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Avatar Compund / Hallelujah Mountains / Hells Gate / Hometree / Tree Of Souls

Description: Facility in the Hell's Gate (RDA ESC 01) complex on Pandora.

Function: Enclosed area containing unpressurized quarters and recreational facilities for use by Avatar Project field agents.

Notes: Basketball is the most common sport within compound. To allow for both low gravity and the extra height of avatars, the hoop is set at a height of 4.87 meters or sixteen feet. Originally intended to help acclimate new avatar controllers to Pandoran conditions, the Avatar Compound provides an intermediate stage between the Earth-like environment within most of the Hell's Gate complex and the highly dangerous Pandoran jungle. The Compound includes a palisade constructed of Pandoran native timber, erected inside the Hell's Gate electrified razor wire safety fence. This is partly for visual purposes, to remind avatar operators that their duties will entail work in defensive positions in a jungle setting, and partly for safety. Avatar recreational activities sometimes include team sports and there is a real danger that avatars might come in contact with the safety fence.

A guard tower of 30.48 meters (100 feet) was constructed to supplement the standard automated towers on the Hell's Gate fence line. It can be occupied by avatars or humans, and provides spectacular views of the surrounding landscape.

The most prominent building in the Compound is the longhouse. The open-plan building contains cots on which avatars can be parked for rest when not in use. Other sections of the compound include a recreation area with game equipment and a fully equipped gym; a meeting area; a kitchen and commissary, where instruction in the capture and preparation of food species in the Pandoran wild is given; sanitary facilities; scientific equipment; and an airlock and tunnel leading to the main Hell's Gate laboratories. Nearly all furniture and equipment in the longhouse structure is scaled to suit the avatars' average nine to ten-foot height. Equipment such as video screens in other parts of the compound are modified to match height and other requirements.

The avatars are also provided with an oversized obstacle course, partially modeled on SecOps training protocols, and an outdoor weight-training facility. Avatar physiology has been found to respond to weight training similarly to humans, and avatar operators are required to include such conditioning as part of their maintenance program. An obstacle course reproduces some of the conditions that may be encountered in the Pandoran wild and is used by both avatars and SecOps forces.

Human controllers' bodies tend to degrade during their service in the Avatar Program. Due to spending most of their time controlling Avatars, their body does not do as much physical activity as they should.

The Hallelujah Mountains (Na'vi named them "Thundering Rocks") are floating islands that circulate slowly in the magnetic currents like icebergs at sea, scraping against each other and the towering mesa-like mountains of the region. On Pandora, huge outcroppings of Unobtainium rip loose from the surface and float in the magnetic vortices due to the Meissner Effect.

The entire area is sacred to the Na'vi, which poses a problem for the humans who have come to mine them for their mineral wealth. The mountains float like clouds among the fixed mountains and swirling cloud structures. When they are in clear sunlight they cast distinct shadows on the land below.

They are overgrown with foliage at the top, and straggly beards of vines hangs down beneath them like the roots of air-ferns. Their sides are sheer cliffs. Waterfalls, originating on the mesa-like tops, stream down the sides and disperse into spray at the bottoms, like upside-down geysers. The local peaks and mesas actually project above the level of the craggy undersides of the few floating mountains Jake Sully can see, so it's obvious that collisions are inevitable. The mountains also bear a very similar appearence to the Chinese mountains however, James Cameron said that it was the Huang Shan mountains that inspired him to make the Hallelujah Mountains which would explain the similar appearence. It is also the place Norm Spellman wants to visit most on Pandora.

The Hallelujah Mountains are also where Mountain Banshees choose to roost. This location makes the final challenge on the path to becoming a Na'vi hunter even more difficult and dangerous as the route taken to the top of the mountains are treacherous. One wrong move will send a candidate plummeting to their death and the danger of wild Mountain Banshees is also present.

Formerly known as Resources Development Administration Extra-Solar Colony 01 (RDA ESC 01), but generally known as Hell's Gate, is the main center for all Human colonial activites on Pandora, and contains the planet's only spaceport. It is in constant state of siege from both the toxic environment and dangerous animals.

A pentagonal perimeter fence (each side 2.3382 km or 11.69 km--7.264 miles--total) encloses 9.406 sq km (approx. 3.6317 sq miles). Major weapon towers at each apex provide heavy munitions defense against surface and air intrusions by large hostile Pandoran wildlife, while four smaller towers spaced 250 meters apart along each side handle intrusions by smaller life forms, including burrowing attacks. A cleared, thirty-meter-wide strip surrounds the base, which is regularly patrolled by automatic plant-clearing machinery that keeps the jungle at bay through regular administration of acidic mining byproducts.[3] Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. A similar area is occupied by the armor bay, vehicle storage sheds, and a light industrial plant mainly used for fabricating parts for mining equipment and ammunition for base defense. The unobtainium refinery complex takes up the western side of the facility.

