Spirit lights

"water"

- There used to be lights at the South as well, but during the Hundred Year War, the South was thrown out of balance and the lights disappeared.



Spirit lights are light displays in the sky covering both the North and South Poles. They are understood to be peaceful spirits dancing in and lighting up the sky when they are in balance, and serve as a reminder to the people of the Water Tribes of their connection to the spirits. If the physical world becomes out of balance with the Spirit World, as was the case in the Southern Water Tribe following the Hundred Year War, the connection with spirits is lost and the lights will not appear until balance is restored.

History
During the Hundred Year War, the Southern Water Tribe was devastated by constant raids instituted by the Fire Nation, leading to the near eradication of its waterbending culture and the loss of the tribe's spiritual traditions. The tribe was consequently thrown out of balance and the southern lights disappeared.

After the war ended, the Northern Water Tribe helped rebuild their sister tribe physically but failed to amend the spiritual unbalance in the South Pole, causing the Southern Water Tribe to continue down a path of spiritual decay, as seen by the distortion of the hallowed Glacier Spirits Festival. In the past, tribal elders used to commune with the spirits during the festival and watch the brilliant displays of light as the spirits danced in the sky. The people of the South have since turned the festival into a secular carnival, unrelated to its spiritual origins.



The Southerners' neglect of its spiritual customs caused the spirits to rampage in the South Pole, forming the Everstorm, rather than lighting up the sky, as they still did in the more spiritual Northern Water Tribe. By 171 ASC, the unbalance had evolved to the point that dark spirits roamed the South Sea and attacked several ships, abducting sailors and destroying vessels in the process. These attacks eventually prompted Chief Unalaq to intervene and journey to the Southern Water Tribe, where he informed Avatar Korra of a dormant spirit portal located at the center of the South Pole. Together with Desna and Eska, Tonraq, Mako, and Bolin, they traversed the frozen tundra in hopes of opening the portal prior to end of the winter solstice, as that was the only time the southern spirit portal could be opened by the Avatar.



After the group arrived at the center of the South Pole, Korra ventured inside the frozen forest located there, where she managed to overcome residing dark spirits and open the portal with a single touch imbued with cosmic energy provided by the Avatar State. When the portal opened, balance was instantly restored; the Everstorm ceased to rage, and the spirits flew out in a straight beam of light directly above the South Pole until they dispersed in the sky as waving streaks of green, glowing lights.

After Korra reconvened with the group outside the frozen forest, Unalaq told her that restoring the southern lights was the first step in bringing balance back to the South.

Trivia

 * The northern and southern lights are the World of Avatar's equivalent of the aurora borealis and aurora australis, respectively.
 * The Cree and the Inuit, two of the largest indigenous groups in North America, refer to the auroras as the "Dance of the Spirits", and believe that they serve as a reminder of the connection between living people and their deceased ancestors.
 * In 99 ASC, Iroh mistook the beam of light that resulted from Avatar Aang's release from the iceberg as the southern lights.