Eywa and the Hist

There is a great tree, a great many and yet so few, scattered here and there on this fantastical planet that are not "just trees" by any stretch of the imagination. They do not just take in water and sprout leaves or produce some sap, but are actually measurably conscious, living things that actively make decisions. And living around them are a whole people who's lives are absolutely centered on these trees that humans simply cannot fathom as anything other than a really big plant. Their culture, religion, and perhaps even language are shaped by these trees, and there is evidence that these trees will, in fact, make their will known if they need to.

I am actually not talking about the Hometree, the Trees of Voices or the Tree of Souls in Avatar, yet undoubtedly any Avatar fan reading this blog makes that connection instantly. Rather, I'm talking about the Hist.

What is the Hist, you might ask? Anyone who has played a game in The Elder Scrolls series has heard of this term. You can access this world through games like Skyrim (The Elder Scrolls V), Oblivion (IV) and Morrowind (III), and an online game simply called The Elder Scrolls Online. Of these games, an event that happens in Oblivion is very significant which I will go over shortly, because it relates to something similar in Avatar.

If at this point you're asking yourself, "What is the point of this post?" It is to simply share a lot of similarities I've noted as a fan of both Pandora, with Eywa and the Na'vi people, and of the world in The Elder Scrolls,with the Hist and Argonians. So, someone who knows both of these things might enjoy it! 

Now, if you don't know about The Elder Scrolls (hereby shortened to TES), I hope to pique your interest, because I absolutely fell in love with the Argonians, a bipedal reptilian race of beings, after an experience playing through their home of Blackmarsh in The Elder Scrolls Online. I'm not actually one who cares for MMOs, but I hope to visit Blackmarsh again soon because it is simply so amazing. I'm going to share a little about that experience further down, but for now I should return to the subject of the Hist.

The Hist -- it is both singular and plural. It may very well be one consciousness, or perhaps it works like the Borg do in Star Trek. What we do know about the Hist trees is that they are "are a species of giant spore trees growing in the innermost swamps of Black Marsh." Additionally, "Argonians are known to have deep connections with the Hist, calling themselves the people of the root, and licking the leaking sap of their trunks in religious rites. Others claim the trees are, in fact, a sentient race, more ancient than all the races of man and mer. Hist trees usually have red bioluminescent flowers growing out of them," though one tree does have blue bioluminscient flowers instead.

Usually, a tribe of Argonians is centered around a single Hist tree, meaning that different Hist trees have different tribes. It is said in TES lore that each tribe's culture, how the Argonians look and what they do is actually determined by their Hist tree. You can tell easily what tribe an Argonian comes from based on their unique looks and their tribal culture.

  

Some of the very first Argonians we meet in their native Blackmarsh are those of the Bright-Throat tribe. They are delightful and kind people who brighten their scales with various dyes and love wearing bright clothing. "The Tribe is mainly made out of artisans and its members are also known to have a preternatural talent for the arts of merchants, diplomats and woodcarvers. They are hospitable to all, even outsiders. Their scales are brightly colored." 

 

Contrast this with the Naga-Kur, the very opposite of the Bright-Throat tribe: they are warriors, and with their adder-shaped heads they do not look friendly at all.

 

 I find both tribes and cultures just completely and utterly fascinating. Even with their differences, they still do have a lot in common. The missions and characters met in Blackmarsh in TES Online reminded me so much of Pandora and its potential tribes that I just completely fell in love with the entire race right then and there (sorry, Khajiit!)

Like the Na'vi, Argonians live in simple villages do not seem to want for outsider influence. They have a deep relationship with their Hist and with nature, living off the land. They do not take more than they need (for the most part; one tribe is an exception to this) and they live in the depths of a gigantic forest-swamp. They are more than content following the will of the Hist, and what I'm about to say brings me to an interesting thought and one reason for this post: it is theorized that in this world, Argonians are basically mind-slaves to the will of the Hist, and I want to argue that all the fauna on Pandora, Na'vi included, share a similarly dark position with Eywa.

