#ley lines

One might guess my main class/job

Finally my first post and I am just yapping about FF14-

When Nesta uses scrying—an ancient form of divination—to locate the Cauldron, we learn the stones symbolize the three faces of the Mother, and we’re left to wonder what the four bones mean. Some of us have theorized the Mother may go by other names, such as Chaos and Cthona, and Chaos in particular gives us a clue about what complementary force the bones might channel. Apollion refers to Chaos as his dam (translation: mother) and this seems to be the same force that speaks in threes as the second half of the Book of Breathings. Her magical counterpart is Void (nothing, darkness), and we’re told this force existed in the beginning. Before.

So, I believe that after Amren says, “Three stones for the faces of the Mother,” it should be followed by, “and four bones for…the Father.”

Or even better, because these seem to be witchy tools, and different creatures have different terms for the same forces, “and four bones for…her heart of Darkness.” A nod to the Eye of the Goddess sacred to witches in Erilea.

Invoking those opposing forces (Void and Chaos) creates the necessary balance to access the place where they meet:

The space between, where reality and dream entwine.

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Accessed through real and invisible doors and pathways. In Erilea, they are called Wyrdgates and they can be summoned and accessed through a secret language called Wyrdmarks.

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These pathways in the Wyrd are also called Ley Lines. Wyrdgates, the black spaces where life can pass through (where Void and Chaos meet), are known as Thin Places.

Those with powerful sight seem to access these pathways and places, as I (here), @offtorivendell (here), and @merymoonbeam (here) have suggested, and they are connected to the Cauldron.

Wyrd.

She is many things: a mother to all, a force winding between worlds that constantly shifts form, a language of creation, and a cauldron brimming with life.

The Cauldron is older than the Suriel and they are ancient. The Suriel tells us they are older than Prythian, older than even the bones of this world.

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But Silene said the Cauldron was of the fae’s world, their heritage—is this simply a retcon from hofas, or did the Cauldron come from an even older world of fae? While it wasn’t known broadly in Midgard (Bryce had never heard of it), the Under-King knew what Wyrd was and described it in the various terms I mentioned above, including a cauldron of life. He also just happens to be from what he refers to as the old world (Erilea). Did the Cauldron come from Erilea or an even older world, like the realm of the gods? Is that why the Asteri/Daglan (near gods), feared it and sought to warp it to their advantage?

Michael Flanagan, “The Land of Leys,” 1979

WYRDMARKS

We are introduced to wyrdmarks in Throne of Glass. We are given the descriptions of some wyrdmarks in the text, and can reference these descriptions with wyrdmark images we are given on the Erilea map and wyrdmarks seen in the Throne of Glass section of www.sarahjmaas.com.

Countless Wyrdmarks were etched into their surface. They were in swirls and whorls, in lines and squares. The small Wyrdmarks made up larger ones, and the larger ones made up even larger ones, until it seemed the entire room meant something she couldn’t possibly understand. -TOG CH25

So far, she hadn’t learned much: according to one book, Wyrdmarks were an alphabet. Though, according to this book, no grammar existed with the Wyrdmarks: everything was just symbols that one had to string together. And they changed meaning depending on the marks around them. They were painfully difficult to draw; they required precise lengths. -TOG CH27

“We keep them a secret because of the terrible power that they wield. Terrible, in that it can be used for good or evil—though most have used their power for wicked deeds. Since the moment I arrived here, I was aware that someone was using the Wyrdmarks to call forth demons from the Otherworlds—realms beyond our realm.” -TOG CH51

“But the king cannot erase old spells made with older powers—like the Wyrdmarks. Those ancient spells still hold; especially ones that imbue life.” -COM CH6

He’d used the Wyrdkeys to suppress magic, but he must have some way of harnessing the innate power in someone’s blood—and the Wyrdmarks must be able to access that power, too. -COM CH47

The music was a tapestry woven of light and dark and color, building delicate links in a chain that latched on to her heart and spread out into the world, binding her to it, connecting everything. She understood then. The Wyrdmarks were—were a way of harnessing those threads, of weaving and binding the essence of things. Magic could do the same, and from her power, from her imagination and will and core, she could create and shape. -HOF CH41

LEYLINES

We are introduced to the concept of leylines in Crescent City. The concept of “ley lines” appears to be taken from our own world and originated in the early 20th century and proposed that the alignments of ancient monuments, prehistoric sites, and prominent landmarks, were connected by invisible energy pathways, suggesting ancient civilisations intentionally built structures along these lines for various purposes.

