7TH LEVEL OF HEL

Quote based analysis & theories of the Maasverse: TOG🗡️ ACOTAR🌹 CC🌙

[7thlevelofhel]

TIME & SPACE IN THE MAASVERSE

PREFACE

It started with a simple question…How did Aelin fall through worlds? It ended with a 26 page dissertation deep diving Bosonic String Theory, Einstein's Theory of Relativity, Wormholes and Black Hole Theory in an effort to reconcile how the three worlds of TOG, ACOTAR & CC - in addition to our other realms (ie Hel, Iphraxia etc.) – work and are connected.

Author’s Note: Most people will have no interest in this, but for the giant nerds (like me) out there who need to know how everything works and want to read my dissertation on how theoretical physics in our world can be applied to the world building of the Maasverse, enjoy. 

The full paper can be found here:

Don't want to read the full paper? Fair play. A condensed (albeit still quite long) abstract version is below. If you want more information on a specific section, there is a hyperlinked table of contents in the full paper so you can easily skip around. 

Warning: SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE MAASVERSE

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ABSTRACT 

String Theory as a Framework for the Maasverse

There are 3 main string theories, bosonic string theory: spacetime is 26-dimensional, superstring theory: spacetime is 10-dimensional, and in M-theory: spacetime is 11-dimensional. 

“When she first came here, she was obsessed with theories regarding the existence of different realms—different worlds. Living on top of each other without even knowing it. Whether there is merely one existence, our existence, or if it might be possible for worlds to overlap, occupying the same space but separated by time and a whole bunch of other things I can’t even begin to explain to you because I barely understand them myself....Some philosophers believe there are eleven worlds like that. And some believe there are as many as twenty-six, the last one being Time itself."

Bosonic String Theory is the one we will lean into given the evidence from the text, 26 dimensions with 1 being time. To reconcile with our observed universe, string theory utilises "compactification," where the extra dimensions are curled up into tiny, compact manifolds. When applied to a fantasy realm, where we do not need to reconcile the physics with the world around us, Bosonic String Theory could be used as a framework for hidden realms and/or other planes of existence. 

I hypothesise that SJM began working with the idea of Bosonic String Theory and the existence of a multi-verse in COM, published Aug 2013. These points are illustrated in COM when Baba Yellowlegs speaks to Celaena about the Wyrd: "The Wyrd governs and forms the foundation of this world. Not just Erilea, but all life. There are worlds that exist beyond your knowledge, worlds that lie on top of each other and don't know it. Right now, you could be standing on the bottom of someone else's ocean. The Wyrd keeps these realms apart." This quote points to the concept of compactification, further bolstering the argument that SJM is using principles from Bosonic String Theory to bridge the connections between her worlds. While the existence of multiple worlds is referenced and shown early on in the Maasverse – in TOG and COM, the physics behind how these worlds overlap begins to be fleshed out and integrated from ACOWAR forward. Aelin falling through worlds in KOA is the cornerstone of the connection between these realms and illustrates concepts of Bosonic String Theory principals. 

The Time Dimension

The flow of time in the Maasverse is vital to understanding the overlap between worlds. Many use Aelin’s fall through worlds to argue that these stories are happening concurrently, but I believe this is a false dichotomy that ignores the influence of the dimension of time on the Maasverse. We see other examples in fantasy and science fiction books of worlds being interconnected, but time does not flow at the same rate in each of these worlds – for example Narnia time, where years in Narnia are minutes in our world.

Newton vs. Einstein

Newton believed that time is absolute and flows uniformly. This is often described as an arrow moving in a straight line suggesting that time is a constant and universal entity, unaffected by events or motion within the universe. 

Einstein believed time was a flexible dimension that can be affected by gravity and speed, often likened to a river that can speed up, slow down, or even curve around massive objects. This is part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

I believe time in the Maasverse works on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. We see instances of time “slowing” and “warping” throughout the three worlds - specifically around the deaths of “true immortals.” 

The Gregorian Calendar

While we are dealing with different universes, realms and planets – all evidence in the text points to our 3 main worlds operating on the Gregorian Calendar that most of our world uses today; 365 days a year, 12 months to a year, 4 weeks to a month, 7 days to a week, 24 hours to a day etc. Confirming evidence is provided in the full paper.

Maasverse Intra-Dimensional Travel

Before we delve into travel between different dimensions, let’s talk about bending spacetime on a single plane of existence. 

Winnowing 

Is the ability to winnow the ability to world-walk? Looking at the descriptions of winnowing in the text, it appears that winnowing could be a precursor to world-walking and works on the same principles. Winnowing is folding the fabric of spacetime on the realm you currently inhabit. Winnowing is described in more science fiction terms in HOSAB, “Like a wormhole,” Hunt mused, wings rustling. Cormac waved a dismissive hand. “Wormhole, teleportation, yes. Whatever you want to call it.”

Teleportation, in a scientific context, refers to the transfer of information about a particle from one location to another without the particle itself traveling through the intervening space. A wormhole is a hypothetical shortcut or tunnel through spacetime, connecting two separate points in the universe and potentially allowing for rapid travel across vast distances. These structures are predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity and are often visualized as a tunnel through a folded sheet of paper. 

Let’s apply theoretical science to when Bryce is attempting to winnow in HOSAB: I am here. I want to go there. Her magic didn’t so much as budge. Two points in space. I’m folding a piece of paper, joining them. My power is the pencil that punctures through the paper, linking them— The shortest distance between two points is created by folding spacetime. To do this, we need to make holes in the spacetime graph, by making a wormhole. To create a wormhole, we need an element with negative mass – in this case the starborn power. 

Pocket Realms

In string theory, pocket dimensions are a theoretical region of spacetime within our universe that is self-contained and potentially has different physical properties. We see the use of pocket realms by Theia, Rhys and Feyre in the ACOTAR and CC worlds. They appear to operate under similar principles to theoretical pocket dimensions in String Theory.

Shortcuts

We are introduced to a number of caves that act as portals or “doors” between the courts as they allow for individuals to travel great distances over short periods of time. The caves appear to act as physical wormholes, created by some unknown magic. We don’t see a portal that moves people through spacetime across Midgard, but we do see the 7 Gates in Lunathion. These are set along ley lines (more on these later) and pre-technology allowed guards in the city to communicate with a kernel of a person’s power. The Gates are also where the portals to Hel open when Micah experiments with the Horn on Bryce’s back. 

Maasverse Inter-Dimensional Travel

Aelin Falling - A Tachyon

Bosonic String Theory predicts the existence of Tachyons. Tachyons are hypothetical particles that are proposed to always travel faster than the speed of light. They are considered theoretical and have not been observed and later string theories/physics disproves their existence. However, these tachyons, if they existed, could potentially allow for time travel. So while people much smarter than myself have disproved the theory of Tachyons existing in our physical reality and thus moved away from Bosonic String Theory, I postulate that the theoretical framework behind Tachyons is evidenced in the Maasverse in Aelin’s fall through worlds.

I theorise that Aelin herself is acting as a tachyon as she is falling through BOTH time AND space. She is moving faster than the speed of light through overlapping worlds, and breaking BOTH the dimensions of time AND space. She is “tumbling” and “flipping”, she is not falling in one direction, rather multiple as she is shooting through worlds and also the timeline. I like to think of Aelin a bit like a pinball in a pinball machine as she bounces around multiple dimensions. 

Bryce Falling - Traversable Wormholes

Wormholes are hypothetical tunnels through spacetime, connecting two distant points in the universe, potentially allowing for faster-than-light travel or time travel. They are based on solutions to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. While theoretically possible, scientists have no evidence of their existence in our universe. Traversable wormholes are theoretical tunnels through spacetime that could allow for human travel between distant locations, potentially even different universes. Traversable wormholes require a way to keep the "throat" open, often involving exotic matter with negative energy density. Even with exotic matter feeding the wormhole, wormholes in string theory can be unstable, meaning they might not exist for a long time. Back to the relativity of time, scientists believe that even if traversable wormholes exist, there might be significant time dilation effects, potentially making travel through them very different from travel in normal spacetime. 

Bryce’s fall is described very differently from Aelin’s fall, and she moves between two worlds, rather than travelling through multiple worlds. I believe Bryce is travelling in the magical equivalent of a traversable wormhole. Bryce is using both her “starborn” power and the Horn to open this wormhole. I think the horn and her power acts as the magical equivalent of our “exotic matter with negative energy density” that allows for a traversable wormhole to open or close as directed by the wielder.  

HOSAB, Bryce falls sideways: She fell, slowly and without end—and sideways. Not a plunge down, but a yank across.

Now let’s compare this to how Silene describes her travel from Midgard to Prythian. Silene is using the harp to move between worlds. The Horn is with her sister, but sounds as she travels through the “wormhole” back to Prythian.

HOFAS, Silene falls down and sideways: Silene fell and fell and fell, down and sideways.

Silene falls BOTH down AND sideways. I think this points to Silene falling through BOTH space AND time. If this is true, then Bryce’s sideways fall must be through space, which would confirm Prythian as being a different realm/world/plane of existence; not a past or future Midgard. The powers of the harp also support this argument – the Harp appears to be able to control BOTH time AND space. We will delve deeper into the powers behind the Horn and Harp in Objects of Power later in this section. 

Wayfarers & World-walkers

We see the terms “Wayfarer” and “World-walker” appear in all three of our worlds. Using the information we are given in the series, I propose the following definition for Wayfarer and World-Walker, which appear to be interchangeable terms. Wayfarer/World-Walker:  A being that can access power to open a pathway to travel between different worlds. 

The CC and TOG series imply that certain people or powers are key to the ability to World-walk. The “starborn” and “starlight” power appears to be tied to the ability to world-walk. When we look at how theoretical wormholes are created, exotic matter with negative energy density is needed to open the throat of the wormhole. I posit that the “starlight” power acts as the exotic matter, giving people with this power the ability to world-walk. People without this power rely on different modes of opening portals or wormholes – like Objects of Power – which will be explored in the next sections. 

It appears that Maeve also possessed the ability to World-walk, stating to Dorian in KOA: “I am a world-walker, ” Maeve said. “I have traveled between universes.” It does not appear that the Valg Kings possessed this same innate power. To follow Maeve, they used “Death-maidens” to rip 3 pieces from the Wyrdgate and give them the ability to open and close gates at will. The Asteri’s power as World-walkers is not necessarily a power possessed by all of them. Vesperus states: “Our brightest minds found ways to bend the fabric of worlds. To travel between them. Wayfarers, we called them. World-walkers.” She is referring to others as World-walkers, not herself. Rigelus’ necessity for Bryce and Bryce’s power also supports this notion.

Objects of Power

Throughout the three series we are introduced to objects that have the ability to alter and even control spacetime. We are going to break down how these objects function in the Maasverse and also draw parallels to scientific theories and principals from our known universe. 

In the TOG World:

The Wyrd: The Wyrd is the force that governs the universes. The Wyrd is String Theory

Wyrdgates: Wyrdgates are places in the Wyrd that allow for life to pass between universes. Wyrdgates are Transversible Wormholes.

Wyrdkeys: Wyrdkeys were three slivers of stone unbound from the Wyrdgate by “death-maidens” and used to control the Wyrgates and the Wyrd. Wyrdkeys are the exotic matter with negative energy density needed to create and control a wormhole.

Wyrdmarks: Wyrdmarks are the language of the universe that can be used to walk between realms. To wield this language you also need “power.” Wyrdmarks are mathematics or physics.

In the ACOTAR World: 

The Cauldron: The Cauldron appears to be an extension or a physical presence of the Wyrd.

In the ACOTAR/CC Worlds: 

The Dread Trove: The Dread Trove are 4 cauldron made items – The Mask, The Harp, The Crown & The Horn. The Dread Trove appears to have similar properties to those of the Wyrdkeys. It seems only someone “Made” or “Starborn” is able to wield the power of the Dread Trove safely. 

The Harp: The Harp was made by the Cauldron and allows the wielder to control both space and time. 

The Horn: The Horn was made by the Cauldron and allows the wielder to open and close portals.

In the CC World:

Black Salt (Obsidian): Black Salt is used to summon demons from Hel – essentially opening a portal for a demon to pass through. Black salt appears to work similarly to Wyrdstone.

Ley lines & Thin Places

CC introduces the concept of ley lines. The concept of “ley lines” appears to be taken from our own world. The concept of “ley lines” originated in the early 20th century and proposed that the alignments of ancient monuments, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks, were connected by invisible energy pathways, suggesting ancient civilizations intentionally built structures along these lines for various purposes. Please note: Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience. 

I believe ley lines in the Maasverse act to help enhance the power to world-walk, whether that power is through innate magic or through objects of power. More permanent gates/rifts between worlds will exist on ley lines, using the magic of the ley lines to help keep the path open – or working as the exotic matter that is feeding the wormhole, keeping the "throat" of the blackhole open. 

Closed Worlds

The major conflict in both TOG and CC series involve powerful beings who are stuck in a single realm, or “cut off from the cosmos.” They are using the main characters of the series to re-open and fix the “portals” to allow them to world-walk again.

Maps - Stars & Tattoos

The Asteri appear to use Star-maps to aid in their world-walking and exploration of other universes. Aelin’s tattoo of Wyrdmarks acts as a map home when she falls through worlds in KOA. It is highly speculated that Bryce’s tattoo is of Wyrdmarks. It is also speculated that her tattoo also works as a map, either to Prythian (the fae homeworld) or to Midgard (her world).

Cosmology in the Maasverse

In HOFAS, Vesperus says, “Oh, this planet will be long dead before eternity has ended. Its star will expand, and expand, and eventually devour everything in its path. Including this world.” In our universe, string theory offers a potential framework for addressing fundamental questions in cosmology, particularly those related to the very early universe and the origin of the cosmos.

Vesperus’ quote aligns with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Einstein's model predicted that either space would be expanding causing all the stars to move apart from one another as if from a gigantic explosion, or space would be contracting. This would cause all the stars to ultimately collapse upon one another. Astronomical observations have confirmed that our universe is in fact expanding. 

We are now going to explore the importance of cosmology in the greater Maasverse, which is shown through Stars, Black Holes and the concept of “The Void.” 

Stars in the Maasverse

In our universe, stars are luminous, spherical celestial bodies of hot gas, primarily hydrogen and helium, that produce energy through nuclear fusion in their cores. They form from massive clouds of gas and dust called nebulae and vary in size, temperature, and luminosity. Stars are the main components of galaxies, and their life cycles lead to diverse outcomes, including white dwarf stars or explosive supernovae, which create and disperse the elements for future stars.

The Asteri: Asteri is the greek word for “star” and the root word for Asteria, a Titan goddess associated with falling stars and nighttime. The Asteri in CC claim claim that their powers are from holy stars inside themselves. Bryce describes the Asteri as being "made of light." The 8 Asteri we meet all have names associated with stars in our universe. However, the Asteri need firstlight to fuel their existence, whereas true stars shine by radiation derived from their own internal energy sources.

Star Power: We don’t know exactly how this “star power” works, but throughout the series blinding white light – often compared to starlight is referenced and used to destroy immortal beings of immense power. In the section World Walkers & Wayfarers I theorised that the “starborn” and “starlight” power appears to be tied to the ability to world-walk and “starlight” acts as the exotic matter needed to create a blackhole, giving people with this power the ability to world-walk. 

Stars as Maps: We also see stars used for maps, both intra- and inter-dimensionally. The use of star-maps by the Asteri has already been mentioned in a previous section, but we also see stars and constellations used as maps in Elena’s Tomb (TOG) and the Harp’s chamber in the Prison (ACOTAR).

Black Holes and the concept of “The Void” 

Black holes are regions in space where an enormous amount of mass is packed into a tiny volume. This creates a gravitational pull so strong that not even light can escape. In our reality, black holes are formed when massive stars die and collapse in on themselves.

How to Create a Black Hole in the Maasverse:

Destroy the cauldron

Bryce creates a black hole or a “portal to nowhere” by uniting the Starsword and Truth Teller with her power of “Theia’s star.”

Firstlight core destruction

The “Void” as Both Creation and Destruction: In our known universe, the ultimate origin of the universe, especially beyond the Big Bang, remains a topic of ongoing scientific and philosophical debate, with the question of what was before time and space being a profound mystery. The universe likely did not come from philosophical "nothing," but rather from a state described as "almost nothing" by some theories, or a quantum fluctuation of a pre-existing state. The widely accepted Big Bang theory explains that the universe began from an extremely hot, dense "singularity" about 13.8 billion years ago, from which space, time, and matter emerged and expanded. 

Some physicists propose that our universe may have originated from a black hole in another universe. This idea suggests that the collapse of a massive black hole could lead to a "bounce" or explosion, initiating a new universe. We see the concept of the “Void” and true darkness throughout the Maasverse, especially tied to the creation of worlds. I theorise that the concept of the “Void” as the starting point for the Maasverse. I believe this concept acts as the “singularity” or “black hole” that all worlds in the Maasverse emerged from, as well as where all worlds will return. 

The Character of Apollion: In CC we are introduced to Apollion – The Prince of the Pit – who resides on level 7, the deepest level of Hel. He possesses the power of Helfire and the power of “The Void.” He is also called “Star-Eater” after he attacked the Asteri Sirius with Helfire and pulled her burning heart from her chest and ate it. I believe the power of “The Void” to be the power to control/create black holes. We could also theorise that “The Pit” is also a black hole. Appollion states in HOFAS,  “Do you not know where I come from? My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.”

The Cauldron also appears to be associated with coming from darkness. ACOSF: “In the beginning, and in the end, there was Darkness and nothing more. She had first heard that truth, understood it, during her battle with the Cauldron.” 

The Tapestry

Cosmology in the Maasverse focuses on starlight and the void. The tapestry Feyre purchases in ACOFAS that truly weaves (pun 100% intended) these ideas together. I believe the primary function of the tapestry is to be symbolic, with the Winter Solstice said in ACOFAS to be: “a time to reflect on the darkness – how it lets the light shine.” I believe the tapestry also serves a secondary function, and a subtle hint to String Theory. 

Aelin connects the use of Wyrdmarks to manipulating the threads of things in HOF: The music was a tapestry woven of light and dark and color, building delicate links in a chain that latched on to her heart and spread out into the world, binding her to it, connecting everything. She understood then. The Wyrdmarks were—were a way of harnessing those threads, of weaving and binding the essence of things. Magic could do the same, and from her power, from her imagination and will and core, she could create and shape.

A tapestry is a common metaphor for String Theory:

The Tapestry: Represents the entire universe, encompassing all matter, forces, and the fabric of spacetime. 

The Threads: Represent the fundamental strings or vibrating filaments that, according to string theory, are the most basic constituents of reality. These strings have different vibrational patterns, which are perceived as different particles and forces. 

