Timeline Revisions, Archdragons, and the Cosmic Order
This was supposed to be a post about Shiruakh and Laurelion, but I got derailed momentarily by discovering that there's actually no evidence that Sol Regem was the first Dragon King, meaning the Dragon Monarchy did not start only 1200 years ago, which is something I based like 80% of my history speculation and analysis on. As stupid as I feel about this and as interesting as it was in terms of elf/dragon/human political climate... well, it has made less and less sense as we learn about the other Great Ones and the Cosmic Order. So probably for the best.
Revised/Updated Timeline
Let's do a reset on what we actually know:
Pictured: The official timeline slide as presented at SDCC 2019.
5,000 years ago: Primal elves emerged, elves and dragons were not allied (i.e. presumably the dragon monarchy did not yet exist), and it sucked to be human.
3,000 years ago: the archdragon Shiruakh and the Startouch elf Laurelion battle to the death.
2,000 years ago: Humans acquire (primal) magic, and Elarion is founded. Humanity ascends toward a golden age.
1,200 years ago: The Dragon Prince Anak Araw ascends to the dragon monarchy throne as Dragon King Sol Regem.
1,000 years ago: Sol Regem confronts Ziard, the first dark mage, and threatens Elarion before being blinded with corruption. Luna Tenebris ascends the dragon monarchy throne and expels humanity from the eastern half of Xadia. The archdragons form the Border to keep the two halves of the continent separate.
300 years ago: Luna Tenebris dies without a suitable heir. The Sunfire elf Queen Aditi vanishes before she can resolve the ensuing succession crisis. Aaravos, the "Fallen Star," is defeated and imprisoned by the Archdragons and the Orphan Queen. Avizandum ascends to the dragon monarchy throne.
2 years ago: Avizandum is killed by the human King Harrow. His mate Zubeia ascends the dragon monarchy throne, with their son Azymondias as Dragon Prince.
"Now": Aaravos escapes captivity, but is returned to his heavenly form until his stars realign in 7 years. The archdragons Zubeia, Rex Igneous, and Domina Profundus perish in the battle. Azymondias is the last known living archdragon, and the status of the dragon monarchy is unknown.
and here's things we know happened, but not exactly when:
Between 5,000 and 2,000 years ago: the Startouch elf child Leola teaches humans the secrets of primal magic. Her violation of the Cosmic Order is reported by Dragon Prince Anak Araw, and she is executed for it. Her death forms the Sea of the Castout in Eastern Xadia.
Between 3,000 years ago and 300 years ago: the fang of Shiruakh is forged by humans into the Novablade. At some point, it winds up in the hands of the Celestial elves at the Starscraper.
Between 1,000 years ago and Now: the city of Elarion is either destroyed or naturally falls into ruin. (Anyone who can actually cite a reliable source for Elarion being destroyed is more than welcome to do so, otherwise I will die on the "we have no evidence that Elarion was ever destroyed, actually" hill.)
Sometime before 300 years ago, and probably before 1,000 years ago: the (arch?)dragon Aithne Solaire, mate of Anak Araw/Sol Regem, is killed, by him unwittingly burying her alive in an episode of rage. (I say "probably before 1,000 years ago" because she presumably would have succeeded him as Dragon Queen, if she was alive.)
Between 1,000 years ago and 300 years ago: the modern human kingdoms are founded. The mage wars end as the western half of Xadia is depleted of magical resources. (Unclear whether those two events are directly related.)
Some Speculation: The Archdragons, the Cosmic Order, and Shiruakh/Laurelion
This was originally supposed to be a post about Shiruakh and Laurelion, but let's rewind a bit. We know the Great Ones (a.k.a. the "First Elves") built or instituted something to either create an ideal Cosmic Order or preserve one they had foreseen, because that's what Aaravos wants to destroy as his revenge.
This Cosmic Order seems to be tied to an idealized state of stability—humans acquiring magic is known to be the first step in a descent to "chaos"—but also hierarchy. Archdragons are at the top. Elves venerate them. Humans are lesser beings than both. I think there's a very strong chance that the dragon monarchy was instituted either by the Great Ones, or by some agreement between them and the archdragons. The dragon monarchy oversees and preserves the Cosmic Order while the Great Ones... do whatever it is they do, because they don't actually seem very interested.
Destroying the archdragons (instead of just Sol Regem in particular) could be on Aaravos's agenda simply because they betrayed him 300 years ago, but I suspect they are considered a foundational pillar of the Cosmic Order in some way, and taking out three of the last remaining four was a pretty big win for him. We don't know where archdragons come from—like if a primal has no archdragon, whether one will just... coalesce. If that's the case, it clearly either takes more than 300 years or there's some kind of problem with Luna Tenebris's death and the Moon primal (possible).
Now, as for Shiruakh and Laurelion:
I'm assuming we'll get a translation for Shiruakh's name at some point, the best I could get was Hebrew shir ("song") and ruach/ruakh ("spirit", "breath"). Personally, given Shiruakh's coloration and the fact that her scale empowers Claudia with fire, I would lay money on her being an archdragon of the Sun. Since sometime after her death, Anak Araw is Dragon Prince, a Sun archdragon dynasty on the throne also makes sense. I would also have zero surprise if she was Anak Araw's mother, the mate of the at-the-time Dragon King, just because that would set off some animosity, there. Especially if she was hunted down because of some Cosmic Order bullshit, which would also be delicious—him and Aaravos angry for the same reason.
