'Avatar: Seven Havens' Episode 9 Ending Explained: Everything We Learned About the Havens

Yet that’s exactly what Chancellor Kayoko (Jennifer Sun Bell) does at the end of episode 6 when she sends out an emergency radio transmission: “This is Ellora calling any and all Havens,” she says. “We need you.”

Her plea culminates in a two-part summit across episodes 8 and 9. That’s right: We finally meet survivors from other parts of the world.

The summit is initially intended to address the crisis consuming Ellora. Not only are Bender birth rates on the decline, but the fear-based Affliction is spreading thanks to the red Anomaly crystals growing beneath the city. The Bending Brigade can barely maintain order. But the visiting delegations reveal that some of Ellora’s problems are common. Benders are becoming scarce throughout the world, other Havens are struggling to produce enough food, and everyone seems to need resources their neighbors possess.

The gathering nearly produces a historic agreement after Jae (Major Curda) argues that the Havens can no longer survive independently. Unfortunately, the Faceless infiltrate the summit, and their true queen is revealed to be Agam (Sakina Jaffrey), the kindly baker who catered the event. Episode 9 ends with Nisha exposing herself as the Avatar, another Anomaly manifestation attacking the summit, and Chancellor Kayoko ordering the arrest of anyone who refuses to serve Ellora. The visiting Havens withdraw their support, Karthik is arrested, and Nisha escapes beyond the city walls.

Meanwhile, Pavi draws the Anomaly underground and enters a vision in which she walks along a road of light floating in a cosmic void. She finds a glowing red symbol shaped like Ellora and reaches inside it. The camera then pans upward to reveal six other colored circles of spiritual energy. Not only does this evoke similar cosmic journeys taken by Aang and Korra previously, but this all but confirms a popular theory that the Havens are representative of the seven chakras — perhaps of the planet itself.

The opening sequence represents the seven Havens as differently colored concentrations of energy, while the stage production from the series premiere portrays seven robed figures wearing colors that resemble the traditional chakra spectrum. Episode 9 makes the Ellora connection especially explicit by associating the city with a red symbol resembling the root chakra.

The precise relationship between the Havens and chakras remains unclear, as does the identity of two cities that did not attend the summit. But between the visitors, the new world map, and the Faceless’ plans, we finally have enough information to begin breaking down the titular Seven Havens. Consider these chakra associations theories for now, but Pavi's vision is a strong indication of what's to come.

1 Ellora is associated with the red root chakra

Ellora is the only Haven we can confidently associate with a specific chakra. Pavi’s vision in episode 9 sees her approach a symbol resembling the root chakra, which is traditionally associated with stability, survival, and a sense of security.

That description almost feels like a cruel joke in Ellora. The city is under constant threat from storms, its population is starving, its benders are being conscripted into the Bending Brigade, and its government responds to disorder with increasingly authoritarian measures. Chancellor Kayoko ends episode 9 by establishing a curfew and ordering the arrest of benders who refuse to serve.

The root chakra is also blocked by fear, according to Guru Pathik’s explanation in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Fear is precisely what powers the Anomaly and spreads the Affliction. If Ellora was built around the world’s root chakra, the city’s culture of fear may be spiritually poisoning the land beneath it.

Pavi’s vision indicates that Ellora is the red Haven on the new world map to the far southeast. Comparing the remaining coastlines to maps from Korra’s era places it somewhere in the former Earth Kingdom, possibly within the region identified as Zeizhou Province in the Kyoshi novels.

2 Feather Mountain represents the orange sacral chakra

Feather Mountain is represented at the summit by Empress Yesha, a powerful and beloved airbender. Her title and dramatic arrival suggest a more openly aristocratic culture than Ellora’s council-led government. Nisha is immediately fascinated by her, while Jae and Yesha develop a surprisingly charming rapport.

“Feather Mountain” suggests an elevated settlement with strong ties to airbending. On the world map, the orange Haven appears near the eastern coastline of the former Earth Kingdom, roughly east of the Si Wong Desert and Wan Shi Tong’s buried library. That would make Feather Mountain one of Ellora’s nearest neighbors, which helps explain why its delegation reached Ellora so quickly.

If the orange color is deliberate, Feather Mountain would correspond to the sacral chakra. That chakra is traditionally associated with emotion, creativity, pleasure, and personal freedom. Yesha does express that her people are compassionate and free to do as they please.

3 New Ba Sing Se is the yellow solar plexus chakra

New Ba Sing Se is the easiest Haven to place geographically; it was clearly built atop the former Earth Kingdom capital to the far northeast area of the continent. Nisha comments in episode 8 that its people follow “the old ways,” and their delegation travels to Ellora on sky bison. Their culture has seemingly rejected most of the pre-Cataclysm technology in favor of the customs and traditions that existed before even Aang’s time.

Ba Sing Se has always been a place where traditions become deeply entrenched, sometimes to the detriment of the people living there. As such, New Ba Sing Se likely responded to the Cataclysm by becoming even more conservative.