Weaving: The process by which these vibrating strings are organized and connected to form the grand tapestry of the cosmos. String theory describes the rules for this weaving, unifying disparate forces like gravity and electromagnetism into a harmonious whole. 

CONCLUSION

The Maasverse is a tapestry – a unified, complex multi-verse where everything is connected, rather than a collection of independent worlds. Each series deals with powerful magical beings – Valg, Daglan, Asteri – who have learned to manipulate the strings of this tapestry to control space, time, and even reality itself. String Theory shows us that everything is interconnected, and I believe we will see a lot more cross universe cause and effect moving forward. 

[7thlevelofhel]

ARE LUNATHION'S LEYLINES WYRDMARKS?

WYRDMARKS

We are introduced to wyrdmarks in Throne of Glass. We are given the descriptions of some wyrdmarks in the text, and can reference these descriptions with wyrdmark images we are given on the Erilea map and wyrdmarks seen in the Throne of Glass section of www.sarahjmaas.com.

Countless Wyrdmarks were etched into their surface. They were in swirls and whorls, in lines and squares. The small Wyrdmarks made up larger ones, and the larger ones made up even larger ones, until it seemed the entire room meant something she couldn’t possibly understand. -TOG CH25

So far, she hadn’t learned much: according to one book, Wyrdmarks were an alphabet. Though, according to this book, no grammar existed with the Wyrdmarks: everything was just symbols that one had to string together. And they changed meaning depending on the marks around them. They were painfully difficult to draw; they required precise lengths. -TOG CH27

“We keep them a secret because of the terrible power that they wield. Terrible, in that it can be used for good or evil—though most have used their power for wicked deeds. Since the moment I arrived here, I was aware that someone was using the Wyrdmarks to call forth demons from the Otherworlds—realms beyond our realm.” -TOG CH51

“But the king cannot erase old spells made with older powers—like the Wyrdmarks. Those ancient spells still hold; especially ones that imbue life.” -COM CH6

He’d used the Wyrdkeys to suppress magic, but he must have some way of harnessing the innate power in someone’s blood—and the Wyrdmarks must be able to access that power, too. -COM CH47

The music was a tapestry woven of light and dark and color, building delicate links in a chain that latched on to her heart and spread out into the world, binding her to it, connecting everything. She understood then. The Wyrdmarks were—were a way of harnessing those threads, of weaving and binding the essence of things. Magic could do the same, and from her power, from her imagination and will and core, she could create and shape. -HOF CH41

LEYLINES

We are introduced to the concept of leylines in Crescent City. The concept of “ley lines” appears to be taken from our own world and originated in the early 20th century and proposed that the alignments of ancient monuments, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks, were connected by invisible energy pathways, suggesting ancient civilisations intentionally built structures along these lines for various purposes.

Please note: Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience. 

LUNATHION LEYLINES

“Look: all of them took place within steps of one of the major avenues. On top of the ley lines—natural channels for the firstlight to travel through the city.” “Highways of power,” Hunt said, his eyes shining. “They flow right through the Gates.” -HOEAB CH37

The Gates had been used as communication devices in the past—but the only reason words could pass between them was the power that connected them. They all sat atop linked ley lines. A veritable matrix of energy. The Gate wasn’t just a prism. It was a conduit. And she had the Horn in her very skin. Had proved it could close a portal to Hel. -HOEAB CH91

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #1 6 POINTED STAR

The quartz Gates across the city began to glow. Red, then orange, then gold, then white. Firstlight erupted from them. Lines of it speared out in every direction. The lights flowed down the ley lines between the Gates, connecting them along the main avenues. It formed a perfect, six-pointed star. The lines of light began to spread. Curving around the city walls. Cutting off the demons now aiming for the lands beyond. Light met light met light met light. Until the city was ringed with it. Until every street was glowing. And Bryce was still making the Drop. -HOEAB CH92

There was also the idea of the Wyrdgates, which appeared numerous times alongside the mention of Wyrdmarks, but she’d never heard of them. When she’d first stumbled across the notion of Wyrdgates, days ago, it had seemed interesting, and so she’d researched, digging through piles of old parchment, only to find more puzzling theories. -TOG CH27

The gates were both real and invisible things. Humans could not see them, but they could be summoned and accessed using the Wyrdmarks. They opened into other realms, some of them good, some of them bad. Things could come through from the other side and slither into Erilea. It was due to this that many of the strange and fell creatures of Erilea existed. -TOG CH27

WHY THE STAR OF DAVID DOESN’T WORK

While many have connected the Star of David - a six-pointed star formed by two overlapping equilateral triangles - the shape doesn’t follow the leylines in Lunathion. A Star of David connects 6 of the gates, but doesn’t connect the 7th and central Heart Gate to the others.

ALTERNATIVE 6 POINTED STAR

A unicursal hexagram does connect all 7 gates and follows the leylines in Lunathion. This six-pointed star that can be traced or drawn unicursally, in one continuous line “with no beginning and no end” rather than by two overlaid triangles. The hexagram can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it. It is often depicted in an interlaced form with the lines of the hexagram passing over and under one another to form a knot. A knot of leylines perhaps?

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #2

It was just a triangle inside of a circle. “Can you read these marks?” she asked. A Wyrdmark … how strange! -TOG CH23

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #3

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #4

LUNATHION LEYLINES AS WYRDMARKS

Was the city of Lunathion chosen for not just the leylines, but for the wyrdmarks the leylines create?

“This doesn’t offer more than what we already know about the usual sort of earth magic the Fae possess, but it does mention that those with earth magic were sent ahead to scout lands, to sense where to build. Not only the best geographical locations, but magical ones, too. They could sense the ley lines—the channels of energy running throughout the land, throughout Midgard. They told the Asteri to build their cities where several of the lines met, at natural crossroads of power, and picked those places for the Fae to settle, too. But they selected Avallen just for the Fae. To be their personal, eternal stronghold.” Ruhn considered. “Okay, so if Flynn and Sathia say this place is dead and rotting …” “It doesn’t line up with the claims recorded here about Avallen.” “But why would the ancient Fae lie about there being leylines here?” “I don’t think they lied,” Lidia said, and pointed to the maps on the other table, where Dec had discarded them. “I think the Avallen they first visited, with all those ley lines and magic … I think it existed. But then something changed.” -HOFAS CH54

“These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop. “There are ley lines across the whole of the universe. And the planets—like Midgard, like Hel, like the home world of the Fae—atop those lines are joined by time and space and the Void itself. It thins the veils separating us. The Asteri have long chosen worlds that are on the ley lines for that exact purpose. It made it easier to move between them, to colonize those planets. There are certain places on each of these worlds where the most ley lines overlap, and thus the barrier between worlds is at its weakest.” -HOFAS CH60

“The mists are a result of the ley lines’ power,” Aidas said. “They’re an indication of a thin place. Hoping to find a ley line strong enough to help her transfer and hide Theia’s power, Helena sent a fleet of Fae with earth magic to scour every misty place they could find on Midgard. When they told her of a place wreathed in mists so thick they could not pierce them, Helena went to investigate. The mists parted for her—as if they had been waiting. She found the small network of caves on Avallen … and the black salt beneath the surface.” -HOFAS CH60

[7thlevelofhel]

TAMLIN'S RED FLAGS IN ACOTAR (BOOK 1)

Tamlin hater with the data to back it up. Tamlin's red flags have been there since A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Claw Watch 🐾

Tamlin's claws are a direct representation of his anger and his inability to control his anger.

Tamlin’s face was like stone—like stone, save for the white-knuckled grip on the arms of his throne. No claws. He was able to keep that sign of his temper at bay, at least. - ACOTAR CH39

Claws cause harm

Tamlin’s claws embedded in the arms of his chair. -ACOTAR CH7

Metal groaned as Tamlin’s claws punched out, obliterating the fork. -ACOTAR CH10

Tamlin’s claws poked through my layers of clothing as I looked up at him in unabashed terror. -ACOTAR CH11

Tamlin flinched as his claws shot out, slicing his face. But the wounds closed as soon as they opened, leaving only a smear of blood running down his golden skin—which he wiped away with the back of his sleeve. -ACOTAR CH16

“Let go,” I said as evenly as I could, but his claws punched out, imbedding in the wood above my hands. -ACOTAR CH21

Claws come out

But I looked pointedly at his hands, at the razor-sharp tips of those long, curved claws poking through his tanned skin. -ACOTAR CH7

Tamlin was lounging in his usual seat, a long claw out and circling his goblet. It paused on the lip as soon as I entered, Lucien on my heels. -ACOTAR CH10

Not as he opened his mouth and I glimpsed fangs—long, throat-tearing fangs shining in the moonlight. He stared me down, and the fangs slowly retracted. The claws remained. -ACOTAR CH11

Despite the stillness with which he stood, his claws poked out from above his knuckles. -ACOTAR CH24

Claws below the surface

Tamlin clenched his hands into fists, as if fighting against the claws itching to burst out. -ACOTAR CH9

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he growled, but his claws stayed retracted, even as he clenched his hands into fists at his sides. -ACOTAR CH13

He flexed his hands, as if imagining the claws beneath. -ACOTAR CH19

He clenched and loosened his fingers, again and again, as if trying to keep the claws contained. -ACOTAR CH19

The claws stayed retracted but pushed against the skin above his knuckles. My throat closed up. Oh, he was mad—furious at my foolishness for leaving my room—but somehow managed to keep his anger on a tight, tight leash. “So, if Feyre can’t be bothered to listen to orders, then I can’t be held accountable for the consequences.”-ACOTAR CH22

Red Flag Distribution 🚩

Tamlin's anger turns physical

Tamlin’s claws embedded in the arms of his chair. -ACOTAR CH7

Metal groaned as Tamlin’s claws punched out, obliterating the fork. -ACOTAR CH10

Tamlin flinched as his claws shot out, slicing his face. But the wounds closed as soon as they opened, leaving only a smear of blood running down his golden skin—which he wiped away with the back of his sleeve. -ACOTAR CH16

It was even more of an effort not to recall the roaring that rattled the chandelier or the cracking of shattering furniture that echoed through the house.The house had been quiet for some time now, but the ripples of Tamlin’s rage echoed through it, reverberating in the wood and stone and glass. -ACOTAR CH27

I couldn’t tell if the damage was from his lashing out after Rhysand’s arrival the day before my departure or if someone else had caused it. -ACOTAR CH32

Tamlin uses magic to force compliance

Had I been held in an enchanted sleep for that long? Bastard. -ACOTAR CH5

I shot to my feet, wisdom be damned, and was about to kick back my chair when invisible hands clapped on my arms and shoved me back into the seat. -ACOTAR CH7

I went still as the tang of magic seared my nose. I tried to twist in the chair, testing the invisible bonds. But my arms were secured, and my back was pressed into the wood so hard that it ached. -ACOTAR CH7

Because Tamlin knew I would have locked myself in this room and never come out if I’d seen them all for their true selves. -ACOTAR CH24

Tamlin uses threats to force compliance

“Let me make this clear for you, girl: you can either come live at my home in Prythian—offer your life for the wolf’s in that way—or you can walk outside right now and be shredded to ribbons. Your choice.” -ACOTAR CH4

“He prefers being alone. And having the Bogge on our lands … I don’t suppose you’d understand. The puca are minor enough not to bother him, but even after he’s shredded the Bogge, he’ll brood over it.” “And there’s no one who can help him at all?” “He would probably shred them for disobeying his order to stay away.”A brush of ice slithered across my nape. “He would be that brutal?” Lucien studied the wine in his goblet. “You don’t hold on to power by being everyone’s friend. And among the faeries, lesser and High Fae alike, a firm hand is needed." -ACOTAR CH11

“Don’t ever disobey me again,” he said, his voice a deep purr that ricocheted through me, awakening everything and lulling it into complicity. -ACOTAR CH21

“If you spot one,” Tamlin continued, “even if it looks harmless but makes you feel uncomfortable, pretend you don’t see it. Don’t talk to it. If it hurts you, I … the results wouldn’t be pleasant for it, or for me. You remember what happened with the naga.” This was for my own safety, not his amusement. He didn’t want me hurt—he didn’t want to punish them for hurting me. -ACOTAR CH24

A snarl. “If they have a problem with it, they can tell me.” And wind up in ribbons. -ACOTAR CH27

Feyre fears Tamlin's anger / reaction

I tried not to tremble at the contained fury, at how his canines seemed to lengthen as he said, “Where in the forest?” -ACOTAR CH10

Tamlin’s claws poked through my layers of clothing as I looked up at him in unabashed terror. -ACOTAR CH11

Tamlin let out another roar that made the marrow of my bones go cold and revealed those lengthened canines. -ACOTAR CH15

He walked to the door but lingered, even as pure night wafted off his shoulders. “Unless this lack of gratitude and appreciation is because you fear a certain High Lord’s reaction.” Tamlin. I could already see his face going pale, his lips becoming thin as the claws came out. I could almost hear the growl he’d emit when he asked me what I had been thinking. -ACOTAR CH37

Tamlin needs a course on consent

“Let go,” I said as evenly as I could, but his claws punched out, imbedding in the wood above my hands. Still riding the magic, he was half-wild. -ACOTAR CH21

The claws stayed retracted but pushed against the skin above his knuckles. My throat closed up. Oh, he was mad—furious at my foolishness for leaving my room—but somehow managed to keep his anger on a tight, tight leash. “So, if Feyre can’t be bothered to listen to orders, then I can’t be held accountable for the consequences.” -ACOTAR CH22

“If we keep going, I won’t be able to stop at all.” -ACOTAR CH27

Tamlin does nothing

His eyes didn’t widen; his mouth didn’t tighten. No claws, no fangs. He just stared at me, unfeeling—unmoved. Unimpressed. -ACOTAR CH34

He said nothing, his face impassive. What had she done? He didn’t move—her curse had worked, then. -ACOTAR CH34

She clapped her hands, and Tamlin merely looked away from her, the only reaction I’d seen from him. I looked at the face I loved so dearly, and his next words almost sent me to my knees. “I’ve never seen her before. Someone must have glamoured her as a joke. Probably Rhysand.” -ACOTAR CH34

Tamlin still looked at me without recognition, without a flicker of feeling. Perhaps she had used that same power to glamour him; perhaps she’d taken all his memories. -ACOTAR CH34

He didn’t reply; he didn’t even meet my gaze. -ACOTAR CH35

Why did Tamlin do nothing, say nothing? What had Lucien been about to say before he’d fled my cell? -ACOTAR CH35

I ground my teeth and almost exposed them to her. Tamlin’s face remained blank. -ACOTAR Ch36

Tamlin’s face was like stone—like stone, save for the white-knuckled grip on the arms of his throne. No claws. He was able to keep that sign of his temper at bay, at least. -ACOTAR CH39

Beside her, Tamlin remained utterly impassive. A beast without claws. -ACOTAR CH39

Rhysand flicked his eyes to me—a silent command to stay at the edge of the crowd. I obeyed, and when I lifted my attention to Tamlin, waiting for him to look—just look at me—he did not, his focus wholly on the queen, on the male before her. Point taken. -ACOTAR CH39

Kill her now, I wanted to bark at Tamlin, but he didn’t move as he pushed his hand against his wound, blood dribbling out. Too slowly—he was healing too slowly. The mask didn’t fall off. Kill her now. -ACOTAR CH44

“Amarantha, stop this,” Tamlin begged at her feet as he clutched the gaping wound in his chest. “Stop. I’m sorry—I’m sorry for what I said about Clythia all those years ago. Please.”-ACOTAR Ch44

“Amarantha, please,” Tamlin moaned, his blood spilling onto the floor. “I’ll do anything.” -ACOTAR CH44

[7thlevelofhel]

ANALYSING THE OUROBOROS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR CYCLICAL TIME IN THE MAASVERSE

PREFACE 

I’ve been thinking a lot about cyclical timelines in the Maasverse recently. There is a lot of discourse that TOG is “before” ACOTAR and CC chronologically, but if the timeline is a circle, there is no before and after or everything is before and after - it’s a glass half full/empty quandary, but let’s stay off the philosophy for the moment and look at the clues that could support a cyclical timeline and what this could predict going forward in the Maasverse. 

What is an ouroboros? 

An ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent (sometimes a dragon) devouring its own tail. When applied to time, the serpent's circular form embodies the unending flow and return of time, contrasting with linear progression.

The Ouroboros Mirror

In ACOWAR we are introduced to the Ouroboros mirror. The mirror was once owned by Stryga and is described as a “window to the world.” It was in possession of Keir’s family and kept in a chamber that let snow and moonlight in near the uppermost peak of the Hewn City. Feyre claims to mirror by looking into it and facing who she truly is at the behest of the Bone Carver. 

“My sister had a collection of mirrors in her black castle,” the Carver said. … “She admired herself day and night in those mirrors, gloating over her youth and beauty. There was one mirror—the Ouroboros, she called it. It was old even when we were young. A window to the world. All could be seen, all could be told through its dark surface. Keir possesses it—an heirloom of his household. Bring it to me. That is my price. The Ouroboros, and I am yours to wield. If you can find a way to free me.” -ACOWAR Ch. 23

Keir rose to his feet, smirking like a cat with a canary in its mouth. “To take the Ouroboros, to claim it, you must first look into it.” He headed for the doors, not waiting to be dismissed. “And everyone who has attempted to do so has either gone mad or been broken beyond repair. Even a High Lord or two, if legend is true.” A shrug. “So it is yours, if you dare to face it.” Keir paused at the threshold as the doors opened on a phantom wind. He said to Rhys, perhaps the closest he’d come to asking for permission to leave, “Lord Thanatos is having … difficulties with his daughter again. He requires my assistance.” -ACOWAR Ch. 26

And when I wasn’t doing that … I was combing through more books, any and all Clotho could find me, all regarding the Ouroboros. How to master it. The mirror was notorious. Every known philosopher had ruminated on it. Some had dared face it—and gone mad. Some had approached—and run away in terror. I could not find an account of anyone who had mastered it. Faced what lurked within and walked away with the mirror in their possession. Save for the Weaver in the Wood—who certainly seemed insane enough, perhaps thanks to the mirror she’d so dearly loved. Or perhaps whatever evil lurked in her had tainted the mirror, too. Some of the philosophers had suggested as much, though they hadn’t known her name—only that a dark queen had once possessed it, cherished it. Spied on the world with it—and used it to hunt down beautiful young maidens to keep her eternally young. I supposed Keir’s family owning the Ouroboros for millennia suggested the success rate of walking away was low. It was not heartening. Not when all the texts agreed on one thing: there was no way around it. No loophole.  -ACOWAR Ch. 29

There was a winding stair, deep within the mountain. It led to only one place: a chamber near the uppermost peak. I had learned as much from my research.I stood at the base of that stairwell, peering up into the impenetrable gloom, my breath clouding in front of me. A thousand stairs. That was how many steps stood between me and the Ouroboros. The Mirror of Beginnings and Endings. -ACOWAR Ch. 67

I did not expect the snow. Or the moonlight. The chamber must have lain beneath the palace of moonstone—shafts in the rough rock leading outside, welcoming in snowdrifts and moonlight. I gritted my teeth against the bitter cold, the wind howling through the cracks like wolves raging along the mountainside beyond. The snow glittered over the walls and floor, slithering over my boots with the wind gusts. Moonlight peered in, bright enough that I vanished my ball of faelight, bathing the entire chamber in blues and silvers. And there, against the far wall of the chamber, snow crusting its surface, its bronze casing … The Ouroboros. It was a massive, round disc—as tall as I was. Taller. And the metal around it had been fashioned after a massive serpent, the mirror held within its coils as it devoured its own tail. Ending and beginning. From across the room, with the snow … I could not see it. What lay within. I forced myself to take a step forward. Another. The mirror itself was black as night—yet … wholly clear. I watched myself approach. Watched the arm I had upraised against the wind and snow, the pinched expression on my face. The exhaustion. I stopped three feet away. I did not dare touch it. It only showed me myself. Nothing. I scanned the mirror for any signs of … something to push or touch with my magic. But there was only the devouring head of the serpent, its maw open wide, frost sparkling on its fangs. -ACOWAR Ch. 68

I did not know how long had passed. Time—it had been different inside the mirror. -ACOWAR Ch. 68

HISTORY OF THE OUROBOROS

The ouroboros is seen across many cultures and historical time periods. Here is an overview of cultures where we see the ouroboros and the context for the symbol in culture. There are annotations connecting this history to themes and characters from the Maasverse that will be expanded on further. 

