patriotismforstetriol

[patriotismforstetriol]

Hai it’s been a while

Anyway, I was just thinking about the possibility of the Great Beasts outliving their human partners and eventually regaining their former size + ability to speak.

We don't know why those heroes from the third arc left behind ghosts. Maybe that's just a result of forming a bond token? (Maybe you'll have huge regrown talking Beasts and their friends/ex-partners who are ghosts. Maybe they're carrying around those bond tokens (and the associated ghosts) like their new Talismans.)

#great thoughts: real fun to make the 'gods experiencing a mortal life' connection #spirit animals books

[patriotismforstetriol]

Hai it’s been a while

Anyway, I was just thinking about the possibility of the Great Beasts outliving their human partners and eventually regaining their former size + ability to speak.

We don't know why those heroes from the third arc left behind ghosts. Maybe that's just a result of forming a bond token? (Maybe you'll have huge regrown talking Beasts and their friends/ex-partners who are ghosts. Maybe they're carrying around those bond tokens (and the associated ghosts) like their new Talismans.)

#spirit animals books #proclamation #I've been thinking about the far future after the series too lately by coincidence. Your timing is great! #Man there's some sad possibilities in there though.

[patriotismforstetriol]

Forums now online!

The keeperofgreenhaven.net Spirit Animals forums I've been working on are now open for registration. The forum can be accessed at the keeperofgreenhaven.net website or in the Discord server linked below.

Find the web forum at: https://keeperofgreenhaven.net/forums/

Find the Discord server at: https://discord.gg/VgJAaB9ND7

Come check it out!

#sa-game-remake

[patriotismforstetriol]

#this is seriously good stuff #their faces and roles in the first one #others' art #spirit animals books #meilin #rollan #abeke #conor #worthy

[patriotismforstetriol]

This is a really nice lay out of all the pieces we know or can guess about him. Absolutely seconded about thinking it would be interesting to know more about him. Anything!

You know, I'd never considered that he might have found Muttering Rock by accident. The concept of him struggling through the desert and only finding his feet being the cunning bigger-plans-than-you-know guy after a chat with Kovo is very interesting.

If he didn't have the jackal before Muttering Rock, it would be in character for Kovo to have a bit of Bile on hand to offer to his new minion ally. (But then where did the jackal come from?)

If he had bonded it before, then Gerathon could have led him to Muttering Rock. (But then where did he get the Bile to bond the jackal from? There'd be a story in that.)

Zerif Theory

I really don't understand Zerif, mostly because we're told almost nothing about him. He was forcibly bonded to a jackal and came to Shane to give him Gerathon's talisman so Shane could start the Second Devourer War and set Gerathon and Kovo free.

Then, in the second series, we see his thirst for power lead him into the Wyrm's trap. He seeks to control the beast, thinking it will bring him to glory. This was undoubtedly the Wyrm getting in his head with the parasite and choosing him as its host, but I think even if he'd kept control of his ability to make logical decisions, he'd still have chosen to do this, because he is shown to be a power-hungry man.

Although he appeared to be working for the Conquerors, he was working for Kovo himself, probably for power. He also learned the secret of Gerathon's talisman from Kovo.

My personal theory is that he was probably from a rich family in Nilo, contributing to his arrogant manner. Then, his family was attacked, leaving him to run away, creating a background for his cowardice. As for his hunger for power, we know that he met Kovo somehow, and Kovo probably manipulated him into wanting power.

It's also interesting to me that he chose a jackal as a spirit animal, as they are generally considered to be cunning creatures. This leads me to believe that he wanted people to think him as cunning as a jackal, which worked, given his nickname.

It's also a mystery how he even found Kovo. Kovo is the one that tells him the secret to Gerathon's talisman, who urges him to set the plan in motion which eventually sets him free. Kovo was held at the top of Muttering Rock in Stetriol, which is near impossible to climb with a top that is scorching hot, so Zerif would have had to come to Stetriol and climb Muttering Rock. Before the Second Devourer War, Stetriol wasn't on any maps, which leads me to believe that Zerif ran into it on accident.

So we know two things about him: he's a coward and power-hungry. Both of these qualities, while negative, could probably shed some light on his background. The jackal he was bonded to as well as his light brown skin leads me to believe he's from Nilo. My personal theory is that he was probably from a rich family in Nilo, contributing to his arrogant manner. Then, his family was attacked, leaving him to run away, creating a background for his cowardice. As for his hunger for power, we know that he met Kovo somehow, and Kovo probably manipulated him into wanting power.

