In days of uncertainty, it is natural for common men and women to seek out heroes. Heroes both those who embody the natural way of things and those who break it apart by their presence. And, especially, those few who do both: those who embody sovereignty. There is no higher authority on earth than the Firelord. Every member of the Fire Nation knows this, whether they rail against it or glory in it.
When a Firelord declares a new campaign, he is embodying the natural desire to conquest that ever-hungry flame has. He is also breaking the limbic barriers between life and death, in the theory of sacrifice: only immortal beings may use death as a sacrifice to create life, yet the Firelord and the Fire Nation create prosperity out of the ashes of victory.
The traditional consideration of the Firelord as more than a merely material ruler, but a spiritual as well, of the Fire Nation as a theocratic government, was not abolished by the relegation of the Fire Sages. It was only sleeping. The last year has seen a resurgence, between the reports from the North Pole, the unmistakable power of the Avatar, and above all the glorious return of Sozin's Comet. So, now that the entire nation is menaced by spiritual threats to a degree unseen in a dozen lifetimes, it is only natural that the people look to the Firelords for safety and guidance.
Sages are well and good, provide a personal touch and may know the community, but cannot compete easily with the weight of a century of power and teaching. Luckily for the sages, neither of the candidates for Firelord is well-versed in spiritual affairs (perhaps if Iroh was one, matters would be different). Either way, the people are ready to be turned.
And servants of both Azula and Zuko were working on turning them. The personality cult on Azula focused more on nationalism and was limited geographically, talking up her military accomplishments (not that they required embellishment, in truth) and representing her as the nation in itself in female form.
For Zuko, the Dragon Cults proved more particular. Emerging in Caldera City and the seedy underbellies of other cities, they were oddly utopian for such pragmatic and ruthless groups. They might even be called millenarian. Some spoke that the Firelord's vision could turn stone to gold. Some spoke that he had become invulnerable to fire and could walk through magma. Most took the approach that he was the union of the lines of Sozin and Roku, perfectly balanced, and would be able to bring that balance to the Fire Nation.
These cults were devoted to the 'Dragonlord', and cracked down upon in Azulite cities, but not destroyed. Their founders and followers were among those used to persecution, and were not easy to root out. No more would war define the nation, no more would suffering be permitted. The rainbow fire of hope and love would burn those away. The name of these Dragon Cults was originally more varied, before the turning point.
While these began to flourish, the opposition in words between Zuko and Azula was evolving. Zuko had been victorious in Caldera itself, but many of his supporters were limited to that city itself, while Azula was freer to chose her domain. She chose the mountain city of Kaya, a central location, well fortified and provided with ample volcanic farms, and it was there that her army marched as it was harried by Kenji and others.
Her path proved somewhat meandering, as she visited smaller towns and forts, acting as the pinnacle of noble perfection and attacking the weak creature of shame that hid in the capital. In this manner she gained the allegiance of most those she found on her way, and ensured little opposition was left along the approaches. Even once her army arrived to the city and she appointed a new governor and war council, she chose not to stay put.
In this she differed from Zuko, who spent his time in the capital, whether fighting to retake it fully or carrying out the vital matters of state. These were to be a veritable flurry of communications, orders, and approaches to notables across the nation. With chaos unfolding, he commanded or entreatied the nobility to come with their retinues to the capital. Aside from, as he hoped, stiffening the military elite force available to him, this also gave him legitimacy and hostages both.
These feudal actions appealed to the nobility whatever the threat was, as he implied by his acts (which mattered more than words) that their place was to remain untouched in his new world. While many of the nobility that had sided with Zuko might even prefer Azula, they did not mind him instead.
He did not limit himself to such movements, however, taking bold steps to totally reorient the state towards a long war against his sister. More knowledgeable than anyone of her abilities and determination, he did not think this would be a swift operation to demilitarise enemies, but readied the administration for a prolonged struggle by reassessing priorities, purging and replacing disloyal officials and officers, and overall attempting to maintain the centralised state he had inherited as intact as possible.
Much support in this came from High General Shinu, who also dedicated himself to the pruning and Zukoization of the military. Personal letters and a soft approach worked to soothe the egos or hatreds of some among the military who were uncertain about this new Firelord. For those who it did not, they were ruthlessly replaced and arrested if possible. There was no more room for weakness in Zuko's military state than there had been in Ozai's, though definitions varied.
Shinu's own health took a subtle drop as he forced himself into more state committees, agriculture meetings, public order reports, and attempted to fill the gap left by defectors by his presence. Overworking and a lack of sleep damaged him personally, but only temporarily, as he worked to put in more trustworthy military officials to replace him and those lost.
He would often be seen paired with Juzo Ze in this, as Ze concentrated on the navy. While the main defensive fleet in the capital and the fleet on Dragon Island were under their control, leaving the bay safe with Azulon's Gates raised, much of the naval power was of uncertain loyalties. High General Ze considered traitors to be without honor, and those without honor to be unworthy of living, and had set upon to make this true.
