Omashu


 * This article is about the place itself. To read about the Capture of Omashu, go to this article.

Omashu is the second largest city in the Earth Kingdom and the capital of one of its provinces. Only Ba Sing Se, the titanic capital of the Earth Kingdom, is larger. It was one of the last great strongholds of the Earth Kingdom and a supplier of men and weaponry before its fall in the months before the end of the war. The city was also very well known for its famous delivery system powered by Earthbending and gravity.

Omashu is located in the Kolau Mountain Range in the southwestern Earth Kingdom. The city is built on a number of hills, and is surrounded by a wide gorge. Omashu is heavily fortified.

Previously ruled by King Bumi, Omashu was taken over by the Fire Nation and renamed New Ozai. During the Day of Black Sun, King Bumi single handedly liberated Omashu and all the powerless Firebenders escaped the city.

Founding
Legends hold that a man and a woman, named Oma and Shu, from two feuding towns met at the top of a mountain, and fell in love. Although it was dangerous for them to keep meeting, the loving couple found a way to continue their relationship in secret. After becoming the first Earthbenders by observing the natural skills of badgermoles, massive animals that inhabited the mountains separating their two villages, they created a labyrinth which only they could navigate as a place to be together, and others who would try to follow them would be lost forever in the tunnels.

However, one day the man did not come - he had been killed in the war between their two peoples. While the woman's fury was initially expressed in a display of her terrible Earthbending powers, which could have destroyed both of the warring towns, she instead declared the conflict at an end.

The two villages later created a city to honor the couple's love, which eventually grew into the city of Omashu. The final line in the script states "love is brightest in the dark".

During the War of Chin, Omashu fell into Chin's hands along with most of the Earth Kingdom. It was unknown how life was in Omashu under his rule, until the city was liberated after his death.

It is currently ruled by King Bumi and holds the place of being the Earth Kingdom's second largest city. Omashu's main industry was producing weapons and supplies for the war effort, and had developed a complex and efficient mail system used to transport goods throughout the city that employed Earthbending and gravity using extensive ramps and chutes. Bumi and Aang used the ramps as slides in their past.

Capture
Since Aang, Katara, and Sokka's last visit, Omashu was captured by the Fire Nation, who had developed extending metal bridges to bypass the gorge, and was renamed "New Ozai" by Princess Azula around that time.

The entire city underwent massive reconstruction to better suit the needs of the Fire Nation. A huge statue of Ozai began construction. The Palace was reconstructed, the original of which was completely leveled and replaced with the metal pagoda architecture favored by the Fire Nation. This may have been in part to the fact that doors between the chambers of the old palace were created as needed by Earthbending, making entrance and egress impossible for non-Earthbenders. Many of the the ordinary buildings were commandeered by the Fire Nation, most likely forcefully, and turned into Factories, with chimneys coming out of the top, which were probably being used to build weapons.

Mai's father became New Ozai Governor, in place of King Bumi. The normal citizens, however, fled the city under the guise of an epidemic shortly after Aang arrives.

Liberation
During the Day of Black Sun, the imprisoned Bumi saw that his time had come and released himself from imprisonment. Following that, he proceeded to defeat the powerless Firebenders and single-handedly reclaimed his city from the Fire Nation, even going as far as to destroy the now complete statue of Ozai, while laughing maniacally and eating Jennomite. This was vital to the eventual liberation of the Earth Kingdom from the Fire Nation.

After the War, Omashu has presumably begun to repair the damage the Fire Nation inflicted on the city. The fleeing citizens have probably returned.

Government
The exact governmental structure of the Earth Kingdom being unknown, it is unknown exactly how Omashu is connected with, let alone controlled by, the Earth King or the imperial government. What is known is that the city is ruled by a king who exercises absolute rule over his subjects. King Bumi currently hold this title; it is unknown whether the kingship is hereditary or is decided by some other means. It is also unknown if the king exercises any control outside the city, such as over nearby vassal lands and villages.

During the time in which Omashu was conquered by the Fire Nation, a governor was installed by Fire Lord Ozai himself. This governor, who was Mai's father, exercised both civilian and military control in the name of the Fire Nation central government, as demonstrated in his blunt ordering of all the citizens to leave. He was answerable only to the Fire Lord. When King Bumi liberated Ba Sing Se, this governor's fate was unknown but obviously the old government was restored.

Layout and Description
The city of Omashu sits within the Kolau Mountain Range, surrounded on all sides by steep canyons and an enormous gorge. The cities' three gates are composed from massive stone, each five feet thick and towering over thirty feet high. As a result, the gates can only be opened by skilled Earthbenders who guard its only entrance. The city itself is built on a number of hills. The Palace sits on the tallest hill, which is in the center behind some of the other hills. The city has thousands of houses for ordinary citizens and nobles. There are hundreds of shops, restaurants and pottery workshops. Most types of businesses in Ba Sing Se would be present in Omashu as well. It also has a complex mail system.

Buildings in Omashu are generally built from stone, unlike most buildings in the Earth Kingdom, and have green tiled roofs.

Palace
The Omashu Royal Palace was home to the city's king prior to the city's annexation by the Fire Nation, and was located at the top of the Omashu's central mountain peak. It was a palace consisting entirely of Earthbending-operated doors and would be impossible for anyone but an Earthbender to get through it.

Cave Of Two Lovers
Located near Omashu, The Cave of Two Lovers is a secret tunnel that passes through a section of the Kolau mountain range. The tunnel is actually a giant underground labyrinth full of dangerous animals including Wolfbats and Badgermoles. In the center of the labyrinth is the Tomb of Two Lovers. The tomb is a large room with two sarcophagi in the middle. In the sarcophagi are the bodies of the two lovers; this is their final resting place. The walls of the tomb are decorated with pictures and pictographs telling the story of the two lovers. The cave is illuminated by crystals (similar to those of Old Ba Sing Se) when any form of light is put out. Omashu is named after the first two Earthbenders.

Omashu Sewer System
The Omashu Sewer System is a series of interconnected tunnels underneath the city of Omashu, used to get water and sewage out of the city. The sewage system is a very dark and dank place full of all sorts of filth and unusual critters including the leech-a-pillar and pentapi. The sewer system exits at the bottom of the gorge and is one of the only ways to sneak in and out of Omashu. Aang knows about these secret passages because he and Bumi used to play in them as kids. In "Return to Omashu", Aang used it again with Katara and Sokka when they wanted to enter to the captured city, in that moment, by the Fire Nation.

Mail System


The Omashu mail system is just a linking slide that goes on for miles in the city. Earthbenders move the packages around to a different slide. Though Aang and Bumi used it as a giant slide and slid down it 100 years ago. 100 years later Aang did it again with Katara and Sokka but this time he was a bit wild. They also used it again when they were trying to recover the captured King Bumi from Azula.

Trivia

 * Based on the ancient writing in "The Cave of Two Lovers," the Traditional Chinese way to write Omashu is 奥瑪舒. "Ào mǎ" (奥瑪) mean "mysterious carnelian," while "Shū" (舒) is a Chinese surname meaning "relax". In Simplified Chinese Omashu is 奥玛舒.
 * Omashu being built on a mountain is similar to the way that the Air Temples are built, as both are carved out of a mountain.
 * Since Oma and Shu were the first human Earthbenders, even before the time of Avatars, then Omashu could be older than the first Avatar.
 * The shape of Omashu is similar to that of the Chinese pictograph character for "mountain" ChinesePictograph_Mountain.png (山)shan.

Notable Figures

 * Oma
 * Shu
 * King Bumi
 * New Ozai Governor
 * Governor's Wife
 * Mai
 * Tom-Tom
 * Yung