As for how he met Kovo, I assume that while he was running away, he stole a boat and paddled into the ocean. According to the map of Erdas, traveling south from the tip of Nilo will lead to Stetriol, so I assume he was somehow thrown off course and ended up washing ashore. Because of the fact that he didn't know anything about Stetriol or the legends about Muttering Rock, he eventually finds himself up there as he wanders the area, eventually meeting Kovo.

I just think it's really interesting how we're told nothing about him and yet he plays such a crucial role in the first series and half the second. I think he deserved his own short story explaining his motives, besides the short chapters told from his point of view scattered across the books that only serve to amplify his power-hungry nature.

#spirit animals books #Zerif #proclamation

[patriotismforstetriol]

Demonstrating some Abeke-like behaviours.

#Immortal Guardians epilogue #art #Erdart #Shane

[patriotismforstetriol]

1. Always assumed he must have been running for a while, he seemed pretty desperate and weak. The wiki suggests Immortal Guardians takes place 6 months after The Evertree (Immortal Guardians is the book I don't have so can't get a primary quote). Because of Takoda we know all the Tales of the Fallen Beasts (except maybe the Raisha one) take place before Immortal Guardians, so Zerif has to be infected at the latest some point before 6 months after The Evertree. The two post-Evertree Book of Shane stories don't have any mention of how much time passed, but they have to happen before the first story of Tales of the Fallen Beasts: Halawir is the first beast infected by Zerif, but the Redcloak uniform (mask + colour red) that Cordalles gets to see didn't exist in the time period of the last Book of Shane novella.

MS Paint diagram below. The fact there is only one actual time measurement in this whole thing makes it pretty useless. Anyway.

2. & 4. & 5. Yeah, I believe Zerif's pretty much the only character[1] with no given nationality. And the utter lack of backstory is a story begging to be told in itself. He's so self-possessed and we never get to even know his real mind and agenda. Thanks for looking up the name!

3. In Book of Shane: Venom he pretty much appears on Stetriol out of nowhere (identifiable as a foreigner, already having somehow been to and spoken to Kovo), & immediately commits a crime to get attention (tried to cut down a tree when all wood's been declared royal property for the purpose of building ships).

[1]. Talon post, but Howl & Shadow don't get nationalities either far as I recall. I reckon we can consider characters-invented-to-be-Recloaks as exceptional cases/irrelevant to current discussion, since having cast off their old identities is a significant part of yknow being a Redcloak.

OK LET'S TALK

ok i said i'd do it yesterday, but i forgot so we're doing it tdy. LET'S TALK ABOUT ZERIF.

Ok first off, In the second arc I can't remember what book right now (and im too lazy to get up and check) but it says zerif escaped a greencloak tracking him down(part where he first meets the wyrm). big question here is, HOW LONG WAS ZERIF RUNNING AND HIDING?!?!?! BC he disappeared in the last book in arc one soooo was there a miscount in time?? or am i not getting something?

-have you ever wanted to know where someone is from so badly?? BC THAT'S ME WITH ZERIF like, the authors kept giving him descriptions and stuff, but they never really noted where he was from. I don't remember and someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think he's one of the only characters who wasn't given an exact country (continent?? idk how it works on erdas)

-continuation of the above, but like in the books it says zerif was a prisoner in stetriol. 2 things. how did he get to stetriol? did he commit the crime there? or like did he commit crime somewhere else and they used steriol as like a prisoner trash dump?? (i need to write another post on this) and secondly, what crime did he commit? this stuff needs to be answered.

-name theory so i did some research on zerif's name and google says its of arabic origin and funny(ironically) enough, you know what it means? it means elegant and witty.(i see the word witty, and i just think of him wiping his non-existent baby goatee) I feel like the authors searched for zerif's name when they wrote him up you know?

-and lastly just for fun, what do zerif's parents think of him knowing he did all this stuff?? did he even have 2 parents??

HOPE U ENJOYED THESE THOUGHTS OF MINE

and if u can answer my questions you are absolute slay ✨

#spirit animals books #SA spoilers #Zerif

[patriotismforstetriol]

So. Do you ever reread a beloved childhood series and make a whole ass oc or are you normal?

