Avatar Portal's
Avatar Renaissance Championships
STARTING EVENTS:
Summer Solstice Festival,
Fire Lord's Wedding & Agni Kai Training
Fire Nation Summer Solstice Festival
June 21st, 2007, is the Summer Solstice. Since the sun plays such a strong role in the lore and culture of the Fire nation, as well as the source of power for firebenders, it is easy to see how the Summer Solstice would be an important and celebrated day. On the Summer Solstice, the day lasts the longest and the night is shortest compared to the rest of the year. The sun is in the height of its power and glory.
The Fire Nation set up a Fire Shrine where people may pray at and make offerings at. Then they hosted a festival of FIRE! The thread of conversation was to focus on fire, summer and solar related things for 24 hours.
WE ARE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF FIRE!
HUO!! HUO!! HUO!!
Fire Spinning Poi became one celebrated topic:
* Please note that each picture is hyperlinked to the site it came from... in case you want to know more! *
Can you see the Fire Dragon?!
The two great spirits of fire, not including the sun, are the Dragon and the Phoenix in Asian cultures. The Dragon in ATLA is a symbol of power and greatness. Apparently there used to be flying dragon in the Fire Nation at some point as the avatar before Aang, Roku, had one as his bonded guide through life. Also, Dragon was a title given to great people. For example Iroh was called the Dragon of the West while he was a great firebender and general in the Fire nation army before he lost his right to the Fire nation throne. Other nations still remembered him as such, especially the Earth Kingdom and those in Ba Sing Se where he laid siege to the great impenetrable walls of the city for 600 days. The phoenix is a fiery bird that turns to ashes and is reborn again, a great symbol of regeneration. These two images are merged in ATLA with their trusted messenger birds, DragonHawks, which look like a fiery red and brown hawk used for both hunting and delivering messages.
The Summer Solstice Wedding of the Fire Lord and his Fire Lady
Fire Lord Gotag and the graphic artist, ZKZ (zukotokozu) held an in-forum event for the Summer Solstice. A wedding!! The Fire Sage, ScarletCougar, performed the ceremony with a blessing as ZKZ provided the images.
In the name of the
Spirits and ancestors of Fire
May our daughter of fire, ZKZ, and our son of fire, Fire Lord Gotag
Be blessed on this Summer Solstice
May this union bring joy and harmony and strength to our nation!
In the name of the Sun Goddess, Amaterasu
In the name of the Fire Spirits, Dragon and Phoenix
In the name of the ancestors
May I pronounce you husband and wife, Fire Lord and Fire Lady
So shall it be!
This event was celebrated publicly. Members of the forum came into the thread with their various forms of congratulations.
Kaji wrote a haiku as a wedding gift:
Gotag and Kozu
Bound together by their love
Proved by a wedding
While the celebration continued into gossip and speculation, Prince Sokka coined a term: bow chicka bow wow! There was debate whether the new Fire Lady was pregnant and if there was a scandal that she might be pregnant by another man (ATLA’s Zuko). No… she wasn’t. Tom asked to be a godfather for the child if Gotag and ZKZ did have children. Travahar made a failed assassination attempt with poisoned lipstick. Then Travahar hinted at stealing the bride, as in a Helen of Troy incident! Kaji quickly stepped in with further Greco-Roman mythology and reminded Travahjar that the Fire Nation is like the Greek army and the Water tribe is like Troy “and we all know how that turned out.” Travahar got burned by ZKZ in the end. She is a trained assassin herself, how could have remotely thought he could better her? He crawled back to his tribe to see a waterbending healer for his burns.
Kaji stepped forward and opened up the wedding reception. They partied, danced and practiced firebending. An Agni Kai for fun was declared between Winnkey and Kaji. Fun was had by all. Kaji acted as DJ for the dancing. AvatarGate almost crashed the party a couple times, but it went on despite him. Apparently Fire Lord Gotag was less impressed with the fun than his new wife. “You guys are all weird!” And in a corner we overheard ZKZ call Gotag a cute name, Ochibi. Prince Sokka of the Earth Kingdom stepped in where he really should not have and got beaten by Draco and Winnkey as they defended their Fire Lord and Lady. The fight was settled with a battle for a piñata. ScarletCougar had to usher everyone out in the late hours, “Please do not overstay your welcome here, let them have their honeymoon for Agni's sake!!”
