Aidas belongs to the Ashryver line
Hear me out--there are crumbs and little bits that line up and honestly, that’s all that is needed to form a crack theory.
1) The name: “Aidas” definitely 100% lines up with the Ashryver family names--it’s the “A-I” syllable, which is probably pronounced with a long A (meaning it sounds like it’s an A-E), that matches up. We have Ae-lin, Ae-dion, Ga-lan, also with that long-A pronunciation. Plus, just say “Aidas Ashryver” aloud a few times and say it doesn’t sound like a family name.
2) Physical appearance: Aidas is described as blonde and blue-eyed, two traits that run dominant in the Ashryver line. Many (Evalin, Aelin, Aedion, some of Aelin and Rowan’s children according to Rowan’s dream in KofA) are blonde-haired, and we know that there are Ashryvers with blue eyes. Furthermore, there are quite a number of fanarts of Aidas depicting him with an eye colour closer to turquoise, which as we all know is the distinctive Ashryver eye colour that spurs the realization at the end of CofM that Celaena Sardothien is, in fact, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius. Of course, these aren’t certainties, but the parallels do seem to line up. If Aidas is indeed an Ashryver, it would make perfect sense that he inherited the dominant family traits.
3) His cat form: Okay this is a little bit far-fetched, but it’s only a crack theory. If Aidas is an Ashryver, perhaps he could be directly descended from Aedion and Lysandra? Aidas’s animal form is a white cat. Lysandra, the shape-shifter, was often seen as a ghost leopard, which is a large white cat. Perhaps Aidas could have inherited her shifting abilities--if he’s far enough down the line, that power could be only enough for him to shift into one animal form, rather than any form he wished. Furthermore, it’s basically general fantasy canon that if the mother is a shifter and spends too much time in one form or another during pregnancy, her child is likely to be born able to shift into the form she wore during pregnancy, with varying degrees of mastery over this shifting ability.
So where does being the Prince of the Chasm fit into all this? Well. The Chasm is the fifth level of Hel, and we’re all pretty sure by this point that Hel is another world. But the levels? Could each level be another world? Or open into another world? Perhaps “the Chasm” is the level that links into Erilea. Aidas does bring a powerful sense of cold with him when he visits Bryce, and Terrasen, the home of the Ashryvers, is known for its mountains and harsh winters--powerful cold. Could he be coming from the Staghorn Mountains? That would offer an explanation of the coldness, since the portal is likely open-ended and therefore the winds and/or winter storm would be able to blow in through Aidas’s entry point and into Bryce’s apartment, freezing everything.
So could Aidas be an Ashryver? Maybe. There are definitely bits and pieces that parallel the Ashryvers, from his appearance to potentially where he comes from. Or maybe we’ll all be smacked with a surprise and he’ll turn out to be some other family’s descendant. Or no one’s at all.
this has been today’s crack theory
