#aaravos again

[ask-runaan-anything]

thoughts on aaravos?

Was "worse than death" not descriptive enough?

Very well:

[ask-runaan-anything]

1. Has rayla ever had any really bad nightmares?

2. Will you ever get out of the magic coin?

3. What is your favorite type of dragon?

4. Have you ever seen or met a tidebound elf before? Same for an startouch elf besides Aavos

Goodness. A whole list. I shall do my best.

1. Rayla has had some nightmares from time to time. Her parents' leaving for the Storm Spire had a heavy effect on her, and while Ethari and I have done our level best to help her feel welcome in our home and our hearts, we cannot erase that hurt entirely. 2. This is a quality question, little shadow, and I'm glad you asked. I do hope the answer is either 'yes' or 'no'. Some third options are... not so enjoyable.

3. My favorite type of dragon is a Faraway. In other words, a dragon that is far away from me. Less chaos that way, and far too many of them seem to see my ponytail as a string to chase! Rude.

4. I have indeed met Tidebound elves, on several occasions. They're very... gregarious. But I have never met a Startouch elf, not even Aaravos... and I would very much like to keep it that way.

[ask-runaan-anything]

If Aaravos is so powerful and dangerous, why not just kill him and eliminate the risk of him being a threat ever again? Surely that's more merciful, too. I've been given the logic of "but there are so few Startouches!" Yeah, but if he's just sitting around all by himself to rot away, what's the point of keeping him alive? (Surely you relate to this position oop parallels.)

You're right, little shadow - a swift death is a mercy. It is the only gift I can offer my targets. I spent my life training to be strong enough to deliver it when I had to.

Aaravos is no mere target, though. He's not even mortal, in the way that you and I are mortal. Killing him was the Moonshadows' suggestion, when the coalition to stop him began to form. But they did not know how to do it in a way that would stick. Some even feared that killing him might even make him more powerful.

There's an old elven saying: "You can't kill an idea... but it can die a lingering death." It is not one we speak in the light - this is a phrase of the darkness. Our ancestors let it guide them as they did their best to save Xadia from Aaravos's stain.

They did their best, and that is all any of us can do. But in the end, weighing Aaravos's suffering against the suffering of the world tipped the balance.

death is bad, suffering is worse, sometimes all your options are angsty, welcome to Xadia

[ask-runaan-anything]

Wait, could you actually read the runes around the mirror? Or did you just know "that is Aaravos' mirror prison, oh moon?"

Cause unless its common knowledge...um.....then it's a little worrying the Dragon Guard didn't *ahem* take steps to make sure the humans wouldn't find it....

Then again, all but 2 of them fled, so they weren't smart anyway.....

The runes are more of a user's manual than a signpost. They're ancient even for elven readers. I doubt there are any humans alive who can read them without scholarly Xadian assistance.

The steps to guard the mirror were taken three centuries ago, before there was a Dragonguard or an egg to guard yet. Back then, the defenders of Xadia agreed that letting the most powerful archdragon in the world guard the mirror atop the Nexus of his primal source seemed like a relatively strong defense against interference with Aaravos's prison - by anyone, human, elf, or dragon. And times change slowly when there's a dragon in charge of the clock.

not to speak ill of the dead but there's a reason the skywings ran away, avizandum was a terrible boss

[ask-runaan-anything]

Do you ever think that Aaravos was just treated very badly when he was younger and bullied to a point where he wanted to get revenge and to prove something? To be honest I do sometimes feel a little bad for the guy, I mean he is all alone with no family that we know of and no one seems to actually care about him. I feel like not even the chaotic and crazy people should not be left alone and deserves love.

I do not care meow meows.

[ask-runaan-anything]

Who would describe Aarvos in 5 words?

Do you believe that there might be any good in Aarvos at all?

My five words for Aaravos are all just the word "threat" in different fonts.