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Na'vi
Na'vi / Neytiri / Tsu'Tey / Mo'at / Eytukan / Toruk Makto / Omaticaya Clan / Queue

The Na'vi (English: The People) are a race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora. Humans are known to refer to them as "Blues," "Savages," "the locals" or "the natives." Parker Selfridge at one point in the movie refers to them as "blue monkeys."

The indigenous Na'vi are, on average, three meters (10 feet) tall with smooth cyan-colored skin, large amber eyes, and long, sweeping tails. They are the only known extraterrestrial species discovered to have human-like consciousness and intelligence. They have developed a sophisticated culture based on a profound spiritual connection to other life on their moon, each other, and an encompassing "spirit" they call Eywa.

Each Na’vi is born with three fingers and one thumb on each hand and four toes on each foot, unlike the Avatars of the Humans who have four fingers and one thumb on each hand and five toes on each foot because of the fusion of DNA.

The Na'vi seem to have a different evolutionary ancestor to other creatures that share two pairs of eyes and three pairs of arms-legs-or-wings, but they have a Queue which provides the ability to make a bond with the environment.

Habitat and Range

Various biomes of Pandora. Population concentrated in rainforest regions. Outlying clans have been detected on each continent and in subarctic, swampland, and mountainous regions.

Some Na'vi clans, including the Omaticaya, live in tremendously large ancient trees they call Kelutral, or "Hometree."

Physiology

The Na'vi are fundamentally different from all other Pandoran mammals:

So we may conclude that the Na'vi either diverged a long time ago from the common Pandoran evolution tree, or in fact they are outsiders to this world. This latter theory is supported by the fact that the Na'vi and the humans have so much in common, including such rituals as kissing or the covering of the genital areas. However, the queue present in all Na'vi contradicts this theory.

Diet

The Na'vi are an Omnivorous species. Their society includes hunters and gatherers with incipient agriculture.

Clothing

The Na'vi are weavers whose dress is primarily for comfort and practicality. Though clan leaders such as Mo'at and Eytukan wear ceremonial pieces, because both men and women fight, there is a balance between adornment and armament.

Society

Although their society is essentially Palaeolithic, the Na'vi have developed a complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection among all creatures, and to the deity they call Eywa. They are expert hunters and gatherers as well as artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through story and song.

Appearance and Anatomy

On the whole, the Na'vi are quite similar to humans, both in appearance and anatomically. They are, however, much larger and typically stronger than humans. Na'vi are normally about 3 meters in height. This may be in part due to Pandora's lower gravity than Earth, which, after time will cause a person to "get soft" (as Colonel Quaritch put it).

Their skeletons are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber, making their bones extremely rigid and hard to bend-(but they easily crack under focused pressure).

Their hands are graceful, with three very long fingers, and one opposable thumb. However, it should be noted that human-grown Na'vi (the Avatars) have four main fingers in addition to the opposable thumb just as in the human hand.

The faces have high cheekbones and large yellow eyes, with irises significantly larger than those of humans. When open they dominate the face, like those of a cat or lemur. The ears of the Na'vi are long and pointed and are able to swivel around much like that of a dog or a cat. The mouth is also large, but similar to a human's, with a faint cat-like bifurcation of the upper lip. The nose also faintly resembles that of a cat's, but this is only visible in close-ups. The teeth are white, with pronounced canines, upper and lower. The Na'vi species do obviously eat meat, but they are assumed to be generally omnivorous.

The Na'vi have tails which are primarily used to aid balance. As in Earth feline tails, Na'vi tails also are indicators of mood. Thus accounting for the common parental expression: "Watch your tail Child!" A complex pattern of iridescent dots and lines, mostly symmetrical, runs over the body, seemingly following the lines of the nervous or circulatory system. These are bioluminescent chromatophores, and they glow in the dark like fireflies. The Na'vi can communicate with these as well; and, in fact, they are constantly shifting and changing color to indicate mood and emotion, without conscious control. Na'vi have hair only on their heads and the very ends of their tails, and what people often mistake for a large braid is hair that covers an external part of their nervous system.

Queue

Na'vi have a queue, originating at the back of the head and hanging down almost to the waist. This is in fact not hair, but an external bundle of nerve endings that allows them to tap into the collective, planetary psionic emanations of Eywa, enabling them to "commune" with the planet's flora and fauna.

