Earth Kingdom
土国 Earth Kingdom | |
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 Flag
 Emblem
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| Motto: 「土帝万岁！」 (Long Live the Earth King!) | |
 Map of the administrative divisions of the Earth Kingdom | |
| Capital and largest city | Ba Sing Se |
| National language | Terran |
| Ethnic groups | 77% nonbender 21% earthbender 2% other |
| Religion | Celestialism |
| Demonym(s) | Terran |
| Government | Unitary absolute monarchy |
| Ainin | |
• Grand Secretary | Prince Chung-yang |
• Privy Secretary | Duke Chee |
• Chancellor | Lord Tsao of Ni-ma |
| Legislature | Consultative Assizes |
| Currency | Gold tael (金两) |
The Earth Kingdom (EK; Terran: 土国) is a unitary absolute monarchy in the west-central area of the world. Bordered to the north by the Northern Sea, to the west by the Western Sea, to the south by Fryslân and the Central Sea and to the east by the Khanate, the Earth Kingdom sits at the centre of international activity and plays a key role in facilitating world trade through its stewardship of the Western Canal.
Comprising two royal domains, two autonomously ruled viceroyalties, two military-administered regions and a free city, the Earth Kingdom is a large nation known for its arid climate, its large swaths of rolling savannas and deserts, and the strong sense of regionalism in its peripheral and frontier areas. Home to several large cities including Ba Sing Se, Gaoling and Zaofu, the Earth Kingdom is one of the most populous nations in the world. The population of the Earth Kingdom is heavily concentrated within the core royal domain of the southeast, with two-thirds of Terrans residing in South Jidai. Ba Sing Se, the capital of the Earth Kingdom and the largest city in the world, is a primate city which dominates the economic, political and cultural life of the nation and the region as a whole.
The Earth Kingdom is an ancient realm which has been inhabited since time immemorial. Traditionally said to have been founded by the mythical Yuan Wong (First King) at the beginning of the current age, the Earth Kingdom began as a confederation of earthbender communities centered around the Ba Sing Se area. Gradually, migrations of culturally Terran peoples emanating from the proto-Earth Kingdom expanded throughout the continent and settled throughout the modern borders of the Earth Kingdom, occasionally coming into conflict with nomadic Acacian peoples to the east. Over the subsequent centuries, the power of the Earth Kingdom over its peripheral areas waxed and waned based on the prosperity of Ba Sing Se, the military power of the Earth King and the inward- or outward-looking focus of the ruling elites. In the centuries preceding the modern era, the power of the Earth Kingdom relative to its cultural region waned significantly, and culturally Terran states such as the Kingdom of Omashu and the Free City of Zaofu enjoyed prosperity and independence for many generations. With the accession of Ainin to the throne, the Earth Kingdom rapidly built up a large military force and undertook a protracted campaign to subjugate the other Terran states by a variety of diplomatic and military means, thereby reestablishing a unified Earth Kingdom that is coterminous with the Terran cultural region. Ainin's rule, known as the Kwangdi era, has also seen rapid modernization, the creation of a blue-water navy and greater involvement in international affairs, from the signing of the Treaty on Open Seas to Earth Kingdom participation in the Mexican War.
As an absolute monarchy, the Earth Kingdom is ruled by the Earth King, a monarch who is said to be divinely anointed to preserve peace and order in the world. The Earth King, who is selected by a privy council from the Tudo dynasty, is in turn advised by His Majesty's Government (HM Government)—a group of aristocratic ministers led by the Grand and Privy Secretaries and answerable only to the King. Though the Earth King legally retains all executive power, HM Government has a free hand in running the nation and the monarch rarely personally involves himself in matters of state. All lawmaking authority is vested in the Earth King, though a standing assembly of the Lords of the Realm known as the Consultative Assizes gives the monarch non-binding advice on whether to adopt proposed laws. Outside of the royal domain, the Earth King's authority is inconsistent and the monarch is represented only by a small cadre of viceroys, royal commissioners and magistrate judges. In several peripheral areas, the old pre-unification local nobility is granted almost total autonomy in the administration of local affairs in return for nominal allegiance to the Crown. In recent years, as a result of the dramatic modernization and expansion of the military during the Unification War, the military staff has seen its political power grow significantly and they are now viewed as a rival pole of power to the civil government.
