This is a side-blog where I'll be posting my observations, theories, and related notes while I do a thorough re-read of Dark Rise and Dark Heir by C.S. Pacat.
Prior to this I've only enjoyed the series via audiobook, and I have a tendency to get lost in the story, so it's easy for me to miss the cool little details and hints in the text. This time I'm reading the eBooks slowly, intentionally, making lots of highlights and notes, and sometimes researching things like the meanings of character names or the symbolism of motifs like the Hawthorn tree.
Since I'm posting as I go along, I'm likely to make some mistakes, especially where I misremember details from later on in the series. Feel free to point them out, and to add your own thoughts in comments and reblogs!
The Tags Masterlist in this post will be updated as I go along. [Some of the tags will be for posts I haven't yet published though, so don't be surprised if you click one and end up with a whole lotta nothing!]
Continuing my detailed re-read of Dark Rise, I came across this passage shortly after the Cup/Shadows reveal:
Justice’s eyes were dark. ‘They say that when the three kings drank, they lived a full life of power, and only became shadows after they died natural deaths. But the Blood of Stewards is not as strong as the Blood of Kings. We can only resist the Cup for so long. If an ordinary human were to drink, they would turn to shadow instantly. Even those with weaker Steward blood would turn too fast – a day, a week. That’s why only the strongest of us drink. The stronger your blood, the longer you last. But of course, you can’t know for sure.’
Now, I'd already been considering the possibility that Cyprian might be a king's descendant, since as far as I remember we don't know anything about his bio parents (Violet assumes they were Janissaries, but I don't think that's ever confirmed). However, Cyprian needed several minutes to get his shadow under control immediately after he drank from the Cup in Book 2.
Ettore, on the other hand, has been living a life of wild hedonism for who knows how long, and shows no signs of turning. I'd wondered in the past if this was meant to be a clue that the Stewards' ascetic lifestyle isn't as effective as they think at controlling shadows. But now I wonder if maybe this is a clue that Ettore has the blood of kings?
[I'm currently only partway through my re-read of Dark Heir, so it might be a bit early for me to post theories about a character that doesn't appear for several more chapters, where I'm likely to find the majority of clues about him and his role in the series. But I got excited and couldn't wait!]
So anyway, I know that Ettore gets shot at the end of book 2, but iirc it's not totally clear if Ettore died from that. If so, then I guess he won't be much help when the Stewards' darkest hour comes up 😕
Then again.... Dude seemed to really enjoy sowing those wild oats, so maybe the King to be Called in the Darkest Hour is one of Ettore's (probably numerous) children. [Put a pin in that.]
Still need convincing? I looked up the meaning of the name Ettore:
Ettore is an Italian name meaning "defender" or "holding fast". It is the Italian form of the Greek name Hector, a legendary Trojan hero from Homer's Iliad known for his courage, nobility, and devotion to his family and city. The name is associated with qualities like steadfastness, bravery, strength, and loyalty.
Homer's Iliad: The name's significance comes from Hector, the greatest Trojan warrior and son of King Priam, who is depicted as a noble and courageous defender of his city.
Italian Tradition: In Italy, the name is associated with these heroic attributes of loyalty, strength, **and leadership, passed down through generations.**
Okay, so there's a lot of good stuff there. We've got the son of a king, and the association with various heroic and noble/majestic attributes, and those attributes being passed down through generations. There's also the "devotion to family" part, but once again let's put a pin in that for now. Another interesting thing is the ancient Greece connection, which ties into my theory that one of the Four Kingdoms of the Old World was in or around Ancient Greece.
Ettore's last name, Fasciale, is where this gets a bit uncomfortable. It's an Italian surname stemming from the word "fascio" which means "bundle" or "group". It is also the root word for the Fasces. From Wikipedia:
A fasces ... is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often, but not always, including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a Roman king's power to punish his subjects, and later, a magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the labrys, the double-bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.
...
The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment ... lictors [a.k.a. executioners], who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands.
We're getting more connections to Ancient Greece and kings, and specifically the authority of a king to punish or execute. Unfortunately, as some of you probably already know, the fasces is better known as the symbol and namesake of the political ideology of fascism. Before 1914, the fasces as a symbol was more commonly utilized by left-wing movements and was associated with unions: the idea is that one stick alone can be easily broken, but a bundle of sticks together are much stronger. But, as they are wont to do, the fascists kind of ruined that. 😒
So uh, yeah, I'm not sure what to think of this. The story takes place about a hundred years before the fasces became associated with, well, fascism. So maybe Pacat is warning us that Ettore's kingship would not necessarily be a benevolent one, or maybe they're ignoring the last 200 years of IRL history for the sake of the book and telling us that Ettore's destiny is to unite the people.
Either way, if Ettore turns out to be descended from a king (bonus points if it's whichever kingdom was in/around present-day Greece), then someone owes me a beer.
This has been in my mind lately... what if the reason Ettore can reveal the hidden ward on Nathaniel's stronghold isn't because he's a "proper" steward who drank from the cup... but because he has blood of the kings!!
The stewards near Undahar is described very different than the stewards we know. They wear reds. The old language calls them Steward Guardians, not the usual stewards. They can be possessed by Returners after the white death, despite supposedly having another occupant (the shadows from the cup).
"Only with Ettore you can stop what is to come"
The probability that this wasnt only because he is The Last Stewards is becoming more possible... he hasnt "stopped" anything yet, and he turns out to not be even the last stewards, so!!! What is exactly he's supposed to stop??
You know, I am actually re-listening to the Dark Heir audiobook (again lol) and spotted something I had previously missed: when Nathaniel's message begins, he says "I am Nathaniel, Steward guardian of Undahar, and I speak to you now at our darkest hour." So you may be onto something here!
Regarding the Steward Guardians though, I'm not sure they did drink from the cup. In fact I think the Guardians getting wiped out might have been what prompted the rest of the Stewards to start using the cup in the first place, so they could potentially fight the Returner Army or at least avoid becoming possessed by them. And if this is the case, then it's not likely Ettore's having drunk from the cup is what allows him entrance to the stronghold. It could be because he has the blood of kings, OR it could be that he has sworn his oaths and *that* is what signifies a true Steward as far as the wards are concerned (and interestingly, that is something Cyprian still has not done, since they skipped the "ceremony" part when he drank from the cup).
Theory, Part 2: What Kind of Magical Being was Sarcean?
This is Part Two of a series theorizing about the type of magical beings the major players of the Old World could be. This installment focuses on Sarcean. [See previous installment for Visander. Next one will be about The Lady.]
I've been bouncing off the walls excited to share this theory since the moment it occurred to me, and I'm especially proud of it because I haven't seen it anywhere else.
