ATLA takes place on Earth, but it is not Earth as we know it. Instead of seven continents, the world is comprised of four nations:
Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. The world is filled with humans, benders (people who can manipulate/use elements), chimera, and plants.
In this world there is only one avatar that exists at any point of time. The avatar exists to act as international police that maintains peace
between the nations. Once an avatar dies, his or her, spirit is reincarnated into to the next person in one of the four nations. The avatar
is also required to master all four elements by the age of 16. Prior to the beginning timeline of the show, the ruler of the Fire nation at
the time, Fire Lord Sozin, wanted to expand the Fire Nation's territory, but was stopped by Avatar Roku. When Roku died, Sozin leaped
at the chance to concquer new land, but he also realized that a new Avatar would come to be and would be born of the Air Nomad nation.
This lead Sozin to perform a genocide against airbenders, but he missed one, Aang. At the time Aang had learned that he is the next Avatar
which led him to make the decision to runaway with Appa and trap themselves in an iceberg.
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