The Great Hunger
From the Early Pandora Wiki Na'vi legend Wiki lore
The Great Hunger (also called "the hungry time") is the event at the heart of the duck-sucker legend. In it, the Taktswìkyu ate every last tak, then starved and died out themselves. Na'vi legend
Causes
It began with something that seemed like good news. One year the rains came early and stayed late. The swamps grew bigger, and the Taktswìkyu grew taller and wider, with new sprouts in every pond. But bigger plants are hungrier plants, and more plants mean more mouths to feed. One duck a moon was no longer enough. Na'vi legend
What happened
- The plants wanted two ducks a moon, then three, then a duck every night.
- The tak could not lay eggs fast enough. Each morning the ponds were quieter.
- Ninat the Tsahik warned the plants: "You are taking too much. Eat less. Let the tak grow back." They did not listen.
- A young hunter found the very last tak, but it swam to the golden glow before he could save it.
- With no ducks left, the plants tried fish and frogs, and once even a hunter's foot (they spat out his sandal).
- Day by day the stalks turned brown, the glow faded, and the great swamps went dark.
Na'vi legend
Aftermath
From the last seed came the first loreyu. Wiki lore says the early Na'vi made a new rule after the Great Hunger: hunters would always leave the biggest and the youngest animals of any herd, "one for the mother, one for tomorrow." Wiki lore
The lesson
The Taktswìkyu were the predators at the top of the food chain, yet by eating everything they "ate up their own future." Grandmother Ateyo sums it up in five words: "Take only what you need." Na'vi legend