Air Nation

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you will always long to return." -- Leonardo da Vinci

The Air Nation is among the oldest countries still extant. Its domain stretches as far as birds can fly. This land of boundless skies is home to a wide array of peoples, geographies, and beliefs. What unites them is neither blood nor language, but commitment to the Way of the Many Winds, a tradition emphasizing the importance of clarity, flexibility, and spirituality.

History

The Air Nation is one of the oldest nations on the server, founded by then-High Wind Murpple. Beginning in Air Temple Valley, the initial model for the nation was one of a single Air Temple (the old ID on Dynmap reflected this - "Air Temple", rather than "Air Nation"). As a result, this Air Temple was sleepy, had poor development, and low population - the First Temple as it has come to be known was mostly a wooden disc on top of a mountain. While the territory did have a basic port, including the largest warship in the world, Fianna, until the inauguration of ENS Kyoshi, it was a relatively underdeveloped power.

The history of the Air Nation has been intimately connected to the Fire Nation since Firelord Alweglim first proclaimed the state. At first, this was not a friendly relationship. Despite initial ambivalence towards each other, Murpple soon made a name for himself by irritating firebenders in their territory. In retribution, CCyan (future High Priest of the Church of Fire) burned down the First Temple.

The destruction of the First Temple had an enormous impact on the Air Nation. The Fire Nation, previously seen as a distant neighbour, became an existential threat. Murpple began immediately recruiting new members and Air Temple Valley became a flurry of activity, as the fledgling nation was born out of a sleepy temple. The new nation abandoned its old principles of pacifism and sleepy spirituality, instead focusing on a rapid build up of resources, technology, and weaponry. The world's first airships, Defiance and Surging Gale, were built at this time by Vidcom. The threat of war eventually dissipated - Murpple and Alweglim held diplomatic talks, where the Fire Nation confessed to having zero urge for any kind of conquest and the Air Nation agreed to relax its hostile attitude to their eastern neighbour.

With peace assured as relations warmed, the resources of the Valley could now be put to non-military use. Murpple created the first boundaries of the Air Nation, massively expanding its territory from the Valley, stretching to the Northern Lake. While this caused a short-lived border dispute with Mexico, the new frontier was rapidly settled. Initially, the project was to settle the mountainous islands in a large city consisting of floating cities to be called the "Sky Temple", but this project fizzled out as Ainin, the head builder, left the Air Nation to settle an Earth Kingdom. In tribute to the old spiritualistic past, the second new air temple was created in the new town of Inkwood, a short distance south of the floating city construction site. The old "Air Temple" at the Valley was renamed to Eastern Air Temple, with the new one at Inkwood to be the Western Air Temple. The first Kirov was introduced, HWS Elysium, which remains docked at Inkwood to this day.

Having expanded the Air Nation immensely and seeing the frontier expand such that the Air Nation could now safely be called a world power, Murpple sought to retire. In order to end his tenure on a high note, the Constitutional Convention. This document was negotiated between Murpple, Vidcom, and Paper, as the main active members of the Nation. Upon completion, the Constitution defined a rigorous and devolved system of government for the territory that saw clear roles delegated for the military, for political leadership, for diplomacy, and for domestic affairs. Each temple was to have a Templemaster, directly appointed by nearby denizens, who would be appointed to the Council of Templemasters. This Council would then vote for one of their number to be appointed Grandmaster, responsible for the military and diplomatic affairs.

Upon the ending of the Constitutional Convention, Grandmaster Murpple resigned his title to become simply the Eastern Templemaster. With a unanimous result, Western Templemaster Paper was elected as his successor. The Convention also saw the borders expand significantly, incorporating border territories from the now-extinct Mexico, the NPC village of Riversway, and other territories. This directly led to the establishment of the Southern Air Temple, led by Southern Templemaster Vidcom.

Shortly after this, the Inkwood Conclave was summoned by Paper. This event sought to define the tendencies and beliefs that had drifted out from Air Temple Valley to the new temples. This new faith, Empyreanism or the Way of the Many Winds, was proclaimed shortly afterwards and adopted by the rest of the Air Nation. Its main holy text, Creation, was vague and appeared to either describe the creation of the world by itself; viewed more metaphorically, it can be interpreted as a meditation on the nature of the elements and their relationships. The Way was its second main text, providing ethical and personal guidance to adherents. Empyreanism also has been deemed to be highly interpretable, with each of the three main temples having different and conflicting opinions as to what the guidance of the holy texts means or should be seen to represent. While the Eastern and Western Schools have yet to publish their own works to describe their outlook, the Southern School has been summarised in Southern Templemaster Vidcom's remarks following the Inkwood Conclave. The faith has not been widely adopted outside of the Air Nation.

