Bending has become a newfound skill that humans now use. Manipulating elements is a new skill that was never a part of humankind during ancient times. Learning methods to cultivate these new techniques was such a difficult task, it would take them months to even come up with the simplest moves. Due to this many institutions were built to conduct research to further enhance the ability to control elements. These institutions would also take charge of educating the young, these schools help arm these selected few students in the craft of bending.
Every single one is taught to develop their skill in bending, schools basically focus on teaching the young to understand their powers. Through further education, they get to specialize.
The most profoundly talented benders are hand-picked to join the military, through rigorous training these students become incredibly powerful, they are taught in incredible detail and depth. The art of combat, healing, and defense are the core subjects that are focused on, using these they learn to be able to stand on their own on the field of battle.
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Primarily everyone is taught similar styles of bending but later on, as they move into their specializations, they're designated differently. At the start, they learn their element of control, and later they are separated into classes that focus solely on their specific element. Once they understand the basics they can choose to move on to further to cultivate their abilities. This system has been in play for almost 100 years, regular classes are also conducted and the time each student spends on both curriculums is equally distributed at the beginning.
Many Empyreans tend to not go into the military, and a lot of people tend to frown upon it as it is presumed to push humanity back to before the catastrophe that destroyed the world. Many people believe that as long as we obey the rules of nature and do not fight we can stay on this earth with no problems. If we Empyreans as a whole follow such paths then there would be no wars, conflicts, or disasters that would be brought upon us anymore. It is more popular to get into the development part of bending, the research industry is the biggest in Empyrean as the country is highly investing in it.
Although the stigmatization of combat bending, the military tends to keep a close eye on the progress of the students within the academy to spot talents that perform extremely well within the school. They would be recruited and trained to improve their mastery, this act of recruitment was kept silent.
Many kids that tend to have stronger abilities in bending are recruited to serve and keep Empyrean safe. Everything is controlled and managed by the government to ensure that the people of Empyrean do not have to worry, crime rates are almost non-existent because of the effort that the government put in. The funding is also kept silent as many assume that there isn't much for the military, on the contrary, it gets the second most funds after the research industry. The military plays a huge role behind closed doors to maintain the peaceful lifestyle in Empyrean and thus is considered a must by military officials that have a hand within the government.