While not adding to intelligence, it enables them to share a deep connection and even communicate telepathically with the tree of souls, and any animals with a similar nerve cluster. The Na'vi call it Tsahaylu, or "the bond". When two Pandoran organisms with nerve clusters similar to this engage in Tsahaylu, they gain the ability to share memories and information, and the Na'vi have a special trait that allows them to use the mind-meld to feel as/what their mount does, and as well enables them to move as one under the control of the Na'vi, be it a Banshee/Ikran or Direhorse/Pal'i. This trait is only negated during mating (see below).

Clothing

Little apparel is worn by the Na'vi. Cloth, most likely woven from native flora of the planet is the basic garment worn by all Na'vi. It is possible that very little clothing is worn by the Na'vi because it is simply what is needed for the Na'vi to work and live taking minimally from the environment. Clothes appear to also show the ranking of one in the hierarchy of a clan. For example, the Omaticaya clan leader, Eytukan, wore a garment made of brilliant or precious materials in comparison to a simple clothing piece worn by a other clan members. Accessories are added to a Na'vi's attire as he or she moves up in the clan hierarchy. For example, Jake Sully, as an apprentice clan member, wore only an undecorated loincloth; as he learned more about the Na'vi culture, however, he wore armbands and necklaces to display his ranking.

Culture

The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that live in various territorial clans across Pandora. Their culture has a relatively low level of technology and an egalitarian social organization. A premium is placed upon young men and women growing up to become exceptional hunters, fearsome warriors, or dying in the effort. Like all creatures on Pandora, the fate of the Na'vi is controlled by the sentient intelligence they worship as "Eywa". They choose to live in harmony and natural equilibrium with their surroundings. If they become too numerous, Eywa will devise a way to limit their numbers before they cause an ecological imbalance, for Eywa maintains the balance of life. Over millenia the Na'vi have developed a healthy respect and reverence for their surrounding environment. In return, the environment has provided them with sufficient food and shelter, creatures to ride for ground and air transportation, and an ambient, comfortable temperature throughout the atmosphere of Pandora. Oddly, there is a curious absence of pesky insects and harmful microorganisms; this will require further research. Perhaps because they are provided for so thoroughly by Eywa, the Na'vi have failed to develop tools and weapons for purposes beyond primitive warfare with the surrounding clans and hunting/survival. But they have a rich handicraft tradition and engage in extensive body decoration signifying both rank, activity, and individual tastes. With the caution that it is perhaps spurious to make cross cultural comparisons across star systems, the Na'vi are comparable to now extinct Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer Earth people in some pre-colonial African tribes, native Americans, and Australia's indigenous peoples (with trace similarities to the Norse culture of northern Europe before they developed agriculture.) Lacking in any tradition of science as Earth people know it, they view Eywa as an all-knowing, all-powerful mother goddess, and have developed a complex animistic religion based upon their interactions with Eywa, and centered around the "Tree of Souls," which grows only in rare locations across Pandora.

Human Relations

When the Human race begins to search Pandora for valuable minerals, the Na'vi are appalled and angered by the destruction of their jungle home for roads, human bases, and strip mines. They see no need for technology, and hence the damage done by humans in the pursuit of underground minerals seems like nothing more than senseless destruction that violates the basic tenets of their religion. They would look to Eywa for help, but their religion teaches that Eywa cares not for the existence of any one creature, but only for the balance of nature.

Mating

The Na'vi are monogamous creatures who mate for life. The mechanics of reproduction are similar to that of humans and other Terran mammals. However, their unique physiology provides the Na'vi with a level of intimacy unknown on Earth. Cultural anthropologists believe that when an appropriate mate has been selected (which can take many years), the male and female Na'vi will connect queues (called Tsahaylu) to create an emotional bond that lasts a lifetime. The intertwining of queues is both highly erotic and profoundly spiritual, but does not in itself lead to reproduction.

Traditionally, once a Na'vi male has passed the tests on the path to manhood and has been accepted into the clan as an adult, he is not only allowed to make his bow from the wood of the Hometree, but he is also expected to choose his woman. After the woman has been chosen, the new couple are mated before Eywa.

Jake Sully chooses Neytiri to become his mate, and she accepts and mates with him under the Tree of Voices following his acceptance into the Omaticaya clan as 'One of the People'.

