I was rereading this article https://culturess.com/2021/02/26/biggest-question-court-silver-flames/ and in particular this part:
And it made me think about how SJM has been setting up for Elain’s story since ACOMAF. Even starting that early in the series, we see Sarah setting up these two possible paths for Elain: Azriel and Lucien. Indeed, in ACOMAF we get Feyre musing about what would happen if Elain ever came to Velaris, and she says:
Here for the first time Sarah plants the seed in our minds that Azriel and Elain might actually be good together, “if the warrior ever stopped quietly loving Mor” of course.
And then, at the end of the book obviously, we get this scene:
Elain has a mate. Lucien.
Of course, throughout ACOWAR and ACOFAS we continue to see these two paths developed (or not developed) for Elain. We see her grappling with the fact that she “belongs” to another and her rejection of that whole concept. And we see her gravitating towards Azriel.
We get signs that maybe Azriel is still right for Elain, not Lucien. For example, we see Madja say that a mate can sense what is wrong with their mate, and yet Azriel is the one who figured out Elain is a seer and gives her the relief of understanding what is “wrong” with her. And we see Azriel sense Elain is taken by the cauldron and save her. We see a figurative bridge between them with truth-teller. And we see for the first time someone (Feyre in this instance) question if the cauldron was wrong and Azriel and Elain really should have been mates.
…
Then in ACOFAS we see that Lucien and Elain remain uncomfortable around each other. Neither of them wants to spend time with the other. Elain again reminds us that she owes Lucien nothing, and he is not entitled to her affection just because he is her mate. Yet we see Elain continue to gravitate towards Az. He approaches her on solstice. He makes everyone wait for her to eat. She gets him a gift and causes his most joyous laugh. They talk into the night after solstice about her garden.
And then of course in ACOSF Lucien’s voice drips with discomfort when he speaks of his “mate,” and Elain loses her newfound boldness around him and shrinks into herself. Meanwhile, we learn azriel is avoiding the River house because of Elain. We see him protective of her. We see a charged glance between them. He follows her laugh. We learn that he can’t stand to be around elucien’s mating bond. We learn they both want each other, and that azriel looks at her headache powder every night before he falls asleep. And we learn he, like Feyre, is questioning if the cauldron was wrong.
Why? What is the purpose of this buildup?
It has always been about Elain, and what her choice will be. Will she choose Lucien, her “fated mate”? Or will she choose Azriel, the person who might actually be a better match for her?
Sarah has been setting up Elain’s choice since ACOMAF.
And that’s why Elain’s book is next and it’s not Gwynriel. Because if it’s Gwynriel, then this stops being about Elain’s choice and becomes about Az’s choice between Elain and Gwyn (whom we just met btw). And Azriel in that scenario would ultimately choose Gwyn, and Elain would not make a choice. She would be with Lucien by default.
And if that happens, what was the fucking point of all this setup? Of giving Elain these two paths, if someone was going to make the choice for her essentially?
No. That’s not going to happen. The “triangle” has always been Elain, Azriel, and Lucien. It will not be Azriel, Elain, and Gwyn.
I’ve discussed connections between the terms used for the beings of a higher, different existence across the Maasverse before. In Erilea, we learn Wyrd is believed to be destiny, the force that forms and governs all life, and in Midgard, we learn this force was conflated with a goddess of fate. The Under-King refers to her as a mother to all, a cauldron brimming with life, a secret language of creation, and a force that governs worlds. This is what I believe Prythian means by the Mother, Cauldron, and Fate (or Forces That Be).
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In Erilea, we also hear about the Goddess and her gods. Did Wyrd become this goddess, and are her gods the Forces That Be? Over the course of the series, the number of gods also comes in multiples of three (9, 12, 36). We get a real glimpse of these forces in Erilea through a memory hidden in a witch mirror and then again before Aelin sends them back to their own world.
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We learn they are all part of one consciousness and seem to represent different parts of creation. Light, shadow, wind, rain, song, memory. One of them is even three-faced.
