I would have to say that i believe the earth kingdom was strongest before the war because of it size, terrority and large military.

The fire nation became stronger during the war because it invest in new technology to help them conqure the world.

And now i belive in korra time it 3 nation which are a balance of power in the world.
fire nation, earth kingdom and united republic keeping each other in balance, just like the three kingdoms.

@avatarg33k Sozin’s Comet comes around every 100 years.
Though the Fire Nation has proven itself to be extremely powerful even without the comet as it has constantly attacked the other nations during the 100 years without the aid of the comet.

There was probably some reputation that caused fear in their opponents after the comet.
But their utilisation of technology was probably what really helped them get to where they are by the start of ATLA, much of the Earth Kingdom tech was created by The Mechanist and Sokka during ATLA. So they may have had number advantage, but not tech advantages.

It really is only ever between those 2, with the water tribes so isolated from on another it is hard to judge their combined strength at any time. Though I do think a combined NWT/SWT with lots of Waterbenders would be amazing.

And if for some reason the Air Nomads formed an Army that would also be very interesting to see how effective they are.

@airspeed

i think the water tribe could had been raiding the other nation before the formation of the modern concept of the 4 nation. Like the vikings raided europe during the dark ages when central goverment was weak.

The earth kingdom i believe was divided into many states and must have fought each other until the earth king unified them. I have a story for this situation…..

the fire nation were once the sun warrior but something happen and they had to rebuilt there new nation under the fire sages, which would later lead to the royal family etc.

now the air nomad are the most Perplexing, why are they nomad, and as we can see airbending can be use in a deadly way. So i belive that the ancestor of the air nomad were also a nation which fought to control the world, or resource, but something happen and the air nomad were formed, and violence was outlaw. It just seem the air nomad culture is kind of unnaturally made, because one of the most powerful form of bending and people are so Pacifist.

And if anyone has notice, airbending doesn’t have any weakness. It doesn’t need a source to use. Water – u need water and you have to pray that the moon spirit isn’t killed. Earth-u need earth duh to bend, and it restricted on land itself, unless you carry rock with you?

fire and air are the only element which don’t need substance to bend but both require Spirituality , like zuko needed to find his momo inner spirit agian after joining team avatar, and air as we see from korra, you need lot of spirit.

But fire has one weakness, solar eclipse, bye bye power for 10 mins. (yeah not that weak cause you do get comet which allow you super avatar power every one hundard year (we think) i hope it isn’t every one hundard.

so from all the facts, air is the most reliable and usable element, but it is shown as a less deadly art. (people who used it havn’t done all the damage that they can with it.)

like how can you really beat an airbender(without technology, and sozin, bloodbending etc) in a fair fight, you can’t hit them and they can just fly around and knock you off a cliff or just use a tornado etc. it the lack of deadly moves that got the air nomad wiped out, but way were any deadly move see…did they do some bad in there past so now they forsake all airbending move that are deadly

If i was the creator i would write a series about how the air nomad were ruler of the world but change and became what they are now. cool right?!

or something close to that.

@midnight0094
we only seen it twice for every 100 year, it doesnt mean it happen all the time cause then why dont the fire nation just attack every time. And beside the creator can change this if they want to. for ex

airbending required spirit…korra i love you mako. air power back.

air bison and air lemur down to one of each: yep aang found new bison and lemur, and is the world really that big for him to find some new species, we know he travel the world, he had friend all over the world, so wow i didn’t know this sub species existed really

“which just unbalances them even more in your theory” i dont understand what you are saying, they can’t be evil? or air bending itself doesn’t allow for violence?

the creator can do anything they want and i hope they do what i have just proposed.

@midnight0094

oh yeah, so there could have been airbending(empire or something) but they became remorseful and decided to become monks and nuns and abandoned all material desire and focused on spiritual stuff.

Why can’t the creator come up with this stuff, i mean i see fan fiction on this site with so much promise. sigh.
my isn’t great, but it get the ball rolling, the only reason i hate the amon is a waterbender is because it was too easy and the creator thought it was the best plot….

I hope they are reading some of the group fan fiction for inspiration. yeah air empire here we come.

history of the 4 nation….. i will create a fan timeline. asap

I kind of view as this as WW2

In the Pacific Japan is the Fire Nation, Korea is the Air Nomads, China is the Earth Kingdom and I guess the US would be the Water Tribes.

Ironically, the Japanese almost wiped out Taekkyeon, a Korean Martial Art, but one Master managed to survive and pass on his teachings (sound familiar)?

For Europe Germany is the Fire Nation, Poland is the Air Nomads, The USSR is the Earth Kingdom and the UK is the Water Tribes.

Fire nation before and after because they have the comet on there side.
and the water tribe after because the two came in peace. pluse they got korra