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magicae-est-realis · 4 months

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Okay, so fairies.

We never meet a male fairy in Fablehaven right? Raxtus and possibly the Astrids aside. The Fairy king, as a unicorn, does not count.

So how do they reproduce?

This was meant to be a teeny-tiny single paragraph. I failed.

Note for googled flower meanings-

Meadowsweet (useless)

Geranium (stupid/idiot)

Yellow carnation (I am disappointed in you)

Bilberry (traitor)

Kendra, after Zzyzx, is told in no uncertain terms by literally everyone that despite the fact that she herself is the Fairy Queen's Handmaiden, she needs a handmaiden of her own. It's one of the laws of the Fairy Kingdom, and no, there is no way around this.

Of course, they neglect to tell her that it only became a law after she picked up a random incredibly powerful magical artifact she borrowed from her brother, a child, and acted on her poorly planned (though admittedly effective) impulse to charge the biggest, baddest, most evil being on a battlefield she shouldn't even be on in an outnumbered hopeless war she shouldn't be in, and commit regicide.

This ruffled a few feathers.

Among everyone.

Adults were caught between offence that a tiny almost-human child did what they couldn't in less than five minutes and horror that Kendra was there at all.

Children were simply jealous that they didn't think of it first.

Kendra was, naturally, rather annoyed about the ridiculous law, because "why on earth does a handmaiden need her own handmaiden? I killed Gogrog! I can take care of myself!"

This did not help her case, as the entire reason behind the law was to prevent such a scenario from repeating itself, or if this wasn't possible, to provide support. And reinforcements. Lots and lots of reinforcements.

It was the product of the entire population of the Light Kingdom agreeing simultaneously (a rare, history-making event as the Centaurs and Satyrs in particular were known for always choosing opposing arguments on principal) and it came from a mix of spite for the aforementioned offense-at-Kendra-being-more-capable-than-them and of them being quite fond of her by this stage and not wanting her to inadvertently kill herself though sheer stupidity.

Though most did admit that naming her 'secret' backup a 'handmaiden' was poorly thought out, the general idea remained the same, and the general Plan been in discussion for some time before Bracken panicked when Kendra tried to go talk to the Brownies by herself, drew upon said discussions, and told her if she hadn't yet chosen her handmaiden, she needed to take him as backup at least.

Which was how Kendra learnt about the law for the first time (though Bracken had the foresight to not mention the recency of the law's creation and led her to believe it had been around for a very long time), pitched a fit about the very idea of being constantly followed, and tried to ask the nearby fairies to tell Bracken she didn't need a handmaiden of her own.

The fairies, of course, wholeheartedly agreed with Bracken and the Plan and were wary of disagreeing with their royalty anyway, so the matter was taken to the Naiads, then the Satyrs, then the Dryads, the Centaurs, the Nipsies, every human in the preserve including Kendra's family (Kendra had hoped that Vanessa at least would defend her to spite Bracken, and was sorely disappointed), the Brownies (with Bracken after she begrudgingly allowed him to come with) and each time the matter was discussed, Kendra was given the same unwavering agreement that yes, she needed her own handmaiden.

In a final act of desperation, Kendra dragged a bemused but increasingly smug Bracken off by his arm, shoved him into the little paddleboat she'd used the first time she crossed the lake, and paddled her way over to Fablehaven's Shrine.

In hindsight, the fact that the Naiads actively helped her get to the island should have been a warning written in neon lighting on a massive billboard telling her "KENDRA NO" in all-caps with confetti, glitter bombs and a blaring siren to accompany it.

As it was, Kendra noticed and dismissed the aid because she was desperate, and didn't care enough about small details like this when she felt desperate, though she probably should have learnt better by now, considering that this tendency had led to her dismissing the high probability of drowning and death-by-dandelion-fluffage during the Muriel Incident (separate to The Cow Incidents as they were more traumatising), dismissing Warren's injuries and Seth's unconscious state in the Hell Cat Temple and Revenant Incident, dismissing the fact that Chalize agreed to let them through too easily in the Lost Mesa Incident, dismissing any possibility of paradoxes or worse, Seth playing with and managing to work the Chronometer in the Shadow Plague Incident, dismissing the thought that she was legally dead or that she should learn how to fold a paper plane before using them as an escape attempt during and after the Kidnapping Incident, that...

You get the point.

(You may also notice that Fablehaven residents had a propensity for naming any serious events 'Incidents', as Warren wholeheartedly believed that it was a less traumatising phrase than 'Disaster', 'Catastrophe', or 'Serious Event'. The only allowance made for varying severity was whether or no the 'the' in front was capitalised, such as how the Lost Mesa Incident and the Muriel Incident were not capitalised, but The Cow Incidents and The Zzyzx Incident were.)

Anyway, Kendra should have known better. But she persisted, and so she was left dragging a slightly damp Bracken out of the paddleboat (one of the Naiads tried unsuccessfully to flirt with him).

It was only as they were standing in front of the Shrine and a cool breeze and distinctly amused Presence declared the Fairy Queen's attention that Kendra realised it had, perhaps, been a poor decision, as her sort-of boss could definitely command Kendra to just choose a handmaiden already and she would have to.

And that is exactly what happened.

Kendra sulked for the next day and ate whole roll of cookie dough afterwards.

