The importance of the number 7 in crescent city
Throughout the entirety of the crescent city series, the number 7 plays a huge role in both a symbolic and a literal way
⚠️ House of Flame and Shadow spoilers ⚠️
7 Asteri on Midgard
Rigelus (title- The Bright Hand)
Eosporos (title- The Morning Star)
Hesperus (title- The Evening Star)
Polaris (title- The North Star)
Octartis (title- The Southern Star)
Austrus (title- unknown)
Sirius (title- The Wolf Star)
7 Princes of Hel/ Circles of Hel
Hunt also mentions that “Type-Seven is only for the princes themselves, and given what this thing can do, I’d bet it’d be deemed a Six” in chapter 29 of HOEAB, when talking about the demons and princes of Hel
7 districts in crescent city/ city heads/ gates
7 “Made” objects *
Mask (made by Cauldron)
Crown (made by Cauldron)
Harp (made by Cauldron)
Horn (made by Cauldron)
Starsword (made by Cauldron)
Truth-Teller (made by Cauldron)
Ataraxia (made by Nesta)
*now while nesta did make another sword and dagger, we don’t know if they possess any magic and they don’t have any names either*
7 members of the Pack of Devils
Danika Fendyr (alpha)
Connor Holstrom (second)
Nathalie (third)
Bronson
Thorne
Zach
Zelda
7 courts in prythian
Night Court
Dawn Court
Day Court
Spring Court
Summer Court
Winter Court
Autumn Court
7 tog books (not including novella)
Throne of Glass
Crown of Midnight
Heir of Fire
Queen of Shadows
Empire of Storms
Tower of Dawn
Kingdom of Ash
Known starborn fae *
Fionn
Theia
Pelias
Helena
Silene
Bryce Quinlan
Ruhn Danaan
*The term Starborn describes the descendants of High King Fionn and High Queen Theia.
1. Also when bryce traded places so Danika would get into the Bone quarter, she said the vow (“I wish to trade my place.”) 7 times:
“She’d tossed a Death Mark into the Istros, payment to the Under-King—a coin of pure iron from an ancient, long-gone kingdom across the sea. Passage for a mortal on a boat.
And then she’d knelt on the crumbling stone steps, the river mere feet behind her, the arches of the bone gates above her, and waited.
The Under-King, veiled in black and silent as death, had appeared moments later.
It has been an age since a mortal dared set foot on my isle.
The voice had been old and young, male and female, kind and full of hatred. She’d never heard anything so hideous—and beckoning.
I wish to trade my place. (1)
I know why you are here, Bryce Quinlan. Whose passage you seek to barter. An amused pause. Do you not wish to one day dwell here among the honored dead? Your balance remains skewed toward acceptance—continue on your path, and you shall be welcomed when your time comes.
I wish to trade my place. For Danika Fendyr. (2)
Do this and know that no other Quiet Realms of Midgard shall be open to you. Not the Bone Quarter, not the Catacombs of the Eternal City, not the Summer Isles of the north. None, Bryce Quinlan. To barter your resting place here is to barter your place everywhere.
I wish to trade my place. (3)
You are young, and you are weighed with grief. Consider that your life may seem long, but it is a mere flutter of eternity.
I wish to trade my place. (4)
Are you so certain Danika Fendyr will be denied welcome? Have you so little faith in her actions and deeds that you must make this bargain?
I wish to trade my place. She’d sobbed the words. (5)
There is no undoing this.
I wish to trade my place. (6)
Then say it, Bryce Quinlan, and let the trade be done. Say it a seventh and final time, and let the gods and the dead and all those between hear your vow. Say it, and it shall be done.
She hadn’t hesitated, knowing this was the ancient rite. She’d looked it up in the gallery archives. Had stolen the Death Mark from there, too. It had been given to Jesiba by the Under-King himself, the sorceress had told her, when she’d sworn fealty to the House of Flame and Shadow.
I wish to trade my place. (7)
And so it had been done.”
- HOEAB, chapter 62
2. Hunt was in the Asteri dungeon’s for 7 years
“How long did they do that to you—after Mount Hermon?”
“Seven years.”
She closed her eyes as the weight of those words rippled through her.
Hunt said, “I lost track of time, too. The Asteri dungeons are so far beneath the earth, so lightless, that days are years and years are days and … When they let me out, I went right to the Archangel Ramuel. My first … handler. He continued the pattern for two years, got bored with it, and realized that I’d be more useful dispatching demons and doing his bidding than rotting away in his torture chambers.”
“Burning Solas, Hunt,” she whispered.” -HOEAB, chapter 35
“We need to get out of here,” Ruhn said, and nothing had ever sounded more stupid. Of course they needed to get out of here. For so many fucking reasons.