#how cool is this guy. nah but huge fan of every part of this: art and outfit and story and names. Would love to see more of him. #spirit animals books #others' art #stetriolan oc

[patriotismforstetriol]

The ponytail she has on some book covers is super cool

headcanon of the day

abeke eventually let her braids grow long. to keep it out of the way, she ties it in a ponytail

#spirit animals books #abeke

[patriotismforstetriol]

I've hunted through books 2-6, plus flicked through The Evertree (my commitment faded after four books), and can't find any further mentions of coloured light when releasing the animals from passive state. Mostly this is because the descriptions of summoning animals rapidly decrease in detail.

In Hunted, Briggan's summoned with a "flash". In Blood Ties, Jhi appears in a "flash of light". In Fire and Ice, Uraza "flashed into existence". After this the only words I can find used are "released" or "summoned", with the odd "appeared" when it's an outsider's perspective on the animal being summoned.

So this mention of a coloured flash of light is a complete once-off!

i don't think the spirit animal tattoos are just black bc i swear to god in one of the first books it said that uraza became a flash of gold just below abekes elbow or smth. i can't be bothered looking for the actual quote sorry. and also in the first book it's says khi became a black and white design on her hand. and for lisa hay she has one faded white tiger tattoo and one black tiger tattoo. so in the very least they're black and white

In relation to this discussion.

I do have the books on hand. Trawled through the first four, to get the first description of each of the Four's marks, plus looked for any description of their adult companions.

"Abeke held out her arm. With a searing pain and a brief flash, Uraza leaped to become a blaze of black just below her elbow." (p 67, Wild Born) (I believe this is the quote you're thinking of - "flash/blaze just below the elbow")

"[Meilin] held out her arm and in a flash Jhi became a design on the back of her hand." (p 75, Wild Born) (This is the Meilin quote with the "back of her hand" wording)

"Meilin focused her attention on the simple tattoo on the back of her hand." (p 85, Wild Born) ("simple" tattoo is more information than we usually get, but I don't know what exactly it means)

"With a flash, Briggan became a tattoo on the back of [Conor's] forearm." (p 197, Wild Born) (Most descriptions of spirit animal tattoos follow this format, using the word "tattoo" and mentioning body placement, then nothing else).

"Essix leaned in and became a mark over [Rollan's] heart." (p 185, Fire and Ice)

Tarik, Finn, MacDonnell, Xue and Maya's marks don't get any description of their colour or lack thereof.

Lishay: "Lishay slowly pushed up her rights sleeve and then her left, staring at the attoos of leaping tigers, one one each forearm. The left one was a white tiger, but it was faded, as if made by a ghost. The other, vibrant and new, showed a tiger as black as a starless night." (p186, Blood Ties)

Part of the discussion we had on that tattoo post was about whether this meant the tattoo of Zhosur was white- as in, white ink- or was just a tattoo of a white tiger, as opposed to a tattoo of a black tiger, which could have more of the body filled-in.

#spirit animals books #an interesting individual experience is that it seems to be only Conor who mentions #'brief searing pain' when summoning his spirit animal. Happens at least three separate times! #proclamation #SA spoiler

[patriotismforstetriol]

die for you by joji is a shane and abeke song.

Thanks for always introducing me to new music, guys. Yeah, that's a good one. Very much music about friends who've been avoiding each other for a while because not sure how much has been forgiven.

#and also the title. #spirit animals books #music #abeke #shane #SA spoiler

[patriotismforstetriol]

Thanks for your efforts! So looks like Aidana was healed quickly after the confrontation at the Evertree.

"Shane absently touched the spot on his chest where his own spirit animal slept as a tattoo. He hadn't released Grahv since hearing the news that Bile bonds were fading." (Book of Shane: Vengeance)

I'm interested in that Shane quote's trustworthiness. Book of Shane: Vengeance (see above) implies that Shane has not been making any attempts to release Grahv since (shortly after) the confrontation at the Evertree because he's heard that Bile bonds are fading and doesn't want to test it out. And Vengeance gives him both more reasons/confirmation not to test it, and a mentor to teach him to adapt to being a Redcloak, so I'm not convinced he would actually have been testing his powers or trying to release Grahv at any point! Could be that that quote from The Burning Tide is a half-truth, a summary of the common experiences of most Redcloaks.

(or the books just didn't make particular effort to be consistent on minor detail. guess, maybe, it could be that)

I’ve recently realized something.

