


Once proud warrior-kings who ruled their lands personally (and sometimes brutally), over the generations the Earth Kings ceded more and more control over the day-to-day operations of their city to the Byzantine governmental structure that sprung up around them. The current Earth King (the fifty-second in his royal line) was once called Kuei, but after coronation the Earth Kings traditionally renounce any personal name, thereafter referred to only by their title or Your Majesty, and are considered by their subjects as almost god-like in stature. The most powerful ruler in the Earth Kingdom, his palace sits in the center of Ba Sing Se.
