Avatar Plot Synposis
A century prior to the series’ opening, Aang, a 12-year-old Airbender of the Air Nomads’ Southern Air Temple, learned from the elder monks that he was the Avatar. Shortly thereafter, the monks decreed that Aang would be separated from his guardian, Monk Gyatso, and sent to the Eastern Air Temple to complete his training.
Confused, frightened, and overwhelmed by these recent events and his new responsibilities as the Avatar, Aang fled from his home on his flying bison, Appa. While traveling over frigid southern ocean waters, a sudden storm caused Appa to plunge deep into the sea. Aang unconsciously entered the Avatar State, and used a combination of Airbending and Waterbending to protect Appa and himself. The Water Tribes are in crisis — the Southern Water Tribe’s warriors have left to wage war, leaving their home defenseless, while the Northern Water Tribe, though largely intact, is continually on the defensive. Aang soon discovers to his horror that, during his absence, a century-long war has been waged. The very year he vanished, Fire Lord Sozin took advantage of both the Avatar’s absence and the Firebending-enhancing powers of a passing comet (later named “Sozin’s Comet” in his honor) to launch a war on the other nations. To Aang’s shock and disbelief, the Fire Nation’s opening gambit had been a genocidal assault on the Air Nomads. The Air Temples were stormed and the Airbenders slaughtered in the Fire Nation’s effort to break the Avatar Cycle, leaving Aang as the last known Airbender in existence.
As the Avatar, Aang’s duty is to restore harmony and peace to the four nations. Along with his newly discovered friends Katara and Sokka, his flying bison Appa and his winged lemur Momo, and later the blind Earthbender Toph, Aang travels the world to master all four elements.