So why did she and Laurelion fight? Well, we just don't know.
Hmmmm. But no, we don't know.
Now, I would bet that either the Death of the Immortal poem was written long after the actual events, or else large chunks of it are missing, since Kazi skimming over "Laurelion fought an archdragon and its bite killed him" and/or "and then he exploded" would be... kind of weird. The archdragons seem to be aware of what will happen when Aaravos's mortal form dies, so presumably they wouldn't be too keen on delivering a suicidal bite if there are other options available... but the other option is the Novablade, which has the same problem. The Orphan Queen, having the same problem as the main cast, may have "spared" Aaravos less out of some mysterious compassion and more out of also sparing herself and everything in what looks like probably a multi-kilometer radius.
I (and I think a lot of others) had just kind of assumed that Laurelion was targeted for death because of some transgression, but now it seems at least equally likely that he was enforcing the Cosmic Order against Shiruakh going rogue. Given the close relationship that's implied between the archdragons and the Great Ones, with no clear point for it to have soured (except with Aaravos, specifically), it seems unlikely that the archdragons or the elves would feel the need for such a weapon. Which is consistent with the fact that, as we now see in the illustration of Aaravos's tale, the Novablade was actually forged by humans.
Given the trajectory of human civilization over the timeline, I wouldn't expect them to have the technology or knowledge to work draconic ivory that way a thousand years before they acquire primal magic. On the other hand, if Shiruakh's tooth was kicked around for a couple thousand years, why did they suddenly feel the need for a Startouch elf-killing weapon? Is this just a case of dick-swinging, like driving a car that can do 250 MPH when you're never going to go above maybe 90, and that's if you're a huge asshole (which you probably are)? "My sword is made from an archdragon's tooth and can kill a god"?
Was Aaravos behind this, somehow? I would not be at all surprised if Aaravos was behind this, somehow. It's unclear whether one Great One could kill another in single combat, or otherwise force them back to the heavenly plane—if not, the advantages of such a weapon might outweigh the risks for the person with the most motivation to dispatch other Startouch elves. A contingency.
(But I personally also think that Aaravos's manipulation was behind things like... the formation of the Border, so.)
Anyway, since either arc 3 or the leadup to it will presumably involve a lot of frantic researching, maybe we'll finally get some of the Orphan Queen story and learn some of what she figured out.
A Primal Primary Source on Pre-Elarion Humanity, Contextualized
So in a moment of... idek, cosmic irony or something, I had two of my longstanding questions about pre-Elarion human history answered by a single source that we have had since *checks watch* 2020. Literally before I entered the fandom. In my defense, most of what's significant about this source isn't really clear until it's placed in context with other sources that we didn't have until 2025-ish. I'm talking about this:
Yes, one of the two pages from s2e8, in which Viren finds references to Aaravos by name. The other being the "Midnight Star" poem. These two pages, shown only partially in the series, were later released in full (accompanied by another, previously-unseen page) in the artbook.
Note that sassy little authorial comment: "We chose real-world languages for these old tomes to create some shareable secrets for fans." This is information that was revealed very deliberately, in specific context. The Arabic version of "Midnight Star" was even shown in full as part of Aaravos's character reveal on the official site, to make sure it was fully legible (and in the correct order, compared to as shown in the series). They even came back three years later to provide an official translation in the run-up to s4, because it's that important of a source.
But for once, we're not here to talk about "Midnight Star." Mostly.
This other page, featuring a portrait of Aaravos (IMO a quite unflattering one), is a first-person account by a pre-Elarion human in contact with Aaravos. That means it's at least a couple thousand years old, but we're not going to worry about how it survived to be printed in a book in the Katolis library—the setting writers want the audience to have it, so we have it.
The half of the text visible in the show is highly relevant to the context where it's seen:
Finally he told me his name. I had never heard a name like his, but I had never imagined an elf like him either. He is stronger, older, and wiser than any other magical being in Xadia. Yet he is a friend to all humans. Where others look down on us, call us inferior, he sees great potential in us. When we accept the gifts Aaravos has promised us, they will pay for their conceit; they will be forced to see us as equals. And when we are equal, we can take our fate into our own hands and build our future.
Like the ancient author, Viren has just learned Aaravos's name, and both the name and Aaravos's kind are unfamiliar to him. Aaravos has also already offered him aid:
This is an important parallel in that, when we see exactly how this situation works out for Viren, we understand that Aaravos was not entirely altruistic in his motives with the ancient author, either. (Maybe a bit ironically, since I would guess this text was an early contributor to the perception of Aaravos as a genuine benefactor to humans, unjustly imprisoned for his role in uplifting them.)
The second half of the text, visible in the artbook, references the city of Elarion as already seen in the opening of s3:
I see it in my dreams - a magnificent, glorious city, the pride of all humanity. A place where we will no longer have to hide, frozen and afraid, from the prejudices of elves and dragons. A place that can stand against any assault, and stand in the history of humanity for generations. It will not be easy, but with the help of our benefactor...
In the wake of s3, it was easy (I assume, because I wasn't there) to read this and conclude that the author of this text was Ziard, another ancient human who received gifts from Aaravos—most notably, dark magic.
