u/Pure-Maintenance-636

I think our new friend Lt. Ellery Mynna is actually an easter egg about Violet's second signet.

Mynas are a group of birds in the starling family.

This is not incidental - we have an abundance of bird-related names pop up across the series. Like, 12 days of Christmas quantities of birds going on.

And of course, Marbh made sure birds were top of mind for us as we read Threshing Day:

>"Only birds belong in trees. [...] Are you a bird, Sorrengail? [...] Have I found a docile robin in the place of the sharp-minded hawk I sought? [...] Think of all the battles we will win with that bird-sized brain of yours. [...] Little birdie can fly."

So. Starlings:

• Have iridescent feathers
• Specifically do not occupy desert areas
• Process information very quickly - faster than humans
• When they probe for prey, it's called "zirkeln" - named for a compass (the kind with 2 legs)

Andarna is an irid. We know nothing about the desert barrens. Violet processes information extremely quickly. And Violet got that compass from Zihnal - a different type of compass, but still.

And. Starlings are known for their swarming behavior ("murmuration"). It was once believed to be caused by thought transference - telepathy, essentially (in fact, they sync up with the 7 nearest birds).

I think that the reason we've only seen 10% of Violet's signet from Andarna is because it isn't dreamwalking at all. It's thought transference. That's why the irids said it was so dangerous. And with it, she could command the sky - she could control the movements of all the dragons/riders to create precise, a precise, coordinated attack.... a kind of power that could be incredibly dangerous if she was not trustworthy, lost control, or showed poor judgement.

We have also seen repeatedly that Xaden's power is growing, and it is very important that Violet can find him in the dark:

> “I can wield from anything that casts a shadow, but no one knows the strongest threads are always my own. If you can sort through them, feel their difference, you’ll be able to track where I am in the darkness.”
“Is that really what you need me to learn?” [...]
“You have to learn the difference for both our sakes. [...] Only you.”
[...]
“Why only me?”
“You need to be able to find me.”[...]
“Why only me?” [...]
“Because you’re the only one capable of killing me.”

But the lesson that Violet has been learning is the importance of teamwork and collaboration. She can't be the only one, and she can't do everything alone. But if she can use thought transference, then she could help her friends navigate the dark together. Because Xaden in his villain era will definitely be dimming the lights.

One other tidbit: the word for starling in Scots Gaelic is druid - which could tell us something about how the magic of this story will be described by the end. More broadly, the root of "druid" is related to being a magician, a seer, and a knower of trees. Violet, with her tree climbing ways, definitely is a knower of trees.

Also, "Violet Sorrengail"? That is 100% a bird name. Especially if you think of sorrengail as a parallel to nightingale (sorin meaning sun; nightingales sing all through the darkness to protect their territory). Ah yes, I've just spotted a violet sorrengail.... a violet sun-singer. Get that in merlin stat.

The burning of Aretia is a destructive example of King Tauri's harsh brutality towards traitors. But I don't think Navarre burned Aretia as a punishment. I think Navarre burned Aretia to hide a venin attack.

>In this, the 628th year of our Unification, it is hereby recorded that Aretia has been burned by dragon in accordance with the Treaty ending the separatist movement. Those who fled, survived, and those who did not remain entombed in her ruins. —PUBLIC NOTICE 628.85 TRANSCRIBED BY CERELLA NIELWART

Navarre has a history of burning cities to hide venin attacks.

The most obvious example, of course, is Resson. Navarre tried to conceal the venin attack on Resson - and all of those wyvern - by burning it. As Rhi says:

>“The patrol reports from Battle Brief said the trading post was charred for miles and we’d have to find a new location for the quarterly trades.”

But Resson may not be the only one.

In the first battle brief of the series, they discuss an attack on the village of Chakir. This village doesn't make sense for a gryphon attack - it's at an altitude too high for gryphons to fly well or channel effectively, and - as we come to learn - most gryphon attacks on focused on outposts, not villages, because that's where the weapons are. The village itself is about an hour away from the nearest outpost. Notably, Xaden asks about the condition of the village. Conveniently, the buildings they had already gone through were burned.

Similarly, in the first battle brief of IF, they discuss an attack near the village of Sipene. This village is near Montserrat and is similarly placed high in the Esben mountains. Unlike Chakir, Sipene was beyond the wards. Again, homes were burned in the village - apparently a gryphon flier was found in caves, and was also burned on sight. They didn't even pause to question them.

