Queue

At first glan­ce, a human might think of the Na’vi queue as sim­ply a long, rather osten­ta­tious hair braid. This see­mingly con­ven­tio­nal braid actual­ly shea­thes a ‘neu­ral whip’ that is an exten­si­on of the Na’vi’s ner­vous sys­tem. At its distal end is a remar­kab­ly intri­ca­te bran­ching of neu­ral ten­drils that can be con­nec­ted to simi­lar struc­tures of other life forms, both ani­mal and plant.

This con­nec­tion, cal­led tsa­heylu, allows a Na’vi to exch­an­ge sen­so­ry information—energetic and kine­tic signals—with other crea­tures, mem­bers of the zoo­plan­tae phylum (the ani­mal-like plants which are uni­que to Pan­do­ra), and even the moon its­elf. The queue allows the Na’vi to access the neu­ral net­work that enve­lo­ps the enti­re moon, and thus the coll­ec­ti­ve wis­dom of all Pan­do­ran life. For the Na’vi, this is com­mu­ni­on with their dei­ty, Eywa. From birth on, the Na’vi individual’s hair is pains­ta­kin­gly brai­ded over the anten­na-like neu­ral whip, pro­tec­ting it from harm. The Na’vi word for ‘queue’ is tswin or kuru.

It is dif­fi­cult to over­sta­te the importance of the kuru to the spi­ri­tu­al and phy­si­cal well-being of the Na’vi. As well as com­mu­ni­ca­ting direct­ly with Eywa, the Na’vi are able to com­mu­ne with and seek gui­dance from their ances­tors, via tsa­heylu with the so cal­led Utral Aymo­kri­yä (Trees of Voices), Vit­rautral (the Tree of Souls), and the under­wa­ter equi­va­lent, Ran­t­eng Utral­ti. A Na’vi’s first ins­tance of tsa­heylu is with their mother as a baby, fol­lo­wed by a com­mu­ni­on at Utra­ya Mokri or Ran­t­eng Utral­ti

Tsa­heylu is used on a dai­ly basis to con­nect to ani­mals for pur­po­ses of exer­ting con­trol over them, a form of ‘men­tal rei­ning’. This is vital to the suc­cess and pro­tec­tion of the clan; the pa’li (direh­or­se; left) and the ikran (moun­tain bans­hee; below) both come under the sway of the Na’vi through use of the kuru, as does the ilu for oce­an clans. 

In rare ins­tances, other dan­ge­rous ani­mals such as toruk (gre­at leo­no­pte­ryx) and palu­lu­kan (tha­na­tor) can be con­trol­led through this neu­ral inter­face as well.

Na’vi are also known to dome­sti­ca­te the calm and trainable pig-like fwam­pop (tapi­rus), and the bat-like riti (sting­bat), despi­te its long, poten­ti­al­ly lethal tail spike. They train riti to come when cal­led and perch on their should­ers or eat fruit from their hands. 

Oxy­gen may also be trans­fer­red through the kuru. Some crea­tures help the Na’vi free­di­ve by pro­vi­ding oxy­gen through the kuru while bond­ed. The ilu and the Ran­t­eng Utral­ti do this, as well as an inver­te­bra­te known as the txam­pay­sye, ‘sea breath’, which works as a kind of exter­nal gill once con­nec­ted via the kuru.