The Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise typically puts the peaceful Air Nomads on the side of good in most conflicts. Though they were wiped out by the time of the original series, The Legend of Korra reintroduced the Air Nation, where they served as important ambassadors of peace. When the series also introduced a malevolent Airbender named Zaheer, who invoked an ancient guru named Laghima, it left many fans pining after the introduction of a whole group of Airbenders who were not so benevolent, and in Avatar Legends, we finally have one. Present during Roku's Era, the Guiding Wind offer promising possibilities in line with the moral complexity of the series, proving that none of the Four Nations were a monolith entirely on the side of good or evil.
In every era previously portrayed in Avatar, the Air Nomads were almost always on the side of harmony, peace and cooperation. Though the franchise went to great lengths to discuss the moral complexity inherent in any situation, the Airbenders were generally above reproach where accusations could be concerned. As early as the days of Avatar Wan, they peaceful coexisted with the spirits every one else struggled against, and in the history that followed, they were defined by their pacifistic philosophies. Even following their revival in The Legend of Korra, the Air Nation protected much the same morally uncompromised positions they were known for; however, one dark spot in that legacy provided intriguing possibilities.
Though Zaheer was not an Air Nomad, he developed Airbending following Harmonic Convergence that he quickly mastered after spending his life studying their cultural traditions. One philosopher he quoted was known as Guru Laghima, who existed in a time before the Four Nations formed, and given Zaheer's own radicalism and violent methods, it was possible to imagine that he and Laghima were not the only Airbenders to stray away from the peaceful legacy the Air Nomads were known for. Now, with Avatar Legends, that is confirmed.
The corebook to the TTRPG introduced the Guiding Wind, a rogue group of Airbenders with political passions not dissimilar from Zaheer's. While much the rest of the Air Nomads in the world engage in the realm of politics and spirituality in order to stave off conflict and ease tensions, the Guiding Wind believe it is their responsibility to prove impartial to such material matters. Protesting such involvement and engagement with the rest of the world, they even contest a project meant to unite the Fire Nation and Air Nomads better than ever before.
Their involvement even includes personal ties to the Fire Nation's royal family, with Fire Lord Sozin's sister becoming a member. Known as Princess Zeisan, the Nonbender abdicated her wealth and titles in lieu of a life of peace and spirituality with the Air Nomads. Despite developing a romance with one of the Air Nuns who trained her, she even planned to marry the leader of the Guiding Winds in order to seal political pacts that would change the course of history forever, and it did, in ways no one could have foreseen.
Though the rogue group known as the Guiding Wind are not said to explicitly to be violent and certainly are not portrayed by the core book as evil, they doubtless contributed toward Sozin's antipathy toward the Air Nomads given their involvement with her sister. Sozin would go on to wipe out the entirety of the Air Nomad population when he began the Hundred Year War, and he establishes a propagandistic campaign against them that portrayed Airbenders as evil sowers of conflict that lasted for generations beyond his life.
Such a contribution to Avatar lore well reflects the increasingly complex nature of the franchise's moral landscape. As ever before, there are few definitive good guys and bad guys in the stories of Avatar, and the Guiding Wind prove that even the Air Nomads could not claim exception to that rule.