Please note that this timeline has not been approved by Lightstorm Entertainment. It is based on analysis and inferencing, and some dates could be incorrect. However, Joshua Izzo did approve of a timeline online.
12M.A.: By this point, the Na'vi have evolved on Pandora. For the next 12 million years, the Na'vi experience few evolutionary changes or changes in population numbers.[1]
Sometime after the events of Toruk - The First Flight, Entu leaves the Omatikaya Clan and journeys to the Western Frontier to found the Sarentu Clan.
20th Century[]
In 1971, Dr. Seuss publishes The Lorax, a book which would be found in a school house on Pandora 183 years later.
21st Century[]
In the early 21st century, the Resources Development Administration (RDA) is formed in Silicon Valley, California when its two founders borrow money from friends and family to begin the company.[8]
In the early 21st century, the first maglev trains go into operation.[9]
By the middle of the century, the first combat exoskeletons are used.[11]
The RDA proposes a worldwide mass transit system.
The late 21st century is blighted by numerous conflicts. These were often short, bloody clashes against rogue governments and terrorist factions.
At some point between 2030 and 2057, the planet Crius (later known as Polyphemus) is discovered using a ground based telescope named COSTIN.[12]
At some point between 2050 and 2077, Pandora is discovered by human astronomers using a space telescope.[13]
2070[]
Around this time, the Rey'tanu Clan arrives in the highlands.
2077[]
The third craft is dropped from orbit.
Latest possible date for the launch of the craft bearing the ROVRs, the first landings on Pandora.
2084[]
The first mission on the surface of Pandora is established; two remotely operated ROVRs that are dropped from orbit by ISV Bradbury[14] A third follows soon after on the ISV Venture Star and travels across a sixty meter wide patch of rainforest, investigating plant and animal life.[15][16]
Early 22nd Century[]
Sometime prior to 2146, Miles Quaritch is involved in a conflict in Nigeria.[17]
Sometime during this century, the Pandoran Research Foundation is formed as a collaboration between the RDA and leading Earth scientists to find uses on Earth for Pandoran resources.[18]
2101[]
On June 21st, the OPS console (which would later be located outside the jail cell Jake, Grace and Norm were stuck in) was manufactured.[19]
Grace Augustine receives her avatar around this year.[28]
2138[]
Alma Cortez embraces a Sarentu child after the massacre.
Under duress, Mokasa gives up the location of the Sarentu clan to the RDA.
The Ambassador Program of the RDA abducts Na'vi children from the Sarentu clan with the intent of training them in human ways.[29] In doing so, Sec-Op solders wind up killing nearly every adult member of the clan, including Kataru. Kataru's children (The Sarentu and Aha'ri) are survivors, along with Nor, Teylan, Ri'nela and Rasi. John Mercer, Angela Harding and Alma Cortez all share responsibility for the tragic event.
The RDA members responsible for the massacre try to conceal it with chemical means, creating the yavä'. False reports are also forged.
Some members of the Kame'tire clan do not entirely trust Mokasa's claims over what happened to the Sarentu, and they move to the Spires, forming the Ke'awa Kame'tire led by Tsu'lo.
2140s[]
Sometime early in the 2140s, an accident during tectonic subduction exercises in a deep-sea trench induces a tremendous tsunami that engulfs a large section of the Pacific coast.[30]
Sometime between 2143 and 2148[31], a huge intra-continental war rocks the Earth. Jake Sully is deployed into active service in Venezuela with the Marines and is paralyzed by a spinal injury.
2142[]
Grace begins teaching Na'vi children at the school house.
Around or in this year, many children of the Omatikaya Clan and avatars fall ill with a mysterious disease and Mo'at and Grace figure out the cause and create a cure with the help of the Tawkami Clan made from the flower of syekalin.