The Earth Kingdom is the world's preeminent earthbending state, though it is neither the sole population of earthbenders nor dominated by individuals with bending ability. The Earth Kingdom is known for being the origin and home of a unique earthbending art, known as metalbending. On account of its large and technologically unrivaled army and navy, worldwide diplomatic presence, and major role in international commerce, the Earth Kingdom is considered a great power and projects power widely thanks in part to alliances with the Air Nation, Andorra, Cassland and the Free Territory.
Server history
Server history of the Earth Kingdom
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The first Earth Kingdom was founded on the 23rd of December by Evangelos in what is now the Air Nation. This state controlled minimal territory and lasted a very brief time, eventually migrating into what is the current Earth Protectorate in Polaris. The modern Earth Kingdom was declared on 17 January 2021 by the current Earth King, Ainin. The first settlement to be constructed was Ba Sing Se, centred on its illustrious royal palace near an existing NPC village. This territory soon expanded to include other nearby villages. The Western Canal also began construction at this time, with sand dug out from the canal's construction site transported by ship back to Ba Sing Se's docks. This sand was used to make sandstone to build the famous city walls. The construction of the canal marked the beginnings of the Earth Kingdom's strategy of naval hegemony and the foundation of the Earth Navy. Further expansion followed on 28 January 2021, with the towns of Omashu, Gaoling, Cranefish Town, and Misty Palms being incorporated. This prompted the outbreak of the first Acacian War, which initially saw Acacians independentists seize vast swathes of territory in response to the expansion of monarchical authority. This war ultimately ended in an Earth Kingdom victory, as the Acacians could not agree on strategy or what an independent Acacia would like, with their cause not being revived again until the outbreak of The Brothers' War. While Gaoling and Cranefish Town fell relatively promptly, Omashu held out for much longer before it was captured by a joint operation of Earth Army cavalry and the Earth Navy's airforce. Victory over the Acacians gave the Earth Kingdom a secure land frontier, so it turned towards expansion overseas. The prospect of war with the Free Territory loomed at this period, as the two powers both wielded impressive fleets and contested the Central Sea while being starkly ideologically opposed. This prospect ended with the foundation of Andorra, which invited the Earth King as well as the Free Territory's Comrade-General to take up the positions of Co-Prince in the new state. This inadvertently created the world's first major alliance, the Princes of Andorra. The Earth Kingdom would respect this alliance with the outbreak of the Mexican War, following the attack on the Andorran ship Andorra by New Mexico. The Earth Kingdom did not participate in most of the serious land-based confrontations, leaving this task to its Free Territory ally. Instead, the Earth Navy focused on the destruction on the contentious Southern Island that had catalyzed the entire crisis. This operation was successful, in large part due to New Mexico being distracted by combat further north, and left the fort completely unusable. The beacon and New Mexican flags were also captured, which were donated to the Free Territory as gifts. On 15 January 2022, the Earth Kingdom expanded yet further by annexing new territory immediately to its north, as well as an overseas colony further north. |
History
Early history
According to the Classic of Origins, the first tome of the trio of Celestialist religious texts that serves as the origin myth of the Earth Kingdom, a builder spirit named the Badgermole was fashioned out of the cosmic energy of the universe and created an ordered world for man to live in. The Badgermole was said to have created a demiurge called the Dragon to help him fashion the world, but the latter rebelled and encouraged his wayward humans followers to reject order and give in to freedom. After a cosmic war between the mythical beings and their human followers, the Dragon was banished to a void dimension and the Badgermole, having completed his cosmic purpose, left the world to once again become part of the energy of the universe. In the second tome, known as the Classic of Nations, it was said that subsequent generations of humans forgot the teachings of the badgermole and gave in to freedom, selfishness and violence, stripping the earth bare of its natural wealth and destroying the peaceful worldwide community. According to the text, the despoliation of the world caused great calamities which were stopped by a succession of great heroes who in turn harnessed cosmic energy to create fire, air, water and earthbending. The earthbender hero, known as Da Kang (the Strongest One), was said to have proclaimed the end of the age of separation and taught the people to once again live frugal and ordered lives as the Badgermole had once instructed.
The text then states that Da Kang turned to his friend and anoited him to rule over the land and to stop the people from returning to chaos as Yuan Wong, the first king of the Earth Kingdom. According to the final Celestialist tome, the Doctrines of the Earth Kingdom, Yuan Wong founded a great walled city to preserve the ordered lifestyles of his people from chaos-loving marauders and penned a series of principles and meditations on the Earth King's relationship with his subjects and his cosmic responsiblity to rule justly and preserve universal order.