The attacks on Chakir and Sipene don't make sense for fliers. I suspect they were actually venin attacks, and the Navarrians burned the evidence. Burning Aretia would fit with this pattern.^(1)

Aretia lies beyond the wards - so venin can channel there.

Aretia is not protected by Navarre's wards. While it's largely inaccessible for gryphons, it would be possible for venin to channel there. This means that venin - whether from the Barrens or from those hiding within Navarre - would be able to channel.

I do not think that wyvern were present in Aretia at the time of this battle. They seem relatively new - Brennan says they've only known about them for a few months.^(2)

Navarre developed venin lures - so they may have had a way to draw venin to Aretia.

We know that the iron boxes found in Resson and Jahna were of Navarrian origin. It's not clear when Navarre created these boxes, why they created them, or how they have used them in the past - but it does show that there is a potential way that Navarre could have lured venin to Aretia (whether from the Barrens or sent among those hiding with the kingdom).

The iron boxes also seem to have some type of runes - Chradh, who found the boxes, is sensitive to runes. This suggests that rune knowledge is not dead in Navarre - just not taught (or at least... not taught to riders).^(3,4)

If lures were also used to orchestrate an attack in Aretia, this could explain how Aetos Sr. got the idea for the Resson attack during War Games. If Navarre used lures to foil a traitor before, he would likely feel a sense of poetic justice and righteousness in using the same approach again treating the crimes of the son in the same way as the crimes of his father.

Brennan's reaction to surviving the Battle of Aretia is telling.

Brennan's emotions about his defection from Navarre directly parallel Violet's after Resson. To me, his reaction seems much stronger than if he simply heard about why the Tyrs were really rebelling after his miraculous survival and then decided to join the revolution. I think he witnessed the threat of the venin firsthand.

>“I’m here for the same reason you fought at Resson. Because I can’t stand by, safe behind the barriers of Navarre’s wards, and watch innocent people die at the hands of dark wielders because our leadership is too selfish to help. That’s also the reason I didn’t come home. I couldn’t fly for Navarre knowing what we’ve done-what we’re doing-and I sure as hell couldn’t look our mother in the eye and listen to her justify our cowardice. I refused to live the lie.”

Brennan is filled with a deep moral outrage at Lilith for sacrificing him and for upholding the lie.

>“I hope my death haunts her every damned day. She was so willing to sacrifice my life for a lie.”

He repeatedly says he was sacrificed - like Lilith knew what was coming and sent him anyway.

>"... we do not defend kingdoms who sacrifice neighboring civilians”— his head turns toward Mom, and her eyes bulge —“let alone their own children so they can hide safely behind their wards. You will not escape the suffering you’ve forced the rest of the Continent to endure.”

Violet doesn't feel quite as "sacrificed" by Lilith because she's aware that Lilith didn't know the plan for War Games. But if Brennan thought that Lilith knew the plan for Aretia, and sent him in anyway.... that would explain a lot about how harshly he reacted. Even if she didn't know - she was behind rounding up all of the leaders of the rebellion to ensure the truth stayed hidden.

Navarre kept the secret safe through ensuring there were no surviving accounts.

Navarre did its best to execute anyone who might have known about what really happened in Aretia. They burned anyone in Aretia who didn't flee. They executed all of the officers they could round up. They executed the officers' spouses. There's even an argument to be made that they tried to execute their children.

However, I suspect the marked ones don't know the truth about what happened in Aretia. When venin are approaching Athebyne, Imogen remarks that venin have never been seen this far west. However, the children of the officers were all evacuated from the city before the Battle of Aretia - they may not know what truly happened.

It also seems like Aretia's library was destroyed. Xaden notes that the Temple of Amari was the most recognizable landmark in the city after the library + the library in Aretia that Violet works in in IF is only half full of books. And then there's this from Col. Daxton:

>There is nothing more sacred than the Archives. Even temples can be rebuilt, but books cannot be rewritten. -COLONEL DAXTON'S GUIDE TO EXCELLING IN THE SCRIBE QUADRANT

Destroying Aretia's library was an important part of ensuring Navarre remained in control of the narrative.