Please note: Archaeologists and scientists regard ley lines as an example of pseudoarchaeology and pseudoscience. 

LUNATHION LEYLINES

“Look: all of them took place within steps of one of the major avenues. On top of the ley lines—natural channels for the firstlight to travel through the city.” “Highways of power,” Hunt said, his eyes shining. “They flow right through the Gates.” -HOEAB CH37

The Gates had been used as communication devices in the past—but the only reason words could pass between them was the power that connected them. They all sat atop linked ley lines. A veritable matrix of energy. The Gate wasn’t just a prism. It was a conduit. And she had the Horn in her very skin. Had proved it could close a portal to Hel. -HOEAB CH91

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #1 6 POINTED STAR

The quartz Gates across the city began to glow. Red, then orange, then gold, then white. Firstlight erupted from them. Lines of it speared out in every direction. The lights flowed down the ley lines between the Gates, connecting them along the main avenues. It formed a perfect, six-pointed star. The lines of light began to spread. Curving around the city walls. Cutting off the demons now aiming for the lands beyond. Light met light met light met light. Until the city was ringed with it. Until every street was glowing. And Bryce was still making the Drop. -HOEAB CH92

There was also the idea of the Wyrdgates, which appeared numerous times alongside the mention of Wyrdmarks, but she’d never heard of them. When she’d first stumbled across the notion of Wyrdgates, days ago, it had seemed interesting, and so she’d researched, digging through piles of old parchment, only to find more puzzling theories. -TOG CH27

The gates were both real and invisible things. Humans could not see them, but they could be summoned and accessed using the Wyrdmarks. They opened into other realms, some of them good, some of them bad. Things could come through from the other side and slither into Erilea. It was due to this that many of the strange and fell creatures of Erilea existed. -TOG CH27

WHY THE STAR OF DAVID DOESN’T WORK

While many have connected the Star of David - a six-pointed star formed by two overlapping equilateral triangles - the shape doesn’t follow the leylines in Lunathion. A Star of David connects 6 of the gates, but doesn’t connect the 7th and central Heart Gate to the others.

ALTERNATIVE 6 POINTED STAR

A unicursal hexagram does connect all 7 gates and follows the leylines in Lunathion. This six-pointed star that can be traced or drawn unicursally, in one continuous line “with no beginning and no end” rather than by two overlaid triangles. The hexagram can also be depicted inside a circle with the points touching it. It is often depicted in an interlaced form with the lines of the hexagram passing over and under one another to form a knot. A knot of leylines perhaps?

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #2

It was just a triangle inside of a circle. “Can you read these marks?” she asked. A Wyrdmark … how strange! -TOG CH23

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #3

LUNATHION LEYLINES - WYRDMARK #4

LUNATHION LEYLINES AS WYRDMARKS

Was the city of Lunathion chosen for not just the leylines, but for the wyrdmarks the leylines create?

“This doesn’t offer more than what we already know about the usual sort of earth magic the Fae possess, but it does mention that those with earth magic were sent ahead to scout lands, to sense where to build. Not only the best geographical locations, but magical ones, too. They could sense the ley lines—the channels of energy running throughout the land, throughout Midgard. They told the Asteri to build their cities where several of the lines met, at natural crossroads of power, and picked those places for the Fae to settle, too. But they selected Avallen just for the Fae. To be their personal, eternal stronghold.” Ruhn considered. “Okay, so if Flynn and Sathia say this place is dead and rotting …” “It doesn’t line up with the claims recorded here about Avallen.” “But why would the ancient Fae lie about there being leylines here?” “I don’t think they lied,” Lidia said, and pointed to the maps on the other table, where Dec had discarded them. “I think the Avallen they first visited, with all those ley lines and magic … I think it existed. But then something changed.” -HOFAS CH54

“These lines are capable of moving magic, but also carrying communications across great distances.” Like those between the Gates of Crescent City, the way she’d spoken to Danika the day she’d made the Drop. “There are ley lines across the whole of the universe. And the planets—like Midgard, like Hel, like the home world of the Fae—atop those lines are joined by time and space and the Void itself. It thins the veils separating us. The Asteri have long chosen worlds that are on the ley lines for that exact purpose. It made it easier to move between them, to colonize those planets. There are certain places on each of these worlds where the most ley lines overlap, and thus the barrier between worlds is at its weakest.” -HOFAS CH60

Title: Heart of the Forest

Vision: —

Weapon: Catalyst

Region: Sumeru

Affiliation: Forest Rangers

Constellation: Lumen Errans