The sheer personnel shift involved in all this meant loyalties were insecure everywhere. Two girls were slated to work on this: Mai and Ty Lee. Holding experience and knowledge of the very highest apparatus and plans of the Fire Nations until very recently, they were well placed to act. Ty Lee herself mainly focused on meeting and chatting up every high ranking official she could find as investigation, then reporting to Mai in informal and very enjoyable sleepovers or teatimes. Mai worked as Minister of the Center to find backgrounds, inaccurate reports, suspicious affairs, and anything else she could.
These two women did not work themselves to the bone, but they hardly had much free time. Nonetheless they were happy (in Mai's case, willing and not hateful) to do their part. To their surprise, they did find that something was missing when they were together. It was not that they did not have fun, or that they were not effective, but when working as a team, there was the occasional awkward pause, or missed opportunity. Something was missing.
That something was around Kaya, rallying an army to shatter her brothers' hopes and dreams. Firelord Azula was the pinnacle of what a firebender could be, the prodigy beyond prodigies, the first person in history to come within a hair's breadth of slaying the avatar spirit. Like the rest of her immediate family, she had achievements behind her name that none other could claim, and she was glorious in the eyes of the masses.
Those masses cheered her speeches calling for their loyalty unto death, challenging them to burn if they held but a hint of doubt. The nobility knelt at her call to destroy her enemies, not a hint of a waver allowed. This happened again, and again, and again.
In fact, it happened too often. Azula was everywhere. She was in Kaya, giving weekly speeches and inspecting new divisions. She was in Feixi, planting a single kiss on Azuh Zuru's forehead as he kowtowed. She was leading an army against Susong. She was dueling firebending masters across the country. To hear the tales, she was in every town between Rouruo and Tottori, whipping up a fervor against her brother the usurper. Not that she called for hatred against him. No, people were to pity him, such a weak traitor, suborned by an uncle, controlled by the avatar, a false firebender and ill-advised. And wherever she went, her blue fire came with, a sign that she had gone beyond all living firebenders and defeated them at heart.
This forced her believers to adapt, claiming that the spirits had infused her with their own power, that she could be more than one, that she could faster than any man. More traditional litanies and doctrinal texts endorsing Azula came some weeks into the war, as the majority of Fire Sages escaped Caldera's custody and proclaimed their loyalty to Azula despite Zuko's attempt to influence them.
Well outdone, Zuko took his own trip nonetheless. Little after the storm began, he had sent a scout northwards with secret instructions. The scout had never returned. A second weeks later, from the Yu Yan, had been scarcely as lucky. The third time the civil war had begun fully, and a team was sent on a swift frigate north. They, too, lost contact mere days after leaving shore.
Carefully plotting out his course, the Firelord saw that in a matter of days the trip back and forth could be done, and resolved to attain answers personally. Mai was named regent, while Shinu was put in command of military operations, and Zuko took a hot air balloon to the Sun Warriors. What he saw there would go completely unsaid, by his oath, even Mai unable to get it out of him.
Though somewhat risky, the trip was uneventful until he had passed the Boiling Rock. There, just degrees from where the island was supposed to be, the spirits' storm was raging. It seemed the warriors had been caught in full force within the storm. Hardening his heart, Zuko punched fire and turned to leave- but he was caught. The storm intensified, the winds pulling him in.
The icy wind cut grooves along the steel of the container. It punctured the balloon itself. Firelord Zuko fell to the whims of the spirits, fighting all the while, until he felt warmth catch him, and looked into the eyes of Shaw. Waking a day later, he sought counsel from the Firebending Masters.
He found it. There was reason within the madness of the spirits, and rage and more too. The island itself was safe, protected by the power of the dragons and of the First Fire, a life they could not end. He learnt of the spirit of the comet, of the fallout of energy, and of the weakness of the greats. None of this was known by the people of the Fire Nation, who could hardly dream of it.
What they knew was that a red dragon, ancient and massive, had been seen flying south towards Caldera. It had traversed half of Jimmu at terrible speed, evaded and ignored attacks, and shone as a rainbow's beauty.
There, there was a flurry of panic. A trip meant to last only three days at most had turned into a week's disappearance for the Firelord, and now a dragon was approaching the capitol. The local airfleet was put on the most extreme alert, and Combustion Man slept on it in short starts, to ensure he would be able to protect his liegelord's city.
As luck would have it, the dragon arrived as an inspection by high command was onboard one of the airships. Forewarned with precious minutes, they nonetheless could only watch as the dragon approached them and dodged or neutralised all fire. As it closed in from above, a figure jumped off its back and caught on the railing of the ship, dragging himself into the viewing port as the dragon turned and left.
"Hello there, General Shinu," said Firelord Zuko. Next to Shinu, Combustion Man knelt, and wept.