During the Zombie Crisis, the Air Nation was hit particularly poorly. The villages of Kingsland was wiped out, and Grainwood was reduced to a population of 1. With the Kami Breakthrough and Fuel Revolution, the Air Nation sought to use its significant advantage in airships to repopulate these villages. This has proven to be polarizing, with some states such as the Earth Kingdom and Free Territory condemning the practise, while the Fire Nation and Cassland sought to hire the Air Nation's services.

Geography

TODO

Government and politics

The Air Nation is a constitutional theocratic republic divided into temples, each of whom claims authority over its surrounding territory. The residents of each templar province elect from among their pious a templemaster, who oversees temporal and spiritual matters in the region. In turn, the various templemasters elect the Grandmaster of the Air Nation from amongst themselves. The grandmaster is the supreme executive of the Air Nation, and also holds prime spiritual authority. The capital of the Air Nation is always located at the temple of the current grandmaster.

International Reliatons

The Air Nation's foreign relations have generally been characterised by excellent diplomacy, with occasional moments of tension. While it was mostly pacifist and quiet in its early days of spiritualism, Grandmaster Murpple saw the territory expand and militarise significantly.

It is true that the Air Nation's early rise was in large part due to tensions with the Fire Nation. Following the burning of the First Temple, many in the Air Nation were convinced of the Fire Nation's intent to return in the future. The response from the Fire Nation varied, either being distracted by their ongoing construction projects or responding with coldness to the open plans of possible attack. While this conflict did not come to pass, other states, such as the Free Territory and Water Tribe, began to adjust their plans accordingly to what appeared to be a vendetta for the destruction of the First Temple.

Ultimately, this conflict did not come to pass. With the Air Temple now burgeoning with funds and resources, expansion westwards began. In claiming the mountain island for the Floating City in the North Lake, an unintentional diplomatic dispute began with Mexico. Presidente Sylviagony had been using the coral sea, now firmly behind the new border. Murpple was able to settle the affair, promising Mexican access to the coral supplies if the Mexican government agreed to recognise the new Air Nation border as legitimate. This would not be the end of Airbender-Mexican tensions, with a brief border clash by HWS Elysium. Upon the collapse of Mexico, some border territories and the former capital were annexed by the Air Nation, drawing disapproval from the Mexican successor state of Fryslan.

With the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention, the Air Nation expanded its borders significantly once again, claiming unoccupied lands to its south and beginning the settling of the Southern Air Temple. This was met with hostility by other powers, albeit on a highly delayed timescale. Andorra issued a statement of concern shortly after, but the main tensions came from the Free Territory and Earth Kingdom. Despite initially pleasant relations, including the acceptance of a gift of food from the new Southern Temple to Freeport, the Territory's leadership criticised the border adjustment for the annexation of the town of Riversway. The town was seen as within the Free Territory's sphere of influence, despite the Air Nation having relocated villagers there to northern villages near the Western Temple drawing no comment. Following this tension, the Earth Kingdom issued a proclamation that their northern desert was to be neutral and any annexation of land there was to be interpreted as an act of war - a comment that could only affect either new states/colonies or the Air Nation. In his first diplomatic test, Grandmaster Paper settled the matter by pointing out that over 200 blocks of space remained between the Air Nation and Free Territory at the borders closest point, and by stating that the AN had ample amounts of land and had no interest in claiming more. This ease in tensions was confirmed by the cooperation of the Comrade-General with the Southern Templemaster in constructing a new riverway to allow rowboat traffic to connect Freeport to the Spawn Lake.

Economy

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Demographics

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Culture

As of March 2021, there are three air temples. The first and largest is located in Temple Valley, and is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Air Temple. The second is the Western Air Temple, located next to the town of Inkwood. The third and newest is the Southern Air Temple. Each of the temples has a distinctive aesthetic tradition and ideological bent. Indeed, the Air Nation is famed for its vibrant intellectual tradition. New ideas are constantly being introduced and debated by scholars, priests, monks, or even laypeople. Despite its theocratic form of government, the Air Nation is hardly exclusionary.

See also

• List of states

Temporary

Fact Sheet

Name: Air Nation

Motto: "Eyes Turned Skyward"

Capital: Inkwood, formerly Air Temple Valley (the capital is the temple of the current grandmaster, and thus moves when a new grandmaster is chosen)

Government: Constitutional Theocracy

Head of State: Grandmaster Paperweight

Founding: December 2020

Armed Forces: The Air Sky Navy The Air Navy The Air Land Forces