Aiwei

"earth"

- I'm a truth seer. When people lie, their heart rate and breathing increase. I can sense the most subtle of changes.

Aiwei was an Earth Kingdom fugitive and former trusted adviser of Zaofu's matriarch, Suyin Beifong, as well as a very capable truth seer. Because of this ability, he gained much respect in Zaofu, until he was discovered to be a mole for the Red Lotus after they failed to kidnap Avatar Korra. After his escape, Aiwei met Zaheer in the Spirit World, where he was sentenced by the airbender to spend an eternity dwelling inside the Fog of Lost Souls.

Arrival of Team Avatar
In 171 AG, a few weeks after Harmonic Convergence, Aiwei personally greeted Avatar Korra and her companions, who had come to Zaofu in search of a new airbender. When Korra claimed that she and her three friends were the only ones to have arrived, Aiwei detected that she was lying. However, he did not call her out on that until after they met with Suyin, at which point Korra was then forced to confess that they came with Republic City's Chief of Police, Lin Beifong.

The next day, Aiwei approached Lin as she was hassling two guards who were chitchatting. He noted that she was visibly stressed and offered the business card of an acupuncturist to help resolve her issues.

Aiwei later attended Opal's farewell dinner, seated next to Mako. Upon hearing him express disgust over his seat, Aiwei realized Mako was referring to being placed to him, and knew he was lying when the firebender suggested otherwise.

Revelation


After Opal's departure for the Northern Air Temple, Aiwei secretly helped Zaheer and his gang infiltrate Zaofu through a secret passage in his house, yet the criminals failed to capture the Avatar. Once the gang had fled the city, Aiwei, maintaining his facade, gave Korra an antidote to the shirshu venom she was sedated with. As everyone concluded that Zaheer's gang could not have entered the city within inside help, Aiwei began questioning all the guards, even Suyin at Lin's request. Eventually, he declared that one guard was lying, Hong Li, and investigated his house with Team Avatar. There, they found evidence that Aiwei had planted to further incriminate the guard, including a message from Zaheer's gang for a rendezvous, and a logbook of guard movements and schedules. Though Team Avatar wanted to confront him, Aiwei declined, claiming that they should let the guard sweat.



Aiwei later found Team Avatar in his home, calling them out for trespassing and demanding an explanation. After Korra told him that they believed things were not adding up and that he had answers, he told them to sit and talk over tea. He wondered what they believed could not be adding up and asserted Hong Li's guilt because of the evidence. When asked by Mako how the guard could know of the group, he suggested Hong Li could have been told through a relative or bribed. He continued by asking them who they thought was guilty, wondering if they thought he himself had a role. At that point, he noticed his jar had changed location on the bookshelf and his secret passageway was slightly exposed. Suspecting they knew what he had done, he told the Avatar that she had no idea what was coming and quickly metalbent a wall between himself and Team Avatar and escaped down the passageway, leaving a bomb to destroy all evidence. Once he reached the exit, he fled in an escape vehicle.

Imprisonment in the Fog of Lost Souls


Aiwei traveled to the Misty Palms Oasis, where he got himself a room in a local inn. Having received word from Zaheer to meet him at Xai Bau's Grove, he meditated into the Spirit World at sundown. There, he had to report to the airbender for the failed kidnapping attempt of Korra at Zaofu. Aiwei assured Zaheer that he had destroyed all evidence that could compromise the Red Lotus and that there were no more loose ends. However, the truth seer was deemed as a liability himself and was promptly teleported to and thrown inside the Fog of Lost Souls by Zaheer, condemned to spend eternity in the mental prison.

Personality
Aiwei was a generally calm and composed person capable of gaining people's trust, while sporting a welcoming and humble demeanor. These traits landed him the position of adviser and truth seer in the city of Zaofu, which enabled him as the sole person in the city to keep a secret. Underneath this facade, he sported a more calculated side, which enabled him to use the people around him to serve his own machinations and the agenda of the Red Lotus.

Abilities


Aiwei was well-versed in the practice of specialized techniques within earthbending, as he was able to both metalbend and use seismic sense. He was able to quickly raise large and thick metal walls to block his enemies' attacks and using his seismic sense, he gained the title of "truth seer", due to his capacity to detect lies based on minute changes in the breathing patterns and heart rates of individuals with whom he interacted, thus making it extremely difficult to deceive him. According to Suyin, Aiwei's sensory abilities attested to the fact that there were no secrets, at least none that were concealed from him, in the city of Zaofu. Aiwei was also able to enter the Spirit World through meditation.

Trivia

 * Because he often used seismic sense to detect truths and lies, Aiwei always made his rounds in the city barefooted.
 * Aiwei was the first known person who is neither the Avatar nor a Beifong to use seismic sense. He was also the second known person to use that ability to detect lies, the first being Toph.
 * Aiwei is one of the known LGBTQIA+ individuals in the Avatar universe, the others being Korra, Asami, and Kya.