LAST EDITED ON Dec-20-13 AT 04:25 PM (EST)
 
>Hmm. I think I'd lost track of the number of generations, or just
>didn't do the math. But...yeah. I think I heard '100-some airbenders'
>and thought more than 4 generations were around.

There are. There are something like 200 airbenders in the world in 291 ASC, representing at least four, probably more like five or six, generations.

>But, thinking about it...we have
>Aang and Katara, then Jinora's generation, then Tenzin's, then Nyima
>and Lhakpa's....I think. I could be wrong.

You are. Tenzin was Jinora's father, for one thing, so they're all out of order, and Jinora is Nyima and Lhakpa's great-grandmother:

Aang - Katara
     |
  Tenzin - Pema
         |
   -----------------------------
   |           |      |        |
Jinora - ?    Ikki   Meelo    Rohan
       |
       ?
       |
       ?
       |
   -----------
   |         |
 Lhakpa    Nyima

So they're of the fifth generation since the Hundred Year War. It's entirely possible, as well, that there are other Air Nomad youngsters of comparable age who are of later generations on the tree; there's a ten-year age difference between Tenzin's eldest and youngest children, and people are living longer and potentially having families later, so if we widened the focus to show the rest of that family tree, it probably starts getting a bit complicated in the middle generations.

For example, we know Rohan has a granddaughter, Shespa, who's in her early sixties, so she could well have grandchildren or possibly even very young great-grandchildren by now. And the still-younger airbender kids we've seen, like Tenzin Minor and Gyatso, may well be of the sixth or even seventh generation.

Airbenders are no longer in danger of dying out, is what I'm getting at; all hands no longer need to be on deck for perpetuation of the line. :)

>In any case, that '1 in 100 is a bender' thing is looking less and
>less likely all the time.

That's in the general population. Air Nomads have never fit that curve. The ancients were all airbenders; the Air Acolyte thing is a recent development, and comes of Aang basically adopting a neurotically imitative non-bender Air-Nomad-otaku club after the Hundred Year War.

>I mentioned the my OOC thoughts on this above. ICly, however, I
>suspect you're 100% right...and I also suspect there will come a time
>a couple more generations from now where the airbender nation will
>want to settle and be separate from the air nomads.

I think it's much more likely that, even if some segment of the airbender population decides to remain sedentary and back off a bit on the Tibetan-monk thing, they'll remain a single nation. It's not likely to be a bitter split like the Northern Water Tribe-Southern Water Tribe thing. In fact, if you look closely, it's already sort of happening. The older airbenders, like Jinora and her generation, no longer migrate, but remain at the Central Air Temple. There didn't, insofar as I know, used to be a provision for an Air Nomad deciding he or she was too old for that crap and settling someplace; you wandered the world until you died.

It's a different world now, though, than it was when Aang was a boy. He (reluctantly, one admits) recognized that when he re-established the airbender nation after the war, and his descendants are alive to the realities as well. The trick is to let the culture evolve and adapt while still feeling as if one is keeping it intact - never an easy task.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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