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| By King Bumis Heir | Part of the Avatar: Civil Strife continuity. |
| Juji's fine. He comes back to life in the end when the doomsday device shifts the polarity of the Earth. Oops. Spoiler. Sorry.
Warning! This page contains spoilers for Avatar: Civil Strife.
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| "The story of Shitou is all a tall tale though." |
| — Taobing commented to Baoshou in Chapter 6: The Shipment. |
20th Earth King Shitou is a minor character in Avatar: Civil Strife, he appeared in Chapter 6 as part of an historical event that is argued to be a folk tale according to Taobing. This story is told by Baoshou.
History[]
Shitou served as the 20th Earth King of the Duryajian Kingdom, and was known as the second monarch of the Han Dynasty, and the successor of his father Heping. Shitou was known to be a procrastinator that permitted his kingdom to fall into hardship and left his citizens to struggle. Which caused his subjects to pray to the gods to punish the young king.
Shitou spent most of his days eating, sleeping on the throne, drinking alcohol, and spending time with concubines rather than performing his duties as a monarch. Sometime during his life he was visited by a strange being known as the Duyan Ling, this being was likely a spirit that was only seen by Shitou. Duyan Ling offered him to change his life around or be turned in stone. Of which Shitou was not interested in, he instead turned away to take his nap on his throne.
Three days later, the Duyan Ling returned to find that Shitou remained unchanged in his ways. The spirit revealed himself to the Earth King, which frightened him. But it was too late for Shitou to change himself in that moment, the concubine that rested on his lap told him there was no one in front of them. But seconds later, she found herself sitting on the statue-like form of the Earth King. His guards were perplexed, the government and the Grand Secretariat attempted many methods to unpetrify Shitou but all have failed. In the end, Shitou was replaced by his younger brother Houdai who was crowned the twenty-first Earth King.
It is argued by historians whether Shitou existed or was a fictional character in a folk tale. Heping's records never mentioned an heir named Shitou however it did mention Houdai. Some of Houdai's records were lost to time and the ones that have been uncovered don't mention Shitou either. The only known record of Shitou existing was written by Avatar Salai. In his memoirs, he mentioned that Shitou was the ruling monarch during the time when he focused on issues pertaining to the Fire Nation. Salai lived through the rule of the first three Han monarchs, Heping, Shitou, and Houdai; with Houdai outliving the famous Avatar.
Abilities[]
Shitou was born an earthbender although due to his lazy nature he never learned to master the element. Shitou is knowledgeable in politics, government, and other duties of being an Earth King but refused to care enough move a finger in life.
Appearances[]
Avatar: Civil Strife[]
Book One: War[]
| Preceded by 19th Earth King Heping of Han |
Earth Monarch 2615 BG - 2606 BG (BG) |
Succeeded by 21st Earth King Houdai of Han |
Trivia[]
- 20th Earth King Shitou Han was an Earth King who died in his mid-twenties, he was incredibly lazy and was turned to stone by a spirit. His first name means "stone" in Chinese. While his surname was inspired by the Han Dynasty, the Han were the previous ruling Dynasty before the establishment of the Haijun.
- The 19th Earth King's name is Heping Han, who established the Han Dynasty through conquering the previous Dynasty. His name means "paragon of peace" and the full name is Heping Dianfan. 和平典范
- The 21st Earth King's name is Houdai Han, he takes the throne soon after his older brother Shitou dies. His name means "offspring of stone" or "Shitou de houdai" in Chinese. The idea of Houdai being Shitou's son was scrapped during notes and instead he was made his younger kid brother, although the name remained unchanged. 石头的后代
- It is argued that Shitou never existed and was entirely fictional, declaring his rule invalid and making Houdai the 20th Earth King. However, according to the records left behind by Avatar Salai, Earth King Shitou existed and ruled as the 20th Earth King making his brother the 21st Earth King.
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