Most bending in 12 BG is the four classical arts and their ordinary specializations: healing, ice, plant, sand, official fire forms, temple air. The famous later specializations are not common knowledge. This page is a lock and a permission slip. The lock: do not hand them to random soldiers. The permission: a PC may be the person who discovers one, if the table wants that story, and it should be marked as a discovery.
ALREADY KNOWN OR LEARNABLE NOW
@Healing Waters — Known. Northern healers, some Southern practitioners, and a careful student with a teacher can learn it.
@Plantbending — Known in the Foggy Swamp; teachable to a serious outsider.
@Sandbending — Known among Si Wong people; awkward for packed-stone earthbenders until trained.
@Dancing Dragon — Ancient, kept properly by Sun Warriors, endangered by hunts and academy fashion.
@Seismic Sense — Uncommon. Learnable from badgermoles (and later rediscovered by a famous earthbender). A rare miner or desert teacher may exist now.
@Rock Gloves — Dai Li work, invitation only, with roots in older earth methods and Kyoshi's training of the order.
@Lavabending — Documented in Avatars (Roku used it on the mountain). Rare earthbenders might awaken it. Not a drill.
NOT COMMON, NOT YET INVENTED, OR FORBIDDEN
@Lightning Generation — A later high art of Fire royalty and a few masters. In 12 BG it is at best secret research. Unlock only.
@Lightning Redirection — Later invented by studying waterbenders. A PC who has lived among waterbenders might be first. Mark it.
@Combustionbending — Later, extremely rare. Not a school now.
@Metalbending — Later invention. A PC may be first. Dai Li in this decade do not metalbend.
@Bloodbending — Later, under a full moon, during a war that has not started. If discovered here, it should scar the campaign and the healer halls.
@Air Scooter — Later invention by a young Avatar. A PC may invent a similar travel form.
@Spiritual Projection — Rare later air-mastery. Deep spiritual unlock.
@True Flight — Later, and tied to extreme spiritual change or detachment. Not an Elder hobby.
@Energybending — Almost lost, associated with lion turtles and the first Avatar. Not a starting art. A once-in-a-campaign spiritual trial at most.
@Spiritbending — Not a common Water Tribe form in this age. Deep spirit study only.
@Heat Redirection — Sozin is the only widely known master in canon. Rare study, not a class default.
@Asphyxiation Wind — Technically a use of air, morally forbidden in most temples. Using it is a story.
HOW TO UNLOCK AT THE TABLE
Require a teacher, a spirit, a dangerous experiment, or a named discovery scene. Add the technique to the character as a spell or maneuver only after that scene. Tell the table it is a discovery so later canon is not rewritten backward. The Crimson Mandate would pay, kill, or conscript for several of these. Wan Shi Tong already dislikes mortals who want knowledge only to harm his library or the world.
CHI-BLOCKING sits beside these arts as a rare martial tradition, not a bending form. It is not common knowledge. A Chi-Blocker PC should feel distinctive, not like every street tough in the Lower Ring.