Before Aelin opened a portal to a hell-realm in their home world, these forces were trapped in Erilea. Did some of them escape the onslaught from the hell-realm and regain access to Prythian? I’ve wondered before if that’s why we’re now seeing a foreign yet familiar presence in Nesta’s story (assumed to be the Mother by Cassian). Has the three-faced force—called the Three-Faced Goddess and Three-Faced Mother interchangeably—or another mother-like force, such as Silba, returned to Prythian after all this time?
Manon prays to the Darkness, to the Three-Faced Mother. We’ve heard that before:
Ironteeth witches have a symbol called the Eye of the Goddess. In the center of this symbol is the Goddess’s heart of darkness. This darkness is also connected to the land and Cauldron in acosf (and therefore Wyrd and creation, based on what we learned in hofas). Life and death and rebirth.
In acosf, Nesta finds the House’s heart in the pit of the library. She called the darkness of it the heart of the world, of existence, of self. And then she lets the darkness sweep in. Embraced it. This is a concept we see across worlds. The land also asks Bryce to open her heart to it and her own mother wears the symbol of the embrace between elemental forces of creation: sky (Solas) and earth (Cthona), light and dark. In Tower of Dawn, we learn the khagan still honor the Eternal Blue Sky and Slumbering Earth in lieu of the 36 gods their citizens are able to worship.
Cauldron save me.
Mother hold me.
Guide me to you.
Let me pass through the gates; let me smell that immortal land of milk and honey. (words from the prayer in acotar and acowar)
After Manon draws the Eye of the Goddess in the earth, Aelin reveals how she learned about the Wyrdkeys and gates from Baba Yellowlegs, an Ancient. She asks Manon if these things are part of the witches’ history.
And Manon says no, not in those terms. But perhaps…other terms? Like the Darkness, Three-Faced Goddess, Mother, Womb, etc. The conversation then turns to Rhiannon’s legendary curse of the land:
The punishment for the Ironteeth was a loss of their connection to the land. They lost their original, most elemental, connection to creation. The land remained barren for them until they broke the curse (and it makes @lovelydreamlight and me wonder if Fionn also cursed Theia and Pelias before he was dragged into the Bog of Oorid, or if the land is simply waiting for another embrace from someone with the right magic).
If some of those gods have returned to Prythian, will the characters have to unravel more than just the influence of the Asteri? Many have theorized about Sarah building toward her own version of Ragnarök, the doom of the gods in Norse mythology. @merymoonbeam pointed out that this doom was prophesied by a seer, and it might help explain why Elain’s story is necessary next and is intertwined with the priestesses.
The priestesses called Aelin’s fall through their world an ill omen, but she was actively working toward a better world just like her counterparts in the Night Court.
To Aelin, whose life had been written by her ancestors and the gods long before her birth, a better world meant a world with no gods, no fates.
Funny how these words have the same energy as Elain when she says I hope they all burn in hell and I belong to no one. Could Elain use her magic to unravel these influences and help their people build a better world?
A world where they are more connected to nature and can truly make it their own?
Super satisfying to see Ewriel month flopping!! Bad art after bad art!! Barely new art in a day!! Please watch us how to properly do ours with thousands of likes with great artists!!
👍 I hope you all enjoy that fanart and those likes once elriel’s book is here 😘
Could Aidas, or perhaps one of his brothers, be the House of Wind's cat-like darkness? A crack theory
Please don't screenshot or share this post without credit.
Disclaimer: I've only read CC once, and then only recently, so please forgive any glaring inaccuracies in this crack pet theory of mine, about a hypothetical CC and ACOTAR crossover in ACOSF. I apologise if this theory already exists, I haven't explored the CC tags at all yet. 💜
Spoiler warning: contains plot spoilers for ACOTAR, CC and TOG series, ie. all of SJM's works to date (September 2021).
