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I just realised that 7 havens is potentially a world in where all 4 LoK villains get what they wanted. So there potentially could be in retrospect that Lok directly leads into 7H.

Amon wanted to get rid of bending and as we know bending in 7 havens are reduced to few people who are drafted into an bender army

Unaloq wanted spirits to roam the physical world and become the dark avatar, both are obviously prevalent in 7 havens

Zaheer and the red lotus wanted anarchy and to destroy the 4 nations and there world leaders, no more 4 nations now 7 havens

Kuvira could of been the final catalyst for the catastrophe, as she obviously pushed for the development of spirit power for her own goals of unity of the earth kingdom

Basically each villains actions caused the catastrophe probably confounding into the cataclysmic event, which resulted in a dream world of where their goals were realised.

Or

The people of the avatar verse actually prefer the current 7 Havens status quo to the old 4 nations, and so in history the main villains of Korra are actually seen as misunderstood heroes or visionaries therefore turning the table and actually making Korra hated for her decisions that we saw in her show. Which would reflect the larger avatar fandom and could have some cool meta commentary

But yeah thats just a realisation i had, who knows it could be more correct when the show drops or could be the opposite.

Here are my ideas for the potential locations of the Seven Havens:

Zaofu

I think it would be a wasted opportunity not to have a metalbending-centric Haven. I know most of the population wouldn’t be able to bend, but still.

Ba Sing Se

I mean, it’s literally a pre-made bunker of a fortress city, so it’s logical.

Omashu

This is where I think the first look is based, and I simply say that because they have similar terrain.

Or

Si Wong Desert

I think a Misty Palms Oasis Haven would be cool, and a potential place where Pavi and Jae are living, as it is pretty desert-like in the promo art. Maybe the first big spirit they come across would be Wan Shi Tong, which would be a cool callback, and similar to how the Avatar meets certain spirits over lifetimes like Koh the Face Stealer.

Fire Nation Capital

Very similar to the Ba Sing Se thought process, as if memory serves me it lies in a dormant volcano. Design wise, they could do a cool cyber-magma look.

Northern Water Tribe

As much as I’d love a Southern Water Tribe Haven, I just think logically the North makes more sense. It has a history of never being penetrated by the Fire Nation during the Hundred Year War era, and the fact that it is already encased in ice means it’s basically a bunker of a city, if we don’t count the expansion if settlements the Legend of Korra established, with it crawling out onto the sides of the ice plains.

Republic City

I mean, why introduce the idea and concept in LoK if not use it for a couple of episodes in the next series? And of course, the third spirit portal would open up fun problems for Pavi and her team. But that being said, logistically, that would be the last place I’d put a Haven, as spirit storms and spirit portals are probably related to one another. Still, I like the idea that this Haven is the one most responsive to the Avatar, as it was founded by Avatar Aang and protected on numerous occasions by Avatar Korra. Of course, it could just be a ruin and ground zero for the catastrophe but the idea remains.

Southern Air Temple

I think the writers would choose this one, as it seems to be their favourite air temple to use. But I’d rather see the other two historically important Air Nomad temples get some attention. The Western Air Temple Haven could be class, with earthbenders expanding a city into the cliffs, and imagine a cyber version of the Eastern Air Temple, with trains going from one tower to the next.

That’s the seven, but some other ideas I have are:

A swampy Foggy Swamp Tribe Haven maybe more ecological and rudimentary based around the Banyan Grove Tree. The inhabitants could potentially be like the old airbenders from the lion turtle days, living in peace with spirits, maybe using Unalaq’s spiritbending to calm aggravated spirits.

An air-element based Haven in the sky, akin to Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, which kind of speaks for itself.

Sidenote:

Potentially, the Havens could actually be placed away from the spirit portals due to the spirit storms. So there would be no Republic City, Northern, or Southern Havens which, logically, would make sense. And yes i am aware that it is stated that the catastrophe changed the avatar world landscape and terrain so all this could be off base but i still would like certain locations to still be there like the swamp, the poles, the si wong desert, at least one good air temple and republic city ruins would be cool

If you have any suggestions/ideas of potential Havens please comment.

Thanks

Edit: After some thought and browsing on the avatar world map which is probably not similar to the Seven Havens map due to the catastrophe, I have realised that Omashu, Zaofu, Si Wong Desert and the swamp are all very close together in the southern earth kingdom, so possibly these suggestions may be flat since one would assume that the Havens would be more spread out to eachother. But who knows maybe the terrain is so modified that it ended up far away from eachother. I do still think these concepts are cool ideas that i have belief the team looked into, cause cmon a zaofu cyber beifong centric haven would be the sickest legacy for any character.

