Great Gates of Azulon

The Great Gates of Azulon guard the sea entrance that leads to the Fire Nation Capital. Built early in Azulon's reign, the gates are notable for having a large net guard the main entrance, which is ignited when used, and for the statues of Azulon and two dragons.

History
Built early in Azulon's reign, the gates were named after the former Fire Lord, supposedly to remember Azulon's genius foresight in having them constructed.

During The Day of Black Sun, Part 1: The Invasion, the invasion forces approached the gates with the help of a fog cover-up made by Katara and the swamp Waterbenders. However, their arrival wasn't unnoticed, so the Fire Nation closed the gates before they could get past. When invading the oncoming invasion ships, the Fire Nation military was unable to find anyone on board due to the invasion forces using the ships as a cover-up for their submarines, effectively bypassing the gates.

Description


A large statue of Azulon stands in the middle of the sea entrance, flanked on either side by two statues of dragons. When enemy ships are spotted, a net rises between the statues and ignites, "closing" the gate in a wall of fire. It is an extremely effective defense against a over-sea navy, but its weakness is that the net does not extend over Azulon's shoulders or under his feet, allowing someone to bypass it by simply swimming under it or flying over it. However, seeing as how air travel or underwater travel was not possible when the gates were built (the Air Nomads had been exterminated at the beginning of the war, and neither War Balloons nor Submarines would be invented for some time), this was likely impossible to exploit for most of the War.

There is a naval base next to the Gates, and during the Day of Black Sun, it was able to launch a fleet of small motorboats to intercept ships that attempted to pass it. Grote Poorten van Azulon