Perhaps the most important argument... the duchy of Aretia has remained unclaimed because the land is unusable.

King Tauri made Lewellen Duke of Tyrrendor - but Aretia remained Xaden's because Aretia remained unclaimed. King Tauri could have easily given away Aretia as a reward to a loyal noble, which would have also ensured loyal leadership in an unstable region. Yet he doesn't.

>"No noble has claimed the duchy of Aretia. They all think the land is ruined, or worse—cursed."

Xaden describes the land itself as unusable:

>Which is also the reason this place is still technically…mine. Nobles weren’t exactly eager to throw their money at a scorched city or be taxed on unusable land.

Ruined, unusable, cursed land sounds a lot like like that the venin have drained.

As far as I can tell, we don't see specific descriptions of the color of the stonework in Riorson House, or within the city. It's possible that the char concealed some of the fading, or that venin were focused on a specific objective (e.g., finding something or someone) rather than wholesale consumption of power. It's also possible that color has returned to any drained areas over time as the land regenerated. It's also worth noting that the first time Violet sees the stonework in Tecarus' arena, she doesn't immediately recognize it as drained.

So what do you think? Is it as simple as burning land the land out of anger and punishment? Was burning the library in Aretia the real reason to burn the city? Was it a staged venin attack? Or was it something else?

______

Related, but tangential, theories as footnotes:

1. A defining feature of venins' fighting style is their ability to quickly adapt and adopt the fighting style of their opponent. They used fire to destroy Suniva - something they may have adopted from Navarre's approach.

2. It's possible that the venin found something (or someone) in Aretia that helped them to develop the wyvern (e.g., Xaden mentions knowing an initiate who wanted to kill their sage). They also could have found something in the Chakir raid - which according to Brennan's timeline, happened a few months before the wyvern started appearing. We know that there are caves in Aretia and Sipene, plus we have other examples of raids in the Second Krovlan uprising + the theft of the eggs at the end of OS.

3. Perhaps scribes learn technical skills beyond observation/documentation, historical analysis, knowledge, and care for books. Asher, for example, had significant proficiency with poisons. It's possible that scribes may be taught other skills, like poisons and runes - or may learn these skills as a result of their research.

4. Chradh is uniquely sensitive to the runes in the iron boxes. He's a brown dragon, and brown dragons may be from Luceras (most browns prefer cold, and Luceras is known for being bitterly cold). Old Lucerish is a logosyllabic language (like Tyrrish runes) - and Mira's tourmaline bracelet that she received from Niara (who lives in Luceras) has distinctive knotwork (Tyrrish runes are also described as knots). It's possible that Luceras has its own rune system that Navarre used to make the lure boxes (following this logic, Morrainian runes may also be a thing). It makes sense that Navarre wouldn't use Tyrrish runes if they were trying to lure venin into Tyrrendor. In the current storyline, it would explain why the rune boxes have been a puzzle for the Tyrs, fit in with Trissa's ongoing experimentation with runes, and even be related to the odd Brennan/Trissa/Old Lucerish situation (e.g., maybe Brennan and Trissa are trying to decode Lucerish runes).

There are some really odd things about the rebellion:

• Despite years of planning, the rebellion collapsed in under a year
• Nearly all of the leaders were rounded up - but several were not.
• Tairn was key to Navarre defeating the Tyrs - yet he supports the revolution now.
• Lilith made the deal with Xaden - not Melgren, King Tauri, or another leader.
• Fen didn't particularly like riders and wasn't a rider himself - but serving dragons is central to the Riorson line. A dragon is carved into the throne of Tyrrendor. Tyrrish is the same language as the what the dragons are primarily named in. Riorson House is located near the hatching grounds of the Dubmadinn line.

So, what really happened? I think the dragons intentionally betrayed the leaders of the Rebellion. The double signets we see among the marked ones aren't just the product of dragons taking advantage of harsh reality of the Rebellion's failure. The dragons themselves ensured the Rebellion would collapse so that their riders would be executed and they could bond the children of the Tyrrish rebels.

>Half palace, half barracks, but entirely a fortress, Riorson House has never been breached by army. It survived countless sieges and three full-out assaults before falling under the flame of the very dragons it existed to serve.

