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Description

Long ago, humanity originated on the Earth-like planet just within the primary asteroid belt. After inventing various methods of space travel, they spread out to inhabit most planets and moons of the system, and united into 4 different nations to suit the needs of their new diverse environments. Their exploration brought them closer into contact with the spirit realm, and they learned various forms of telekinetic bending from native extraterrestrial creatures. Aside from certain enigmatic spiritual beings, humans are the only sentient lifeforms in the system.

In keeping with the original show’s themes of harmony and unity, the story will be contained within a single solar system. To preserve the show’s prominent sun/moon dichotomy, it will be structured as a binary star system: a yellow dwarf star much like our own, and a black hole. They orbit each other at a distance of roughly 15 AU [Astronomical Units, 1AU = 1.496e+8 km, the distance from the Sun to Earth], and the hole is roughly 30% of the sun’s mass. The sun provides the system with light and heat, whereas the black hole provides gravitational stability and seasonal tides, and its pale accretion disk gives a slight, distant illumination on some nights.

4 Nations:

Outer Worlds, home to the Water Tribe

The 3 outermost planets in the system, which orbit around 15AU from the sun. Much colder than worlds in the inner system, and covered mostly or completely in water and water ice. These worlds’ proximity to the black hole’s gravitational influence allow it to play a much larger role in their orbital and seasonal patterns, and they all either orbit the hole directly, or follow along with it, locked in its Lagrange points. The abundance of water, and the delicate balance of life, temperature, and gravity, have cultivated a gentle, naturalistic waterbending nature in the outer worlds’ inhabitants; a control over the various forms of water, the compound most intimately crucial to natural life. With limited mining capability, their access to metals and advanced materials is limited, so construction utilizes small volumes of recycled plastics and aluminum for anything that can’t be made of ice and organic materials. Their metal manufacturing relies on cutting, milling, waterjet cutting, and other small-volume, high-precision methods that benefit from low temperatures. They have learned to utilize fusion power, using the mastery of specialized waterbenders to contain and concentrate the fluid dynamics of hydrogen. Their ships are propelled using either fusion engines, or hydrogen/oxygen chemical rockets if the former is unavailable.

The Earth Belts, home of the Earth Kingdom

‘Earth Belts’ is a blanket term for all bodies lying between 0.8AU and 10AU, inhabited by the Earth Kingdom’s diverse and far-spread citizens. There is no ‘average’ planet within the domain; while some citizens live on one of the two Earth-like planets, many others live on airless asteroids or isolated comets, or float freely through the rings of gas giants. The diverse scope of living conditions and the cultural reliance on mining and farming have cultivated a hardy, persistent Earthbending nature in its native people; a control over the primitive physical building materials of the universe. Earthbenders generally favor the construction of cities and fortresses and vast infrastructure over exploration and conquest, and they make only limited use of spacecraft. When space travel is necessary, it is accomplished using nuclear thermal rockets, and enormous enduring constructions such as mass drivers [electromagnetic cannons to launch craft into space], space elevators [cables reaching from the surface to orbit that vehicles can climb], and skyhooks [fancy spinning space elevators]. Electrical power in the Earth kingdom comes largely from nuclear fission, a safe and long-lasting source most easily augmented by refined Earthbending. Their metal manufacturing relies primarily on extrusion and forging, to make high volumes of heavy, strong steel.

Inner Worlds, home to the Fire Nation

At distances much closer to the sun than 1 AU, greater sunlight causes photosynthesis among plants and solar power among machines to become exponentially more efficient. This means that both natural ecosystems and human colonies have greater access to energy and resource, and all the benefits that implies. However, the increased temperature and radiation also mean that any effort to survive will be met with great danger, hardship, and competition, and various methods must be employed to shield from it. Settlements on the Inner worlds must be either concealed underground, or beneath thick atmosphere, within magnetic fields, or in shadow. The proximity to the sun, and the competition and tenacity of native life to survive, have encouraged a firebending nature in the world’s human settlers; a control over the thermal, chemical, and electrical energies that drive all life and effort in the natural world. Firebenders have a strong will to live and to prosper, and the economy, infrastructure, and military of the Fire Nation are the strongest in the system. There aren’t many asteroids and moons in the Inner Worlds, meaning that most spacecraft must either be launched directly from planets, or assembled using imported materials. Firebending has allowed the Nation to master the technology required for fusion reactors, though such technology sees limited use on bases and settlements, owing to the lower expense of solar power. However, many of their ships use fusion pulse boosters for high-thrust maneuvers such as escaping from atmosphere. When efficiency is needed, their ships default to either solar thermal rockets [using solar energy to superheat compressed gases for ejection] or V.A.S.I.M.R. engines [using magnetic fields to accelerate ionized plasma], both of which can be enhanced by onboard firebenders.