Fair Warning: I have put a ton of hours into this and the resulting post is LONG because I suffer from Can't-Shut-The-Fuck-Up Disease. If you want to skip straight to the parts about Dark Rise, look for the heading in bold letters that says: "Andy, talk about fucking Dark Rise already!!!" But it might not make much sense without the long ass folklore and historical research part that comes first.
Without further ado, my theory is this:
Sarcean was a Jinni (a.k.a. Djinn, Jinn, or [in the anglicized version] a "genie").
Most people in the English-speaking world today are more familiar with the concept of a genie as presented in the Disney movie "Aladdin". That movie is a modern adaptation of a 300-ish-year old translation of one of the Arabic folktales in "One Thousand and One Nights," a famous collection of Arabian and Indian folktales. So when I say Sarcean was a "genie", a lot of people are going to picture a blue wispy creature that is imprisoned in a lamp and forced to grant wishes. This is uh, not correct. Or more accurately, that is an extremely limited idea of what constitutes a Jinni, and is quite far removed from the original concept found in pre-Islamic Arabian folklore.
What are the Jinn, really?
The answer to this question is, uh, complicated to say the least. I should make a disclaimer here that I am very much NOT from any culture connected to the Jinn, so my understanding of them is limited to the research I have reviewed specifically for this theory and stories that I have heard from my henna teachers.
Here's my attempt at a summarized answer: Jinn (plural, with the singular being "Jinni") originated in pre-Islamic Arabian paganism and folklore. They are supernatural beings that are neither inherently good nor evil. They can have friendships or even romantic relationships with humans, and can even reproduce with humans. The hybrid offspring of humans and Jinn were considered to be "gifted and talented people with special abilities." Still, generally the Jinn prefer to keep to themselves and their own realm, which is adjacent to ours and invisible to humans. Jinn themselves are naturally invisible, but still corporeal. However, they can shape shift and prefer to take the form of a human or snake (and sometimes other animals like lizards or scorpions). The Arabic root word for Jinn is "jann", and primarily means "to hide", "to adapt", or "beings that are concealed from the senses".
Jinn are also associated with or considered to inhabit spaces that are dark, unclean, underground, or desolate (like wastelands and deserts). It's not clear to me whether this association is part of the original pre-Islamic Jinn mythos, or if it was something that came about later. It's also possible that the association was always there, but has taken on a more negative connotation due to Islamic influence (more on that in a bit).
Jinn are vindictive when crossed and therefore dangerous and generally best avoided. In some lore they are seducers, bearing a resemblance to incubi or succubi. They are often considered responsible for sleep paralysis and various kinds of mental illness (most commonly symptoms of hallucination and psychotic symptoms, mood disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Capgras syndrome, and epilepsy). At their worst, a Jinni will maliciously possess the body of a person (who will then need an exorcism to get rid of them). One of the other Arabic words that stem from the root word jann is "majnūn", which means "possessed" or "insane".
Possession by a Jinn was not always negative, though: soothsayers would act as mediums by inviting a Jinni to possess them, and then other humans could consult the Jinni controlling the soothsayer's body, asking them to resolve disputes or reveal hidden information. This is just one way that Jinn could be called upon for magical aid or protection. Jinn were sometimes akin to muses, inspiring poets and artists. People worshipped them, making offerings and sacrifices to a particular Jinni to request their help (or to appease them, if the supplicant had done something to displease the Jinni).
Essentially, Jinn are sort of a cross between faeries, demons, and minor deities.
As with many ancient folkloric beings, there are elements of the Jinn mythos that differ by region and time period. Most likely they were originally separate but similar concepts that were grouped together and merged over time. But the most significant changes, to my understanding, came with the advent of Islam.
Islam and the Jinn
When Islam came along, Muslims adapted the Jinn so it could be integrated into the their own belief system (much like how pagan beliefs were incorporated into Christianity in Europe). Unfortunately, few primary historical sources of information about Jinn from the pre-Islamic era have survived, which makes getting an accurate picture of pre-Islamic Jinn beliefs difficult. A large contributing factor to this is that Islam vilified the culture that came before it, promoting a revisionist historical narrative called the Jahiliyyah (a.k.a Age of Ignorance) wherein a barbaric pre-Islamic Arabia necessitated saving via the new religion of Islam. [Side Note: I'm not trying to stoke Islamophobia here! Other religions absolutely do this kind of thing too, and Islam probably isn't even the worst offender (looking at you, Christianity). That said I'm not an anti-theist either; stuff is complicated; please don't @ me.]
Anyway, the resulting Islamic version of the Jinn tends towards literal demonization. In some interpretations, Shaitan (Satan) is either the father of all Jinn or is a Jinni himself. The Shayatin, which are unambiguously evil spirits that bear many similarities to the Jinn, are a subject of disagreement among Islamic scholars: are Shayatin a subclass of Jinn, or a separate type of being altogether? Regardless, being pious in your practice of Islam and living an ascetic lifestyle is supposed to repel malicious Jinn (or even control them, but put a pin in that), whereas engaging in sinful behavior attracts them. Witches or sorcerers are said to be able to call upon Jinn to do harm. That said, Islam still maintains that Jinn have free will, are not inherently evil, and can even choose to be followers of Islam or other religions. In the process of incorporating them into Islam, they essentially gave Jinn the same status as humans in the divine hierarchy.
Basically, the Jinn got nerfed and vilified in order to make them "fit". It seems this is the compromise early Muslims made to keep people from worshiping the Jinn (though it appears to have not been entirely successful, as worship-like practices such as making sacrifices to Jinn persist today, and are condemned by Islam as idol-worship).
Notably, there are a couple classes of people whose appeal to Jinn for aid is considered acceptable or even righteous: kings (or other leadership) who live sufficiently pious and ascetic lifestyles. Or rather, they do not ask Jinn for help so much as command it, and their ability to subjugate and control the Jinn is considered a mark of being a just and pious king (remember the thing about piety repelling or controlling Jinn a couple paragraphs ago?). This seems to come from the stories of Jinn being in the service of King Solomon. But it can also apply to religious leaders, not just civic leaders. From Wikipedia:
"There is evidence that subjugation of spirits, jinn, and demons, was also cultivated by various Islamic authorities. Al-Ṭabasī, who was considered a reliable muḥadīth (scholar of ḥadīth) and pious ascetic, wrote an extensive treatise (al-Shāmil fī al-baḥr al-kāmil) on subjugating demons and jinn. According to Zakariya al-Qazwini, it was well known that jinn obeyed al-Ṭabasī. He gives an example, that al-Ṭabasī demonstrated the jinn to the famous scholar Ghazālī, who saw them as shadows on the wall. He professes that jinn only obey when the individual turns away from the temptations of creation and devoting oneself towards God."
Before I move on to the actual Dark Rise part, I want to note one thing that isn't directly related to Jinn (but could hint at an Arabian connection) that was pointed out to me by @laurelinofvalinor. That is the similarity between "Sarcean" and the word "Saracen". Saracen is an archaic term that was used by Europeans in the middle ages to refer to Arabs, and eventually conflated to refer to Muslims in general, especially during the Crusades. It's not difficult to see a possible connection here between our Knights-Templar-Coded Stewards and their crusade against Sarcean.
