Toph Beifong is an earthbending master, one of the most powerful of her time, and the discoverer of metalbending. Blind since birth, Toph was constantly treated condescendingly because of her visual impairment, particularly by her overprotective parents, Lao and Poppy Beifong. Upon discovering badgermoles , earthbending animals who are also blind, she learned how to use earthbending as an extension of her senses.
This gave her the ability to " see " every vibration that passes through the ground. Having developed her own unique style of earthbending, Toph acquired a toughened personality and became famous for winning underground earthbending tournaments under the alias "The Blind Bandit", doing so behind her parents' backs.
Toph eventually set out to roam the world in search of enlightenment [19] before settling down in the Foggy Swamp. Toph first learned how to earthbend from badgermoles when she was five years old. Toph was born in 88 AG as the only child of the wealthy Beifong family from Gaoling. Born blind, she was sheltered by her parents, who believed her blindness made her fragile and incapable of looking after herself. They went to extreme measures to protect her, including hiding her existence from the rest of the world , which resulted in very few people knowing that the Beifong family even had a daughter.
Her parents expected their daughter to be well-mannered and proper due to their noble status in Earth Kingdom society , something with which Toph secretly disagreed, causing her to resent her parents' treatment. One day when she was five years old, [21] [22] Toph ran away from home and hid in a cave inhabited by badgermoles. Badgermoles were the first earthbenders and according to Toph, she felt that she and the creatures understood each other as they were both blind. She learned earthbending by imitating their movements.
Toph would continue to sporadically run away from home to find refuge in the Foggy Swamp due to its close proximity to her hometown. Lao Beifong later hired the earthbender teacher, Master Yu , to instruct her. Acting upon the orders of Toph's father, he did not teach her anything other than beginner's moves, unaware that she had already achieved mastery in the art.