May 19: at 17:09, Jake Sully and Norm Spellman (along with other personnel) arrive on Pandora and meet Grace; they are shown their avatar bodies for the first time and Jake records his first video log.[35]
May 20: At 8:00, Jake and Norm Spellman take their avatars out for the first time.[35]
May 21/22: After meditation at the Tree of Souls with Neytiri, Mo'at, and Eytukan, Tsu'tey takes his hunter trainees out for training, which spills into the following day. At 9:00, Trudy Chacón takes Grace, Jake, Norm and Lyle Wainfleet into Pandora's forests; Jake is chased by a thanator, he meets Neytiri who takes him to the Omatikaya clan. Tsu'tey and his trainees, who originally tried capturing Jake earlier in the night, express doubt about the elders' decision to let Jake stay, but Tsu'tey respects Eytukan's decision. Neytiri and Tsu'tey discuss matters at the Tree of Voices after Neytiri interrupts Tsu'tey during his attempt to commune with Sylwanin.[37]
May 22: Jake is told his mission: to remove the Omatikaya from their Hometree.[35]
May ?: In an evening, Dr. Max Patel sees Jake describing the Hometree to the marines. Presumably, he notifies Grace, who decides to move away from the base.[35]
May ?: On the next day, Trudy takes Grace, Jake, Norm and their avatars to the Hallelujah Mountains.[35]
May 30: At 21:32, Jake records his twelfth video log at Site 26.[35]
June[]
June 29: Jake records his 42nd video log at Site 26, around a month after the team arrived there.[35]
June or August ?: Jake persuades Mo'at to let Grace visit the village again.[35]
August[]
August ?: Jake kills a hexapede and becomes a taronyu (hunter).[35]
August ?: Ka'ani and Saeyla tame direhorses. After some discussion between Eytukan and Tsu'tey, it's decided that Jake, Ka'ani, and Saeyla should undergo the banshee taming right of passage the following day. Tsu'tey communes with the spirit of Sylwanin at the Tree of Voices.[38]
August ?: Jake tames a banshee and becomes an Ikran Makto along with Ka'ani and Saeyla. During the night at the Tree of Voices, Neytiri reveals to Tsu'tey that Grace has returned to the village.
August 13: Jake is threatened by a great leonopteryx. That night, Neytiri tells him about her grandfather's grandfather who was the fifth Toruk Makto.[35]
At 23:00, Jake starts showing doubts about who he is on his video log number 87.[35]
August 18: Jake is accepted as one of The People, Jake and Neytiri mate at the Tree of Voices.[35]
August 19: RDA Bulldozers level the Tree of Voices. After Jake damaged the cameras of one bulldozer, Quaritch leaves for Site 26 to take them back to the base. Jake, Grace and Norm are confined to Hell's Gate.[35]
The Omatikaya take revenge, attacking the bulldozers and escorts that destroyed the Tree of Voices.[33]
August 20:
The destruction of the Hometree on August 20th
RDA SecOps forces find the wreckage of the bulldozers, Parker Selfridge orders Hometree to be destroyed.[33]
Jake, Norm and Grace are put into custody, but at night, Trudy and Max help them escape. Grace is hit by Quaritch's shots; they all board Trudy's Samson 16 and leave.[35]
The rebels take a link shack from Site 26 to the Tree of Souls.[35]
August 21: At dawn, the Omatikaya arrive at the Tree of Souls. The link shack lands somewhere nearby.[35]
Jake tames a great leonopteryx.[35] After dropping onto the great leonopteryx and bonding with it, he persuades the creature to form a temporary partnership with him to protect Pandora, illustrating his point with mythological tales he and his brother enjoyed. Together, they confront an RDA soldier on a Scorpion Gunship before leaving to find the Omatikaya.[39] As Toruk Makto, Jake finds the Omatikaya at the Tree of Souls.[35]
At night, Grace succumbs to her wounds and dies.[35]
August 22: Jake and Neytiri gather 15 Na'vi clans (including the Omatikaya, Olangi, Tayrangi and Trr'ong clans).[35]
Max tells Jake that the base is mobilized for a preemptive attack.[35]
With the battle having gone in the Na'vi's favor, John Mercer orders the termination of all Na'vi students in The Ambassador Program. Their teacher Alma Cortez refuses, and instead puts the students into cryosleep.[29]
September 7: Ka'ani interferes with Katherine Hale's plans to establish a new mine for Hell's Gate. Arvok is coerced into a plan to kill Jake by his parents. Arvok challenges Jake to First Blood; Jake wins but is accidentally poisoned by Arvok with a knife his mother had laced with poison. Jake enters a coma.[40]
September 8: With help from Katherine Hale, Mo'at crafts an antidote for Jake and cures him. Artsut, Ateyo, and Arvok are banished from the Omatikaya clan.[40] Jake and Neytiri visit Jake's human body one more time.
By this point, it is known humanity faces extinction on Earth due to its severe environmental collapse. Due to Earth dying, the RDA has set eyes on making Pandora the new home for humanity.