1. Without dragon consent, the Calldyr executions would've been a bloodbath.

Executing a single rider is one thing. But 68 officers were executed. I'm sure not all of them are riders, but still. It's hard to imagine a mass execution going smoothly when there are potentially dozens of dragons losing their riders.

But from what we know, the executions went relatively smoothly.

Beyond this, there's the fact that all of those officers were captured. We know it's possible to evade capture within the cave networks surrounding Aretia - Brennan and Marbh did. The other assembly members also were not captured. There's not a hint of any of them having children (though to be fair, we know very little about the personal lives of any of the "adult" characters). The main point here is that a large number of captured officers had children, and enough officers were captured to wipe out the revolution - yet but there were still some riders left to carry on the work (include military leaders + one rider skilled with runes) This could be convenient - or the result of strategic choices by the dragons about who lives and who dies.

2. Rebellion leadership knew their deaths were inevitable and planned accordingly.

Despite years of planning, the Rebellion was over incredibly quickly.

>"Our parents knew they’d die one way or another, and the last thing they did was make sure we were protected."

Partially, this is the reality of Melgren's signet - since he can see the outcome of any battle, they were inevitably doomed. They made sure protections were in place for their children in the event of their deaths via rune magic that was critical to their children's ability to carry on their efforts. Melgren is also a convenient patsy to distract from the betrayal of their own dragons' roles in the failure of the revolution.

After all, how could they be betrayed if they knew they were going to die? Well, it's one thing to believe that their deaths were inevitable due to Melgren's signet or simply the strength of Navarre's military and prepare accordingly. It's another thing to realize that their deaths were inevitable because they were being sacrificed by their own dragons in a gamble to get more power.

3. The dragons intentionally and specifically sought out the marked ones.

Dragons are known for their cruelty and they have selected and bred riders for the same:

>Never forget that dragon riders have been selected, trained, and even bred for cruelty. Expecting mercy from a rider is a mistake, for none will be given.

What could be more cruel than allowing a child's parent to burn alive so you can have a rider that wields more powerful magic? And doing so while knowing that you're risking that child going insane? And at the same time, setting many other children up for death as collateral damage?

That is exactly what the dragons did:

>“Our dragons came looking for us. They knew what they were doing.”
“Giving you a better chance of survival?” I rest my hand over his heart.
“If you wax sentimental. More like building their own army.” A corner of his mouth rises. “More signets equal more power.”

Building this army required human support. They needed humans to weave protective runes against Melgren's signet. They needed the children of their former riders to be in the riders quadrant to bond - to be ripe for harvest.

The Fables demonizes dragons. We know dragons can be cruel and ruthless. But it's hard to imagine when we see them as beloved friends, or when their actions are justified. But this... this is cruel and ruthless. They betrayed their riders for more power.

4. Lilith took the blame - not dragons.

IMO, the vitriol of Tracila's last words (a fuck you seemingly directed to Lilith) suggests to me that the rebellion leadership did not see the full scope of the dragon's plan - that is, we haven't really seen anything in the books that suggests the rebellion leaders or children of the rebellion blame the dragons for any part of the collapse of the rebellion. (It's possible that this component has been redacted or kept secret; it's also possible that Aretia's longstanding loyalty to / service of dragons may have kept rebellion leaders compliant when the time came for executions).

Blame falls heavily to Lilith. She rounded up the leadership. She is the focus of the marked ones' desire for vengeance. The Navarrians rewarded her with a promotion. If Lilith had connections to Tyrrendor, as many suspect, then this would be seen as an even bigger betrayal to the rebellion (and an even stronger way of securing her place post-rebellion). Even if she didn't, she was of age with many of the riders in rebellion leadership - they would have been friends and classmates.

*sidebar: Imagine Tracila and Lilith as squadmates - as riders coming up together and being pregnant together. And then Lilith betrays Tracila and sends her and her daughter to her death!!! BRUTAL!

Lilith was obviously motivated by her anguish over the death of Brennan. At the same time, she was integral to seting up a situation where the dragons could build their army. Her actions were vital to ensuring the protection runes could be used as intended. Despite rounding the leaders up, it was Codagh - not Aimsir - who executed the leaders. And by taking the blame for rounding everybody up, she also ensured the dragons' role in the collapse of the rebellion stayed secret.

