As one of the Avatar Four Nations, Air Nomads were wanderers by definition, but had four Air Temples, one at each corner of the globe, hidden away atop mountain ranges in the northern Earth Kingdom and on three remote islands. The Air Nomads were home to a monastic order of men and women who practiced Airbending, the mystical art of aerokinesis.
A century before the time of the series, the Air Nomads were the victims of genocide at the hands of the Fire Nation. The sole known survivor of the massacre ironically was the very person the Fire Nation sought to kill in its quest for supremacy: the twelve-year-old Airbender and Avatar, Aang, who had run away from the Southern Air Temple shortly before the war began and became trapped in suspended animation. He has since revived and begun a quest to restore balance and peace to the warring nations.
The Air Nomad insignia is depicted as a stylized swirling orb. Within the circle, coiling lines illustrate the wind. The symbol can be seen on the design of doors and surfaces in the Air Temples, as well as on pendants of monks' prayer beads. While the other nations possess royalty and are run by monarchies, the Air Nomads were led by an order of monks. The senior monks instructed future generations of Airbenders and were responsible for training the Avatar each time the reincarnation cycle returned to air.
