<div class="quote"><i>Neo Bahamut wrote:
Spirit vines seem to amplify the seismic sense.</i></div>
<p>Wait what instance are you talking about, I kinda forget </p>

<p>Meh. I've always thought earth as the least spiritual element, since it's so... <i>earthy</i>. Remember how Korra had so much ease with earth- and firebending? That's because she was, at the time, more aggressive and headstrong. That's why she had so much trouble with airbending, obviously the <i>most</i> spritual element. That's also why Aang, a very spiritual airbender, had so much trouble with earthbending. I don't think spirituality has much to do with sensing vibrations in vines, I think instead they may assist by augmenting vibrations or something. </p>

<p>Well, firebending isn't really that spiritual either, but they did show that thingy with the shamans and stuff, so I would think there'd be at least something spiritual with earthbending </p>

<p>When in the swamp, Toph can sense things from around the world. Unless we're talking earth quakes, that goes pretty far beyond what ennhancing vibrations should be able to do, especially since the spirit vines aren't even at the locations she's sensing. </p><p>While it's true that airbending is considered "the most spiritual element," firebending also has a significant spiritual component. It's not unreasonable that spirituality would make an earthbender more powerful. </p><p>Obligatory plug: In <i>Blood & Steel</i>, I had a similar plot point, about how meditation, seismic sense, & spiritual awareness could form a positive feedback loop, since they're all focused on intense awareness of one's surroundings. </p><p>Though, technically Aang's issue wasn't with earthbending's lack of spirituality, it was with its "stand your ground" mentality. </p>

<p>It may be possible to calculate an approximate size of the earth, I don't think Toph's worldwide seismic sense is as powerful as she says it is. Don't vibrations disperse, get mixed in with other vibrations, or at least takes a while to reach Toph? I think it's the last one, meaning that most of the vibrations that Toph senses are not exactly live. </p>

<p>It's not really a matter of Toph's opinion about her power, she says she can sense what's going on around the world, but it only seems to work in the swamp. She has no reason to lie, & if she were, there would still need to be an explanation for how she knows what's going on with Lin & Suyin. </p><p>Vibrations propagate at the speed of sound, meaning that it's unlikely that her sense is current, but that wasn't the point anyway. The point was that something about Foggy Swamp allows the sense to work far beyond what it should be naturally capable of, since ordinarily such small vibrations would become too weak to be discerned amidst the noise of the earth's natural vibrations long before they ever reach the swamp, let alone Toph herself. </p>

<p>Wait how do we know she can only sense what's going around her in the swamp? Maybe she just got more powerful as she got older, so she honed her seismic sense. </p><p>Also, I'm open to more suggestions, like they don't even have to be real subskills that have already presented themselves, it could be a random spiritual theoretical technique too lol </p>

<p>When she arrives at Zaofu, she doesn't know where Suyin is. This is impossible if she can sense everything that goes on from Republic City to Zaofu. Plus the sheer absurdity that she could sense such minute things over that distance to begin with, which would be orders of magnitude above every other bending feat we ever see, including Toph's other feats. </p><p>If I think of something, I'll mention it, but I don't like to just make up random absurd shit like "I bet they can turn into rocks!" or whatever. </p>

<p>Toph's seismic sense was accurate enough to count ants in the dark at a distance before developing metalbending. The spirit tree not only transfer vibration, but spiritually amplifies benders. As a child toph was one of the greatest non avatar benders of her time, I think largely due to her personality and element pairing. That being said, she was the least spiritually inclined of the team. </p><p>To answer the topic tho, I would assume a spiritual earthbending technique would afford the user the properties of the element itself, by 'becoming the earth' they would get higher physical durability. Ultimate defense or some shit. I think that'd be cool, thoughts? </p>

<div class="quote"><i>At0mb0mbn0m wrote:
To answer the topic tho, I would assume a spiritual earthbending technique would afford the user the properties of the element itself, by 'becoming the earth' they would get higher physical durability. Ultimate defense or some shit. I think that'd be cool, thoughts?</i></div>
<p>mmmm, I was thinking more like a type of bending, as your technique is more like magic I think... but like who knows, maybe that could work lmao </p>