An ancient Egyptian funerary text found in the tomb of Tutankhamun (14th Century BCE) depicted the ouroboros twice, in connection to the union of Osiris and Ra. This depiction of the ouroboros represents the beginning and the end of time, life and death, as well as day and night. 

The Union of Osiris and Ra: Ra – the ancient Egyptian sun god, considered the creator of all life and the king of the gods – travels to the Underworld and merges with Osiris – god of the afterlife, the dead, and fertility. This union ensured the continuity of the cosmic cycle of day and night, and the afterlife for deceased individuals.  

Elsewhere in Egyptian history, the ouroboros represents the formless disorder that surrounds the orderly world and is involved in that world's periodic renewal.

The ancient Egyptians understood time as a series of repetitive cycles, instead of something linear. 

Cosmic Cycles:

We see the idea of Cosmic Cycles across the plot of all three series, with all three wars fought being reiterations and continuations of the past.

Cain’s attention was on Celaena as he said, “You were brought here—all of you were. All the players in the unfinished game. My friends,” he gestured to the dead, “have told me so.” -Cain, TOG Ch. 49

“Only once before was a human Made into an immortal. Interesting that it should happen again right as all the ancient players have returned.” -Amren, ACOMAF Ch. 16

“It is the same war we fought fifteen thousand years ago, only renewed. The same war you fought, Hunt Athalar, in a different form. But the time is ripe again to make a push.” -Rigelus (pretending to be Aidas as a cat) HOSAB Ch. 15

The Union of Osiris and Ra:

The union of Osiris and Ra is reminiscent of the mating bond of  Theia (starlight) and Aidas (Prince of Hel). Their union was cut short, which directly resulted in Apollion (Prince of Hel) uniting - and by that I mean eating - Sirius (an Asteri). 

“Why do you think I slew Pelias? Why do you think I went on to devour Sirius? All for him.” -Apollion, HOSAB Ch. 62

Lidia and Ruhn similarly symbolise the cosmic cycle with their codenames and representations of Day and Night. 

Did you just give me a code name? Night and Daybright. Night and Day—he liked that. -Ruhn, HOSAB Ch. 22

Ancient Greece

The name comes from the Greek words "oura" (tail) and "boros" (eating), meaning "tail-devourer.”

The Ancient Greek philosopher Plato believed the ouroboros was the symbol of the ultimate perfect being, it needed nothing but itself to survive because everything in existence resided within it and it fed on itself. The ouroboros is the creator and destroyer all in one being. 

Creator and Destroyer - The Void:

Across the Maasverse, the Void appears to be associated with both creation and destruction.

 “Do you not know where I come from? My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.” - Apollion, HOSAB Ch. 21 

It began with a cauldron. A mighty black cauldron held by glowing, slender female hands in a starry, endless night. Those hands tipped it over, golden sparkling liquid pouring out over the lip. No—not sparkling, but … effervescent with small symbols, perhaps of some ancient faerie language. Whatever was written there, whatever it was, the contents of the cauldron were dumped into the void below, pooling on the earth to form our world … -ACOTAR

There was night, and there was the darkness of extinguishing a candle, and then there was this. Not only the true absence of light, but … a womb. The womb from which all life had come and would return, neither good nor evil, only dark, dark, dark. -ACOSF

Antithesis - Made and Unmade, Creation and Destruction:

 Not healers to us, but executioners. Death-maidens. Capable of healing—but also unhealing. Unbinding the very fabric of life. Of worlds. -Erawan, KOA

The power of creation and destruction. That’s what lay within her. Life-Giver. -Yrene, KOA

The Starsword is Made, as you called it. (...) The knife can Unmake things. Made and Unmade. Matter and antimatter. With the right influx of power - a command from the one destined to wield them - they can be merged. And they can create a place where no life, no light exists. A place that is nothing. Nowhere. -HOFAS Ch. 36

“Starfire’s ability to destroy is but one facet of a wonderous gift. The greatest difference, of course, lies in how the bearer chooses to use it.” -Aidas, HOFAS Ch. 53

Gnosticism

“Life is a beautiful ring of growth and decay,” the Under-King said, the words echoing through the Sleeping City around them. “No part left to waste. What we receive upon birth, we give back in death. What is granted to you mortals in the Eternal Lands is merely another step in the cycle. A waypoint along your journey toward the Void.” - The Underking, HOSAB Ch. 29 

Alchemy

The early alchemical text, The Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, probably originally dating to the 3rd century Alexandria, features an oroborus enclosing the words, "the all is one". Its black and white halves may perhaps represent a Gnostic duality of existence, analogous to the Taoist yin and yang symbol. 

The chrysopoeia ouroboros of Cleopatra the Alchemist is one of the oldest images of the ouroboros to be linked with the legendary opus of the alchemists, the philosopher's stone. 

The philosopher's stone is a mythic alchemical substance capable of transmutating base metals such as lead and mercury into gold or silver. Alchemists additionally believed that it could be used to make an elixir of life which made possible rejuvenation and immortality.

In the beginning And in the end There was Darkness And nothing more. She did not feel the cold as she sank into a sea that had no bottom, no horizon, no surface. But she felt the burning. Immortality was not a serene youth. It was fire. It was molten ore poured into her veins, boiling her human blood until it was nothing but steam, forging her brittle bones until they were fresh steel. And when she opened her mouth to scream, when the pain ripped her very self in two, there was no sound. There was nothing in this place but darkness and agony and power— They would pay. All of them. Starting with this Cauldron. Starting now. She tore into the darkness with talons and teeth. Rent and cleaved and shredded. And the dark eternity around her shuddered. Bucked. Thrashed. She laughed as it recoiled. Laughed around the mouthful of raw power she ripped out and swallowed whole; laughed at the fistfuls of eternity she shoved into her heart, her veins. The Cauldron struggled like a bird under a cat’s paw. She refused to relent. Everything it had stolen from her, from Elain, she would take from it. Wrapped in black eternity, Nesta and the Cauldron twined, burning through the darkness like a newborn star. -ACOSF, Prologue

The ouroboros was a symbol for the Roman god Saturn, who was believed to rule over time and the changing seasons. His rule was seen as an endless, circular process that connected one year to the next.

The ouroborus also represented infinity, the idea that there is no true beginning or end.

The ouroboros was often used on magical talismans during the Roman era. 

ACOTAR Seasonal Courts:

In ACOTAR, the seasonal courts appear to be in direct juxtaposition to the ouroborus. 

No Beginning and No End:

We see things described as having “no beginning and no end” throughout the Maasverse around concepts of love, darkness and power.

There was no end to the darkness in that ravine. No end, and no beginning, either. -Celaena, COM Ch. 20

The darkness had no end and no beginning. It was the abyss that had haunted her steps for ten years, and she free-fell into it, welcomed it. There was no sound, only the vague sense of going toward a bottom that might not exist, or that might mean her true end. -Aelin, HOF

Darkness flowed through me, soft and seductive, echoing up from an abyss of power so great it had no end and no beginning. -Feyre seeing through Rhys’ eyes, ACOMAF Ch. 28

His power filled the throne room, the castle, the mountain. The world. It had no end and no beginning.  -Feyre on Rhys’ power, ACOMAF Ch. 42

I was the Book and the Cauldron and sound and silence. I was a living river through which one flowed into the other, eddying and ebbing, over and over, a tide with no end or beginning. -Feyre, ACOMAF Ch. 62

Hunt sat in a simple folding chair at the bottom of an abyss, nothing but blackness around him, the only light coming from the faint glow cast by his body. There was no beginning or end to the perpetual night. -HOSAB, Ch. 21

Jörmungandr, or the World Serpent or Midgard Serpent is a monstrous sea serpent in Norse mythology that encircles the Earth. One of the three offspring of Loki and the giantess Angrboða – their other offspring include Fenrir, the massive wolf and Hel, guardian of the underworld of the same name. 

Odin feared the children of Angrboða and Loki and threw Jörmungandr in the Ocean. Jörmungandr grew so large that it encircled the world of Midgard, biting its own tail. 

 Jörmungandr releasing his tail is one of the signs of the beginning of Ragnarök or the end of the world, sometimes referred to as Twilight of the Gods. Thor and Jörmungandr (the Midgard Serpent) have a fated, catastrophic battle during Ragnarök, where Thor slays the serpent but dies moments later from its venom, fulfilling prophecy and bringing an end to their rivalry in a tragic mutual destruction.

Abraxos as Jörmungandr

The concept of a World Serpent appears in witch mythology in the Throne of Glass world. It is this ancient serpent who Manon names Abraxos for.  

Manon named her wyvern Abraxos, after the ancient serpent who held the world between his coils at the behest of the Three-Faced Goddess. -HOF, CH23

Twilight of the Gods: 

Twilight of the Gods is rumored to be the name of SJM’s next series. It is also another name for Ragnarök or the end of the world, which ends with everything being swallowed into the sea. The final Crescent City book is assumed to be named The House of Many Waters.

Mutually Assured Destruction: 

We see the concept of mutually assured destruction in the Cauldron in ACOTAR and the Firstlight Core in CC. The Daglan/Asteri tie objects to the existence of planets, so to destroy one is to destroy the other. 

And then bound the very essence of the Cauldron to the soul of this world.” Solas. “So destroy the Cauldron …” “And you destroy this world. One cannot exist without the other.” … But Bryce said, “You gave this world a kill switch.” “We gave many worlds … kill switches. To protect our interests.” -HOFAS, Ch. 25

“You made the core a kill switch for this world,” Bryce breathed. The Asteri to Rigelus’s left—Eosphoros, the Morning Star—sneered, “To prevent rodents like you from getting any ideas about destroying us.” “Our fate,” Rigelus said to Bryce, folding his hands in front of him almost beatifically, “is tied to that of this planet. You kill our source of nourishment, and you doom every living soul on Midgard as well.” -HOFAS, Ch. 96

Thor, Thurr and Hunt 

Thor is the Norse god of thunder, lightning, storms, strength, protection, and fertility, often depicted as a mighty warrior with a red beard, wielding his magical hammer Mjölnir, and serving as the defender of gods and humans against giants and monsters. 

In Crescent City we are meant to connect Hunt with Thurr, and therefore Thor. 

That one reminds me of Athalar.” Bryce arched a brow, grateful for the change of subject, and twisted toward where he’d pointed. On it, a powerful Fae male stood poised above an anvil, hammer raised skyward in one fist, lightning cracking from the skies, filling the hammer, and flowing down toward the object of the hammer’s intended blow: a sword. Its label read simply: Unknown sculptor. Palmira, circa 125 V.E. Bryce lifted her mobile and snapped a photo, pulling up her messaging thread with Hunt Athalar Is Better at Sunball Than I Am. … With a few sweeps of her thumbs, the picture zoomed off into the ether, along with her note: Long-lost relative of yours? -HOSAB, Ch. 1

“I’ve got a nine-thousand-year-old Rhodinian bust of Thurr here.” Basically a broody male who was supposed to pass for the nearly forgotten minor storm deity. All that remained of him in their culture was the behemoth of a planet named after him. And Thursdays, apparently. -HOSAB, Ch. 8

Hunt didn’t stop at destroying the suit. His lightning slammed the parked trucks, too. Every single one of them. Bryce couldn’t help but marvel at the sight of him—like a god of lightning. Like Thurr himself. -HOSAB, Ch. 43

“And Project Thurr? Why was Danika so interested in that?” “Thurr was the last time someone got as far as Danika did in learning about us. It didn’t end well for them. I suppose she wanted to learn from their mistakes before acting.”  -HOSAB, Ch. 73

“There was a scientist at the Asteri Archives,” Aidas said. “An angel who was delving into the origins of the thunderbirds, how strange their power was. He named the project after a near-forgotten god of storms.” “Project Thurr,” Bryce said. “Was Danika investigating it, too? I found mentions of it, after she died.” “I don’t know,” Aidas said, “but the angel was researching thunderbirds at the behest of the Asteri, who worried they might return. It led him to us instead. When we told him the truth, he offered to help in whatever way he could. Thanatos was finishing up his work then. And with a male volunteer, only a female to breed with was needed.” -HOFAS, Ch. 61

Amazonian Mythology 

In some indigenous Amazonian beliefs, a great snake, often an anaconda, is thought to encircle the world at its edges.

Jewish Mythology 

The Leviathan is a primordial sea serpent often mentioned in the Hebrew bible, that is sometimes associated with the ouroboros symbol. Jewish mystics, especially in the Zohar, describe the Leviathan as a singular, monstrous serpent that encircles the world, with its tail in its mouth.

The Leviathan is used to symbolize chaos, the enemies of Israel, or the immense power of God's creation.

Jewish mythology says in the messianic era, the Leviathan will be slain and its flesh served at a great feast for the righteous, signifying the ultimate victory over chaos. The act of eating the Leviathan is a transformative experience, symbolizing the righteous individual's deep connection with the spiritual. 

The Zohar offers a metaphorical interpretation, stating that eating the Leviathan is not a literal act but a metaphor for spiritual enlightenment. The consumption of this primordial being allows for the righteous to attain a higher, more complete state of being, representing a profound spiritual and physical transformation. 

Chaos

Chaos is heavily associated with Apollion and the Princes of Hel.

Do you not know where I come from? My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.” -Apollion, HOSAB, Ch. 21

“The Temple of Chaos is a sacred place,” Apollion said sharply. “We shall never defile it with violence.” The words rumbled like thunder again. -Apollion, HOFAS, Ch. 59

The “gods” in TOG are said to triumph over chaos.

“Today,” the priestess said, “is the day on which we celebrate the end and the beginning of the great cycle. Today is the day on which the Great Goddess gave birth to her firstborn, Lumas, Lord of the Gods. With his birth, love was brought into Erilea, and it banished the chaos that arose from the Gates of the Wyrd.” -TOG

Transformation

There are a number of instances across the three series that are reminiscent of a profound spiritual and physical transformation. CC categorizes these moments as the “ordeal” and the “drop.” Ordeals include: Feyre’s 3 trials, the Blood Rite, Bryce vs Micah, Aelin vs Valg at Mistward and Aelin and Dorian defeating the Valg in the King of Adarlan.

They joined hands. So the world ended. And the next one began. They were infinite. They were the beginning and the ending; they were eternity. The king standing before them gaped as the shield of flame died out to reveal Aelin and Dorian, hand in hand, glowing like newborn gods as their magic entwined. The King of Adarlan bellowed as Aelin and Dorian fractured his power. Together they broke down every spell, every ounce of evil that he’d bent and shackled to his command. Infinite—Dorian’s power was infinite. They were full of light, of fire and starlight and sunshine. They overflowed with it as they snapped the final tether on the king’s power and cleaved his darkness away, burning it up until it was nothing. -QOS

But we also see transformation in not only coming into your power during “the drop,” but also taking power - Feyre’s death and rebirth, Nesta in the cauldron,  Bryce uniting the parts of Theia’s star. 

She tore into the darkness with talons and teeth. Rent and cleaved and shredded. And the dark eternity around her shuddered. Bucked. Thrashed. She laughed as it recoiled. Laughed around the mouthful of raw power she ripped out and swallowed whole; laughed at the fistfuls of eternity she shoved into her heart, her veins. The Cauldron struggled like a bird under a cat’s paw. She refused to relent. Everything it had stolen from her, from Elain, she would take from it. Wrapped in black eternity, Nesta and the Cauldron twined, burning through the darkness like a newborn star. -ACOSF, Prologue

Christian Mysticism 

In Christian mysticism, the Ouroboros was sometimes used to symbolise eternity and the idea of God as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. 

Alpha and Omega:

The knife could have been the twin of the Starsword: black hilted and bladed. It was its twin. The Starsword began to hum within its sheath, glittering white light leaking from where leather met the dark hilt. The dagger—The male dropped the dagger to the plush carpet. All of them retreated as it flared with dark light, as if in answer. Alpha and Omega. “Gwydion,” the dark-haired female whispered, indicating the Starsword. -HOSAB, Ch, 78

Beginning and End:

In the beginning, and in the end, there was Darkness and nothing more. She had first heard that truth, understood it, during her battle with the Cauldron. And understood it again now as she floated into that same strange place, both full and empty, forever cold. Where is the Mask? she asked the void. -ACOSF, Ch. 31

WILD THEORY TIME

All three stories feature language and concepts associated with the ouroboros, “no beginning and no ending.” These themes run through character internal development, character relationships, world-building and more.

So what if the timeline of the Maasverse is an Ouroboros? This could play out a few different ways. This is all extremely speculative, but there are hints that time is operating on principles of relativity throughout the Maasverse, rather than running in a linear fashion. 

The Time Dimension

The flow of time in the Maasverse is vital to understanding the overlap between worlds. Many use Aelin’s fall through worlds to argue that these stories are happening concurrently, but I believe this is a false dichotomy that ignores the influence of the dimension of time on the Maasverse. We see other examples in fantasy and science fiction books of worlds being interconnected, but time does not flow at the same rate in each of these worlds – for example Narnia time, where years in Narnia are minutes in our world. 

Newton vs. Einstein

Newton believed that time is absolute and flows uniformly. This is often described as an arrow moving in a straight line suggesting that time is a constant and universal entity, unaffected by events or motion within the universe. 

