Water Bending

[El Santo Maxican]

'Waterbending' is written in Chinese as 神聖的能力，制止水, which can be translated as "The Divine Ability to Halt Water"

Waterbending is one of the four elemental Bending Arts, the hydrokinetic ability to control water, as well as its many forms. The people of the Water Tribe utilize this type of bending. In turn, the Water Tribes are divided up in to the Southern Water Tribe, the Northern Water Tribe, and the lesser known Foggy Swamp Tribe. Water is the element of change. The moon is the source of power in Water bending, and the original Water benders learned from the moon by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides. The Water Tribes are the only people to not learn Bending from an animal.

Origin Point

The people of the Water Tribe first learned Water bending by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides of the ocean. They then learned how to simulate the effect themselves. As such, they have a strong spiritual connection to the Moon (and its counterpart the Ocean), and any adverse effects on these mediums can affect them too. This makes Water benders the only type of benders who did not learn bending from an animal, although since the Moon and Ocean spirits take the form of animals, they could possibly classify as the animal Water bending originated from.


Notable Features


The fighting style of Water bending is mostly flowing and graceful; acting in concert with their environment. However, Foggy Swamp Style Water bending is more rigid and straight - probably in concert with the often stagnant nature of the water in their swamp. Water benders deal with the flow of energy; they let their defense become their offense, turning their opponents' own forces against them.

Water bending is based on a style of Tai Chi Chuan (specifically the Yang style). It is a Chinese martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water. Water bending provides a versatility of experience. Waterbending's strength is its defensive capabilities which, rather than supporting a separate set of offensive methods, are transformed into attacks and counters - defense into offense. Rather than simply stopping to deflect an attack, Waterbending's defensive maneuvers focus on control, achieved through turning an opponent's own strength against him, instead of directly harming the opponent.

The Northern Water Tribe developed the first style of Water bending for use in their home at the North Pole. When the Southern Water Tribe formed in the South Pole, they developed a slightly different style that nonetheless is very similar to the Northern style. The traditional Water bending styles of the Northern and Southern Water Tribes focus on graceful, fluid movements for their attacks. These styles frequently make use of switching the state of water from liquid to ice and snow. It is with this technique that the Water benders built their large polar cities. The Northern Water benders seem to traditionally perform more defensive, strategic, and architectural techniques in Water bending, while Southern Water benders seemed to have been more aggressive when fighting and showed to have used more offensive techniques.


Alternatives

• Swamp Bending
  Foggy Swamp Style is the Water bending style used by the Foggy Swamp Tribe of the Earth Kingdom. Instead of the fluid, graceful movements of the other two Water bending styles, they keep a rigid and straight stance, possibly reflecting the usually stagnant nature of water in their swamp homelands, and use stiff and circular arm movements to move water like a propeller. This style seems to be very effective in moving the Tribe's boats.
  
  They do not appear to use ice or snow attacks as often as their polar cousins, possibly due to the lack of ice in their environment.
  The battle capabilities of the style seem to be very accurate since the other Swamp Water benders used this unique style in battle: using noticeable foot movements in addition to moving their arms in the desired direction to shield themselves from harm before stepping and performing an elegant punching motion to attack.
  
  
• Plant Bending
  Members of the Foggy Swamp Tribe have illustrated that talented Water benders can manipulate plant life. Plant bending has enabled members of the swamp to control and manipulate every form of plant life from the highly water-saturated vines and roots found within the swamp lands to seaweed from the ocean floor--they can even rapidly regenerate the plant mass of the plants they bend (since the cell tissues of a plant is more versatile than the cell tissues of an animal), all by bending the ample amount of water within them just as they can with watery mud.
  
  Going further, a skilled Water bender is able to separate and completely extract the water from plants for more effective utilization just as they are able to separate the water from mud, sand, and even polluted river systems, etc. In the case of plant life, this process will then leave behind the withered remains of all the affected plant life or even making them collapse in the case of large trees. The degree of skill in manipulating plant life depends on the experience of the bender and whether or not a full moon is present. Simpler and smaller forms of plant life, such as grass, flowers and seaweed, can be bent with relative ease, with or without a full moon.
  
  
• Healing
  Water benders can sometimes use a unique sub-skill: the ability to heal wounds by redirecting energy paths (or chi) throughout the body, using water as a catalyst. Water benders can use their abilities to heal by surrounding a sick or injured person with water, which then glows with a brilliant, silver-colored light. The use of healing water bending techniques is generally taught only to female water benders of the Northern Water Tribe.
  
  
• Cloud bending
  it's shown that (because clouds are made with water and air), a skilled Water bender or Air bender can manipulate them easily to create various shapes (used in that instance to provide a message to nearby villagers). It also has practical uses of disguise, such as coating people in clouds or riding through them in the air. It is unknown if a Water bender can perform this technique without an Air bender and vice versa.
  