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Andy, talk about fucking Dark Rise already!!!
All right, so you've probably already spotted a lot of potential connections to Sarcean. My overall theory is that there is some kind of association between Sarcean and the Jinn.
In Doylist terms, I suspect Pacat based the character of Will/Sarcean on Jinn lore. If we're going Watsonian, perhaps the mythos of the Jinn (if such a thing also exists in the Dark Rise universe) is an idea that has been passed down through a 10,000 year long inter-generational game of telephone but was originally based on stories about Sarcean. Or maybe Sarcean himself was a straight-up Jinn. Or, as @clotpolesonly suggested when I told her about this theory, maybe Sarcean is one of those hybrid offspring of a human and a Jinni who has special abilities. Or maybe the offspring of a Jinni and whatever type of magical being the Sun King is (which would dovetail nicely with the theories of the Sun King and Sarcean being related, perhaps half-brothers, or Sarcean as the SK's illegitimate son?). There's a lot of possibilities!
With that out of the way, here are the details that jumped out to me while reviewing Jinn research, in no particular order:
Vindictive Nature: Lol, if vindictiveness weren't such a prominent personality trait in Sarcean/Will, we wouldn't have the book series.
Similarity to Incubi/Succubi (aka sex demons): Sarcean is well known for his rizz, and had a reputation for being a seducer.
Causing Sleep Paralysis: Related to the above, as Incubi/Succubi are also supernatural prime suspects when it comes to causing sleep paralysis. But also see Dark Heir Chapter 14, where Will asks James if he dreams about Sarcean, and James says: "'I don't remember my dreams. But sometimes when I wake up, I can't move. Trapped in sleep, but awake, and it's as if ... there's a great power bending over me. And it's whispering—' Find you. '—I will always—' Find you. Try to run." BRUH, what James is describing is a textbook sleep paralysis episode.
Possession and Causing Mental Illness: The possession part requires little explanation since that is so prominently featured in the books. But remember that one of jinn's cognates (words stemming from the same root word) means "possessed" or "insane"? Think of how people who have just been possessed by Will or Sinclair always think they're having "one of my turns" upon being released. Also, consider the midwife/abortionist Ellie Lange, who was left permanently mentally ill after her failed attempt to abort Will. Also, one of the mental illnesses that are commonly attributed to jinn include Capgras Syndrome, which is when people think someone close to them has been replaced by an identical impostor. Might be a stretch, but I can see someone misdiagnosing the family members of Reborns as having Capgras.
Jann (root word meaning to hide, to adapt, or referring to things imperceptible to the senses) and Invisibility/Shapeshifting: Sneaky Willie! For real, our boy is excellent at sneaking around and hiding, blending in, adapting to survive, and obscuring his identity as the Dark King reborn.
Soothsayers and Revealing Hidden Information (related to the previous two points, possession and jann): Violet and James especially make note of how good Will is at getting people to tell him things, and how he makes them feel seen. Not only is he good at hiding, but he is also good at seeing or revealing that which is hidden. You could even argue that this extends to how other people see Will when he is able to puzzle out truths with his skills of deduction — which probably seems like magical access to hidden information if you aren't privy to his thought process — or when his memories of his life as Sarcean result in him inexplicably (to others) knowing things he shouldn't be able to know: the Old Language, how to open the Gates, or how to find and open the oubliette.
Association with Dark and Underground Spaces: Speaking of the oubliette! There are SO MANY references to the oubliette long before we know anything about it. Usually it's a vague feeling people get when thinking of Sarcean and his power, or being near his dark objects or seeing the S of his Brand. "it was as if the S was reaching for him from out of a deep pit," "like looking into the blackest pit from which no light could escape," "a thousand dark tendrils, reaching out from the black pit of the past," "His stomach sank, a yawning pit opening up between them," "Darkness; a gaping pit that drew all light into itself." Those are all just from searching the first book for the word "pit". However! Sarcean was a Darkbinder, and thus associated with darkness and shadows even before the oubliette; when Visander comes to rescue him from it, Sarcean tells him "my power comes from darkness." Metaphorically speaking, you could even say that the unsavory deeds Sarcean secretly performed at the Sun King's behest were shrouded in darkness (or concealed or hidden, per the root word jann).
Service to Kings: Sarcean was in the service of the Sun King, using his magic at the Sun King's command.
Being Repelled, Repressed, or Controlled via Religious Piety and Asceticism: The entire lifestyle of the Stewards is like that of a religious order, and they maintain this to repress their shadows (Sarcean's creatures). But also, recall Will's description in Dark Heir of his upbringing by Eleanor: "My mother was strict; we didn’t do much." And the part where Will recalls that "his mother had never let him drink even a sip of country wine. Had she been scared he might lose control?" I don't think it's a coincidence that Pacat gave Will an upbringing that recalls Stephen King's Carrie, a child with supernatural powers which her abusive mother seeks to repress and control, both by imposing a strict and deeply religious lifestyle and just straight up physical violence.
Neutral Morality and Free Will: Having free will is not at all a unique trait, but it's interesting given that self-determination is such a major theme of the series that Pacat chose to name their protagonist after it. That Jinn as a whole are morally neutral and yet have been mostly vilified and demonized by religion over time is an interesting parallel to what many fans at least suspect is the case with Sarcean.
Shaitan (aka Satan) being a Jinni/father to the Jinn in Islam: The drawing Violet finds of Sarcean pictured with horns on his head. Also, Visander once refers to Sarcean as "The King of Lies," which is one of many monikers for Satan.
Association with Snakes: Fans have a lot of questions and theories about the mysterious Serpent Kingdom. People have theorized that Sarcean has a connection to that Kingdom, and that his S brand is not a letter but a simple depiction of a serpent.
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Hoo boy. I'm pretty sure that's everything, but I also have a nagging feeling I'm leaving something out. Let me know if you spotted something I missed or haven't thought of, or just any thoughts you have on this theory in general.
Theory, Part 1: What Kind of Magical Beings were the Major Players of the Old World?
We’re told by the text many times (especially by Visander, lol) that the magical people of the Old World were not human, or at least didn’t consider themselves such. They could (and did) procreate with humans, but this resulted in the dilution of magical power in their Descendants over time. So that begs the question: What were they?
A Brief Disclaimer
In Will’s words: “I think what people were is less important than what they are. And what people are is less important than what they could be.” Given that this is a major theme (if not the thesis) of the series, it’s worth pointing out that all of this theorizing is mostly for fun. I’m hoping to maybe connect some dots, predict some plot points or powers, etc. But even if some of my theories end up being validated by Book 3, that doesn’t mean it’s particularly relevant or important, and in fact might end up totally inverted as Pacat is wont to do.
