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Where Did The Air Nomads Come From?

What Happened To The Air Nomads?

Air Nomads In The Legend of Korra

The Four Nations of the world in Avatar: The Last Airbender are some of the central pillars of the story, as part of the main conflict involves the history of and relations between these nations, particularly regarding the Fire Nation's control over the others. As the name of the series implies, the nation that yields airbenders is one of great importance, and its history and eventual fate are huge story elements in ATLA.

Aang, the main character of the series and the Avatar himself, hails from the Air Nomads, who are the monastic tribe that controls the element of air. However, at the time of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Air Nation no longer exists. What happened to the once great nation, and how does it start to rebuild itself again during The Legend of Korra?

Avatar: The Last Airbender Timeline, Explained

Avatar: The Last Airbender has a long history that expands beyond Aang and Korra's lifetimes.

Where Did The Air Nomads Come From?

The Air Nomads were monks who subscribed to pacifism and practiced the discipline of airbending.
As the name implies, they were a nomadic people, but they had four air temples located throughout the world on mountains and under cliffs, specifically placed so that they were hard for non-airbenders to get to.
Unlike in the other nations, everyone born into the Air Nomad tribe was a bender, due to how spiritual they were as a people.
They traveled the world on creatures called flying bison.
The Air Nomads lived in harmony with nature, valuing detachment from worldly ideals, but were still fun-loving and had a good sense of humor.

Just like the other nations, the original airbenders lived on the backs of lion turtles, though they were more in touch with nature and the spiritual world than the ancestors of the other nations were. When the lion turtles renounced their roles as the protectors of humans, the various people groups all left to form their own respective nations, and the airbenders became the first Air Nomads. They built temples as their home bases, but migrated around as a nomadic people. Some of the Nomads remained independent of these temple settlements and continued to roam the world.

As time went on, the Air Nomads grew more and more detached from the rest of the world and focused more on spirituality and enlightenment, rejecting materialism and isolating themselves from the other nations. While they were at first still respected by the rest of the world, eventually this isolation earned them criticism from other nations, and they were accused of not caring about the outside world. The truth was that they really did care, so much so that they had to ignore worldly concerns in favor of preserving spiritual knowledge for future generations. Eventually, they started to venture out more and start repairing their relationships with the other nations by allying with them and assisting when necessary.

What Happened To The Air Nomads?

Avatar Roku, the Avatar before Aang, was a friend of the Air Nomads and learned his airbending from them, which showed a temporary connection between the Fire and Air Nations. When Roku died, Aang became his successor as the Avatar and lived with the Air Nomads, training under Gyatso. After 12 years had passed, Fire Lord Sozin, who had the goal of taking over the entire world, used a comet to enhance the firebending abilities of his army, sending them off to eliminate the Air Nomads. He targeted them because the Avatar was a threat to his absolute rule, and the current Avatar was a 12-year-old Air Nomad boy.

The Air Nomads told Aang that he was the Avatar (it was customary to wait until the child turned 18, but under the circumstances, they told him early), and Aang was, understandably, scared of the immense responsibility. When the Air Nomads tried to send him away from Gyatso to train at a different Air Temple, Aang ran away on his flying bison Appa, but they got caught in a storm and fell into the sea, where Aang unconsciously entered the Avatar State and froze both of them, where they would stay for 100 years until they were found by Katara and Sokka. The Air Nomads were raided by the Fire Nation and were totally exterminated, save for the Avatar, who was incapacitated for the time being.

Air Nomads In The Legend of Korra

Aang was still the lone airbender in ATLA, but the story of The Legend of Korra brought the nation back from extinction. When they were adults, Aang and Katara married and had three children, one of which was an airbender. Aang trained his son, Tenzin, in the art of airbending, and Tenzin passed the knowledge down to his own children, who were also airbenders. They were the only airbenders that existed until the events of the Harmonic Convergence, when the energy shift caused many non-benders to suddenly obtain the ability to airbend.

With all of these new airbenders, the once fantastical-seeming dream of being able to repopulate the Air Nation and fill the Air Temples once again became a reality. Of course, many of these newfound benders were averse to the idea of leaving their lives behind to not only start training as airbenders, but also to become monks. Some chose to follow the monastic path, while others chose not to fully join the airbenders and live their nomadic lifestyle.