Welcome to Devil's Acre

Hello Anon.

I’m not sure when you sent this, but I did receive two very similar messages about this very topic, and only just now saw them. I apologize for the delay. 

The honest to god answer to this question, for me at least as I cannot speak for anyone else, is that... I don’t remember what happened in Map of Days or Conference of the Birds. I have no headcanons AT ALL about the American peculiars because I genuinely can’t remember who they are. I have so many requests for Leo and I have no clue who that is.

I read both of those books very quickly the day I got them in the mail when they were first released (they both came out during my time at college and I didn’t have time to be reading for pleasure, so I was forced to speed read), and I only read each of them once. I did not retain anything that I read, because frankly I had other priorities for my brain’s limited memory capacity. Luckily I am now back in the states, have a very relaxed work load at the moment, and can have my copies shipped to me, so I do plan on rereading them within the next two weeks or so. 

So, long story short, I think that Sharon is a male ymbryne, or some ymbryne adjacent peculiar. Obviously, this is a headcanon. It has some textual basis, but it’s still a headcanon. I’ve had this idea since Library of Souls came out I was just too nervous to say anything. But now I’m old and I don’t care anymore.

Miss Peregrine states that there are no male ymbrynes. However, thanks to Library of Souls, we know that the Ymbryne Council has quite literally erased the knowledge of a loop from peculiardom and made any discussion of its existence illegal. Whose to say they couldn’t do that with a peculiar ability? One so rare that there are only, perhaps, a handful that ever existed? Especially one that directly threatens the matriarchal oligarchy they have in place? And one that clearly (thanks Caul) people would kill for, or destroy everything for?

It is entirely possible that they, at some point, decided to simply make it illegal to discuss or know about, and if it was far enough back the younger generations of ymbrynes might not even know the truth.

Which would make any male ymbrynes basically “mr. nobody” or, if they were covering all their bases… exiles.

What would make the perfect loop for a male ymbryne who is angry at the matriarchal oligarchy for removing his existence and shunting him to the edges of society?

Devil’s Acre.

A place so vile that it is only spoken of as a place you do not go. A safe haven for all exiled and banished peculiars to live out the rest of their existence without fearing punishment or death through aging. A place that, notably, has no canon ymbryne. At least, not one that has been confirmed.

If Sharon were to be that ymbryne, it would make complete sense why he is now enraged at the take over from the Ymbryne Council. Why he’s leading a revolution against them, trying to get rid of them, trying to take back what is rightfully his. And his exile might have been so long ago that the current council simply does not recognize him or even know who he is. And why Caul and Myron were able to grow an anti-ymbryne council in Devil’s Acre. If they had the support of an angry, jaded male ymbryne who was the one in charge of the Acre, they wouldn’t have to worry about the council or a female ymbryne stomping out the spark before it could become a fire.

It also would explain why he was one of the ambro dealer’s “best customers”. He was clearly powerful, according to Riggs, so he shouldn’t have needed it. Unless, that is, he was trying to become powerful enough to get rid of the plague that was Caul and his wights. An ymbryne desperately turning to whatever method possible to try to cling to control, to keep the reigns on what had been a safe place for shady and unsafe peculiars to go about their business without the threat of… yknow… hollowgasts and wights being their next-door neighbors. And this would also explain why Myron spent so much energy saving him from his addiction. He saved the two most useful people. Mother Dust, the healer, and Sharon, the ymbryne. If the ymbryne were to die or to lose too much of his suul, the loop would collapse.All around Bentham and his precious Panloopticon.

And the entry to Devil’s Acre is described as the most violent loop entrance Jacob has been through, which would certainly make sense of the ymbryne was ambro-weakened and barely holding it together.

Riggs has confirmed that Sharon has multiple peculiar abilities, which is not something often seen in the books… except for with ymbrynes. According to Riggs, he has the ability to communicate with rats, “some sort of navigational ability” and a secret peculiarity that he keeps hidden. Given that he quite loudly and proudly enchants his cloak and boat in the novel, I’m going to assume that Riggs just forgot about that one. Which means that Sharon has some ability that he is intentionally hiding. Perhaps, because he’s technically not allowed to exist.

What if the navigational ability has something to do with the ease at which ymbrynes seem to be able to navigate loops? Or seem to be able to keep track of their children and the peculiars under their care?