In our hunt through the folklore of magical creatures, we’d best keep in mind Devon’s warning: “You thought you knew what a unicorn was… But you were wrong.”
Many Magical Lineages
Thanks to the following quote from Mrs. Duval, we know that there are a lot of options to answer our general question:
‘There were many with powers in the old world. The Blood of the Phoenix, the Blood of the Manticore. Unlike the Blood of Lions, they have gone extinct. But the Lions endured.’ … ‘I am the last of the Basilisks,’ said Mrs Duval.
Duval is a Basilisk (in addition to being a descendant of Rathorn the Executioner), Violet is a Lion (as are her brother Tom, their father John Ballard, and Violet’s mother Gauhar). But what was Visander? The Lady? Sarcean?
This is Part One of a series dedicated to theorizing about the type of magical beings the major players of the Old World could be, specifically Visander, The Lady, and Sarcean. I may also add Anharion and a few others, but for sure I'm focusing on the first three, starting with Visander.
Visander: Humans, Mages, and maybe a Secret Third Thing?
Visander sometimes refers to the magical people of the Old World as “mages”, but that’s not a type of magical creature so much as an umbrella term for anyone who is a magic user, which is how he seems to use it. He insists to Elizabeth that she is not human because she has The Lady’s power, and clearly considers himself separate from humans. However, he admits to Elizabeth that he cannot do magic himself:
“I am not aladharet. … I cannot do magic,” he said. “I have never trained with the” – there was no other word for it – “adharet. … I do not know those skills. I only know what I have seen, watching the adharet cast spells as I fought to protect them.”
“You’re saying … that you’re a fighter, you can’t use magic?”
So, Visander doesn’t consider himself human, yet he cannot do magic. It’s possible that this is not due to him not being a magical creature of some kind, but because he never trained to use whatever power he has. Perhaps his own power was too weak to be worth developing? Or perhaps it was a choice to focus on honing his physical combat skills instead, and now he thinks it is too late for him to learn (like a lot of adults when they consider the possibility of learning a new skill, like learning a new language)? Regardless, whatever type of creature Visander is, he is adamant that he is not human.
[Side note: it would be interesting if Visander turns out to actually be just a regular human, and all his disdain for humans is simply a kind of internalized self-prejudice: this would add an additional layer to the series' metaphors for queerness.]
Though Visander claims not to have any magical powers of his own, in the present-day at least he has the ability to see through some types of illusions. It takes him a few seconds, but Visander is able to recognize Devon as Indeviel even in his unfamiliar human form. Visander could also tell instantly that Prescott was not only being possessed, but that it was Will possessing him [although it’s possible that this was more of a lucky guess, if Visander is unaware that the Dark King’s descendants have also used the Brand to possess their underlings].
When I looked up the meaning of the name “Visander” to see if that could give any clues, there didn’t seem to be any established name using that spelling. However, Wisander is a Scandinavian surname combining “wis” (meaning wise) and “Anders” (a more common name that means “man” but carries connotations of strength, manliness, and being a warrior). The root word of “wis” is the Proto-Indo-European word “weid,” meaning "to see,” and is the same root of words like “vision”. Visander is definitely a warrior man, but is he particularly wise? I’d say not, but he certainly does have the ability to see things others cannot.
So what type of magical creature is Visander? Sorry to be anticlimactic, but I still haven’t come close to pinning it down. I have a feeling I’ll pick up on some more clues as I’m researching the other characters, and if so I’ll come back to this with an update. For now, all I can present to you are these wisps.
The next part in this series should be The Lady, but the big one is my theory on Sarcean and I honestly might get too excited to save that bomb drop for last. 😊
AlAdharet: The Mages of the Old World, The (Second?) Brightest Star
Once again, in the process of drafting a totally different post, I've come across an interesting thing that deserves its own post.
From Visander in Dark Heir:
“I am not aladharet. … I cannot do magic,” he said. “I have never trained with the” – there was no other word for it – “adharet. … I do not know those skills. I only know what I have seen, watching the adharet cast spells as I fought to protect them.”
Now initially the word “aladharet” appears to be Arabic, since it’s structured with “al” meaning “the” and “adharet” being a separate word and noun. However, I think there are other languages that use the al-as-the prefix, so that could certainly be wrong. I once took a very simple introductory Arabic course, but that was nearly 20 years ago, so I've got next to nothing. The faintest whiff. La Croix, Arabic flavor. So if anyone has a better understanding of Arabic (or is a linguistics nerd) is reading this and can shed some light, please do!
Anyway, because English and Arabic are so distantly related, when one writes an Arabic word in English, they are just approximating the sound of it with the letters of the English (aka Roman) alphabet. That means that what is written as "adharet" could perhaps also be written as "adharat", "atherat", "atherad", or any number of variations on similar sounds. So trying to figure out a possible translation with as little knowledge as I have is... difficult, to say the least. But I gave it a shot and did some googling.
I didn't find much for "adharet", but "Adhar" is the month of March in the Arabic calendar. That could be something, considering the adharet's association with The Lady, who is in turn associated with the season of Spring. That's pretty weak, though.
Now, "adhara" turned up a lot of possibilities in several languages, including Sanskrit, Nepali, and Hindu. If you look through that page, you'll see several concepts repeated over and over:
To be lower or underneath; A base, foundation, or support;
That which sustains, upholds, protects, lifts, aids, or assists;
A vessel, receptacle, or container;
A point in the body which contains power or energy; or a point of focus;
The lower lip, or lower parts of the body;
Of lower status, quality, or value; inferior, or even contemptible.
Now some of those things sound like they could have relevance to an Order of magic users who fought on the side of the Light, whose power is contained inside them, and which they use to protect and support others. Some of the other concepts sound... uh, less relevant, I guess.
But probably the most interesting thing I found was that Adhara is the traditional name of a star: Epsilon Canis Majoris. Technically it's two stars (a binary star system), and is the second-brightest point in the constellation Canis Major. 4.7 million years ago it was the brightest star in the sky, but now it is only the 22nd brightest (although it is still the brightest source of extreme ultraviolet radiation). Canis Major also contains Sirius, which is the current brightest star in the sky.
To name the Light's order of mages after the second-brightest star in a constellation that contains the brightest star (The Lady, perhaps?) makes sense to me.
Stratford Langthorne - the real-life Abbey on the Marsh - and other possible IRL inspiration for C.S. Pacat
It took a bit of hunting, but thanks to Google Maps, Wikipedia, and the map included at the beginning of Dark Rise, I'm pretty confident that Stratford Langthorne Abbey is the Abbey on the Marsh.
From Wikipedia:
"Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne … also known as West Ham Abbey due to its location in the parish of West Ham, was one of the largest Cistercian abbeys in England, possessing 1,500 acres of local land"
Per Justice in Dark Rise, we know that the Abbey itself was torn down about a hundred years before the events of the book, which takes place in 1821.
