>>116039936Not entirely true. If you want to break down each of the "braindead tribes:"
>Air NomadsAs nomads, they don't actually "rule" anything but their little temples, of which there's four in the entire world. Personally, I like to think only monks lived in those temples and there was a larger air culture outside of the monkhood that lived on those landmasses, had different nationalities and allegiances, etc.
>Water TribesAre exactly that, collectives of tribes. The big city we see in the North could very well be one of many cities like it, or at the very least a capital city with lots of surrounding principalities and villages. In the South, there's no indication that all the shitty little igloo villages are "unified" in any meaningful way, so each one could almost be considered its own nation.
>Earth KingdomIt's pretty explicit that there are several Earth Kings ruling over different portions of the Earth continent. Omashu is one city state, Ba Sing Se is another city state. Maybe some pledge allegiance to Ba Sing Se, but that doesn't mean they're of the same tribe. There could be all kinds of political division in the Earth Kingdom, and the show encourages that stance.
>Fire NationThis is really the only unified culture in the show. Everyone seems to pledge allegiance to the Fire Lord, though there could still be plenty of isolated cultures like the Sun Warrior who have yet to be conquered. But the Fire Nation's pretty small comparatively, and if we take the world to be the same size as ours it's only Roman Empire-tier.
