Village, Bending

Over the years of Genetic tampering with their human slaves, the Saurian scientists accidentally spawned abilities that would herald their own destruction. Though not possessed of the abilities needed to control their ships or to contact their home world, the human slaves began to show that they could influence the simple elements.

When these abilities would manifest, the subject would be simply taken away to be eaten as a failed experiment. In time, however, some of those who were able to tap into these abilities escaped out into the wilds and hid amongst the many tribes of free humans.

Some were able to use their minds to push and pull the waters of the rivers or find water even in the most arid of land. They became known as the River-Benders as they were able to 'bend' the course of the water to deepen it or even to cause them to drown the Saurians who would attack their villages.

The River-Benders were the first of the Benders in the Tribes. They could lower the waters of a river to allow the People to escape the raids. Those tribes where River-Benders were born more and more frequently began a new religion of worshiping the Goddess of the Moon as many of the Benders were women and their abilities ebbed and flowed with the turning of the moon.

In time, the River-Bending tribes bore those who did not push and pull the waters, but who struck out with a rage-fired hatred to burn the Saurian hunters. These children, almost always male, became known as the Fire Nomads.

The Fire Nomads do not bend the flow of rivers, but rather focus their hatred and their rage on a single point and can ignite fires with a focused thought. Some have learned to harness their emotions and can super-heat the air around them to send out wave after wave of heat which will ignite any material save earth and stone within several yards around them or direct it in a wave. Most Fire Nomads chafe at the emotions of others around them; empathicaly feeling the thirst for freedom and revenge of whole villages. Just as the River-Benders' abilities ebb and flow with the turning of the moon, the Fire Nomads' abilities seem to be linked to the rising and setting of the sun, for as the sun sets behind the hills so too does their fury.

As the nomads wander from village to village, enjoying the solace of a peaceful mind when away from the sway of others, a third variety of Bender was discovered; Earth-Singers.

The Earth-Singer's origins are a bit of a mystery. Few are able to tell how they began, but their importance in the resistance to the Saurian hunting parties is without question. Earth-Singers are, by the power of their powerful shouts, send tremors through the ground and open chasms. As though the earth itself had a voice, the Singers can call up huge boulders from under the ground to create impenetrable walls with which to protect the People or turn the land into a quagmire of quick-sand. Many of the Earth Singers have retreated into the north where the Saurians will not attack. The long winters drive them into a hibernating state where they're vulnerable. Unfortunately, the north is fraught with poor growing seasons and so they were in a continual state of semi-starvation for many years. If it weren't for the green-hearted Wood-Benders they would have never been able to survive.

No tribe has been able to remain in the same location for long. Saurian raiders burn their crops or attack in such numbers that they overwhelm their defenses. It is for this reason they are collectively referred to as "The Tribes". Even the Forest-Folk, who have moved away from the Rivers for the relative security of their thick wooden walls, must move from time to time. However, the northern Earth-Kingdom have carved several cities out of the rock. With the help of the first of the Wood-Benders, they have coaxed life into the poorest soils and given the People new hope.

The Wood-Benders are a recent evolution in the Peoples ability to control the elements. Wood-Benders were found within the Forest-Folk but generally their abilities were slow to develop and generally not effective in defending their villages. Their powers could encourage the growth of plants and therefore they were useful in increasing the bounty of their crops, but when it came to a fight they were ineffectual. Legends in the Forest-Folk say that one of the Wood-Benders used their powers on a field where an injured man had hidden himself. The field was harder to coax into life, but it turned out that the added difficulty was because the man was severely burned. The Bender had no idea that he was healing anyone, but since the man was in contact with the earth, his injuries were thought to be a 'sickness' to be cured by the Wood-Bender's touch.

The news of the healing abilities of the Wood-Benders spread from village to village as fast as a Fire Nomad. Tribes far and wide would barter for the Forest Folk's healers to come and live with them to heal their injured and sick - those who were normally caught by the Saurian raiders as they couldn't keep up with the cycles of annual migration.