Einstein believed time was a flexible dimension that can be affected by gravity and speed, often likened to a river that can speed up, slow down, or even curve around massive objects. This is part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

Why does this matter in the Maasverse? 

I believe time in the Maasverse works on Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. We see instances of time “slowing” and “warping” throughout the three worlds - specifically around the deaths of “true immortals.” 

HOEAB Michah’s Death: Time warped and stretched…The death of an Archangel, of a world power, could shudder through time and space. A second could last an hour. A day. A year.

HOFAS Polaris’s Death: The slowing of the world when a great power died was familiar to Hunt from Micah’s death, from Shahar’s, from Sandriel’s, but this was so much worse.

HOFAS Black Hole Deaths: Time slowed for a heartbeat—only one, time dragging, dragging—and then resumed. Their deaths had been fast. A swift swallow…Time slowed and shuddered as the black hole devoured him, too….Time slowed. It stretched and rippled as a flare of light plumed, either Rigelus or the erupting missile, Shahar and the Fallen’s cause vanishing with it into darkness.

KOA Erawan’s death: Yrene reached him, hands like burning stars, and slammed them upon his chest. The world slowed and warped.

ACOWAR Nesta readying her power to go up against the King of Hybern: The power Nesta was holding back…Time seemed to slow and warp. 

Time is a Circle

Philosophy Time! The concept of eternal recurrence is a philosophical concept which states that time repeats itself in an infinite loop, and that exactly the same events will continue to occur in exactly the same way, over and over again, for eternity. In ancient Greece, the concept of eternal return was most prominently associated with Stoicism. The Stoics believed that the universe is periodically destroyed and reborn, and that each universe is exactly the same as the one before. According to Stoic physics, the universe is periodically destroyed in an immense conflagration (ekpyrosis), and then experiences a rebirth (palingenesis). These cycles continue for eternity, and the same events are exactly repeated in every cycle. 

Similarly, a physics theory by Roger Penrose, Conformal Cyclic Cosmology postulates that our universe is one of infinite cycles if the universe, each starting with a Big Bang and ending in an infinitely expanded, cold state that becomes the Big Bang of the next cycle through conformal rescaling, where time and distance scales vanish.

“Oh, this planet will be long dead before eternity has ended. Its star will expand, and expand, and eventually devour everything in its path. Including this world.” - Vesperus, HOFAS

The cosmic ouroboros resurrects an ancient symbol with modern insights from astrophysics & cosmology. Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sheldon Glashow created the cosmological ouroboros in 1979, connecting the 4 fundamental forces in one striking image.

When looking at theories of circular time and applying them to the Maasverse, we get - at the simplest level - the Void births a world, the events on this world occur, the world dies and returns to the void and that death feeds the void which births another world and the cycle continues infinitely. 

The Butterfly Effect Across the Maasverse

We see the interaction between multiple worlds throughout the Maasverse. The actions in one world or plane of existence both directly and indirectly affect the events on other worlds. 

Aelin bellowed and bellowed, the sound ringing out across all worlds. -KOA, Ch. 98

So Nesta held her sister tightly, with Time halted around them, and she whispered, “If you show me how to save her, you can have it back.” The world paused. Worlds beyond their own paused. -ACOSF, Ch. 76

She could have sworn the very world—all worlds—shuddered as Nesta’s hand crossed into Midgard and passed the Mask to Bryce. -HOFAS, Ch. 77

Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon where pairs or groups of particles (e.g., photons, electrons) become so deeply linked that the quantum state of each cannot be described independently, regardless of the distance separating them.

The worlds and timelines of the Maasverse are similarly entangled. The events of each series influences actions in the other worlds. Maasverse theorists often have these causes and effects happening in a linear fashion. A simple example is how the creation of the Dread Trove on Prythian leads to Rhysand being able to slow down Aelin which leads to the defeat of the Valg on Erilea. 

When we look at these actions further, we uncover many more ripples and far more entanglement.  

In the Maasverse, we are dealing with multiple worlds, that might be existing at the same time. The worlds are most definitely intertwined, and their timeline entanglement might be able to be represented by a multi-ouroborus. A double ouroboros, features two intertwined snakes swallowing each other's tail. For simplicity we will look at the worlds of Prythian and Midgard and apply their timelines to a double ouroborus. 

The death of one world creates another world. The worlds timelines are entangled, with each place the worlds cross in space and time creating an overlap of the coils of the snake. We also see the repetition of timelines, and timelines looping back on themselves. 

In terms of the Maasverse, we could be dealing with 26 intertwining snakes creating a massive entangled universe: Great, scaled black beasts were carved into those gates, all coiled together in a nest of claws and fangs, sleeping and fighting, some locked in an endless cycle of devouring each other. -ACOMAF, Ch. 42

[7thlevelofhel]

ARE THE PRINCES OF HEL VALG?

Probably...and this is how it could possibly work.

Higher res link

Are the Princes of Hel Valg?

A) No B) Yes

If Yes

A) Hel is the Valg Homeworld B) Hel is not the Valg Homeworld

If Hel is the Valg Homeworld

Asteri Archives, HOSAB: Hel. A dark, cold world with mighty creatures of night. They saw through our lures. Once warring factions, the royal armies of Hel united and marched against us. We were overwhelmed and abandoned their world, but they gave chase. Learned from our captured lieutenants how to slip between the cracks in realms.

Valg Princes & Aelin, HOF: The three things inside those mortal bodies smiled. “We are princes of our realm.” “And what realm is that?” She poured her magic into the shield behind her. The Valg prince in the center seemed to reach toward her without moving an inch. She sent a punch of flame at him, and he curled back. “A realm of eternal dark and ice and wind,” he said.

Kharankui, TOD: "Long ago, in another world, another lifetime, there existed a land of dark, and cold, and wind. Ruled by three kings, masters of shadow and pain. Brothers. The world had not always been that way, had not been born that way. But they waged a mighty war. A war to end all wars. And those three kings conquered it. Turned it into a wasteland, a paradise for those who had dwelled in darkness. For a thousand years, they ruled, equal in power, their sons and daughters spread throughout the land to ensure their continued dominion."

A) The POH rise after the Valg Kings leave their world with the 3 Wyrdkeys

Dorian & Maeve, KOA: “Are the Valg princes and princesses the offspring of the other kings?” “Some are, some are not. No worthy heir has stepped forward. Though who knows what has occurred in their world in these millennia.” Their world. Not her own. “The princes Erawan summoned have not been strong—not as they were. I am certain it annoys Erawan to no end.”

B) The POH are before the Valg Kings

Maeve, HOF: “There are many different races of Valg—creatures that even your darkest nightmares would flee from. They are ruled by the princes, who themselves are made of shadow and despair and hatred and have no bodies to occupy save those that they infiltrate. There aren’t many princes—but I once witnessed an entire legion of Fae warriors devoured by six of them within hours.”

If Hel is not the Valg Homeworld

A) Hel is one of the world's the Valg Kings conquered in their pursuit of Maeve

Kharankui, TOD: “They went from world to world, opening gates as they willed it, sweeping in their armies and laying waste to those realms as they hunted for her. Until they reached this world.”

Erawan, KOA: “My brothers and I planned to conquer this world, to add it to the trove that we’d already taken."

B) Hel is where Orcus and Mantyx were banished to by Maeve

Kharankui, TOD: So she stole the keys. Managed to send two of those kings back, Orcus one of them. And before she could go after the final king, the youngest one who loved his brothers so very deeply, the keys were taken from her.

Evidence that the Princes of Hel Valg

Powers

DREAM MANIPULATION

Bryce & Apollion, HOSAB: “In the real world, or in, like, dreamworld?” He angled his head, more animal than humanoid. “Dreamworld. Or what you consider to be dreams.”

Aelin POV, KOA: The dark queen with a spider’s smile tried to wield it against her. In the obsidian webs she wove, the illusions and dreams she spun at the culmination of each breaking point, the queen tried to twist the memory of him as a key into her mind.

COMMAND DARKNESS

Ruhn POV, HOFAS: Only then did he get a look at the battlefield beyond the city. The cloud of darkness above the glowing lights. That darkness was pure Pit.

Hunt POV, HOFAS: Apollion stepped forward, a hand raised. Pure, devouring darkness destroyed Polaris’s light.

Celaena POV, HOF: She glimpsed only a flash of pale skin, night-dark hair, unfathomable beauty, and an onyx torque around his strong column of a neck, and—Blackness. A wave of it, slamming down on her. Not oblivion but actual dark, as if he’d thrown a blanket over the two of them. The ground felt grassy, but she couldn’t see it. Couldn’t see anything. Not beyond, not to the side, not behind. there was only her and the swirling black.

Manon POV, QOS: "A young man with golden hair now stood in the room, his black stone collar gleaming in the torchlight. … As one, the Thirteen turned toward the handsome young man. And as one, they flinched as he smiled, and a wave of darkness crashed into them. Darkness without end, darkness even Manon’s eyes couldn’t penetrate, and—""

SHAPESHIFTING

Bryce HOEAB: “So afterward, when I was crying my little heart out on one of the park benches outside the temple, this white cat appeared next to me. It had the most unnatural blue eyes. I knew, even before it spoke, that it wasn’t a cat—and wasn’t a shifter.” “Who summoned him that time?” “I don’t know. Jesiba told me that the princes can sneak through cracks in either Rift, taking the form of common animals. But then they’re confined to those forms—with none of their own power, save the ability to speak. And they can only stay for a few hours at a time.”

Hunt POV, HOFAS: Gone were the princes’ humanoid skins. Creatures of darkness and decay stood there, mouths full of sharp teeth, leathery wings splayed. A great black mass lay within Apollion’s yawning open mouth as he surged for Octartis—

Aelin & King of Adarlan, QOS: Aelin said, “How is it possible he’s been inside Perrington all this time and no one noticed?” “He can hide inside a body like a snail in its shell. But cloaking his presence also stifles his own abilities to scent others—like you.

Dorian & Maeve, KOA: “Is this Erawan’s true form?” “In a manner of speaking. We are not like the human and Fae, where your souls are invisible, unseen. Our souls have a shape to them. We have bodies that we can fashion around them—adorn them, like jewelry. The form you see on Erawan was always his preferred decoration.” ... “I suppose that makes us shape-shifters, too, ” Maeve mused as Dorian aimed for the chair beside hers.

Dorian & Maeve, KOA: "We are not like the human and Fae, where your souls are invisible, unseen. Our souls have a shape to them. We have bodies that we can fashion around them—adorn them, like jewelry." ... "What do your souls look like beneath?” “You would find them displeasing.”

Celaena POV, HOF: There were legends whispered over fires about the other skin Maeve wore. No one had lived to tell anything beyond shadows and claws and a darkness to devour your soul.

Similarities

“LIKE WINE”

Thanatos, HOSAB: It has been a long while since a mortal fly buzzed all the way down to Hel. I will taste this one’s soul, as I once sipped from them like fine wine.

Valg Prince, HOF: “Your agony tasted like wine,” he murmured, peering into the core of her.

Aelin, QOS: “They target magic-wielders, feeding off the power in their blood. They drain the life from those that aren’t compatible to take in a Valg demon ... They feed on it—fear, misery, despair. It’s like wine to them."

LESSER CREATURES

Hunt & Aidas, HOFAS: “After what happened this spring,” Hunt said to his mate, “you trust them not to fucking eat everyone?” “Those were our pets,” Aidas insisted, “not our armies. And they have been severely punished for it. They will stay in line this time, and follow our orders on the battlefield.”

Hunt POV, HOFAS: But what arose around them as they reappeared on the battlefield was a scene straight from a nightmare. Kristallos demons, deathstalkers, hounds like the Shepherd, and worse … the pets of Thanatos, all racing past the Asteri and into the city itself.

Maeve, HOF: “There are many different races of Valg—creatures that even your darkest nightmares would flee from. They are ruled by the princes, who themselves are made of shadow and despair and hatred and have no bodies to occupy save those that they infiltrate. There aren’t many princes—but I once witnessed an entire legion of Fae warriors devoured by six of them within hours.”

Kharankui, TOD: "A rip appeared in the world. In these very mountains. It opened and closed swiftly, no more than a flash of lightning. But that was all that was needed. For the horrors to enter. The kharankui, and other beasts of shadow.”

BLACK BLOOD

Bryce POV, HOSAB: The Starsword sang with light, her power flowing into it. Activating it. And nothing had ever felt so right, so easy, as plunging the blade into the bony chest of the wounded Reaper. It arced, bellowing, black blood spurting from its withered lips

*Reapers were originally from Hel

Bryce & The underking, HOSAB: “You mean to tell me that there are Reapers who can simply defect and serve Hel?” “From whence do you think the Reapers first came? Who first ruled them, ruled the vampyrs? The Reapers chose Midgard. But I am not surprised some have changed their minds.”

Thanatos, HOFAS: “The vampyrs and Reapers had defected to the Asteri. They betrayed us, the cowards.” From the shadows behind him, his hounds snarled, as if in agreement. “They’d been our captains and lieutenants, for the most part. Our armies were in shambles without them. We needed time to rebuild.”

Celaena POV, COM: The blood they leaked wasn’t red, though. It was black, and slid down the sides of her blades, dense and shining as oil. The stench, like curdled milk and vinegar, hit her as hard as the clashing of their swords.

GREENISH FLAME

Bryce POV, HOFAS: The black boat that Aidas led Bryce and Hunt into was a cross between the one that had brought them into Avallen and the ones that carried bodies to the Bone Quarter. But in lieu of a stag’s head, it was a stag’s skull at the prow, greenish flame dancing in its eyes as it sailed through the cave. The eerie green light illuminated black rock carved into pillars and buildings, walkways and temples.

Dorian POV, KOA: A lick of greenish flame danced within. Not a flame of this world. Its light slid over the heap of black stone in the center of the room. Pieces of a sarcophagus. And all around it, built into shelves carved from the mountain itself, gleamed Wyrdstone collars…Erawan’s tomb—directly beneath Morath. The site where Elena and Gavin trapped him, and then built the keep atop the sarcophagus that could not be moved.

FORCED REPRODUCTION

HOEAB: Reproduced, usually by force. The result of those horrible unions: the daemonaki. Most walking the streets were diluted, weaker incarnations and hybrids of the purebred demons in Hel. Many were pariahs, through no fault of their own beyond genetics, and they usually worked hard to integrate into the Republic.

Ghislaine, QOS: “Millennia ago, when the Valg broke into our world, witches did not exist. It was the Valg, and the Fae, and humans. But the Valg were … demons, I suppose. They wanted our world for their own, and they thought a good way to get it would be to ensure that their offspring could survive here. The humans weren’t compatible—too breakable. But the Fae … The Valg kidnapped and stole whatever Fae they could, and because your eyes are getting that glazed look, I’m just going to jump to the end and say the offspring became us. Witches. The Ironteeth took after our Valg ancestors more, while the Crochans got more of the Fae traits."

Weaknesses

DRAGONFIRE

Bryce POV, HOSAB: It contained an analysis of dragon fire, dating back five thousand years. It was in a language Bryce didn’t know, but a translation had been included. Jesiba had scribbled Good luck at the top. Well, now she knew why the Astronomer kept Ariadne in a ring. Not for light—but for protection. Among its many uses, the ancient scholar had written, dragon fire is one of the few substances proven to harm the Princes of Hel. It can burn even the Prince of the Pit’s dark hide.

Maeve KOA: “The dragons didn't survive that war. And they never rose again.” Her lips curved, and Aelin knew Maeve had ensured it. Other fire-wielders–hunted and killed.

Wyrdstone & Black Salt

Dorian POV, KOA: The collars leaked their unholy stench into the world, pulsing in time with his blood. The collars flashed before his eyes, leaking their poisoned, oily scent into the world, beckoning, waiting for him—

Bryce, HOFAS: “These caves are made entirely of black salt,” Bryce said. She’d seen it as soon as the ghoul had gouged lines in the wall. Knew its smell, its rotting, oily feel. A taste of it had confirmed her suspicions.

SUMMONINGS

Hunt POV, HOEAB: Black salts were used for summoning demons directly—bypassing the Northern Rift entirely—or for various dark spellwork. A salt that went beyond black, a salt like the obsidian … It could summon something big. Hel was severed from them by time and space, but still accessible through the twin sealed portals at the north and south poles—the Northern Rift and the Southern Rift, respectively. Or by idiots who tried to summon demons through salts of varying powers.The benefit of using salts, at least, was that only one demon could be summoned at a time. Though if things went badly, the summoner could wind up dead. And a demon could wind up stuck in Midgard, hungry.

Maeve, HOF: “The King of Adarlan, it seems, is doing what I never had the nerve to do while the keys were briefy in my possession. Without all three keys, he is limited. He can only open the portal between our worlds for short periods, long enough to let in perhaps one prince to infiltrate a body he has prepared. But with all three keys, he could open the portal at will—he could summon all the Valg armies, to be led by the princes in their mortal bodies, and . . . And with all three keys, he might not need to rely on magically gifted hosts for the Valg.

COLLARS

Thanatos, HOFAS: “The black crowns were collars in Hel,” Thanatos answered darkly. His powerful body seemed primed to leap across that pit to attack. Hunt monitored his every breath. “Spells, crafted by the Asteri to enslave us. They were a binding, one the Asteri adapted in their next war—upon Midgard.”

Apollion, HOFAS: “Because the Princes of Hel cannot be contained by the black crowns. The Asteri learned that—it was their downfall. As you were made by Hel’s princes, it should not be able to hold you.”

Aelin, QOS: "The lesser Valg, they can seize a mortal’s body through those black rings. But their civilization—a whole damn civilization, is split into hierarchies like our own. And their princes want to come to our world very, very badly. So the king uses collars. Black Wyrdstone collars. The collars are stronger, capable of helping the demons stay inside human bodies while they devour the person and power inside."

Maeve, KOA: “The collars are one of his more brilliant creations. Neither of his brothers was clever enough to come up with it. But Erawan —he always had a gift for ideas.”

Levels of Hel

CC Hel is comprised of 7 levels: The Hollow, The Trench, The Canyon, The Ravine - Ruled by Thanatos, The Chasm - Ruled by Aidas, The Abyss, The Pit - Ruled by Apollion

Celaena POV, HOF: The darkness had no end and no beginning. It was the abyss that had haunted her steps for ten years, and she free-fell into it, welcomed it. There was no sound, only the vague sense of going toward a bottom that might not exist, or that might mean her true end. Maybe the Valg princes had devoured her, turning her into a husk. Maybe her soul was forever trapped here, in this plunging darkness. Perhaps this was hell. ... She did not know how long she fell with them. But then there was a rushing, roaring below—a frozen river. Whispers and foggy light were rising to meet them. No, not rising—this was the bottom. An end to the abyss. And an end to her, perhaps, at last. She didn’t know if the Valg princes’ hissing was from anger or pleasure as they slammed into that frozen river at the bottom of her soul.