Done and dusted, right? (Just like Ziard, lmao.) Well... maybe, until:
June 2020: Book One: Moon novel, with the first version of the Unicorn's Gift story
March 2022: Tales of Xadia, with the second version of the Unicorn's Gift story and crucial information about Elarion itself
May 2022: Official "Midnight Star" translation
November 2022: Season 4
April 2023: "Ripples"
July 2024: Season 6
In short, we learn (roughly) in order that humans were given some form of primal magic before they had dark magic, that access to primal magic built Elarion into a large, thriving city, Aaravos is believed to have given the humans of Elarion dark magic (confirmation of previous implications), Aaravos is not on humanity's side and has manipulated human mages many times (confirmation of previous implications), that original gift of magic to humans was a punishable crime, and the criminally gifted magic was not primal magic.
The ancient author of this text has a vision for a future glorious city of humanity, to be achieved in part by gifts Aaravos has offered. Aaravos gave humans primal magic, whether in the form of primal stones (as described in the version of the Unicorn's Gift tale attributed to him) or direct knowledge of primal arcana.
(Could the referenced gifts have been something else, like practical aid or physical resources? Sure, technically, but that third page in the artbook source trifecta helpfully offers a much later reflection on Aaravos as a historical figure in humanity's past, which characterizes him as "willing to share his immense magical power with those who needed it most." So I think it's a pretty safe bet that they at least included magic.)
I could stop there, because "Aaravos gave humans primal magic" is a pretty big personal "I was fucking right" moment as a standalone thesis. However, I have yet to talk about "Midnight Star." Yes, I lied.
Something I have long gone back and forth on is the recurring-but-nonspecific allusions to a time of great human suffering and persecution in ancient Xadia. A time when the gap between humans and elves was vast, with humans starving to death in the dirt while elves apparently looked on in disdain. Or something.
I'm putting those two sequences side-by-side very specifically, because in practically the very next breath, s4 deliberately invites us to question that narrative. Literally, "How do you know this?" and then leaving us with the stalemate that Claudia deeply believes this is true, and Soren doesn't feel the same.
Elarion, if this timeline slide from 2019 (part of the run-up to s3 release) is still to be believed, "rose" (or, generously, began its rise) a thousand years before we have been told dark magic entered the picture:
If, as Tales of Xadia says, humanity's access to primal magic enabled the rise of Elarion as the pinnacle of human achievement, Ziard didn't see that pre-magic time of human struggle any more than Claudia did. (Unless he's a lot older than would normally be assumed, which is admittedly possible.) Add in that when we actually glimpse that pre-magic period in s6, what we see is not exactly a grim hellscape of suffering:
Now, let's finally look at "Midnight Star." Most of the time, I'm interested in the later stanzas, and have glossed over the first couple as a general description of early Elarion being established and persisting despite some kind of adversity.
Elarion, trembling seed,
lay down to earth in icy night,
and in the cold
her roots took hold
defying winter’s deathly bite.
A fragile seed struggling to sprout in the depths of winter is an evocative image for that concept, while being even vaguer than the other references we've had to human suffering in Xadia. Both Claudia and Ziard reference starvation, and Tales of Xadia backs up both that and Claudia's reference to disease when it says the humans of early Elarion "struggled together against famine, plague, and the indifference of Xadia's magical denizens." "Midnight Star" references none of those, instead focusing on imagery of cold, darkness, and fear.
Enter our s2/artbook first-person source, which uses some very interesting and specific phrasing to describe their dream city: "A place where we will no longer have to hide, frozen and afraid, from the prejudices of elves and dragons." I touched a bit on this in the translation post, but to recap: based on translation by an actual speaker of Danish and some cursory poking around, "frozen" here is specific to cold, not an idiomatic equivalent to "paralyzed" as is common in English when the word is placed in context with fear. This may be an effect of the text probably being originally in English and translated into Danish, but in the context of "Midnight Star"—and recall that the first appearance of this text is adjacent to the first appearance of "Midnight Star"—I think it's worthy of consideration.
We also have another text related to this era that references darkness and fear, in "Ripples":
They nurtured their precious primal flames secretly—in the dark of night, beneath shadows and shrouds—as cultivating its glow drew the eyes and ire of monsters.
and
The falling star plummeted, down and down and down, until it struck the breathless world below. With its impact came a long and terrible night: The earth bled! The seas churned! The sun and moon hid for weeks behind the sky’s screaming storm!
And in that endless dark the humans despaired.
That first section has been noted many times as similar to the mysterious "she searched the dark / for but a spark / and caught the dragons’ hungry eye" of "Midnight Star," and is one of the things that make the two very confusing. Which of these sources is more accurate in its description and timeline? One is a very figurative poetic retelling of events we have yet to fully understand, and the other is, well... by Aaravos, noted obscurer of the truth.
Here's a theory:
"Ripples" alludes to Leola's execution as being in part a "calamity" visited upon the humans of Xadia to correct their improper acquisition of magic:
Where once [the stars had] watched errant flames burn with pride and undeserved power, there was now only stillness.
