Avatar (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
The Avatar is a title that features in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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History
The Avatar was an individual who had mastered all four elements and attained communion with the Avatar Spirit.
A human named Wan came to be banished into the Spirit Wilds by the fire lion turtle after he had stolen the power of fire. Over the course of the two years following his banishment, Wan befriended the spirits, learned firebending, and decided to travel the world to find the other lion turtle cities. During his journey, Wan encountered Raava, the spirit of light and peace, fighting against Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos. Unaware of Vaatu's identity at the time, Wan was tricked by the dark spirit into separating him from Raava, releasing darkness and chaos into the world. (Episode: Beginnings, Part 1) Wishing to fix his mistake, Wan journeyed with Raava in search of other lion turtles for the purpose of gaining the elements of air, water, and earth and learning how to master them. About a year later, during their fight against Vaatu at the time of the Harmonic Convergence, Wan merged permanently with Raava, becoming the first Avatar and gaining the ability to bend all four elements at once. After he sealed away the dark spirit in the Tree of Time, Wan oversaw the departure of the spirits to their own world and closed the two portals to the Spirit World, so that no human would be able to physically travel there and risk Vaatu's escape. Wan took on the task of being the bridge between the two worlds, maintaining balance and peace. Years later, Raava assured a dying Wan that they would be together throughout all his lifetimes, heralding the beginning of the Avatar Cycle and ensuring the continuation of the Avatar's role as peacekeeper of both worlds. (Episode: Beginnings, Part 2)
At some point, Wan entered the Avatar State when he intervened in a war between clashing armies with simultaneous bending. (Episode: Beginnings, Part 2)
Kyoshi entered the Avatar State in her battle with Chin the Conqueror. Masterfully, she used the non-continuous Avatar State to split her homeland from the mainland; by using her earthbending to break apart the peninsula, summon lava from the Earth's mantle, and push the mass of land out to sea, while using airbending to hold back Chin and his army, she created Kyoshi Island. (Episode: Avatar Day)
After his mastery of the Avatar State, Roku returned to the Fire Nation Capital, having become a fully realized Avatar. He reunited with Sozin, who had since been crowned as Fire Lord, greeting each other with a hug. A few months later, Roku married his childhood sweetheart, Ta Min, and had Sozin take the position of his best man during the ceremony. At the wedding, Sozin asked to speak with Roku in private and informed his close friend that he had thought hard about the state of the world. He told Roku that he firmly believed the Fire Nation had entered a period of great prosperity, and proposed to Roku that together the pair could spread this wealth to the world by expanding the empire. Roku was horrified by this proposition, telling Sozin that the four nations were to be kept separate, and advised the Fire Lord to never bring the subject forth in future conversations. (Episode: The Avatar and the Fire Lord)
A century later, the Avatar's imprisonment in the ice was broken when he was discovered by Sokka and Katara. This also drew the attention of exiled disgraced Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation who had sought the capture of the Avatar to redeem himself to his family. (Episode: The Avatar Returns) Accompanied by Sokka and Katara, Aang travelled to the airbender temple that had been long ransacked by the Fire Nation where he decided to continue his training in order to fully unlock his Avatar abilities. Thus, he and his companions travelled to the Norther Water Tribe so that he could learn waterbending from a master. (Episode: The Southern Air Temple)
Overview
As part spirit, the Avatar possesses an innate connection to the Spirit World and is at their strongest in that realm, due to being surrounded by spiritual energy. (Episode: Balance)
As the Avatar reincarnates, it is generally assumed that the various Avatars are different individuals yet also part of a continuum. Due to the nature of the reincarnation cycle, the Avatar can recall memories of past lives. This can be done directly through deliberate meditation in order to connect with a specific past Avatar. A previous incarnation of the Avatar can also manifest through the current Avatar by possessing their body. All the Avatars are connected to one another like a chain, so if an event causes the connection with one past life to be lost, the connection to all the preceding Avatars is also jeopardized. This connection can temporarily be restored by participating in certain traditions such as Yangchen's Festival, which can act as a conduit for communication.
