Knowledge Seekers

"spirit"

- Handsome little creatures.

The Knowledge Seekers are the fox-like spirit assistants of Wan Shi Tong. They travel the world (especially the Earth Kingdom), collecting knowledge for the Spirit Library.

When Aang, Sokka and Katara discovered the remains of an old piece of paper that mentioned "The Darkest Day in Fire Nation History" in Wan Shi Tong's Library, one of the knowledge seekers led them to an ancient mechanical calendar that depicted the movements of the heavenly bodies. This allowed them to discover that Firebenders lose their bending during a solar eclipse; for that Sokka gave the "fox guy" a treat.

Trivia

 * The Knowledge Seekers' close resemblance of foxes is likely due to the fact that like owls, foxes are commonly seen as sly and intelligent creatures.
 * It may have been based on the Korean nine-tailed fox or kumiho, which is said to be a mystical creature that brought books to the king in a golden age.
 * It may also hark back to the Japanese kitsune fox spirits that serve the goddess Inari. Like the knowledge seekers, kitsune also "seek knowledge" and were said to earn multiple tails as they gain more knowledge.