Once Tsahaylu is made between the couple, the ultimate in intimacy, pleasure that is unfathomable to humans, causes the somewhat unwillful sharing of the couple's good memories, and is a sign of Eywa's acceptance. If a couple can be foreseen to not have a pleasant or happy future, Eywa has been known to reverse the feeling produced by making Tsahaylu, a sign to the couple that mating would only, in simple words, ruin their lives together, and therefore prevents the mating, because of it's life-long span. After the resulting embracing and kissing, the couple is sent to sleep by Eywa, and the two dream hintings of their future together. The couple will experience the pleasure of Tsahaylu from the moment of connection, until they awaken and have completed mating, when they disconnect and return to the clan, mated for life.

Neytiri Dis'Kahan Mo'at A'itey (known only as Neytiri) is a Na'vi, princess of the Omaticaya Clan. She is the daughter of Eytukan and Mo'at. She will be the future tsahik of the tribe, with her mate Jake Sully becoming the Olo'eyktan (leader).

Neytiri first meets Jake Sully in the woods. As she is about to kill him with an arrow, a Woodsprite, or seed of the Sacred Tree, touches her arrowhead. She reads that as a sign from Eywa to let him go. She later saves Jake from a pack of viperwolves, and takes him into the clan, where she reluctantly agrees to teach him the Na'vi culture and language, as her mother suggests. Neytiri helps Jake on several tasks, like making tsahaylu, riding a direhorse, performing iknimaya, etc. When Jake becomes a member of the Omaticaya clan, she accepts his choosing of her as a mate, and they mate for life. However, when Jake fails to convince the Omaticaya to move, the RDA assaults and burns the Hometree. Neytiri's father Eytukan is killed in the evacuation, and Jake is ousted as a traitor. When Jake returns to them as Toruk Makto, he convinces them about his allegiance and Neytiri travels with him to gather all the other Na'vi clans' support. She also participates in the great defense against the RDA forces. When things look grim for the Na'vi, Eywa sends animals against the intruders and a Thanator allows Neytiri to ride her through tsahaylu. Finally, she tries to protect Jake's body when Colonel Quaritch, in his AMP Suit, attempts to kill him, but he manages to kill her Thanator. After Jake stops Quaritch's killing blow and comes close to death himself at Quaritch's hands, she shoots Quaritch with her bow, before saving Jake again by placing an Exopack on his human form.

Tsu’tey te Rongloa Ateyitan was one of the Omaticaya Clan's finest warriors and archery experts. He was the clan leader for a short period of time from August 16-20, 2154, but due to his bravery, fell during the final battle of Assault on the Tree of Souls against the RDA. Tsu'Tey was born in the Omaticaya Clan, as the son of Ateyo. While still young he was chosen to be Neytiri's mate and the next Olo'eyktan. He grew up to be the finest warrior and leader of the clan's hunters.

Tsu'Tey was to be mated with Neytiri, the Omaticaya's Clan princess, and they would then become the leaders of the clan. Jake Sully was captured by Tsu'Tey, and at Neytiri's insistance Jake was brought before Mo'at, the Omaticaya's Tsahik, who then decided that Jake would be taught the Na'vi ways. Tsu'Tey maintained hostility towards Jake from the moment they first met in the jungles of Pandora, and his anger only grew as he realized that Jake and Neytiri were falling in love. Upon finding out that Jake had mated with Neytiri he attempted to kill him. Jake managed to subdue him, and while trying to warn the Omaticaya of the impending attack by the RDA, Colonel Quarich disengaged Jake from his link chamber. Seeing his opportunity as Jake's lifeless Avatar fell to the ground, Tsu'Tey tried to kill Jake's Avatar, only to be stopped by Neytiri. When Jake was re-linked to his Avatar and he told the Omaticaya that he was originally a spy, Eytukan ordered Tsu'Tey to bind his hands. After the destruction of Hometree by the RDA and the death of Eytukan in the attack, Tsu'Tey became the clan leader. After Jake was able to regain the trust of the Omaticaya by becoming the sixth Toruk Makto, Tsu'Tey agreed to fly with him in the final battle against the RDA. Tsu'Tey was killed when he boarded the Valkyrie shuttle in an attempt to halt its bombing run. Maiming and killing several SecForces troops with his bow and knife, he was shot at point-blank range and fell to his death.