Meilin summoned Jhi with the Bile, right? But it’s clear she didn’t choose Jhi, and the whole thing with the Bile is that the human usually chooses which animal to bond with.

Which means that she summoned a “true” spirit animal with the Bile. The first person (known to us) since Feliandor to do so. I just thought that was interesting.

Huh! Somehow I always thought there were more but now I've racked my brain and ... yeah. An interesting parallel.

(You have to wonder how her dad & Sheyu thought it would go if she didn't summon a true animal. Would the Bile just pick whatever animal she was subconsciously most thinking about? The one she was standing closest to? Do you reckon the audience in attendance (or Lenori!) would see anything weird about one of the menagerie animals suddenly being a spirit animal?)

Another interesting weirdness about Bile bonds:

Tellun frees Shane from the Bile alongside Meilin on page 138 of The Evertree.

On page 160 of The Evertree, Tellun dies.

On page 165 of The Evertree, Gerathon dies.

On page 168, Shane still summons his animal to fight briefly alongside our heroes, and after that puts Grahv back into passive state to slip away.

So! So! There was a period of time after Gerathon was gone and the Bile theoretically held no power that Bile bonds still existed! Shane's bond still existed (for a while) after Tellun severed his connection to Gerathon! What was powering the Bile bonds? How did they work?

#spirit animals books #proclamation #shane #aidana #SA spoiler

[patriotismforstetriol]

Interestingly, an unrelated detail I noticed during this quote-hunt. From the scene in Hunted where the Hawkers spot Uraza's tattoo:

"With a flash of blue light, Jhi appeared. … Abeke released Uraza in another flash of green light." (p 70, Hunted).

Green for Uraza isn't a colour combination I remembered. I'll have a look tomorrow to see if releasing a spirit animal always has a colour and if the colours are consistent.

i don't think the spirit animal tattoos are just black bc i swear to god in one of the first books it said that uraza became a flash of gold just below abekes elbow or smth. i can't be bothered looking for the actual quote sorry. and also in the first book it's says khi became a black and white design on her hand. and for lisa hay she has one faded white tiger tattoo and one black tiger tattoo. so in the very least they're black and white

In relation to this discussion.

I do have the books on hand. Trawled through the first four, to get the first description of each of the Four's marks, plus looked for any description of their adult companions.

"Abeke held out her arm. With a searing pain and a brief flash, Uraza leaped to become a blaze of black just below her elbow." (p 67, Wild Born) (I believe this is the quote you're thinking of - "flash/blaze just below the elbow")

"[Meilin] held out her arm and in a flash Jhi became a design on the back of her hand." (p 75, Wild Born) (This is the Meilin quote with the "back of her hand" wording)

"Meilin focused her attention on the simple tattoo on the back of her hand." (p 85, Wild Born) ("simple" tattoo is more information than we usually get, but I don't know what exactly it means)

"With a flash, Briggan became a tattoo on the back of [Conor's] forearm." (p 197, Wild Born) (Most descriptions of spirit animal tattoos follow this format, using the word "tattoo" and mentioning body placement, then nothing else).

"Essix leaned in and became a mark over [Rollan's] heart." (p 185, Fire and Ice)

Tarik, Finn, MacDonnell, Xue and Maya's marks don't get any description of their colour or lack thereof.

Lishay: "Lishay slowly pushed up her rights sleeve and then her left, staring at the attoos of leaping tigers, one one each forearm. The left one was a white tiger, but it was faded, as if made by a ghost. The other, vibrant and new, showed a tiger as black as a starless night." (p186, Blood Ties)

Part of the discussion we had on that tattoo post was about whether this meant the tattoo of Zhosur was white- as in, white ink- or was just a tattoo of a white tiger, as opposed to a tattoo of a black tiger, which could have more of the body filled-in.

#spirit animals books

[patriotismforstetriol]

i don't think the spirit animal tattoos are just black bc i swear to god in one of the first books it said that uraza became a flash of gold just below abekes elbow or smth. i can't be bothered looking for the actual quote sorry. and also in the first book it's says khi became a black and white design on her hand. and for lisa hay she has one faded white tiger tattoo and one black tiger tattoo. so in the very least they're black and white

In relation to this discussion.

I do have the books on hand. Trawled through the first four, to get the first description of each of the Four's marks, plus looked for any description of their adult companions.

