Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora — what do we know about the plot and the lore?
Since many atwow fans, especially here on tumblr, seem to be unaware or not caught up on the new avatar game coming out in two months I thought I’d make this post and spill tea about all the juicy details!
First things first, let me respond to the biggest question you might have:
When is frontiers of Pandora happening, in terms of cannon time-line?
FoP is confirmed to be cannon to the movie franchise and plays out first during the events of the first movie, directly impacted by Jake’s battle in the hallelujah mountains and then continues playing out 15 years later, during the events of avatar the way of water.
What’s the story?
The character we play as is a young, unnamed Na’vi of either female or male sex (judging by promo images), depending on what you choose in the beginning of the game. Their fate is a tragic one, as MC, who lives in the west hemisphere of Pandora is kidnapped from their home by the RDA, together with many other children.
The captives unwillingly become part of T.A.P, or “The Ambassador Program”, and for years go through constant brainwashing and cruel treatment, all to become perfect "ambassadors" of RDA and enforce its propaganda, most likely through force.
They become soldiers, taught the weaponry and war tactics of humans, all under the rule of a frankly mentally unstable man named John Mercer.
(Yes this is him yelling at an 8 year old)
John Mercer is the presumed overseer of the site, controlling the project and acts as the main villain of the game.
When battle of the Hallelujah Mountains occurs and the site looses contact with hell’s gate after it gets attacked by rogue avatars and scientists, the staff sounds the alarm and humans rush to evacuate from Pandora, afraid that Omatikaya will find the base and attack them next. In their rush, John Mercer commands his goons to get rid of the evidence of T.A.P program, namely killing all the Na’vi children they abducted years prior.
They don’t get to do that however, as MC’s teacher, an avatar that has spent years teaching the children human subjects, shoots the guards dead in panic, leading her students to what presumably is an emergency bunker equipped with cryopods, and puts her students, including the MC to sleep so as they get to escape the wrath of John Mercer’s men and fly under their radar.
And there they remained for the next 15 years, un disturbed in their slumber until an unknown factor triggered their pod and it opened, waking MC from their sleep and, for the first time in years, they walk free.
But after an eternity in RDA’s clutches, the main character has forgotten all about their roots and customs. It is up to them now to reconnect with their home and become a true Na’vi once more, with the help of many characters we’ll meet along the way, young and old, from a number of new clans we had never seen before.
(I’m mostly excited about this old lady, she seems chill af and I like her fit)
But the healing arc is only part of the story, as we know that the RDA canonically comes back 15 years after the battle in the mountains. This time, they’re stronger, meaner, and right back at their business, so it’s up to us, the player, to establish a resistance in the west and fight off the aliens who once more infested Eywa’s lands. John Mercer is, unsurprisingly, also back, though thankfully not as a recombinant.
Okay so what is the EXACT time the main story plays out?
The story plays out the year 2169 according to the timeline, which is about the same time the Omatikaya perform a train raid we see in the movie. The RDA has established their base (Bridgehead) in the east and is trying to expand its operations to the western frontier, which is where the MC comes in. As a "child of two worlds", the character can use both the classic Na’vi weaponry as well as human firearms and traps of all kinds. Ironically the RDA, through its cruelty, had created a formidable enemy that knows ins and outs of their thinking similarly to Jake Sully.
Hold up so, if FoP and Atwow happen parallel to each other, does it mean that we’ll get to meet the movie characters and interact with them?
I can’t say for sure. Geographically, the game and the movie play out in two different hemispheres, which greatly brings down the chance of meeting any of the characters we know face to face. However, it is more than likely that the game will expand on the movie lore and we’ll get to find out more about Jake’s operations, as well as the operations of RDA (including the recom program).
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Here is the link to the overview trailer of the game that will cover the info I wrote above and some more.
I heavily recommend that you check out the game, as it looks extremely promising so far and I can’t be more hyped! If you got any more questions, feel free to drop them into my ask box!
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Distant cousins of the jungle's stingbat, the aptly named stunbat (Tsealìm in Na'vi) is a native of the Txepìva volcanic plains that hunts by diving from great heights and colliding with their prey head-first, stunning them.
Their head is blunt, with a threefold crest reminiscent of the great leonopterix's dual one, but significantly more ossified. Their neck is thick and muscular, to help support the structure, but also to weather the high velocity impacts.
The hands, small and with fused fingers in jungle stingbats, are much larger here, and used to catch stunned prey falling from the sky, or pick them off the ground as they swoop down. It also allows stunbats to eat on the fly, as it were, as the plains' chaotic environment doesn't always provide them with safe perching opportunities.
Stunbats have short, prehensile neural queues that retract under thick, keratinous neck frills. The extra mobility of this limb allows them to make quick connections while in mid-air, front to back, back to back, or belly to belly, the latter being the more commonly seen one, accompanied by a stabilising "handshake".
The stunbat's vision is excellent. Early research by Eyris Makri with the Tuin clan of the Txepìva showed that their domesticated stunbats were able to spot prey up to 4 miles away, seeing clearly at ten times the distance of their Na'vi handlers. Their primary eyes show a high concentration of foveas, giving them enough focus to clearly distinguish prey moving against the complex backdrop of the plains and lava fields.
