The Hollow Circle

The Hollow Circle, also known as The Hollow Ones are antagonists to the Lotus Blossoms in Book Two: Air. They are a group of people who are anti-bending (precursors to the Equalists)  and acheive this by emptying themselves of everything to become "hollow".

History
The Hollow Men worked alongside the Phoenix Spirit. The involvement of the Hollow Circle was not revealed until The Hollow Circle(Episode) when Xian was kidnapped by her Great Grandmother Bao Bao, a leader in the Hollow Circle.

Their philosophy appears to have begun as simply desiring to protect non-benders from benders who would use their abilities against their fellow man. Eventually their logic has led them to believe the best way to protect non benders from benders is to make everyone a non-bender.

They invaded Taishan Island in ones and twos, when this was discovered by the House Taishan and the Lotus Blossoms efforts were made to find who and where these people were located. It was supposed to be a stealth attack by House Taishan on the Hollow Circle, except Tara gave the Hollow Circle a warning. Despite this, the Hollow Circle were successfully purged from the island, but with more casulties for House Taishan.

Little has been heard of the Hollow Men since the defeat of the Phoenix Spirit.

Hollowness
Rai Kana described the Hollow Circle as "souless" after her healing revealed a man to be spiritually empty beyond all normal phenomena. While the technique to do so is unknown, it is assumed that it has something to do with Chibending and the Phoenix Spirit.

Chibending
Given that they are a precursor to the Equalists, their ability to chibend is unsurprising. It is highly likely that chibending is associated with the process of becoming a member of the Hollow Circle, and the group are quite familiar with using chibending offensively.

One of the offensive ways the Hollow Circle utilise chibending is to permanently remove bending from an individual.

The Hollow Circle, in particular Xian's Great Grandmother, also show the ability to return bending to Kallai after he returned from the dead after Aoko's attack on Taishan Island. While this did return his ability to bend it was not complete and only allowed him access to the type of bending that Stronti and his brother had worked on, lightning bending. In times of unconcious bending Kallai was able to firebend again.

Symbol
The Hollow Circle have a particular symbol which is best described as a compass rose missing the inner area where the lines meet. This is often tattooed on various parts of their bodies or left as a mark on strips of cloth or posted messages.

Allies

 * The Flame
 * Phoenix Spirit

Known Members

 * Xian's Great Grandmother Bao Bao