Era of Raava



The era of Raava encompasses the time period prior to the beginning of the Avatar Cycle around 9830 BSC, when Wan became the first Avatar.

History
Before the era of Raava, Vaatu broke through the barriers that separated the mortal and spiritual worlds. Since the boundaries were non-existent, more and more spirits freely passed from their world through Earth's northern and southern spirit portals located at the poles and began residing in the physical world, resulting in almost all the lands of the world becoming the Spirit Wilds. Humans, who once lived together, split apart to seek shelter and protection on the backs of lion turtles. Over time, most accounts of this era were lost in history.

When humans sought food, they left the protection of their settlements and ventured into the Spirit Wilds. For protection, they were granted control over the element their lion turtle was affiliated with and the power was theirs to keep until they returned to the cities.

Tension with the Spirits


Spirits and man did not warmly welcome each other. With the exception of the predecessors of the Air Nomads, humans would attack spirits, and hunt animals for food. Likewise, spirits would possess and disfigure humans, and even kill them if they inhabited their bodies long enough. The humans' only refuge were the lion turtles, whom the spirits were wary or even respectful of.

During a trip to the Spirit Wilds from the fire lion turtle, a young man named Wan stole the art of fire from the lion turtle in order to have the power to steal food from the rich and give to the poor. He was eventually captured by the Chou brothers and sent to the fire lion turtle to be stripped of the sacred art. The fire lion turtle, relented, and allowed Wan to keep the art in order to defend himself in the Spirit Wilds, where he was perpetually banished for his actions.

Wan arrived at a spirit oasis guarded by the aye-aye spirit, and was refused entry due to the spirit's negative view on humans. After witnessing Wan rescue Mula from humans, the aye-aye spirit agreed to let Wan drink from his oasis and dubbed him, "Stinky". Throughout his exile, Wan learned how to perfect the art of firebending with the help of a dragon, which would eventually be known as the Dancing Dragon firebending form.

Harmonic Convergence
During his search for the other lion turtle cities, Wan encountered two ancient spirits battling one another. Although his intentions were good, Wan was tricked by Vaatu, the spirit of chaos and darkness, into helping him escape from Raava, the spirit of light and peace. To compensate for his mistake, Wan teamed up with Raava in an attempt to defeat Vaatu, as the dark spirit grew stronger due to spreading chaos, whereas Raava became weaker. Under Raava's tutelage, Wan mastered the four elements before the Harmonic Convergence. Right before the Harmonic Convergence happened, Wan challenged Vaatu in Raava's name. The dark spirit proved to be too powerful for him, and in an attempt to turn the tide, Wan called upon Raava to merge with him. However, Raava's presence in Wan's body put him under a lot of strain, enabling Vaatu to pin him down. When the planets aligned, signaling the moment of the Harmonic Convergence, Wan permanently merged with Raava's spirit, creating the Avatar Spirit. With his new power, he managed to imprison Vaatu in a tree hollow and, after directing all of the spirits back to their world, closed the spirit portals so no human would be able to physically enter the Spirit World again and free Vaatu.

With the creation of the Avatar Spirit, the era of Raava came to an end and the era of the Avatar began.

Trivia

 * The inhabitants of air-bestowing lion turtle cities had similar tattoos as the later Air Nomads, only different in the fact that they did not end with arrows, but in a "t"-shape with a small blue dot.