So I have a theory about where monsters come from in the Second Citadel. Since we started on the Spiral Sage arc, we’ve been dealing with a lot of doubled perceptions. Caroline sees a fortress, Rilla sees a snail. Rilla sees Quanyii, Caroline doesn’t. Damien and Angelo see a building, Talfryn sees a giant shell. Damien looks at a tapestry of the Spiral Sage and sees an old man with a spiral shield, Helicoid sees a snail, and Angelo (which is super interesting, hold that thought) can see both. The rest of the tapestries inside the fortress seem to show monsters and humans living, working, (sleeping???) together, and as the Spiral Sage is associated with the time of the First Citadel, we can assume that the rest of these images are too.
Damien’s reaction is telling as well. He sees monsters as being against the natural order, as inherently evil and chaotic, and that’s what he’s always been taught, and that’s what he’s determined to believe. What causes him to doubt is any implication that monsters and humans might not be so different after all. With Arum, it’s his eyes that cause the doubt - there’s something almost human in them. And he’s an architect, he’s intelligent and articulate, skilled - not some lumpy misshapen brute thing. With the Spiral Sage, it’s the idea of monster society - they can have Senates, and communities, and democracy. They have a court system. They have civilization. Hell, in some ways, they have unity. These are all things that Damien has been raised to believe are entirely human traits. With the tapestries, what seems to tip him over the edge is that they present a society where humans and monsters are so similar, so compatible, that they can live together (and live together) in peace.
Damien finds this confusing, upsetting, terrifying - it threatens the very foundations of his life and belief, and he pins it all on Arum. Arum, with his human eyes and intelligence and frequently civilized behaviour - he’s the source and the representation of Damien’s doubt. He has stolen Damien’s tranquility, and so he must be destroyed.
Isn’t it convenient that there’s an obvious monster-shape for him to pour all that into, instead of him having to deal with it internally?
“ Personally, I’m a mess of conflicting impulses—I’m independent and greedy and I also want to belong and share and be a part of the whole. I doubt that I’m the only one who feels this way. It’s the core of monster making, actually. Wanna make a monster? Take the parts of yourself that make you uncomfortable—your weaknesses, bad thoughts, vanities, and hungers—and pretend they’re across the room. It’s too ugly to be human. It’s too ugly to be you. Children are afraid of the dark because they have nothing real to work with. Adults are afraid of themselves.“
Richard Siken, Spork Editor’s Pages: Black Telephone
What if humans used to be monsters? What if humans made monsters? Maybe, at the time of the First Citadel, people used to be like the moon - human and monstrous at once (cf. Lady of the Lake). A large part of magic in this universe is about strength of will, right? You could, if you really, really wanted, force out everything monstrous about yourself, everything that threatens your tranquility, and give it life, and send it to live somewhere far away from you.
In the First Citadel, humans and monsters lived in harmony; not just with each other, but with all facets of themselves. The dual images in the tapestries represent people who were as human as they were monstrous. And then someone, maybe the original Damien, started to doubt. This can’t be me, they said. It’s hideous, it hurts, this doesn’t belong to me. I don’t want this. Cast it away. Grant me tranquility.
What if the First Citadel fell, not because the monsters attacked it, but because the people turned on themselves? They created monsters, so they could kill the bits of themselves that they didn’t like, that weren’t tranquil and ordered and easy, and they failed.
The First Citadel fell because it wasn’t unified anymore. The Second Citadel remembers that, and builds on it, but they don’t remember why.
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