But after her obligatory day of sulking, Kendra simply sighed, begrudgingly accepted her fate, and asked Bracken what the process was.

Bracken was absolutely thrilled to detail what needed to be done, though there wasn't all that much to it on Kendra's end. All she needed to do was pick a fairy ("yes, Kendra. It needs to be a fairy to serve the Fairy Queen's handmaiden!"), ask the fairy to see if she agreed ("easiest part- everyone wants the position for the bragging rights alone") and after the selection was made, tell either Bracken or his mother, and they'd do the rest.

It took Kendra less than a minute to find Shiara and ask her, and found Bracken had been correct in saying she'd agree.

And that was that.

So it was to this arrangement that Kendra found herself in towards the end of the summer following The Zzyzx Incident, as she woke up from a pleasant nap in the striped hammock she'd strung between two trees on the boundary of the garden a few weeks before with a tiny face surrounded by a shock of short blue hair hovering just above her nose.

This didn't surprise her anymore, as she'd long since grown used to (but not fond of) Shiara's wake-Kendra-up technique.

Kendra, never fond of being woken up, simply groaned and dramatically flung an arm over her face, forcing Shiara to flit out of the way. The fairies' dramatic flair had begun to infect her, and she was well on her way to becoming a theatre kid if she ever got the legally dead mess fixed.

Shiara simply poked Kendra's nose where it peeked out from under her arm.

"Hey, no sleeping on me now! I just heard from Yolie, who heard from Poza, who heard from Timela, who heard from-"

"Shiara, I say this with love, but please get to the point." Shiara simply huffed.

"Fine! Larina and Ilyana's daughter just hatched! We have to see her! The last baby hatched years ago! This is the first child anyone has even considered having since you and Seth first arrived, since you turned everything upside-down and you know we don't really like change. And she'll be the first baby hatched since we moved into our new kingdom, too!"

Kendra immediately sat bolt upright, forgetting she was in a hammock, and promptly fell face-first onto the grass. Uncaring, she scrambled to her feet.

"Where?! Where are they? How small is she? Ooooo she must be tiny! And how do you know she's a girl if you haven't seen her yet? Come on, come on, come on, come on, Shiara!"

The fairy simply laughed in delight, and darted off in the direction of the secret garden, which Kendra had been amazed to discover after becoming Fairy-kind, as it definitely hadn't existed there before.

Apparently, the garden existed in a pocket dimension connected to a small square piece of the earth similar to the rucksack, was only accessible by or even visible to a fairy, and was under many, many extremely heavy enchantments and protections laid by the Fairy Queen herself, making it one of the safest locations on the preserve. Kendra had always wondered why, and realising now that it was probably to protect baby fairies made perfect sense.

Kendra and Shiara made it to the garden in record time, to see a crowd of brightly coloured fairies creating a near solid rainbow wall around the entrance.

Briefly, Kendra wondered if she could get them to line up in rainbow order to create a mini Fablehaven pride parade.

Shiara looked at the wall blocking her way to the baby, set her face and puffed up, her hair standing on end like she'd been shocked, in her 'getting stuff done' pose.

"All right everyone, make a path! Kendra's coming through and I won't hesitate to hex anyone who doesn't move fast enough!"

It was almost comical how quickly the alarmed fairies scarpered. Admittedly, Shiara had been granted a supposed 'level-up' as Seth called it after becoming her handmaiden, but Kendra hadn't thought it was enough to intimidate an entire dazzle of excited fairies.

Apparently she'd thought wrong.

Kendra hurried through the gap created for her, Shiara leading the way, until she arrived at a small flowering shrub with a tiny but elaborate nest woven into it in a fork of three near horizontal branches near the middle.

The nest was reminiscent of a bird's nest, but no bird had ever woven a house with a braided domed roof, porch (complete with railing around two of the three sides and a handful of woven chairs), tiny perfectly round windows, a tiny perfectly round door, and a three separate rooms.

It brought to mind a Hobbit hole, though Kendra would never dream of voicing the thought after the rant about Tolkien she'd received the time she'd compared a long-haired fairy's fussiness about hair braiding to a Dwarf.

Shiara landed on the porch delicately, waited by the door, and softly called to Larina, an especially large orange and gold hummingbird fairy, to ask if she could enter.

At the soft assent she received, Shiara hopped gently into the house, arranging her wings so they didn't touch the walls, and disappeared.

A second later she popped out again, looking flustered and embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Kendra. I forgot you can't come in. Oh, bother." Poor Shiara was wringing her hands and looking incredibly distressed, and Kendra was about to tell her not to worry, that she could go in and look without her, when Ilyana's voice piped up, and the second hummingbird fairy shining an iridescent turquoise, blue and green stepped out.

"Kendra? You're here? Oh! Wait right here, we'll bring her right outside to you so you can meet her! It must be a blessing to have the Fairy Queen's own chosen handmaiden visit!" Kendra didn't even have time to take a breath before the delighted fairy had disappeared back into her little house, presumably to fetch her daughter.

Shiara positively beamed at the solution, and was almost vibrating with excitement. In no time at all, both Ilyana and Larina reappeared carrying a tiny bundle, which they gently deposited in a small bowl Kendra hadn't noticed before on the porch, lined in soft down from the adults' wings. It must be the fairy equivalent of a crib, Kendra mused, craning her head excitedly to spot the baby.