Chaol POV, TOD: Leaving him to free-fall into this place. This pit. The bottom of the descent. The hollow hell beneath the roots of a mountain. Here, where all was locked and buried. Here, where all had come to take root.The empty foundation, mined and hacked apart, crumbled away into nothing but this pit.

[7thlevelofhel]

IS RHYS' BEAST FORM A WYVERN?

What is a Wyvern?

We are introduced to wyverns in the Maasverse in Heir of Fire. They are large beasts, covered in leathery, scaled hides, with two legs and wings tipped with claws that are used like a front set of limbs.

HOF CH12: Manon couldn’t tear her eyes away from the gorgeous beast: his mottled gray body covered in a leathery hide; his massive back legs, armed with talons as big as her forearm; and his enormous wings, tipped with a claw and used to propel him forward like a front set of limbs.

HOF CH23: Teeth and scales and claws, so fast and vicious that even Manon held her breath.

Rhys' Beast Form

Rhys' beast form is a taloned and winged beast, covered in scales. It is said to the the same as the beasts carved into the Court of Nightmares dais. It is described as a thing of nightmares, nothing human or fae, crafted of shadows and moonlight.

ACOWAR CH74: The talons came first. Replacing fingers and feet. Then dark scales or perhaps feathers, I couldn’t get a look at them, covered his legs, his arms, his chest. His body contorted, bones and muscles growing and shifting. The beast form Rhys had kept hidden. Never liked to unleash. ... It was a thing of nightmares. Nothing human or Fae in it. It was a creature that lived in black pits and only emerged at night to hunt and feast. The face … it was those creatures that had been carved into the rock of the Court of Nightmares. That made up his throne. The throne not only a representation of his power … but of what lurked within. And with the wings …

ACOMAF CH38: His hands, however, still ended in long, black talons—and his feet … they ended in claws, too. The wings were out, slumped down behind him. And I wondered how close he’d been to fully shifting into that beast he’d once told me he hated.

ACOSF CH55: Enormous onyx beasts—scaled, like those she’d seen on the Hewn City’s pillars—lay at the foot of the dais.

Connection to Abraxos

The Ouroboros is an ancient, cross-cultural symbol depicting a serpent or dragon devouring its own tail. It symbolises the eternal cycle of destruction and rebirth, infinity, and the unity of all things. Abraxos is named for the world serpent, who is a representation of an Ouroboros. The beasts carved into the pillars in the Court of Nightmare are described as "locked in an endless cycle of devouring each other."

HOF CH23: Manon named her wyvern Abraxos, after the ancient serpent who held the world between his coils at the behest of the Three-Faced Goddess.

ACOMAF CH42: Great, scaled black beasts were carved into those gates, all coiled together in a nest of claws and fangs, sleeping and fighting, some locked in an endless cycle of devouring each other.

Helion's Beast Form is a Ruk

ACOWAR CH74: If Rhys was a flying terror crafted from shadows and cold moonlight, Helion was his daytime equivalent. Gold feathers and shredding claws and feathered wings—

If Rhys' beast form is a wyvern, then Helion as his feathery daytime equivalent is a Ruk.

[7thlevelofhel]

IS "THE DROP" A DESCENT INTO HEL?

What is the "The Drop?"

We are introduced to the concept of "The Drop" in Crescent City. The Drop is a necessary ritual for Vanir to claim both their powers and immortality. Each Drop, generates firstlight–raw, unfiltered magic. The firstlight generated by the drop is used to fuel Midgard's power grid as well as the Asteri's power.

HOEAB CH8: But it was a necessary rite. Because the firstlight grid’s power was generated by the pure, undiluted light each Vanir emitted while making the Drop. And it was only during the Drop that the flash of firstlight appeared—raw, unfiltered magic. It could heal and destroy and do everything in between. Captured and bottled, the first glow was always used for healing, then the rest of it was handed over to the energy plants to fuel their lights and cars and machines and tech; some of it was used for spells, and some was reserved for whatever shady shit the Republic wanted. The “donation” of the firstlight by each citizen was a key element of the Drop ritual, part of why it was always done in a government center: a sterile room, where the light from the person making the Drop was gobbled up during the transition into immortality and true power. All tracked by the Eleusian system, able to monitor every moment of it through vibrations in the world’s magic. Indeed, family members sometimes watched the feeds in an adjacent room.

3 Parts - The Drop, The Search & The Ascent

The Drop is the first part of the ritual. It is falling into one's power. Once you reach the bottom, your mortal body dies and you have 6 minutes to start making the Ascent. This stage is referred to as the Search, where you face the depth of your soul and power. You need an Anchor to make the Drop, and they act as a tether back to the world. Upon the Ascent, you return to life with immortality and new depths of power.

HOEAB CH8: The Drop was the easy part: falling into one’s power. But once the bottom was reached, one’s mortal body expired. And then the clock began counting down. Mere minutes were allowed for the race back up to life—before the brain shut down permanently from lack of oxygen. Six minutes to start barreling down a psychic runway along the bottom of one’s power, a single desperate shot at launching skyward toward life. The alternative to successfully making that leap: tumbling into an endless black pit and awaiting death. The alternative to getting enough momentum on that runway: tumbling into an endless black pit and awaiting death. Which was why someone else had to act as an Anchor: a beacon, a lifeline, a bungee cord that would snap their companion back up to life once they leapt off the runway. To make the Drop alone was to die—to reach the bottom of one’s power, to have one’s heart stop beating upon hitting that nadir. No one knew if the soul continued living down there, lost forever, or if it died along with the body left in life. It was why Anchors were usually family—parents or siblings—or trusted friends. Someone who wouldn’t leave you stranded. Or a government employee who had a legal obligation not to do so. Some claimed those six minutes were called the Search—that during that time, you faced the very depths of your soul. But beyond that, there was no hope of survival. It was only upon making the Ascent and reaching that threshold back to life, brimming with new power, that immortality was attained, the aging process slowed to a glacial drip and the body rendered near-indestructible as it was bathed in all that ensuing firstlight, so bright it could blind the naked eye. And at the end of it, when the Drop Center’s sleek energy panels had siphoned off that firstlight, all any of them were left with to mark the occasion was a mere pinprick of that light in a bottle. A pretty souvenir.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

The system used to monitor the Drop is called the "Eleusian" system.

In Greek mythology, the Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone. The Mysteries represented the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent, the search, and the ascent.

The Descent: Represents Persephone's travel to the Underworld.

The Search: Represents Demeters search for her daughter.

The Ascent: Represents he rebirth of Persephone, symbolised the eternity of life.

This brings us to our original question...is "The Drop" a descent into Hel?

What is Hel?

In Crescent City, Hel is another planet or realm.

The Asteri describe Hel in HOSAB as: A dark, cold world with mighty creatures of night. They saw through our lures. Once warring factions, the royal armies of Hel united and marched against us. We were overwhelmed and abandoned their world, but they gave chase. Learned from our captured lieutenants how to slip between the cracks in realms.

Hel is comprised of 7 levels:

The Hollow

The Trench

The Canyon

The Ravine - Ruled by Thanatos

The Chasm - Ruled by Aidas

The Abyss

The Pit - Ruled by Apollion

I believe "The Drop" is a descent into Hel. How far you descend reflects your power levels when you ascend. I also believe we see other drops in the Maasverse, but only the Crescent City world has systemised the process, by making it a requirement to claiming immortality and making the power generated by "The Drop" harvestable.

Analysing "Drops" Across the Maasverse

We only see one official* Drop, in the Maasverse: Bryce's Drop. This drop is unorthodox as Bryce uses the Gates of Lunathion and Danika–who is dead–as an anchor. I believe we see other drops across the Maasverse, including: Aelin fighting against the Valg in Mistward, Feyre's death and rebirth, and Nesta going into the Cauldron.

BRYCE'S DROP

When Bryce makes the Drop she goes as far as the Trench-Level 2 of Hel. Her Drop is recorded as going farther than both Ruhn and Einar–The Autumn King. While Bryce is powerful, we discover that the Asteri have corrupted this process and weakened the Vanir on Midgard with a parasite. When Bryce goes to Prythian she notes how Nesta, Rhys and Azriel are far more powerful than the Vanir on Midgard. I believe the Trench Level could be a representation of her power.

The Descent

HOAEB CH92:

It was joy and life and death and pain and song and silence. Bryce tumbled into power, and power tumbled into her, and she didn’t care, didn’t care, didn’t care, because it was Danika falling with her, Danika laughing with her as their souls twined. She was here, she was here, she was here—Bryce plunged into the golden light and song at the heart of the universe.

The Search

HOEAB CH93:

This was the cradle of all life, this place. There was a physical ground beneath her, and she had the sense of an entire world above her, full of distant, twinkling lights. But this was the bottom of the sea. The dark trench that cut through the skin of the earth.

She swallowed, looking at the ground that was not earth, but the very base of Self, of the world.

“That’s the point of it, Bryce. Of life. To live, to love, knowing that it might all vanish tomorrow. It makes everything that much more precious.”

“Just try, Bryce. One try. I’ll be with you every step of the way. Even if you can’t see me. I will always be with you.”

Its end was a free fall into eternal darkness. Into nothingness.

Bryce had still not Ascended. Was still making the Search, facing whatever lay within her. The timer would have halted if she had begun her attempt at the Ascent, marking her entrance into the Between—the liminal place between death and life. But the timer kept going. Winding down.

The Ascent

HOEAB 94:

Bryce barreled higher. She could feel the surface nearby. The thin veil between this place and life. Her power shifted, dancing between forms and gifts. She thrust upward with a push of a mighty tail. Twisted and rose with a sweep of vast wings. She was all things—and yet herself.

AELIN'S DROP #1

When Aelin makes "The Drop" in HOF she goes as far of The Abyss-Level 6 of Hel. This matches with her power level–which is pretty fucking powerful.

The Descent

Aelin allows the darkness to swallow her and drag her down. She free falls toward a bottom that might not exist and might mean her true end where her soul will be forever trapped. Aelin likens the experience to "hell" multiple times.

HOF CH53:

She did not fight as darkness swallowed her whole and dragged her down deep.

The darkness had no end and no beginning. It was the abyss that had haunted her steps for ten years, and she free-fell into it, welcomed it. There was no sound, only the vague sense of going toward a bottom that might not exist, or that might mean her true end. Maybe the Valg princes had devoured her, turning her into a husk. Maybe her soul was forever trapped here, in this plunging darkness. Perhaps this was hell.

This was hell—and looked like hell, as she saw the bloodbath she’d created on the day she rampaged through Endovier.

Went mad as the descent slowed and she was stripped and strapped between two blood-splattered posts.

One by one, they groped through her memories. She fed them, gave them everything they wanted and more. Back and back, sorting through the years as they plunged into the dark, twining together. She did not care.

She did not know how long she fell with them. But then there was a rushing, roaring below—a frozen river. Whispers and foggy light were rising to meet them. No, not rising—this was the bottom. An end to the abyss. And an end to her, perhaps, at last. She didn’t know if the Valg princes’ hissing was from anger or pleasure as they slammed into that frozen river at the bottom of her soul.

HOF CH54:

That was the moment that had broken everything Aelin Galathynius was and had promised to be. Celaena was lying on the ground—on the bottom of the world, on the bottom of hell.

The Search

Similarly to Bryce, Aelin finds herself at the bottom of the world and the bottom of her soul. Like Danika telling Bryce to "try," young Aelin and the dead tell Aelin to "Get up."

HOF CH54:

She could not let go of the ground. There was nothing beneath it, nowhere else to go, nowhere to outrun this truth. She didn’t know how long she lay on the bottom of wherever this was.

She would fill the world with it, with her light—her gift. She would light up the darkness, so brightly that all who were lost or wounded or broken would find their way to it, a beacon for those who still dwelled in that abyss. It would not take a monster to destroy a monster—but light, light to drive out darkness.

Aelin Galathynius smiled at her, hand still outreached. “Get up,” the princess said. Celaena reached across the earth between them and brushed her fingers against Aelin’s. And arose.

The Ascent: Rowan as Anchor

Rowan acts as Aelin's anchor, anchoring her to the world as she makes her ascent.

HOF CH55:

He nodded, and she joined hands with him, blood to blood and soul to soul, his other arm coming around to grip her tightly. Their hands clasped between them, he whispered into her ear, “I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius.” The wave of impenetrable black descended, roaring as it made to devour them. Yet this was not the end—this was not her end. She had survived loss and pain and torture; she had survived slavery and hatred and despair; she would survive this, too. Because hers was not a story of darkness. So she was not afraid of that crushing black, not with the warrior holding her, not with the courage that having one true friend offered—a friend who made living not so awful after all, not if she were with him.

The sounds and smell and look of it were so real that only her grip on Rowan kept her anchored in the world. Then it was gone, and the light was still building, enveloping them all.

AELIN'S DROP #2

In EOS, Aelin further drops into her power, reaching and crashing through "the pit" – Level 7 of Hel. Aelin pulls up god-like levels of power after this drop.

EOS CH39: That … pit of power I uncovered today … That was from Mala herself. Elena might be many things, but she wasn’t lying about that.”

The Descent: Rowan as Anchor

Aelin and Rowan share power while Rowan physically anchors her. Aelin descends further into her power, to the bottom - "the pit."

When Aelin descends into her power, she appears to be in another place or another world. In Aelin's POV, when Rolfe speaks Aelin notes, "Rolfe warned from nearby—from another world."

EOS CH35:

He chuckled and released her face to pass her the other manacle. She hated its ancient, hideous touch on her skin, on his, as she clamped it around his tattooed wrist.

...

A quick slice had her skin stinging, warm blood heating her seawater-sticky skin.

Rowan had the knife a heartbeat later, and the scent of his blood filled her nose, set her senses on edge. But she extended her bloodied palm.

Her magic swirled into the world with it, crackling in her veins, her ears. She reined in the urge to tap her foot on the ground, to roll her shoulders.

“Slow,” Rowan repeated, as if sensing the hair-trigger that her power was now on, “and steady.” His shackled arm slid around her waist to hold her to him. “I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

...

But Aelin tunneled down, down, down into her power, felt him doing the same with his, felt every ounce of ice and wind and lightning go slamming from him into her. And when it reached her, the core of his power yielded to her own, melted and became embers and wildfire. Became the molten heart of the earth, shaping the world and birthing new lands.

Deeper and deeper, she went.

Aelin had a vague sense of the ship rocking beneath them, felt the faint bite of the iron as it rejected her magic, felt the presence of Fenrys and Gavriel flickering around them like candles.

It had been months since she’d drawn from so deep in the abyss of her power.

During the time she’d trained with Rowan in Wendlyn, her power’s limit had been self-imposed. And then that day with the Valg, she’d broken through it—had discovered an entire hidden level beneath. She had drawn from it when she’d encircled Doranelle with her power, had taken a whole day to tunnel that far, to draw up what she needed.

Aelin had begun this descent three days ago.

She’d expected it to stop after the first day. To hit that bottom she’d sensed once before.

She had not.

And now … now with Rowan’s power joining hers…

...

She was a stone plunked into the sea of her power—their power.

Down

and

down

and

down

There—there was the bottom. The ash-lined bottom, the pit of a dormant crater.

Only the feeling of her own feet against the wood deck kept her from sinking into that ash, learning what might slumber beneath it.

Her magic whispered to start digging through that ash and silt. But Rowan’s grip tightened on her waist. “Easy,” he murmured in her ear. “Easy.”

Still more of his power flowed into her, wind and ice churning with her power, eddying into a maelstrom.

“Close now,” Rolfe warned from nearby—from another world.

The Ascent

When Aelin ascends, Rowan continues to anchor her as Aelin breaks through the bottom of the pit to draw up god-like levels of power.

In Rowan's POV, after Aelin releases out her power, we are told of the power, "fusing into a kernel of power so hot it sizzled into him, searing his very soul—" which parrallels the firstlight generated by the drop.

She began pulling up, dragging the abyss of flame and embers with her.

“Steady,” Rowan murmured.

Higher, higher, Aelin rose, back toward the sea and sunlight.

Here, that sunlight seemed to beckon. To me.

Her magic surged for it, for that voice.

“Now!” Rolfe barked.

And like a feral beast freed of its leash, her magic erupted.

...

She’d been doing well as Rowan had handed over his power to her.

She’d balked and bobbed a few times, but … she had the descent under control.

Even if her power … the well had gone deeper than before. It was easy to forget she was still growing—that her power would mature with her.

...

A pillar of flame that did not burn erupted from Aelin, slamming into the sky, turning the world into red and orange and gold.

Aelin was ripped from his arms with the force of it, and Rowan grabbed her hand in a crushing grip, refusing to let her break that line of contact. Men around them stumbled back, falling onto their asses as they gawked upward in terror and wonder.

Higher, that column of flame swirled, a maelstrom of death and life and rebirth.

“Holy gods,” Fenrys whispered behind him.

Still Aelin’s magic poured into the world. Still she burned hotter, wilder.

Her teeth were gritted, her head arched back as she panted, eyes shut.

“Aelin,” Rowan warned. The pillar of flame began expanding, laced now with blue and turquoise. Flame that could melt bone, crack the earth.

Too much. He had given her too much, and she had delved too deep into her power—

...

“Aelin,” Rowan said again, trying to tug on that bond between them.

But there was nothing.

Only the gaping maw of some immortal, ancient beast. A beast that had opened an eye, a beast that spoke in the tongue of a thousand worlds.

Ice flooded his veins. She was wearing the Wyrdkey.

“Aelin.” But Rowan felt it then. Felt that bottom of her power crack open as if the beast within that Wyrdkey stomped its foot, and ash and crusted rock crumbled away beneath it.

And revealed a roiling, molten core of magic beneath it.

As if it were the fiery heart of Mala herself.

Aelin plunged into that power. Bathed in it.

Rowan tried to move, tried to scream at her to stop—

But Rolfe, eyes wide with what could only be terror and awe, roared at her, “Open fire!”

She heard that. And as violently as it had pierced the sky, that pillar of fire shot down, shot back into her, coiling and wrapping inside her, fusing into a kernel of power so hot it sizzled into him, searing his very soul—

Parrallel to Nesta - Pit Level Power

Bringing up and holding back "Pit" levels of power causes time to slow for both Aelin in EOS and Nesta in ACOWAR.

EOS CH35:

Time slowed and stretched as her body pivoted toward that town, as her own arm lifted, her fist aimed toward the heart of it.

...

There was no force in any world that could keep her contained.

And Aelin Galathynius remembered her own name as she shattered through the cage that goddess had shoved her into, as she grabbed that goddess by the damned throat and hurled her out, out, out through that gaping hole where she had infiltrated her, and sealed it—

Aelin snapped into her body, her power.

