Sacred crystal orb



The sacred crystal orb was an important relic to the Gan Jin tribe. The Gan Jin and the Zhang tribes began a hundred-year feud over this orb as the Gan Jin believed that the Zhang stole the sacred orb during the Gan Jin's redemption ritual. The orb's whereabouts have been unknown ever since.

Gan Jin's version
The Gan Jin believed that a hundred years ago, one of their best warriors, Jin Wei, would carry out a yearly ritual where he would symbolize the sun rising in the east and setting in the west by carrying a sacred crystal orb from the Eastern Gate post of their tribe to the Western Gate. The Gan Jin said that during the process of this ritual when Jin Wei was approaching the West post, a man from the Zhang tribe, Wei Jin, knocked him down and stole the sacred orb.

Zhang's version
The Zhang tribe, on the other hand, believed that Wei Jin was traveling the country when he stumbled upon a fallen man from the Gan Jin tribe, Jin Wei. He tried to tend the man's wounds, but Jin Wei insisted that he would rather have him finish the ritual, carrying the orb to the West post, instead of caring for him. Wei Jin did what he was asked but as he approached the West post, he was arrested by other Gan Jin warriors for stealing the orb and sentenced to twenty years in prison without being thanked for his selfless deed.

These differing legends started the tribal feud between the Zhang and the Gan Jin, and neither may necessarily have been true. As different as these two stories might have been, the orb's whereabouts were indeed lost ever since. Curiously, the sacred orb contained the symbol of the Air Nomads, though this might have simply been a decorative spiral.

Aang's version


As it is the Avatar's duty to bring peace, Aang made an attempt to solve the feud between the Gan Jin and Zhang tribes, by bringing to their attention that they must have misconstrued the real tale; he tells in his story that Jin Wei and Wei Jin were really just twin brothers aged eight, and not two adult-aged members of opposing tribes. The "sacred crystal orb" was nothing more than a ball being used in a game the two boys were playing called "redemption". Jin Wei had the ball and was running toward one of the goals when he fumbled it. Wei Jin grabbed the loose ball and started toward the other goal when he stepped out of bounds. For that he was put in a penalty box for two short minutes. Aang described Wei Jin as a bit of a slob and Jin Wei as stuffy, most likely for the personalities of the two tribes.

However, after the two tribes left together peacefully, Aang admitted to Katara and Sokka that he made up the whole story about the "sacred ball."