The remainder of Hell's Gate is composed of administrative structures, a barracks for Sec-Ops staff, studio-style apartments for technicians and mine workers, and an airtight condominium for senior staff, as well as Sci Mod that is part of the utilitdor-connected Hab Mod, OPS Center structures.

Recreational facilities such as the base commissary (popularly known as Hell's Kitchen) are shared, except for an unpressurised section between the research labs and the landing zone mainly used by members of the avatar program for athletic training.

Hometree (Na'vi name: Kelutral) are massive trees that can be found throughout Pandora. Many Na'vi clans, such as the Omaticaya and the Tipani make their home in these enormous plants.

There are hundreds of disparate Na'vi clans on Pandora. Some of the clans, including the Omaticaya, live in ancient trees that are two to three times the height of the Terran redwoods that once covered the Pacific Northwest. The circumference of Hometree is great enough to house dozens of clan members. The tree is honeycombed with natural hollows and alcoves in which the Na'vi sleep, eat, weave, dance, and celebrate their connection to Eywa. Like many sacred sites on Pandora, the Omaticayan Hometree sits above a large deposit of Unobtanium.

Each Hometree has enough room to comfortably accommodate the members of each Na'vi clan. There are no cases of Na'vi overpopulation as they live in equilibrium with the finite resources of their surrounding environment, subject to the same Darwinian forces as the jungles other inhabitants.

Hometrees are generally described as being more than a hundred meters tall, with a hollow base supported by mangrove-like roots. Within this base there are many columns, creating a large central area. In this central area is a natural spiral staircase, which the Na'vi use to move up and down the tree.

Per the Pandorapedia, "The name Hometree is misleading, as the structure is actually comprised of a grove of intertwined trees of the same species that have grown together, providing for mutual strength and structural reinforcement. This, coupled with Pandora's low gravity, is what accounts for the immense height of Hometree. The Omaticaya revere this quality of Hometree as a constant reminder that a community is stronger and more resilient than the sum of the individuals who comprise it."

The Omaticaya Hometree is located above a rich deposit of unobtanium, possibly one of the richest on the planet, putting the Na'vi in conflict with the RDA's interests due to the value of said mineral. In Avatar, the Hometree of the Omaticaya clan was obliterated by the RDA's security forces using incendiary missiles, after driving the Na'vi out with tear gas, forcing the remaining Na'vi to relocate.

The hometree was presumed to be over a thousand years old due to its rarity and size. It is believed that hundreds of generations of Na'vi have lived there (and are buried in its roots). Colonel Quaritch referred to it as "one big damned tree" before destroying it during the The Destruction of The Hometree.

The Tree of Souls (Na'vi Name: Vitraya Ramunong) is a giant willow-like tree that is said to be the closest connection to Eywa on all of Pandora. As pointed out by Miles Quaritch, the Tree is a point of extreme religious significance to the Na'vi, more so than any other point on Pandora.

The Tree of Souls is located on the ground of Pandora, amidst the floating Hallelujah Mountains, not far from Hometree. After the destruction of Hometree, the Na'vi tribe was forced to make an exodus there on foot to protect their cultural identity.

The tree sits in a basin roughly 60 meters in diameter, shielded by an unusual formation of rock arches that give the impression of a shell encasing it, increasing its sense of security and protection. The tree is difficult to find due to its location right at the heart of Pandora's natural flux vortex, caused by strong magnetic and gravitational forces from the floating mountains and the large unobtanium deposit located beneath the formation.

The Tree of Souls, besides being a connection to Eywa, also works as a way for her to directly interact with the world through the seeds of the tree. The tree has the capability to connect directly to the nervous system of all living things, and is not limited to the queue that Pandoran wildlife possesses. When Grace Augustine was injured, Jake Sully brought her to the Na'vi and they attempted to save her by using the Tree of Souls to connect to Grace's nervous system and permanently transfer her mind to her Avatar body. Although Grace was too weak to make the transfer, instead she became one with Eywa. At the end of the film Jake successfully transfers his mind into his Avatar, making it his true body forever.

The destruction of the Tree of Souls would prove devestating to the Na'vi as a whole, creating a cultural and religious void that would decimate the race entirely. Miles Quaritch gathered this information from Sully's video logs, and based it around an attack strategy he formulated against the Na'vi.

Approximately a week after Jake Sully, Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman escaped from the RDA prison facility, Miles Quaritch initiated a full-scale assault on the Na'vi race, the main objective being to annihilate the Tree of Souls in order to clear the Na'vi away from the corperation's unobtainium mining efforts. Quaritch knew that the Na'vi wouldn't come within a large radius of the devestated Tree of Souls should it be destroyed.

Quaritch's plan eventually failed due to a combination of tactical genius from Sully, personal sacrifice by various members of the Na'vi tribe, lack of co-ordination due to the Flux Vortex and inferior numbers. The tree was not damaged during the battle, although the explosives meant for it reached within a klick of its resting place.

 

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