I don’t know if this has already been discussed in great detail but the most popular theory of the new air nation being descended by air nomads never made sense to me, every rewatch this theory i am proposing which is very obvious to me (or anyone with media literacy) always was prevalent in my mind and I would love to know if anyone thinks this way too. Especially with potential development and the new status quo Seven Havens could be introducing.

What if the new airbenders didn’t inherit the air element through lost genetics, but rather through the passive energy-bending that occurred when leaving the spirit portals open? As an act of spiritual balance, the energy affected those who yearned for some aspect of the air element, whether that’s freedom or inclusion in the airbending culture/philosophy. So, Bumi, Otaku, and Zaheer for the cultural aspects, and the rest mostly Daw, Opal, and the Ba Sing Se air benders for freedom.

Or possibly a mix of all of this, which would mostly root into the idea of the culture of the Air Nomads. We are shown in Season 2 of The Legend of Korra that genetically being granted bending isn’t a prerequisite, as seen with Wan. If that were strictly the case, Wan would only be able to access the fire element from his lion turtle, no matter the spiritual help of Raava, because he was genetically fire—since the people of the lion turtle only had themselves in the genetic pool, unlike modern Avatar times. So Wan “genectically” or any other avatar wouldnt be able to bend all 4 elements and i am only stating this because wan was a base human before his merger with raava. So genetics have nothing to do with bending however it is the only way to pass on the energy bending that the lion turtles did to allow bending is through reproduction but it is a spiritual act not a physical one.

So, the new airbenders that appeared in The Legend of Korra were granted the air element due to Harmonic Convergence, so that the world would be energetically in balance again (literally canon and in the name). The way Harmonic Convergence chose where to place the imbalance was through a spiritual and philosophical lens specifically, what closely relates to the Air Nomads and the air element. This is present throughout Season 3, with Zaheer who studied guru laghima specifically, and undertoned in every household Tenzin visited. There was a core theme of being trapped by circumstances: Kai being a runaway; Kuon, the farmer, whose core reasoning for staying was the weight of his responsibilities i.e., his family and farm which hypothetically could have made him feel trapped and crave a fantasy of freedom, and Ryu being a bum and “trapped” in his mother’s house. He probably craved a certain level of freedom as well, which we then see in Season 4 as he joins the new Air Nation. And then opal being trapped in the metal clan Zaofu as the only non bender in her prestigious family in which primary validation is through the ability to bend metal and is even vital to everyday life in the city as the clothes and machinery rely on metal bending probably all confounding into a lack of worth which would result in the notion of lacking freedom (also don’t forget she was vegetarian which is very air nomad of her) And then of course bumi who grew up with avatar aang as his father which bumi not only being a non bender but the first born of the last airbender had to have this idea of not being enough which was present in all of aangs children as well of course being genetically half of air nomad and being taught air philosophy as a kid which was confirmed although he never paid attention to great detail or was given enough attention as tenzin but still he grew up with all these air nomad philosophy which definitely defined how he thought and spiritually would affected him which all confouded like opal into allowing him to bend air.

So, there is a precedent that the majority of these new airbenders somehow align with the spirituality and philosophy of the Air Nomads, which is rooted in their element.

However, the weakness in this theory is that if airbending were granted purely through cultural yearning and appreciation, more air acolytes would have been granted airbending instead of just Otaku.

Looking at the size of the population, airbenders were historically always a small group. They were so rare that if you came across one, it was considered good fortune for the nomad to bless your household or whatever. So, the sizing for balance makes sense, as the number of airbenders allows for genetic variation, which is key for the art to grow without the risk of inbreeding. And it keeps in line with the historical numbers now i know that the air nomad’s population were bigger than the new air nation but

A. They didn’t find every new air bender in that season

B. It allows genetic variation as in the air nation can grow into the numbers of the pre genocide air nomad population

Now, the only reason I’m posting this is because I think the most popular and agreed upon theory that the new airbenders are descended from airbenders who renounced their culture/philosophy and joined other nations only partially works. To me, it makes some sense, as in the Avatar books there is a lot of inter-element marriage, like with Sozin’s sister and Kyoshi’s mother. In some ways, I do see it being possible, but not the main reason as to why the current airbenders can now airbend. Within the Avatar magic system, the spiritual aspect has always been more prevalent than hard scientific rules of genetics, which I feel is often ignored (even though Katara is born a bender while her parents and grandparents are both non-benders.)

So, in conclusion, the most popular theory of the new airbenders is incomplete and is primarily spiritually based. But I will admit that it could be something like 85% spiritual and 15% genetic.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this makes sense. Other people have definitely come to this conclusion, but from what I’ve seen, it’s never really agreed upon even though I think the TV series and expanded media told us pretty explicitly how the Air Nation grew without out right stating the fact.