As part of their training, an Avatar was required to travel the world and master the other bending styles in order to unlock their full potential. (Episode: The Southern Air Temple)
The height of an Avatar's ability was entering the Avatar State whereby they accessed the vast sums of their powers along with collective knowledge of their predecessors. (Episode: The Avatar State) It was possible for the bearer to control themselves when entering the Avatar State but this required great spiritual discipline and concentration. (Episode: The Guru)
When the State is used intentionally, the Avatar stores the knowledge and energy needed so that it can be released once exiting the State, taking only the power needed for a specific task. This reduces the danger of being killed in the Avatar State and enables a more willful, controlled use of the Avatar State's power. This can only be done by an Avatar who has mastered the State as it is a conscious use rather than an instinctual response, during which the Avatar has complete control and awareness of their surroundings. Mastery of this technique is part of what distinguishes an Avatar as 'fully realized'.
It is possible for an Avatar to channel a specific previous incarnation while in the Avatar State. When this happens, the Avatar takes on the appearance and voice of that previous incarnation. The Avatar will be unable to recall the experience because the previous incarnation takes over the current Avatar's body, necessitating the presence of another person to witness and relay details of the possession.
Each Avatar has a particular element with which a low affinity is established, dictated by the personality of that Avatar. This element can be difficult to learn, sometimes proving impossible to control until faced with a situation in which the Avatar is forced to reach within and manifest the power. The bending discipline is often the opposing element to the one of the Avatar's birth nation: Avatar Roku found mastering waterbending particularly difficult, and earthbending was difficult for Avatar Aang due to his predisposition to indirectly engage in combat and evade problems as often as possible.
A danger emerged in this state as it made the Avatar Spirit itself vulnerable. Thus, if the Avatar was killed at this moment then it would permanently sever the ties of the cycle to the mortal world thus ending it permanently. As such, whilst powerful, the risk was great that it could permanently bring about the end of the Avatar. (Episode: The Avatar State) It was possible to also artificially trigger the Avatar State state in a bearer by forcefully endangering the Avatar. One example of this was through poison which was triggered when mercury was used and left the Avatar in this triggered state so long as the metal remained in their body. (Episode: Venom of the Red Lotus)
The cycle of reincarnation followed a specific pattern with the Avatar emerging among each of the elemental nations. This led to them being born in a chain where namely an earthbender, a firebender, an airbender and a waterbender before repeating the cycle. A new Avatar had vague memories of their previous incarnations. (Episode: The Southern Air Temple)
The Avatar is in a social class of their own, being unique in the world. This special status means that Avatars are often seen as being above other institutions and warranting exceptional treatment.
Among the Air Nomads, this involved presenting infants with a selection of toys and watching for a child that selected the exact four that had belonged to past Avatars, known as the Avatar relics. Earth Avatars were traditionally identified by directional geomancy, a series of rituals designed to winnow through the largest and most populous of the four nations as efficiently as possible. A special set of bone trigrams was cast and interpreted by the earthbending masters, ruling out half the Earth Kingdom as the location of the newborn Avatar. This ritual was repeated in the remaining territory, with the possible locations shrinking by halves each time until the searchers were brought to the doorstep of the Earth Avatar child. (Episode: The Test)
Avatars
- Wan :
- Szeto : a male firebender born into an era of great strife in the Fire Nation.
- Yangchen :
- Kuruk :
- Kyoshi : a female earthbender born over 400 years ago where she founded the island of Kyoshi and its protectors that were the female Kyoshi warriors. (Episode: The Warriors of Kyoshi)
- Roku : a male firebender born more than a century ago who was once the best friend of Fire Lord Sozin. (Episode: The Avatar and the Fire Lord)
- Aang : a young male airbender born a century who was of his heritage as the Avatar before he was 16 years old with this leading to him running away but managing to escape the purge of the airbenders after being frozen in the ice for a century. (Episode: The Southern Air Temple)
- Korra :
Notes
- The Avatar was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko where it featured in the setting of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
In other media
Films
RPGs
- In Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game, the Avatar appeared in the setting of the tabletop roleplaying game produced by Magpie Games.
Appearances
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The Legend of Korra:
External Link
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