The story describes geological tumult that lasts for weeks, but that kind of impact would almost definitely alter the climate for years... in a way that would cause (relative) darkness, cold, and starvation. The other thing we know about this time is that, by his own account, Aaravos secluded himself from the world for a hundred mortal years to mourn his daughter. Whether or not you accept that his tears literally filled the Sea of the Castout—and I'm not going to go off on a research tangent to figure out how long it would take an impact crater several miles across to naturally become an inland sea—he was absent for several human lifetimes. That's more than enough time for him to be entirely forgotten, as we see in the s2 mystery author's account.
This calamity would also not have been restricted to humans, it affects all of Xadia. Which is to say: it could have gone a long way toward widening the gap between humans and elves and deepening that resentment. Maybe the dragons and elves did nothing to help the struggling humans because they figured it was the humans' own fault. Maybe they were also struggling in the long, cold dark, and chose to prioritize their own people's survival. That's certainly not something we've got story precedent for or anyth... oh wait.
Like if you want to get real tinfoil-hat about this, we know that the Sunfire elves of Lux Aurea—a city that Tales of Xadia refers to as having stood through "even through the darkest of times" "since the time of Elarion"—at some point received a magnificent source of light, heat, and life... the Great Orb, "the gift of a millennium." What if that gift was to help them survive that period of struggle, in their great city that humans may later have emulated as an ideal of security? That would make a beautiful open bracket to be closed by humanity's aid to the Sunfire elves after the loss of Lux Aurea, just saying.
But I think it would explain a lot for Aaravos to emerge from mourning Leola into a world that was (almost) as fundamentally altered by her death as he was himself—a world where the cracks in the Cosmic Order are beginning to show.
That being said, I still think whatever is going on in "Midnight Star" will keep us busy for easily another five years, if it comes to that.
My personal side-eye aside, that denouement is actually an incredibly elegant application of the story's themes, within the scope of restrictions imposed by this particular medium (i.e. a cartoon targeted for pre-teens and younger). Like, I personally assumed for a long time that we would simply never find out the details, because it would be either too grim and/or violent for the story's intended rating or... kind of a let-down. On the surface, what we got seems like the second.
Most of us have looked at Claudia killing the baby deer to heal Soren's paralysis and went "well, it was obviously that, but y'know... worse, somehow," which is a completely reasonable assumption to make. It was definitely what was narratively implied, which makes the supposedly-damning ingredient being "your mother's tears" instead of like... idk, "your mother was pregnant again and I used the life of that unborn child to save you" or something kind of "... oh. Okay, then."
To be fair, that might also be why they went so hard in the IMO inadvisable male-dominated writer room direction of "so I held her down and took what I wanted" to convey the requisite "he's doing A Bad," which is what all my side-eye is toward. But here's the thing:
On some level, dark magic is about violation—of nature, of others, and of the self. Even violation by Aaravos, ultimately.
But it's also not just that.
Dark magic also sits at the center of one of the primary themes of the whole story, which is the evil of denying others' personhood. We see it again and again from the angle of the heroic cast: "You keep calling it a monster," "You knew he was a person, just like you," "She's not 'the elf.' She's Rayla." The evil they do not allow to take root is seeing people as things, the place where all other evils begin. (GNU Terry Pratchett, IYKYK.)
So Viren's damning crime, the crime that is dark magic, is this:
In that moment, he looks at his wife, and sees only a source of what he needs. One that he can take from as he wills. That's why Lissa leaves—Viren has pulled the circle he draws around "people" versus "abstractions, things to be used" in so tightly that she has found herself suddenly on the outside of it. That's not something you come back from, in a relationship.
As for it all being over something as innocent as Lissa's tears, as opposed to something like her blood, her unborn child, her heart, her last breath—that's also, I think, part of the point. It's a renewable resource, harvested without doing permanent physical harm, but it's still a violation of her. This is the ultimate refutation of the "but what if ethically-sourced phoenix feathers" argument as being, for the final time, bullshit.
When Viren bursts in looking like he walked straight out of hell and demands use of her tears, could Lissa have given them freely? Sure... but she didn't. Could he have talked her around, if he invested the time and respect for her that would require? Probably, but again, he didn't! He took what he'd decided was necessary, did what he decided he had to do, because he could.
And like, he knew, even then. Because while dark magic twists your perceptions and reasoning, dragging you deeper each time—it can't twist you so much that you no longer have a choice. It will do everything it can to make you rationalize making that choice, over and over, but it can't erase that it is a choice.
Like, I'm honestly kind of emotional about it because while the surface level watching experience is kind of hmmmmm, it delivers so well on a thematic and meta level that I'm just like idk. Fuck. It's good.
Rich in Magic and Wonder: Aaravos and Primal Magic
Long ago, Xadia was one land, rich in magic and wonder. In the old days, there was only the deep magic, which came from the six primal sources: The Sun. The Moon. The Stars. The Earth. The Sky. The Ocean.
— Book One: Moon novelization
So. Aaravos. Aaravos of the Key of Aaravos, the primal source rune cube. The rune cube that Callum immediately thinks of when Rayla draws the primal source symbols for him. The rune cube Harrow introduces as the Key of Aaravos, because it belonged to Archmage Aaravos, master of all six primal sources. That Aaravos.
All of that, incidentally, comes before Viren ever hears his mysterious mirror elf's name. The one with the bug. Yeah, Aaravos.