Shiara was already hovering over the mini nest, cooing in delight with her wings and hair fluttering rapidly the way they did when she became excited. It had been a strange sight the first time she'd seen it, but Kendra had quickly learnt that most butterfly and moth fairies' short hair acted the way antennae did on the actual insects they took after, while fairies whose animal counterparts didn't have antenna simply had long hair.

She was chattering excitedly with Larina while Ilyana, as the most calm fairy of the group, simply stood and listened.

"... and of course, when she heard about the egg, Her Majesty let Ilyana take time off the construction and purification works to..."

"... oh yes, the new realm! How is it going? I haven't had time to visit for ages it must be coming along beautifully by now, especially with a commander as brilliant as your Ilyana leading the river works..."

Despite both fairies seeming to talk over and interrupt one another constantly, neither lost track of the convoluted conversation that seemed to be equal parts flattery and inquiries to the other's health.

It had taken some time for Kendra to get the hang of the confusing way the fairies talked to each other well enough to follow a conversation, and was constantly in awe of their perfect recall. She could question Shiara about exactly what Larina had talked about in a week, and she'd be able to recite their conversation just as perfectly (and confusingly) as when it had been said.

It took a few minutes of craning and careful eavesdropping to find a position where Kendra could see between the three adult fairies on the porch into the nest, and when she did, she was... surprised, to say the least.

The baby was absolutely miniscule, about the length of Ilyana's forearm, a small pink blob of skin that was completely blind and hairless. Kendra thought she was wingless, too, until the baby shifted and two tiny nubs that looked like naked chicken wings showed themselves on her back.

She didn't quite know how to react.

"She looks a bit like a baby bird," Kendra mused.

Three fairies stared at her, matching looks of incredulity on each face.

"That's because she is a baby bird, Kendra." Shiara deadpanned.

Kendra was beyond confused by this stage.

"I thought she was a baby fairy?"

Ilyana and Larina shared a mildly concerned look.

"Um... Kendra, you do know how fairies are born, right?" Of the two, Ilyana apparently possessed the most tact, likely due to her high position in the Fairy Queen's army.

Kendra's confused face apparently gave away the fact that no, ladies, I don't know how fairies are born because I am a human and nobody has explained this to me. Larina began to politely recite each and every one of Silvian's swear word equivalents, which really just meant she was telling Kendra how disappointed in her she was in flowers.

"...meadowsweet, geranium. Argh, yellow carnations, Kendra! I was hoping I wouldn't have to have this conversation for years."

"Um, sorry?"

Larina sighed. "No, you're not. But that's okay, we probably need the practice anyway, we don't want to traumatise our daughter by accident."

Kendra was becoming slightly concerned by this stage, because this really didn't sound like an enjoyable conversation. Shiara edging away slowly only fuelled this conviction.

"Ah, I think I have something... important to do. Like... watching the grass grow?"

"Not so fast, bilberry. It's because you neglected to explain this to her beforehand that we're in this position in the first place." Larina puffed her large wings out intimidatingly (for a fairy) to highlight her point. Ilyana was simply standing with her fingers pinching the bridge of her nose to alleviate stress, as she had been since the start of the conversation.

Shiara winced and sat down on a tiny woven chair with decidedly less grace than usual, and all three fairies turned back to look at Kendra with varying levels of trepidation. Kendra hoped fervently that Warren and Seth never ever heard of this incident, which was quickly working its way to a capital 'I'.

Ilyana sighed, removed her hand from her nose, and stepped forward.

"I... really don't know how to start this. Er, so. Um. Well, you know how we're a species of females, right? There are no male fairies," at this she paused a nodded to Shiara "your son exempt, of course-"

"You have a son, Shiara?!"

"You know I do! You've met him! Raxtus took us to see Inside Out at that drive-in cinema!" Kendra was borderline panicking by this stage.

"But he's Celebrant's son! I thought you just raised him!"

"Exactly!" Shiara huffed.

"How does that work, then?!"

"If you would let me explain," Ilyana interrupted with a sharp voice that silenced the conversation, "because we're all female, we can't exactly have kids ourselves in the way you... mammals... do." She looked mildly nauseous. Kendra felt the same. It had definitely become an Incident.

"We can't have the kids ourselves, so we... adopt, for lack of a better term. A single fairy, or multiple in a relationship- like Larina and I- who want a child go find a compatible egg from a flying creature of some sort. A small one, like a bird, or a butterfly." At this, Larina and Ilyana both looked at a blushing Shiara. "Not a Dragon."

"Though I have to admit, watching her incubate him was hilarious. She had to perch on the top, like an ant on Hugo's head." Larina interjected with a snicker. Shiara did not look pleased with the analogy.

"Anyway," Ilyana continued "once we find our egg, we use our magic to incubate it. The magic turns the baby from a caterpillar or a chick or a larva to a fairy, and they mature similarly, too. A hummingbird egg, like ours, will hatch into a hummingbird fairy, and a butterfly egg with hatch into a butterfly fairy-"

"-caterpillar, really-" Shiara interjected.

"Fine, a caterpillar fairy that will go through metamorphosis and become a butterfly fairy-"

"-and a Dragon egg apparently hatches a... you know, I'm not entirely sure I know what to classify Raxtus as, Shiara."

"Go with Dragon, it's what I do."