But Athalar cracked open an eye. Met his stare. Pain and rage and determination shone there, unbroken despite the halo and slave brand on his wrist. “Then talk to your … person.” Girlfriend, the angel didn’t say.
Ruhn ground his teeth, and his ravaged mouth gave a burst of pain. He’d rather die here than beg the Hind for help. “Another way.”
“I was in these dungeons … for seven years,” Hunt said. “No way out. Especially not with Pollux so invested in ripping us apart.” -HOFAS, Chapter 11
3. Apollion (7th prince of Hel) ate the Sirius (7th Asteri)
“No one would dare say his name, not after the Prince of the Pit became the first and only being to ever kill an Asteri. His butchering of the seventh holy star—Sirius, the Wolf Star—during the First Wars remained a favorite ballad around war-camp fires. And what he’d done to Sirius after slaying her had earned him that awful title: Star-Eater” -HOEAB, chapter 51
4. The slave tattoos has seven stars in it
“For there was also no hiding the second tattoo, stamped on their right wrists: SPQM.
It adorned every flag and letterhead of the Republic—the four letters encircled with seven stars—and adorned the wrist of every being owned by it.” -HOEAB, Chapter 6
“Ruhn spied their own solar system in the center of it all. Seven planets around a massive star. Seven Asteri—technically six now—to rule Midgard. Seven Princes of Hel to challenge them.
Seven Gates in this city through which Hel had tried to invade this spring.
Seven and seven and seven and seven—always that holy number. Always—” -HOSAB, Chapter 25
5. 7 is a holy number
“Seven—the holy number. Or unholy, depending on who was worshipping. Seven Asteri, seven hills in their Eternal City, seven neighborhoods and seven Gates in Crescent City; seven planets, and seven circles in Hel, with seven princes who ruled them, each darker than the last” - HOEAB, Chapter 19
“Micah had left the latter’s body up. Justinian would hang there for seven full days and then be pulled off the crucifix—and dumped into the Istros” -HOEAB, Chapter 69
6. Hypaxia and necromancy
“So this is it?” Ithan asked Hypaxia, gesturing with a hand to the seven candles she’d arranged on the ground. “Light the candles and wait?” -HOSAB, Chapter 61
“It took Hypaxia seven hours, seven minutes, and seven seconds to raise Sigrid.
Ithan barely moved from his stool the entire time Hypaxia stood over the corpse and chanted. Jesiba left, came back with her laptop, and worked for some of the time. She even offered Ithan some food, which he refused.
He had no appetite. If this didn’t work …” -HOFAS, Chapter 48
7. Sailings happen on the 7th day after the death
Don’t come to the Sailing tomorrow. You’re not welcome there.
She’d listened to it over and over, the first words to echo in her silent head.
Her mother hadn’t woken from the bed beside hers when Bryce had exited the hotel room on Fae-soft feet, taking the service elevator and leaving through the unwatched alley door. She hadn’t left that room for six days, just sat staring vacantly at the floral hotel wallpaper. And now, with the seventh dawning … Only for this would she leave. Would she remember how to move her body, how to speak.” -HOEAB, Chapter 7
8. Midgard geography
““Seven—the holy number. Or unholy, depending on who was worshipping. Seven Asteri, seven hills in their Eternal City, seven neighborhoods and seven Gates in Crescent City; seven planets, and seven circles in Hel, with seven princes who ruled them, each darker than the last.” -HOEAB, chapter 18
“Bryce didn’t wait for them before trailing the old male up the walkway as the seven planets aligned themselves perfectly, stars glittering in the far reaches of the room.” -HOSAB, chapter 38
“Bryce halted after a turn in the stairs and assessed the long hallway ahead. When it revealed no guards, she stepped into it.
There were no doors. Only this hall, perhaps seventy feet long and fifteen feet wide. Likely fourteen feet, to be a multiple of seven. The holy number.” -HOSAB, Chapter 71
“She’d studied Fury’s rough map of the palace layout. This area was seven levels below the throne room, where the Asteri sat on crystal thrones” -HOSAB, chapter 71
“They could fly no further. The massive black wall stretched for miles in either direction before curving northward, with wards protecting the airspace above it. Hunt knew from maps that the area the wall encircled was forty-nine miles in diameter—seven times seven, the holiest of numbers—and that at its center, somewhere in the barren, snow-blasted terrain, lay the Northern Rift, shrouded in mist. Barriers upon barriers protected Midgard from the Rift, and Hel beyond it.” -HOFAS, Chapter 70
9. Ithan & the number 7
“Sabine stared down at the seven shards the Fendyr sword had broken into, then lifted her furious gaze to Ithan.