The Na'vi begin coordinating and training themselves to fight the RDA in case they ever return to Pandora.[43]
So'lek meets the Tipani Clan, and Rimu, after searching for them for two years.[44]
2162[]
So'lek collects a cuirass crab shell and makes it into armor after a year and a half of training under Rimu.[45]
While Jake and Neytiri are on a date, the RDA is seen in the vicinity of outer space between Pandora between January 2168 and August 2168, although they have not landed yet.[46]
The RDA retakes Hell's Gate and by this point, the RDA begins retaking all of Pandora.
Jake and Neytiri witness the forest fire.
While Neytiri and Jake are in the forest, they witness and barely escape a forest fire. The first Landing Module disembarks.
The city of Bridgehead undergoes major development this year using AI and advanced 3D printing, while Jake has been leading the Resistance against the RDA.
So'lek encounters Alexander Tremayne while both of them are imprisoned. They escape and meet with Alma Cortez and join the Resistance.
After fifteen years of cryosleep, the students of The Ambassador Program wake up, emerging into a world where the RDA and Na'vi are at war. With the aid of the Resistance, the students set out on a journey to link with their heritage and explore Pandora.[29]
Months pass as the Sully family stays with the Metkayina clan, and Ronal's pregnancy progresses. The children learn how to freedive and about the marine life in the Eastern Sea.
Lo'ak befriends the tulkun Payakan after Aonung strands Lo'ak in the ocean.
It is strongly suggested The Way of Water has a final week of sorts, which begins about halfway throughout the film, since in a deleted scene, Ardmore is seen telling Quaritch she will give him a SeaDragon for only one week to search for Jake. Additionally, Ronal is heavily pregnant when she chastises Lo'ak for bonding with Payakan. From this point on, many condensed events occur in a short period of time:
Quaritch burns down a village belonging to the Ta'unui clan.
Ro'a is killed by Mick Scoresby and his whaling team and her calf dies shortly after.
On June 20th, a batch of emergency oxygen, which was on Pandora in 2154, expires.[51]
Near Future[]
After a six year trip back to Earth, the Pandoran Research Foundation starts the Avatar: Discover Pandora exhibition, with samples collected by Avatar Program scientists, to educate people on Earth about Pandora.[52] The exhibit is one of many PRF projects intended to teach Earth civilians about environmental concerns using Pandora as a point of comparison. Norm contributes to the exhibition and is featured in video recordings.
The Avatar Network is created to encourage unaffiliated experts and interested civilians to help contribute to the PRF knowledge base.
The PRF (having broken off from the RDA admist internal disillusionment) starts laying the groundwork for future eco-tourism on Pandora.
Humans begin mass programs and projects in an effort to restore Earth's biosphere as the extinction event becomes exponential for humanity; part of which is using the Amino Tank technology to revive extinct Terran species.
↑News presenter in 2148 says "The Bengal Tiger, extinct for over a century, is making a comeback." Heard in Jake's room in the Earth intro of Avatar: Extended Collector's Edition.
↑Pandora was discovered in 'the late 21st century' i.e. 2050 at the earliest, and Polyphemus two decades beforehand (in 2030 at the earliest), according to Avatar: The Game's Pandorapedia. The first landings on Pandora were in 2084, so allowing time for travel it was discovered in 2077 at the latest, providing us with a latest-possible discovery for Polyphemus in 2057.
↑Avatar: The Game Pandorapedia describes the discovery as taking place in 'the late 21st century; i.e. after 2050. 2077 is the latest possible date that the ROVR mission could have launched, considering it arrived in 2084.
↑MTV: James Cameron: "Because when we drop in, even in the first film in, as it will be known in the future, we're dropping into a process that's 35 years in to a whole colonization."
↑In Avatar Jake mentions it is his birthday in his final video log. Also, as he and Tom Sully were twins, they must have been born the same day and year.
↑The Avatar site mentions there are 13 years instead of 14 years between the final battle of Avatar and the Sky People returning. 2154 + 13 is 2167, but this is too low considering the "one year later" claim in The Way of Water since The Way of Water must also be set in 2170 provided the Tuktirey information. Because the final battle was set near the end of 2154, it can be rounded up to 2155 which makes both claims make sense, using the logic that a length such as "a year and 4 months" or even "a year and 7 months" can simply be rounded down to "one year later" for the convenience of storytelling. Additionally, Spider says the battle was 14 years ago during The High Ground, suggesting 2168 because 2168 - 14 = 2154, the year of the battle.
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