: also, Mazzarin was the greatest of the Avatara.
: He was not part of the Nine.
He founded the Nine. It was probably his tradition that there be nine Avatara at any given time.
: Here's my belief.
: All members of the Nine are Avatara, but not all Avatara
: are members of the Nine.
"The Nine" is what you call the Avatara, at least when there are nine of them. If there is a group called "The Nine" in existance at the point in history your story takes place, there cannot be an Avatara who is not one of their numbers.
Being an Avatara isn't like being a Berserk or something, a member of a race; it's like being "the Emperor" or "the King". There were a lot of people called "the Emperor", but only one of them at a time. Likewise, there are only nine Avatara at a time, but the nine that we know from the most recent times are not the only Nine that have ever been The Nine.