"The Abbey lay between the Channelsea River and Marsh Lane (Manor Road). Nothing visible remains on the site, as local landowners took away much of the stone for their own buildings"
... "The Great Gate of the abbey survived in Baker's Row until 1825."
... "Excavation continues on the site as the remaining former factories are redeveloped. The latest, at Bakers Row, was in early 2008 and identified the former gatehouse of the Abbey - to the north east of the Abbey Church and defining the eastern edge of the precinct. This area, where former council stables were situated, is now protected from further development"
Weren't the stables of the Hall of the Stewards near its Northern Gate? And doesn't the following bit kind of sound like the Stewards with all of their artisan crafts?
"The Abbey was self-sufficient for its needs ... There were also workshops for brewing, shearing, weaving and tannery with farm buildings to service the extensive holdings and mills ..."
The Abbey's crest can still be seen on the outside of the Stratford Old Court House, and has been incorporated into the Newham Coat of Arms:
[Now please keep in mind that the whole rest of this post is just me spitballing about things that possibly provided inspiration for Pacat, because the heraldry for Newham above and Barking/Dagenham below are both from the 1900s, even if they incorporated older elements such as the Abbey Crest.]
Anyway, I don't know about anyone else, but in that Newham heraldry I see the Sun, with a sword (Ekthalion?) protruding from it, along with the Sun King's "royal sceptre with the sun's rays coruscating from it" as described in ch. 15 of Dark Heir. The "sceptre" is actually the crozier of the Bishop of Stratford-Lanthorne Abbey, but damn if it don't look like the Sun King's sceptre to me.
Also, before I came across Stratford Langthorne Abbey, I thought the Abbey on the Marsh could have been Barking Abbey (but it's just a bit too far from the area in Dark Rise's map). But when I was looking through heraldry today, the coat of arms for the nearby Borough of Barking and Dagenham (which like the Newham one has elements that represent its Abbey), and it really grabbed my attention:
We have two lions that are collared, holding torches, and a tower [see my previous update re: the Four Kingdoms] with the rays of the sun behind it. The motto ('DEI GRATIA PROBEMUR REBUS') means "By the grace of God let us be judged by our deeds." I can't help looking at those collared Lions without seeing Rassalon, Violet, and James asking to be judged by their deeds.
There's one other thing I want to include here, which isn't directly related to Dark Rise but to C.S. Pacat's other novel series, Captive Prince. One of the sources from the Wikipedia article on the Stratford Langthorne Abbey contains a paragraph which includes two very recognizable names for fans of CaPri:
Near the west end of the abbey church was a house occupied in 1538 by Lady de Vere and previously by the countess of Salisbury. ... In the same area were several other unnamed houses, one of which was on lease to Peter Vannes, dean of Salisbury.
Per the acknowledgements at the end of Dark Rise, we know that Pacat was working on the project for "more than ten years" before Dark Rise was finished. Dark Rise was published in 2021, and the first book of Captive Prince was self-published in 2013, so there were at least a couple years of overlap on the two projects. Anyway, I simply find it cool to discover in my own research a place where the world-building of the two projects may have intersected.
More Evidence that Ettore is the King to be Called
Now that I'm a bit further along in Dark Heir than I was when I originally posted this theory, I've gotten a few more pieces of evidence.
First, the two instances (perhaps more to come) where Ettore is described as being king-like:
Instead of greeting them, the Devil took a flask of spirits from one of his men, then chugged it, then went to the seat in front of the osteria’s hearth fire and threw himself down on it, a grimy king sprawled on a grubby throne.
And then this quote from Cyprian:
‘You drank from the Cup.’ Anger burned in him, hot and bright. ‘You might act like a bandit king, but you’re not. You’re a shadow. You’ll kill everyone around you. It’s only a matter of time.’
So these are good foreshadowing, and I half-remembered them from previous reads. But then I saw this quote from Cyprian, and now I'm 100% convinced of this theory:
‘You’re an oathbreaker! You deserted when you swore to defend the Hall! You ran,’ said Cyprian, ‘when the Stewards needed you most.’
"when the Stewards needed you most", a.k.a. their darkest hour. It cannot be a coincidence that the last sentence is divided by the dialogue tag in that way. This is an intentional choice that is meant to tell us something.
Symbolism and Folklore re: the Hawthorn Tree/Blossom
The other day I looked it up, and the Hawthorn tree/blossom has symbolized or been connected to a lot of different concepts in various cultures.
From Wikipedia:
"The hawthorn has been regarded as the emblem of hope, and its branches are stated to have been carried by the ancient Greeks in wedding processions."
... "In the Victorian era, the hawthorn represented hope in the language of flowers."
The blooming of the Hawthorn tree in Spring was a big deal, especially to pre-Christian European cultures, and so the tree itself has strong associations to Spring and the concepts of growth and renewal, but also courtship, marriage, and fertility (and therefore sex). In fact, Hawthorn trees are also called "maytrees", and the "mayflower" is actually another name for the Hawthorn blossom.
Hawthorn was considered to have healing properties, and was said to be able to heal a broken heart. There have actually been studies on the medicinal applications of Hawthorn for treating heart problems.
From the History and Folklore Podcast episode about Hawthorn Folklore:
Hawthorn was seen to have a number of healing properties ... It is still used in modern medicine to treat a variety of ailments including high or low blood pressure, congestive heart failure (which can lead to edema, formerly known as dropsy) and high cholesterol.
There is also a healing ritual wherein one washes an ailment with a rag dipped into a sacred spring that has a Hawthorn growing next to it, then ties the rag to a branch of the tree.
In Gaelic folklore, the Hawthorn was strongly associated with Faeries. A lone Hawthorn tree growing in the wild was thought to mark the entrance to the Otherworld, and to uproot a Hawthorn tree was to invite bad luck or even death*. The exception to this was when the trees bloom in May, and at that time they were cut down and used as the original maypoles for Spring celebrations. This was also the only time of year that it was considered safe to bring parts of the tree or its blossoms indoors, and doing so outside of this period was also considered an invitation to bad luck.
Again, from the History and Folklore Podcast episode about Hawthorn Folklore:
There is a clear difference in historical attitude between hedgerow hawthorns, planted by humans, and lone hawthorn trees, sometimes called ‘sentry’ trees, which were said to either be planted and inhabited by fairies, or to have sprung from the ashes of the dead scattered through the world.
... However, in Ireland a ‘sentry thorn’ was a fairy trysting place. It was reported that a woman wearing white could be seen entering and leaving a lone hawthorn tree, and fairies would be seen in their branches. It is thought that this woman could be a fairy queen, or potentially a banshee. Their association with death, and the scattered ashes of the dead is quite interesting in this instance, as there are instances in Icelandic and Scandinavian folklore associating elves with the reincarnated souls of the dead, which makes me wonder if a similar belief used to exist in Ireland and other Celtic nations, or if its just a coincidence.