... okay, I'll stop. What I'm getting at is this: we spend a lot of time thinking about Aaravos as the dark magic guy. The Fallen Star, Elarion's Midnight Star, the manipulator who plunged Xadia into chaos on multiple occasions, and also he ate ate a person (at least) once. But he's also built up at several points (the introduction of the Key and puppeteering Viren in magical battle during s2, the pre-release run-up and ultimate conclusion of s6) as a powerful and versatile primal mage. This would be one thing if it was only the s2 references, but to return and reinforce the point in s6 makes some... suggestions.
So let's examine: why is it notable—important, even—that Aaravos is a primal mage? What is the takeaway of that fact, through the conclusion of s7 and the setup for Arc 3?
Primal Magic: The Magic of Dragons
First, we have to take a minute to step back and look at primal magic itself. There are two (or three) kinds of primal "magic": innate abilities of elves and other magical creatures granted by their arcana, and primal rune spells. I was going to do a whole post outlining the difference with detailed examples, but let's skip that thousand-word tangent and you can just trust me on this: Janai's heat being mode operates on a (slightly) different channel from Karim's primal fire spells. Moonshadow form, heat being mode, and... whatever it is that Terry has going on are all in the same realm as Stella's portals or Bait's glow flash. (Why every elf can't automatically use their primal ability is stuff for another post. It doesn't matter right now.)
Primal rune spells like the one Callum and other primal mages use, on the other hand, are cast through two specific tools: a spell rune, and draconic words. They still require something described as an arcanum, which we know can be learned by humans (Callum) and, at minimum, Startouch elves (Aaravos). (Jury's still out on what the exact distinction is between that arcanum and the one that grants innate primal abilities, if one even exists.) We have not seen any other elf mages who can cast spells from primals other than their own, but we're never told that they can't, and things like Rayla's fairly blasé reaction to Callum learning a second arcanum suggest that it's not unheard of. Additionally, the only non-human, non-elf person we have seen cast something like a primal rune spell is an archdragon:
Presumably Zubeia doesn't need a rune, because she's... well, an archdragon. As Tales of Xadia tells us:
An archdragon’s bond to their primal source is so powerful that they act as the complete embodiment of each primal’s power.
Notable other cases where a primal magic spell is cast using draconic words and no rune include both Runaan and Rayla casting the Mystica illusion spells, crushing a Moon opal to do so—i.e., getting a big boost of primal power.
The theory I'm getting at here is that the runes of primal rune magic bridge some kind of gap and allow access to dragon, or even specifically archdragon magic. We don't know if the dragons themselves developed the runes that formed the first spells as a way of sharing their magic with elves, or if elves developed them to gain access to draconic magic and the dragons were just kind of chill about it. Either way, dragons were the first/only ones with the ability to harness the primal sources through their language, and everyone else later acquired that power as primal rune magic.
That "everyone else" includes the Startouch elves—Aaravos doesn't inherently know primal magic, he had to learn it. With our vague knowledge that there were not originally elf subgroups for each primal source, and that First Elves= Great Ones = Startouch elves, it's not clear whether Aaravos would have to learn individual primal arcana, but I lean toward yes. With the weird tension between the Startouch Elves and the archdragons as if they're opposing, or at least separate forces—Laurelion and Shiruakh, Rex Igneous's contempt for Avizandum as "the puppet of a Great One," that one interview where they describe one of the earliest concepts for the story as "dragons vs. unicorns"—but also largely equal, it makes more sense to me that the Startouch elves would not have automatic access to all primal sources, when the deep and powerful connection to a single primal source is what makes the archdragons unique. (Insert crack theory about how the unseen Star archdragon is the Startouch elves collectively and/or the Cosmic Order.)
So Aaravos's use of primal rune magic (at minimum) is something he had to sit down and learn, not something every Startouch elf has automatically. We don't know if some/all of the others may have done the same thing, but I'd bet Aaravos is unique (or at least rare) even among his own kind as a master of all six primal sources.
The Primal Book: Aaravos's Involvement
In the run-up to the s6 release, we got a promo art series featuring Aaravos attuned to each of the six primal sources in turn, along with our good friend the key (the first time we ever saw it actually in Aaravos's possession) and a newcomer, the book.
I'll get to the key and book in a minute, but first just look at these:
Now, this is admittedly entirely vibes-based, but like... come on. The Aaravos we see here loves primal magic, for its own sake. While we don't see any specific runes, I wouldn't be surprised if his glowing fingertips are meant to represent casting rune spells.
It may even be why he's is in Xadia in the first place, because the primal magic, the dragons' magic, is there. Not in the heavens. In a land rich in magic and wonder. More than humans or elves or anything else native to Xadia, that Aaravos loves primal magic.
So the first takeaway of the art series is that Aaravos, at one point loved, primal magic. The second is that the key and book were instrumental parts of his love and exploration of it.
We know only a little about the Key of Aaravos: it responds when in proximity to primal arcana (consistency dictated by plot) by the primal symbol on the appropriate side glowing, it is drawn in some way toward the location of Elarion, and it was connected in some way to the events of Aaravos's imprisonment and has been passed down the Orphan Queen's royal bloodline ever since. Oh, and it's used to somehow attune the book to individual primal sources.
As for the book, we know even less: basically that a) it responds to the key and b) whatever Aaravos is doing with it, he was already doing it before Leola's death.
Is this a magical tome that has been given to him to learn about primal magic? Is it similar to Callum's sketch/spellbook, where he records what he has learned? Is he even learning primal rune magic, or is he, perhaps...in the process of creating it?
