NON-BENDERS
Non-benders are the majority of Ba Sing Se's population. They can be found anywhere in the Metropolis Area with different ethnic backgrounds due to the moves and immigration of refugees from other nations during the Hundred Year War era, as well as Fire Nation's settlement during the fall of Ba Sing Se. However, mixed blood families are hardly found in the upper ring, as most of the old money families and those involved in the royal courts and politics are native Earth Kingdom people who descended from earthbenders.
EARTHBENDERS
With the rest of the population being benders after the non-benders, earthbenders make up the majority of the benders as they are one group of many other native people and first inhabitants of Ba Sing Se.
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Earthbending, one of the four elemental bending arts, is the geokinetic ability to manipulate earth and rock in all their various forms.
Earth is the element of substance, while the people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse, strong, and enduring. 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. The original earhbenders before humans picked up on the arts were the badgermoles.
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Varieties of waterbending:
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Earthbending
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Gemstone manipulation
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Metalbending
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Lavabending
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Sandbending
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Mudbending
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Since earthbenders rely on having access to earth, their ability can be negated by securing them within a metallic barrier, separating them from any contact with the earth. Toph, as the inventor of metalbending, is an exception to this, as are any who have been trained in the skill. However, even metalbenders cannot bend highly purified metals such as platinum.
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Earthbending is at its strongest when the feet are in direct contact with the ground, enabling earthbenders to transfer their kinetic energies into their bending for fast and powerful moves. However, this weakness can be overcome by bringing other body parts in contact with the earth.
WATERBENDERS
After earthbenders, waterbenders make up the second biggest bender population of Ba Sing Se, due to the people of the Water Tribes looking for a safe place as refugees or prison escapees from former Fire Nation colonies in the Earth Kingdom. In the recent year Ba Sing Se, many waterbenders have mixed blood of a Water Tribe native and Earth Kingdom native.
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Waterbending, one of the four elemental bending arts, is the hydrokinetic ability to control water in all of its various forms.
Water is the element of change. The moon is the source of power in waterbending, and the original waterbenders learned to bend by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides. Waterbenders deal with the flow of energy; they let their defense become their offense, turning their opponents' own forces against them. Even when waterbenders do take an attack stance, their moves always appear to flow from one to the other.
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Varieties of waterbending:
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Water and ice bending
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Bloodbending (only during full moons)
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Healing
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Cloud manipulation
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Steam manipulation
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Swamp and plant bending
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A waterbender gains a significant advantage or disadvantage over other benders depending on the amount of water in the vicinity. Enemies are able to take advantage of this by driving them away from water sources. As a result, traveling waterbenders often carry a water skin with them at all times. Master waterbenders are able to extract water from plants, ultimately killing the plants, and even condense water vapor out of thin air.
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Waterbending is almost entirely dependent on the movement of the bender's arms, quite the opposite of earthbending which mostly uses the lower body. This leaves the waterbender vulnerable when he or she is bound at the hands or has had the flow of chi blocked in the arms.
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Another waterbending weakness is its dependence on the moon. Although waterbenders gain power from the moon, with waterbending at its zenith during full moons, the moon's absence during a lunar eclipse results in a complete loss of waterbending ability.
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A waterbender's power comes from the internal life energy, chi. Due to this, a waterbender's power is connected to his or her present emotional state. If an inexperienced waterbender were to lose his or her temper, their waterbending force is intensified, but in turn, control is lost.
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Impure water is a natural conductor of electricity. Considering how many waterbending techniques involve a physical connection to the water itself, the bender is left vulnerable to a lightning strike.