I know I'm not the only one who picked up on all of the 'the darkness in the library is a cat' references in ACOSF, and I had wondered about them a little, but until I read Crescent City last month, I didn't have many thoughts beyond the darkness potentially being multiple entities, and not just the heart of the House of Wind; maybe Koschei’s shadows were there, too, or some remnant of Bryaxis? However, when I finally got around to reading CC (thanks to @sciencebaetch and @rminnieola for getting on my case), and had a couple of weeks to digest everything, it struck me that there were some potentially significant parallels between the two books.
Given this is a crack theory, there will be a few unanswered questions included, as well as points to take away and mull over. If you have anything to add, please feel free!
Thank you to @rhyssescups for fact-checking this before I posted it.
What do we know about Aidas?
Aidas is the handsome, blonde haired, and opal-blue eyed demon Prince of the Chasm, also known as the fifth level of Hel. He "yields" only to two brothers, the Prince of the Abyss (the sixth level), and the Prince of the Pit (the seventh level of Hel).
When he enters Midgard's universe without being summoned, he uses the form of an equally blue eyed white cat. We have already had a TOG crossover with ACOTAR (the red star), so what if the Hel realm that is linked to Midgard is also connected to Prythian's world? Elain once uttered "I hope they all burn in Hell," about the Mortal Queens, so it appears that Hel/Hell is a common theme between the two universes.
Are the Levels of the library a metaphor for the circles of hell?
The following is certainly not a new idea - I've discussed it with plenty of others in the fandom - but the levels of the library could, hypothetically, be a metaphor for the circles of Hell; the library is even circular in design. There are seven levels that we know of, though - correct me if I'm wrong - we don't learn the exact number of floors in the library before you reach the pit in which Bryaxis lived. For all we know, the "pit" could have been the ninth level. Considering that, and the attributes of the library's levels, when thinking about the levels of Hel we learnt about in CC, opens up some new theorising opportunities.
How is Aidas - or one of his brothers - hypothetically linked to the library?
Nesta told us that the shadows started to get darker from the fifth level of the library, and that, occasionally, the darkness appears to come alive. Some of this is the Heart of the House, of course, but what if some of the darkness is Other? I can't shake the feeling that the darkness we learnt of in the House of Wind isn't as simple as a Made house.
Nesta also said, a few times, that the darkness was like a curious cat; this was frequently associated with either the fifth floor - or circle - of the library, or the number five, such as when Gwyn instructed Nesta to take five breaths, before Nesta considered letting her thoughts drift "deeper."
Aidas, as we all know, has a cat form, and has previously shown kindness to a young Bryce Quinlan when she was in distress after her visit to the Oracle. Could he also be monitoring the library under the House of Wind? Nesta and Bryce also both had/have an eight pointed star tattooed on their bodies. And, just like Aidas with Bryce, the darkness knew Nesta's name.
Note that, below, Aidas mentions "true dark," which sounds akin to the "true darkness" of the lower levels of the library, which Nesta mentioned in ACOSF.
But Bryce's question stands… "What sort of cat visits an Oracle?" Was Aidas even visiting the Oracle that day? The Oracle is right next to Luna's Temple (see map below), and Luna could - hypothetically, of course - be the Midgard version of the Mother Goddess.
Also, what are the plans that Aidas mentioned?
Map from CC ebook, Kindle edition
What if it's the Prince of the Pit who is monitoring the library, not Aidas?
While Aidas seems like the obvious option - and he still may be! - the very bottom of the library under the House of Wind is referred to as "a pit" multiple times. This, understandably, calls to mind Aidas' most senior brother: the Prince of the Pit.
Nesta is also associated with "pit" imagery throughout her story in ACOSF, both figurative and literal.
"The pit of Creation" (inside the Cauldron) sounds like "The heart of the world, of existence. Of self." This tracks, given Nesta was Made in the Cauldron, and she also Made the House of Wind. She also found the Mask, another Made item, in the "bottomless pit" of the water in the Bog of Oorid.
Both the Cauldron and the Bog of Oorid could be considered hellish places, and the Heart of the House? What if it holds a crack - a rift - through which the Prince of the Pit could squeeze in cat form, or as the essence of a cat, to help monitor the library? The darkness was described as "twining" down through the library with Nesta, to the seventh level - and any cat person can attest that cats absolutely like to twine (through legs, plants, priceless antiques)… but why would any Prince of Hel be there, in Prythian?