"No wonder Raxtus is so confused. Um, does he know the reason he turns into a fairy instead of a human is because you're his mother?" Kendra inquired.

Shiara paused. "Er-"

"Let's take that as a no, with her track record." Ilyana sighed. "Someone's going to have to break the news to him and oh bother, he'll sulk and go through one of those dramatic 'oh woe is me, my life is hopeless and confusing and the world isn't what I though it was' phases again. I hoped we were past them after he reached adulthood."

"Oh wow, Shiara. You really messed up this time. He's been thinking he's a failure of a Dragon for so long, and all this time, he's just been a... hybrid, I suppose, not really a Dragon at all, and didn't even know it." Larina looked positively gleeful. It was, perhaps, not the best or most reassuring reaction, but she was still a fairy after all and no matter how nice, they were still petty troublemakers at heart.

Shiara was growing steadily paler. She looked like she was contemplating agreeing the next time Seth asked if she could use her magic to turn him into "something cooler than a walrus, please" and embracing Grandma's fury when she inevitably found out. Kendra was becoming rather concerned for her friend, and tried to change the discussion to save her.

"So why is Raxtus a boy then?"

"Oh, yes, he's a special case. Shiara only began to incubate him near the end of this egg phase, so he was already almost fully developed by then and wasn't able to become female. He got his fairy traits in his avatar's appearance and his breath magic instead. But normally, we adopt eggs almost as soon as they're laid, with agreement from their parents of course, so they are fully female fairies from the start."

Kendra was beginning to feel very sorry for Raxtus by this stage. Maybe she'd get him a movie voucher. Or five. It wouldn't be easy to learn you were actually a different species, and your adopted mother is actually also your second biological mother.

Since her original conversation diversion hadn't really worked, she tried again.

"Have you named your daughter yet? And what kind of fairy will she be?"

Ilyana and Larina immediately perked up, and Shiara shot a grateful look to Kendra. Maybe she would be forgiven for not knowing where baby fairies came from.

"Well, we were thinking of waiting to announce it once when everyone is present, but since it's you who's asking..." Larina's wings raffled with excitement, dropping a small piece of down which she immediately picked up and placed in the baby's nest.

"Her name is Emralis, Kendra. And she'll be a hummin- ow! Larina!- A hummingbird fairy, like us." Ilyana glared at her partner, where she was tucking the down she'd plucked from Ilyana's wings alongside what was already in the nest.

"Sorry, I just saw the perfect feather showing, and it was probably going to fall out anyway next time you groomed." Larina really didn't sound too sorry, Kendra mused.

By this time, Kendra and Shiara had already been visiting with the fairies for about half an hour, and Kendra was beginning to worry she and Shiara would be mobbed by the horde of angry fairies waiting outside for their turn to meet Emralis.

She said as much to Shiara, who simply laughed and told Kendra she could handle them, though she did begin to wrap up the slightly disturbing conversation about how to wean babies off Viola's milk to the garden aphids of all things before starting on solid foods she had struck with a concerned Ilyana and Larina.

It was another fifteen minutes before they said their goodbyes, promising the new family they'd visit again tomorrow.

Several hours later, Kendra was sitting at the massive dinner table the Brownies had built to accommodate everyone on the preserve with Shiara seated at the mini table and chair that had been built on top of the main table for her to Kendra's left. Warren, Bracken, Seth, Dale, Grandpa, Marla, the Larsons and Vanessa had already seated themselves, while Grandma, Scott and Tanu bustled around the kitchen, after chasing everyone else out with the terrifying egg beaters the Brownies had added knives to for exactly that purpose.

In no time at all, the table was groaning with food, and everyone was digging in like they'd never eaten before.

"So," Grandma Sorenson began "did anybody learn anything interesting today?" Grandma had become obsessed with asking a similar question each night, after reading that it 'helped family bonding' and 'increased positivity and thankfulness' in a household. It was the bane of everyone else's day, because everyone had to give an answer or the knife-beaters came out.

Nobody messed with the knife beaters.

Shiara perked up at the question.

Kendra paled.

Shiara waved her hand wildly, asking to be chosen first.

Grandma Sorenson looked delighted and agreed.

Kendra made a desperate grab for Shiara.

Kendra missed.

And Shiara started to talk about the Baby Fairy Education Incident.

Nobody ever let Kendra live it down. (Though Shiara was ribbed plenty for neglecting to tell her son he was half fairy.)

#fablehaven fairies #fablehaven #fic #sort of #headcannon #fairies believe in adopt don't shop #raxtus is half fairy #shiara #kendra sorenson #fairies #baby fairies #I may have gone slightly over board with italics and brackets #a group of fairies is called a dazzle now #Raxtus is about to have Issues

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theliberalunicornxx · 4 years

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i'm so sad rn let's talk about Brandon Mull's books

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Brandon Mull's seriously one of my fav authors EVER. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE and adore his books but seriously how did he get away with such violent deaths and still have his books advertised to children?!?!? Like bro I'm already a frickin teen and I still got nightmares from reading them like i-

1. In Keys to the Demon prison, Vincent died drowning in a dark, bottomless pit screaming and afraid. (Y'all are forgetting how horrible this is!!)

2. In Grip of the shadow plague, Neil died when a bunch of chokepods exploded on him and he died suffocating alone.

3. In Beyonders, did he seriously have to do that to Nedwin?? I can't even say it man it's too much 😭😭😭 GIVE ME ONE CHARACTER WHOSE DEATH (AND LIFE!) WAS MORE TRAGIC THAN HIS?? bro I was broken for MONTHS.

