Bending Arts

This article is about the Bending Arts

Introduction

The ability to bend allows a being to manipulate one of the four elements, Air, Earth, Fire or Water and is centeral many ways of life. There is one expection to the rule of only being able to bend one element, this being the Avatar who has the ability to bend all four elements in addition to energy bending.
Each style of bending manipulates it's respective element through the use of martial art styles. Most of benders are limited to their hands and feet, however masters in their respected element have been known to be able to bend with limited movement and other parts of their body. An even rarer skill known as Psychic bending, with this skill no movement is required to preform techniques.
All bending is dependant on an energy source known as Chi that flows throughout the body allowing the manipulation of the elements. Those who have the ability to bend have the ability to use their Chi and extend it from their body to interact with the enviroment.
The fifth bending art is energy bending, a art that only the Avatar can use. This bending art manipualtes Chi itself granting the user to ability to grant or remove the ability to bend elements. However, this art is dangerous and can result in the death of those who use the art.

The Four Original Benders

While it is unknown how the first humans gained the ability to bend, whether from an internal or external source, what is known is that these first benders where serverly limited in the way they used these abilities using them more as tools rather then extentions of themselves.
The first benders looked into the natural world and saw the four Orignal Benders, The Badger Moles who taught Earth Bending, The Flying Bission who taught Air Bending, The Dragons who taught Fire Bending and The Unagi who taught Water Bending. The first benders watched and studied these creatures as they used their bending abilities and began to mimic them leading to create the foundations of bending technquies and more advanced technquies such as the Dancing Dragons.

Air Bending

Air Bending is the bending art used by the Air Nomads which was taught by the Flying Bisson. This art focuses on speed and evasion valuing defence over offence. The element of Air represents freedom, this is represented in their ability to move without constraints using their own momentum to attack. The art uses evasion to tire out their opponents or to use their maneuverability to create massive gusts of wind. In physical confrontation Air Benders use their abilites to create blasts of air to regain distance and room to move around without risks.
Many Air Benders can use their abilities to glide in the air using a glider, this is done by manipulating the air currents around them to make themselves raise and fall.

Flight

A sub-bending art of Air Bending, while all Air Benders have the ability to glide using a glider the abiltiy to fly without a glider to very rare. Many scholars beleive this ability is simply a myth, while others say it can only be acheived by letting go of all earthly desries.

Earth Bending

Earth Bending is the bending art used by the Earth Kingdom and the Si Wong tribes which was taught by the Badger Moles. The art of Earth Bending is based on neutral jing where one listens and waits for the right moment to strike, this is relfected in the strength of the bending art, the balance of offence and defence allowing Earth Benders to bide their time by creating physical defences before creating devistating attacks when the oppertunity arrises. The element of substance, standing their ground, abosrbing and intercepting attacks while attempting to overwhelm their targets are other core principles.
Earth Benders are limited by their surrondings, the lack of material to bend can cause an Earth Bender's skill in the art to be useless. All Earth benders have differnt ranges on how far away Earth has to be to bend it ranging from line of sight to the bottom of the ocean.

Lava Bending

Metal Bending

Seismic Sense