Whether Aaravos is reading or writing the book, it works in concert with a magical key. It's not clear whether using the key is purely a matter of indicating what "section" of the book you want to access, or if there's an intended security element to it. Is it meant to keep the knowledge inside secure from humans, given the prohibition on them accessing magic? Or is it meant to keep what Aaravos is doing hidden from the eyes of his peers and the archdragons?
Given the link between the two, there's a solid chance that the book is what the key is being drawn to in Elarion, which is especially interesting because...
The Unicorns' Gift: It Was Never Primal Magic
Up until s6, as it became increasingly clear that Leola was not, in fact, a literal unicorn (and had some connection with Aaravos), there wasn't really any reason to doubt that the magic she gave humans was primal magic. Even the Ripples short story—our first indication that magic was specifically forbidden to humans, and giving it to them was not just a possibly foolish whim but a punishable offense—refers to the "precious primal flames" of human magic. The flashback that represents Aaravos's narration of the events doesn't even explicitly challenge the notion that the magic humans learned was primal magic—you have to read between the lines and dig into external sources to realize that the magic Leola shared with humans was not as described in the later stories of her gift.
We have two accounts of humans receiving magic (other than the one Aaravos tells Claudia, Terry, and us in s6): one from Tales of Xadia, and one in the Book One: Moon novelization, where it is specifically attributed to Aaravos. These two stories are largely the same, and also (we now know) almost entirely false:
Humans had no magic because "if humans were supposed to use magic, they would have been born with it." This was a warning from the elves ("First Elves" in Aaravos's version), but no prohibition is mentioned.
Unicorns (Aaravos's version)/a single unicorn named Leola (ToX version) felt compassion for the humans and gave them magic.
The magic was in the form of spell runes and draconic words. (Only Aaravos's version mentions primal stones.)
Humans were not content with what they were given, and dark magic came to be. (In Aaravos's version, a human mage "discovered" dark magic, in the ToX version "Elarion became the birthplace" of dark magic.)
Dark magic was the cause of humanity's expulsion from Xadia and the continent being split. (Only Aaravos's version mentions the extinction of the unicorns, a more direct consequence for their compassionate folly in offering magic to those not meant to have it.)
It's interesting that Aaravos even has a version of this story, since he, y'know, actually knows what happened. Furthermore, while the Tales of Xadia version has no clear author and is presented with a more neutral viewpoint, Aaravos's version reads like a fable told in Xadia as a warning of human greed and corruption. This makes it even more interesting what the discrepancies imply he's hiding:
Attributing the gift to "the unicorns" instead of Leola-as-unicorn distances/erases Leola from the story, completely concealing Aaravos's personal connection with it.
Specifying the magic as primal rune magic is already hiding the truth that there is an entire other type of magic at play, but adding primal stones as part of the gift further conceals that humans can learn primal arcana.
Obviously, Aaravos saying dark magic originated with a human mage conceals his involvement in that, but the ToX version is also very coy about it.
Finally, Aaravos does add a couple details that could be nods to the true story: the involvement of specifically the First Elves, and that the unicorns who gave humans magic were lost forever as a result.
Am I reading too much into this, given the other discrepancies throughout the novelization? Absolutely. Am I going to stop? Absolutely not.
Anyway, this means the real question is: if Leola didn't teach humans primal magic, who did?
We know that it's a thousand years or more between Leola's death and humans receiving dark magic, based on how long Elarion stood. During that time, they explicitly thrive, founding Elarion and growing in power to the point of a golden age. That success is attributed directly to the gift of magic—primal magic. Primal rune magic. So, given that humans being given magic resulted in an execution and geologic/ecologic calamity, who then taught them even more?
Well, I think there's a pretty solid chance it was Aaravos, archmage and master of all six primal sources, possibly using the book of primal magic secrets that he apparently left in Elarion, the city made possible by human magic.
So Why is None of this Mentioned Directly?
Well, probably partly because there's barely any direct mention of Aaravos giving humans dark magic. Like, without the "Midnight Star" poem, we'd probably still be arguing about that. Even Callum's Spellbook, one of the very few places where we see that modern humans even know that dark magic is the reason their ancestors were banished from Xadia, states that dark magic was discovered by a human mage.
(You could say that Callum's Spellbook has a third version of the story of how humans received magic—the one modern humans know. It doesn't mention Leola, unicorns, runes, primal stones, or even humanity's suffering pre-magic at all. Just that humans had no magic, then discovered dark magic and were punished for it by banishment.)
There are really only two specific points where Aaravos giving dark magic to humans is actually referenced:
In the first, dark magic is not specified, but it's Claudia... "magic" and "dark magic" are synonymous for her, especially when it comes to humans. It's notable that every single thing Claudia says, including the part about ancient human suffering, is news to Soren—like I said, no one actually knows about Aaravos's involvement in any of this, at least on the human end. Probably not on the elf end, either, and I'm not convinced that even the archdragons who imprisoned Aaravos knew the full extent of it.