4. Also in Beyonders, Tark and Ferrin literally committed suicide trying to blow up Felrook. I died when they were saying their final goodbyes so frickin casually. Like BRO -

(Not gonna lie but why is Beyonders literally so depressing??? Like that was NOT even a happy ending.)

5. Celebrant ate Agad. Even if Gavin's a btch, Raxtus ate him too. That panther who mauled Errol in the inverted tower. everyone just lOoOvEs eating each other don't they 🙃🙃🙃

Also i think I developed serious trust issues cos of Fablehaven, the amount of times they got betrayed is saying smth to me 😩

AND MANY MORE!! tell me if I missed any let's all cry together ✊

I didn't include all the "sad" deaths imo (Lena, Drake, etc.) but just the violent ones in this rant cos let's save it for another day,,, I've had enoughhhhh

#BrandonMull #Fablehaven #Dragonwatch #Beyonders #Nedwin i cry #Tragic character deaths #Character deaths #Books #Brandon Mull books #Let me cry #But i'm so numb?#I wanna cry #Bro i can't move on #Violent deaths #WhyyyyYyy #Why nedwin #Like why #Tark #Ferrin my baby

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thecagedsong · 4 years

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Cool, so one of my fandoms is having a really bad day, and since I care about Fablehaven until this monster of a fanfic gets finished, how about some wholesome meta? I don’t really care what the drama was about, so don’t tell me. We’re all a little high strung, and I tend to take disagreements personally in a way that I’m working on, and don’t need to be involved in.

Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, who wants to talk about the Five crowns? Because I had a 14 hour car ride yesterday, listening to the second half of Evening Star and Shadow Plague, and I am so ready to let you all in on the code I cracked. I found the unifying magic diagram of the Fablehaven verse. The key to ultimate satisfaction, and if there was a magic research journal in universe, I would post this in and win the Top Magic Nerd of this Century award. My goal is to make this as accepted canon as possible, because I am ridiculously right. No characters involved, so no drama except of the scolastic kind, relying on heavy references to canon.

Ready?

SO, I made a pretty big claim. But I’ve been toying with this theory since before Dragonwatch three came out. I need some reviews before I inform Brand Mull that I’ve cracked his secret and won the game. If this symbol isn’t on the spine of the Journal of Secrets, what is even the point.

A good symbol does three things: identifies the pieces you are dealing with, helps the viewer reach a new understanding about the pieces, and map onto the cultural understandings of the audience. aka a cross with four quadrants of airplane, mitochondria, love, and toe nails is a terrible symbol. See common memes for usually pretty good symbols and graphs.

So you got five crowns right? That means you have a pentagon and a five pointed star, and the biggest trick was figuring out where each crown went, and how they related to each other.

Examine five-part belief systems, see where the crowns match, unifying symbol explains everything, move on. Easy.

NO.

You wanna know why?

BECAUSE FIVE POINTED STARS AS SYMBOLS ARE MORE WORTHLESS THAN AAA BATTERIES FOR WATCHING TELEVISION

Okay, a bit of an exaggeration, obviously they are very useful for things like organizing systems within a single body. Who functions as the head, the shield arm, the pivot foot, etc. But the point of that diagram is that they are equally important and dependent to every other part. Which doesn’t work when the different groups keep trying to break each other’s kneecaps (see b5: fairies v demons).

It also falls apart on the five-piece cultural scale. The most well-known 5-piece cultural scale is obviously the chinese elements: Fire Wood Water Metal Earth.

Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert on those at all. But it all broke down on fire, TBH. Were dragons fire? But a large point was that their breath weapons weren’t always fire. Were demons fire? Even the ones covered in sludge. Were demons earth? Was the underking earth? All I got were fairies as water, in the end. If someone wants to give that a go, be my guest.

I drew so many pentagrams trying to figure it out, and it never worked. No matter the arrangement, it never told me more about the crowns except that there were five of them. I was about to despair.

But then the muses sang: The Forgotten Crown.

(That’s the title of my thesis, btw)

Like I said, five pointed stars were trash for this system, but what if I added another crown, one that no one bothers to count, because by their nature, they can’t do anything. That’s right:

The Forgotten Crown of the Fair Folk.

The symbol slipped into place like sharp pointy things into Warren. And now I can get to the real meta after sharing this image:

Isn’t it beautiful? After I cracked this code, I showed it to my little sister. She smiled contentedly, calling it satisfying. It is so satisfying. It speaks to so many levels of understanding.

First, I depicted for you, we have the morality and the terrain triangles.

Morality triangle is the easiest, if you feel uncomfortable labeling drown-happy naiads as good and all demons as evil, congrats, thinking about the nature of good and evil is precisely what Mull was going for. Since I am suddenly one of those people, I’m going to be using the creation/destruction dichotomy, but acknowledge that both of those work.

Fairies can be most easily understood when Kendra asked the Fairy Queen what she should do with her life. She’s an unlimited fount of the Fairy Queen’s own power, allowed to do whatever she wants, and the Fairy Queen tells her to nurture life. Be fruitful, put good things in the world, help people grow. Their goal is to create, their magic is defensive, beauty is wonderful for its own sake. The better you are at respecting and nurturing life, the stronger your magic is. Dryads are responsible for the whole forest, and throughout the series they are seen as more powerful and serious than fairies, which can make the plants they interact with grow and hamadryads, who are connected only to their tree. Certainly more powerful than the petty, waterbound naiads.

