Mechanist

Voice Actor: Rene Auberjonois

History
The Mechanist is a brilliant, eccentric Earth Kingdom inventor and engineer. After a flood destroyed his village (killing the Mechanist's wife and leaving his son Teo paraplegic), the Mechanist led his people into the surrounding mountains in search of a new home. They came across the Air Nomads' long abandoned Northern Air Temple, and promptly moved in. Inspired by the Airbenders, the Mechanist mass-produced modified versions of the Airbenders' gliders, creating a whole new method of transportation for his people. He devised an ingenious hot air-based power source for the whole temple, completely refurbishing and remodelling it. Among other ingenious inventions of his, the Mechanist also created time candles (filled with an exploding powder to signify the time of day) and a cut-safe knife sharpener. This "only took [him] three tries to get it right!", explaining the lack of three fingers on his left hand.

Roughly a year after they settled, the Fire Nation blackmailed the Mechanist to build new weapons, including steam-powered battle tanks and a war balloon, under the threat of invading the temple if he didn't comply. He eventually redeemed himself by breaking the arrangement, and helping Aang to repel the Fire Nation when they attempted to storm the temple. He is seen drawing up plans for the massive drill eventually used during the episode "The Drill," so Fire Nation soldiers were apparently able to steal the drill plans sometime during the attack, along with recovering the downed hot air balloon.

The Mechanist appears in "The Northern Air Temple."