Yellow is traditionally associated with the solar plexus chakra, which governs willpower, confidence, and personal agency. During Aang’s training, Guru Pathik explained that it is blocked by shame.

4 Akasha is associated with the throat chakra

While New Ba Sing Se preserves ancient traditions and travels by sky bison, Akasha has embraced technology from the old world (Korra’s time period). Its delegates arrive at Ellora riding motorcycles.

“Akasha” is also a Sanskrit term referring to the sky, space, or aether — which is also the element of the throat chakra, whose color is generally represented as blue or light blue.

That indicates that Akasha is probably one of the blue Havens close to the center of the world map, possibly the Haven that’s closest to Ellora (hence why Karthik called them directly via radio). It may have been constructed near the ruins of Zaofu, Omashu, or another major technological center in the former Earth Kingdom. Zaofu makes the most sense. Under Suyin Beifong, it was already one of the world’s most technologically advanced cities during Korra’s lifetime. The city’s emphasis on metalbending, engineering, and infrastructure could have helped its survivors preserve technology after the Cataclysm.

The throat chakra governs truth and communication, which makes Akasha’s possible association with it particularly interesting. Communication between the Havens is tightly restricted, yet Akasha may possess some of the only technology capable of reconnecting them.

5 An unnamed Haven may stand near Hei Bai’s Forest

One of the two Havens absent from the summit is represented on the map by one of the blue-ish circles, possibly near what appears to be Hei Bai’s Forest. On the world map, they both appear blue — but in Pavi’s vision, one is clearly green and the other is blue.

Hei Bai was the forest spirit Aang encountered early in Avatar: The Last Airbender. After the Fire Nation burned part of his forest, Hei Bai became enraged and began terrorizing a nearby village. Aang ultimately calmed him by demonstrating that the forest would grow back.

Building a Haven near that location would carry enormous spiritual significance. It was one of the earliest places where Aang acted as the bridge between humans and spirits, and its history demonstrated how environmental destruction could corrupt an otherwise peaceful spirit. Does that make it the green heart chakra? In any case, a society built near an ancient spiritual forest could plausibly possess a deeper understanding of the Spirit World than the other Havens — and it could help explain why it’s one of the few Havens that did not answer the call for the summit.

6 The former Fire Nation probably houses a missing Haven

The last unidentified Haven is the only real outlier, positioned on the world map to the far west, in what’s probably the former Fire Nation or perhaps the Western Air Temple. The other six Havens are clustered within or near the former Earth Kingdom, while this one exists across the ocean. Unless it possesses functioning aircraft or advanced ships, attending Ellora’s summit on short notice may have been impossible. Like Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation capital had the infrastructure and sheer size to likely survive an apocalypse. The city itself was built in the caldera of a volcano.

The purple color — and its position as the sixth chakra in Pavi’s vision — makes this a strong candidate for the third eye chakra, associated with insight and blocked by illusion. It’s unclear exactly how much the Cataclysm reshaped the world, but it’s possible that the Fire Nation archipelago remains isolated and safer than some of the other Havens by default. This one, however, remains mostly a mystery.

7 Republic Forest is the isolated Haven at what once was Republic City

The biggest revelation from the summit may be the existence of Republic Forest, a “lost” Haven that cut off communication with the others long ago. Its reputation is apparently terrible: When its name comes up, one delegate immediately calls its people “the worst!”

The Faceless believe Republic Forest offers their best chance at freedom because rumors say that it doesn’t experience any of the dangerous storms that plague Ellora. Agam confesses that this is why the Faceless have been stealing grain, animals, and other supplies to prepare for an expedition across the Harshlands.

The pink or magenta Haven appears in approximately the same place as Republic City, near the northwestern coast of the former Earth Kingdom. Episode 7 provides our first direct glimpse of that disaster. Beneath Ellora, Pavi and Nisha discover an old industrial facility containing pools of liquid red spiritual energy. Contact with that energy transports them into a memory of an older Korra arriving in Republic City, which had constructed an enormous facility around its spirit portal.

Korra enters the Avatar State and tears apart pipes that appear to be transporting spiritual energy beneath the city. Fires erupt, vehicles crash, and uncontrolled energy whips through the metropolis — not unlike when Kuvira’s spirit cannon went haywire at the end of Legend of Korra book 4. We still don’t know why Korra attacks the facility, but her actions here might be what causes the Cataclysm.

If the Cataclysm originated at the Republic City portal, then it could essentially be the eye of a worldwide storm. “Republic Forest” also implies that the Spirit Wilds that began overtaking the city by Korra Book 3 have consumed the entire city over the last two centuries. In Pavi’s vision, pink is placed at the very top, making Republic Forest the potential end of their journey. Republic City’s portal once provided a direct connection between the material and Spirit Worlds, making the crown chakra — associated with cosmic and spiritual connection — a plausible fit.

For now, Republic Forest is the biggest wild card among the Havens. It may be humanity’s safest surviving settlement, a spiritual paradise, or something so dangerous that its people cut themselves off for everyone else’s protection. Pavi and Nisha’s journey probably ends there — but only after they fix various Anomalies at the other six Havens first, right?