Three seasons later, at the second point Aaravos's gift of dark magic is referenced, he has just explicitly told Ezran that he "carried on [Leola's] work" in empowering humans with magic. Ezran calls him out, accusing him of obscuring the truth that his gift did not help humanity the way Leola's did, but was destructive and self-serving. However, that isn't the only half-truth in this scene: Aaravos goes on to tell Ezran about the Orphan Queen and the Novablade. Ezran figures out the concealed truth in that story, which is that the blade is hidden at the Orphan Queen's grave, and believes that because that truth is concealed, Aaravos doesn't want him to know it. Of course, Aaravos does want Ezran to find the Novablade, so it's a double-layer trick: offer up a half-truth, let Ezran figure out part of what's being concealed, and keep the true secret hidden by the assumption that his trickery has been defeated and the full truth revealed.
How do we know he's not doing the same earlier in the conversation? Like Ezran, we assume that the only truth below "I carried on her work" is that Aaravos gave humans dark magic. Aaravos concedes the point, suggesting that all has been revealed.... but has it?
Of course, that raises the question of why Aaravos would even bother hiding having taught primal magic to humans. This is a realm of solely and entirely speculation, but: we see in his version of the unicorn story that he not only distances Leola (and himself) from humans receiving primal magic, but also conceals that humans ever had unassisted primal magic at all. If his plan for vengeance hinges on the conflict between humans and elves/dragons over dark magic, then once dark magic has entered the picture it's in his interests that humans not know there ever was an alternative.
Additionally, we have to accept that whatever his interest in primal magic before, that part of Aaravos died with Leola—whether immediately, or slowly over years and centuries. If that's the case, why teach humans primal magic in the first place? Why not skip directly to dark magic, if destruction is his long-term goal? Again, entirely speculation, but a few ideas:
Aaravos may not have gone from zero to total annihilation right away. A more subtle vengeance (and one that better honors Leola) might be to prove the Cosmic Order wrong by building up a better world with human magic, instead of proving them right by ending it. This would explain some of his very specific resentment toward the "arrogance" of elves and dragons, if he intended for them to embrace the uplifted humans. (Since they obviously didn't.) Eventually embittered (possibly by the events involving Elarion hinted at in the Midnight Star poem?), he pivoted to tearing it all down with dark magic.
Alternately, maybe Aaravos did go straight to "destroy everything my daughter loved" without passing Go, and and spent the intervening thousand years building humans up with primal magic specifically to make their eventual collapse when expelled from Xadia all the more brutal. If they're already reliant on magic, then they will continue to reach for the easier and more powerful dark magic during the centuries-long crisis of post-exile survival.
Or a third option (that I personally consider unlikely): Aaravos may have genuinely thought that giving humans more magic would in and of itself bring the "great unraveling," just as foreseen... and then kind of wound up having to take matters into his own hands when it didn't.
In any of these cases, Aaravos having first taught humans primal magic also gives him a lot of credibility when he later offers them dark magic. In that case, it's less a story of him coming out of nowhere to offer humans a "cheat" and tempt them away from primal magic, and more like a case of: "Hey, remember how I showed you that really cool thing? Here's something even cooler."
Going Into Arc 3
So, all evidence (or lack thereof) aside, why do I personally like this theory so much?
The answer is two-fold. First, Aaravos having a genuine love of primal magic—of learning primal magic, since he didn't have it innately—is just way too strong of a parallel with Callum to ignore. Second, it makes Aaravos's involvement in dark magic—his direct corruption of primal magic—all the more tragic. This is a show that deals in the very fine line between sacrificing what you love for a greater cause and destroying it for no reason. It's so pervasive I'm not even sure it counts as a theme, anymore. Of course Aaravos should be included in it personally, not just as destroying something Leola loved and he had no personal investment in.
The key is also one of the primary plot leads toward Arc 3, since in the absence of any other information about Aaravos, investigating the key is probably the best place to start. There is some reason for all of Aaravos's association with primal magic, and the intent is for it to be found out.
I could still be completely wrong about all of this! Maybe the book is in Elarion because that's where dark magic began, and is somehow related to that. Maybe Aaravos only mastered rune magic for all six primal sources in order to co-opt the tools of his (dragon) enemies! Maybe he was already looking for a way to leverage/corrupt primal magic before Leola died, and the book is that research. Maybe the Orphan Queen kept the Key of Aaravos in Katolis because the "something of great power in Xadia" that it unlocks is actually some kind of terrible cataclysm, a part of the plan that was thwarted by his imprisonment.
I wouldn't be surprised if the trip to Elarion and physical recovery of the book has already happened by the time of the primary Arc 3 story, because otherwise they'd have to come up with a reason that Callum put it off for seven entire years. I don't think even he could agonize for that long over whether Aaravos knows and means for him to have the Key (similar to Ezran and the Novablade). I also don't think us potentially not getting to see that part is necessarily a bad thing—after all, we didn't see the full impact of Soren finding out Viren is still alive in s4, because they made Strangers hit like a fucking train, instead.
I do think, however, that the book and key plotline will not have been fully resolved. There will still be some reason that the (retrieved) book and key are relevant. It won't be a one-and-done "oh yeah we went to Elarion, there was this book, Callum popped the key in and now he's ass-deep in primal arcana." My bet would be that, if Aaravos has been diminished or lost some of his previous power in his return, the book and key are his path to regaining it—if only as another bit of foresight from the king of contingency planning.
Whatever their purpose may be, whatever Aaravos's involvement in primal magic... if the series continues with The Dragon King, we are going to find out.