Fire like ice, fire stolen from the stars—

Rowan’s hair was still moving as he slammed into a stop before her uncoiling fist.

Time launched again, full and fast and unrelenting. Aelin had only enough of it to throw herself sideways, to angle that now-open fist away from him, point it anywhere but at him—

The ship beneath her, the center and left flank of the dark fleet beyond her, and the outer edge of the island behind it blew apart in a storm of fire and ice.

ACOWAR CH74:

Nesta and Cassian stood there, his sword out, Nesta’s eyes blazing with that inner, unholy fire. “Get ready,” she breathed. “He’s coming.”

The power Nesta was holding back …

She’d kill the King of Hybern.

Cassian was the distraction—while her blow found its mark.

Time seemed to slow and warp.

FEYRE'S DROP

When Feyre dies she ends up in darkness. Rhysand and the bond act as her anchor back to the world. We get her first person POV of the Ascent in ACOTAR. We do not get a Level of Hel reference in this drop.

Rhysand makes a point that the Bone Carver has now asked 6 questions after Feyre describes her "Drop." Is this a tie to the 6 minutes you have for the search in CC?

ACOMAF CH18:

“I heard the crack when she broke my neck. It was in my ears, but also inside my skull. I was gone before I felt anything more than the first lash of pain.” “And then it was dark. A different sort of dark than this place. But there was a … thread,” I said. “A tether. And I yanked on it—and suddenly I could see. Not through my eyes, but—but his,” I said, inclining my head toward Rhys. I uncurled the fingers of my tattooed hand. “And I knew I was dead, and this tiny scrap of spirit was all that was left of me, clinging to the thread of our bargain.” “But was there anyone there—were you seeing anything beyond?” “There was only that bond in the darkness.” Rhysand’s face had gone pale, his mouth a tight line. “And when I was Made anew,” I said, “I followed that bond back—to me. I knew that home was on the other end of it. There was light then. Like swimming up through sparkling wine—” “Were you afraid?" “All I wanted was to return to—to the people around me. I wanted it badly enough I didn’t have room for fear. The worst had happened, and the darkness was calm and quiet. It did not seem like a bad thing to fade into. But I wanted to go home. So I followed the bond home.” “There was no other world,” the Bone Carver pushed. “If there was or is, I did not see it.” “No light, no portal?” Where is it that you want to go? The question almost leaped off my tongue. “It was only peace and darkness.” “Did you have a body?” “No.”

“That’s enough from you,” Rhysand purred—the sound like velvet over sharpest steel. “You said a question for a question. Now you’ve asked … ” He did a tally on his fingers. “Six.”

“There was a choice—in Death,” I said.

“I knew,” I went on, “that I could drift away into the dark. And I chose to fight—to hold on for a bit longer. Yet I knew if I wanted, I could have faded. And maybe it would be a new world, a realm of rest and peace. But I wasn’t ready for it—not to go there alone. I knew there was something else waiting beyond that dark. Something good.”

ACOTAR CH46:

Everything was black, and warm—and thick. Inky, but bordered with gold. I was swimming, kicking for the surface, where Tamlin was waiting, where life was waiting. Up and up, frantic for air. The golden light grew, and the darkness became like sparkling wine, easier to swim through, the bubbles fizzing around me, and—I gasped, air flooding my throat.

NESTAS DROP

I believe Nesta drops into The Pit–Level 7 of Hel. This reflects her power, as she has the power of a "Death God."

ACOSF PREFACE:

The black water nipping at her thrashing heels was freezing. Not the bite of winter chill, or even the burn of solid ice, but something colder. Deeper. The cold of the gaps between stars, the cold of a world before light. The cold of hell—true hell, she realized as she bucked against the strong hands trying to shove her into that Cauldron.

True hell—worse than the inky depths mere inches from her toes.

It was a kiss of venom, a death so permanent that every inch of her roared in defiance.

In the beginning, And in the end, There was Darkness, And nothing more.

She did not feel the cold as she sank into a sea that had no bottom, no horizon, no surface. But she felt the burning. Immortality was not a serene youth. It was fire. It was molten ore poured into her veins, boiling her human blood until it was nothing but steam, forging her brittle bones until they were fresh steel. And when she opened her mouth to scream, when the pain ripped her very self in two, there was no sound. There was nothing in this place but darkness and agony and power—

She tore into the darkness with talons and teeth. Rent and cleaved and shredded. And the dark eternity around her shuddered. Bucked. Thrashed. She laughed as it recoiled. Laughed around the mouthful of raw power she ripped out and swallowed whole; laughed at the fistfuls of eternity she shoved into her heart, her veins. The Cauldron struggled like a bird under a cat’s paw. She refused to relent. Everything it had stolen from her, from Elain, she would take from it. Wrapped in black eternity, Nesta and the Cauldron twined, burning through the darkness like a newborn star.

ACOSF CH10:

Hands shaking, she began the descent. Around and around and around. I loved you from the first moment I held you in my arms. Down and down and down. That ancient Cauldron opening an eye to stare at her. To pin her in place. The Cauldron dragging her into itself, into the pit of Creation, taking and taking from her, merciless despite her screaming—Around and down, exactly as she had been pulled in by the Cauldron, crushed beneath its terrible power—

ACOSF CH15:

Ahead of her, the darkness beckoned down the ramp. Like it was an entry into some dark pit of hell.

There was night, and there was the darkness of extinguishing a candle, and then there was this. Not only the true absence of light, but … a womb. The womb from which all life had come and would return, neither good nor evil, only dark, dark, dark.

“I saw darkness,” Nesta managed to say. Her heart would not calm. “Pure darkness.” The likes of which she had not seen since she’d been inside the Cauldron.

[7thlevelofhel]

WITH MIRRORS ARE ACTUALLY VALG MIRRORS

Maeve tells Dorian that “Witch Mirrors” came from the Valg.

“You have seen yourself the power of witch mirrors. What it did to Aelin Galathynius and Manon Blackbeak. Who do you think taught the witches such power? Not the Fae.” A small laugh. “And how do you think I have been able to see so far, hear the voices of my eyes, all the way from Doranelle? There are mirrors to spy, to travel, to kill. Even now, Erawan wields them to his advantage with the Ironteeth.” -Ch. 76, KOA

We also see mirrors in ACOTAR associated with Stryga.

“My sister had a collection of mirrors in her black castle,” the Carver said. We halted once more. “She admired herself day and night in those mirrors, gloating over her youth and beauty. There was one mirror—the Ouroboros, she called it. It was old even when we were young. A window to the world. All could be seen, all could be told through its dark surface. Keir possesses it—an heirloom of his household. Bring it to me. That is my price. The Ouroboros, and I am yours to wield. If you can find a way to free me.” -Ch. 23, ACOWAR

Stryga, who has black blood and feeds off of life itself...

"Bone crunched and she roared, black blood spraying." -Ch. 21, ACOMAF

“They are death-gods, girl,” the Carver hissed. “You are immortal—or long-lived enough to seem that way. But my siblings and I … We are different. And the two of them … Stronger. So much stronger than I ever was. My sister … she found a way to eat life itself. To stay young and beautiful forever thanks to the lives she steals.” -Ch. 23, ACOWAR

Stryga has strong Valg connections…and a friendly reminder that anywhere we see magical mirrors in the Maasverse, we are seeing a connection to the Valg. This magic was originally theirs.

[7thlevelofhel]

THEORETICAL TIMELINE ACROSS THE MAASVERSE

This theoretical timeline takes into account the movements between worlds of our two main parasitic species – the “Valg” and the “Wayfarers.”

This timeline is working on the hypothesis that both species came from the same “Home Planet.” The Valg species includes the Princes of Hel and the Home Planet is the same as Hel. The “Wayfarers” left the Home Planet, renaming themselves Daglan in Prythian and Asteri in Midgard. 

HOSAB: “You will not find our home world there,” a cold voice said through the intercom on the table. “Even we have forgotten where its ruins lie.”

TLDR: Valg = Hel; Wayfarers = Daglan = Asteri

Please note: The timeline works in order of events for the Valg/Hel and order of events for the Wayfarers/Daglan/Asteri. They are all in one timeline to show order of events across universes, but the movements of Valg and Wayfarers do not necessarily correlate to each other – hence the single species timelines.

Breakdown of Supporting Evidence:

VALG HOMEWORLD

HOFAS: “Where did you come from, before you arrived here?” Vesperus folded her hands in her lap. “A planet that was once green, as this one is.” “And that wasn’t good enough?” “We grew too populous. Wars broke out between the various beings on our world. Some of us saw the changes in the land beginning—rivers run dry, clouds so thick the sun could not pierce them—and left. Our brightest minds found ways to bend the fabric of worlds. To travel between them. Wayfarers, we called them. World-walkers.” “So you trashed your planet, then went to feed off others?” “We had to find sustenance.”

TOD: “Long ago, in another world, another lifetime, there existed a land of dark, and cold, and wind. Ruled by three kings, masters of shadow and pain. Brothers. The world had not always been that way, had not been born that way. But they waged a mighty war. A war to end all wars. And those three kings conquered it. Turned it into a wasteland, a paradise for those who had dwelled in darkness. For a thousand years, they ruled, equal in power, their sons and daughters spread throughout the land to ensure their continued dominion."

KOA: “And the more she read about these other worlds, where long-dead wayfarers had once roamed, the more she wanted to see them. To know the kiss of the sun on her face. To hear the morning songs of sparrows, the crying of gulls over the sea. The sea—that, too, was foreign to her. An endless sprawl of water, with its own moods and hidden depths. All they had in her lands were shallow, murky lakes and half dried streams. So while her husband and his two brothers were off waging yet another war, she began to ponder how she might find a way into one of those worlds. How she might leave. Using the very language of existence itself, doors might be opened, however briefly, between worlds. It was forbidden, outlawed long before her husband and his brothers were born. Once the last of the ancient wayfarers had died out, the paths between realms were sealed, their methods of world-walking lost with them. Or so all had thought. But deep in her husband’s private library, she found the old spells. She began with small experiments. First, she opened a door to the realm of resting, to find one of those wayfarers and ask her how it was properly done. The wayfarer refused to tell her. So the queen began to teach herself. Opening and closing doors long since forgotten or sealed. Peering deep into the workings of the cosmos.” 

KOA: They tore apart world after world to find her. And when they arrived at the world where she had made her new home, they did not know her. Even as they went to war, she did not reveal herself. She won, and two of the kings, her husband included, were banished back to their own world. The third remained trapped, his power nearly broken. He crawled off into the depths of the earth, and the victorious queen spent her long, long existence preparing for his return, preparing her people for it. For the three kings had gone beyond her methods of world-walking. They had found a way to permanently open a gate between worlds, and had made three keys to do so. To wield those keys was to control all worlds, to have the power of eternity in the palm of your hand. 

KOA: “How do you think we took the keys in the first place?” A hateful, horrible smile. “In my world, your kind exists, too. Not healers to us, but executioners. Death-maidens. Capable of healing—but also unhealing. Unbinding the very fabric of life. Of worlds.” Erawan smirked. “So we took your kind. Used them to unbind the Wyrdgate. To rip the three pieces of it from its very essence. Maeve never learned it—and never shall.” His jagged breathing deepened as he savored each word, each step closer. “It took all of them to hew the keys from the gate—every one of the healers amongst my kind.”

HOFAS: Hel. Lost A.E. 17001. A dark, cold world with mighty creatures of night. They saw through our lures. Once warring factions, the royal armies of Hel united and marched against us. We were overwhelmed and abandoned their world, but they gave chase. Learned from our captured lieutenants how to slip between the cracks in realms.

ERILEA

COM: “But long ago, before humans overran this miserable world, a different sort of evil broke through the gates: the Valg. Demons from another realm, bent on the conquest of Erilea, and with the force of an endless army behind them. In Wendlyn, they fought against the Fae. Try as the immortal children might, they could not defeat them. “Then the Fae learned that the Valg had done something unforgivable. They had taken a piece of a Wyrdgate with their dark magic, and split it into three slivers—three keys. One key for each of their kings. Using all three at once, the Valg Kings were able to open that Wyrdgate at will, to manipulate its power to strengthen their forces, to allow an endless line of soldiers to pour into the world. The Fae knew that they must stop it.” Celaena stared at the fire, at the mirrors, at the darkness of the wagon around her. The heat was smothering now. “And so a small band of Fae set out to steal them from the Valg Kings,” Yellowlegs said, her voice coming nearer again. “It was an impossible task; most of those fools didn’t return. “But the Wyrdkeys were indeed retrieved, and the Fae Queen Maeve banished the Valg to their realm. Yet for all her wisdom, Maeve couldn’t discover how to put the keys back in the gate—and no forge, no steel, no weight could destroy them. So Maeve, believing that no one should have their power, sent them across the sea with Brannon Galathynius, first King of Terrasen, to hide on this continent. And thus the Wyrdgate remained protected, its power unused.”

HOSAB: “The Midgard shifters were Fae from a different planet. All the Fae in that world shared their form with an animal. The mer descended from them, too. Perhaps they once shared a world with your breed of Fae, but they had been alone on their planet for long enough to develop their own gifts.”

PRYTHIAN

ACOSF: “The Fae were not the first masters of this world. According to our oldest legends, most now forgotten, we were created by beings who were near-gods—and monsters. The Daglan. They ruled for millennia, and enslaved us and the humans. They were petty and cruel and drank the magic of the land like wine.” 

HOFAS: We were slaves to the Daglan. For five thousand years, our people—the High Fae—knelt before them.

HOFAS: “If you knew how to open portals between worlds, why did you need to rely on the Dread Trove?” “Once we left our home world, our powers began to dim. Too late, we realized that we had been dependent on our land’s inherent magic. The magic in other worlds was not potent enough. Yet we could not find the way back home. Those of us who ventured here found ways to amplify that power, thanks to the gifts of the land. We pooled our power, and imbued those gifts into the Cauldron so that it would work our will. We Made the Trove from it. And then bound the very essence of the Cauldron to the soul of this world.”

HOFAS: My mother did not recognize the enemy when they wore a friendly face, beckoning her and the others through the portal. Had she any hesitations upon finding that the empty world she’d been promised was indeed populated, they were calmed when the strangers claimed to be Fae as well, long separated from our world by the Daglan, whom they too claimed to have overthrown. And they had waited all this time to reunite our people.

MIDGARD

HOSAB: Midgard, the map read. Conq. A.E. 17003. Ideal world located. Indigenous life not sustainable, but conditions prime for colonization. Have contacted others to share bounties. The aquatic shifters can hold a hybrid form far more easily than those on land. She read the next page, with a drawing of a Fae female. They did not see the old enemy who offered a hand through space and time. Like a fish to bait, they came, and they opened the gates to us willingly. They walked through them—to Midgard—at our invitation, leaving behind the world they knew. 

HOSAB: “Midgard is a base. We opened the doors to other worlds to lure their citizens here—so many powerful beings, all so eager to conquer new planets. Not realizing we were their conquerors. But we also opened the doors so we might conquer those other worlds as well. The Fae—Queen Theia and her two foolish daughters—realized that, though too late. Her people were already here, but she and the princesses discovered where my siblings had hidden the access points in their world.”

HOSAB: They found us on Midgard in 17002. Tried to convince our lured prey of what we were, and some fell to their charms. We lost a third of our meals to them. War lasted until nearly the end of 17003. They were defeated and sent back to Hel. Far too dangerous to allow them access to this world again, though they might try. They developed attachments to the Midgard colonists. 

HOSAB: “Your Starborn ancestors shut the gates to stop us from invading their realm once more and reminding them who their true masters are. And in the process, they shut the gates to all other worlds, including those to Hel, their stalwart allies. And so we have been trapped here. Cut off from the cosmos. All that is left of our people, though our mystics beneath this palace have long sought to find any other survivors, any planets where they might be hiding.”

[7thlevelofhel]

GUIDE TO THE VALG SPECIES

The Valg are a parasitic demon species that appear in Throne of Glass world, who travelled through a Wyrdgate to Erilea from the "Valg Homeworld."

We do not have a fully comprehensive understanding of the Valg or their homeworld, but we do know that there are many different sub-species of Valg and a heirarchy to the Valg civilization.

This spreadsheet aims to give a comprehensive look at what we know about the Valg, so we can look at where else we might be seeing Valg across the Maasverse.

Mentions of Valg by book

[7thlevelofhel]

TIMELINE OF THE VALG

Here is a comprehensive guide of what we learn throughout the 8 Throne of Glass novels about the Valg, their homeland and their movements.

1. War & Wasteland

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn: “Long ago, in another world, another lifetime, there existed a land of dark, and cold, and wind. Ruled by three kings, masters of shadow and pain. Brothers. The world had not always been that way, had not been born that way. But they waged a mighty war. A war to end all wars. And those three kings conquered it. Turned it into a wasteland, a paradise for those who had dwelled in darkness.”

2. Orcus, Mantyx & Erawan Rule

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn: “For a thousand years, they ruled, equal in power, their sons and daughters spread throughout the land to ensure their continued dominion.”

3. Maeve's Rise

KOA, Maeve to Aelin: “Long ago, when the world was new, when there were no human kingdoms, when no wars had marred the earth, a young queen was born. She did not know she was a queen. Amongst her people, power was not inherited, but simply born. And as she grew, her strength rose with her. She found the land she dwelled in to be too small for that power. Too dark and cold and grim. She had gifts similar to many wielded by her kind, but she had been given more, her power a sharper, more intricate weapon—enough that she was different. Her people saw that power and bowed to it, and she ruled them. Word spread of her gifts, and three kings came to seek her hand.”

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn: “Until a queen appeared—her power a new, dark song in the world. Such wondrous things she could do with her power, such horrible, wondrous things … They each desired her, those kings. Pursued her, wooed her.”

4. Orcus & Maeve

KOA, Maeve to Aelin: “To form an alliance between their throne and the one she had built for herself, small as it might have been. For a time, she thought it would be the newness, the challenge that she had always craved. The three kings were brothers, each mighty in his own right, their power vast and terrifying. She picked the eldest among them, not for any particular skill or grace, but for his countless libraries. What she might learn in his lands, what she might do with her power … It was that knowledge she craved, not the king himself. So they were wed, and she left her small territory to join him in his castle. For a time, she was contented, both by her husband and the knowledge his home offered her. He and his two brothers were conquerors, and spent much of their time away, leashing new lands to their shared throne. She did not mind, not when it gave her freedom to learn as she would. But her husband’s libraries contained knowledge even he did not realize was held within. Lore and wisdom from worlds long since turned to dust. She learned that there were indeed other worlds. Not the dark, blasted realm in which they lived, but worlds beyond that, living atop one another and never realizing it. Worlds where the sun was not a watery trickle through the ash-clouds, but a golden stream of warmth. Worlds where green existed. She had never heard of such a color. Green. Nor had she heard of blue—not the shade of sky that was described. She could not so much as picture it. And the more she read about these other worlds, where long-dead wayfarers had once roamed, the more she wanted to see them. To know the kiss of the sun on her face. To hear the morning songs of sparrows, the crying of gulls over the sea. The sea—that, too, was foreign to her. An endless sprawl of water, with its own moods and hidden depths. All they had in her lands were shallow, murky lakes and half dried streams. So while her husband and his two brothers were off waging yet another war, she began to ponder how she might find a way into one of those worlds. How she might leave.”