Agni Kai Practice for Firebenders
Agni Kai stems from two words from two different cultures in the Real World. Agni is the name of a god of Fire and the Sun in Indian (Hindu) culture and Kai is a Japanese word for “meeting”. So an Agni Kai is the Meeting before the Fire God. And in the ATLA world, it came to mean a Fire Duel. There are no specific references as to how this came about, at least not yet. Perhaps in Season 3 there will be some hints. What we do know is that Agni Kai is fought for one’s honor when a terrible insult has been made upon said honor. The fight has rules of honor as well. The loser either dies or is shamed for life. So far, we only know Agni Kai to be duels between firebenders.
There have been some very notable Agni Kai’s in season 1 of ATLA. The first is the historic one that earned Zuko his scar and banishment. The other was later in the season when Zuko engages in an Agni Kai against General Zhaou. Let’s take a quick peak back into Season 1 at these moments.
THE STORM (episode 112)
Iroh sits with some crew members of the ship Zuko lead while in his banishment. The crew is frustrated with Zuko’s determination to find the avatar. They do not understand the importance of this mission. They do not realize that in Zuko’s eyes, his very honor resides in the success of this mission. Iroh tells us the tale of Zuko’s scar.
We learn that Zuko, at the age of 14 sought to learn about rulership by sitting in on the war meetings. Iroh managed to get him in with the promise that Zuko would say nothing. In that meeting a general decided to send a bunch of recruits to be slaughtered by the Earth Kingdom in order to draw the Earth Kingdom out and then move in from behind to eliminate them. Zuko saw this as a very dishonorable tactic, not just for the general way of taking the enemy, but also in the treatment of the recruits. “You can't sacrifice an entire division like that! Those soldiers love and defend our nation! How can you betray them?” Zuko declared in that meeting.
As Iroh put it, “Zuko was right. But it was not his place to speak out, and there were dire consequences.” Fire Lord Ozai was furious with his son. So he declared the insult to be settled with an Agni Kai. Zuko thought it would be against the general, but because his outburst was in his father’s war room, he had to duel his own father.
Zuko had refused to fight his own father. He begged for mercy. Still furious, Ozai demanded Zuko fight for his honor. Again Zuko begged as only a 14-year-old boy in tears could, “I meant no disrespect. I am your loyal son. Please father! I will not fight you.” Ozai however was not swayed or placated and apparently showed no love for this son of his. He snarled that Zuko would learn respect and that suffering would be his teacher. We see in the audience, Commander Zhao and Zuko’s sister Azula thrilled with Fire Lord Ozai’s actions and Iroh turning his head in shame. Ozai then blasted a flame that badly burned Zuko’s face leaving him with the scar we all know as his trademark. It was declared that Zuko was shamed and weak and thus was then banished. The only way to restore his honor would be to capture or defeat the avatar.
*INSERT HERE: IMAGE IF ZUKO BANDAGED AND HEALING AT WESTERN AIR TEMPLE*
SOUTHERN AIR TEMPLE (episode 103)
On the hunt for the avatar, Zuko stops to repair his ship after his first failed attempt at capturing Aang. There he and Iroh encounter Commander Zhao, who suspects Zuko had found the avatar and intends to steal the glory from Zuko for himself. “You can't compete with me. I have hundreds of warships under my command, and you... you're just a banished prince. No home. No allies. Your own father doesn't even want you.” Zhao’s insult strikes a painful chord in Zuko. He taunts Zuko and tears at Zuko’s honor some more, degrading him and declaring Ozai’s hatred for his son. In Zuko’s fury, Agni Kai is announced. Zhao readily agrees, reminding Zuko what happened last time Zuko fought a master firebender (referring to the shame and the scar). Zuko’s reply was simple, “I will never forget.”
