Avatar Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Avatar Wiki
By Lovelyb0nes Part of the A:TLAR continuity.
Bolin realizes
Juji's fine. He comes back to life in the end when the doomsday device shifts the polarity of the Earth. Oops. Spoiler. Sorry.
Warning! This page contains spoilers for future episodes of A:TLAR.
"Please don't burden him with this sort of power.. Ain is one of the most serene students that I've had. Choose someone else."
— Gyansi, to the Avatar Spirit

Gyansi was the Grand Monk of the Southern Avatar temple (otherwise known as the Temple of Lost Souls, for it's taking in of people seeking redemption) and disciple of the previous host of the Avatar, Roku.


History[]

Gyansi was brought up in the Southern temple, with his pre-determined purpose (decided by monks) of being the next Grand Monk, the spiritual leader of the Southern temple. He was conditioned and prepared for this throughout his entire childhood and adolescence, and after realizing how much his life had been carefully planned, he often considered throwing a wrench in the plans by abandoning the temple or attempting some other form of rebellion.

Gyansi was born with the mark denoting him as an airbender, and by the age of 15, he was a master. He was often considered one of the best airbenders of his generation. He was appointed head airbending instructor at 21, and at 23, began to train his best known student, the Avatar's host Roku, who had arrived at the temple seeking to learn airbending.

By the traditions of the Avatar temples and their philosophies, a student intended to become Grank Monk must become a disciple of the current Avatar host and learn an additional element, thus removing Gyansi from his role of mentor at age 28, and once again becoming a student, this time at the hands of his newly graduated student, Roku. Because Air was the first element Roku had learned outside of his birth element, Gyansi was forced to learn firebending.

Four years later, Gyansi finally reached the day he had been forced to prepare for his entire life. At the age of 32, his grandfather, who had trained under Kyoshi, retired and allowed Gyansi to become the new Grand Monk. He would serve as the Grand Monk for the next 50 years, until his death at the hands of his second student, who was also an Avatar host.

Gyansi was thoroughly miserable for his entire life at the temple, a slave to destiny and to those around him. He put all of his work ethic and thought into training new students to alleviate the pain and fill the void in his spirit, but that failed. It wasn't until four years after Roku's disappearance that he began to enjoy his life again, with his new student, Ain.

With four years left until the date that a new Avatar was meant to be revealed, Gyansi confronted Roku in the Spirit World on who was the new host. When he discovered that is was his student Ain, Gyansi once again fell into depression, seeing his student's fate as akin to his own. On the day of Ain's sixteenth birthday (the identity of the Avatar's host is meant to be revealed to the world during his sixteenth year) and the day of his final test before he could be declared a master airbender, Gyansi formulated a plan.

During Ain's Mastery test, Gyansi put all of his effort into driving his student into difficult situations, forcing the Avatar Spirit to protect its vessel with the other elements besides Air. Gyansi had two purposes for his actions, to reveal to the other monks (and to Van himself) that he was the Host, and to eventually force the Avatar to strike him down, giving Gyansi the death he had prayed for his entire life.

Ain unconsciously used the elements of earth and water to defend himself, before Gyansi unleashed a bolt of lightning at his student, who was cornered in a crevice on the mountainside. The Avatar guided its host into redirecting the lightning, which struck and paralyzed Gyansi. As his body plummeted to the abyss below, Gyansi whispered, "Sweet release..," and was finally put at peace.

The Elemental Order[]

The rules of the Elemental Order (or in definitive terms, the physical rules in place established by the Avatar on the ability of bending) were considered highly significant by the Monks, and as part of his training to become the new Grand Monk, Gyansi was required to memorize the Elemental Order. The rules are as follows:

1- To be initially granted the ability to bend an element, one must inherit the ability, which is represented by being born with one of four marks, each denoting a different Inherited element.

2-One who is born with the ability to bend is capable of being trained in one other element, this being referred to as the Niche element. The niche element is one or the other of two out of the three other elements. The third element cannot be learned as it is the Inherited element's polar opposite.

3-This chart will describe how this works.

Inherited element:Air, Niche element:Water or Fire, Polar element:Earth

Inherited:Water, Niche: Earth or Air, Polar: Fire

Inherited:Earth, Niche:Fire or Water, Polar:Air

Inherited:Fire, Niche: Air or Earth, Polar: Water

4-Only the Avatar's host can bend their inherited element, both Niche elements, and their polar element.

See more

For the collective works of the author, go here.

Advertisement