Added by Faern.

Eywa is the guiding force and deity of Pandora and the Na'vi. The Na'vi believe that Eywa acts to keep the ecosystem of Pandora in perfect equilibrium. It is sometimes theorized by human scientists that all living things on Pandora connect to Eywa through a system of neuro-conductive antennae; this often explains why Na'vi can mount their direhorse or mountain banshee steeds and ride them immediately without going through the necessary steps required to domesticate such wild animals.

Some believe that this interconnectedness, which on Earth is merely a spiritual concept, exists in a physical and tangible way on Pandora, in the form of a strange, collective psionic consciousness embedded in the planet, drawn from all Pandoran life. It is, in a way, a little like a huge biological internet; the trees being computer servers that store information. The Na'vi can upload or download memories from it using their queues and it can even be used for mind transfers in certain cases.

The Tree of Souls grants the Na'vi access to the psychic essences of their deceased, which is how the Na'vi communicate with their ancestors. The roots of the trees are capable of extending above the ground and connecting to the nervous system of any living thing, even humans. This is how Jake Sully's consciousness was transferred to his avatar permanently.

Avatar: The Video GameEdit

RDA PlotEdit

In the Avatar video game, this psionic link can be manipulated by humans as well. If the player chooses to side with the RDA, then the main objective throughout the game is to gather three psionic crystals in certain areas and plant them near specific crystal willow trees, which are said to be where emanations of Eywa concentrate. This is done so that the willow trees resonate with the cystal's combined vibrations, forming a 'song'. The songs collected from each willow tree can then be used to locate the long-lost Well of Souls. This allows RDA scientists to both find the Well of Souls and build an artificial psionic machine that emulates an aggressive version of the smaller willow trees' signals, which is then planted in front of the active Well of Souls. This allows the RDA to tap into Eywa itself, control the psionic consciousness, and take control of the moon itself to turn it against the Na'vi, thereby giving the RDA a decisive advantage. Eventually, the RDA is successful in these efforts, and is inevitably on the way to winning the war against the Na'vi and taking absolute control of Pandora. This only occurs if the player sides with the RDA.

In Avatar: The Game, the Na'vi can ride and control creatures, like the direhorse or the ikran. The mighty thanator can also be ridden. However, the player does so without connecting to them physically, the way they do in the Avatar film - because the game does not display animated queues for the Na'vi characters. This is likely due to the performance hit suffered by having to animate a moving queue, and/or having to generate separate models for players while riding a mount. The in-game Na'vi characters, including the player, do have queues, but all are shown to be firmly fixed to their shoulders rather than the free-hanging braided queues visible in the movie.

TriviaEdit

• Eywa is very similar to many of Earth's deities, such as Jörð in Norse mythology who is the personification of the Earth, and is even closer to the Native Americans' religious views of the planet being one living entity. Eywa has been compared to Gaia (Gaea), Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Triple Goddess, or God by those trying to explain the relationship between Eywa and the Na'vi. The Gaia hypothesis follows on that the entire biosphere acts like a single organism or at least a complex system (soft Gaia), or that the Earth is consciously manipulating the biosphere in order to make conditions more favorable to life (hard Gaia).
• Several fictional mythologies from other planets or fantasy settings are similar to Eywa, such as the Mother Jungle from the planet Ithor in the Star Wars Expanded Universe or Yavanna from J.R.R Tolkien's "The Silmarillion", who created all life, plant and animal, in the shaping of the world and works to protect the life of the world. In Alan Dean Fosters "Midworld" books, "Emfol" is also a jungle hive intelligence to which the native inhabitants who live in a "Home Tree" can connect mentally. It is also threatened by human mining operations.
• Eywa's embodiment as plant life may be a reference to Yggdrasil, The Tree of Life, a holy embodiment in Norse mythology. Yggdrasil is a tree, said to be the root of all life, sent to keep the natural order of life on Earth. It balances the three worlds: the god's world, man's world and the underworld.
• Eywa is also similar to the Norse god-king Odin in title. Odin is known as the All-Father, whereas Eywa is known as the All-Mother.