Eywa
From the Early Pandora Wiki Canon Na'vi legend Wiki lore Real world
Eywa, the Great Mother or All Mother, is what the Na'vi call the living network that connects all life on Pandora. Tree roots pass signals to one another like nerves, and the whole forest acts a little like a giant brain. The Na'vi connect to it through their queues at sacred places such as the Tree of Souls. Canon
The Na'vi believe Eywa does not take sides, but always keeps the balance of life. She also holds the memories of everyone who has died. Canon
How the network works
In the first film, the scientist Grace Augustine explains that every tree on Pandora is linked to the trees around it through its roots, and there are so many trees that the network has more connections than a human brain. Signals pass along it, so the forest can store and share information. Canon
The Na'vi can join this network. When a Na'vi connects their queue to a sacred tree, they can hear the voices of their ancestors and feel what the forest feels. Grace calls it "a network of energy that flows through all living things." Canon
Sacred trees
| Tree | Na'vi name | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Tree of Souls | Vitraya Ramunong | The most sacred place of the Omatikaya, where the Na'vi feel closest to Eywa; its glowing strands hang like a willow Canon |
| Tree of Voices | Utral Aymokriyä | A tree where the Na'vi hear the voices of their ancestors Canon |
| Hometree | Kelutral | The giant tree the Omatikaya live in Canon |
| Spirit Tree | — | An underwater sacred tree of the Metkayina, seen in The Way of Water Canon |
| First Listening Tree | — | The giant tree where the early swamp clans met once a year Wiki lore |
Signs from Eywa
The Na'vi watch for signs that Eywa is speaking. The best known are the woodsprites, atokirina', floating seeds of the sacred tree that look like tiny glowing jellyfish. In the first film, a cloud of them lands on Jake, and Neytiri takes it as a sign that Eywa has chosen him. Canon
Wiki lore records other signs the early clans watched for: loreyu curling up when no one has touched them, a whole swamp going silent at once, and Polyphemus hanging low and orange in the sky. Wiki lore
Eywa in the films
- Avatar (2009). Jake prays to Eywa for help. At first Neytiri says Eywa does not take sides, but in the final battle the animals of Pandora join the fight, and Neytiri says Eywa has heard him. Canon
- The Way of Water (2022). Kiri, a girl born from Grace's avatar, has an unusually strong connection to Eywa and can sense the life of the sea. Canon
Sayings
| Saying | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Eywa ngahu | "Eywa be with you," said as a goodbye Canon |
| "All energy is only borrowed" | What Neytiri teaches Jake: one day you have to give it back Canon |
| "Eywa does not take sides, but she always keeps the balance." | Ninat's warning in the duck-sucker legend Na'vi legend |
| "Listen before you take." | An early Na'vi teaching: connect, and ask if the forest can spare it Wiki lore |
Eywa in the duck-sucker legend
The Taktswìkyu's roots "whispered" to the trees as part of Eywa. When the plants grew greedy, the trees whispered to Ninat that something was wrong. Ninat's warning was in Eywa's words: "Eywa does not take sides, but she always keeps the balance." Na'vi legend
The legend shows what that means. Eywa did not stop the Taktswìkyu from eating the tak, and she did not punish them either. When the plants took too much, the balance simply came back the hard way, by the plants dying out. Eywa kept one seed, and a new, careful plant grew from it. Na'vi legend Wiki lore
Eywa and the early Na'vi
Wiki lore says the oldest songs describe Eywa as "the river under the ground," because the early swamp clans thought of the network as water flowing between roots. They believed the Na'vi were given the queue "so they would never be lonely in the world." Wiki lore
Real science: the wood wide web
On Earth, the roots of most plants are wrapped in fine threads of fungi, called mycorrhizal networks. The fungi help the plants take in water and minerals, and the plants feed the fungi with sugar. In a forest, these threads can link many trees together. Real world
The ecologist Suzanne Simard found signs that trees can pass carbon to each other through these networks, and that big old "mother trees" may be linked to many young ones around them. Newspapers nicknamed it the "wood wide web." Scientists still argue about how much trees really share, and the network is not a brain, but it is a real, living network under our feet. Real world
A British scientist, James Lovelock, also suggested the Gaia hypothesis: the idea that Earth's living things, air, oceans and rocks work together like one big system that keeps conditions right for life. It is a bit like a scientist's version of Eywa. Real world