Iroh fusses like a worried father, reminding Zuko to use the basics against Zhao. Zhao is cocky and overconfident. The fight is one of the most spectacular in all the ATLA episodes. In the end, Zuko defeats Zhao, but does not kill him nor harm him. Zuko merely stands and turns his back on Zhao. Zhao then attempts to attack Zuko from behind after his defeat. Iroh blocks him as Zuko turns in defense. Iroh’s words will stay with fans forever, “So this is how the great Commander Zhao acts in defeat. Disgraceful. Even in exile, my nephew is more honorable than you.”
In the AvRen, Winnkey set up a thread to engage in Agni Kai’s as a way for the Fire Nation AvRen members to practice. This was an opportunity for them to work with roleplaying and think through fighting moves well enough to describe the,. The rules were simple. A participant had to be a ranking officer with firebending (ranks were decided by Fire Lord Gotag). There would be no fatal blows. As Winnkey put it, “We don’t want to make the other nations’ jobs easier.” The other rule was that you can’t control the other character in anyway. You can attack him but you can’t say where it hits. You have to be realistic. If it would hit you, you can’t say that you dodged it. Fire Lord Gotag approved it, especially when Winnkey put it this way, “this is the place where all the hot heads can battle it out to see who the better firebender is.” However, not all members of the Fire nation approved. Conzu was one such member. He held to the more formal traditions of the Agni Kai as a duel for one’s honor, not a fighting training ground. He would only challenge someone or accept an Agni Kai after a real insult.
Kaji and Winnkey held the first Agni Kai, while AvatarGate, Chief of the Northern Water tribe, acted as announcer. Fire Lady ZKZ came to watch as well. Kaji put up a good fight with his superior, but in the end was defeated. Fire Sage ScarletCougar was acting healer. She did not have the skills of a waterbending healer, but was excellent with medicine and healing aid techniques. She healed Kaji on the spot. Nonetheless, the Fire Lady encouraged him by giving him a silk handkerchief. He had fought well and earned respect for that, especially since he handled defeat with honor.
The next Agni Kai was with the winning Winnkey and Draco. Draco got the quick reprimand of no weapons permitted. SOTS (as Laoi) came to watch. Draco was new to the AvRen Fire Nation. This fight, however, was more complex. We could see some greater skill there.
*Draco sees the fire kick just in time and back
flips over it, and the fire punches past the sides of his face. But the dust
that followed the punches get in his eye and he lands on the ground pulling back
and forth*
"Fire dust, clever. I see it may take a little more with you" His eyes are
watery. Draco fleets around the ring. The tight friction from his feet is
starting a ring of fire around Winnkey. Draco jumps in and raises the fire like
a tidal wave. He uses the dragon trick to follow Wink around the arena
Despite cheers from the crowd, Draco forfeits the fight. Kaji calls for a rematch. However, SOTS/Laoi steps in for a match first. Winnkey was in for a challenge with the more skilled fighter of his new opponent. All moves are ones from the ATLA series. The round is spectacular and fast. The audience goes wild. Winnkey has finally been defeated in a long hard fight. Kaji was less certain about fighting the new winner. SOTS/Laoi made it clear that he would not fight Kaji till Kaji trained more and rose in rank. It would not be a fair fight. So, SOTS/Laoi stepped out of the ring a winner and let Kaji challenge Draco.
As the fight draws out between Draco and Kaji, Ozai pokes in and clarifies that weapons are not permissible. Draco fell unconscious and the room cleared out for a short while. He woke to an empty snack bar. Not too long after, people filed in. There were many who had no understanding of the etiquette. Some asked to join the fight without realizing they had to be members of the Fire Nation army and ranked firebenders. Conzu steps in the challenge or push back the arrogant fools. No one stepped forward.
The following discussions lead to the creation of a Four Nation battle arena where backgrounds were found for each nation:
Air Nomad:
Fire Nation:
No other backgrounds were found and the idea for a Four Nations Battle Area did not remain part of the AvRen for any notable amount of time.
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