Let me preface this with a basic fact of life I think we can all agree on: no animal or sentient creature aims for death or to kill itself, instinctually speaking. Yet in both TES and on Pandora, a sentient tree with a will and a mission basically hijacks its own denizens and sends them straight into war, to almost certain death--surely against their individual will.

I should note something interesting at this point about Argonians. All of those born in Blackmarsh are, upon hatching, given golden sap from the village Hist tree to ingest. This sap is both fatal to humans and can have dire, very trippy consequences. But the Argonians have a natural immunity (for the most part) and in fact form their bond with the Hist through this sap. Because of this, essentially, Argonians not born in Black Marsh and therefore not connected to the Hist are completely removed from the Hist. There is no queue braid to connect with here. The life-long bond to the Hist is formed through drinking the sap as a hatchling.

In TES IV: Oblivion, to keep is very short and sweet without going into deep lore, a bunch of demons called daedra invaded the entirety of Tamriel, the main continent in TES. But, the Hist actually warned the Argonians ahead of time about the impending invasion. How the Hist knew is a topic for a non-Avatar post. But the demons were coming from their land of Oblivion (hence the name of the game) and only one people had any warning. What is important to know about this is that because of this, the Argonians amassed as a great force. And while most of the rest of the world and all the races in it were facing literal oblivion, the Argonians basically laughed and invaded Oblivion instead, forcing the demons to close their Oblivion gates and ending the invasion crisis. Basically, they saved the world, and I get to enjoy a bunch of memes about how cool Argonians actually are.

 

(Disclaimer: Not an actual Argonian)

  If you're still with me, thank you! I better finally swing this post over to Pandora and Avatar. Before the big battle where Jake knows the Na'vi are about to get pounded by the RDA, he takes a moment to pray to Eywa. When Neytiri observes him, she tells him rather plainly that Eywa does not take sides, and only "protects the balance of life." 

This line leads me to a hypothesis I have, and that was that Neytiri wasn't wrong at all, even though Eywa seemed to ultimately decide, "Yes, I'm totally taking a side here." If you have seen the Extended Edition of Avatar (and if you haven't, get on that!), you see just how bad off Earth is in Jake's time. There really is no green, and the air is almost non-breathable. I think Eywa saw perfectly that humans meant no real balance of life. Humans are basically a virus on the Earth that will kill its host without realizing its own doom, and Eywa saw this clear as day.

So how does this tie into everything about the Argonians and the Hist? Because Eywa does what the Hist does: she communicates (How, I wonder? Surely ikran do not have their own Tree of Souls? Hmm....) with the various fauna of Pandora and all those animals variously go ham on the humans, giving them a taste of their own medicine and driving them back: much like the Argonians did with the demon daedra in TES. And much like the Argonians, I don't think they actually had much of a choice. In TES it is implied they did not, and on Pandora I think this is most certainly the case.

Certainly the palulukan (thanator) that bows to Neytiri to consent to being bonded with did not actually consent willingly, but was forced to. I can't imagine such a proud and noble predator doing anything to a Na'vi other than having one as a snack, much like one tried to do with Jake. And certainly many of those ikran, and that very palulukan, end up dead by the end of the battle--a battle they would never have entered if Eywa didn't command them to go.

Honestly, I am fascinated both by the similarities between the Na'vi and Argonians and the Hist and Eywa, and the possibility that there is a possibly dark side to the global network of consciousness that is Eywa. Remember Neytiri's words (her warning?), "Eywa does not take sides." Hmm!!

Well, I do hope this post has stirred some thought about potential possibilities on the horizon, and for those who played any of the TES games and are also Avatar fans, I hope you appreciate Argonians all the more! Lastly, I will be doing at least one if not two more posts about ideas connecting TES and Pandora, so I hope you enjoy them!