The Void Temples, home to the Void Nomads

The Void Temples are a collection of wandering space stations constructed in the most remote areas of the solar system, by early settlers who hoped to peacefully pursue science and enlightenment away from the concerns of society. This extreme isolation, desire for spiritual truth, and the immersion in the far distances of empty space, have cultivated a strong voidbending nature in the station’s inhabitants; a control over the fundamental threads of reality, of distance, gravity, and the shapes of spacetime.
Voidbenders live extremely minimalist and immaterial lives; they feel very little belonging to specific places and possessions, and instead place value in relationships and philosophies and fun times. This minimalism, combined with the difficulty of acquiring building materials in remote locations, means that most of the Void Temples are small, lightweight constructions. They contain air using multiple layers of coated nylon bags, and are held together using aluminum trusswork and woven nylong cables. Electricity requirements for such stations are minimal, and can come from solar panels, even when traveling to the outer system. Their stations most often lack thrusters, and instead rely on Alcubierre thrust from their resident voidbenders to maintain orbit and avoid debris. They largely lack spacecraft as well, and instead travel around the system using the curious natural abilities of Warp Bison. Warp Bison are the first and only naturally voidbending creature, native to an asteroid cluster in the outer system.
One unique Void Nomad invention is the ‘Gravity Skate’, which is created by bending spacetime into a tight loop, then casting a plate of hard material like porcelain or glass into the warped space. This effectively ‘locks’ the knotted spacetime, allowing the plate to resist gravitational change, and so to glide and change positions like an airplane without air or use of thrust. They are used by individual voidbenders and even entire stations, in complex maneuvers.
Voidbenders have never had a standing military, and rely on their isolation, wisdom, and goodwill to maintain peace with their neighbors throughout the system. It was this peaceful nature that allowed Fire Lord Sozin to nearly completely eradicate them near the start of the hundred-years-war, by a simultaneous attack on all 4 stations.

LINK TO FULL GALLERY
Questions you may have:
What am I looking at here?
This is the world of Avatar the Last Airbender, except instead of being set in an industrial-revolution-era earth-like Asiatic fantasy world, I have removed all those industrial-revolution-era earth-like aciatic fantasy bits, and have reinterpreted all the show’s characters, events, and locations into the far depths of
O U T E R S P A C E
Why would you do this?
I recently watched ATLA for the first time, and fell in love with the characters and the world, and wanted to do something special for it. However, the fandom is about a billion years old and a billion fans strong, so any fanart has likely already been done, and the show’s writing and plot are so solid that fanfiction could do more disservice than good, so I figured hey, I’m a huge sci-fi nerd, why don’t I just give it the ol’ Treasure Planet treatment?
This could be an awesome writing prompt for other people.
Why should I care?
Momo as a cute space alien
Azula in power armor
Learn cool science concepts such as ‘entomophagous’, ‘ekranoplan’, ‘tidal locking’, ‘V.A.S.I.M.R.’, and ‘Lagrange Points’
Ponder interesting tidbits about how a hard magic system could influence technological options among spacefaring nations
Sokka’s first girlfriend turned into a black hole.
Isn’t it supposed to be ‘Airbender’? Why ‘Voidbender’?
This is the only large change I had to make to the magic system. Airbender powers would be unable to embody the philosophies of freedom and fun in space. Voidbending takes its place; it relates less to a physical material, and more closely to the manipulation of gravity and spacetime, which fits better thematically and is necessary to the plot, as will be explained in the voidbender link.
Could you elaborate in excruciating detail?
Yes.
Can you draw [insert favorite character/scene/ship here] in this AU’s style?
Yes, I’ll draw whatever the heck. Name it.
Did you change the ‘spirits’ to make them aliens or something’?
Nah, I kept the spirits the same.

