#And unlike Sozin there weren't dildos on the crime scene

[ask-ozai]

Iroh once claimed that before Zuko, his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all searched for the Avatar.

I know about Sozin's search, but could you please tell us more about your own and Azulon's searches?

They're state secrets and no one has ever known too many details about the expeditions, but that's Zuko's problem now. And since he just caused an hyperinflation, probably he is too busy to even notice if people start talking about it.

Firelord Azulon was the same age as Zuko when he left to find the Avatar, fourteen, but he was very different from Zuko. At fourteen, my father had already fought and won four Agni Kais, and he never knelt and begged for mercy like a coward. He was the pride and future of the Fire Nation, trained and educated from his earliest age to be the perfect Firelord.

His quest to capture the Avatar led him to the most logical place to start, the Northern Water Tribe, where he was greeted with fear and apprehension given Sozin's recent history with the airbenders. But my father had the gift of persuasion and charisma, much needed in his role as Firelord and world conqueror. They reached a non-aggression agreement with the Chief, which lasted until the last day of my father's life and is the reason why the war barely affected the Northern Water Tribe in a hundred years. My father knew that they couldn't conquer his natural enemies until they conquered the Earth Kingdom first, so he gave them a false sense of security. Better to keep them out of the war for the moment.

He met my mother on that trip, Ilah.

Now, unfortunately, I never knew exactly the circumstances of how they met, nor much about my mother at all. The mere reminder of her existence (and absence) was enough to ignite my father's ire for whole days. No one was allowed to talk about my mother when I was a child. Neither the court, nor the servants, and much less me. The little I know is from Iroh, but he didn't talk much about her either. She was a complete taboo.

But yes, my father fell in love with my mother on that trip and returned home quickly to tell his father that he had found the perfect bride for himself. Sozin refused, for some unknown reason (other than that he simply didn't like women very much, I guess), so my father had no choice but to challenge him to an Agni Kai to fulfill his will to marry. Iroh says that Sozin was dead for two minutes when my father threw him a lightning and won the Agni Kai. Sozin must have been proud. When the healers managed to restart his heart, of course.

I don't have much more to say, because my father's trips were rather brief and sporadic. He and my mother married two years later, when he was sixteen, and remained married for fifty years until my mother's death when I was born.

Once my father organized another search, with Lo and Li in charge this time, who went to look for the Avatar in Omashu, hearing that King Bumi had once been friends with him. It is said that Lo had an affair with him and there is even talk of a secret bastard that they had to hide, but nothing was ever confirmed.

My search for the Avatar was a different matter. I was sixteen years old, and the time had come to show my father my value. Evil tongues will tell you that it was just an excuse to get rid of me, but they were Iroh supporters so their opinion don't count.

I took a ship, a small crew, and Zhao and Michi (the only companions I had even a modicum of confidence in) and we went to search for the Avatar. We traveled throughout the Earth Kingdom for two very long years. We had some adventures, naturally, but nothing worth mentioning until we infiltrated Ba Sing Se pretending to be circus performers. I can't give many details about what happened there, because Michi, Zhao and I swore an oath of silence. And as useless as Zuko is, he can still put Michi in a dungeon. Especially now that her daughter dumped him. And that wouldn't be convenient for anyone.

Let's just say the previous Earth King died under suspicious circumstances.