  Not only can skilled Water benders condense clouds into a usable source of water when they are within close range of one, but they also can condense invisible water vapor right out of the air. Although, due to the limited quantities of water present in the air (1% at most of the earth's atmosphere is water vapor) the amount of water extracted from the air is quite minimal. Favorable environment and climatic conditions increase the amount of water one can remove from the air.
  

Specialized skills

Novice Level

[-] Water Manipulation
Almost all forms of Water bending involve moving and shaping a body of water to the Water bender's desire. By simply levitating a large mass of water, Water benders can move water anywhere they wish, even parting it under the surface of a lake or sea, allowing them to walk along the bottom of a basin without the need to swim.

[-] Snow Manipulation
A move that pushes and levitates snow for attack, shielding and defense. Living on the poles of the Earth, Water benders are accustomed to living in the snow. The snow is used as the first source when Water bending. They are able to compress the snow together in order to slice through objects, even metal. Masters can bend the snow to make a snow spout, that can carry the bender around and they can still attack and dodge at the same time.

[-] Streaming the Water
A move that draws water from a source that Water benders move around their bodies. More advanced versions demonstrated apparently involves "sinking and floating". This move is thought to be used for basic training so that beginning Water benders can get a "feel" for water, but it is in all actuality a very useful move performed by Water benders of every skill level.

[-] Water Whips
The most frequently seen move involves creating a lashing tendril of water to swipe at an opponent. The shape, size, and length are all determined by a Water bender's control. More powerful benders can create larger whips or ones of greater finesse. Due to water being incompressible, a whip can be sharpened into a blade that can even slice through metal with relative ease.


Practitioner Level

[-] Water Jets
High pressure jets can be used to force opponents back or even blast clean through a target if focused enough. Water jets are primarily used if the user has intent of severely hurting their opponents.

[-] Waves
By moving a large mass of water without separating it from its original source, Water benders can create waves of nearly any size. They do this by using an upward movement and after raising the source, they send away in their desired direction. This can be used to sweep opponents away or even as a form of transport, with the bender surfing on the crest of the wave. This same process can be used to propel waterborne crafts.

[-] Water Bullet
The Water Bullet is a move where a Water bender bends a large amount of water and sends it in a forceful blow towards their target. It is similar to a Water Jet, but it's more for a quick use since the jet takes more concentration. It is seen numerous times throughout the series and is basic yet useful because it takes little time to perform and has a significant effect on the target.

[-] Water Shields
Water can be molded into a variety of shapes and can be used to deflect an attack, trap opponents in a viscous body, reshaped and propelled at attackers before they can recover, or solidified into a shield of ice. This diversity and ability to swiftly change to suit the situation is what makes the Water bender's defense so adaptable. Although usually protective, the shield needs some type of compression or else it won't be effective.


Expert Level

[-] Water Temperature Manipulation
Water benders also possess the ability to alter the physical state of the water they manipulate (between liquid, solid and gas) at will. Changing the phase of water allows for multiple techniques in the course of a battle, from encasing an opponent in ice to hiding behind a wall of mist. Ice and steam/fog can also be molded in a diverse range of shapes. Ice provides a degree of hard lethality since it can be molded into spikes or blades to pin down or impale opponents. Steam or mist can obscure a battlefield and mask movement. A Water bender can easily superheat and boil water and other liquids to scalding temperatures. Water benders also possess the ability to breathe an icy mist that freezes water and other substances.

[-] Water Pressure Manipulation
Water benders are also able to manipulate water pressure, allowing their techniques to grasp other objects or cutting through without simply parting around them. Since water is incompressible, it can be used as a semi-solid while being able to move and flow like a liquid. Water can be pressurized to such a level where it can slice through metal, and can also be used to avoid sinking in water

[-] Ice Spikes
Water benders can shoot small shards of ice at their opponent, or cause a giant spike to protrude from a body of water. The Northern Water Tribe employs these as a primary defense at their homeland when enemy ships are sighted.

[-] Ice Claws
'Ice Claws' is a move where the bender draws water around their fingers and freezes it. They can also be sent forward, shooting them at an opponent. A Water bender can also use this as an advantage, being small and unnoticeable, they can hide them in their sleeves. Additionally, this technique uses very little water and thus can be performed quickly using the Condensation technique

[-] Breath of Ice: A Water bender can use their breath to rapidly freeze objects, such as metallic chains, or an opponent. For a more advanced version of the technique, the user takes a deep breath and exhales the air as a cloud of freezing mist.

[-] Ice Line
As an offensive attack, a Water bender can create a line of twisted columns and propel it forward.