I think Tairn may have collaborated with Lilith in this work. Like Lilith, Tairn was integral to Navarre's victory in the rebellion. And Tairn was experiencing his own emotional turmoil rooted in whatever happend with Naolin. Black dragons are known for being sly and cunning - he may have played a role in convincing dragons to betray their riders, or even been the architect of the plan.

5. Being admitted to the quadrant wasn't part of King Tauri's plan.

For this plan to work, the marked ones needed to be allowed into Basgiath. But there's no way King Tauri cooked up that plan - Violet describes his reaction to the rebellion as swift and cruel, and we see that in what we know about the executions.

The marked ones were present at the executions and were made to watch. Lilith opposed this, and they were there anyway. But just thinking about how it all would have played out, it's not surprising that if King Tauri had their parents executed, and then suddenly weird magical marks appeared on the arms of the children watching.... he might make a game-time decision to toss the kids into the fire too.

Xaden does hint that there was an attempt to execute the marked ones:

>“Godsdamned traitor,” the captain spits out, fumbling for his sword before finding his feet. “Malek will meet you for your crimes.”
[...]
“Tried that. He didn’t want me—or any of us, remember?” Xaden scratches his relic with his empty hand.

Melgren jumps in after this and changes the subject, effectively cutting off further discussion here. I think that they tried to kill the marked ones and it didn't work.

But the Navarrians don't mess around with Malek - they commend souls to Malek daily. They dutifully burn the belongs of the dead. I think that if Navarre tried to execute the children and they didn't die - that is, Malek rejected them - they would be loathe to try another way.

6. This is when Lilith cuts the deal.

At this point, Lilith is the new commanding general of Basgiath. The children under the age of majority could come through her school - a place where she can offer some amount of shielding and protection (for example, IMO, there's no way Lilith didn't know the marked ones were meeting).

Politically, the deal is a good move. For the marked ones, it means that Navarre won't switch to cutting throats. For those who want the marked ones dead without defying Malek, the Riders Quadrant is an ideal place to send them, given the high death rate (and they can exacerbate this by fostering the kids with loyalist families). Similarly, it's easy to believe that dragons wouldn't bond betrayers. And it's notable that Liam thinks that the RQ was chosen to give them the best odds of rising in rank - because in some ways, it was.

Xaden takes responsibility for the 107 marked ones. Lilith is the one who cuts into his back - an action which, to non-Tyrs, makes her look incredibly cruel, twisting a traditional Tyrrish custom to make a child suffer. (I suspect the custom is rooted in blood magic, and is perhaps a parallel to the way most dragons scar their riders at Threshing.).

But Lilith would have had to "sell" the deal to King Tauri and the military leadership in order to get it to stick. For riders, its possible that their dragons were able to influence their thinking about the deal so they saw it favorably. And for King Tauri, it had to be rebranded in a way that would make him look good... which it was.

The public notice about the marked ones reeks of propaganda - they're called "innocents," King Tauri's actions were just and merciful, their conscription is a "prestigious" opportunity.

It also explains why Lilith - who is decidedly not temple-minded - was so strict about burning Brennan's things. If she was the one who made a religious argument against trying a second execution strategy with the marked ones, then it would be imperative that she looked like somebody who was devout to (or at least superstitious about) Malek.

7. The marked ones don't know.

I mentioned earlier that Lilith taking the blame meant that the dragons' role in the executions stayed secret. This is important because the dragons want to bond their riders' children! If the children know that dragon betrayed their parent and was an accomplice to their death.... well, that's not going to make for a collaborative bond, to say the least.

In this vein, Bodhi also talks about how their parents "got themselves killed." He blames them. Again, the blame is not with their dragons.

Violet knows the dragons are keeping secrets. And I don't think this is the only "bad" secret the dragons are keeping - clearly there are some historical / magical secrets that are carried forward into the present day. However this is a secret that would cause some serious strife.

Betrayal - and making amends in the aftermath of betrayal - is a recurrent theme across the series. For the dragons to betray Riorson House - the house built to serve them - and to betray their riders by keeping their role in their parents' deaths a secret would be brutal.

I've been deep in the star lore again (let's be real... I never left).

