Bending in the 41st Millennium

I am currently contemplating making an Avatar The Last Airbender / Warhammer 40000 crossover. However, I am still running into some difficulties. As the title suggests, the nature of bending is the current issue. Are benders psykers? If so, then why isn't the warp/spirit world crawling with daemons hell-bent on eating their souls? Why are benders only confined to one world? What would the Imperium do if they ever stumbled upon the Avatar world? I have a lot of other questions about this, but these are the most urgent at the time being.

edited 18th Dec '10 9:29:58 AM by SantosLHalper

It's possible that the Avatar world exists in a particularly calm region of the Warp, resulting in the Spirit World being a much Lighter and Softer area than the rest of Warp-space that's far less likely to do horrible things to psykers.

You could make it an abandoned Eldar Maiden World, created as a tranquil training ground for prospective Seers, which would mean that not only would the Ordo Xenos be very interested in it, but also the Biel-Tan craftworld... and the latter would be deeply pissed-off about the human taint that's spread across it in their absence.

Faced with imminent genocide, the Avatar-world's inhabitants would be forced to side with the Imperium - who, lest we forget, are a rapacious, fascist dictatorship who'd see a planet of psykers as a useful resource at best. End result, presuming that they manage to drive off the Eldar (no mean feat) would be that the planet gets turned into either a Scholastica Psykana institute or a collaborative archaeological project for the Ordo Xenos and Adeptus Mechanicus. The bending population would be either summarily executed, or shipped offworld to serve as sanctioned psykers and Astronomicon-fodder.

Yay for happy endings!

edited 18th Dec '10 4:29:50 AM by Iaculus

I was actually having the main plot concern the world's invasion by the Tau, but that would make a pretty good idea as well.

Generally, I find the best idea with crossovers is to assume that if two intersecting universes have very similar mechanics (in this case, magic and a freaky parallel-realm inhabited by dangerous, capricious spirit-creatures), it's probably a good idea to tie them together somehow. That's why I figured that Eldar involvement was a good idea - we need an explanation for why Avatar's warp-a-like is so much nicer than the 40K version, and there's only one race likely to make a legit attempt at turning the Warp Lighter and Softer. After all, they already managed it once with the webway.

Why did you pick the Tau as the aliens getting involved, by the way?

I picked the Tau because they also have a focus on the classical elements (see their Caste structure), and I thought the interactions between the Tau and Avatar-world denizens would be interesting to see with this in mind. However, I'm beginning to like the idea of the Avatar world being a lost Maiden world. Maybe a strike force from Biel-Tan arrives half-way through the story?

edited 18th Dec '10 4:02:24 PM by SantosLHalper

IN THE DARK FUTURE OF AVATAR THERE IS ONLY WAR

So...we might actually get to see this?

Now that I figured out where the Avatar World (henceforth known as Tianxia), my main problem at the moment are the plot details. Namely:

• Does anyone have a suggeston of a general outline of the Tau-Imperial-Eldar conflict for Tianxia?
• How does the Gaang react to the Tau, Imperials and Eldar? Would Aang join the Tau? What would happen when the Imperials arrive on the planet?
• What would the rest of the world think of the factions fighting over their world?
• Would an Inquisitor called to Tianxia be smart enough to realise that the planet's psykers, despite the lack of training from an Imperial instituion, are trained and experienced? Or would s/he condemn them all as rogue psykers/witches and call a purge?

In addition, here are a couple of plot twists I was thinking of using:

• The soul of Avatar is in fact a lost fragment of the Emperor that was cast out after the Horus Heresy.  ^BUT
  ^{To what purpose is this fragment doing in a feudal world on the edge of the galaxy?}

• Fire Lord Sozin was a secret devotee of Khorne. The Air Nomad genocide was in fact one giant sacrifice to the Blood God.  ^BUT
  ^{If Tianxia is in a calm region of the Warp, then wouldn't it be difficult for anyone to be corrupted by Chaos?}

edited 31st Jan '11 2:45:12 PM by SantosLHalper

For the way the conflict begins, simple enough, there is a world that has been isolated by a Warp Storm for the last ten millenia...it dissipates, and Rouge Traders and explorator fleets immediately sweep in to begin searching for anything of value. Someone finds Tianxia, and reports back to the Imperium. While the Imperium is slowly gathering up a colonization fleet, word has spread to the Tau Empire, who seeing a human world that is not yet protected by the Imperium, decide that this could be a good place to expand next. Meanwhile the Farseers of Biel-Tan forsee that a Maiden World has been revealed, and that the filthy mon-keigh are to try and desecrate it. [[Hilarity Ensues]]. To be more specific, let's say that the Rouge Traders and explorators have landed first, and have begun to make contact with the locals—and try to report their finidngs back to the Imperium at large.

