Spirit World (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
The Spirit World is a dimension that features in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Contents |
History
The Spirit Realm was an ethereal realm that was separate from the physical world with it being the home of Spirits. Originally, travel between the spirit plane and physical plane was rare with it being extremely difficult for any human other than the Avatar due to being the bridge between the worlds.
Throughout Avatar Yangchen's lifetime, she often sided with humans when they clashed with spirits in the physical world. Although Yangchen trusted the humans to uphold their ends of the bargain and respect the balance of their surroundings, many did not.
As a direct result of Yangchen's actions, many spirits had turned dark by the lifetime of Avatar Kuruk. Dark spirits made use of newly created passageways to the physical world, attempting to wreak havoc and kill as many humans as possible. Kuruk battled against the dark spirits, but the duels took a harsh toll on his mind, body, and soul. Kuruk eventually decided to hunt down the spirits that could not be saved by tracking them down in the Spirit World, making use of the new passageways so that he could use his bending. Eventually, Kuruk found the source of the cracks between the realms, a malevolent spirit known as Father Glowworm. Though Kuruk managed to grievously wound the spirit, it managed to escape, and the fight took a heavy physical toll on Kuruk.
At some point before the Harmonic Convergence of 19,829 BG, Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos, managed to break through the barriers that separated the plane of the humans and that of the spirits, allowing both entities to travel from one world to the next. However, as the Harmonic Convergence began, Raava, the spirit of light and peace, battled Vaatu and was able to restrain him for nearly ten thousand years.
In 296 BG, Yun was taken to the Spirit World by a weakened Father Glowworm, who wished to feed on his blood and restore his strength. However, Yun managed to resist the spirit and deceived him long enough to overpower Father Glowworm, eating his eyeball and absorbing his essence.[ After the battle, he dug down until he reached the Xishaan Mountains in the physical world. During Kyoshi's life, many of the few remaining spirits in the physical world wished to return to the Spirit World, with their homes being harassed by daofei, as well as due to the long-term consequences of Kuruk taking action against dark spirits.
At the beginning of Avatar Roku's life, the physical world began to experience another period of strange spiritual activity, including a growing number of dark spirits, especially at the polar regions where the dormant spirit portals were located. Spiritually-focused tribespeople believed this was linked to nations extending their reach and abusing natural resources during the technological renaissance and the first true industrial revolution, as well as sacred land being claimed for political ambitions and the killing of ancient creatures such as the dragons.
During the winter solstice of 99 AG, an enraged forest spirit named Hei Bai took Sokka and several people of the Senlin Village to the Spirit World following the Fire Nation's destruction of a forest in the physical world. Avatar Aang later managed to calm the spirit by showing it that the forest would regrow leading to Hei Bai returned the humans to the material world. (Episode: Winter Solstice, Part 1: The Spirit World)
Next year, the spirit Wan Shi Tong came to relocate his library to the Spirit World after being angered when Team Avatar used his collection of knowledge to play an invasion of the Fire Nation. (Episode: The Library)
In 171 AG, Avatar Korra was tricked and forced into opening the Southern and later the Northern spirit portal, which enabled Unalaq to physically enter the Spirit World again and bring with him 'darkness and anger' that threatened to overtake the Spirit World. These negative emotions were amplified during the Harmonic Convergence of 171 AG, when Vaatu used the increased spiritual energy of the event to break free from his prison inside the Tree of Time. After Vaatu was defeated, Avatar Korra decided to leave the spirit portals open, reasoning that humans and spirits were meant to live harmoniously together. This harmonious coexistence proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated, as the Spirit Wilds partially reemerged in the heart of Republic City. Specifically, spirit vines began to grow destructively throughout the city, prompting citizens to evacuate from boroughs which became virtually uninhabitable. This vegetation became home to spirits that migrated to the physical world. Although the citizens eventually learned to coexist, tension remained. Some people, such as Varrick and Kuvira, took an interest in these plants after witnessing Vaatu's attack and researched them for new technology. Despite the discovery that the vines were made of pure energy that had become unstable by being in the physical world, their raw power made them desirable for mankind as a weapon on mass destruction. As such, Kuvira and her army began to harvest these vines at the base of the banyan-grove tree, causing the Spirit Wilds in Republic City to react violently to its visitors, imprisoning them in vegetative pods that trapped their souls in the Spirit World. This unsteady balance was put under even more pressure after a third spirit portal was created by accident in the heart of Republic City when the Earth Empire's spirit energy cannon overloaded on Republic City's spirit vines and Korra tried to control the enormous discharge of spiritual energy with her energybending, tearing open a new portal between the physical and Spirit World in the process.