What if Aidas - or the Prince of the Pit - is monitoring Jesiba's library, the Great Library of Parthos?
The Great Library of Parthos is an almost mythical, and certainly legendary, collection of books from Midgard, that pre-dates Asteri and Vanir occupation of their world. It exists to bear witness to the life and creation of the humans who once lived there, to prove that they do not owe all they are now to their magical overlords. However, after its discovery at Griffin Antiquities, where it appeared to contain a volume called The Book of Breathings,(suspicious, no?) it - unsurprisingly - went missing again. Is it currently veiled in shadows as thick as a layer of fog, at the very bottom of the library?
Is that why Bryaxis was there, as a guard dog? He was frightening enough to scare a battle-hardened Cassian, and we still have no known reason for his residence in the base of the library... could he have been sent through a rift, from the Chasm or the Pit? Forgive the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone reference, but is Bryaxis the Prythian 'Fluffy?
This above text is what suggests, in my opinion, that the Prince of the Pit is the more likely candidate, even without the "pit" imagery in ACOSF. Aidas, at least at this point in time (the CC epilogue), is unaware of the location of the Great Library of Parthos - though I'd love to ask him a question or two about The Book of Breathings. Unless ACOSF occurs after CC1 - or the timelines are more... wibbly wobbly - then Jesiba has potentially had the Prince of the Pit hide the books for her (and all of humanity). Alternatively, could the cracking Cauldron have become some sort of rift, and The Book of Breathings fell into Midgard after Feyre threw it into the Cauldron in ACOWAR? Furthermore, the beckoning dark of the pit, "like it was an entry into some dark pit of hell," sounds eerily like the dark that beckoned Aidas home to Hel, at the end of CC's epilogue. But I digress.
Jesiba Roga is a witch who is associated with the Under King, the head of the Bone Quarter of Lunathion, where souls travel to spend eternity after death. She had amassed a collection of priceless antiquities, including the aforementioned Great Library of Parthos, which the Asteri wanted destroyed, as it contained books that predated the Asteri/Vanir occupation of Midgard.
But what if it contained more?
Nesta - and Emerie and Gwyn - could potentially need to use those books to figure out either how to kill Koschei, or where to send him, potentially banishing him from their world, like Aelin did the deities of Erilea, if they are unable to truly kill him.
Take away thoughts and questions
ACOTAR
The Lady Death being associated/friends with a prince of Hel is a story I'd love to read.
The eight pointed star may be superficially associated with Dusk, but I think it could be something more, that hints at the origins of the Asteri, and potentially the deity figures in Prythian.
Is Koschei an Asteri, the Prince of the Pit, or something similar, and are they related in any way to the Valg from Throne of Glass?
What, exactly, is the darkness in the library? Is it just the one entity, or a combination of many?
Is Bryaxis a monster from the Seventh Level of Hel? Or is he the Prince of the Chasm, or the Pit, himself?
Why was The Book of Breathings in Midgard?!
Crescent City
If this is a case of a crossover between ACOTAR and CC's worlds, is it Aidas or the Seventh Hel prince who is monitoring the Library? Or both?
Why does a cat visit an Oracle? Will we ever find out?
Where is the Great Library of Parthos now?
What are the plans that Aidas mentioned? Are he and his brothers, the princes of the Abyss and the Pit, planning to get involved in overthrowing the Asteri? (I hope so).
How does Jesiba know Aidas, and does she know his more senior brothers? If the books are hidden in the library under the House of Wind, did she ask them the favour herself, or did the Under King put in the request?
Who in the Hel was Hunt's father? One of Aidas' brothers? An Asteri? (Unrelated, but it's been annoying me ever since Jesiba and Aidas spoke about it).
Throne of Glass
How does this link with the library guarding Baast cats from the Torre Cesme in TOD? Cats that can - if some healers are to be believed - walk through pools of shadow and reappear around the library! Cats with "beryl" eyes (an aquamarine that sounds a lot like Aidas' opal blue, or the Prythian priestesses' invoking stones). That's another post, if I get the time.
