Year 1764....
There exists a faraway land, where people are loved by the spirits of elements and they can bend them. The world was divided into four kingdoms, divided with a dark and dangerous forest between them. If you went into the forest, you either had to be very brave or very stupid. It was said that only the pure of heart could cross the forest, but no one was able to prove it yet. The forest had the fire kingdom in the north, the water kingdom in the west, the earth kingdom in the south, and the wind kingdom in the east surrounding it.
The kingdoms were not exactly at war, but peace could also not be considered between them. Though none of the kingdoms had attacked each other yet, but this was mainly because the armies could never cross the forest. So there existed a peace in between the kingdoms which was very fragile.
The people in each kingdom knew about each other but they believed that all of them were just waiting to attack. Maybe this was the reason that a huge army was maintained in each of the kingdoms. The people in the army were usually the strongest of the kingdom. They were more loved by the elements and could bend them like it was a second nature to them. It was a world ruled by power. And power meant with how much precision and how much destructive power you could bend the elements. In this world, if you were strong, if you had power, people would now down and follow you, they would not even question your origin. And if you were not powerful, it did not matter whether you were the child of the ruler, no one would respect you.
The most powerful person in every kingdom was the king or queen. (The society really did not distinguish or discriminate on the basis of gender.) And if you wanted to become the ruler, all you had to do was defeat the current king/queen in a fair duel. You had to kill him. All important positions could be achieved in this way.
The common people of the kingdoms were usually able to bend only one element, not with much precision. But the royalty could sometimes bend two, or even three elements. But every person had a dominant element. It was determined by the colour of their eyes. People loved by
Fire - red eyes
Water - blue eyes
Earth - brown eyes
Wind - silver eyes
The more loved by elements a person was, the darker the person's eyes were. The bending power of a child began showing when he was 5 or 6 years old.
Bending elements had become an integral part of their lives and made their lives easy, which were usually quite uneventful.
(Mainly due to the dark forest.)
Our story will begin when the third grandchild of the current king of the fire kingdom was born. The king was really old but was still the most powerful person in the kingdom as no one had been able to defeat him. Yet.