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn: “But she only deigned to ally with one, the strongest of them. Orcus, eldest of the Valg kings. They wed, but Maeve was not content. Restless, our queen spent long hours pondering the riddles of the world—of other worlds.”

5. Maeve's Experiments

KOA, Maeve to Aelin: "Using the very language of existence itself, doors might be opened, however briefly, between worlds. It was forbidden, outlawed long before her husband and his brothers were born. Once the last of the ancient wayfarers had died out, the paths between realms were sealed, their methods of world-walking lost with them. Or so all had thought. But deep in her husband’s private library, she found the old spells. She began with small experiments. First, she opened a door to the realm of resting, to find one of those wayfarers and ask her how it was properly done. The wayfarer refused to tell her. So the queen began to teach herself. Opening and closing doors long since forgotten or sealed. Peering deep into the workings of the cosmos. Her own world became a cage. She grew tired of her husband’s warring, his casual cruelty.”

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn: “And with her gifts, she found a way to look. To pierce the veil between worlds. To see realms of green, of light and song.”

6. Maeve & Spiders leave for Erilea

KOA, Maeve to Aelin

“And when he went away to war once again, the queen gathered her closest handmaidens, opened a door to a new world, and left the one she’d been born into. To a fair, lovely world. Where there was no war, no darkness. Not like that in which she had been born. She was made a queen there, too. Was able to hide herself within a new body so that none could know what she was beneath, so that even her own husband would not recognize her."

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn

“And one day, when Orcus was gone to see his brothers, she took a path between realms. Stepped beyond her world, and into the next. She had watched. Had learned of such rips between worlds. A door that could open and close at random, or if one knew the right words. We came with her—her beloved handmaidens. We stepped with her into this … place. To this very spot.”

7. Orcus, Mantyx & Erawan Make the 3 Wyrdkeys

KOA, Maeve to Aelin

“For the three kings had gone beyond her methods of world-walking. They had found a way to permanently open a gate between worlds, and had made three keys to do so. To wield those keys was to control all worlds, to have the power of eternity in the palm of your hand.”

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn

“That Orcus had learned of his wife’s leaving and discovered how she’d done it. Went beyond what she’d done, and found a way to control the gate between worlds. Made keys to do so, shared with his brothers. Three keys, for the three kings. “

KOA, Erawan to Yrene

“In my world, your kind exists, too. Not healers to us, but executioners. Death-maidens. Capable of healing—but also unhealing. Unbinding the very fabric of life. Of worlds. So we took your kind. Used them to unbind the Wyrdgate. To rip the three pieces of it from its very essence. Maeve never learned it—and never shall.It took all of them to hew the keys from the gate—every one of the healers amongst my kind.”

COM, Baba Yellowlegs to Celeana

“Then the Fae learned that the Valg had done something unforgivable. They had taken a piece of a Wyrdgate with their dark magic, and split it into three slivers—three keys. One key for each of their kings. Using all three at once, the Valg Kings were able to open that Wyrdgate at will, to manipulate its power to strengthen their forces, to allow an endless line of soldiers to pour into the world.”

8. Orcus, Mantyx & Erawan Invade Worlds

KOA, Maeve to Aelin

“He looked. Found out all she’d learned, and taught it to himself and his brothers. They tore apart world after world to find her.”

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn

“They went from world to world, opening gates as they willed it, sweeping in their armies and laying waste to those realms as they hunted for her.”

9. Orcus, Mantyx & Erawan Invade Erilea

KOA, Maeve to Aelin

And when they arrived at the world where she had made her new home, they did not know her. Even as they went to war, she did not reveal herself.

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn

Until they reached this world. For Her Dark Majesty had left these mountains, had found another land, and prepared herself well. She knew that one day she would be found. And planned to hide within plain sight. So she did. Disguised in a Fae body, they did not recognize her, the fools. But she used it against them. Knew how to defeat them, how their armies worked.

COM, Baba Yellowlegs to Celeana

But long ago, before humans overran this miserable world, a different sort of evil broke through the gates: the Valg. Demons from another realm, bent on the conquest of Erilea, and with the force of an endless army behind them.

10. Orcus & Mantyx Sent Back

KOA, Maeve to Aelin

She won, and two of the kings, her husband included, were banished back to their own world. The third remained trapped, his power nearly broken. He crawled off into the depths of the earth, and the victorious queen spent her long, long existence preparing for his return, preparing her people for it.

TOD, Kharankui to Nesryn

And when she realized what they had done to arrive here, the keys they possessed … she wanted them. To banish them, kill them, and to use the keys as she saw fit within this world. And others. So she took them. Snuck in and took them, surrounding herself with Fae warriors so others might not ask just how she knew so many things. Oh, the clever queen claimed it was from communing with the spirit world, but … she knew. She had run those war camps. Knew how the kings worked. So she stole the keys. Managed to send two of those kings back, Orcus one of them. And before she could go after the final king, the youngest one who loved his brothers so very deeply, the keys were taken from her.

COM, Baba Yellowlegs to Celeana

In Wendlyn, they fought against the Fae. Try as the immortal children might, they could not defeat them. And so a small band of Fae set out to steal them from the Valg Kings. It was an impossible task; most of those fools didn’t return. But the Wyrdkeys were indeed retrieved, and the Fae Queen Maeve banished the Valg to their realm. Yet for all her wisdom, Maeve couldn’t discover how to put the keys back in the gate—and no forge, no steel, no weight could destroy them. So Maeve, believing that no one should have their power, sent them across the sea with Brannon Galathynius, first King of Terrasen, to hide on this continent. And thus the Wyrdgate remained protected, its power unused.

Post-Banishment

KOA, Erawan to Dorian

“We arrived at this one, encountered a surprising amount of resistance, and they were banished back. I could do nothing less while trapped here than to repay this world for the blow they dealt us. So I will make this world into a mirror of our homeland —to honor my brothers, and to prepare it for their return.”

KOA, Maeve to Dorian

“The collars are one of his more brilliant creations. Neither of his brothers was clever enough to come up with it. But Erawan —he always had a gift for ideas.”

KOA, Dorain and Maeve

“Are the Valg princes and princesses the offspring of the other kings?” “Some are, some are not. No worthy heir has stepped forward. Though who knows what has occurred in their world in these millennia.” Their world. Not her own. “The princes Erawan summoned have not been strong—not as they were. I am certain it annoys Erawan to no end.” “Which is why he has brought over the princesses?” A nod. “The females are the deadliest. But harder to contain within a host.”

[7thlevelofhel]

ERILEA HISTORICAL TIMELINE & GUIDE

A chronological timeline of events we know that shaped the history of Erilea leading up to the events of Throne of Glass. Approximate years have been added where we are given these details.

1st Valg War

Main Players:

FAE – Brannon, Maeve, Mab, Mora & Athril vs. VALG – Orcus, Mantyx & Erawan

Outcomes:

Orcus and Mantyx are sent back to their homeworld

Brannon takes the keys across the sea to Terrasen, Athril is killed by Maeve

Most Valg are defeated but Erawan remains

2nd Valg War

Main Players:

FAE, HUMAN, WITCHES, GODS – Mala, Brannon, Gavin, Elena, Rhiannon vs. VALG – Erawan

Outcomes:

Erawan entombed in Morath

Gavin & Elena given Adarlan

Witches given the Western Wastes

Gods curse Elena for using the lock to entomb rather than fix the Wyrdgate

Adarlan Conquest

Main Players:

HUMAN & VALG – King of Adarlan, Duke Perrington/Erawan

Outcomes:

Magic is outlawed

Galathynius family is murdered and Terrasen is conquered

Wyrdstone Towers are built to stifle magic across the continent

Melisande, Fenharrow & Eyllwe conquered

Libraries and books burned

Magic wielders killed or in hiding

3rd Valg War

Main Players:

HUMAN, FAE, WITCHES – Aelin (Terrasen), Dorian (Adarlan), Mannon (The 13 & Crochan Witches), Sartaq (Khaganate & Torre Cesme) vs. VALG & WITCHES – Erawan (Valg), Maeve (Valg), Ironteeth Witches

Outcomes:

Maeve destroyed 💀

Erawan destroyed 💀

Adarlan King: Dorian Havilliard

Terrasen Queen & Faerie Queen of the West: Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius

Queen of the Witches: Manon Blackbeak

Faerie Queen of the East: Sellene Whitehorn

[7thlevelofhel]

NORSE MYTHOLOGY AND THE INFLUENCE ON CRESCENT CITY - CREATION & CONSTRUCTION OF THE NORSE COSMOS

To really dive into the influence of Norse myths on the Massverse, specifically the Crescent City series, we need to look at the creation and construction of the Norse Cosmos.

Creation Myths

The Prose Edda is a 13th century compilation of Norse Mythology by Snorri Sturluson. Before the beginning of time, the world Muspelheim – a world of fire – existed guarded by the primeval fire giant Surt. After some time, Niflheim – a world of ice – comes into existence. Between the two worlds there was Ginnungagap – a void.

Creation of Ymir

The ice from the north and heat from the south meet in the middle of the void. The ice begins to melt and drip and tales the form of a giant named Ymir, who becomes to ancestor of the race of frost giants. Ymir is the personification of the chaos before creation. The myth continues with giants forming from his armpit sweat and a cow that feeds Ymir, but essentially Ymir is the original frost giant and the giants come from Ymir (chaos) and the void.

In Crescent City, Apollion - Prince of the 7th level of Hel – says: “Do you not know where I come from? My father was the Void, the Being That Existed Before. Chaos was his bride and my dam. It is to them that we shall all one day return, and their mighty powers that run in my blood.” When relating Norse mythology to Crescent City, the Princes of Hel appear to be parallels of the frost giants.

Creation of the Gods

The giant Bor and giantess Bestla have three sons – Odin, Vili and Vé – who become the Aesir gods. The three gods kill Ymir and construct the world from his corpse. Ymir's murder leads to hostility between the giants and gods.

Creation of the World

The gods create the world from a being of chaos and impart order on this creation. The three god take Ymir's body to the middle of the void and his blood creates the sea, his flesh the earth, his bones the rocks, his skull the sky his brain the clouds.

Medievalist Margaret Clunies Ross states: "Characteristically the gods covet important natural resources which the giants own, then steal them and turn them to their own advantage by utilising them to create culture, that is, they put the giants’ raw materials to work for themselves. These raw materials are of diverse kinds and include intellectual capital such as the ability to brew ale as well as the cauldron in which it is made, and abstractions made concrete like the mead of poetry and the runes of wisdom."

The Asteri appear to be a parallel for the Aesir gods. In the simplest form, the Aesir take the abstract and make it concrete. The Asteri similarly take the abstract – raw magic, firstlight – and make it concrete – power and technology. Like the Aesir, who need to steal resources from the giants to create, the Asteri need to harvest firstlight to maintain their power and fuel creation.

The giants are forces of formless chaos, always threatening to corrupt and ultimately overturn the gods’ created order. The Princes of Hel similarly embody this chaos and opposition to the Asteri who embody the Aesir gods.

Yggdrasil and the 9 Realms

Norse mythology believed the universe was made of 9 worlds, with Yggdrasil – a towering evergreen ash tree – at its centre. The worlds, beings and creations are detailed below.

Part of the creation myth:

Muspelheim - Land of Raging Fire

Niflheim- Land of Ice and Mist

Svartalfheim - Realm of the Dwarves: The dwarves are created by the gods from the maggots feeding on Ymir's body. The dwarves make their home in rocks and caves and inhabit a dark, subterranean realm. Dark elves also live here, their origin is unknown.

Jotunheim - Realm of the Frost Giants: The gods made the earth circular and gave the part around the shores to the remaining giants.

Midgard - Realm of the Humans: The gods used Ymir's eyelashes to build a fortress to keep the giants out. They later created humans out of two drift wood logs – naming the man Ask (ash) and the woman Embla (elm).

Asgard - Realm of the Aesir gods: The gods created their own celestial realm high above Midgard. In this realm is Odin's Valhalla, where dead warriors go to rest.

Hel - Hel is both a realm and a goddess and/or giantess. Hel is a child of the trickster god Loki and the giantess Angrboda. Hel was sent to Niflheim, by Odin who feared the chaos Loki's children could unleash, where she was given dominion over the dead. Hel is home to those who pass away from illness, old age, or other non-violent causes. Mythologies differ as to whether Hel is it's own realm or a realm within Niflheim.

Creation story unknown:

Alfheim - Realm of the Light Elves: Creation of this realm is unknown, but it is said to be a land of light and beauty. The light elves are described as "fairer than the sun to look at". They are also heavily associated with the Vanir and humans.

Vanaheim - Realm of the Vanir: The Vanir are Vanir are a group of gods associated with fertility, wisdom, nature and the ability to see the future. Their origin and creation story are unknown.

There are many obvious and direct Crescent City connections when you look at the construction of Yggdrasil. Locations share the Norse names, include Midgard and Hel. All non-human/magical beings are referred to as the Vanir in Crescent City. But the connections are much deeper, including the structure of society.

Creation and Classification

The Aesir gods created a number of species – including the dwarves and humans – and then classified and separated these species. Some species, like the Vanir and elves were not created by the Aesir gods, but were nonetheless classified and separated into their own realms. The giants, who predate the Aesir gods, also have this new order imposed upon them – Midgard even being created as a fortress against them.

When the Asteri arrive in Midgard they created new species – like the angels, brought new species from other worlds – like the fae, and conquer the existing species – like the mortals. They similarly classified and separated these species from each other by creating the 4 houses.

A Structured World

The Aesir gods imposed a strict structure on the world, by killing Ymir and from the chaos creating an ordered world. The Aesir also create a hierarchy, placing themselves both literally and figuratively over all other species.

Similarly, the Asteri impose a strict structure on the new society they create in Midgard. This order and structure extends to the physical world in Midgard, and is illustrated in the above map of Lunathion. Not only is the physical layout of Lunathion and embodiment of the Asteri order, but it also acts to separate and group species – much like the 9 planets.

Other similarities extend to using holy numbers in the structure of the landscape – 3 and 9 were holy numbers to the Aesier gods, thus 9 planets. The Asteri establish 7 gates and zones in Lunathion, and their city, the Eternal City has 7 hills.

As the Aesir gods place themselves above all other species, the Asteri place themselves at the top of both the governing hierarchy and rule from the Crystal Palace – the rest of the eternal city is said to "lay in [the] shadow" of the palace.

Fate and the Wyrd

Throne of Glass introduces the concept of the Wyrd and Wyrdmarks. A very simplified explanation is the Wyrd is the force that governs the entirety of the Maasverse, and Wyrdmarks are symbols and knowledge that can be used to control this force.

The Norns = Wyrd

The Norns are 3 female deities who govern the fate of the universe and every being in it. Not even the gods could challenge the verdict of the Norns, who represented the highest power in the universe. The Norns dwell in Urdarbrunn (the "Well of Fate") beneath the root of Yggdrasil in Asgard. The Prose Edda names the 3 dieties as Urd (Past), Verdandi (Present) and Skuld (Future).

In the Maasverse, we see the concept of fate across all three series. It is often referred to as different entities in these universes, but the Underking states: “A cauldron of life, brimming with the language of creation. Urd, they call her here - a bastardized version of her true name. Wyrd, we called her in that old world.”

ACOTAR: Mother (Three Faces), Cauldron, Fate

TOG: Wyrd, Three Faced Goddess (Mother, Maiden, Crone)

CC: Urd

The concept of the Wyrd functions similarly to the Norns, as it occupies a space separate from gods and mortals and is the highest power of the universe.

Norse Runes = Wyrdmarks

Odin ruled the 9 worlds from Asgard. Key to Odin's rule was his knowledge of runes. Odin gained this knowledge through self-sacrifice. He hung himself from Yggdrasil for 9 days impaled on his own spear. This search for knowledge had one purpose: he had foreseen his death and was seeking a way to defy fate.

Norse runes were more than just letters, they were powerful symbols, each had their own meaningful magical name. His knowledge to use runes granted him powers beyond other gods.

It is never explicitly stated, but we can infer that the language of the Asteri home world is Wyrdmarks. Rigelus states: “The language inked on your back - it is our language. From our home world. I can teach you how to wield it. Any world might be open to you, Bryce Quinlan. Name the world, and it shall be yours.”

Similarly to how Odin was able to rule with his knowledge of runes, the Asteri are able to conquer and rule through their understanding of Wyrdmarks. We see the power of Wyrdmarks and their ability to conquer and rule, even the magically powerful, explicitly in Throne of Glass.

[7thlevelofhel]

CRESCENT CITY (MIX CD)

🌏 HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD 🩸

1. Light It Up Major Lazer, Nyla, Fuse ODG

2. Running With the Wolves Aurora

3. The Moon Will Sing The Crane Wives

4. 7 Minutes is Hell Chrissy Constanza, VOILÁ

5. Prequel Falling in Reverse

~HOOVER INTERLUDE~

6. Demons Neoni

7. Drop the World Lil Wayne, Eminem

☁️ HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH 🌬️

8. BREATHING UNDERWATER Hot Milk

9. Snakes MIYAVI, PVRIS, Arcane, League of Legends

10. In My Head Mike Shinoda, Kailee Morgue

11. Powerful Major Lazer, Ellie Goulding, Tarrus Riley

12. Middle Finger Bohnes

13. HELLBOUND Autumn Kings

14. When Worlds Collide Powerman 500

🔥 HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW ☠️

15. Underground Lindsey Sterling

16. Home mgk, X Ambassadors, Bebe Rexha

17. Wasteland Arcane, Royal & the Serpent

18. all the good girls go to hell Billie Eilish

19. Seize the Power YONAKA

20. Hellfire Arcane, FEVER 333

21. Godkiller Fringe Element

22. Black Hole We Came As Romans, Caleb Shomo

Extended playlist with extra songs that didn't make the final CD cut:

[7thlevelofhel]

ASTERI TIMELINE

We were slaves to the Daglan. For five thousand years, our people—the High Fae—knelt before them. They were cruel, powerful, cunning. Any attempt at rebellion was quashed before forces could be rallied. Generations of my ancestors tried. All failed. -Silene Hologram, HOFAS Ch. 18

But when we compare Silene's claims and Rhysand's history book on the Daglan to the dates we are given in the Asteri Archives in HOSAB...things don't quite add up.

