Beginnings, Part 1.While being healed by the Fire Sages, Korra explores her past lives and experiences the journey of Wan, the first Avatar, who lived 10,000 years previous. At this time, humans lived on the shells of the giant lion turtles to protect themselves from the spirit wilds and other dangers from the spirit world that freely roam the physical world. Wan and his friends live in poverty and hunger, under the nepotistic family that rules his city. As a form of protection, the lion turtles grant the power to bend elements for a limited time when humans venture into the wilds. After Wan violates the prohibition against bringing his bending into the city in order to steal food for his friends, he is banished from the city, but allowed to keep his firebending. He manages to survive by befriending the spirits in the forest, but two years later, he sets out on a journey of exploration, where he eventually encounters two powerful spirits battling each other. One of the spirits asks Wan for assistance, when he is held down by the other, and Wan separates the two. While the spirit escapes, the other spirit, Raava, explains that she is the spirit of light and peace, and that the spirit Wan had inadvertently freed is Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and war; Wan has inadvertently initiated an age of darkness for the world.