Four temples, one people. The Air Nomads have spent years as the world's mediators and disaster-relief corps, and they are thin on the ground. Elders debate engagement versus withdrawal. The Guiding Wind still rejects entanglement with nobles. Children will now be tested, as they always are after an Avatar's death — but this time Fire envoys, White Lotus agents, and worse will take an interest. Pacifism is a principle under pressure, not a joke. Everyday temple life also includes nonbender pilgrims and vendors at the temple foot, plus Air Nomads doing ordinary jobs.
THE SOUTHERN AIR TEMPLE
Gyatso — already a respected master, later a legend, in this decade a man who will lie about a test to save a child — moves between the Elders' Hall and the west kitchen. Sister Disha holds the Master's Wind Gallery and the High Meditation Hall. Monk Norbu works the children's dormitory and testing courtyard; he has already not written a name down. That blank line may or may not be the new Avatar. The table decides. Sister Lhamo keeps the sky bison stables and knows every animal's temper. Cook Jigme works the kitchen serving window and packs extra pies when children are moved in a hurry. Vendor Paljor sells fruit and incense at the Orange Basket in the temple-foot village and has noticed a stranger buying mourning incense in bulk. Innkeeper Mother Tashi runs The Bison Bell. "Brother" Fen loiters on the pilgrim steps and at the statue sanctuary, where a statue of Roku is being added. Fen is a spy. A stole-list of Air children and bison, meant for the Crimson Mandate, is sewn into his stole.
NORTHERN, EASTERN, WESTERN
Master Youdron holds the Hall of Shared Counsel at the Northern Air Temple. Elder Jamyang works the bison stables overlook and the mountain landings, watching the Northern Passage region from above.
Elder Namgyal sits in the High Council Chamber of the Eastern Air Temple. Guru Pathik — canon, age thirty-eight in 12 BG, not the ancient hermit he will one day become — cooks orange lentils in the lower valley pilgrim hostel and walks the outer pilgrim steps. He is a friend of Gyatso. He has the first edges of a vision that he will one day help an Avatar; the face is not fixed. Saffron Wei sells spice on the hostel market mat and will need an escort off the mine road. The Stone Dreamer, a huge many-legged canyon-crawler spirit from era sources, slumbers at a nearby mine-scar. Miners woke it before. They may try again now that the Avatar is not here to mediate.
Elder Yeshe holds the inverted cloister and sunset meditation ledge of the Western Air Temple, a place easy to miss and easy to hide people in. She is already preparing hidden stores and will hide a child without telling the other temples if she must. Landing attendant Padma works the under-cliff visitor landing for non-flyers and the cliff lift. Empty Cloisters is a real threat: too many masters are abroad on relief, and a temple can be left almost unguarded.
GUIDING WIND AND THE FIRE & AIR CENTER
Khandro leads the Guiding Wind from the Unbound Circle camp, currently in the mountains above the Fire & Air Center of Learning. The Center was once a celebration of Air teachings in the Fire Nation and has a militarized standoff history with the Guiding Wind. Sister Palden still tries to keep an unfinished meditation courtyard of shared learning open. Jinsa watches from the protest ridge and has seen Mandate scribes copying temple guest lists. Princess Zeisan sometimes visits the camp. Sister Rioshon lives with her at Ashfern Hermitage.
THE SEARCH
By the cycle, the next Avatar is an Air Nomad child born at Roku's death. Do not auto-fill that child as Aang, and do not assume a named bison or a later biography. Fire "condolence" missions want tours. White Lotus friends among the monks want silence. Hesun wants a list. Gyatso will lie. Yeshe will hide. Norbu's blank line is a campaign engine. If a PC is the Avatar, follow the Avatar Path lore: learning order Air, then Water, then Earth, then Fire, often after a Downtime time-skip.
Questlines: The Testing; Empty Cloisters; Envoys with Kind Smiles (unmask Fen; Paljor noticed the incense binge); The Unbound Circle; Past-Life Wind at Roku's statue. Street work: keep Fen busy at The Bison Bell, escort Saffron Wei, get a guest down Padma's cliff lift, help Jigme move a cradle without a speech.