Ganalus’s speech to Seth about his own nature is where you can understand demons in this world. They like to destroy and torture, they find amusement in things like plague and clipping live beings to their belts and dragging them around. They are driven by the need for more power and control. Their nature is to harm and break apart, and that has its place in this world, but we care about the stuff and people here, so mortals and fairies have got to keep these punks in check.

And of course, the Fair Folk. Here’s where this triangle gets fun. The worst of the worst gets to be Demon King, the best of the best get stronger fairy powers. That means the most neutral of the neutral get to be the leader of the Fair Folk. We’ve heard references to the main city of the Fair Folk: Selona, somewhere in Europe, and a mysterious exert that I’ve seen images of with Lord Dagrel that I’m trying to pin down. I’m posing that their powers come from being neutral. They talk about the terrible consequences of the last time they went to war, what if it the equivalent of their fallen state, when they break their neutrality, and changes them fundamentally.

This breaks down the most, but they are the Forgotten Crown for a reason. They hold themselves apart from issues of the other crowns. No one even remembers that they have a crown, because as Seth and Celebrant have shown, who cares? They aren’t going to do anything about it. Everyone collectively forgot/don’t care about them. But their abilities are equal in strength to the others, but different in use, and less valued by those who have battles to fight. Their neutrality puts them exactly between good and evil, creation and destruction. They take the choice not to act, and there is power there too.

Next is the Terrain Creatures.

Sky giants control the sky, obviously. Thronis and his ability to control the weather, their height, while their feet are on the ground, far as we know, everything important happens in the sky.

Underking gets under the ground, again, obvious. Different from the other two points of the terrain triangle in that there is a lot of creature classifactions in their domain, but think of how big the surface of the earth is, underneath it, all theirs.

Dragons, they dwell in the sky and below the surface, putting them in both. Water dragons and Dromadus both primarily function beneath the surface, and their wings let them be in the sky. while not stronger necessarily than the other terrain crowns in their own domains, they are top of the food chain for the creatures living on the ground, and could probably take out the undead that venture near the surface, and I have high hopes for seeing a Sky Giant v Dragon in the next book.

Cool, we got our organization of information. We learn something about them based on their placements within the triangles. But is that our symbol? No! Symbols are different than graphs, we should be able to squeeze ridiculous amounts of meaning from them, and we aren’t done yet. The two triangles map really, really well together.

What does the placement of the two triangles together tell us about the individual components?

a WHOLE TON. This is what makes this symbol the most satisfying, the triangles create two separate categorizations of their powers and abilities, but they inform each other. The morality of the terrain beings, and the domains of morality beings.

Dragons run the whole spectrum from creation to destruction. We see a lot more of the destruction dragons, because our kids are in a war, but Raxtus hits really close to the Fairies and can heal and grow with his breath weapon. We also have wizards, who chose mortality for the ability to use magic to create. All the way to effing Navarog, honorary demon. They run every shade of the creation/destruction spectrum. We also see dragons that don’t depend on destruction because we know that there are some that agreed to behave if it meant they weren’t shoved into sanctuaries.

Sky giants, the group we know the least about, are good enough that their queen was deemed able to be the caretaker of a dragon sanctuary, so no inherent thirst for destruction and chaos. But they run the neutral side of creation, they weren’t going to step in to stop the demons, they like magic and creating from what we know of thronis, but they fit right here.

Underking - fall between neutral destruction. The underking wasn’t orchestrating the opening of the demon prison. They crave life, its a food source, but more than that, they want to endure. They might fall closer to demons in their taste for extinguishing life, but they need their wanting of life to continue existing. They might have individual prizes and desires for life, but because they depend on wanting life for their own continued existence, they will never organize themselves into taking over the world. Congrats, you’re only half as destructive as demons.

The morality on the terrain is much easier to see blatantly. Fairies have wings, but in no way do they control the sky, and they live on the ground. Demons...I’m sure some of them fly, but they tend to prefer caves like Granulas and pits like Jubaya and Kurisok. Prefer the night, though the light doesn’t harm them. Fittingly, the Fair Folk do not have the ability to fly on their own, and they live on the ground, not under it.

sO SATISFying how those fit together. Are you weeping yet? This is harmony on the organizational level.

But I claimed this was the perfect symbol, the ultimate. There is one more layer describing how every piece relates to every other piece, per the best symbols.

Opposites

This is the least defined level of interaction, and each line is unique, while still being opposite its counterpart. We’ll start with the ones we have the least information about and go from there.

Demon/sky giant: We know nothing, at the moment. They have never commented on each other, and have never interacted. Why didn’t sky giants show up to the Zzyzx party? Who knows! So I’m going to speculate here, and propose that they just really can’t stand each other’s presence. Demons stay away from sky giants, because giants are way bigger than them, and it is hard to feel powerful when you only come up to their knee, and sky giants don’t like demons because...eww, demons.