... Because of their association with fairies, lone hawthorn trees demanded great respect and were especially dangerous on May Day, midsummer or halloween - the times of greatest fairy power.
Some cultures believed that Hawthorn could be used to ward off "intruding supernatural forces", especially vampires or witches.
From Wikipedia again: "Serbian folklore that spread across Balkan notes that hawthorn is essential to kill vampires, and stakes used for their slaying must be made from the wood of the thorn tree."
From the Wikipedia article about the Common Hawthorn:
As protection against witchcraft, hawthorn was sometimes placed in the cradles of infants, or around houses and doorways. The Greeks reportedly placed pieces of hawthorn in casement windows to prevent witches from entering houses, while Bohemians placed hawthorn on the thresholds of cow houses for the same purpose. Hawthorn was sometimes placed on the coffin of a deceased person, on top of the person's corpse, or in the corpse's sock. In Bosnia, women would sometimes place a piece of hawthorn behind the headcloth of a recently deceased person, and then throw away the remaining twig on their way home. If the deceased person was a vampire, it would focus its attention on the hawthorn instead of following the woman home. Among the South Slavs, stakes made of hawthorn or blackthorn wood were considered effective in impaling vampires.
Okay, so what might all this mean for the Dark Rise series?
Hope: Obviously, the Stewards also consider the Hawthorn tree and blossom to be a symbol of hope, though this is not just a general association but a belief that is tied to the legacy of a specific person (The Lady).
Taxonomy, Associations with Courtship & Marriage: The Hawthorn is classified as being part of the Rose family. This is notable because the symbol of the Kingdom of Flowers is a rose, and the Hawthorn blossom is the symbol of The Lady, who was originally from the Kingdom of Flowers before she went to the Sun Kingdom to wed the Sun King.
The Danger of Uprooting a Hawthorn Tree: Related to the above, I wonder if there could be a connection here, that the Sun King incurred bad luck by "uprooting" The Lady from her home? Just a thought!
Association with Fertility: Need I say more than "I cannot return when I am called to fight, So I will have a child"?
Association with Healing: this one I'm not so sure about. Other than James being able to heal himself and the Waters of Oridhes, the only other healing power we've seen (that I can remember at this point anyway) comes from the midwives, Ellie Lange and her niece Polly. Polly tells Elizabeth that "we have some of the old power in my family, too." Elizabeth blurts out that they're Descendants, which seems to confuse Polly, and Elizabeth decides not to push the question further out of concern for Polly's safety. So we don't know who Ellie and Polly are descended from.
Interestingly though, when Visander awakens shortly after, he initially asks Elizabeth if she was the one who healed him. Elizabeth tells him it wasn't her, but a couple of lines later Visander talks about how Elizabeth has the powers of The Lady. Considering that Visander would have realized that Elizabeth was Blood of the Lady the night before, when Elizabeth conjured light to save them both, I don't think it's too far of a stretch to say that upon awakening he assumed she healed him because that is also one of the powers of The Lady.
If this is so, it raises a lot of questions. Does Elizabeth have healing powers? Are Ellie and Polly also descended from The Lady? If so, are they also Lightbringers? Or if Elizabeth cannot heal and Ellie & Polly cannot conjure light, is this because they're from different branches of the family tree? Lots of possibilities here.
Association with Faeries: this also opens up a lot of thoughts for me, and it might actually be better if I turn that into a separate post. But for now I'll just say that there is a lot of curiosity in the fan base about the magical race (or species or whatever you want to call it) that inhabited the Old World, as we are told many times that they are considered separate from humans. I think Faeries are a good contender here, but possibly not the only one. Idk about anyone else, but I definitely get Elf Vibes from Visander (I have nothing to back that up, it's literally just vibes) and Fairy Queen Vibes from The Lady.
Association with Protection from Vampires, Witches, and Other Malevolent Supernatural Forces: Honestly this one feels complicated. On the one hand, clearly the power of conjuring light does offer protection from shadows, which are also the souls of the dead. We haven't seen any vampires in the series thus far, but the closest thing to them imo would be the Returners: they rise from the dead and steal the lives of the living. However, we know The Lady also made at least one Returner of her own: Visander. And personally, I'm in the camp of people who suspect that the power to make Returners is more closely associated with The Lady than the Dark King (who seemed to want his people to come back as Reborns, not Returners). Perhaps creating the Returner Army was something they did together, by combining their powers? But once again, I'm planning on expanding my Returners vs. Reborns theories in another post.
Continuing my detailed re-read of Dark Rise, I came across this passage shortly after the Cup/Shadows reveal:
Justice’s eyes were dark. ‘They say that when the three kings drank, they lived a full life of power, and only became shadows after they died natural deaths. But the Blood of Stewards is not as strong as the Blood of Kings. We can only resist the Cup for so long. If an ordinary human were to drink, they would turn to shadow instantly. Even those with weaker Steward blood would turn too fast – a day, a week. That’s why only the strongest of us drink. The stronger your blood, the longer you last. But of course, you can’t know for sure.’
Now, I'd already been considering the possibility that Cyprian might be a king's descendant, since as far as I remember we don't know anything about his bio parents (Violet assumes they were Janissaries, but I don't think that's ever confirmed). However, Cyprian needed several minutes to get his shadow under control immediately after he drank from the Cup in Book 2.
Ettore, on the other hand, has been living a life of wild hedonism for who knows how long, and shows no signs of turning. I'd wondered in the past if this was meant to be a clue that the Stewards' ascetic lifestyle isn't as effective as they think at controlling shadows. But now I wonder if maybe this is a clue that Ettore has the blood of kings?
[I'm currently only partway through my re-read of Dark Heir, so it might be a bit early for me to post theories about a character that doesn't appear for several more chapters, where I'm likely to find the majority of clues about him and his role in the series. But I got excited and couldn't wait!]
So anyway, I know that Ettore gets shot at the end of book 2, but iirc it's not totally clear if Ettore died from that. If so, then I guess he won't be much help when the Stewards' darkest hour comes up 😕
Then again.... Dude seemed to really enjoy sowing those wild oats, so maybe the King to be Called in the Darkest Hour is one of Ettore's (probably numerous) children. [Put a pin in that.]
Still need convincing? I looked up the meaning of the name Ettore:
Ettore is an Italian name meaning "defender" or "holding fast". It is the Italian form of the Greek name Hector, a legendary Trojan hero from Homer's Iliad known for his courage, nobility, and devotion to his family and city. The name is associated with qualities like steadfastness, bravery, strength, and loyalty.
Homer's Iliad: The name's significance comes from Hector, the greatest Trojan warrior and son of King Priam, who is depicted as a noble and courageous defender of his city.