I would also say that the Tau have similar landing and scouting parties on Tianxia, but on the opposite side of the planet. Say, the Imperials landed in the Fire Nation, and the Tau landed in the Earth Nation...but still, while this is going on, both sides main fleets arrive, see their enemy and begin fighting in orbit, this combat could probably quickly spread to the ground, and knowing the Fire Nation, I'd wager they'd be very interested in Imperial weapons technology...

Given that I don't watch Avatar, I don't know how to respond to your second and third points, but on your last point it would depend on the type of Inquisitor sent there. Howeve, given that this is a relatively small, backwater world as far as the Imperium is concerned, they are more likely to get a younger more puritanical Inquisitor, who'd be more than willing to call down Exterminatus on the planet. However, on the other hand, the fact that there is such a large concentration of psykers on this world, combined with the unusual calm era of the warp, may attract an older, either less Puritanical—or even Radical—Inquisitor. I personally think it could be intersting to have both appear, and see who will eventually triumph.

Some thoughts:

• Although the residents call the Avatar World Tianxia, the Imperium dubs it "Cathay"
• 10 Imperial Guard regiments and elements from 3 companies are sent to defend/purge Tianxia of the Tau
• I was thinking of developing a sub-plot about the Tallarn Desert Raiders and the White Scars fighting a guerilla war against the Tau and Kroot in the Si Wong Desert. Maybe write it from the point of view of the Sandbenders?
• The two Inquisitors are sent from the Ordo Xenos (to review the Eldar artefacts) and Hereticus (to examine the unusually high population of psykers) respectively.
• Since I'm not a good writer, maybe write this as a Scrapbook Story? The only problem about this is that this would sacrifice Character Development

A scrapbook story can have character development, just make sure you're following letters/vox transmissions/w.e from a few characters, so we stick with them and get to know them. It'll be harder, but it's not impossible

I like your ideas so far...seems like they'd work out quite well. I'm sure the Imperium will be very curious about these new psykers.

I was also thinking of puncuating the vox transmissions, reports and after-action notes with short stories as well, for example about the aformentioned Sandbender who gets caught up in the Tau/Tallarn conflict, or maybe from the point of view of a guardsman.

The Last Airbender and 40K? Now that's an odd crossover. Good luck with the fan fic though!

Some more random thoughts:

On the origin of bending

• Waterbending came to be when proto-psykers used their powers to imitate the moon's pull on the tides (thank you, Avatar Wiki!)
• The Badger-moles, dragons and sky bison were psychic creatures engineered by the Eldar. The Badgermoles later taught Strife-era psykers Oma and Shu to use their abilities, while the Sun Warriors and early Air Nomads were civilizations of psykers that befriended Dragons and Sky Bison respectively.

Random story questions

• How would the Avatar-world residents respond to the Rogue Trader that makes various expeditions to their planet? What about the Tau?
• Would it cause Unfortunate Implications if I named the Imperial Guard characters after European generals who fought in Asia?

You MUST have Koh as a servant of Tzeentch.

A somewhat neutered one, I'd say, stranded in the doldrums surrounding the Avatar-world. Perhaps he starts reconnecting with his true master as the surface war begins to damage and weaken the planet's wards?

I'm actually making an attempt to begin this work, but I've got a rather dire problem: I don't know where to begin. I've already begun with a 'report' by the rogue trader that discovers Cathay/Tianxia, but I can't really think of where to go from then.

My idea would be to introduce any OCs you have. If you have any Avatar OCs introduce them first so we get to know who they were before the Imperial arrived, if you have Imperial OCs, be sure to introduce them to before landing so we get to see how the story changes them.

This is a more personal thing, but would you consider doing first contact from the Avatar perspective? I always found it interesting to have characters describing the appearance of technology they can't hope to understand. IN good hands the descriptions are amazing...

When you do start, could we get a link?

I actually did. I guess this isn't what you had in mind, but my idea was to arm Sokka with a laspistol that the Rogue Trader (who's named Marcus de Gama, by the way) gave to Hakoda, who then gave it to him. Sokka then manages to severly injure Zuko in The Avatar Returns. After seeing its (Relatively) destructive power, Aang becomes afraid of it, and only really lets Sokka keep it because it reminds him of Hakoda (and even then he only really uses it in dire situations).

This post was thumped by the Shillelagh of Whackingness