Overview
In appearance, the Spirit World was a parallel plane of reality that co-existed alongside the physical world.
Locations within the Spirit World included:
- Realm of Koh :
- Hai-Riyo Peak :
- Xai Bau's Grove :
- Wan Shi Tong's Library : the Spirit Library of Wan Shi Tong with the structure sometimes finding itself within the real world.
There was also the roaming Fog of Lost Souls which was a spirit that served as a prison for humans who were driven mad within it.
In certain places, the landscape of the Spirit World seems to conform closely to the area of the physical world that functions as its entry point, to the extent that a human crossing over might not immediately notice the difference. In other places, the geography of the Spirit World has no relation to the physical world and the two settings vary considerably. While it does contains a multitude of specific locations, there is also the sense that physical space in the Spirit World is a somewhat elastic concept: Characters who enter the Spirit World are sometimes shown moving from one location to another in seemingly impossible ways, traversing great distances in a matter of moments, or passing through sequential locations that seem to have no connection to or are not directly adjacent to each other.
It was home to the spirits that were a vast range of immortal, supernatural entities that often embodied different aspects of life and nature. Spirits had the ability to take over the body of a human for a short period of time. When this happened, the host took on some of the physical characteristics of the spirit. There was a danger in possession, however, as the host could potentially die if the spirit resided within it for too long.
Within the Spirit World, emotions shaped reality with this especially being the case for the Avatar as they were the bridge between the worlds.
Solstices were astronomical event that occurs twice a year when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most oriented toward or away from the sun, causing the star to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme in the sky during the day. Solstices, as other astronomical phenomena, can be predicted. During the solstice, the Spirit World and the natural world are at their closest, while during the equinox they are at their farthest.
Harmonic Convergence is a supernatural phenomenon that occurs once every ten thousand years. When the planets align, spiritual energy is greatly amplified, causing the spirit portals at the North and South Poles to merge, while an aura of spirit energy envelops the Earth.
Spirit portals were gateways that connected the physical world and Spirit World. The spirit portals appear as beams of energy extending from the ground upward. A portal can be created by a large output of spiritual energy, such as the amplified energy extracted from spirit vines. Once a portal has been created, only the Avatar is able to close or open it; with a single touch, they can cause the beams to diminish into orbs or reverse process. The Avatar can do so on either side of the portal, material or spiritual, and in its physical body or as a projected soul. However, the spiritual energy brought forth into the material world by a single open portal allows any other closed portals to be opened by the Avatar at any time. As physical gateways, spirit portals provide humans with a direct passage into the Spirit World, instead of through meditation or other means of entry. The use of spirit portals also allows individuals to retain their bending abilities in the Spirit World.
The Avatar had a special role in that they served as a bridge between the Spirit World and the physical world.
Inhabitants
- Raava : the spirit of light and peace who was among the oldest beings in the Spirit World. She came to merge with the human Wan thus begin the Avatar cycle.
- Vaatu : the spirit of darkness and chaos who was among the oldest beings in the Spirit World and served as a dark counterpart to Raava. He and Raava had dueled since the beginning of time before he tricked Wan into freeing him from Raava's restraint.
- Mother of Faces :
- Koh : the Face Stealer was an ancient and malicious spirit that stole the faces of any creature that showed emotions within his presence.
- Wan Shi Tong : an ancient owl-shaped spirit who collected knowledge that he kept within his Spirit Library. With the use of fox-like animals known as Knowledge Seekers, he seeks out valuable sources of knowledge, varying from scrolls to ancient tomes. The library, originally located in the Si Wong Desert, was freely available to anyone who wished to use it until mortals used the knowledge contained therein to further warfare, prompting Wan Shi Tong to bury the library beneath the sand and make it impossible to find. He typically takes the shape of a gigantic black-and-white barn owl, but when angered becomes a wyvern-like creature.
- Tui :
- La :
- Hei Bai : a forest spirit who took the form of a giant panda.
- Painted Lady :
- Iroh :
Notes
- The Spirit World was created by Aaron Ehasz, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko where it featured in the setting of the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe.
Appearances
- Avatar: The Last Airbender:
- The Legend of Korra:
External Links
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