Tree of Souls

The Tree of Souls (Na'vi name: Vitraya Ramunong) is a giant willow-like tree that is said to be the closest connection to Eywa on Pandora. As pointed out by Miles Quaritch, the tree is a point of extreme spiritual significance to the Na'vi, more so than any other point on Pandora.

Location
The Tree of Souls is located on the ground of Pandora, amidst the floating Hallelujah Mountains on top of a large unobtanium deposit near the Hometree of the Omaticaya clan. The coordinates are 34°03'00"N, 118°14'00"W. After the destruction of Hometree, the Omaticaya were forced to make an exodus to the sacred tree on foot to protect their cultural identity.

The tree sits in a basin roughly 60 meters in diameter, shielded by an unusual formation of rock arches that give the impression of a shell encasing it, increasing its sense of security and protection. The tree is difficult to find due to its location right at the heart of Pandora's natural Flux Vortex.

The Tree of Souls, besides being a connection to Eywa, also works as a way for her to directly interact with the world through the seeds of the tree. The tree has the capability to connect directly to the human nervous system, despite humans lacking a queue. When Grace Augustine was fatally injured, Jake Sully brought her to the Omaticaya and they attempted to save her by using the Tree of Souls to connect to Grace's nervous system and permanently transfer her mind to her avatar body. Grace was too weak to make the transfer; instead, she became one with Eywa. At the end of the film, the Omaticaya successfully transfer Jake's mind into his avatar, making it his true body forever.

The destruction of the Tree of Souls would prove devastating to the Na'vi as a whole, creating a cultural and religious void that would decimate the race entirely. Miles Quaritch gathered this information from Sully's video logs, and based around it an attack strategy he formulated against the Na'vi.

The roots of the Tree of Souls are capable of initiating a neural link with the Na'vi, like with the Tree of Voices. This allows all of the Na'vi to unite as one.

Battle for the Tree of Souls
See also: Assault on the Tree of Souls Approximately a week after Jake Sully, Grace Augustine, and Norm Spellman escaped from the RDA prison facility, Miles Quaritch initiated a full-scale assault on the Na'vi race, the main objective being to annihilate the Tree of Souls in order to clear the Na'vi away from the corporation's unobtanium mining efforts. Quaritch knew that the Na'vi would not come within a large radius of the devastated Tree of Souls should it be destroyed.

Though Colonel Quaritch's forces managed to outgun, outfight, and eventually rout the numerically superior Na'vi forces, his plan eventually failed due to the massive intervention of Pandora's megafauna, compounded by lack of SecOps force coordination from the increasing intensity of the planet's Flux Vortex. The tree was not damaged during the battle, although the explosives meant for it reached within a kilometer of its resting place.

General
◾ In the script, the Tree of Souls is called Well of Souls, although this may refer to the basin in which the tree dwells.

Avatar: The Game
In the video game, control over the Tree of Souls is why the Na'vi and the RDA are fighting. Controlling it can allow one to control a large portion, if not the whole moon. Unlike in the movie, the RDA does not seek to simply blow up the Tree with high-grade explosives, but rather to use it as a conduit from which an operative can plant an aggressive psionic emulator machine nearby, and configure the machine to tap into the Tree of Souls's energies deep in the moon's core. This allows the RDA to tap into, and take control of, Eywa itself, effectively taking control of Pandora - a much more effective long-term strategy.

Trivia

 * To celebrate the release of Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray, an electronic version using fiber optic cables could be found in Hyde Park London from 24th to 26th April 2010. It had sensors to detect the movement of people walking around it and was able to change its color, move to music, and display messages uploaded from iPods or mobile phones. For every person who interacted with the tree, a real tree will be planted as part of the global campaign to plant one million trees.
 * The coordinates seen on Grace's display of the Tree of Souls point to 34°03'00"N, 118°14'00"W. On Earth, this is the location of the Los Angeles City Employment Office.