# Waterbending

The art of change. Practitioners manipulate water in all its forms - liquid,
ice, steam, and the water within living things - through fluid, continuous
motions that mirror the element itself.

## Philosophy

Water is the element of change. Practitioners learn to perceive beyond
water's apparent state - it is "feathery as falling snow, swift as a river,
powerful as a crashing wave" simultaneously. The practice teaches adaptation:
working with the environment, never against it.

The combat philosophy blurs offense and defense into a single continuous
flow. Every block becomes a redirect, every redirect becomes an attack.
There is no separation between protecting yourself and striking your opponent.

## Fighting Style

Flowing, graceful, continuous motion. Techniques chain seamlessly - defense
transforms into offense without pause. The practitioner moves like water
itself, always in motion, always adapting.

Derives from Tai Chi Chuan, known for its slow, flowing movements and
principle of yielding to overcome.

Regional variations exist:

- **Northern/Southern style**: flowing, continuous, classical
- **Swamp style**: more rigid and direct, powerful bursts over sustained streams
- **Competitive style**: adapted for sport, quick exchanges

## Core Techniques

**Ice Manipulation**

- Ice breath: freezing via exhaled vapor
- Creeping ice: ground-level freezing rays
- Ice blades, claws, columns, discs: shaped frozen weapons
- Flash freeze: rapidly solidifying water around a target

**Water Control**

- Water whip: flexible tendril weapon
- Water jet: propulsion for movement
- Wave: large-scale water displacement
- Octopus form: tentacle-like water extensions for simultaneous attack/defense
- Water shield/dome: protective barriers

**Steam/Vapor**

- Fog generation: obscuring visibility
- Steam redirection: manipulating existing vapor

## Specialized Techniques

### Healing

Water used as a catalyst to accelerate the body's natural healing along chi
paths. The practitioner coats their hands in glowing water and traces
injuries. Can heal physical wounds and, with spirit water, even more severe
damage. Cannot resurrect the dead or heal all conditions - it accelerates
natural recovery, not miracles.

### Bloodbending

The darkest sub-art. Manipulating the water within a living body to control
their movements like a puppet. Uses rigid, abrupt motions (like a puppeteer)
rather than waterbending's usual flow.

**Requirements**: Most practitioners need a full moon (massively amplifies
waterbending power). Extremely rare individuals can bloodbend without lunar
enhancement, and the rarest can do it without physical gestures at all -
psychic bloodbending through mental control alone.

**Capabilities**: Control victim's muscles, force movement, potentially sever
bending abilities. Considered the highest level of waterbending and the most
feared technique across all arts.

**Cost**: Endangers the user's mental state. The act of controlling another
person's body causes psychological damage to the practitioner. This is not
metaphorical - practitioners who use it suffer real moral and mental
deterioration.

### Plantbending

Manipulating the water within plant life. Allows control of vines, trees,
and vegetation. A gentler extension of the same principle behind bloodbending
applied to flora rather than fauna.

## Strengths

- Supreme adaptability - offense and defense are the same motion
- Healing sub-art provides unique support capability
- Three states of matter (liquid, ice, steam) give enormous versatility
- Excellent at redirecting opponent's force
- Bloodbending is arguably the most powerful single technique in any art

## Weaknesses

- **Resource dependent**: needs water nearby. Desert or dry environments are
  crippling without preparation (carrying water)
- **Lunar dependency**: power waxes and wanes with the moon. Full moon is
  peak power. Lunar eclipse is near-total loss
- **Spiritual vulnerability**: harm to the moon/ocean spirits (the original
  source) directly diminishes all waterbenders
- Less effective at raw destruction compared to fire or earth

## Origin

Learned from the Moon and Ocean spirits. Early practitioners observed tidal
movements. Unique among the four arts for originating from spirits rather
than animals. The deep spiritual connection to lunar and oceanic forces means
waterbending is tied to celestial cycles in a way no other art is.
