They said that Badgermoles are the very first Earthbenders. They are gigantic animals that looks like a badger and a mole. Badgermoles use Earthbending to make tunnels and caves and travel underground. They are usually blind but use they use there Earthbending to feel the ground and see. Toph learned from Badgermoles when she ran away and hid in a cave. They said that Badgermoles loves music.

Humans learned earthbending by copying Badgermoles that lived in the mountains and caves in the Earth Kingdom. Earthbenders use there strength and defense to defeat there opponents. There attacks usually have to do with levitating any type of mineral rocks. They usually kick or punch them to there opponents making them fly across to there opponent. They can levitate rocks as shields or make houses out of them. When they hit the ground with there feet or fists can create earthquakes to make there opponents unbalanced. Earthbending Masters can turn solid ground to quicksand to paralyze an enemy. They choose to be barefooted to increase their connection with the ground. Earthbenders can not onle bend rocks or soil. An Earthbender can use other earth substances such as sand, crystals and coal. Toph can also bend metal because of the unfermented rocks that the metal contain.

Sandbenders are the same as Earthbenders, they just adapted to the desert. They manipulate sand with incredible strength. They can move quickly in the desert on wooden sailboats that are propelled by sand bending. Because sand is a sediment, there style usually resembles waterbending. though the Sandbenders of the Desert are especially proficient with it due to their particular habitat.

Earthbending

Iroh’s words of wisdom on the Earth Kingdom:

”Earth is the element of substance. The people of the Earth Kingdom are diverse and strong.”

The Story of the earthbenders is the only story that has been explored in detail.

The story is of two warring sides, and two people on each side who discovered one another and fell in love. The two, by observing the badgermoles, learned to earthbend and carved out long elaborate tunnels that connected their two sides, and would meet secretly in the caves.

Earthbending is based off of the martial arts style of Hung Gar, though the character Toph Bei Fong’s style of earthbending is based off of Southern Praying Mantis style instead. It focus’s on having a strong, solid base that makes it almost impossible to move the earthbender when they are fighting. They are capable of moving unbelievable amounts of earth, making them unbelievably dangerous. Earthbenders have shown they can move through the ground as if it was air, and are more attuned to the air as well. Earthbenders can also bend mud ( since it's earth and water), and sand, but as shown by Toph, it isn't the easiest transition, although she becomes skillful enough in it to create a replica of Ba Sing Se, including some citizens.

Metalbending

Metalbending is a subsection of Earthbending that appears to have been created

by the blind Earthbender Toph. Due to metal being a purified form of earth, Toph was able to discover the impurities in the metals by using vibrations. Then, by bending these small impurities, Toph was able to bend the metal, effectively becoming the first ever Metal Bender.

The fact that it is possible to bend metal is of serious danger to those who attempt to imprison such a metalbender, as it used to be thought that imprisoning an earthbender was to keep them surrounded by something they could not bend, namely metal.

Though Toph does appear to be the only character capable of metalbending, it is very possible that King Bumi can actually bend metal, since he was shown bending while in a metal cage. However, his only comment about bending with his face makes this very unlikely. Aang can possibly bend metal in the future, seeing as though he has the same seismic sense Toph has (from training with her) and knows that even metal has some Earth inside it.

In the recent Avatar comics by Dark Horse, Toph has created an academy to teach young earthbenders the art of metalbending. She has been successful with 3 students via the help of Sokka.