This origin story is largely believed to be mythological in nature and the historicity of the Badgermole, Da Kang and Yuan Wong have not been conclusively established. Moreover, the date of the founding of the Earth Kingdom is currently indeterminate. However, recent archaeological evidence from examination of the ancient caves beneath Ba Sing Se shows that the city is much older than commonly thought and that an early earthbender civilization once resided within the cave system. Furthermore, analysis of the city wall by bending masters and geologists lends support to the theory that a small number of powerful earthbenders—possibly even one man—erected the ancient sandstone fortifications. The historicity of the Earth Kingdom's founding myth is a topic of current research at Ba Sing Se University.
Peopling of the Terran lands
After the founding of Ba Sing Se, earthbending peoples congregated around the walled city and established a spciety along the shores of the Central Sea known as the proto-Terran civilization. The proto-Terran peoples came from many regions of the world, but they were connected through a sedentary agricultural society and a common Terran language. Due to the inhospitable desert climate of the interior, proto-Terran society was connected primarily through coastal navigation and excelled at sailing as a result. With Ba Sing Se growing increasingly crowded, population pressures forced many proto-Terrans to expand outward. Cranefish Town was founded as the first proto-Terran outpost outside of the Ba Sing Se area due to the need for its fertile soil to feed the growing urban population.
Around the time that the expansion began, the proto-Terran society evolved to take the form of a centralized monarchical government ruled from Ba Sing Se. Over time, this government began to view itself as the nation of the earthbenders and took on the name of Earth Kingdom, with the monarch styling himself as Earth King. Under the newly unified leadership of the Earth King, the new nation expanded westward past the Si Wong Desert into the vast fertile plains of the central Earth Kingdom, establishing the colony of Gaoling. Further expansion over the centuries, fuelled by population pressures and political differences at existing settlements, resulted in the settlement of Omashu, Misty Palms and other towns in the north and west of the Earth Kingdom. While all these new settlements, founded by individuals hailing from the Earth Kingdom, owed ostensible allegiance to the Earth King, the actual ability of the government in Ba Sing Se to exercise effective authority over far-flung frontier regions was very limited. As a result, each of these settlements gradually developed its own autonomous identity and saw the emergence of local ruling elites which were very different in character to the Earth Kingdom's own. For instance, due to its location in a major natural harbour attracting many sailors, Cranefish Town came to become a pirate republic, while Gaoling, being home to many merchants due to its location at a key crossroads, came to be ruled by an oligarchy of mercantile interests. However, Omashu, being settled by orthodox Celestialists, organized itself as a monarchy modelled on the Earth Kingdom itself.
Over the centuries, the amount of interaction between Ba Sing Se and the Terran outpost states varied significantly based on the context. During times of peace and prosperity, merchants and officials from Ba Sing Se regularly undertook trade missions into the hinterlands and asserted some degree of control over the local authorities in these states. However, when turmoil or poor economic conditions in Ba Sing Se resulted in no such missions being undertaken, the states of the hinterlands acted as effectively independent nations and paid little regard to the proclamations and purported sovereignty of the Earth Kingdom. Occasionally, trade and territorial disputes between the Earth Kingdom and its occasional vassals resulted in conflict, such as the Si Wong Border War in which the Earth Kingdom conquered Kyoshi Island (home of Fort Kyoshi) from the State of Gaoling. Due to the difficulty of financing military campaigns and the poor communication lines making it untenable to permanently occupy many frontier regions, successive Earth Kings showed little interest in subjugating the border states.
At the same time that the balance of power between the Earth Kingdom and the Terran border states ebbed and flowed, all parties involved also confronted a persistent threat from the east in the form of nomadic horse raiders, both Khans and Acacians at different times. Several small-scale border conflicts and raids occurred over the centuries, with the most significant events including the Battle of Dung'on where an Acacian cavalry force routed an Earth Kingdom army that had garrisoned the town of Dung'on in view of using it as a marshalling point to march on Dehna, and the Defence of Peining, where a heavily outnumbered Kingdom of Omashu force stopped an invading Acacian horde at the mountain pass.
Unification
Under the rule of Earth King Ainin, the Earth Kingdom turned its attention towards reclaiming control over the Terran border states whose longtime independence was seen as an impediment to the emergence of the Earth Kingdom as a great power. After he announced his intentions, three border states—the State of Gaoling, Kingdom of Omashu and Republic of Cranefish—joined into a military alliance named the Acacian League to resist the Earth Kingdom's expansionist aspirations. Despite this name, the Acacian League had no relation with the historic Acacian people on the Earth Kingdom frontier. Allying with the metalbenders of the Free City of Zaofu, the Earth Kingdom swiftly overran and occupied Gaoling in February 2021, resulting in that nation's surrender and acceptance of an offer to become a semi-autonomous viceroyalty. After a lull in fighting for both sides to regroup, the Earth Army renewed its advance towards Omashu in July and used airpower in combat for the first time in world history, swiftly annihilating an Omash'ite advance force in the Battle of the Northern Road and causing the disintegration of the Acacian League. Subsequently, Cranefish surrendered and was annexed to the Earth King's personal domain, while Omashu was swiftly conquered and placed under the rule of a viceroy.
Contemporary history
In 2021, the Earth Kingdom joined the international coalition that issued the Resolution of Freeport in response to the secession of New Mexico and the Andorra incident. After New Mexico's defiance of the ultimatum triggered the Mexican War, Earth Kingdom metalbender marines won the only coalition victory of the war in the Battle of Freeport Bay. The New Mexican fort in Freeport Bay was subsequently annexed by the Free Territory and leased indefinitely to the Earth Navy.
Throughout 2021 and 2022, the Earth Kingdom maintained a sometimes strained policy of non-intervention in the Frisian Civil War and subsequent Water Tribe invasion. During the civil war phase, stray shots fired during the Battle of Ljouwert Baai between Frisian corporate and communist ships caused fires on the Amity Islands, resulting in the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribe jointly imposing a blockade against the arms trade to the port of Ljouwert. Following a successful Frisian attempt to move arms over the blockade by airship, the joint blockade was expanded to require pre-clearance for all shipping into Ljouwert. After the failure of the Skylge Conference and the Water Tribe invasion of Fryslân, the Earth Kingdom declared its armed neutrality, though Frisian sources often accused the Earth Kingdom of showing bias against Fryslân Corp. in the conflict. A moment of high tension occurred after a Water Tribe attack on the Frisian submarine fleet, in which the latter fired stray torpedoes that exploded in Earth Kingdom territorial waters. The Earth Kingdom issued a final ultimatum to the Frisians, though war was avoided through diplomatic manoeuvres in which the death of the Frisian naval officer responsible was proven. All measures taken by the Earth Kingdom on the Frisian border were gradually wound up after the restoration of peace in 2022.
In July 2022, while sailing home through the Western Strait after attending a conference in the Air Nation, Earth King Ainin's royal yacht ENS Andorra was seized by Omash'ite separatists who took the King hostage and demanded that Earth Kingdom forces evacuate the conquered Kingdom of Omashu. Ultimately, Earth King Ainin was rescued by military forces in the Battle of Besorrowed Gorge, which decimated the exiled separatist army.
In early 2023, the government's failure to respond to a pagerosis outbreak in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se resulted in an armed uprising that seized control of much of the capital's working quarters. While the uprising was eventually quelled through the imposition of martial law and the deployment of military forces, the mass movement empowered reformist elements within the Earth Kingdom government. Shortly after the end of the uprising, the Consultative Assizes gained the power to vote on proposed legislation and to meet on a regular basis without the need for a royal decree.
Geography
TODO
Climate and biomes
Government and politics
Monarchy
Government
Administrative divisions
Military
Foreign relations
Law and criminal justice
The legal system of the Earth Kingdom is based on common law established through a body of writings by notable jurists as well as by customs established through longstanding practice. As a result, much of the Earth Kingdom's legal system is uncodified and assembled from disparate sources, including scholarly works, Celestialist religious texts, and oral tradition. Traditionally, this body of customary law was complemented by equity, a series of legal principles that aid in the fair resolution of disputes where the law is silent. In recent decades, these traditional sources of law have been supplanted in part by statutes, which are enacted by the Earth King upon consultation with the Consultative Assizes. Because statutes are considered an extension of the personal, temporal power of the Earth King, they expire upon his death and must be reenacted or confirmed by the subsequent monarch. The highest civil court in the Earth Kingdom is the Royal Commission Civil Chamber, which hears all disputes involving Lords of the Realm or other important legal issues.
Earth Kingdom criminal law is codified as the Statute of Crimes and Penalties, a law adopted in the first year of Earth King Ainin. The statute is a near-exhaustive list of all criminal offences in the Earth Kingdom, though punishments are not specified and instead established by case law. Rural and minor crimes are tried by individual royal magistrates, often without any trial or hearing, while serious crimes in the Crown lands are tried by the Royal Commission Criminal Chamber. Judgments of the magistracy are appealable to the Royal Commission, particularly in capital cases. As the Earth King is considered to be the fount of justice, all criminal judgments and punishments at the Royal Commission are issued in his name and, royal judgment being infallible, only subject to modification at his mercy.
Economy
Industry
The Earth Kingdom was one of the earliest adopters of industrial manufacturing processes, aided in part by the ability of metalbenders to engage in precision machining to create interchangeable parts. As a result, metalbender-facilitated assembly lines have been embraced throughout the Earth Kingdom for the manufacturing of high-technology and mass-produced goods. The main concentration of heavy industry in the Earth Kingdom is in the Industrial Park district of Ba Sing Se, where a variety of public and private enterprises have built large factories that both process raw materials (e.g., coking) and assemble finished goods (e.g., car manufacturing). Another major centre of heavy industry is Fort Kyoshi, where military industries were co-located with substantial military and air forces for security and defensibility reasons. Notable facilities at the Fort Kyoshi industrial hub include an aircraft and armoured vehicle manufactory, a firearms and artillery factory, and a gunpowder mill. Light industry is prevalent in towns throughout the Earth Kingdom, with the putting-out of textiles and wrought iron goods being a common practice across the Realm. Finished industrial goods are transported across the Earth Kingdom and abroad for export through a variety of transportation channels, particularly by horsecart along the interior road network and by ship along sea trade routes.
Trade
The Earth Kingdom is a trading nation and trade accounts for a significant portion of its economy. Trade is done by air, land and sea, though maritime shipping accounts for by far the largest portion of the Earth Kingdom's international trade on account of the onerous tariffs at internal border controls on roads and the lack of airship docking infrastructure. Earth Kingdom merchants are known for their activity throughout the world and are represented in most major port cities. Major trading companies with roots in the Earth Kingdom include the New Frontiers Mercantile Company, which maintains its Western Sea entrepot near Misty Palms, and the Terran Mariners' League, which has its world headquarters at Cranefish Anchorage near Cranefish Town.
Major trade partners of the Earth Kingdom include Andorra, the Air Nation, Cassland, the Free Territory, the Khanate and the Water Tribe.
Infrastructure
In part due to the challenge of administering such a vast realm, the Earth Kingdom invests heavily on infrastructure and has the most extensive and comprehensive road network of any nation. The royal highway system, which comprises the Kingsway, the Northern Way and their respective spurs, connects every major settlement and border crossing, allowing for the movement of both people and goods throughout the Earth Kingdom. While extensive, road infrastructure is unevenly distributed throughout the realm, with a large number of high-quality, paved avenues in Ba Sing Se and Zaofu but fewer, less well-maintained roads in the east. As a result, some north-south travellers in the eastern Earth Kingdom travel through the Khanate Grazing Lands instead of taking a circuitous route through Omashu.
The Earth Kingdom, which invented the train, has a railroad system operated by the Royal Ba Sing Se Railroad, which currently connects Ba Sing Se with Cranefish Town but is undergoing extension to Freeport with plans for further connections to Cassland. The Earth Kingdom also has civil aviation facilities for both airships and aircraft, the most notable of which is the Ba Sing Se Airship Docks. Major seaports in the Earth Kingdom are located near Ba Sing Se, Chigong, Cranefish Town, Misty Palms and Peining.
Communications
As a vast nation that is home to many inhospitable deserts, treacherous mountain ranges and other natural obstacles between settlements, the Earth Kingdom has perennially struggled with the challenge of communicating timely messages from town to town. Historically, the inability to do so promoted disunity and allowed for distant settlements to act independently of the government at Ba Sing Se, which could not extend its authority for want of a reliable communication method.
Due to this challenge, the Earth Kingdom has invested heavily in technologies that reduce the friction of distance between settlements and other critical destinations. The main method by which communication is ensured throughout the realm is the Royal Horse Post, a mounted express mail system made up of a string of riders and stables who can deliver mail rapidly along the interior highways. Other postal delivery options in the Earth Kingdom include private maritime courier services and air mail, though the latter is almost exclusively used to deliver high-priority messages between military airbases.