Although the stunbat's barbed tail has lost most of its poisonous sting, it is still used in defence against larger predators. Their best defence, however, remains a Na'vi bow.
It is hard to tell exactly when domestication started, though the olo'eyktan of the Tau'un clan claims one of his ancestors was the first to tame a stunbat. We're told this happened during the "Time of Long Nights", but dating that event is equally complicated. Current estimations are a minimum of two millenia.
During that time, the stunbat's range remained tied to the volcanic plains of the Txepìva clans, although the species has been observed by Serafiina Hukkala as far out as Mons St. Helen. One must note that the stunbat is unlike our previous study case of the Viperhound, which are bred for various purposes. Interviews with Txepìva hunters (Makri et al.) suggest that their relationship to the Na'vi is similar to that of cats and humans, with multiple domestication events, beneficial to both species. Na'vi led breeding appears to be very incidental, as stunbats tend to fly off to find mates in the wild, rather than mating among their clan's flock.
This species is significantly larger than their forest cousins.
The most common uses of stunbats are for scouting and hunting. While hunting of small game is extremely similar to what humans once achieved with eagles, stunbats also take part in hunting expeditions for large prey.
They are used to follow the movements of herds, but also to help separate young calves from their mothers, or the weak and wounded, by dive bombing them (Hukkala et al.) They understand complex orders, communicate with clicks and shrieks, and will come to hang on the queue or harness of their paired Txepìva to share more detailed visuals through Tsaheylu.
This is also how they are used for scouting. Serafiina Hukkala postulated that the stunbats' mated pair lifestyle influenced Txepìva culture by making the act of scouting a couple's task. Scouting, we must remind the reader, is a lot more crucial to the Txepìva, who have no qualms waging war against each other for the domination of water sources and fertile land. Raiding parties, while not frequent, are a banal part of life on the plains. Even small children learning to work with stunbats will be sent on sentry duties, often on the back of a Lenonin Hound.
The reason mated pairs of stunbats are favoured is because of their long flight range and their ability to connect together in mid-air. This means one side of the couple can move far ahead, and report back to their partner, already extended to the edge of their range. A couple of scouting stunbats effectively covers double the range a single hunter would.
Stunbats are occasionally used to communicate with similar techniques. While one half of a pair can be sent to deliver a message to another tribe, the other remains with their clan (often brooding). The homing individual (whichever has best endurance, as both sexes feed and brood chicks at will) can find its way back to them even if the clan is on the move. More research is needed on their communication capabilities.
When travelling or staying in temporary camps, stunbats are housed in loose baskets designed to let them hang onto the side. These carriers are custom made by every clan and come in many forms and sizes. Brooding stunbats are carried, either by a Na'vi who will fashion straps to turn the basket into a backpack, or tied to the back of Leonin Hounds.
In more permanent camps, the Texpiva craft treillis to give them places to hang from. Serafiina Hukkala reported a clan that arranged dried branches and material for firewood as perches, while Eyris Makri stayed with a couple who fashioned fake branches at the top of their tents, like rafters. Both heard reports of clans that house their stunbats along with their livestock, but the practice seemed frowned upon.
The bond between Na'vi and Tsealìm needs further study. It isn't as exclusive as with an ikran, but much more complex than with direhorses. Stunbats bond strongly with a small family node, and more weakly with the extended family and friend group. Tsaheylu is typically only done with their main Na'vi hunters, although the stunbat can be introduced and passed down to children.
Emergency tsaheylu was witnessed twice by Makri, when a scout had urgent reports and the stunbat was sent ahead. Connection was made with the clan's tsahìk, who had a habit of bonding with every newborn stunbat. The practice, we were told, can be controversial.
Hunter depicted without ornaments, to highlight the process of Tsaheylu.
Some clans craft harnesses for hunters to better carry and support their stunbats, while others prefer natural body-to-body contact. The folding or tying of the neural queue to allow for better access to the kuru/tendrils seems universal among all interviewed hunters and scouts. Different styles were observed and will be presented in our published notebooks, after our paper on the use of stunbats in skirmishes and outright warfare, as the Txepìva practice it.
Part II of @straydaddy (art and design) and @bluedaddysgirl (lore concept + final art entry) in-world collaborative study, "Introduction to the Txepiva clans, their nomadic pastoralism and niche selective breeding practices in species of stingbats and viperwolves".
On twitter we are Knarme and Bluedaddysgirl
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Made a post about it on Twitter but wanted to make here as well.
SPIDER HAS TWO DIFFERENT BOWS!!!
The one he wielded in the forest when he and his siblings got caught had yellow and blue weavings, decorated with hanging trinkets and had arrows with blue fletches. The bow in the ikran taming scene however is dark red, has a green grip, green fletched arrows and is much simpler in design.
It’s insane to think just how trusting Quaritch was of him to allow Socorro to make a completely new weapon, to allow the kid to arm himself and not only that; it’s a longbow. You need hella strength just to pull back the string, and holding it for too long can really damage your fingers, which speaks volumes about the kid’s archery skills. The arrows are also impressively long, which explains why he only has two. Can’t have Spider trying his chances and taking down a recom can we? 🤣
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