I just *clenches fist* love how the narrative Aaravos feeds Claudia is so specifically and elegantly slanted like
Aaravos was/is the only one there for you
Aaravos believed/believes in your potential (so live up to it)
Aaravos gave you magic specifically to fulfill that potential
Magic—dark magic—is what separates humans from "worthless, stupid, dirty animals"
Like it is honestly astounding that Claudia is willing to even consider giving up dark magic in s6, given that dark magic makes up basically 90% of her own perceived self-worth:
God bless Terry tbh because him loving her independently of dark magic is probably the only thing keeping the door open to save her.
So I realized something recently: we've actually been shown two adjacent-but-different forms of primal magic, which everyone has just conflated into one because the distinction isn't made obvious.
Primal spell runes are not a form of draconic writing. Both versions of the "humans receive primal magic" story have a strong distinction between the draconic words and spell runes, and the runes themselves have more in common with ideograms than logograms. For example, the pluviam praesidium rune isn't a combination of symbols that independently correspond to words meaning "rain" and "shield," it's a picture of a rain shield (i.e. an umbrella).
Even in the alternate concepts for that rune, where it is explicitly composed of several independent elements instead of just "umbrella," pretty much all of them (including the final one seen in the show) combine something that could be interpreted as rain (the bouncing downward stroke that forms the "handle" of the umbrella) and a shield (the curved dome), but those two symbols don't represent the words "pluviam" and "praesidium."
This is a subtle but important distinction, because while the majority of primal spell runes we see are like this—representations of what the spell does, rather than the spell's words—there is a subset of spells that work the opposite way:
What do these spells (though "spell" is a stretch for the elevator) have in common?
Each is a three-word spell with three corresponding runes, while other primal spell runes are single symbols representing spells of between one and three words (but usually two)
In three out of four, the runes are activated or "lit" individually (aquis spirare faucibus lights all at once, but it's a bit of an outlier in other respects, as well)
Two of these spells—manus pluma volantus and Karim's Sunforge orb destruction spell (which we only know two of the three words of, so I'm just going to call it that)—explicitly can be achieved by only the most powerful mages of those primals. So here's what I think:
These are primal magic spells invented by primal mages, possibly more recently than the primal rune spells.
Except for the elevator (which I'll come back to in a minute), I think these are spells created using draconic words paired with elven runes that correspond to those words. The (presumably Skywing elf) symbols of manus pluma volantus are very different from the (presumably Sunfire elf) runes of Karim's spell because the symbols themselves aren't from the same language. Basically, a powerful mage can combine draconic words and "runes" from their own language to build a spell out of component parts, which are distinct from the universal rune spells any mage can cast.
This also explains one of the more cryptic statements in Tales of Xadia (which is saying a lot):
Plotice, I would bet, has either discovered a combination of draconic words and Skywing runes that forms a new spell, or he may have discovered a universal rune that can be used for an existing compound spell, making a previously difficult spell attainable for less powerful mages. "Discovered" is an interesting word here (compared to "invented") because it implies that you can't just do this by combining words willy-nilly—maybe dragons or archdragons can, but there's a limit to what an elven (or human) mage can achieve, and the trick is figuring out what combinations work. Same for turning the spell words into a universal rune, if that's even possible—you can't just draw a picture and call it a day.
What's interesting is the possibilities introduced by inscribing these runes on objects. We know that even if Rayla carves terminus ad glacium into some ice, she can't activate it herself. Callum the Ocean mage has to do that. However, it's not super clear whether Rayla could have activated the Starscraper elevator if she was the one to read the words, or if a Sky mage (or even just a Sky arcanum) is required for that. We don't really know whether the Starscraper elevator symbols are Skywing or actual written draconic, just that Callum can read them:
Our other example is the waterbreathing amulet, which has to be usable by someone without an Ocean arcanum, considering that Callum doesn't have one when Akiyu gives him the amulet. Callum does have to activate or cast the spell when he draws it himself, but it seems like the amulet is sufficiently magical, itself. (Stella also uses it, but that's less concrete evidence that it can be used without an Ocean arcanum because Callum could be activating it at the same time as the others.)
We aren't told whether the waterbreathing spell (I'm not going to type out aquis spirare faucibus every time, fight me) is particularly difficult, but it fits the pattern and Callum describes it as conceptually similar to manus pluma volantus. Which it is! You might think that "breathe underwater" would be a fairly basic and desirable Ocean spell, but how do you do that with only Ocean magic—no "air" or "breath," those are both Sky primal domain. The way to do it is, as Callum says, "mage gills" that physically attune you to the Ocean the way that mage wings attune you to the Sky. My only doubt with the amulet and its spell is that, unlike the other comparable spells, the runes really don't say "Tidebound elf language" to me. Of course, we haven't really seen any Tidebound elf environments, so who knows.
Anyway, I think this has some interesting implications regarding the link between primal magic and very specifically dragons, how it may have been passed to elves and/or humans, and what kind of "claim" any of them (vs. dragons) have on it. Additionally, it goes a long way toward soothing my nerdrage over the wildly different "sets" of rune designs we are otherwise expected to accept as being from the same language, even though I know that—primal runes aside—this show could not possibly care less about the design of what they call "writing."
It's also shockingly similar to my much-less-substantiated headcanons about how dark magic works, but that's a whole other thing.