Description

Long ago, humanity originated on the Earth-like planet just within the primary asteroid belt. After inventing various methods of space travel, they spread out to inhabit most planets and moons of the system, and united into 4 different nations to suit the needs of their new diverse environments. Their exploration brought them closer into contact with the spirit realm, and they learned various forms of telekinetic bending from native extraterrestrial creatures. Aside from certain enigmatic spiritual beings, humans are the only sentient lifeforms in the system.

In keeping with the original show’s themes of harmony and unity, the story will be contained within a single solar system. To preserve the show’s prominent sun/moon dichotomy, it will be structured as a binary star system: a yellow dwarf star much like our own, and a black hole. They orbit each other at a distance of roughly 15 AU [Astronomical Units, 1AU = 1.496e+8 km, the distance from the Sun to Earth], and the hole is roughly 30% of the sun’s mass. The sun provides the system with light and heat, whereas the black hole provides gravitational stability and seasonal tides, and its pale accretion disk gives a slight, distant illumination on some nights.

4 Nations:

Outer Worlds, home to the Water Tribe

The 3 outermost planets in the system, which orbit around 15AU from the sun. Much colder than worlds in the inner system, and covered mostly or completely in water and water ice. These worlds’ proximity to the black hole’s gravitational influence allow it to play a much larger role in their orbital and seasonal patterns, and they all either orbit the hole directly, or follow along with it, locked in its Lagrange points. The abundance of water, and the delicate balance of life, temperature, and gravity, have cultivated a gentle, naturalistic waterbending nature in the outer worlds’ inhabitants; a control over the various forms of water, the compound most intimately crucial to natural life. With limited mining capability, their access to metals and advanced materials is limited, so construction utilizes small volumes of recycled plastics and aluminum for anything that can’t be made of ice and organic materials. Their metal manufacturing relies on cutting, milling, waterjet cutting, and other small-volume, high-precision methods that benefit from low temperatures. They have learned to utilize fusion power, using the mastery of specialized waterbenders to contain and concentrate the fluid dynamics of hydrogen. Their ships are propelled using either fusion engines, or hydrogen/oxygen chemical rockets if the former is unavailable.

The Earth Belts, home of the Earth Kingdom

‘Earth Belts’ is a blanket term for all bodies lying between 0.8AU and 10AU, inhabited by the Earth Kingdom’s diverse and far-spread citizens. There is no ‘average’ planet within the domain; while some citizens live on one of the two Earth-like planets, many others live on airless asteroids or isolated comets, or float freely through the rings of gas giants. The diverse scope of living conditions and the cultural reliance on mining and farming have cultivated a hardy, persistent Earthbending nature in its native people; a control over the primitive physical building materials of the universe. Earthbenders generally favor the construction of cities and fortresses and vast infrastructure over exploration and conquest, and they make only limited use of spacecraft. When space travel is necessary, it is accomplished using nuclear thermal rockets, and enormous enduring constructions such as mass drivers [electromagnetic cannons to launch craft into space], space elevators [cables reaching from the surface to orbit that vehicles can climb], and skyhooks [fancy spinning space elevators]. Electrical power in the Earth kingdom comes largely from nuclear fission, a safe and long-lasting source most easily augmented by refined Earthbending. Their metal manufacturing relies primarily on extrusion and forging, to make high volumes of heavy, strong steel.

Inner Worlds, home to the Fire Nation

At distances much closer to the sun than 1 AU, greater sunlight causes photosynthesis among plants and solar power among machines to become exponentially more efficient. This means that both natural ecosystems and human colonies have greater access to energy and resource, and all the benefits that implies. However, the increased temperature and radiation also mean that any effort to survive will be met with great danger, hardship, and competition, and various methods must be employed to shield from it. Settlements on the Inner worlds must be either concealed underground, or beneath thick atmosphere, within magnetic fields, or in shadow. The proximity to the sun, and the competition and tenacity of native life to survive, have encouraged a firebending nature in the world’s human settlers; a control over the thermal, chemical, and electrical energies that drive all life and effort in the natural world. Firebenders have a strong will to live and to prosper, and the economy, infrastructure, and military of the Fire Nation are the strongest in the system. There aren’t many asteroids and moons in the Inner Worlds, meaning that most spacecraft must either be launched directly from planets, or assembled using imported materials. Firebending has allowed the Nation to master the technology required for fusion reactors, though such technology sees limited use on bases and settlements, owing to the lower expense of solar power. However, many of their ships use fusion pulse boosters for high-thrust maneuvers such as escaping from atmosphere. When efficiency is needed, their ships default to either solar thermal rockets [using solar energy to superheat compressed gases for ejection] or V.A.S.I.M.R. engines [using magnetic fields to accelerate ionized plasma], both of which can be enhanced by onboard firebenders.