Ithan shifted back into his humanoid body with a near-instant flash. “It’s just a piece of steel,” he said, panting, the metallic tang of the blade lingering in his mouth. “All those years you obsessed over it, resented Danika for having it … It’s just a piece of metal. - HOFAS, Chapter 74
“You have seven minutes” -HOFAS, Chapter 81 (when Ithan was talking to Connor)
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Last Line Tag
@oh-no-another-idea and @wynters-writings tagged me to share my last lines. Thanks y'all! I'll go ahead and share the closing lines for the first novella in the Soft Touches, Godless Hands series named Glass Nightmares and Paper Faith
I'll go ahead and soft tag @jezifster @blind-the-winds @vsnotresponding @ceph-the-ghost-writer and an open tag for you!
Warnings: Eldritch Horror (kinda), purity culture
--
This was what Auriel was. Not a human, filled with absorption and secretions. But an angel; raw with power and fury.
And yet, despite all of time and space before them, one substance still danced across Auriel's being. That of blood. Ruby-red. Bursting with an energy and life they could not see nor understand with their many eyes. And that sensation; that push and pull of lips against lips. Hunger and fury. Hellfire and holy flames. It still grated on them. A faraway thought and memory. With no neurons to organize such thoughts, no nerves to flash with the phantom sensations, Auriel had an ache they did not know they could have.
They saw everything within the universe. And they could feel none of it.
"These are dangerous thoughts to have," Auriel told themself. Wrong thoughts. Evil thoughts.
And yet, the Thrones had not descended upon them. They were still seraph. Still good. Still pure.
"Of course I am pure. I am no demon. They are what I face. And I shall overcome such...." For the first time in their millennium, the thought paused. They could not quite finish it.
But, Auriel plowed on, "I shall overcome such nonsense. For I am a seraph. One of the most holy. And I shall not Fall nor fail."
With that final thought, Auriel shed the third dimension just as they did their human flesh, leaving it all behind to return to the Golden City. Where everything made sense, and no temptations danced.
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@ other anon Yes, Feylin was originally endgame! The ACOTAR trilogy (because it was only supposed to be a trilogy) as a whole was supposed to go in a whole other direction with Feylin endgame, Nesta and Lucien endgame, Moriel endgame. Rhysand was either the villain after Amarantha in Hybern’s place or together with Amarantha (hence the whole giving himself up to work with her instead of fighting against her which never really made sense), whom Feyre would’ve been in a love triangle with. SJM had written ACOTAR, ACOMAF (untitled at the time as ACOTAR was only having just going through publishing), and half of ACOWAR (also untitled) before she scrapped everything minus a great majority of ACOTAR to rewrite books 2 and 3 with Feysand endgame. For ACOTAR, she only added him in earlier and “clues” she would use later, but never really changed the bad guy thing.
Throne of Glass was supposed to be a trilogy with Doraelin endgame. ACOTAR another trilogy with Feylin endgame. Crescent City another trilogy (that sold off her Pinterest board, might I add, so not even a true proper proposal). Crossovers weren’t a thing until people started asking her about it.
The thing you have to know about SJM that a lot of people don’t because they haven’t been with her since her debut (like me! 😅 I used to run a pretty popular blog dedicated her, so I ate, breathed, and slept SJM) is that there’s a lot SJM has said wasn’t planned. That she changed mid-series because she doesn’t outline, so she just “lets the characters do what they want” while also admitting that she changes the story based on whom she loves (see: Rowaelin, for whom she admitted to writing smutty fanfic of while writing Heir of Fire and wanting them to be together so badly she changed the rest of the series to put them together, extending the series by three more books and then eventually a fourth (that was originally supposed to just be a novella made to appease the backlash she got for saying in an interview that Chaol wouldn’t be in EOS)).
As someone who used to fall for SJM saying she’s planned some things all along, her interviews didn’t align with the text, which when I started falling off from her. (Specifically when she said mates can’t hurt each other and then, what do you know? It turns out they can!)
Honestly, SJM actually used to be blatantly honest in her interviews and was having it used against her, which is likely why 1) she started filtering what could and couldn’t be asked by mods 2) she started limiting the amount of fan questions she answers, if she answers any at all anymore and 3) why her answers now rarely change from event to event like she’s reading a script. And I suspect this is in part due to the publisher finally putting, at least, half of a foot down instead of letting SJM run wild like she used to due to dicksoap gate, the backlash she’s received for racism and homophobia, etc.
Thank you so much for this information 💕
I also think part of the reason why she’s so vague now is because she doesn’t know herself. Also she likes the mystique is creates so it drums up publicity and anticipation e.g. she could just go ahead and say the next book is about X but instead has said “it’s pretty obvious, I’ve left crumbs” which has caused a massive, ugly ship war.
