Big Bad theory
THIS WHOLE POST IS A SPOILER.
I am currently on my second reread and am working my way through fourth wing, but I am working on a theory as I read. I may be a bit rusty on details, so feel free to correct me or contribute.
My theory: Markham will be the big bad of the series. I have quite a few reasons behind believing this.
First, it would be impactful on a personal level, especially in the final battle. Markham personally trained Violet to be a scribe and to take over for him. This would have an emotional impact on Violet. It would also make the final battle less about power and fighting, putting more of an emphasis on brains and strategy, which is what Violet was originally bringing to the table.
This is not to say that Markham wouldn’t be powerful, which brings me to my next point. He COULD be the original Venin general in hiding, trying to bring the continent to its knees from the inside. We already know there is a high ranking member that is venin. Markham is certainly VERY high ranking and has all the knowledge at his disposal. And he is actively censoring information about the venin. Why would he be doing this except for 2 reasons: to prevent panic over what is really out there or, more likely, to weaken rider forces by leaving them unprepared. This, of course, would be a group effort, but he could have persuaded others to help censor the information. This could have been generations of hidden information and he is just infiltrating to help promote keeping the information hidden.
But what about people that know the truth? Glad you asked! Now we come to Asher. I believe he may have uncovered this plot through his work as a scribe and his research on feathertails. He may have even uncovered information on irids through his research. With this research, he probably found a cure for venin or some other information that lead to Markham killing him to keep this info buried. We know daddy Aetos was aware of this research so it was public knowledge. We also know that the books on feathertails went missing (hidden by Asher.) If Markham is venin, and the Big Bad at that, he would be extremely powerful and likely to have a signet able to kill in a way to make it look like Asher’s heart gave out in grief. Finding out that her dad was murdered by Markham to cover up information would also be a personal blow.
Thoughts?
Edit: I forgot to add another part to this post. Lilith probably suspected Markham had Asher killed, or may have discovered it leading up to conscription day. We know Violet only had 6 months of training before crossing the parapet. Why let her train as a scribe so long before ordering her to enter the rider’s quadrant except if she was trying to get her out of Markham’s control after discovering what happened. We know she does not dislike scribes as her husband was one. She cashed in her favor with Xaden to protect Violet which tells me that she was trying to protect her with this action.