Earth Empire reeducation camps

"Kuvira's been purging states of anyone who isn't of Earth Kingdom origin"

— Baraz, an ethnic Fire Nation prisoner, to Bolin and Varrick.

Earth Empire reeducation camps
Physical information
Location	Earth Empire
Government
Administrator	Kuvira (overall) Guan (Gaoling camp)
First appearance	"Operation Beifong"

As Kuvira's influence and territory grew, she began to enact more totalitarian measures as a means of securing complete control over her occupied provinces. These included rounding up dissidents and ethnically cleansing people of Water Tribe and Fire Nation ancestry, locking such groups up in detention and reeducation camps. She also had her scientists, led by her fiance Baatar Jr. and Dr. Sheng, begin research into new military technologies, using reeducation camps as testing grounds.

History

One camp was used to build the spirit energy cannon.

At some point prior to Kuvira's annexing of Zaofu, a group of prisoners led by Baraz and Ahnah managed to break themselves out of one of the reeducation camps. Some time after their escape, they ran into Bolin and Iknik Blackstone Varrick, both of whom had recently defected from the Earth Empire and were on the run themselves, with their appearance revealing to Bolin the true purpose of the reeducation camps. Both sets of fugitives eventually managed to escape the Earth Empire.

Following the annexing of Zaofu, Baatar Jr. and Zhu Li Moon moved their research and development work to a nearby reeducation camp, using the facility's factory to construct a massive cannon that harnessed the power of spirit vines. As a captive of the Earth Empire, Suyin Beifong was also imprisoned within the reeducation facility, alongside her husband Baatar, and her sons Huan, Wei, and Wing. All five were eventually rescued by a group consisting of Bolin, Lin Beifong, Toph Beifong, and Opal, with the group also extracting Zhu Li after she was imprisoned for attempting to sabotage the spirit energy cannon.

Civilians were brainwashed by Sheng and Guan at the Gaoling camp.

One reeducation camp located near the town of Gaoling was under the authority of Commander Guan, who worked with Dr. Sheng to develop more efficient ways of indoctrinating the soldiers there. In time, Sheng's research led to her developing an improved method of brainwashing that utilized the use of magnetic waves. Kuvira remained unaware of these experiments until the events of the Gaoling Crisis, when she, Bolin, Mako, and Asami Sato were captured and bought to the camp by Guan's forces. Though the latter three were successfully brainwashed, Kuvira escaped the camp before the same could be done to her. The reeducation camp, along with Guan and Sheng, were brought down due to the efforts of Kuvira, Avatar Korra, and their allies, with the camp's brainwashed victims later being freed from their conditioning.

Structure

The reeducation camps' structure appeared to have depended on their purpose. For instance, the Gaoling camp (designed to hold and indoctrinate prisoners) was surrounded by a wall and guard towers, housing several metal barracks and only a few research facilities. In contrast, the Earth Empire factory lacked a wall and was instead dominated by industrial and research areas, with a heavily defended subterranean cavern being used to house prisoners.

Known camps

• Earth Empire factory
• Gaoling camp

Known prisoners

• Baraz and Ahnah