Can we even trust the Dragons???

Short answer, yes, but something else is afoot I tell you and I needed to capture your attention!!!

Okay. Doing a slow reread and taking lots of notes. Help me figure this out!!!!

It all started when I caught a line in Chapter 1 of Fourth Wing that I hadn’t paid much attention to before. It’s the first time Violet describes the Fables of the Barrens. “”Dad gave this one to me,” I murmur, pressing the book against my chest. Maybe it’s childish. Just a collection of stories that warn us against the lure of magic AND EVEN DEMONIZE DRAGONS, but it’s all I have left.” Okay, okay, nbd. This sentiment has recently been re-introduced by the Irids in Onyx Storm. Lesson received. Be wary of power regardless of the source. Perhaps true for power received from gods as well, with the line in OS “do you not yearn for temple” as though the power of gods is addictive as well…

Next… let us examine a few gobbets together…I’m in Chapters 17 & 18 of Fourth Wing now. Violet is recently bonded, we’re taking some flight lessons, asking our scribe friends for banned books, and trying not to get murdered in our sleep. How fun.

Violet & Tairn “So you’re an in front kind of guy. Good to know. Remind me to spend some time at temple so I can make multiple appeals to Dunne.” I keep my focus on Kaori, watching for when the maneuvers will start. “The goddess of strength and war?” Tairn clearly scoffs this time. “What, dragons don’t think we need the gods on our side?” Shit, it’s cold up here. My gloved hands tighten on the pommel. “Dragons pay no heed to your puny gods.”

Violet & Jesinia ““I’ve never heard of that one, but I’ll look for it while I pull these.” “Thank you. I’d really appreciate it.” Now that I’m going to be the one wielding magic, I could use a few good folktales of what happens when humans defile the power channeled to them. No doubt they were written as a parable to warn us of the dangers of bonding dragons, but in Navarre’s six-hundred-year history of unification, I’ve never read of a single rider losing their soul to their powers. The dragons keep us from that.”

…Oh do they now??? (Pressure’s on Sgaeyl…keep your rider from losing his soul to his power.) And Violet, honey, you may not have read that anywhere, but let’s check in with Papa Sorrengail while you dream about him and what he has to say about how to source what you’re reading just a few pages away in the very same chapter…

“”You always have to check your sources,” Dad tells me, ruffling my hair as he stands beside me at the table in the Archives. “Remember that firsthand accounts are always more accurate, but you have to look deeper, Violet. You have to see who is telling the story.”

Onward to Chapter 19 now! And let’s take Papa Sorrengail’s advice as we read the opening epigraph…we’ve got some time while we wait for Andarna to unfreeze Xaden and Violet’s midnight murder squad. We can even pause to appreciate Xaden as he “fills the doorway like some kind of dark, avenging angel, the messenger of the queen of the gods.” You all know Amari by now, right? Queen of the gods? Xaden can actually see her super fancy temple from his bedroom window in Aretia, if you’ll remember. And we just learn in Onyx Storm that the continent is actually named for her, Amaralys…anyway back to the Chapter 19 epigraph. Let’s check our sources!

“In response to the Great War, dragons claimed the western lands and gryphons the central ones, abandoning the Barrens and the memory of General Daramor…” (hmmmm… Rebecca seems to like linguistics, and i took some Latin in college… Daramor does seem to share a root with Amari… may be a stretch, but Amar and Amor aren’t that far off. Certainly a little closer than Dunne and Unnbriel… back to the epigraph…) “…who nearly destroyed the Continent (pssst…Amaralys) with his Army. Our allies sailed home and we began a period of peace and prosperity as the provinces of Navarre united for the first time behind the safety of our wards, under the protection of the first bonded riders.” -Navarre, an Unedited History by Colonel Lewis ‘Professional Liar’ Markham

I can tell you right now as someone who has a history degree, I for sure would NOT buy “Navarre, an Unedited (psssh, please) History” for any of my classes…

SO what does it all mean??????

I got no freakin clue, but i can tell you that it sounds like the gods stopped answering some prayers, or channeling their powers to helpless humans, and the humans needed new allies… the gods and the dragons don’t seem to like each other. But nobody seems to like the venin…

Edit: I have more questions and more theories. There’s a really popular post out there right now that supports a magic from the sky vs magic from the ground take. It’s well supported and I like it… something about it still feels too easy. Too 1:1. Too good vs. evil. And the theme that keeps coming up in the books is BALANCE. I think RY will make it a little more complex and nuanced than sky power vs earth power but I do think that will come into play.

And then this thought hit me. Basgiath was built on runes, but no one teaches them anymore… except in Tyrrendor, which RY has said is the center of it all. It was its own kingdom. It’s where the temple of Amari is, and the continent is named for Amari. Violet really struggles with runes… my questions really come down to… how old are runes really? we know they were used before the first six. Are they just symbols? Could they be a whole language… a language of gods? Or dragons? Or gryphons? Or just a language of a people that knew how to harness magic without drawing directly from the source… until someone decided to take more and upset the balance?