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A lot of people are confused with timeline of Throne of glass. Indeed there are 8 books with each over 400 pages so that's not unexpected. So I put books and events chronologically to explain the whole series
Assassin's blade - timeline starts around one and a half year before Throne of Glass. In the first novella The assassin and the pirate lord timeline takes around 3 weeks ( Celaena and Sam go to Skulls Bay to see Captain Rolfe). Their journey to the islands takes around 1 week and they stayed there for a week untill they demolished the whole place. In the two other novellas The assassin and the healer and The assassin and the dessert timeline stretches for 2 months. Celaena stays in Innish for 2 days and meets Yrene and teaches her self defense. After that she goes to Red dessert to meet Silent Assassins. She stays there 1 month and it takes her 1 month to come back to Rifthold. In last two novellas The assassin and the underworld and The assassin and the empire timeline takes place around 1 month when she understood her feelings towards Sam and wanted to move away with him. That was in June because she heard ladies in taverns gossiping that Crown Prince is going to the beach with his friends for his birthday. It's important to notice that in between novellas are time gaps due to her travelling and so on.
Then it's a year break in between two books due Celaena going to Endovier
Throne of glass - the timeline takes place around September when Dorian and Chaol went to Endovier to get her be Dorian's champion in competition. It takes them 2 weeks to come back to Rifthold and then her training starts that last around 2 weeks. She recovers and the competition starts. It's said that the last competition will be held after Yullemas and that's 21st of December . So the book ends at the end of December
Again the break between two books around one to one and a half month due Celaena going to her missions.
Crown of midnight - book starts at the beginning of February. She and Chaol become even closer and soon it's his birthday. It's around middle of February ( 14th of February;) ) and they confess their love towards each other. It's said that they were together for a week until Nehemiah's death happens. Chaol then send her to Wendlyn
She goes off to Wendlyn and it takes her 2 weeks to get there.
Heir of Fire - in first two weeks Celaena lays on roofs of Wendlyn until Rowan spots her and brings her to one of the keeps for in a case of siege. Plot continues as Celaena trains with Rowan. In that time the love story between Dorian and Sorscha happens that lasts couple of weeks. And the book end around middle of May because Celaena's birthday is at the begging of May and she was still training at that time. Week later she came to Doranelle as she mastered her gifts and confronted Maeve.
Another pause of two to three weeks after she onboarded to the ship to Rifthold and after Sorscha's execution.
Queen of shadows - the whole plot is told in two weeks, nothing more, nothing less. The reason is that when Celaena came to Rifthold she met Chaol again and made a plan how to rescue Aedion. That took 2 days. The dinner with Arnobynn and his murder happened during that week. After that they planed how to free Dorian from the Valg collar. Their trip to Oakwald forest took 4 days and after they came to Rifthold, the day after, Celaena presented herself as king's Champion who came back from Wendlyn. The glass castle scene happened and that sums up this book. So the book takes place in June because Dorian's birthday is mentioned and in Assassin's blade it says it's in begining of summer.
After that Aelin and her court parts with Dorian and Chaol to go to Terrasen which journey takes two to three weeks.
Empire of storms / Tower of Dawn - those two books take place in the same time but the perspective and place are different. In empire of storms it's in Erilea while in Tower of Dawn it's in Antica due to Chaol being invalid. Both books take place during the summer but while Empire of storms end in August due to Aelin being locked in coffin, Tower of Dawn continues until September. Because it mentions Yrene's birthday while the weather becomes colder.
Another pause of two months and during that time Aelin is held captivated in Doranelle.
Kingdom of Ash - the two months have passed and Rowan, Elide and Lorcan continued for their hunt for Aelin. Until she blows off some of the power they sensed her and planed to distract Maeve until they rescue her. It took them two days for the whole rescue plan and another five days to get to the Wendlyn's shore flowing in underground waters. During that time Chaol and Yrene travel from Antica with the army until they hear that there is attack on Anielle. The siege lasted five days until Aelin and her court appeared to beat the army. During that time Dorian and Manon find Croochan's while Aedion and Lysandra fight in Terrasen. Time laps between every battle in the north is around one to two weeks because the only mentioned are in Eldrys and in Perranth ( not including one In Orynth ). After that they march towards north when the final battle of Orynth happens. In one of the dialogues Rowan tells Gavriel they will fight in Terrasen with Aedion before Yullemas. So the story ends in late November. In the epilogue it's fast-forward to spring and rebuilding the kingdom.
Disclaimer : this is not synopsis of the series and I did not include a lot of events, only the one that are important to understand time-place connection.
I hope it helps!
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