Sifu Level

[-] Ice Spear
The Ice Spear is a Water bending move shown to have been used by Southern Water benders. It involves freezing a stream of water and then sending the frozen result flying at the target.

[-] Water Knife
The ability to shape water into a super-sharp edge or point for a split-second. Due to water's highly incompressible nature, it enables a Water bender to cut through metal, wood and stone.

[-] Ice Discs
A Water bender can create a cylindrical column of ice and proceed to slice razor-sharp sections of it off and send them at an opponent. They are sharp around the edges but all very thin, since water benders are able to break them with their wrists, though this may partly have been due to their Water bending ability.

[-] Water Cloak
A Water bender can use their water as a form of armor with tentacle-like arms. The bender can use these arms to grab objects, whip enemies, blast enemies with water and freeze them. If a Water bender has less water available, he or she can simply form the arms instead of the entire cloak.

[-] Water Pinwheel
This move involves the user moving a large mass of water and spinning it vertically around him/her.


Master Level

[-] Bubble
When in need to cross large bodies of water, capable Water benders are able to create a bubble around themselves, keeping an air supply for them and for others.

[-] Water Drill
A high-pressure, rotating column of water. Capable of exerting a significant amount of pressure upon a solid surface, that allows the action of a drill. The move takes mastery of Water bending since the motions to create a constantly twisting body of water takes bending skill.

[-] Water Spout
This high-level technique involves controlling a whirlpool-like pillar of water as a weapon, rotating it and directing its movements at the same time. Another form exists, which is nicknamed the "Water Snake", in accordance to the waterspout's constantly shifting and coiling movements. Forms a giant snake of water around the lower body, elevating them from the ground.

[-] Octopus Form
A body of water formed around the user into 8 or so whip-like limbs which can be used to grasp or strike an opponent or to intercept and seize incoming attacks. It is assumed that this requires a great deal of concentration.

[-] Ice/Water Dome
a Water bender may surround a foe in a viscous sphere of water and then freeze it, trapping their opponent inside, as well as collect water and form a dome which can be used for both offense and defense.

[-] Mass Freeze
A Water bender can freeze multiple targets at once, Making them slow down or even surrounding them with ice. It can also, With a sufficient amount of water, cover a large area of the ground with ice, trapping enemies' feet in ice and allowing the Water bender to slide around. Or cover an opponent in a prison made of ice. By finely controlling the position of the person within, this technique can restrict the motions of a opponent's hands, thus rendering them powerless. Water benders are able to swim through thick ice with the same ease as through water. This allows them to surprise their foes.

[-] Maelstrom
In a large body of water, a Water bender can create a gigantic whirlpool.


Special Sets

[-]Water Run
This is a technique in which Water benders would use all four limbs to run on water at very high speeds, in addition to riding on foreign objects with the same purpose. One can form an ice surfboard and increase their speed in order to effortlessly cross the water much like wake boarding or surfing (regardless of the fact if the water is calm or not). Other variations of this is freezing blocks of ice to use as stepping stones.

Water bending Spirit

Like the moon controlling the tides, Water benders move water using their chi to mimic gravitational pull by choosing how to direct their energy utilizing two jings, which in turn work to push and pull the water being controlled. Because of this lunar sympathy, a Water bender's power is stronger at night, at its absolute zenith during a full moon, and lost during a lunar eclipse. A Water bender's power is also enhanced during the rain, for obvious reasons. Furthermore, a Water bender's power is strongest when he or she is situated in colder climates, during the winter, or near their native polar homelands.

The Moon Spirit and the Ocean Spirit circle each other in an eternal dance, balancing each other and their powers.
Legend further elaborates that Tui (meaning "push"), the Moon Spirit, and its symbiotic partner La (meaning "pull"), the Ocean Spirit, gave up their immortality to be a part of the mortal world. In fact, these spirits exist in the physical forms of two koi fish eternally circling one another in a pond, in the highly spiritual oasis, in the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe.

The "push and pull" relationship between the moon's gravity and the water's inertia is represented by Yin and Yang. The Moon Spirit koi is white, with a black forehead marking, and the Ocean Spirit koi is black, with a white forehead marking, mimicking the two primal forces.

Without the equilibrium of these two spiritual aspects, Water benders lose their powers. If the moon were to disappear from the sky, the balance of the world was upset, and the Water benders defending the North Pole would be rendered powerless. However, it is currently unknown exactly what effect the death of the ocean spirit would bring to the balance.

Water bending emphasizes symbiosis: acting in concert with one's environment and guiding it, rather than avoiding, controlling, or working against it. In the Foggy Swamp Tribe, Water benders were shown to be especially attuned to the environment, as its members have shown to achieve enlightenment by meditating under a tree in the heart of the swamp and connecting with it the same way it is connected with the rest of the swamp, as it is a superior organism.

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