: I didn't mean literal spirits--I meant that they were
: avatars in the same sense as you might say of a great
: patriot, "He embodies the very spirit of
: America." Okay, you might not say that. But
: someone might. :-)
: But almost all archmages seek this goal. The Avatara are
: only unique in that they seek it in order to secure a
: Light victory. In fact, they apparently spend less
: time moving toward this goal than other archmages,
: because of their day-to-day duties defending the
: light.
: --SiliconDream
I'm pretty sure the avatara are just normal humans with powerful magic--nothing inherently special about them. Nor do I think it's a political role, though obviously they rise pretty quickly in the political arena--I would, too, if I could walk into a presidential debate with three dispersal dreams. And I don't think there's anything especially "light" about the avatara, nor any link with Wyrd.
So why do I think this? The shades.
The shades were definitely not light when they were alive (well, maybe some were, but they changed, man)--they were tyrants and butchers--one was even fragged by his own troops. How were they rewarded for this behavior? With immortality. Okay, so it's not a particularly pleasant immortality, but then other than the kind the Heron Guard have, what is? Soulblighter cut off his own face for it, Myrdred seems to spend a lot of time on ice, etc. Which brings up the question--do all avatara become shades? Hmm... that would suggest Connacht was NOT an avatara (Balor still had plenty of skin).
Finally, I don't think "avatara" and "avatar" are the same thing at all. Bungie used all kinds of words and rarely with their original meanings. They wanted to suggest these guys were extremely powerful but the different spelling alone is enough to convince me a literal translation is probably wrong.
To wit, what I'm suggesting is that the Nine (with the possible exception of a Journeyman, seen in the intro to Myth:TFL) are avatara, but not all avatara are in the Nine. Maybe anyone who finds a new dream is automatically called an avatara--which would mean Shiver, the Deceiver, etc. all fit into that classification (but not SB, or, as far as I can tell, Connacht/Balor).
