Avatars

[Ace]

• Humans selected for the Avatar program need to have a purpose: research, diplomatic relations with Na'vi, survival, or militaristic action.
  
• Avatars on this board are not humans psyonicly-linked to a grown Avatar like in the film; these ones are fully-modified human hybrids that underwent drastic surgery to look like a Na'vi. Consequently, they can survive in Pandoran atmosphere because of the surgery. This is better explained below.
  
• Avatars have all the benefits of being a human and physically a Navi (synchronization, strength & agility, etc. albeit they have four fingers and one thumb on each hand), but they will not know the Na'vi language or customs unless they learn them.
  
• Na'vi do not fully trust Avatars since they were human to begin with. Stories from their ancestors lead the Na'vi to believe they are demons in false bodies and suffer from 'insanity'.
  

[Ace]

Avatar Surgery

Given the circumstances of the humans crash-landing on Pandora, their original methods of creating a Na’vi Avatar were mostly compromised. Growing Avatars and psyonic calibrators were all omitted from the program as were Avatar drivers. With the new program, it’s all grassroots medical procedures. The new program involves three stages of surgery: Anatomical Alterations, Cosmetic Calibration, and Genome Therapy. It’s all safe of course since Olympus carried a great team of medical workers and advanced medical technology, so the survival rate of Avatar surgery is always 100%.

Stage 1 – Anatomical Alterations

During this stage of surgery, the human body is drastically altered; most of this is done in a liquid incubator. The body is enlarged in an incubator to spur some natural growth to attain a Na'vi appropriate size, the spine is elongated (so the tail is possible), the back of the head is scalped so the brain can adapt its nerve structure later, and the facial organs are reshaped to match that of a Na’vi (eyes, nose, ears). This takes nearly half a day for the procedure to finish and a couple more days to recoup, so the process is lengthy.

Every Avatar begins here with this surgery after they are accepted to this site.

Stage 2 – Cosmetic Calibration

[/b]

This stage of the surgery is to make the altered human look like a Na’vi. The skin is dyed various shades of blue with permanent ink (allowing for the striped pattern), the irises of the eyes are stained an enhanced version of the original color, and various dots of white (to fake the bioluminescent markings) are added in various places. This takes a while to get right as the subject has to spend a lot of time in front of a mirror with the aid of medical staff to attain an acceptable self-image for becoming a Na’vi.

After 100 posts, this surgery is now an option for your character and you can choose to have this performed on your character.

Stage 3 – Genome Therapy

[/b]

While not technically surgery, this is where the magic happens. Using the DNA of native Na’vi, the genes are introduced directly into the subject’s cellular structure via the incubator. This causes the subject to undergo a sort of metamorphosis from just looking like a Na’vi to being able to function like one, allowing the brain to grow the Tsaheylu bonding cord out of the back of their head as well as enhancing their bodily functions (such as lungs to breathe the Pandoran atmosphere) and reinforcing their bone structure with naturally-occurring carbon fiber as well as giving notable-but-not-impressive muscle definition. This usually takes a week or two to complete, but the end result is truly amazing.

After 200 posts, you may choose to make your character a fully functioning avatar. Keep in mind, turning back to human would take quite a bit of time, resources and a lot of pain.

The end result is a human transformed into a functional Na'vi, but will always carry traits that distinguish them from true Na'vi. These beings are Avatars, or to the Na'vi "Dreamwalkers."[/size]