If you enjoyed this, please consider reblogging. 💜
Previously, Sarah mentioned the forces that be in relation to fated mates, and in her most recent interview (while she’s been editing the upcoming acotar books), she reiterated her interest in free will versus fate, and used the term nature instead. Sometimes, nature gets it wrong when it comes to mating bonds.
It got me thinking about the forces that be, their connection to nature, and it led me back to the chaotic part of the Book of Breathings. This part of the book sings in threes as well as three parts (here, here, here). That pattern makes sense if this part of the book harnesses the creative magic of Chaos.
Part 1 describes the cycles of nature, specifically the stages of life (life and death and rebirth), solar and lunar cycles (sun and moon and dark), and flora and fauna (rot and bloom and bones).
Part 2 welcomes the three Archeron sisters with three distinct hellos; it’s also possible the first two are for Feyre, and the last one combines Nesta and Elain.
Part 3 gives instructions on how to bring the Book of Breathings to life and use it. This allows certain people (those not born of this world, including Made Fae) to control the forces of nature through things that channel it: the Cauldron, Trove weapons, mating bonds, and even the land.
The Book welcomes the three sisters as though it knew they were marked by fate and have an important role to play in the grander tapestry. @psychee92 theorized years ago that this part of the song might even be a prophecy for the three Archeron sisters and indicate their alignment with specific phases of the triple goddess. They certainly seem to be the three faces of the Mother in the flesh. I have wondered if their connection aligns with specific parts of the life cycle, but it is probably more fluid than that since their arcs seem to represent the progression of nature overall.
@silverlinedeyes, @offtorivendell, @merymoonbeam, @psychologynerd and many others have talked about their connection to Made objects. This unique kinship (as vessels) makes them similar, if not the same as, those who are Starborn. We see this kinship begin in the original trilogy through Feyre. She wields magic from nearly all courts (unless the sisters’ lineage is connected to Dusk and it becomes 8), restores the Book of Breathings, hears the Cauldron’s siren song like her sisters, touches the Cauldron to travel with it like a force of nature, and repairs the Cauldron and tear in the world with raw magic from Rhys.
This kinship expands in Nesta’s story, as she both uses Made objects and Makes them herself:
The Harp asks Nesta to play it, to let it sing again.
The House sings because Nesta Made it.
Nesta Makes weapons and it is accompanied by music only she hears.
The bond she weaves with Cassian sings after they Make it together.
The whole world, all of creation, is a song.
Nature can be influenced through song, as @silverlinedeyes and @offtorivendell suggested. This song is a poetic way to describe communication—different parts of nature working together in harmony. This communication is the secret language of Wyrd and in hofas, it is referred to as the language of creation. This connection deepens in the crossover:
The land of Dusk asks Bryce to reach out, open her heart to it, so it might sing again.
Love me, touch me, sing me.
Bryce does not free the land of Dusk due to the presence of the prisoners, but she does free Avallen and we get a glimpse of what that entails. She can hear the land’s quiet song, feel its joy when it is finally seen and freed from its magical chains.
These moments are seeds for the third sister’s story, bringing us full circle.
Elain has always been very connected to nature. She ended the original series as a promise of the future and feeling eager to restore the land.
In acosf, we see hints of how deep this connection might run. When taken together, we find Elain’s appearance reflects the land: in Hewn city, she looks as void of life as the land and in Velaris soon after, she is glowing with life again. This kind of earthen magic would mean that she can sense ley lines—the flow of life in the fabric of the world—and Make gardens. Is that what might happen when her sleeping buds bloom?
Will she need to fully embrace them and what they represent (all of her, including her forced change) to make her magic sing? Many of us believe she was given the vision and gifts to help restore the inherent, pure magic of the land. To free it from the magical threads of the Asteri: the magic they hoarded in sacred peaks and the division they wove into the land and the people who inhabit it. This freedom would, in turn, restore the people and their magic. The land and its magic would be freed for all of them, not simply a powerful few. This plot extends beyond a single court and would certainly demand a big story.