Mo'at is a main character in Avatar who is the Tsahik or Spiritual Leader of the Na'vi's Omaticaya Clan. According to Cameron's original script, her name means "Dream Catcher." She is mated with Eytukan and has two children: Neytiri and Sylwanin. She attempts to keep peace between the independent Neytiri and her father, and while she does not initially approve of Jake and Neytiri's relationship (as shown by her line to Eytukan: "We cannot let this seed grow. Her path is with Tsu’tey." Ultimately she creates the freedom for her daugher to be with her love interest. She is partially responsible for Jake's adoption into the Omaticaya Clan.









Eytukan was the patriarch of the Omaticaya Clan, the mate of Mo'at and the father of Neytiri. Eytukan was responsible for the overall leadership of the Omaticaya Clan on Pandora during the RDA occupation. Under his instructions, his daughter Neytiri trained Jake Sully in the lifestyle of the Na'vi. He was killed during The Destruction of The Hometree by falling wood, which impaled him through the chest.









A Toruk Makto is a Na'vi individual who manages to ride Toruk. There have only been five Toruk Maktos, until Jake Sully became one, leading the Na'vi against the RDA. The previous Toruk Makto was Neytiri's great-great-grandfather, who had used the great respect given to such riders to unite the Na'vi tribes five generations before. Jake follows in his footsteps to unite the Na'vi against the Human invaders. The previous Toruk Makto united all the Na'vi clans in a time of great sorrow, as Jake did. Toruk Makto means "Rider of the Last Shadow".



The Omaticaya Clan (Na'vi name: Omatikaya meaning "Blue Flute clan") is the Na'vi tribe of the forest. They live in The Hometree in one of Pandora's huge forests. The Omaticya People are led by Jake Sully and Neytiri and formerly by Eytukan and Mo'at and share a deep connection with the forest they live in as well as the sky. When members reach a certain age they must perform iknimaya. This is a rite of passage where they go up into the Hallelujah Mountains to find an Ikran and through tsahaylu create a bond with it. Once this act is performed, that Na'vi is accepted by the tribe as one of the people and is allowed to carve a bow from the Hometree and choose a mate. The tribe also happens to live over the largest deposit of Unobtanium nearest to the human's settlement at Hell's Gate. This leads to conflict as the RDA has come to Pandora in search of exactly that. After negotiations fail between the humans and the Na'vi, Hometree is destroyed, and the Omaticaya people are forced to take shelter at the Tree of Souls. It is unknown where they lived after the final battle with RDA.

While other Na'vi clans on Pandora organize themselves around carving or pottery, the Omaticaya are renowned for their brilliant textiles. Thus the loom plays a key role in the daily life of the clan. The largest of the omaticayan looms is more massive than a terran pipe organ. This 'mother loom' (Na'vi: mas'kit nivi sa'nok) is given a place of honor in the common area of Hometree.

Na'vi (and almost all other animal life on Pandora) anatomy includes a queue (properly: Neural queue) which is similar in appearance on the Na'vi to long braided human hair (of the same name), but is in fact an extension of the nervous system. It may look like that because the Na'vi braid it or because they have evolved the normally separate neural whip (as the structure is called on animals) pieces, as on most all over animals, into one. It is used to form Tsahaylu, a connection with other living things, like other animals that possess a neural whip or antennae (such as the Pa'li (Direhorse) and the Ikran (mountain Banshee)) and plants such as the Tree of Souls.

This queue looks like a long braid, with many little pink, hairy, worm-like neural fibers on the end. The Na'vi use this organ to establish a neural-level connection to nearly any part of the Pandoran ecosystem. This connection is total, so both partners are in full control of the connected beings. The connection can serve many purposes, but is mostly used to enable a Na'vi rider to command his or her mount with his or her mind and with apparent little effort, and without use of their hands, which frees those up to use a weapon. This also enables her/him to use the mount's sensory organs. This also means that a Na'vi rider feels the pain when the connected animal is being hurt. In the case of communication with plant life, the vast network of connected nodes (plants) serves as a biological memory for Na'vi ancestors, and perhaps much more.

The bonding of queues, Tsahaylu, with an Ikran is a rite of passage that all young Na'vi must endeavour. It is known as Iknimaya. The bond is one that lasts for a lifetime after the first flight has occurred.

 

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