Fair Folk/Dragon: We know that there are Fair Folk at all seven dragon sanctuaries. We know that the Fair Folk were there long before the sanctuaries were created. Fair Folk neutrality let both parties trust the dragons to part of their watch. It also seems that Dragons have a very difficult time staying neutral. We’ve seen a lot of flavors of dragon, but the one flavor we haven’t seen, possibly by its nature, is a neutral dragon. The closest we came was Dromadus, who was an abstaining pacifist for two books, but kept lending help to the innocent and those aligned with the innocent. His neutrality broke literally the week someone asked him to break it.

Fascinatingly, the talents of the Fair Folk are actually the closest analog to the breath weapons of the dragons. One unique ability, can be augmented by training, can do something unique to the characteristics of the user. This is enough to make their uses of magic foils for each other in ways that they can’t be with the other races. In fact, they take human shape, their wizards act a lot like the talents of the Fair Folk.

Their final opposite string: physical appearance. Fair Folk are attractive (symetrical) humans. Dragons are hulking reptiles of scale and claw meant to let everyone who can see them know who is the top predator around. Fair folk are disarmingly beautiful.

Fairy/Underking: The dichotomy that we know the most about because it’s the one the protagonists find themselves on opposite side of. I could double the length of this post talking about these opposite foils, but this is already ridiculously long, so I’ll keep it brief. Consult upcoming thesis for full analysis.

Most obvious aspect of this line? They literally cannot co-exist, one must overpower the other. Nova Songs are consumed by darkness, while crown-fueled Kendra literally turns the undead into bones and dust. The darkness and light can’t balance like the demon cursed area + Fairy shrine stone did in Shadow Plague, there is no middle ground.

While fairies and demons make the creation-destruction spectrum, Fairy and Underking make the Life-death line. Unicorns, who have so much life and youth that lectoblixes overdose to death on them, and the undead that give up the joys light and live to continue. Because Death lasts as long as life.

And finally my favorite line of opposites, their crowns functions in exactly the opposite ways. The under-crown does not share power. It accumulates, you become one of consciousness of the crown. They swallow you up, and you will never take power from them. They will continue. Meanwhile the Fairy crown has had several owners, as identified by Risenmay in dw2. And the Fairy Crown shares magic in a way that the other crowns don’t. The fairy Queen shared her magic with Kendra, yes, but she also shared it with her husband. All the male fairies fell with the Fairy King, turning permanently into imps. Unless the Fairy Queen isn’t being honest about how that happened, that meant that the male half of the kingdom was under the authority of her husband when he fell. Which makes sense for this crown. One person can’t make a new person on their own, they have to have a male and a female genetic coding. For the crown that is all about creating and preserving life, that power isn’t meant to be wielded alone. The Fairy crown can share, can give, while the Undercrown can consume and take. They are complete opposites in this.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading through this preliminary thesis. Counterpoints, additions, and commentary are welcome. I want to flesh this out a little more before sending my transcendent, beautiful, unifying symbol to Mull and have him announce that I have officially cracked the code. Really tho, the fact that I can pull this together into a unifying symbol is pretty cool in terms of Mull’s worldbuilding.

Well...only works if he acknowledges the forgotten crown. Dragonwatch 5: the Crown of Selona. I can’t wait.

#Fablehaven #Dragonwatch #meta #five crowns #the Forgotten crown #Dragons #Sky Giants #Fairies #Underking #Fairy Queen #Demon King #Demons #Fair Folk

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aerinmelina · 6 years

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I miss Bracken :(

And I’ve been thinking... because the narrative just seems to be hinting ever so slightly toward this... what if something happens which pits Kendra and Seth against each other? :( They’re a great team, now moreso than ever... it’d be like Brandon Mull to throw a wrench into that dynamic.

Halfway through the book. I love Eve. Knox bugs me and Tess is a gem. Newel and Doren are awesome as always. Worried about the safety of Fablehaven, and worried about the safety of the Keep from an internal issue, especially when neither Kendra nor Seth are there to try and help manage the problem since they’re off in other areas of the preserve at the moment. (Stupid freaking Knox!!!)

I’m so glad I was right about Raxtus. He’s a good dragon. Love for Raxtus!!!!

Oh boy am I going to have a lot to write about after this book is over. Not just stories, although those will probably follow (I’m so so sooooo worried about Bracken). I’m thinking like... long discussion posts and thoughtful reflections. Sheesh. I should have started taking notes when I began reading this book. XD

#dragonwatch spoilers #i miss my unicorn boy :(:(

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fairykam · 7 years

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BOOK FIVE! KEYS TO THE DEMON PRISON!!! (also sorry this took so long. life happened.)

“I’m afraid to die.” -Graulas “Me too.” -Seth (4)

Vincent smiled lots and was short.

A beautiful image from Kendra’s imagination... Trask stoickly in an airplane seat as the plane disintegrates and plummets to the earth. Trask’s expression unchanging.

Seth talking to Berrigan after Berrigan lost Camira, his sister. Seth is so kind and funny and just a cinnamon roll too pure for this world! (33-34)

Elise knows lots of big words.

Obsidian Waste was Seth’s first official mission as a knight. It doesn’t end well for him... Thanks Torina.

Warren has serious trust issues too. When Kendra rescues him from the knapsack, he reaches for his sword. *tear* (83)

Seth is very quick and intuitive. He acts fast where Kendra takes more time and sometimes hesitates too much. Both have their strengths and weaknesses.

The Sphinx respects his enemies. He calls Stan a good man..

