The Water Tribes of Avatar

The Water Tribes are a peaceful group of people who wish to live in peace and harmony with the other nations of the world while maintaining balance with nature. In Avatar the Last Airbender, there are two water bending tribes. The Northern and the Southern Water Tribes live at the two opposite poles of the world, Northern Water Tribe at the North Pole and the Southern Water Tribe at the South Pole. Even though their desire is to live in peace, their ultimate goal is to stop the Fire Nation from conquering the free world.

Symbols of the Water Tribe

The water tribe symbol is a circle with a crescent moon and water waves within it. The crescent moon represents the moon spirit while the water waves represent the ocean spirit and the circle represents unity or harmony. The symbol means that the water benders coexist with each other and other nations in peace, harmony while maintaining stewardship over the power of water – the pushing and pulling of water like the moon or known as Water Bending.

Contact between Tribes

Before the invasion from the Fire Nation, both tribes lived in peace with the world. At first, all the Water Benders lived at the North Pole as one large peaceful tribe. However, following a civil discontent and strife, a large group of Water benders, healers and warriors left the North Pole and established the Southern Water Tribe at South Pole. Then for a few years following this, both Tribes grew in large proportions while evolving their own distinct culture and civilizations. Just like the Northern Water Tribe, the Southern Water Tribe build large cities of ice so beautiful that it rivaled the majesty of even the Northern Water Tribe cities.

Culture of Both Tribes

During this era of peace, both tribes developed their own code of ethics, conduct, governmental systems and water bending styles. In the Northern Tribe, women were not allowed to learn combat-style water bending but were forced to learn healing using Water Bending while in the Southern Tribe, men and women learned the art of war in combat skills needed to survive. But in both tribes, the majority of warriors and water benders were males – thus the evolution of male centered civilizations. At the age of sixteen girls of the Northern Water Tribe reach the age of marriage, where they are arranged to be married to boys by their parents. Meanwhile in the Southern Water Tribe, at fourteen the boys participate in the rite of passage to become warriors – known as Ice Dodging. In Northern Water Tribe, because of years of tradition, culture and greater sense of cultural responsibility, the Northern people do not enjoy as much freedoms as the southern water tribe (especially girls). In Southern Water Tribe, girls do not have to marry at sixteen or enter into arranged marriages. They marry whom they choose. The Southern Water Tribe also tends to be more “open minded.”

Destruction by Fire

Unlike the numerously strong Northern Water Tribe, the Southern Water tribe was at risk of invasion. A few years before, the leaders of the Fire Nation (The Fire Lord Sozin and his sons) started a war that has dragged on for over a century. With no sign of the Avatar to maintain balance of the world, there seemed no hope for peace. Waves of Fire Nation navy ships patrolled the waters while invading armies started to overrun the Earth Kingdom. One by one, the cities were falling and the people getting destroyed. Into this chaos, the peace loving people of the Southern Water Tribe was dragged into. Each day, more and more Fire nation ships began to slowly encroach on the Water Tribe’s territory. Then one day, the Day of Destruction came upon them swiftly. Southern Water Benders and warriors fought bravely but were simply overrun by the massive Fire Nation armada. The enemy burned the beautiful cities of Ice to the ground and killed all the water benders they could find. Within a short time, the southern water tribe has no water benders left. Without water benders, the people could not rebuild their cities or their lives and they could not defend themselves. Thus the Southern Water Tribe broke into smaller clans and scattered across the South Pole – living in igloos, tents and making a living from fishing and hunting.

The Tribal Leaders

After the destruction of the grand cities of the Southern Water tribe, each of the villages in Southern Water Tribe now has its own village leader – and all village leaders are males. This loose organization of governing the people has led to less coordination between the various villages, thus making it easy for the Fire Nation to conquer them. The leader of the village of Sokka and Katara is their dad, a warrior named Hakoda. In the Northern Water Tribe, an elaborate system of government is in place with the entire Tribe ruled by the Grant Chief. The current Chief is called Arnook who is famous for being an excellent warrior. Such organization and mastery of their people have helped the Northern Water Tribe resist and defend themselves from Fire Nation attacks.

The Powers that be

A Water bender’s energy is derived from the moon but most of the energy is from within the bender – much like the energy in martial arts. Thus this energy determines how strong and how powerful a water bender’s power can be when on the offense or defense. So as anger increases, the power of Water Bending increases but with less control over the water. This emotional connection is also known to work wonders with healing injured patients and make water benders even more potent. But at night time, Water Benders are most dangerous. When the moon is out in the sky, their power increases drastically and during full moon or when they are near one of the poles (North Pole or South Pole) or when it is winter the benders experience stronger bending. If one or more of these conditions are met, the water benders are even able to bend the blood that runs in the veins of all living creatures – immediately killing or torturing its victims. However, if the Water Bender is skilled enough and if it is the full moon (at the height of their power), they can bend anything or anyone. Yes, you heard me, anyone! Since the human body is made of mostly water, the water benders who possess such skills and power can reach to a level where they bend the water in the human body – taking control of the person’s body. They can also kill people by draining the water out of the body or the living creature. Water benders can also control all forms of water – liquid (water), solid (ice, snow, glaciers etc.), and gas (steam, air moisture). This makes a water bender almost hard to stop – making them adaptable to various environments.

For everything strong, there is always a weakness

As strong as a water bender is, his power is essentially from the water. So if you manage to move the water bender far enough from the water source or make sure that he has no water to bend, then he is as powerless as a fly. Another key thing is to remember that Water Benders gain their power from the moon, night or from winter season. So by attacking during a hot summer day means you have more chances of defeating a water bender. The Moon and Ocean spirits at the North Pole are also targets that can be killed in order to destroy water bending but the consequences of such a drastic action on the balance of the world and on life on the planet is unknown. And in the end, the Water Benders are not offensive nation, they are meant for defense. Thus by shear power during the Sozin’s comet or during some other favorable time or place for your bending, you can easily overpower the water bender.

The Future of the Water Tribes

Everyone can agree that the water tribes have been through a lot. The Southern Water Tribe went through an extermination or genocide in modern terms – leaving the people weak and disorganized with no good defenses. Meanwhile the Northern Water Tribe endured a siege and with the help of the avatar defeated the incoming army. Once rebuilding began, the Northern Water Tribe was informed of the condition of the Southern Tribe and season 2 (and 3) mentions water benders going to the Southern Tribe to train new warriors and benders. At the finale of Book 3, Katara’s grandfather – the northern tribe’s water bending master said that he personally made a trip to the Southern Water tribe and reunited with Katara’s family. Thus once again the tribes are making contact and working together to build themselves a future and recover from the nightmares that beset them. Only time will tell what challenges they face in the time to come as they rebuild their lives and families.