Fog of Lost Souls

:This article is about the prison in the Spirit World. For other locations used for imprisonment, see Prisons (disambiguation).
The Fog of Lost Souls is a prison for humans located within the Spirit World. It is inhabited by a sentient fog spirit that can infect the minds of individuals, gradually driving them insane by imprisoning them in their own darkest memories.
== History ==
While Avatar Yangchen negotiated with the dark phoenix-eel spirits of Ma'inka Island, they made her see wandering shadows threaded in a weft of agony, groaning and suffering from self-inflicted wounds. She saw her sister Jetsun among those imprisoned there and almost refused to believe it, as she had seen Jetsun's body die in the physical world years before.
Some time after her administrative acquisition of Bin-Er, Yangchen meditated at the Spirit Oasis and physically transcended into the Spirit World, at which point she was able to locate the Fog itself, but not her sister within its depths. She was so overcome by the suffering of its prisoners that she was unable to escape, and was only returned to the physical world by the eventual intervention of Ayunerak and her former ally Kavik. At this point, the fog spirit demonstrated its ability to egress into the physical world, where it abused Yangchen's physical body before Kavik forced it to retreat. Yangchen later speculated that her unique closeness to her past lives, which endowed her with countless terrible memories, may have "glutted" the fog spirit and caused it to reject her.
Upon her pyrrhic victory over the Unanimity project, Yangchen made a second attempt to locate the fog by entering the Spirit World, bringing Kavik to guard her physical form while she was away from it. Deeming her a trespasser for the intention she showed, the Spirit World itself seemed to guide her there. Upon reaching its depths, she was surprised to come across a row of people peacefully sleeping. She followed the queue to a stone outcrop, upon which Jetsun was seated. Yangchen was overjoyed to find that her sister was immune to the spirit's effect. She further demonstrated the ability to soothe her fellow captives, guiding them to sleep. Jetsun noted, however, that the relief she provided was temporary, as the prisoners always roused eventually and wandered off again. She theorized that the prisoners within the fog, in some way, sought their own misery. Within the fog, Yangchen broke down over her perceived failures in handling Unanimity. Jetsun comforted her by comparing her situation to her own, explaining that she was unable to help all the souls in the fog, but that she would continue to help those within her reach.
Following the Siege of the North in 100 AG, La imprisoned Admiral Zhao in the Fog of Lost Souls as punishment for temporarily killing Tui. Eventually, Zhao was driven to insanity by his endless pursuit of Avatar Aang.
By the time Iroh assembled Legacy of the Fire Nation, he was aware of the prison and the lost souls within it.Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy of the Fire Nation, page 59.
Jinora was brought to the Fog of Lost Souls after being captured by Unalaq in 171 AG. Her imprisonment in the fog caused her connection to the physical world to weaken and prompted Tenzin, Bumi, and Kya to journey into the Spirit World in order to retrieve her spirit. After getting lost, Iroh arrived with a Knowledge Seeker to guide them out, but on learning of their reason for being there, he offered words of caution and a cryptic hint of where Jinora might be before vanishing. Tenzin quickly realized that Iroh was referring to the fog.
The three siblings managed to find the fog by antagonizing a dark spider spirit they had run-in with earlier, who brought them to the Fog of Lost Souls as a means of imprisoning them for eternity. After being dumped into the fog, Tenzin recalled the legends of the prison and urged his siblings to remain focused in order to prevent the spirit from weakening their resolve. After Kya inquired as to how long an individual could remain trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls, the three siblings stumbled upon Zhao, who mistook Tenzin for Aang. Bumi and Kya managed to fend off Zhao, the latter using her waterbending to put some distance between them and the deluded admiral, before they hastily fled the scene. Soon after, however, they started to slowly find themselves weakening and succumbing to the fog's effects.
Tenzin urged his siblings to remain focused, to no avail. Eventually, Bumi became paranoid that they were surrounded by cannibals and Kya refused to believe that she had any family, prompting the two to remove the cloth that fastened the three of them together and subsequently flee from Tenzin in opposite directions. Following this, Tenzin wandered aimlessly and recited he was the son of Aang over and over again in an attempt to remain calm, but found himself confronting his uncertainty of being able to live up to his father's name. Shortly after, a vision of Aang appeared, who urged Tenzin to stop emulating somebody else's life, in favor of shaping his own. Tenzin's moment of realization caused the fog to dissipate temporarily, allowing him enough time to gather Jinora, Kya, and Bumi and leave the Fog of Lost Souls and its other prisoners behind before the spirit appeared again.
Months later, Zaheer transported himself and Aiwei to this location and, holding the metalbender responsible for the Red Lotus' failure to kidnap Avatar Korra, threw him into the fog.
== Description ==
The Fog of Lost Souls is located deep in the Spirit World and settled in a canyon surrounded by sharp rock formations. It prevents a person's spirit from returning to their corporeal form, and humans that venture inside typically do not find their way out, remaining there even after their bodies had passed away.DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan; Dos Santos, Joaquim & Montgomery, Lauren (July 1, 2014). "Darkness Falls" commentary. Book Two: Spirits Blu-ray. The fog is impervious to bending, as it immediately recovered after Tenzin attempted to use airbending to clear the boundless area. The only known way to exit the Fog of Lost Souls is to clear one's mind and accept one's own fears, at which the fog spirit dissipates long enough to allow an individual to escape. Similarly, Jetsun, possessing profound inner peace, was immune to the fog's effects and even capable of sharing this peace with the other prisoners, which guided them to sleep.
As evidenced by Yangchen's experience, the fog spirit itself is both sentient and predatory enough to transcend into the physical world via the physical bodies of its prisoners. The fog is capable of infecting the minds of humans in the physical world as well as the Spirit World.
== Trivia ==
* By 124 AG, Avatar Aang knew about the Fog of Lost Souls, as he told Tenzin about it in his book.Avatar: The Last Airbender: Legacy, page 59.
== Known prisoners ==
* Aiwei
* Bumi (escaped)
* Jetsun
* Jinora (escaped)
* Kya (escaped)
* Tenzin (escaped)
* Zhao
* During the Era of Yangchen, several unnamed prisoners were noted in the fog, including a murderer in bloodstained nightclothes, a woman tearing her hair, and a doctor who had failed to save a significant patient.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Spirit World
de:Nebel der verlorenen Seelen
es:Niebla de las Almas Perdidas
fi:Kadonneiden sielujen sumu
fr:Brouillard des Âmes Perdues
pl:Mgła Zaginionych Dusz
ru:Туман потерянных душ
Category:A to Z
Category:Locations
Category:Prisons
Category:Spirit World