“”I’m evil.” Seth said numbly, plopping down on his cushion.” (103) This is after he learns that the Sphinx is a shadow charmer too.

Warren with his hair cut short. (114) hmmm...... I need to draw this.....

Patton’s incredible faith and confidence in Kendra and Seth is so heartwarming!

Bracken thinks centaurs are jerks too. HAHAHAHA

Seth’s friends were concerned about his allegiance because of his status as a shadow charmer. Please excuse me as I cry. (141)

Maddox and Bracken are BFF’s

COULTER IS HILARIOUS! (155)

The shrine at Stony Vale is very similar to Stonehenge.

Some head cannon the Fairy Queen as stoick and serious and aloof, but all of her contact with Kendra is incredibly passionate. So passionate it affects Kendra’s emotions.

When going to face Vanessa, “The prospect of social awkwardness daunted Kendra more than anything.” (167)

Nagi Luna sees great power and potential in Seth.

Poor Kendra gets so many nightmares :(

About Vanessa, ““That girl does her homework,” Warren said with admiration.” (193)

Gloria and Hank Larsen were good friends with Stan and Ruth Sorenson!

Kendra and Seth are well known among the society.

HUGO MISSES SETH! HUGO IS TOO PURE!

Coulter tried to comfort Seth as he was dying. “You’re a good boy... You were showing mercy.”

“You might want to stutter- that could help sell it.” -Kendra to Bracken (248)

“Doesn’t help that you’re so... Brilliant.” “Is that sarcasm?” “I meant brilliant as in shiny. Should I stop talking?” -Bracken and Kendra (251)

The Sphinx and the satyrs are very opposite. “There is great power in harboring a single goal.” -Sphinx “Causes have a way of tainting your reason until [you] take much bigger risks than sanity would otherwise allow.” -Newel

Seth making sure Nero landed ok after he had Hugo throw the troll. (276)

“Good choices are not always safe choices. Many worthy choices involve risk. Some require courage.” -Patton (279)

Bracken helping Kendra to understand the lammasu. #first time brackendra hold hands (287)

Warren tried to tell an actual Sphinx a knock knock joke...

Nervous Bracken! <3 <3 (305)

(Also note my lack of emojis...the technology struggle is real...)

Bracken winking at Kendra. IN FRONT OF HIS MOTHER! Well.. sorta... but still! (307)

“Truly you are powerful.” -wraith to Seth

Currently problematic fave, Warren isn’t a fan of Raxtus. :(

“Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it.” -Warren (334)

“Unless it’s evil and threatens your dad.” -Kendra to Raxtus, about being able to eat people. (335) What does this mean for the future?.....

To draw: Warren free falling with a sword, attacking a harpy in mid-air. HARDCORE! (343)

Warren, now my un-problematic fave, now likes Raxtus!!! Raxtus really proved himself while taking down the harpies.

Seth dreams of pie, llamas, and waterslides. Quite the contrast to his sister. (350)

“Don’t test me. I’ve had a really bad week.” -Seth (355)

“My lifelong love is what now surrounds us: a fresh breeze, wild plants thriving, rushing rivers, the sun and moon and stars.” -Bracken to Kendra (374)

Peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches. Yum.

Of all the singing sisters, Orna is the best :) and also has a crush on Patton. that’s not weird at all.

Newel bet against Doren that Seth wouldn’t make it out of the singing sisters. (410)

“Do not underestimate the young.” -Chu the beaver

Seth found strength through Coulter.

“Warren used a mop to fend off a furious owl.” (462)

Oh Warren. Are you clueless or a genius? I cannot tell. But he did successfully intrude on a brackendra moment. Was it on purpose? was he oblivious? No one knows... (478)

Seth collecting seashells. (483)

Warren said to Vanessa... the narcoblix, “Please... Think about your past. We’ll all sleep easier.” Oh Warren. again. Was this intentional? I really need to know. (489)

“Seth seemed sadder, more brooding.” (492)

“Vanessa wasn’t wrong.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(accurate description of me reading this.)

“... if you want to place bets on the last one of us standing, my money goes on Hugo.” -Bracken “No... Not last. Hugo save Seth. Hugo save Kendra.” -Hugo (515) HUGO IS A GIANT CINNAMON ROLL MADE OF ROCKS AND DIRT!!!

“When have doubt and fear given the best advice? Why not heed faith, courage, duty, and honor?” -Bracken (519)

Bracken’s dramatic flair.

Something I’ve noticed, Kendra has never been able to see the light in her. Only others can. It’s like us. We are blind to our own worth and inner light. In a more figurative way, of course.

The downfall of the demons was their laziness. They could have easily defeated their opposition, but they didn’t want to sacrifice. They prefer to bully.

Coulter knew that they would win. So did Patton! <3

I LOVE the Sorenson reunion scene.

Dad always talks about food. Has anyone else noticed that?

Doren trying to make a good impression on Seth’s folks.

“But I promise I won’t let it turn me into an idiot!” -Raxtus about training with his dad. (582) Please keep your promise, Raxtus! Please!

Kendra has a tendency to look down or away when she’s bashful.

BRACKENDRA IS THE GREATEST SHIP TO EVER SAIL!!!

#fablehaven #dragonwatch #FairyKam #brackendra #now for dragonwatch...#Again #I'm sorry this took so long. life happens.

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