Italian Tradition: In Italy, the name is associated with these heroic attributes of loyalty, strength, **and leadership, passed down through generations.**
Okay, so there's a lot of good stuff there. We've got the son of a king, and the association with various heroic and noble/majestic attributes, and those attributes being passed down through generations. There's also the "devotion to family" part, but once again let's put a pin in that for now. Another interesting thing is the ancient Greece connection, which ties into my theory that one of the Four Kingdoms of the Old World was in or around Ancient Greece.
Ettore's last name, Fasciale, is where this gets a bit uncomfortable. It's an Italian surname stemming from the word "fascio" which means "bundle" or "group". It is also the root word for the Fasces. From Wikipedia:
A fasces ... is a bound bundle of wooden rods, often, but not always, including an axe (occasionally two axes) with its blade emerging. The fasces is an Italian symbol that had its origin in the Etruscan civilization and was passed on to ancient Rome, where it symbolized a Roman king's power to punish his subjects, and later, a magistrate's power and jurisdiction. The axe has its own separate and older origin. Initially associated with the labrys, the double-bitted axe originally from Crete, is one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization.
...
The fasces, as a bundle of rods with an axe, was a grouping of all the equipment needed to inflict corporal or capital punishment ... lictors [a.k.a. executioners], who carried the fasces and at times used the birch rods as punishment to enforce obedience with magisterial commands.
We're getting more connections to Ancient Greece and kings, and specifically the authority of a king to punish or execute. Unfortunately, as some of you probably already know, the fasces is better known as the symbol and namesake of the political ideology of fascism. Before 1914, the fasces as a symbol was more commonly utilized by left-wing movements and was associated with unions: the idea is that one stick alone can be easily broken, but a bundle of sticks together are much stronger. But, as they are wont to do, the fascists kind of ruined that. 😒
So uh, yeah, I'm not sure what to think of this. The story takes place about a hundred years before the fasces became associated with, well, fascism. So maybe Pacat is warning us that Ettore's kingship would not necessarily be a benevolent one, or maybe they're ignoring the last 200 years of IRL history for the sake of the book and telling us that Ettore's destiny is to unite the people.
Either way, if Ettore turns out to be descended from a king (bonus points if it's whichever kingdom was in/around present-day Greece), then someone owes me a beer.
I think we've been misled about Ekthalion/the Corrupted Blade.
There are a few things that don't add up. When we first see the blade near the beginning of Book 1, it is in its corrupted state and only slightly unsheathed. It can't harm Will (although we don't know that yet), and he is able to call the blade to him. We are led to believe that this is because the blade was corrupted with Will/Sarcean's blood, and that it is now a dark object, essentially that it has become his dark object.
HOWEVER: during that first scene, we see Will struggling to get the blade under control:
The boy was shaking. Curled over the sword, his eyes opened full of agonising struggle, as if it was taking everything he had to keep it sheathed. Just for a moment, he looked right at her.
‘I can’t hold it!’ he said to her. The sword was fighting him. ‘Go!’
‘Throw it!’ she said. ‘Throw it into the river!’
‘I can’t!’ said Will, the words forced out through pain. He looked like he was barely holding on. ‘Get everyone out!’
Near the end of the book, when Simon wields the blade, we only get two lines to describe how he handles it:
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ said Simon, and pushed back his coat, reaching for the onyx hilt and in one smooth motion drawing the Corrupted Blade.
...
The tearing power of it ripped at Will’s clothes, which were in tatters, and he flung up his hand uselessly, driven to his knees as Simon held the sword, barely controlling it as its black fire erupted, killing everything.
Ok, so Simon also struggles with the blade, but it kinda seems like it doesn't pose nearly the same difficulty for him, fully unsheathed, as it did for Will when it was only slightly unsheathed.
What's more, once the blade has been cleansed by Katherine, it no longer seems to pose any difficulty at all for Will. He's able to carry it around, unsheathe it, and even touch the surface of the blade with no ill effects right before he gives it to Violet in book 2.
So, if Ekthalion was forged specifically to kill Sarcean, why would it literally fight him while corrupted (supposedly with his own blood), yet do nothing to him once cleansed?
There are a lot more unanswered questions about Ekthalion, such as how exactly it became corrupted and who was wielding it at the time, since it seems Visander was already dead when this happened and seemingly has no knowledge of it. But I feel like there's something more here.
Okay, so as I'm going through the books and taking notes, I've come across a few clues about the locations of the Four Kingdoms. We know their respective symbols, as they appear in various places, the first of which being the four thrones in the hall, each "carved with a unique symbol. A tower; a faded sun; a winged serpent; and a flower".
We know that the Sun Kingdom was in Italy, and that its symbol was (obviously) the Sun.
The Elder Steward gives us a hint about the locations of the other three kingdoms:
‘The books in our libraries have crumbled, and been rewritten, and crumbled again. Nothing remains in the old language, which you might have been able to read. We have only snippets, in Arabic, in Ancient Greek, in Old French.’
So this tells us that two of the other three kingdoms could have been in or around Greece and France. The Arabic-speaking world today is huuuuge, and I have to admit that I don't know enough about which geographical areas have been dominated by Arabic and how that has shifted over the last several thousand years, so it's too broad to narrow down from this alone.
Another quote from the Elder Steward:
‘They loved each other, and she killed him,’ said the Elder Steward, ‘somewhere far to the south, near the Mediterranean Sea.’
This also doesn't tell us much, since the Mediterranean borders a LOT of countries lol, but it's still a potentially interesting tidbit about where The Lady supposedly killed the Dark King.
Later, Violet tells Will this about Simon:
"He also has digs all around the Mediterranean, in Southern Europe, and Northern Africa."
Ok, so Southern Europe would include both Italy and France. "The Mediterranean" is most likely referring to our location near Greece, and Northern Africa definitely makes sense for an Arabic-speaking location. So Italy, France, Greece, and somewhere in Northern Africa.
We also know that one of the non-Sun kingdoms (or at least the gate to it) is underwater in the present-day. Idk about anyone else, but my initial thoughts leaned towards our Ancient Greece location and "lost city of Atlantis" type stuff. But it could certainly be France as well; in Book 2 when Visander is looking at Elizabeth's geography homework, he reveals that in his time, there was land in several places that are now apparently underwater. I think I've seen other people guess that some of the land he remembers is Doggerland. I don't know if the areas off the coast of France that are now underwater are technically within the "boundary" of Doggerland, but whatever, borders are arbitrary:
Also, admittedly I don't know enough about coastline changes to Northern Africa over the last 10K years, but I would assume there are surely at least some parts of that region that could also fit the bill.
Finally, these last two things don't tell us anything about the locations of the Kingdoms, but I wanted to make note of them anyway:
We know from Book 2 that The Lady was from the Kingdom of Flowers. The Fleur de Lis of present-day France makes me lean towards that as being the location of the Kingdom of Flowers, but that's a pretty weak connection, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's wrong.