I've been thinking about the idea of this story as being inspired by an alt-Scottish mythology of the stars, based on 1) the primary language of dragon names + shape of the map + RY's comments about connecting with her Scottish heritage and 2) the many celestial elements we've seen across the story (from the rings on the wardstones, the cover design, that astronomy book, the name of the series, etc.). If you're interested in going deeper on stars + Scotland, I recommend 10,000 Years of Scottish Star Gazing: Ancient Interpretations of the Night Skies of Northern Scotland by David Newland. And for more of an overview of some of the initial star links that started me down this rabbit hole, see this older post.

Anywho, I've been thinking about stars specifically in relation to the origin story + the landscape of the continent*.*

The origin story will involve a Phaethon analog.

In our version of this story, Phaethon is the son of the sun god Helios. He travels to Helios' palace in the east and asks to drive his chariot for a day. Helios is the only one who can control his horses, and tells Phaethon this, but Phaeton is determined. So he's allowed to take the reins and pretty much immediately loses control. As he veers close to the earth, he burns it. As he veers away, he freezes it. The stars and the earth complain, and Zeus kills Phaethon with a lightning bolt. This story is used to explain why some places are uninhabitable - like deserts.

I think we'll see something similar in the origin myth. Instead of a chariot, I suspect we'll see a "brother" character demanding control of a dragon. As he loses control, he veers across the sky, leaving some places burned (such as the Barrens), and perhaps even knocking the stars out of the sky in some type of major meteor shower. This changed the landscape - and changed the balance of magic (probably for humans as well as dragons and gryphons).

This comet strike might have made the venin-fighting weapons possible.

An asteroid / comet strike in Europe around 350BC caused the European Celts to change their worldview to be more focused on the sky and gods of thunder and fire (and practicing wicker human sacrifice). Smiths who lived in the impacted areas were able to make much stronger weapons because of the minerals that became engrained into local ores.

Sounds familiar in a lot of ways, right? Thunder, fire, human sacrifice, mining metals for super weapons.... Maybe the folklore behind minerals like talladium and maorsite will have them coming from a stellar origin.

This also might explain what people are really looking for in the mountains. It doesn't make sense for the raids to only be focused on acquiring alloy-infused daggers - because the outposts aren't targeted nearly as often as villages are. If there are valuable metals / gems, or even artifact(s) from the gods in the Esben mountains, this could explain what else is going on in this region (wish Violet had given us more babble story time about the treaty of Arif, lol).

This event also might have made it easier to turn venin.

In terms of the third brother vanquishing his jealous sibling, we could see that the dragon brother vanquishes his jealous sibling as he loses control of the dragon(s) (commanding the sky to surrender its greatest power here would mean surrendering control of dragons). But we could also see the "commanded the sky" brother as a parallel to Zeus, wielding a thunderbolt to vanquish the dragon-bonded brother.

The Fables distinguishes between channeling from the ground and channeling from the source/earth. If the out-of-control brother knocked stars out of the sky, and if stars themselves are magic, he could have added more power/magic into the surface of the earth, thus making it easier for people to turn venin.

This is why is why we have our "dragon" region, and many of our other place names.

The Cattle Raid of Cooley (primarily Irish mythology but has Scottish variants as well) has a lot of parallels to this story. Importantly, before the bull dies, he drops pieces of the bull he killed off of his horns, which created place names. It's an interesting read, especially if you read the bulls as dragons (or any combination of mythical creatures).

In the region between the border of Tyrrendor and Krovla, we have several dragon place names (Draithus, Soudra, Medaro + Drake). We also have Athebyne and Gianfar, which are directly named for stars in Draco. Gianfar is where the first crossbolt was used, and it was lethal to dragons. I think that Resson could may have been shorted from one of the star Rastaban - cut out "tab" in the center, and you have Rasan. Notably, the star Alahakan is known as the two black bulls or ravens (which makes for an interesting crossover, if you read the "bulls" in the Cattle Raid as dragons and consider the fact that there are only two black dragons.

There are loads of other examples - to highlight a few:

• "Krovla" is likely a play on "corvus," the crow. The town Jahna is likely derived from the star Gienah / al-Janah - the wing of the crow.
• Calldyr may mean caldera, referring to a crater / the constellation Crater.

Aretia's name is also connected to this.^(1)

Aretia may come from the constellation Auriga, the charioteer. Aretia is the heart of the story - it could be where the first dragon rider(s) were from. Alternatively, for the Gaels, the star Arcturus (guardian of the bear) was known Aretorios - The Charioteer.