The Void Temples, home to the Void Nomads

The Void Temples are a collection of wandering space stations constructed in the most remote areas of the solar system, by early settlers who hoped to peacefully pursue science and enlightenment away from the concerns of society. This extreme isolation, desire for spiritual truth, and the immersion in the far distances of empty space, have cultivated a strong voidbending nature in the station’s inhabitants; a control over the fundamental threads of reality, of distance, gravity, and the shapes of spacetime.
Voidbenders live extremely minimalist and immaterial lives; they feel very little belonging to specific places and possessions, and instead place value in relationships and philosophies and fun times. This minimalism, combined with the difficulty of acquiring building materials in remote locations, means that most of the Void Temples are small, lightweight constructions. They contain air using multiple layers of coated nylon bags, and are held together using aluminum trusswork and woven nylong cables. Electricity requirements for such stations are minimal, and can come from solar panels, even when traveling to the outer system. Their stations most often lack thrusters, and instead rely on Alcubierre thrust from their resident voidbenders to maintain orbit and avoid debris. They largely lack spacecraft as well, and instead travel around the system using the curious natural abilities of Warp Bison. Warp Bison are the first and only naturally voidbending creature, native to an asteroid cluster in the outer system.
One unique Void Nomad invention is the ‘Gravity Skate’, which is created by bending spacetime into a tight loop, then casting a plate of hard material like porcelain or glass into the warped space. This effectively ‘locks’ the knotted spacetime, allowing the plate to resist gravitational change, and so to glide and change positions like an airplane without air or use of thrust. They are used by individual voidbenders and even entire stations, in complex maneuvers.
Voidbenders have never had a standing military, and rely on their isolation, wisdom, and goodwill to maintain peace with their neighbors throughout the system. It was this peaceful nature that allowed Fire Lord Sozin to nearly completely eradicate them near the start of the hundred-years-war, by a simultaneous attack on all 4 stations.

LINK TO FULL GALLERY
Questions you may have:
What am I looking at here?
This is the world of Avatar the Last Airbender, except instead of being set in an industrial-revolution-era earth-like Asiatic fantasy world, I have removed all those industrial-revolution-era earth-like aciatic fantasy bits, and have reinterpreted all the show’s characters, events, and locations into the far depths of
O U T E R S P A C E
Why would you do this?
I recently watched ATLA for the first time, and fell in love with the characters and the world, and wanted to do something special for it. However, the fandom is about a billion years old and a billion fans strong, so any fanart has likely already been done, and the show’s writing and plot are so solid that fanfiction could do more disservice than good, so I figured hey, I’m a huge sci-fi nerd, why don’t I just give it the ol’ Treasure Planet treatment?
This could be an awesome writing prompt for other people.
Why should I care?
Momo as a cute space alien
Azula in power armor
Learn cool science concepts such as ‘entomophagous’, ‘ekranoplan’, ‘tidal locking’, ‘V.A.S.I.M.R.’, and ‘Lagrange Points’
Ponder interesting tidbits about how a hard magic system could influence technological options among spacefaring nations
Sokka’s first girlfriend turned into a black hole.
Isn’t it supposed to be ‘Airbender’? Why ‘Voidbender’?
This is the only large change I had to make to the magic system. Airbender powers would be unable to embody the philosophies of freedom and fun in space. Voidbending takes its place; it relates less to a physical material, and more closely to the manipulation of gravity and spacetime, which fits better thematically and is necessary to the plot, as will be explained in the voidbender link.
Could you elaborate in excruciating detail?
Yes.
Can you draw [insert favorite character/scene/ship here] in this AU’s style?
Yes, I’ll draw whatever the heck. Name it.
Did you change the ‘spirits’ to make them aliens or something’?
Nah, I kept the spirits the same.