It might also require behavior we don’t usually associate with Elain: using pure life, if she possesses it, to unbind warped threads (the opposite of what Feyre and Nesta did with their healing magic). She might even learn how to do this through her sight as she wanders with the Mother (that’s why her carved rose is placed next to her figurine). Will she come across a healer from another world in her travels? This particular healer may be the key to learning that pure life is world-making power. She can bind as well as unbind the very fabric of life, of worlds.
In this promise of the future, the world would truly be a song, one where the forces of nature exist in harmony once again.
Spicing up our Wednesday night: Azriel's POV, Elain's POV, or both?! whose head should we be in for their first "fuck it" scene???
Oh I fucking love this question. Probably a surprise answer, but I think Elain’s head. Just because I think people will be really surprised by her thoughts during it, and I really want to see her take her pleasure.
isnt the calendar part of her official merch with IMG?. They do not need Bloomsbury to sell merch because IMG is the one in charge. And its an official calendar, not a random one. Her name is attached to it though.
Presumably this was approved by IMG as part of their official licensing/relicensing process they’re going through right now. But I do not believe this is part of her official merch line with IMG, and there is nothing to indicate that she was directly involved with the creation of the calendar or the selection of the fanart used therein. It just says “officially licensed fanart” (and there is a lot of officially licensed ACOTAR fanart, including Elriel, Gwynriel, Elucien, and Vassien pieces).
If SJM had nothing to do with the calendar, then why is it featured in her catalogue? It says “by Sarah j Maas”
Because she wrote A Court Of Thorns And Roses. That’s why. It says “Based on the New York Times Bestselling Series A Court of Thorns And Roses By Sarah J. Maas.”
The calendar is part of her merch. And its listed on amazon and B&N under her name and her other books (like the coloring one). Its intentional to choose a fanart of Feysand and Cassian plus Gwynriel and Elucien. Its the first one in the calendar and has a quote about family. They remove Emerie from it and that’s quite telling. Having elain next to Lucien and Azriel with Gwyn doesnt leave much open for interpretation. You say Gwyn is not in media or mentioned by SJM and she made it part of her FIRST oficial drop before the books and with Az. Quite telling.
Anon, you can think whatever you want about this calendar. If you believe SJM had a hand in this or that it was officially approved, cool—good for you. But it isn’t published by Bloomsbury, and it’s simply “officially licensed,” just like all other officially licensed fan art and merch that isn’t put out by Sarah Janet Maas herself. There is nothing on the information page by Andrews McMeel or on any of the listings that states that SJM selected or personally approved the art in this calendar. It simply features officially licensed fan art that I’m guessing was selected by whoever put this calendar together at Andrews McMeel (who, I’m guessing, is likely a Gwynriel or an Elucien). And I simply am not going to be bothered by this or believe it has any meaning regarding what’s to come unless I see some evidence that SJM or her close team directly selected or approved the art being used in this calendar.
Here’s hoping we get some kind of confirmation soon so that this kind of nonsense can finally be put to rest. Have a great day!!
Have you seen the ACOTAR calendar preview? They included a fanart where Gwyn is with the IC as well as Lucien. I dont think elriel is happening…
Lol who is “they”? Unless the art in that calendar was selected or approved of by Sarah J. Maas herself, I don’t really care what is in the ACOTAR calendar and think it is absolutely meaningless regarding what is happening in the next several books.
You E/riels will hype and take ANYTHING as proof. The random rings being sold by a random shop and you all are celebrating. It is just a random shop with license. That is all. It is not the official marketing by SJM or Bloomsbury.
Cannot wait for SJM and Bloomsbury to gradually start promoting Gwyn who will be the next FMC. That is the promotion that matters in the end.
Hey Anon,
I hope you have a great day filled with joy and happiness. I hope you find even the smallest thing to feel excited about and have fun with. The world is a hellscape rn and you deserve that!