It could also explain why there are no bears.

You may be wondering "uhhhhh, why do we care that there are no bears in a book about dragons?" So valid.

However, it's a little weird that we have so many bear-related names in the story, and the first thing we see Liam whittling is a bear, but there are no actual bears.

• The name of Ursa Major in Scottish Gaelic is An Crann, so it could be linked to place names like Crannston, as well as Esben mountains (Esben = bear), Sipene (Espen is another spelling of Esben), and Zolya (orsolya = bear).
• We also see name associations, which could include Berwyn (Berlwin = bear friend), Tercarus (from Arcturus, guardian of the bear), Talia (From Talitha or Tania, stars in Ursa Major), Matthias (means bear), Calixta (from Callisto, the woman who became Ursa Major), etc.

While I was reading about Scottish bear-related place names (clearly I've been way down the rabbit hole), this caught my eye:

>In the Gaelic view of the universe, there are no bears in the heavens. (source)

I think one of the constellations knocked out of the sky was Ursa Major / The Plough. I think we'll see that some of the bear x agriculture connections result from different cultural interpretations across the content (e.g., Poromiel vs Navarre).

Without the plough, it may be difficult to have "fertile land" - e.g., land may become barren.

There are a few other interesting associations here:

• The general of the army of the barrens was Gen. Daramore, and in Scottish Gaelic, Daire = fertile and mor = land. Ah yes, General Fertile Land from the Barrens.
• The Celtic bear warrior goddess Andarta was also placed as Ursa Major (though her name can also be interpreted as steadfast / firm - e.g., similar to the name Durran). Awfully similar to Andarna.
• There are 7 stars in the plow and 7 breeds of dragon.
• A bear-en/barren pun seems a little too far but it's right there.

There are several theories floating around about a missing god (perhaps a fertility god(dess)), so we could also see associations with the constellation Virgo here, which is heavily associated with the earth / harvest goddess Demeter.^(2)

If something happened to Ursa Major, this could be why navigation is so difficult and the maps are so weird.

Everyone (except Ridoc) suffers through land nav. And no wonder - the way Violet describes the world doesn't often align with the map (much to our collective suffering over here lol).

But riiiiiight in the middle of the map is a place that hasn't been mentioned yet in the story - Ruel.

Polaris (in Ursa Major) is also known as An Reul-iùil - the Guiding Star.

If Polaris was one of the stars knocked out of the sky, no wonder navigation is so hard! ^(3)

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(1) The caveat here is that Aretia has plenty of potential links - the star Alresha (from ar-Risha) in Pisces, which means "the cord"; the star Rigel (from Ar-Rijl) in Orion, which is the foto of Orion; or the island Aretia (often associated with Ares and Amazons). Also, Hippolytus was resurrected by Artemis after pissing off Aphrodite.... and in some versions woke up in a city called Arecia. Its root means to plough (e.g., associated with Ursa Major/the plow).

(2) Virgo/The Maiden/A’ Mhaighdeann is often associated with life, harvests, fertility, virginity, etc. There's also the fact that Imogen's name means maiden; Katrina / Catriona / Trina all share similar meanings. Imogen's mother, Tracila may be derived from Trasilla, a famed virgin saint. Glean means pure and the star Spica is also known as Alaraph/Sumbalet - which mean "Gleaner." Poromiel/Porom the first may be named for the star Porrima in Virgo; Poromiel is known for its endless fields of grain. And of course, Daire + more (Daramore) means fertile land. We also see the Beatha ("Life") River near Aretia.

(3) Reul just means star. So it could be any star - for example, Reul an Iuchair refers to Sirius/the dog star. I just like the idea of this being related to solving our unending wtfs about the maps.

One final note: It's not clear right now what elements are derived from star names, versus what elements indicate what will become a star name. So it's a bit circular. I do suspect that "restoring balance" might mean placing the heavens / the Empyrean, well.... back in the heavens, or otherwise sorting out the magic of the stars vs the magic of the earth. So I think that there are going to be some names that reflect past events in this world, while other name parallels are foreshadowing what might come. For example, the constellation Cancer (An t-Each in Scottish Gaelic) is associated with Rhiannon. This may not bode well for our girlie /: