending warriors wear mouthpieces and hoods. Two years
ago all the men of the Southern Water Tribe were sent to fight in the war, leaving the village defenseless.
Fauna
The Southern Water Tribe is home to exotic fauna. Its sea lions are brown, with the dark brown striping and large ears
of tigers. Polar bears are miniaturized and domesticated, with a black stripe running from spine to muzzle. The native penguins
have four flippers, and are curiously beakless, instead sporting otter-like bewhiskered faces. White, chinchilla-like rodents
inhabit the Shipwreck.
Northern Water Tribe
Water Tribe Throne Room.
Northern Water Tribe Nobles: Princess Yue and Chief Arnook.
Unlike the obliterated Air Nomads and their southerly sister tribe, the Northern Water Tribe has survived a century of
war with the Fire Nation, due to the defenses their icy terrain provides. Behind high walls of ice and an ice gate and canal
lock system passable only by the use of Waterbending, there lies a large and bustling monarchic nation-state. Ruled by Chief
Arnook, the capital city features a palace, an army, and many skilled warriors, Healers, Waterbenders, and a hidden sanctuary
which houses Tui and La, the Moon and Ocean Spirits. Flanked by icy sidewalks, the city roadways are canals, which people
travel by gondola.
Northern Water Tribe capital city
The cultural landscape, however, is highly classist and stratified. Marriages are arranged when tribe members turn sixteen,
with the bride in particular having no say in the matter. Engaged women wear "betrothal necklaces:" navy blue chokers
bearing blue stone pendants carved by their husband-to-be. Women Waterbenders are further marginalized, forbidden by custom
from learning Waterbending for fighting purposes. Instead, they are trained as Healers, able to use bending to heal wounds.
While the Southern Tribe seems to have similar traditional roles, they are apparently much more strict in the North, as Katara,
who was raised in the South, expresses surprise and anger when she is initially denied equal treatment in waterbending training.
Bato, a Southern Tribe Male and a friend of Katara's father, showed no signs of disapproval when observing Katara's waterbending
skills.
The most distinguishable fauna in the area consist of seals, which sport shells and flippers of sea turtles, and people
have domesticated elk-yaks for riding.
In the aftermath of the Fire Nation's Siege of the North, select Benders and Healers from the Northern Tribe have left
for the South Pole, in an effort to rebuild their ravaged sister tribe. And considering the attack on the North Pole and that
Master Pakku allowed Katara to learn Waterbending, it may be possible that the strict rules barring female Waterbenders from
learning to fight may change, and both male and female Waterbenders can fight together.
Foggy Swamp Tribe
A member of the waterbending Foggy Swamp Tribe.
The Foggy Swamp Tribe are a waterbending Tribe who live in a mystical swamp in the Earth Kingdom. Though they share the
skill of waterbending, they are completely unknown to their polar cousins and vice versa. They speak with a Mississippi River
Delta accent, with whom they share much of their stereotypes. Though technologically unsophisticated, they are powerful waterbenders.
They can use waterbending to propel their river crafts to very high speeds. Members of the Swamp Tribe have also discovered
how to bend swamp plants by controlling the water within them. Their diet consists of small game and giant insects, and they
keep alligator-catfish as pets.
The Swamp itself is a vast, mysterious wetland that covers a very large area of the Southwest Earth Kingdom. At its center
stands an enormous, ancient banyan-grove tree whose roots spread out over miles. The whole swamp is actually made of this
one tree. It's branches spread, then take root, then spread some more. It's one big, living organism.
The ancestors of the Foggy Swamp Tribe migrated from the Southern Water Tribe thousands of years ago [citation needed]
and found these swamps. Because of all the water in the swamp, the Waterbenders felt at home and decided to stay. The swamp
folks are often considered strange because of what they eat (like possum chicken and giant bugs) and how they talk with funny
accents. Though they wear green as opposed to blue, it could be pointed out that the water in their area is green and they
are thus consistent with the other cultures of the Avatar world in using their element as primary color motif. The Swamp Tribe,
however, are Earth Kingdom citizens.
Influences
In many aspects, Water Tribe culture borrows heavily from that of the Inuit peoples. [citation needed] The newly discovered
swamp tribe seems to share aspects of the stereotyped culture of the southern half of the United States, although their loincloths
resemble South American Natives.
The design of the Northern Water Tribe's capital city bears some resemblace to Venice, Italy and Atlantis (which contrasts
with the tribal theme of the Water Tribe, but relates to water nonetheless). [citation needed]
Weaknesses
It is known that the waterbenders lose their bending powers under a lunar eclipse. Water is not located everywhere in
the world, so many waterbenders carry around a flask filled with water to allow them the chance to bend no matter the location.
Southern Water Tribe
* Bato
* Hakoda (Katara and Sokka's father)
* Gran-Gran Kanna
* Katara
* Sokka
Northern Water Tribe
* Chief Arnook
* Master Pakku
* Princess Yue
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