Avatar Legends: Rise of the Zodiac Heralds

THE ERA OF VAATU

    About 9,000 years ago, Avatar Wan and Raava imprisoned Vaatu within The Tree of Time, preventing Chaos from reigning for 10,000 more years.   During his Reign of Chaos, Vaatu formed a group of twelve powerful spirits to spread his power and influence around the human world. These disciples were known as the Heralds of Chaos. Throughout history, The Heralds manipulated world events by possessing human hosts such as legendary warlords, politicians, philosophers, crime bosses, and other influential figures.   When Raava and Avatar Wan rose to power, Vaatu ensured that he would never be imprisoned permanently. Before his fall, Vaatu recalled his Heralds to the Spirit World. Using his Chaos Spirit energy, he created The Jewel of Chaos, a powerful artifact that can summon his power remotely to counter Raava's. To ensure that The Jewel would be difficult to be obtained and used against him, he divided it into twelve shards for each of his Heralds. They returned to the human world, spreading out far away from one another until the time comes to unite and reform the jewel to release Vaatu.  

THE DAWN OF THE AVATAR

  Vaatu would inevitably be imprisoned by Raava and Avatar Wan in the Tree of Time. They divided the human and spirit worlds, stranding the Heralds in the human world with their hosts.   Vaatu did not anticipate what his influence would bring upon his own Heralds. The Chaos he embued upon them corrupted them. They realized that since their master is imprisoned, they now hold fragments of his powerful Chaos Energy, which they can use for themselves and their own purposes. Instead of using the shards to free Vaatu, The Heralds began hunting each other down to take more and more shards, until one could reign supreme and rule the human world with The Chaos God's power.  

THE ZODIAC WAR

  In doing so, the Heralds manipulated world affairs, using their hosts to wage war against each other across the globe. This time would be known as "The Zodiac War." Avatar Wan would come to learn of the Heralds and their Shards, and would spend his entire life hunting them down. In order to seal Vaatu's corruption, Avatar Wan imprisoned each Heralds within their Shards. The only way to free a sealed Herald from their shard is for The Avatar or another Herald to release them, which they refused to do in order to keep each other subdued.   By the time he died, Avatar Wan had sealed eleven of the twelve shards, entrusting them to bending masters, kingdoms, religious figures, and heroes around the world who would ensure they were hidden from any host that they could beckon to unlock them from their shard.   The twelfth spirit, The Dragonlion, Mang Kon Sang, was left severely weakened after his battle with Wan. Though he would ultimately kill Wan himself, The Avatar was reincarnated into the Avatar Cycle, while Mang Kon Sang, on the verge of spiritual decay, retreated somewhere in the Earth Kingdom with his Shard after his host was slain in battle.  

THE LEGEND OF THE ZODIAC HERALDS

  The Shards, The Heralds, The Zodiac War, and even Vaatu would be forgotten through the millennia, becoming legends and myths that were passed down through history. The "Zodiac" heralds would remain dormant within their shards, incapable of possessing hosts and spreading Vaatu's influence.  

THE FALSE AVATAR

  Sometime after the death of Avatar Kuruk (312 BG), Jianzhu, an Earth Sage and friend and mentor to Kuruk, would come to possess one of the Shards in his vast amount of wealth. Peace would break down around the world as it was plunged into an era of social unrest and political corruption due to the lack of a feared and established Avatar. Years later, Jianzhu would discover Yun, an Earthbending prodigy from the village of Makapu, when he sees Yun use the same secret moves that Kuruk used in Pai Sho. Jianzhu would raise Yun as the new Avatar, announcing his return to the world, while the nations would discover a new, fragile era of peace.   Meanwhile, another of Kuruk's companions, an airbender named Kelsang, would discover a young orphan girl named Kyoshi. By fate, Kyoshi would begin working in the Avatar Estate for Jianzhu and Yun himself as a servant of the palace.   Though Yun would prove a powerful earthbender, he would be proven to be incapable of bending all the other elements. This throws Jianzhu into a state of panic about losing his credibility and putting the world in another era of instability with a false Avatar. In his desperation, the Elephantrat spirit, Okizumi, spoke to him, beckoning him to use the Shard. Jianzhu would unknowingly become a host to Okizumi, once again beginning an era of Chaos.  

THE RISE OF KYOSHI

  Around this time (296 BG), Kyoshi was discovered as the true Avatar when she saves Yun in a failed diplomatic mission with a powerful rogue pirate organization, The Fifth Nation. Kyoshi displayed powerful earthbending, entering The Avatar state, and shocking the world. Yun, who had grown close to Kyoshi during her time in the estate, would fall into a spiral of uncertainty now that evidence proved he is not the true Avatar.   Jianzhu would bring both Yun and Kyoshi to Father Gloworm, a malevolent spirit who would murder Yun in front of Jianzhu and Kyoshi. Avatar Kyoshi would live the first years of her Avatarhood on the run as an outlaw.  

THE SHADOW OF KYOSHI

  Around 295 BG, Yun would be discovered to be alive, avoiding death by merging with Father Gloworm himself. Yun would find and murder Jianzu, unknowingly releasing Okizumi from his current host. The Elephantrat spirit would see this as an opportunity to gain another powerful host and strikes a secret deal with Gloworm to possess Yun. In return, Father Gloworm would be welcomed as the thirteenth Herald of Vaatu.   Seeking vengeance, The possessed Yun went on a quest to kill all the bending masters and politicians who had lied to him about his Avatarhood. Kyoshi would be forced to kill Yun, a close friend, and former lover, in battle. Realizing that being bound to a host slowed him down, Okuzumi used Yun's death as an opportunity to seek out Mang Kon Sang, who was also free from a host or Shard, and the other Heralds who were still sealed.   Within two years, Okuzumi was able to awaken five Heralds within their shards, allowing them to possess hosts who had much influence in the world. They also rallied their most loyal supporters and formed a doomsday cult called "The Celestials" who believe that the world was impure and that releasing Vaatu was the only way to cleanse it and start over. These hosts used their vast resources to hunt down the other Shards in an era called "The Zodiac Inquisition."  

THE ZODIAC INQUISITION

  By then (293 BG), the world was in a state of unrest, war, and famine. Kingdoms fell, entire cities were sacked, and innocent towns and villages were wiped out in search of the Shards. Avatar Kyoshi would learn about the truth behind the Zodiac, The Heralds, and The Celestials, making it her mission to collect the remaining dormant Shards, exorcise the Heralds from their hosts, and seal them back into their shards to reform the Jewel of Chaos and destroy it with Raava's light once and for all.   Kyoshi and her companions would reform their disbanded outlaw group, The Flying Opera Company. Though Kyoshi lacked many diplomatic allies across the nations, she was well connected to the daofei, organized groups of outlaws in the Earth Kingdom who have sophisticated codes of honor and conduct as well as intricate traditions. Using her network, she began hiring mercenaries, spies, thieves, and other masters of the art to establish a secret society. Their new goal is to return to their outlaw roots and seek out the Shards in secret, using espionage, heists, and precise, stealthy tactics, in comparison to Kyoshi's display of raw Avatar power outwardly. While Kyoshi would draw the active Heralds and their hosts in the open and keep the focus on her, The Flying Opera Company would work in the dark.  

OUR STORY: THE RISE OF THE ZODIAC HERALDS

  One way or another, you joined the New Flying Opera Company. Your village was sacked, your family was killed, or perhaps, a friend fell to the corruption of the Herald's spread of Chaos. Or maybe you are just an outlaw looking to make a lot of money. Maybe you're even secretly working for The Heralds through The Celestials, acting as a mole within the Flying Opera Company. Or maybe you are working with Kyoshi to attain a Shard of your own to gain power.   In spite of or despite it all, you are now in line with the Avatar herself, whose mission is to put an end to The Celestials, seal the Heralds, destroy the Chaos Jewel, and prevent Vaatu from causing the Apocalypse and destroying the world.