Avatar relics


 * This article is about the method of discovering the Avatar. For the comic, see Relics.

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- You chose them from among thousands of toys, Aang. The toys you picked were the four Avatar relics. These items belonged to Avatars past. Your own past lives.



The Avatar Relics are four ancient toys used to identify the Avatar at a young age. The four toys represent the four Nations: a clay turtle symbolizes the Water Tribe; a pull-string propeller symbolizes the Air Nomads; a wooden monkey represents the Earth Kingdom; and the wooden hand drum represents the Fire Nation. These were once the toys of previous Avatars.

After the death of an Avatar, newly born children are asked to choose from thousands of toys, four of which are the relics. If the child chooses to play with only these four toys, it is a strong sign that he or she might be the reincarnated Avatar (the logic being that the real Avatar would subconsciously choose the four toys that were familiar).

History
Aang stated that he just chose them because they seemed fun, but Monk Tashi contradicted him by saying that he subconsciously chose them because they were familiar. Ordinarily when the identified child reached sixteen years of age, they were notified of their identity as the Avatar, and must depart to master the elements (the presumably first exception to this was Aang, who was told of his identity at twelve, due to rumors of an upcoming war).



It is unclear if this particular method of identifying the Avatar is unique to the Air Nomads, though it seems unlikely given this method is based off the sole real-world way a suspected reincarnation of Tulku Lama is recognized in Tibetan Buddhism. If this is the case then it is probable that the other nations use different artifacts as these particular relics were still in the possession of the Monks over a decade after Aang had been identified as the current Avatar.

It is unknown if the relics survived the War.