"Abeke held out her arm. With a searing pain and a brief flash, Uraza leaped to become a blaze of black just below her elbow." (p 67, Wild Born) (I believe this is the quote you're thinking of - "flash/blaze just below the elbow")

"[Meilin] held out her arm and in a flash Jhi became a design on the back of her hand." (p 75, Wild Born) (This is the Meilin quote with the "back of her hand" wording)

"Meilin focused her attention on the simple tattoo on the back of her hand." (p 85, Wild Born) ("simple" tattoo is more information than we usually get, but I don't know what exactly it means)

"With a flash, Briggan became a tattoo on the back of [Conor's] forearm." (p 197, Wild Born) (Most descriptions of spirit animal tattoos follow this format, using the word "tattoo" and mentioning body placement, then nothing else).

"Essix leaned in and became a mark over [Rollan's] heart." (p 185, Fire and Ice)

Tarik, Finn, MacDonnell, Xue and Maya's marks don't get any description of their colour or lack thereof.

Lishay: "Lishay slowly pushed up her rights sleeve and then her left, staring at the attoos of leaping tigers, one one each forearm. The left one was a white tiger, but it was faded, as if made by a ghost. The other, vibrant and new, showed a tiger as black as a starless night." (p186, Blood Ties)

Part of the discussion we had on that tattoo post was about whether this meant the tattoo of Zhosur was white- as in, white ink- or was just a tattoo of a white tiger, as opposed to a tattoo of a black tiger, which could have more of the body filled-in.

#spirit animals books #proclamation #SA spoiler

[patriotismforstetriol]

Spirit Animals and Character Development

Has anyone ever realized how Rollan and Abeke, and Meilin and Conor all have opposite character developments?

(I've never seen this talked about, so I'll just have to talk about it.)

Rollan: His arc is all about learning to put more faith in people. He learns to trust more. After bonding with Tarik, he learns that it's okay to have people that you can trust, care about, and lean on. He learns that some people are trustworthy and that trust can be earned.

Abeke: Her arc centers around learning to trust less. At the beginning of the series, she blindly puts her trust in Shane and Zerif. Later, she learns her trust was misplaced. At the end of the first series, we see her fight Shane and yell at him about how she trusted him and he essentially lied to her the whole time. She learns that although people can seem kind, they may not actually be.

Meilin: Her arc is about how to step down and not be so controlling all the time. Give other people a chance to lead, to make decisions. She needs to step down from a leader-like position in the group and let others' opinions be heard. She needs to be less of a leader and more of a follower.

Conor: His arc centers around being more of a leader. He learns to trust himself, step up as leader, and be less of a follower. He learns that even though he messed up when he gave away the Iron Boar, he can still step up and make decisions and lead the group. He learns to be more sure of himself and less shy.

I love Reilin and Coneke as much as the next person, but platonic Rollan x Abeke and platonic Meilin x Conor is something that I don't see much of. I think it's so interesting that their character developments are mirror images of each other. They need to be a bit more like the other person was at the beginning of the book. It also creates an opportunity where the characters can learn these traits from each other, and I really enjoyed how it played out in the books. It's such an interesting dynamic.

It also shows how neither extreme is ever healthy: you shouldn't trust people too little, lest you end up like Rollan, but you shouldn't trust people too much, either, or else you'll end up like Abeke. You shouldn't be too controlling and bossy, or else you'll end up like Meilin, but you shouldn't be afraid to step up either, lest you end up like Conor.

I don't know if the writers did this intentionally, or if it was just a byproduct of the characters, but either way, I love the way this was handled.

#great analysis! You've made the parallels really clear. Couldn't have put it better. #spirit animals books #rollan #abeke #meilin #conor #SA spoiler

[patriotismforstetriol]

Rollan: I can explain.

Meilin: Can you?

Rollan: If you give me thirty seconds to think of a lie.

#can't believe he hasn't pre-prepared his story. how embarrassing #spirit animals books #incorrect quote #rollan #meilin

[patriotismforstetriol]

Here is a link to a brainstorming poll about potential website names. Please suggest more options, vote for your favourite(s), comment on specific options or comment in general. Don't worry about the deadline, I'll keep extending that as long as discussion continues.

I'll also be sharing this link in the Spirit Animals Amino group. If you know any other Spirit Animals communities, feel free to share the link & get their opinions too.

#evening bump #sa-game-remake