Earthbending

EARTHBENDING

Earthbending, one of the four elemental bending arts, is the geokinetic ability to manipulate earth and rock in all their various forms. It is utilized by people of the Earth Kingdom.

Earth is the element of substance, making earthbenders and their people diverse, strong, persistent, and enduring. The first earthbenders, Oma and Shu, learned this art from badgermoles.

The key to earthbending is utilizing neutral jing, which involves waiting and listening for the right moment to strike and, when that moment comes, acting decisively. In other words, earthbenders generally endure their enemies' attacks until the right opportunity to counterattack reveals itself.

Earthbending Techniques

Earth and stone levitation: The most common attack involves levitating nearby pieces of earth and stone of numerous sizes (more powerful benders can move larger masses) and propelling them at foes with punching or kicking motions.

Earth block: Earthbenders can bring up blocks of earth and launch them at their enemies.

Earth column: A more powerful version of rock projectiles, involving forcing columns of rock out of the ground. Using a similar principle, an earthbender can shoot a stream of small ruts and protrusions from underground at their opponent. This can also be used to enhance the benders' jumps. It is, however, limited to the ground and does not have the same range as a rock projectile.

Earth compression: It is possible for earthbenders to compress large chunks of rock into smaller, denser chunks, or to compress several smaller chunks into one big piece of rock.

Earth gauntlet: A much less advanced version of earth armor that can be used to throw back opponents with hard solid force. The technique is useful in that it grants some level of the protection of earth armor but allows the rest of the body to remain flexible.

Earth hand/mannequin: An earthbender with a decent grasp of sculpting can craft replicas of human appendages or bodies from any rock source and move them from place to place.

Earth launch: While earthbenders like being rooted to the ground, they can quickly move rock beneath them and launch them several tens of feet into the air, whether to catch airborne opponents or to travel faster.

Earth material manipulation: Earthbending is not limited to rock or soil alone. An earthbender can also manipulate coal, gems, crystals, and other earth-based materials, like meteorites and jennamite.

Earth shelter: This can be used by earthbenders to create a shelter or dome which can provide an instant shelter in the wilderness. It can also be used to trap enemies, but this application would not work against an earthbending opponent, who would be able to cancel out the technique.

Earth sinking: More well taught earthbenders can forcibly sink their opponents into the ground, imprisoning them or even suffocating them in earth.

Earth smash: Earthbenders can easily destroy rocks and boulders with punches and kicks, even if they have a small amount of muscle mass. This technique is useful when facing other earthbenders, as it allows the earthbender to destroy any earthen projectiles sent at them and break out of imprisoning techniques. However, it does not seem to affect objects not made of earth.

Earth wall: Earthbenders can create walls of earth, which can be used for both defense and offense, as well as for practical things, like construction.

Earthquakes/fissures: Striking the ground with feet, fists, or hammers creates localized earthquakes or fissures to throw opponents off-balance. This same process can be used to sculpt a landmass or to slice large chunks of rock clean off a surface to create avalanches or rockfalls. More advanced earthbenders can make narrow fissures for precise attacks.

Mudbending: It has been seen that earthbenders can bend earth in mud as well.

Rock shield: A levitated slab of rock can also double as a shield when positioned in front of a bender. This can also be performed with a slab or sheet of bedrock thrust out of the earth's surface. The shield can be hurled at the opponent for quick retaliation.

Rock slide: If an earthbender is near a cliff or mountain, he or she can cause many rocks of a multitude of sizes to rain down on his or her opponent.

Slab shackles: With proper timing, an earthbender can bind an opponent's arms with triangle shaped slabs. This technique is generally used if the opponent is in a vulnerable position, for example on their knees.

Water filtering: When working in concert with a waterbender, an earthbender can purify polluted water. The waterbender suspends the polluted water in the air, while the earthbender removes the pollutants and sets them aside.

Earthbending Techniques: Master Level

Dust cloud: By shaking the ground back and forth, earthbenders can create dust clouds of various size to provide cover, and even manipulate the dust particles.

Earth armor: Earthbenders can bring rocks, dust, pebbles, or crystals around them and mold them to fit their body and create something similar to armor. They can also hide inside the earth by bending the rock around them as a shell. This earthbending move is great for defense, especially against fire. It is not as effective for offensive moves, since it limits the practitioner's range of motion.

Earth bomb: By sending a rock toward the ground, earthbenders can cause massive damage as well as throw their opponents off their feet.

Earth tunneling: Earthbenders can move through the earth to out-maneuver their foes either by opening tunnels or by pulling the earth past them, literally swimming through the ground.

Earth wave: High level earthbenders can create a wave of earth to ride on and use it as a form of transportation. The downsides of the wave are that it takes a lot of energy to produce, as well as intense concentration; the slightest distraction could cause the user to lose control of the wave. They can also force a wave of earth outward and use it as an extremely powerful offensive attack.

Magnetization: Skilled earthbenders are capable of magnetizing their limbs to any type of stone, making wall-scaling simpler in the appropriate circumstances.

Remote earthbending: If an earthbender is suspended from the ground, but is aware that there is earth somewhere near, the earthbender can focus his energies and bend that earth out of his physical reach out of sheer concentration.

Rock gloves: Similar to an earth gauntlet, they cover their hands in small rocks and project them at a target as small projectiles or compacted fists to bludgeon an opponent. A more refined and favored method however is to use them as detachable hands, maintaining the hand shape and literally grabbing and restraining the opponent from a distance.

Rock shoes: The Dai Li also used shoes made out of earth to slide to travel faster and to cling to walls and suspend themselves on the ceiling.

Earthbending Techniques: Avatar Level

Compressed rock bullets: An avatar can super compress great boulders into the size of tiny rocks. On command they will disintegrate any number of these rocks and fire them of in rapid succession. Due to the speed and density of these rocks, they can pulverize enormous rock columns in seconds.

Greater earth levitation: With their greater power and stronger connection to the earth, the Avatar can move hill-sized statues at will.

Powered compression: This is a much more powerful version of the earth compression technique. Instead of bending large chunks of earth into a single projectile, an Avatar can gather boulder-sized rocks and simultaneously compress each fragment into smaller, denser, and harder rocks, essentially keeping the rocks under pressure for more volatile attacks if needed.

Tectonics: The Avatar can earthbend on a scale vast enough to move entire landmasses, such as separating entire islands or large cities from the rest of the earth it is connected to.

Earthbending Special Abilities

Seismic sense: An ability originally developed by the blind badgermoles, skilled earthbenders are able to sense vibrations through the ground, "seeing" by sensing their surroundings and making a mental image of it. It allows for a degree field of "vision", outside of normal line-of-sight. To operate, the user needs direct contact with the ground, preferably without something like shoes in between. The ability is only usable on surfaces the user can bend.