A unique Earth Kingdom communication tool is the telegraph, of which two variations were invented by Professor Dian Hsian of Ba Sing Se University. The first, the electric telegraph, uses electric pulses along a redstone network to convey near-instantaneous messages between two points in space. As this technology is extremely expensive, it is currently only deployed between the Royal Palace and Fort Kyoshi for communications between the government and military command. The second, the optical telegraph, uses light signals mounted upon large towers to convey messages across very long distances. The first optical telegraph line was constructed between Fort Kyoshi and Fort Denan to facilitate communication between the Western Fleet of the Earth Navy and the Admiralty.
Demographics
Languages
The principal language of the Earth Kingdom is Terran, which is universally understood and used for virtually all cultural, economic and administrative purposes. Though several dialects of the Terran language exist in different parts of the realm, the dialect used for administrative purposes is known as Standard Terran. While the various dialects of Terran are generally mutually intelligible, there is greater variation between Standard Terran and the Northern Terran dialect spoken in Omashu and Peining. In Ba Sing Se, a variety of foreign languages are spoken in areas frequented by foreign traders, with the most prominent being Andorran due to the large Andorran diaspora in the Earth Kingdom. Due to the lack of public education limiting access to language learning, the literacy rate in the Earth Kingdom is thought to be under 25 percent.
Bending
Despite its name, the Earth Kingdom is largely populated by nonbenders, who rise to the highest strata of society despite their inability to manipulate the nation's titular element. With many elites and nobles showing little to no bending affinity, earthbending has historically been deprioritized as a marker of status in the Earth Kingdom, resulting in few social privileges being innately granted to those with bending prowess. However, earthbending does convey some economic advantage as it unlocks a variety of occupations which require the manipulation of earth, from mine diggers and coal refiners to military air assault forces. Conversely, rarer bending skills are in high demand and can unlock great upward social mobility, with skilled metalbenders widely desired for their abilities that are essential for the Earth Kingdom's military, industrial and commercial sectors, master waterbenders sought out for their healing abilities, and firebenders recruited for heavy industrial work.
According to estimates, the Earth Kingdom is roughly 77% nonbender and 21% earthbender, with the remaining two percent being a mix of spirits and other bending types. The majority of earthbenders in the world are located in the Earth Kingdom. Of the 21 percent of the population that can earthbend, less than half are considered proficient in the art and even fewer (less than five percent) can master metalbending.
Education and health
Urbanization
Culture
The Earth Kingdom has a rich culture centered on Ba Sing Se which features long-running theatre, opera and dance traditions. The Earth Kingdom also boasts a literary tradition that consists primarily of poetry and mass novels, with many writers finding residence at Ba Sing Se University and in other royal patronage institutions. The Royal Opera House of Ba Sing Se has often been described as the beating heart of the Earth Kingdom's performing arts, regularly hosting song, dance and theatrical productions for elite and foreign audiences. As a well-connected world city, Ba Sing Se is at the forefront of fashion trends, with local trendsetters inspiring and taking inspiration from various other ports around the world.
Religion
The state religion of the Earth Kingdom is Celestialism, a non-theistic belief system that centers the importance of a peaceful and ordered society and compels adherents to obey the temporal authority of the Earth King, who is understood within the faith system to be the divinely appointed great maintainer of order. Celestialist belief centers around three key texts—the Classic of Origins, a creation myth; the Classic of Nations, a legendary history of the bending arts and elemental nations; and the Doctrines of the Earth Kingdom, a compilation of various religious and political commentaries. The latter work, due to its overt political commentaries on wise governance and the inclusion of many of Yuan Wong's vows to his subjects, has been described as the de facto constitution of the Earth Kingdom. Described variously as an elite religion, a political philosophy or a school of thought, Celestialism lacks a clergy or organized day-to-day practice, thus it is not possible to quantify the number of adherents.
Most people in the Earth Kingdom instead engage in a variety of vernacular religious and spiritual activities which vary considerably from region to region, but can be described as inspired by Celestialist principles along with folk beliefs such as animism, shamanism and ancestor worship. Common elements of religious practice include the erection of shrines and temples and the offering of burnt sacrifices at an altar to a creator spirit, which is generally identified with the badgermole of Celestialist cosmology. Some communities are known to incorporate syncretic elements in their religious beliefs, with the Misty Palms area seeing some influences from the Ordering.
While adherence to foreign religions is not prohibited in the Earth Kingdom, proselytism is a criminal offence and subject to severe penalties. As a result, other belief systems have had little success in establishing themselves in the Earth Kingdom except within expatriate port communities. A notable such community is the group of Air Nation traders in Ba Sing Se who erected an Empyrean shrine within the city's Market Precinct.