With the timeline we are given in the Dusk Room at the Asteri Archives, the Asteri were in Prythian at some point between 720 A.E. and 14000 A.E. - between Iphraxia and Rentharr.

This leaves a minimum of 3,000 years between Theia and Fionn overthrowing the Daglan and Theia going to Midgard.

Rhys tells us in ACOSF:

“Some strains of the mythology claim that one of the Fae heroes who rose up to overthrow them was Fionn, who was given the great sword Gwydion by the High Priestess Oleanna, who had dipped it into the Cauldron itself. Fionn and Gwydion overthrew the Daglan. A millennium of peace followed, and the lands were divided into rough territories that were the precursors to the courts—but at the end of those thousand years, they were at each other’s throats, on the brink of war.” 

“Fionn unified them and set himself above them as High King. The first and only High King this land has ever had.” 

We don't have a set date for how long Fionn ruled but nearly 2,000 years?

Silene claims "But my mother was still in her prime," when Fionn died. But given the timeline from the dusk room matched with what we know from Silene and Rhys she would have been ~3,100 years old when they went to Midgard.

In HOSAB, Rigelus says: "Our people, who built fearsome warriors in that world to be their army. All of them prototypes for the angels in this one. And all of them traitors to their creators, joining the Fae to overthrow my brothers and sisters a thousand years before we arrived on Midgard. They slew my siblings."

So after the Daglan were overthrown in Prythian, 1000 years passed and then the Asteri arrived in Midgard.

This poses a few possible implications:

1AE ≠ 1VE : So how long is an AE? I think 1AE could = 33VE, as this is the date we are given at the beginning of every CC novel as the year the 4 Houses of Midgard were established.

There are multiple groups of Asteri. It appears Rigelus was not in Prythian, as he says that the fae overthrew his "brothers and sisters" not him and he uses "our people" when speaking about the Daglan on Prythian but "we" when referring to the Asteri on Midgard.

Has this timeline sparked any thoughts or theories for you?

[7thlevelofhel]

ARE THE ARCHERON SISTERS DESCENDANTS OF THE IRONTEETH WITCHES?

In the Throne of Glass world, Ironteeth Witches are a species of witch created by the mating of Valg and Fae. Ironteeth are immortal, have blue blood, a retractable set of iron teeth and nails, and a clear eyelid for flying.  

Ironteeth greatly resemble human women in shape and many are beautiful. Ironteeth are all female. Ironteeth culture is ruthless and rigid and based on raising their witchlings to be heartless, loyal, and bloodthirsty warriors.

Ironteeth worship the Three-Faced Goddess. Ironteeth Witches are able to build magical objects – including witch mirrors and enchanted ironwood brooms they used to fly. Some Ironteeth witches are oracles, and have seer abilities. The only magic the Ironteeth can unleash is called the Yielding, which unleashes from her in an ebony wave.

We do see a descendant of the Ironteeth who is mortal – Elide. Manon can smell her witch blood, but Elide despite her lineage, Elide has red blood, no iron teeth or nails and no other "witch" powers.

Evidence of Witchling Archerons

PUBLISHING ORDER

If we look at the publishing order, Heir of Fire, where the Ironteeth witches become a main POV was published on September 2, 2014. The next book for SJM to publish was A Court of Thorns and Roses on May 5, 2015.

IRON IN ACOTAR

From songs sung to us as lullabies over our cradles, we all knew from infancy that faeries hated iron.

From Chapter 1 or ACOTAR we are shown that humans believe faeries hate iron. When we go to Prythian we discover iron has no effect on the fae...so why do humans believe this?

“Iron?” I managed to say. “Doesn’t do us a lick of harm. Only ash, as you well know.”

In the TOG world, the fae's powers can be nullified with iron. Including this false lore links the new series back to the TOG world and heavily hints at a connection between ACOTAR and TOG.

IRONWOOD BED

The Archeron sisters sleep in an ironwood bed. "Ironwood bed" is mentioned twice in Chapter 2 and is the only thing they have left of their mother.

The room was large enough for a rickety dresser and the enormous ironwood bed we slept in. The sole remnant of our former wealth, it had been ordered as a wedding gift from my father to my mother. It was the bed in which we’d been born, and the bed in which my mother died. In all the painting I’d done to our house these past few years, I’d never touched it.

There was nothing left of her in the cottage beyond the ironwood bed— and the vow I’d made.

3 FEMALES

Ironteeth witches only have female offspring, while Crochan witches have both male and female children. All three Archeron's are females, which doesn't prove anything but it does fit with what we know about Ironteeth witches.

Three is also an important number to the withes in TOG. They worship the Three-Faced Goddess – Mother, Maiden & Crone. The Ironteeth have three witch clans – the Blackbeaks, Bluebloods & Yellowlegs.

FAE TRANSFORMATIONS

When all three Archeron sisters are transformed from "human" to High Fae, they become very powerful. Is this because they already have immortal lineage?

An Analysis of Each Sister

NESTA

Nesta has the most witch evidence surrounding her character.

Iron

Throughout the series, iron and Nesta are heavily intertwined.

Tamlin, a High Lord of Prythian, is unable to glamour the mortal Nesta. While I do think this is mostly due to Nesta's metaphorical "iron will," witch blood would help to counteract the glamour. “Your beast’s little trick didn’t work on me,” she said with quiet steel. “Apparently, an iron will is all it takes to keep a glamour from digging in." -ACOTAR Clotho huffed a laugh. She has a will of iron. -ACOSF

Nesta's mental shields are unsurprisingly described iron. “She never lowered her shields. Her shields are …” “A fortress of solid iron,” Rhys murmured, eyes on Nesta. -ACOSF

Upbringing

Ironteeth culture is ruthless and rigid and based on raising their witchlings to be heartless, loyal, and bloodthirsty warriors. This sounds a lot like Nesta's early upbringing when she discusses both her mother and grandmother.

My Nesta. Elain shall wed for love and beauty, but you, my cunning little queen … You shall wed for conquest. -ACOSF Nesta had been seven when the stern-faced dame who had insisted on being called Grandmamma had beaten her palms raw with a ruler for missteps in her dancing lessons. -ACOSF But what Feyre does with paint, that’s what Nesta did with music and dance. Our mother saw it when we were children, and honed it into a weapon. -ACOSF

Loyal

Nesta is described and shows loyalty throughout the series. From hiring the mercenary to go after Feyre in ACOTAR to saving Emerie and Gwyn in ACOSF.

“Nesta is many things, but she’s certainly loyal.”  -ACOWAR

Bloodthirsty

The Ironteeth witches drink blood. They do not need it to survive but rather liken it to wine. Now Nesta never drinks blood, but it is joked about.

“I’d say Nesta rivals Amren for sheer bloodthirstiness.” -ACOWAR “Perhaps Nesta will take up the blood-drinking habit, too. I certainly believe her threat to rip out my throat.” -ACOWAR

Wind

The witches in TOG are said to "hear the song of the wind." Nesta is tied to the wind a few times in the series, and her home is the House of WIND.

The Bone Carver claims: “How the wind moans her name. Can you hear it, too? Nesta. Nesta. Nesta. -ACOWAR “We heard about you down here. You are the one the sea and the wind and the earth whispered of.” - ACOSF And then she moved, and it was like watching a river, like watching the wind cut through a mountain. -ACOSF Wanted her body to come apart like a cracked egg, wanted what was left of her soul to drift away on the mountain wind. -ACOSF Ataraxia sang the heartsong of the wind as it whipped through the air. -ACOSF With the wind as their song, Nesta and Emerie found their rhythm. -ACOSF

Scrying

Nesta is seen to scry in both ACOWAR & ACOSF, and is able to do this because of her connection to the cauldron.

When Nesta asks about the three stones and four bones used for scrying, Amren says: “Three stones for the faces of the Mother” -ACOWAR

The Yielding

In TOG, Ironteeth witches cannot summon and wield magic, but for once in a witch's life she can summon great power to unleash upon her enemies. The cost is that she is incinerated in the blast, her body yielded to the Darkness. As the Ironteeth witch yields life to the Darkness, its power fills her and unleashes from her in an ebony wave, a manifestation of what lies in their souls.

When Nesta claims not to have any special magical abilities, Amren says, “When you erupt, girl, make sure it is felt across worlds.” -ACOWAR

Witch References

Nesta refers to herself as a witch multiple times in the series. It is usually to get a rise out of people. But other characters also call her a witch.

Devlan: “Is she a witch.” I opened my mouth, but Nesta said flatly, “Yes.”  -ACOWAR “What is the difference,” she asked none of us in particular, “between a faerie and a witch?” “Witches amass power beyond their natural reserve,” Mor answered with sudden seriousness. -ACOWAR “What’s her business here?” Nesta gave him a secretive smile. “Witchcraft.” -ACOSF Tamlin: “Put that finger down, you witch.” -ACOSF Lanthys inhaled. “What are you?” “A witch,” she breathed. “From Oorid’s dark heart.” -ACOSF

ELAIN

Iron

Elain's mental shields are also described as solid iron. While this material choice was pretty obvious for Nesta whose mind is likened to iron from early in book one, Elain is never likened to iron.

The gates to her mind ... Solid iron, covered in vines of flowers -- or it would have been. The blossoms were all sealed, sleeping buds tucked into tangles of leaves and thorns. -ACOWAR

Seer Powers

In TOG the Blueblood witch clan are the clan associated with seer powers. Manon calls them oracles, mystics, zealots. Baba Yellowlegs, former matron of the Yellowlegs clan, was also a powerful seer.

When the Inner Circle realises Elain is a seer, they assume it was a gift from the cauldron. It could have simply been a random gift from the cauldron. There are some alternatives:

The cauldron chose the gift of sight for Elain because it was a power tied to her witch bloodline.

The seer power was latent in her bloodline, and was amplified by the cauldron when she became immortal.

FEYRE

Of the three sisters, Feyre is the one least associated with being a witch. Nesta and Elain were "made" by the cauldron, while Feyre was "made" by the High Lords. The IRON cauldron might have brought out their witch bloodline, while Feyre dying and being resurrected by the High Lords might have dampened hers.

The Ouroboros Mirror

The Ouroboros, also known as the Mirror of Beginnings and Endings, is a powerful object that shows the looker who or what they truly are. The Ouroboros belonged to the Weaver/Stryga. It came into the possession of Mor's family at some point.

Ironteeth Witches are able to build magical objects – including witch mirrors. Witch Mirrors are mirrors with immense power that have various uses depending on the type of mirror in question. Some witch mirrors can be used to see the future, past, and present. If you have the sister-glass of a witch mirror, you can use them to communicate. There are rare silvers whose forging demands something vital from the maker. Witch mirrors are not easily destroyed.

Feyre is the only person known to have successfully claimed the Ouroboros. Her ability to claim this mirror was down to self acceptance, but what if it was also because it is a witch mirror and Feyre is a witch descendant.

Did I miss any evidence that the Archeron sisters are witch descendants?

[7thlevelofhel]

SWORDS IN THE MAASVERS

Throughout SJM's series we learn about a number of different swords, many with intricate lore and powers. Let's deep dive the different weapons we learn about and draw comparisons.

FLAMING SWORDS

GOLDRYN

SERIES: Throne of Glass

CURRENT WIELDER: Aelin

ORIGINAL WIELDER: Athril

DESCRIPTION: Large, golden-hilted sword with a "ruby" the size of a chicken egg set into the hilt. It has spectral flames flickering around it.

HISTORY: Brannon took Goldryn and Athril's ring and hid them in a cave by a lake where Athril once used Goldryn to carve out The Lake Creature's eye after Athril’s death. The "ruby" is actually the eye of the lake creature.

POWERS: Able to be imbued with Aelin’s fire magic. Able to kill Valg.

NOTABLE KILLS: Maeve

ATARAXIA

SERIES: A Court of Thorns and Roses

NAME ORIGIN: In ACOTAR Ataraxia means “inner peace” in the old fae language. In Ancient Greek Philosophy it means a lucid state of robust equanimity characterized by ongoing freedom from distress and worry...so inner peace.

CURRENT WIELDER & CREATOR: Nesta

DESCRIPTION: Simple and made of steel that crackled with pure magic and glowed like moonlight. Nesta can channel her magic into the sword causing it to glow and blaze with her silver flames. Lanthys calls it a “Death Sword.”

POWERS: Able to be imbued with Nesta's silver flames. Able to kill the unkillable.

NOTABLE KILLS: Lanthys (Death God), Vesperus (Daglan/Asteri)

TRUTH SWORDS

DAMARIS (AKA “Sword of Truth”)

NAME ORIGIN: Damaris means "calf" in ancient greek. It is the name of a woman mentioned in a single verse in Acts of the Apostles as one of those present when Paul of Tarsus preached in Athens.

SERIES: Throne of Glass

CURRENT WIELDER: Dorian

ORIGINAL WIELDER: Gavin

DESCRIPTION: Ancient, its hilt is silvery gold, and its pommel is in the shape of an eye. Its scabbard is decorated with Wyrdmarks. After killing Erawan, the blade is described as black as onyx.

HISTORY: Placed in Elena’s tomb after Gavin’s death. Used to solve the Wyrdkey riddle in Elena’s tomb.

POWERS: The sword can detect truth. Able to kill Valg. Able to be imbued with magic. Is used to summon Gavin and Kaltain.

NOTABLE KILLS: Erawan

TRUTH TELLER

SERIES: A Court of Thornes and Roses & Crescent City

CURRENT WIELDER: Azriel

ORIGINAL WIELDER: Enalius

DESCRIPTION: Obsidian-hilted hunting knife with a dark scabbard embossed with the name in silver Illyrian runes. Truth-Teller is the twin to Gwydion, both forged from the iridium mined from the same meteorite. When the knife is near its twin Gwydion, it glows with dark light in response to Gwydion's white light.

HISTORY: Cauldron made or dipped (histories differ), Passed from Enalius to Fionn to Theia (taken to Midgard) to Seline (taken back to Prythian). Bryce "borrows" it from Prythian to defeat the Asteri in Midgard and then returns it to Prythian (HOFAS).

POWERS: Said to be able to help its bearer discern truth from lies. When combined with Gwydion the blades can create a black hole.

NOTABLE KILLS: King of Hybern

STAR SWORDS

GWYDION (AKA "THE STARSWORD")

SERIES: A Court of Thornes and Roses & Crescent City

NAME ORIGIN: In Welsh mythology, Gwydion is a God of magic, and astrologer, and storyteller.

CURRENT WIELDER: Nesta

ORIGINAL WIELDER: Fionn

DESCRIPTION: Dark and beautiful as the night itself. Gwydion's power is described as holy, savior's light. The sword has a dark blade with a black hilt, and is made of iridium mined from a meteorite.It's the twin of Truth-Teller, the sword glowing with white light, starlight, while Truth-Teller glows with dark light.

HISTORY: Cauldron made or dipped (histories differ), Passed from Fionn to Theia (taken to Midgard) to Pelias. Ruhn claims the sword in the Cave of Princes. The sword becomes Bryce's, and is later taken back to Prythian by Bryce and given to Nesta.

POWERS: Only someone with Starlight powers can trigger its powers, the blade being keyed to Theia's powers. When combined with Truth Teller the blades can create a black hole. It is said that Gwydion can kill the unkillable.

ASTERION SHORT SWORD (UNAMED)

SERIES: Throne of Glass

NAME ORIGIN: Asterion in ancient greek means "starry." Asterion in greek mythology was a river-god of Argos. In greek mythology, the Minotaur's given name is Asterion.

CURRENT WIELDER: Nesryn

DESCRIPTION: Short sword made of shining dark metal inlaid with swirls of gold, the cross-guard curving slightly at its ends. Nesryn describes it as, "metal shining as if imbued with starlight, interrupted only by the carvings down the fuller."

HISTORY: Nesryn discovers the blade in the dungeons of the abandoned Watchtower of Eidolon on the Southern Continent, Sartaq believes the blade was, “Likely forged by the Fae smiths in Asterion, to the east of Doranelle—perhaps even before the first of the demon wars.”

POWERS: When Nesryn draws the sword against the kharankui they shy away. It is believed these blades work against the Valg but I can't find any confirmation of this in the text.

OTHER: Sartaq picks up an Asterion knife from this cache of weapons.

OTHER SWORDS

WIND CLEAVER

SERIES: Throne of Glass

CURRENT WIELDER: Manon

DESCRIPTION: Made in the style of a witch's sword – unadorned.

SWORD OF ORYNTH

SERIES: Throne of Glass

CURRENT WIELDER: Aedion

DESCRIPTION: The Sword of Orynth is a simple sword with a dull hilt which is covered in scratches. The pommel consists of horn.

HISTORY: The Sword of Orynth, originally a traditional possession of the protector of Terrasen, historically designated the leader of Terrasen's army, typically a member of House Galathynius. Following Adarlan's invasion of Terrasen, the sword fell into the hands of Dorian Havilliard I. The sword was given to Aedion Ashryver, who feigned allegiance to Adarlan.

POWERS: Symbolic

NOTHUNG

SERIES: Throne of Glass

WIELDER: Late King of Adarlan (Dorian, Father of Dorian)

DESCRIPTION: Nothung is a broad sword, whose hilt is decorated with a screaming Wyvern.

NARBEN

SERIES: A Court of Thorns and Roses

STATUS: Lost, potentially thrown into the sea by Amarantha

DESCRIPTION: Older than Gwydion (Starasword). Narben’s powers had not been the holy, savior’s light of Gwydion, but ones far darker. Lanthys notes “That is not Narben.” when Nesta strikes him with Ataraxia.

FENDYR SWORD

SERIES: Crescent City

STATUS: Destroyed

DESCRIPTION: It was light but perfectly balanced. Simple, yet impeccably made. The sword is recognisable but we do not know why.

HISTORY: Fendyr/Wolf-Shifter heirloom. We know little about the history but it is very important to the Wolf-Shifters. Danika is given it by the Prime (her grandfather). Bryce has it for a time, then Sabine possesses it, but the sword is later destroyed by Ithan.

THEORIES

Truth Teller & Gwydion (Starsword) are potentially the Asterion blades Sartaq and Nesryn took from the Watchtower of Eidolon. They end up in ACOTAR and are dipped in the Cauldron to superpower them to defeat the Daglan - giving them the power of the Void.

Narben might be Demaris. Its powers are said to be "far darker." The God of Truth was a very dark god - known as the sin eater, let's not forget the Temple of Truth. The blade is described as black as onyx after it kills Erawan.

FURTHER Qs

We learn a lot of swords names in TOG. In ACOTAR only Azriel and Nesta have named blades. In CC we only see two important blades, and only one is named...why is this?

Comment your thoughts on the Swords of the Maasverse. Did I miss any swords or any connections?