Early Pandora
From the Early Pandora Wiki Na'vi legend Wiki lore Canon Real world
Early Pandora is the name this wiki uses for the long age when the first Na’vi clans were just beginning to live on the moon. Most of what we know comes from old Na'vi legends and from clues left in the ground, such as plant stalks turned to stone and tiny bird skulls with four eye sockets. Na'vi legend
The ages of Pandora
Na'vi elders divide the deep past into ages, each named for what the world was like. Wiki lore puts them in this order: Wiki lore
| Age | What it was like | Ended when |
|---|---|---|
| The Age Before | Forests and animals, but no Na'vi yet. Eywa's network grows across the moon. Canon Wiki lore | The first Na'vi come down to the water's edge |
| The Age of the Great Swamps | Wet and warm. Glowing marshes, Taktswìkyu and tak, and the first clans. Na'vi legend | The Great Hunger |
| The Age of Spirals | The swamps dry out and loreyu spread along the rivers. The clans learn to "take only what you need." Wiki lore | The clans scatter across Pandora |
| The Age of Clans | Na'vi settle forests, seas, plains and mountains, and the first ikran riders fly. Wiki lore Canon | Volcanoes threaten the Tree of Souls |
| The Age of Riders | The first Toruk Makto unites the clans, about 3,000 years before humans. Canon | The Sky People arrive |
| The Age of Sky People | Humans come to mine unobtanium; the events of the films. Canon | Still going on |
The Age of the Great Swamps
Early Pandora was wetter than today. Wide, slow rivers spread into misty swamps, and the warm pools glowed at night. The swamps belonged to the giant Taktswìkyu plants and the blue tak ducks they ate. Na'vi legend
Old Na'vi songs call this time "when the water sang", because the swamps were never quiet: the ducks called tak! tak-tak! from morning until night. Wiki lore
Famous places of the age
The songs remember these places by name, although most have since dried up or turned into forest. Wiki lore
- The Glowing Delta. Where the great river split into a hundred channels before reaching the sea. On still nights, its thousands of Taktswìkyu made the whole delta shine gold.
- The Long Marsh. A swamp so wide it took three days to paddle across. The Reed Weavers' floating islands drifted here.
- Stilt Water. A shallow lake where the Stilt People built their villages on poles, linked by rope bridges.
- The Root Gate. The edge of the great forest, where giant roots reached into the swamp. Home of the Root Dwellers.
- The First Listening Tree. A giant willow-like tree on a hill above the marsh, where the clans met once a year and Ninat trained to be Tsahik.
Weather and seasons
Wiki lore says the early clans counted two seasons: the Wet, when rain fell almost every afternoon and the swamps spread, and the Mist, a cooler time when fog lay on the water every morning. Once in a long while came a year of Long Rains, when the Wet started early and never seemed to stop. Most of the time this was good news. Once, it was the beginning of the end. Wiki lore Na'vi legend
A day in early Pandora
- Dawn. Mist covers the water. Tak wake on their floating rafts and the lookout duck calls the first tak! of the day. Wiki lore
- Morning. Na'vi children gather fallen Taktswìkyu stalks for rope and fish from the stilt bridges. Na'vi legend Wiki lore
- Afternoon. The rain comes. Families rest in woven hammocks while elders mend nets. Wiki lore
- Sunset. The Taktswìkyu coat their trumpets with golden nectar and their rims begin to glow. The swamp smells of honey and ripe fruit. Na'vi legend
- Night. The whole swamp lights up: blue mudlamp beetles, green tak tail tips, gold Taktswìkyu crowns. Under Polyphemus, someone tells a story. Na'vi legend Wiki lore
How the first Na'vi lived
The first Na'vi lived beside the swamps in three great clan groups: the Stilt People, the Reed Weavers and the Root Dwellers. They twisted old Taktswìkyu stalks into strong ropes and used the hollow tubes as drinking straws. They learned to read the forest, listening through their queues to Eywa. See Early Na’vi for their homes, food, tools and customs. Na'vi legend Wiki lore
Then and now
| Early Pandora | Pandora today | |
|---|---|---|
| Land | Wide swamps and slow rivers Na'vi legend | Rainforest, mountains, seas and plains Canon |
| Top swamp predator | The Taktswìkyu Na'vi legend | None like it; the thanator rules the forest Canon |
| Spiral plants | None yet Na'vi legend | Loreyu along the rivers Canon |
| Na'vi clans | Three clan groups by the water Wiki lore | Many clans across the whole moon Canon |
| Flying with animals | Not yet remembered in the songs Wiki lore | Ikran riders, and six Toruk Makto Canon |
| Humans | None Canon | The Sky People Canon |
How the age ended
The age ended with the Great Hunger, when the Taktswìkyu ate every last tak and then died out themselves. From the last surviving seed came the first loreyu, the shy spiral plant that still grows along Pandora's rivers today. Na'vi legend
Afterwards the swamps slowly dried. Ninat led the Reed Weavers upriver, planting loreyu wherever they stopped, and the other clans spread into the forests, the coasts and the hills. Wiki lore
How do we know?
The Na'vi have no writing, so the main source is oral history: stories and songs learned by heart and passed from grandparent to grandchild. Canon Wiki lore adds three other kinds of clues: Wiki lore
- Stone stalks. Orange-and-purple Taktswìkyu stalks turned to stone in old riverbanks.
- Four-eyed skulls. Tiny duck skulls with four eye sockets, found in dried mud.
- Old tools. Ancient ropes and straws made from dried stalks, preserved in peat.
On Earth, scientists learn about the deep past in similar ways. Fossils show us dinosaurs no one ever saw alive, and bogs can preserve wood, rope and even people for thousands of years, because the wet, acidic mud keeps out the tiny living things that make things rot. Real world
Many hundreds of generations after the Great Hunger, about 3,000 years before humans arrived, the first Toruk Makto flew (see The First Flight of Toruk). Canon