This isn't an original idea to me but something I've seen other fans theorize: Sarcean may have been from the Serpent Kingdom. I'll go into more detail on this in another post, but some of the evidence for this is: a. multiple descriptions of the S symbol as being snakelike, and b. a memory of Will's where he is riding into battle on "a giant scaled creature that winged across the sky." [Side note: I dunno why we're not just calling this thing a dragon, but it's obviously a dragon, come on.]
Anyway, I've only gotten through my detailed re-read of Dark Rise, but haven't started re-reading Dark Heir, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton of clues on this subject from Book 2 that I have forgotten about or missed entirely in previous reads. Feel free to remind me of things I've forgotten, haven't re-read yet, overlooked, or gotten incorrect!
In book 2, I'm now past the point where Grace reveals that there are gates to the other kingdoms:
‘There are four gates.’ Grace pointed to the gate where they now camped. ‘North.’ And then she pointed to each direction. ‘South. East. And west.’
...
‘The Stewards only use one of them,’ said Grace. The gate above them was carved with the image of a single tower.
Okay, so now I feel silly for not picking up on it until just now, but of course the reason there's a gate leading to England is because one of the four kingdoms was there: the Tower Kingdom, apparently. So there's that mystery solved. My guess is that the citadel of the Tower Kingdom eventually became the Abbey on the Marsh, or that it was demolished and the Abbey built atop its ruins (and then, per Justice, "the abbey was torn down a hundred years ago"). This raises some interesting questions about the relationship between the Abbey and the Stewards, because surely there was one, unless the Stewards just avoided using the Northern Gate entirely for the whole time the Abbey existed. But I digress.
Grace also tells them that the Hall itself is not in England, but I'll pick that thread back up at the end of this post.
Now, the first gate they reopen is the Eastern Gate, the one I remembered as being under the sea:
Where the northern gate was carved with the symbol of a tower, these doors bore a stylised rose.
...
Will could barely make out the ruin that swirled dimly into sight, wavering columns and huge broken steps.
...
He was thrown backward, water drowning him, wet salt in his nose and mouth.
So the Eastern gate leads to the Kingdom of Flowers. From the above we also know that
Unlike the Sun Gate (aka the Western Gate/Leap of Faith/Blind Leap), the Flower Gate seems to be directly next to the ancient citadel of the Kingdom of Flowers, so it's not just the gate but the whole citadel that is under water.
The fact that the water that floods into the Hall is salty tells us that it's definitely under the sea, not just a lake or other body of fresh water.
Finally, while it doesn't have anything to do with location, it's interesting to note that though the Hawthorn Flower is the symbol of The Lady (who we learn later was originally from the Flower Kingdom), the symbol of the Kingdom itself is actually a rose.
In summation, our locations are:
The Sun Kingdom is in Italy and is accessed via the Western Gate (a.k.a. "The Leap of Faith" or "The Blind Leap").
The Tower Kingdom is in England and is accessed via the Northern Gate.
The Kingdom of Flowers' location is still unknown, but it lies beyond the Eastern Gate and is now covered by ocean.
The Serpent Kingdom's location is also still unknown, but by process of elimination, it must be accessed via the Southern Gate.
So now I have three potential locations (Northern Africa, France, and Greece), but only two unlocated kingdoms left. I'm thinking now that whichever location is not "claimed" by one of the last two kingdoms is probably the location of the Hall itself, which we know was a neutral meeting place that was outside the borders of the Four Kingdoms.
Okay, so as I'm going through the books and taking notes, I've come across a few clues about the locations of the Four Kingdoms. We know their respective symbols, as they appear in various places, the first of which being the four thrones in the hall, each "carved with a unique symbol. A tower; a faded sun; a winged serpent; and a flower".
We know that the Sun Kingdom was in Italy, and that its symbol was (obviously) the Sun.
The Elder Steward gives us a hint about the locations of the other three kingdoms:
‘The books in our libraries have crumbled, and been rewritten, and crumbled again. Nothing remains in the old language, which you might have been able to read. We have only snippets, in Arabic, in Ancient Greek, in Old French.’
So this tells us that two of the other three kingdoms could have been in or around Greece and France. The Arabic-speaking world today is huuuuge, and I have to admit that I don't know enough about which geographical areas have been dominated by Arabic and how that has shifted over the last several thousand years, so it's too broad to narrow down from this alone.
Another quote from the Elder Steward:
‘They loved each other, and she killed him,’ said the Elder Steward, ‘somewhere far to the south, near the Mediterranean Sea.’
This also doesn't tell us much, since the Mediterranean borders a LOT of countries lol, but it's still a potentially interesting tidbit about where The Lady supposedly killed the Dark King.
Later, Violet tells Will this about Simon:
"He also has digs all around the Mediterranean, in Southern Europe, and Northern Africa."
Ok, so Southern Europe would include both Italy and France. "The Mediterranean" is most likely referring to our location near Greece, and Northern Africa definitely makes sense for an Arabic-speaking location. So Italy, France, Greece, and somewhere in Northern Africa.
We also know that one of the non-Sun kingdoms (or at least the gate to it) is underwater in the present-day. Idk about anyone else, but my initial thoughts leaned towards our Ancient Greece location and "lost city of Atlantis" type stuff. But it could certainly be France as well; in Book 2 when Visander is looking at Elizabeth's geography homework, he reveals that in his time, there was land in several places that are now apparently underwater. I think I've seen other people guess that some of the land he remembers is Doggerland. I don't know if the areas off the coast of France that are now underwater are technically within the "boundary" of Doggerland, but whatever, borders are arbitrary:
Also, admittedly I don't know enough about coastline changes to Northern Africa over the last 10K years, but I would assume there are surely at least some parts of that region that could also fit the bill.
Finally, these last two things don't tell us anything about the locations of the Kingdoms, but I wanted to make note of them anyway:
We know from Book 2 that The Lady was from the Kingdom of Flowers. The Fleur de Lis of present-day France makes me lean towards that as being the location of the Kingdom of Flowers, but that's a pretty weak connection, so I wouldn't be surprised if that's wrong.
This isn't an original idea to me but something I've seen other fans theorize: Sarcean may have been from the Serpent Kingdom. I'll go into more detail on this in another post, but some of the evidence for this is: a. multiple descriptions of the S symbol as being snakelike, and b. a memory of Will's where he is riding into battle on "a giant scaled creature that winged across the sky." [Side note: I dunno why we're not just calling this thing a dragon, but it's obviously a dragon, come on.]
Anyway, I've only gotten through my detailed re-read of Dark Rise, but haven't started re-reading Dark Heir, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton of clues on this subject from Book 2 that I have forgotten about or missed entirely in previous reads. Feel free to remind me of things I've forgotten, haven't re-read yet, overlooked, or gotten incorrect!
