During his absence, the Fire Nation had waged war upon the other nations and managed to completely wipe out the pacifistic Air Nomads.
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Shortly before the beginning of the Hundred Year War, Aang was frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years he later emerged, still biologically twelve years old, into a world engulfed by war. He was also one of a select few Avatars and one of the first in many cycles to learn the ancient art of Energybending and the first Avatar known to have actively used the technique.
![avatar the last airbender world map to scale avatar the last airbender world map to scale](https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/020/731/406/medium/james-nalepa-asset.jpg)
As the Avatar of his time, he was the only person capable of using all four Bending arts: Airbending, Waterbending, Earthbending, and Firebending. Aang was a male Air Nomad born in 12 BG and the Avatar during the Hundred Year War, succeeding Avatar Roku and preceding Avatar Korra.